Nova's First Halloween

Apologies to any of those coming here for witty banter or funny stories. This is strictly a post for pictures of Nova in order to keep her two grandmas from strangling her parents for not posting pictures of her often enough. At this point you may be saying, "But you already post so many pictures of that darn tyke even when you do bother to write something." Obviously, that's just not enough pictures for those grandmas.

Most of you nodded your head at that last sentence. If any of you thought, "Good grief, how could they possibly need that many pictures? She looks exactly the same in every one!" I can only conclude you either don't have kids or you don't have parents.

And you should consider yourself lucky.

Haha, just kidding.

Well, 95% kidding anyway.

Okay, fine mom, I'm just kidding about the 95%.

It's 98%.

So for any of you still looking for anything other than pictures of Nova, flee while you still can. I promise Suzanne will return in a few days to give one of her hilarious posts. In the meantime, it's nothing but baby cheeks from here on out.

Front cheeks, not the rear ones; just in case that warning alarmed anyone.

First up, some pics of Nova enjoying the fall leaves. She loves them.

Next up we have Nova in her Halloween costume. Suzanne's cousin had a cute lion costume that worked out really well, and Nova didn't seem to hate it, which is actually a big deal for something with a hood.

We took her Trick-or-Treating, but she didn't really get the concept until near the end. We tried to get her to extend her bag to people to get candy but she just looked confused. Somewhere around the second-to-last house she suddenly realized that the stuff people had been tossing into her bag was candy (or NUMMIE-NUMMIEs, in her words). You can imagine the change of character that came over her. We were worried she'd have an aneurysm when we told her "This is the last house."

Don't worry, she survived, and we kept our sanity.

Well, 98% of it anyway.

FINALLY.....

hooray for october...i realize that october is in fact nearly over but it is just beginning for me since until just recently life has been super busy and crazy. i have been busy stressing over a plethora of things, and now they are all over and i feel a huge sense of relief and excitement that i can focus on somethings that i have been really wanting to do, blogging being one.

so for today's post rather than boring those who grace my blog with their presence with the oh so common 'i haven't blogged for a while, here is what we have been doing,' i want to write today about why i love october oh so very much.

1. hello, the main color for the holiday is orange......sweet mercy....need i say more.
2. the air celebrates the holiday. it smells SO good outside. (its probably the smell of orange.)
3. their are so many ways to decorate and celebrate. creative things to cook, and so many reasons to party....and i love parties.
4. you get to dress up, and i love to dress up.
5. now that i have a kid, we get to walk around the neighborhood and gather candy from people......ha!
and the last reason why i love october......drum roll please.....the leaves....i LOVE the leaves, and raking them and jumping in them and driving through them and looking at them and......sigh......they just start falling this time of year and you get to step on them and crunch them and its just beautiful orange-ness swirling everywhere....the world is simply orange-a-fied.....and that's they way...uh-huh-uh-huh i like it, uh-huh-uh-huh......

and pics for the grandmas...
nova after her nap with seriously crazy hair...this picture doesn't even do it justice. i love her face in it though.....'seriously look at this hair...."
















the H.A.L.L.S retreat that was a total blast. we all were asked to work on a 'grandma z' project this past year and then report at this year's retreat to honor my grandma and they way she took on and finished projects. my amazing aunt barbara made aprons for everyone using my grandma zelma's old fabric. they were retro and SO cute....and as always the retreat was SO fun!
















mom and nova's first crazy face picture together.....success! i have been working so hard!















nova in her blue suit staying warm
















nova after playing in the garden














johnny appleseed day 2009














i took this picture from inside. dan is so good at stopping and showing nova ever bug and crack in the sidewalk. its so cute.