Happy Halloween!

We're in Utah so all of the Halloween celebrations happened today. 

We carved our pumpkins yesterday.















And then today we went to Boo at the Zoo.  Clifford the big red dog was there which the kids loved.  I tried to convince them it was the "real" Clifford but they didn't buy it.  They're too smart I guess.



Then we went out to eat for lunch, the kids ate free in their costumes at Sweet Tomatoes.  And finished up with trick-or-treating at the mall.  Seriously the easiest way to trick-or-treat with little kids.  The candy is no good but they still have tons of fun.  I'm glad we went because by the time we came out of the mall is was raining and cold.  I would not want to walk door to door in this weather.

Sometimes being a baby is really hard

Or at least that's what she wants us to think

Fall

I was able to get a few fall pictures of Bella and John yesterday despite the snow.  None of Phoebe though as her eczema has flared up so bad not even photoshop can save her face.  Poor thing.















And we went to the pumpkin patch but it was muddy and gross and no one wanted to cooperate so this is the only picture I got.

First Snow

We had our first snow of the season this week.  Monday we woke up a little snow and then Wednesday we woke up to a lot more.  Luckily it has mostly melted away.  I'm not ready for the snow yet.  I faked it for the kids though and we all bundled up and went out to play.  Then came in for hot cocoa.













And our poor pumpkins

Hazel

Hazel is 7 months old now.  She's not sitting up on her own yet but is getting pretty good at staying up if you prop her up against something (just don't look away.)  Still no teeth yet which has surprised me because all the others had a few teeth by this age.  I'm starting to feel a little bump on the bottom so I think the first will come soon.  She's also still not sleeping through the night, which has really shocked me because all the others started doing that at 2 months.  And while I'm usually a big believer in crying it out I don't feel it's right with her yet.  She actually seems hungry at night and not like she's just waking out of habit.  Someday I'll get to sleep all night again.  For now I'm just trying to enjoy every minute of babyness with her as she is likely my last baby.  I think another part of it is she's sort of a distracted nurser during the day, but at night it's dark and quiet and she just eats better then.

This past weekend she hit lots of little milestones.  Got up on ther hands and knees and started rocking back and forth.  And then started babbling and saying dada.  It's adorable but I wish she'd slow down a little.





And Phoebe just loves Hazel.  She never once has acted jealous.  And now that Hazel is started to play with stuff she loves her even more.  Of course Hazel in gaining on her quickly in terms of size and weight.  They wear the same size onesies and there's only a couple pounds difference between them.  Phoebe wants to "hold" her on the floor but Hazel just knocks her right over.

Antelope Island

My sister is visiting for the weekend (my birthday weekend) so we drove out to Antelope Island today. It's was perfect, hardly anyone there and since it's October it's a great time to view wildlife. We saw deer, a coyote and tons of bison.



We went to the vistors center







Then we headed over to the ranch on the island. We've been twice before but this time there was nobody else there which was so nice. The kids all had a chance to play around. Their favorite part was playing with the ropes and fake cows.





















Phoebe and Hazel just hung out







And we looked around the old ranch house, which is really cool. Lots of neat old things in there to look at.







And then the guys that work at the ranch found a snake. John was very interested in it. Which surprised me because he had a chance to pet a snake at the zoo a month ago and wouldn't go anywhere near it. This time he couldn't stop looking at it. They even put it around his neck for a minute but it started to wrap it's tail around his arm and he got scared before I could get a picture.







It was a great day.