Halloween 2009

We had lots of fun tricks-or-treats this year. Thursday we went to Jordan's annual Intel cubicle trick or treating fun. High reward for low amount of work. Matthew didn't miss a cubicle.

Friday we went with Kari and her kids to their trunk-or-treating as Garrin had to work and Matthew had a great time with Maggie. He LOVED checking out all the different trunks that were dressed up.

Saturday we had our annual party at the Hammond's with pumpkin bread bowls, soups, and our homemade doughnuts (3rd year in a row). Always a good time.

We have way too much candy in this household and it's always calling my name! Yes, we are using it to bribe Matthew to do the things or eat the good food that we need him to. I think soon it will be relegated to the trash. I was inspired by my friend EmmaLee and hopefully will be making all of our costumes next year.


Matthew loved his dragon costume!



Isabelle was a pumpkin princess? I bought a shirt, made a black and orange tutu, made a bow and found some cute orange/black tights.


The whole clan at Intel.


Isabelle's tutu was driving her nuts. The great thing is she can reuse in a few years as I made it so it can get bigger.


James the Hamburger. I really want that costume! EmmaLee is so talented.


Brynlee the Ladybug. Cute!


My fav-Buddy the Elf. EmmaLee's sister Amy made his coat. Amazing! And..it's his real hair!


Of course Blake a was a pizza. I think it was a bit heavy by the end.


Cruella de Vil.

Poor Matthew's "hat" kept sliding down in his face.

In-n-Out afterwards-yum!

In timeout at the Hammond Party. He was so wound up and doing naughty things.

EmmaLee & Ray as pieces of the game Settlers of Catan.

I found a last minute costume at Target and then made this headpiece to go with it. I'm a Medieval Wench? Who knows, and the costume was NOT comfortable!

I did have a different idea for me & Jordan but at the last minute he didn't want to do it so we both scrambled for costumes.

Jordan found a shirt at Goodwill and was a mechanic. Nice going for pulling it together the day of.

EmmaLee's nephew in a Link costume hand knitted by EmmaLee's mom-their whole family is so talented!

Hammond Clan

U2

We went and saw them last night. It had been 12 years since we saw them last in Vegas when we were engaged.

A-Maze-ing.

Their stage was so cool and their screens were beyond anything I've seen. They could move up and down and get longer or shorter.

They sang classics and newer ones from their last few albums.

We discovered we are now part of an older concert going crowd-errghhh...

Going with friends to concerts is always a good time and lots of laughs.

Ate some pretty good BBQ for dinner.

Traffic to the concert was terrible-took us an hour and a half. The bright side was we got free parking AND a great exit spot so getting out of there wasn't too painful.

I have concluded that U2 (which rumor has it will be doing this) should agree to rights with Guitar Hero so that the younger generation gets hooked too! I would buy that game in a minute.

Our babysitter took great care of Isabelle and Matthew and they were so cute sleeping when we got home at 1:30 am. I am grateful for her everyday and her willingness to help us with our kids.

I took some pics with my phone so trying to get those to add to this post.

IsaBelly

I just thought I'd do a quick update on cutie patootie Isabelle who celebrated her sixth month birthday on the 10th. She's just so cute! We've taken to calling her IsaBelly around here and she's been squeeling a ton so Matthew thinks she's hilarious.

Who would believe that she's gone in six short months from this



and this



to this


and this

and this!

I went to her official six month check-up today and she weighs in at a whopping 16 pds 4 oz and 25 1/2 inches. I'm just hoping once she starts crawling that her weight gain can slow down so she can last in her car seat for 6 more months. Matthew is almost out of his and will be ready to move into a booster seat when she is 1 and then we can move her into his carseat.

This is what she's been up to lately:

-Is super grabby and wants anything within her reach.

-Is rolly polly ollie. Rolls everywhere and can push her body around in circles with her toes.

-Loves tags!

-Is starting to push up on her toes when on her tummy-good first signs of wanting to get moving.

-Loves homemade squash and sweet potatoes puree. We're trying zucchini starting on Monday.

-Just got introduced to the Little Einstein activity center and is loving it. We used it with Matthew and it recently got a good cleaning and looks good as new.

-Wakes up way too early for her mom-most mornings she's up between 5-6. Jordan has been great about switching mornings to let me sleep in a little. This usually makes for a very long day and I'm beat and ready for bed after the kidlets get to sleep. I do have to say that her cute smile in the mornings always makes my day start out great!

-Great napper, takes about 3 naps during the day. Usually 2 long ones and 1 short one.

-Loves music and especially when I sing to her.

-Loves, loves, loves her brother and dad. Although she likes cuddling with her mom when she's tired-always!

-Has the funniest laugh. It's more like funny breathing rather than laughing out loud. We can tell when she's giggling though.

-Doesn't care for baths. Will tolerate them but doesn't love them like Matthew did at this age. I'm hoping she'll grow out of her dislike for water.

-Smiles ALL the time - at everyone and is willing to be held by anyone!

We absolutely adore our munchkin even though she makes our lives more complicated now that there are 2 rather than 1 chillins to take care of. She's such a great baby and only really gets upset when she's hungry, tired, or has to take a bath. She may be our last so we are really trying to savor her sweet moments and she'll be back talking before we know it!

Sneak Peeks and Visitors

I bought a dragon costume at Pottery Barn 2 years ago for 80% off and have been waiting to use it for Halloween. We tried it on the other day to make sure it fit. Matthew is so excited! Here's a sneak peek of Matthew w/just the hat on.





Wouldn't let me take a pic of him in his hat smiling.


Isabelle was being cute so I took some pictures. She is rolling back and forth all over the place and is doing really good on tummy time. We are working on sitting up.

She is just so beautiful!

She loves to eat her hands.

and loves her big brother.

My sister Laura and niece Taelor came into town to visit on Wednesday. We had tons of fun hanging out, playing the Wii-boom blox and guitar hero 5, eating out, going to Penzey's and the zoo. All in all a fab time and we were sad to see them go. Matthew latched onto Taelor and wanted her to sit by him in the car, play with him, wanted to wake her up and kept telling us we needed to go on the plane with them too when they left today. She was #1 on his list this weekend. I'm so glad they came to visit.

Isabelle is so fun right now!

They had such a great time together!

Disneyland

We had some extra tickets to use from last year before they expired and figured the week after labor day would be pretty low key. Matthew and Isabelle did so great and I was surprised at the amount of rides Isabelle could go on with us.

Our friends Kari and Garrin and their kids that are about the same age as ours went with us and it was pretty fun having other adults to go on rides with and watch the kids so we could go on big rides. It was also so nice having park hopper tickets. We went back and forth a lot. The 3rd day we went into Disneyland (it opens earlier than CA), took family pics, rode on Pirates and then headed over to CA to catch the Toy Story Mania ride that is really popular before it got too crowded.

Matthew especially loved the characters this year (last year made him cry). He thought they were so funny and gave them all hugs. I think my favorite moment was with Minnie Mouse/Matthew/and Isabelle, so cute and sweet! Here are some of my favorite pics from Disney. Can't wait for our next trip. Everytime it makes me want to get season passes and go more often.

Matthew saw his Mickey shirt the other day and told me we needed to go to Disneyland. I think he had a really good time.


Day 1 in Toon Town


We found Goofy and Matthew told him "Hi, but I want to see Donald"-nice! We never did get to meet Donald. We found him one time and was trying to go meet him but they cut off the line. :(

Day 2-Back at Toon Town, I made Matthew go on the Kiddie Roller Coaster. Afterwards he told me "That was scary!" I asked if we wanted to go again and he said, "NO!" Funny though now that we are at home he talks about going on the roller coaster again.

We were heading over to California Adventures and found Minnie. Minnie thought Isabelle was so cute!

Our first stop right when we went into California Adventures. Who doesn't love Woody?

Matthew and Jordan waiting in line to meet Mickey. I was on camera duty and watching a sleeping Isabelle.

We found Pluto too!

Chew-chew Train ride in Bug's life-boring!

Matthew always wanted to be looking at the maps. He's studying intently on our ride back to the hotel after Day 2. He always wanted to know where we were on the map. He's too smart for his own britches.

Start of Day 3-family pic time.

We got some fast passes for Splash Mountain mid-day and hung around that area for awhile having a pit stop, going on the Winnie the Pooh ride multiple times and visiting the Pooh friends multiple times.

Matthew gave Tigger some twigs to eat here.

One of my favorite character pics.

Waiting in line for Monsters Inc. - good ride for the little ones.

We do always say that Maggie is Matthew's girlfriend. He's too young to be starting that business.

Waiting outside of Tower of Terror for Jordan and Kari before we headed back to the hotel. It was getting chilly and it was a perfect place for Matthew to run around.

This was Isabelle pretty much the whole weekend. Just smilin'-poor girl didn't get too many long naps as it was hot and noisy which would wake her up.

Last pics before we left.

Disneyland is always a fun time. Dreaming of when we can take our next trip. We're already talking about doing the big DisneyWorld vacation when Isabelle is 5-6 and Matthew is 8-9. They'll be ready for long days and lots of fun at that age.