Halloween Part Two

Today was Halloween.  When I asked Andrew what he wanted to do today, he said, "Candy."  Touche.  Candy is basically the emblem of Halloween.  We had a fun little family day.

"Smile, Pancake!"

Ghost pancakes for breakfast!  I thought they turned out pretty cute.  Especially that little guy on the right.

Part of lunch was leftover ghost pancakes, ghost bananas, ghost mashed potatoes, mouth apples with PB and marshmallows, and an orange "pumpkin."  The kids also had chicken nuggets, which Mike called Chicken Tombstones, which I thought was pretty cute.

Cutie.

Have I mentioned how much I love having a fence?!  We all ventured outside, and Emily looked seriously adorable.

We kicked the ball around and just generally enjoyed the nice day and time together.

Dinner was mummy dogs and carrot soup.  Yum!!!

Then we carved pumpkins.  Andrew was so excited.  He had Mike make 3 different faces on the pumpkin, and would have done more, but we cut him off.

Emily...was more interested in eating the pumpkin.  She ate some seeds before I could stop her, then  proceeded to eat the goop.  She kept saying "Nummy!  Nummy!"

She really loved it.

We're lucky the pumpkin made it out without many teeth marks.   Oh my gosh, you gotta love this girl.  Mike said, "Some people will do anything to get on the blog."  Haha

Our pumpkins!  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Part One

We've had a great Halloween!  I am not a huge fan of Halloween typically, just because I'm not into the gore and scary stuff that is usually associated with it.  Mike says I like "Cute-o-Ween," which is true.  

Did anyone call for a doctor?

I had to sew her costume a little to fix it, and apparently I did it a little too tight.  This picture cracks me up.  I'm cutting her costume to make her comfortable.

Squaw no get 'em firewood.  Squaw go home!

She looked so stinking adorable!!!  She was really interested in watching Daddy shave.

Andrew and Daddy at the Trunk or Treat at church.  Andrew was such a little cutie.  He kept saying "Thank you very much!" after they would give him candy.

Emily only got candy from a couple people, but said "Dant doo" to everyone anyway.  It was adorable.

After getting a respectable amount of candy, they handed out candy to trick-or-treaters and had a lot of fun.

They're so adorable.

Hello, Bolivar!

We're here!  As sad as we were to leave Columbia, we are so excited to be in Bolivar.  Moving is super exhausting.  I introduced myself our first Sunday here as "Michael, and this is my husband Karen."  Seriously.  I was in a serious fog for the first week, but I'm starting to be more normal now, especially since we have mostly moved in!  I'll post pictures of it once we get it all spiffed up.  This paragraph is really long.  Sorry, I guess I'm still kind of out of it. :)

Our movers!  Mike, his brother, and Andrew.  We don't know what we'd do without Mike's brother.  He has been there for every move of ours, and he is such a great worker.  Thanks again!!!!!

Isn't he adorable?  He was so excited to help.

This was his favorite way to help.

Me trying to look more awake before church while letting Andrew play outside.

Yay!  Rocks!

Andrew is now in a big boy bed!  And he looks sooo tiny.  He stays in bed, though, which he hasn't done in months and months.  I guess it's more comfortable than the hardwood floor here. :)

The view from our front porch.  Gorgeous.

Our house!  We love it.

Goodbye, Columbia!

These last few weeks have been a really big whirlwind!  Mike had an interview in Bolivar at the end of September.  We found out that Michael had gotten the job and moved, all within about 8 or 9 days.  It's a good thing I had started packing the day he found out he passed the bar, huh?  :)

We went to China Garden, because when we went to a Chinese restaurant in Bolivar, it was literally NASTY, and China Garden is seriously amazing.  Emily had her first ice cream cone, and loved it.  She kept making this little pucker-y face, and it was so cute.  

She was also obsessed with crab rangoons.

Andrew wasn't impressed with the food at all, but loved the koi and the ice cream.

  We have really loved living in Columbia.  It was hard to leave, for sure.  Everything happened so fast, and seemed so surreal that it took until right before we left for it to truly sink in.
  We have met so many amazing people, and had so many dear friends.  Our friends, the Jensens, have always been such great people, and so giving.  Jana offered to watch the kids one day so we could have a little less "help" around the house.  It was really hard to say goodbye to her, and super hard to watch Andrew say goodbye to Soren.  I fully realize that that he didn't know what was happening and everything, but watching them say goodbye and hug and knowing how much Andrew loves that little guy...it was tough, and made me cry.
  The Moores had us over for dinner.  I can't even begin to say how wonderful they are.  They have meant so much to us, and we respect them so much.  They have fed us so many meals, watched Andrew for us, gave us great advice and fun, and even offered once to let us use their car so we could get to church when our car was in the shop.  We will really miss them.
  And that brings us to the Bells.  For you loyal blog readers, that name will not be unfamiliar.  We will never be able to look back on our time in Columbia without having so many of those memories involving our amazing friends.  Birthdays.  Christmas.  Halloween.  Playing Halo.  Watching our kids grow up. Talking about silly things.  Talking about serious things.  We love those guys. And we are really going to miss them.  We'll never forget you, Cheeks and JiggaB.  May the rocket launchers be always plentiful for you, and all those you love. 
  

  We left at 8 pm.  Right before we left, we had a prayer.  And we cried.  Columbia is where we raised our babies.  Andrew was only 2 months old when we moved, so really we raised both Drew and Em there.  We grew closer as a couple, and as a family.  We had a ton of fun, and really loved the city.  Although we're excited to be moving on with our lives, we will always be grateful for the 3 years we were living in Columbia, MO.

Last Post for Awhile

Our internet is for sure going off tomorrow :( so I thought I'd make you look at a bunch of pictures.

I convinced Andrew to hold Emily's hand when we were walking from the car to the park .  When we got there, he dropped her hand and she cried so hard that he held her hand again and she stopped crying.  It was adorable.

Emily calls slides "wee." She'll point at it and say, "Wee, wee?"

I can't believe how big our little guy has gotten.  He's almost 3 1/2 and seems to get taller and more like a kid rather than a toddler ever day.  We sure adore our sweet boy.

Happy little man.

I laughed when I realized that I had just up and abandoned her on the swing to get a good picture of Andrew.  She was okay with it.  :)

Such a sweet little picture of two very good buddies.

Mike carrying Andrew up to the car.  The boys do things a little differently than the girls.

Here we are walking up to the car.  My face looks super long here for some reason.

We bought Andrew some underwear with the hopes that he would start wanting to go on the potty soon.  He's been showing some signs of wanting to start, but seems far from actually going on the toilet.  Any advice is EXTREMELY welcome.  Anyway, I put the undies on Emmie's head and she wanted them on for quite awhile after that.  She's so hilarious.

"Cheese!"

Andrew and I decorating with "punkins."

This picture cracks me up.  I look like I got hit on the head with a very large hammer and now have some issues.  Andrew looks pretty funny, too.  I seriously take the worst candid photos of all time.

"Squish, squish, squish."

"Your turn, punkin.  Say cheese!"

Tonight Emily insisted on wearing Andrew's pjs to bed tonight.  She really adores her big brother.

Probably because he does hilarious stuff all the time. :)

FALL!

I REALLY love fall.  I love the clothes, the food, the colors, the holidays, the smells, the leaves, the weather.  Everything. So I am super duper happy that it's finally here.  Happy October everyone!

Mike brought me home some flowers.  Andrew said, "Oh!  Are those daisies?!" and Emily insisted on poking them for 15 minutes straight.

Little sweeties.

Emily was getting hungry when I was making tomato soup tonight.  FYI, I'm looking for a really good tomato soup recipe.