Halloween!

 Happy Halloween!

At first Elizabeth was not interested in putting her costume on...

 But as she noticed that the kids with costumes who came to the door got candy, she changed her mind.  She was a princess - with a one piece costume, no accessories - maybe next year we can convince her to dress the part a bit more.

We did about 10 houses in our neighborhood and then she was done.  Actually, she thought she was done after the first house where she got 2 pop-pops (dum-dum lollipops) after she got those - which she wouldn't put in the bucket, she walked on back up our sidewalk to the front door - she thought she was done.  I convinced her that she might get more poppops if we kept going.  Sure enough, she did.  It was a lot of fun.

Visit with Rachel and Bradley

 In October, we took a weekend trip to El Paso to visit our good friends Rachel and Bradley who are professors at UTEP.  They planned all kind of fun things for us and we had a wonderful visit.  Elizabeth really warmed up to them and was a mostly happy little girl.  She slept in a big bed all by herself which went great, except that she wouldn't nap.  (Hence "mostly" happy.)  She also was great on the plane.  This was her second plane trip and she is a good little traveler. 

We took this sky tram to the top of a moutain in the Franklin Mountains State Park and could see Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico all at the same time.  It was pretty cool.  Here we are getting off the tram at the top.

It was pretty windy at the top! Check out that hair!

 Here's me about 18/19 weeks pregnant.

 Our wonderful hosts!  Who found a great park near their house to let the toddler run off some energy.  They also taught her how to play frisbee!

 I had never been to El Paso and was so impressed with how different the landscape is from here.  There were moutains everywhere!

My pictures got out of order, but here is E and E on the tram. We had a wonderful visit and it was so sweet of Rachel and Bradley to come up with fun activities for a toddler!

Bad Blogger

Well it seems I have been a very bad blogger.  Here it is December 3 and I haven't even posted Halloween pictures! Or mentioned that Elizabeth turned 2 or that baby number 2 is a boy!  I thought about just giving up, but since Elizabeth (and probably her baby brother) doesn't really have a baby book, I've got to at least keep this sort of updated.  The problem is that I spend all day sitting at a computer trying to figure out the best way to say this sentence or that sentence, so when I get home, I just don't have it in me to sit at the computer and write more.  So maybe I'll focus more on pictures and less on the narrative.  Anyway, I am going to update this weekend, so check back!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

 Last year we went to a Pumpkin Patch that was just a madhouse.  It was close, but it took us 20 minutes to park, 20 minutes to walk from the parking lot and the line was too long for the hayride.  So this year, we tried another one - farther away, but well worth it.  We fed the goats, said hi to the sheep and cows, rode the hayride and played with the pumpkins.  E was not willing to sit for any posed pictures with the pumpkins though, so we have a lot of action shots.  Was a wonderful trip!

Water Painting

 Last weekend, I got this idea for an almost mess-free art project - water painting!  Elizabeth thought it was so cool.  This kept her attention for about 15 minutes and the only mess was a little bit of water!

 This is a horrible picture of me (I told Eric he was taking it from the worst possible angle) but since there are not a lot of picture of me and Elizabeth, I've included it, thinking that in a few years I'll look back and think it's sweet.

Fire Station Open House

I love our town!  Today our fire station had an Open House, with games, refreshments, booths, fire trucks and a helicopter! E didn't know quite what was going on, but she had a great time running around.  And after seeing another little kiddo pose on the fire truck, she insisted she get her picture too!

 Then she helped this kid get the beanbags into the holes.

And there was a bounce house!  We were watching the big kids and she wanted to go in, but I told her she was too little.  Then I was informed that the next group was for 2 and under! She loved it! And amazingly, no one got hurt!

Hmm...bouncehouse video isn't loading...will try a seperate post...

E's First Trip to the Zoo

On Saturday, we took E to the zoo for the first time.  It was a perfect day and we all had so much fun! We saw flamingos - E told us they were "pink"!

We saw elephants.

 We stopped by the petting zoo, but she wasn't really into that.

 And we rode the carousel! This was E's third carousel and the first time we got her on a horse.  She hung on very well and her little hands were sweaty afterward, but she liked it! She wanted "more" after it was over, but we had to let the other people have a turn.

 And we rode the train!

 We saw alligtators.  I'm still not convinced the one in the tank was real - it was just floating there...

This one was definetly not real...

 Poor Eric.  I thought the wagon would be a great thing to have.  But E really wasn't interested in riding in it - which is a first! Instead she ran! everywhere the whole day.

 Monkeys!

It was a great day and we will most certainly go again!