Life Lately

The whole month of November has almost gone by and I've hardly blogged at all, probably because we haven't really done anything that feels blogworthy lately.  Bryce is extremely busy with school and work.  We're lucky if we get to see him more than an hour a day.  Claire is keeping me busy all the time.  She is at such a fun age learning new things constantly.  She's been learning her colors and how to count.  She loves nursery and going to discovery time at the library every week.  Here's a bit of what we've been up to lately:

Decorating the window with princesses.

Having daily tea parties.

Enjoying any bit of sun we get since its been so cloudy lately (although I'm still really wishing for snow).

Reading lots of books.  This one, The Art of Racing in the Rain, is one of my new favorites!

French braiding Claire's hair for the first time.  I still need more practice but it turned out pretty cute for my first try with her baby-fine hair.  I got her to sit still long enough by putting on Frozen.  She loves Anna & Elsa and will sit through the whole movie!

This is basically what our whole November has looked like with a few walks and playtime outside thrown in.  We are ready for the holidays and for Bryce's semester to be over with!

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Having a tea party with her babies.

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2015."

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Decorating the windowsill with princesses.

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2015."

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Tired little girl who keeps waking up at the crack of dawn ever since daylight savings started.

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2015."

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Cutest little Goldilocks munching away on candy on Halloween.

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2015."

Halloween 2015

For Halloween this year we decided to dress up as Goldilocks and the Three Bears!  We always have lots of fun coming up with ideas and we had a few other close contenders, but Goldilocks and Three Bears won out this year.  I sewed Claire's little pinafore and used a shirt, shoes, and knee socks she already had.  I made our t-shirts with freezer pencil stencils and fabric paint and made our headbands with hot glue and felt.    
It took a few tries but we finally got a decent family shot of all our costumes!  Since Halloween is also my birthday Bryce got up with Claire in the morning and let me sleep in, probably my favorite birthday gift this year :).  After I woke up Bryce went and picked up Einstein Bagels and a Diet Coke from Mcdonalds for my birthday breakfast.  He is seriously the best.  We spent most of the morning eating bagels, watching cartoons with Claire, and lounging around in our pjs.  Later while Claire napped we finished our costumes (the ears) and got everything ready for trick or treating.  After Claire woke up we got ready, took a few pictures, and then headed to Morgan for the business trick-or-treat.   
Claire didn't quite get the whole trick-or-treating thing, but she was thrilled about all of the candy.  Every time she got a new piece of candy she'd reach in her bucket and ask "Treat? Pwease?"  We tried to move her along and distract her so she wouldn't be eating candy all night long, but we were only successful some of the time haha.  She definitely ate her fair share of sugar.  

Cutest little Goldilocks

After the business trick-or-treat stopped at Bryce's parents for a bit and then took Claire trick-or-treating at both my grandparents' houses.  We ran into my sister's family at my Grandma Richins' so Claire got to play with Lydia outside for a few minutes.

After we finished trick-or-treating we went to my parent's house to celebrate my birthday with my family.  My mom made homemade Chilli and pumpkin caramel sheet cake.  Both were so yummy!  Claire and Lydia played and ate more candy while we all got to visit and take turns holding Laci's new baby boy Casen.  Someone finally looked at the clock around 10 and we decided we had better get our tired babies home to bed.  

We tried to get a picture of the three grand babies in their matching Halloween pjs from my mom... and this is the best we got haha.  #Toddlers

Halloween, you are my favorite!  I already can't wait for next year.

Halloween Countdown Day 5

For Day 5 of our Halloween Countdown Bryce had school all day and then worked at night sadly, so it was just Claire, Rory, and me celebrating the eve of Halloween.  We played with Claire's Haunted House, played in the leaves outside, took Rory for a walk, and then made mummy pizzas and watched Hocus Pocus before Claire had to go to bed.  Even though it was just us girls, it was still lots of fun and we were all excited and ready for Halloween to finally get here.  The only picture I took was of our mummy pizzas but I realized I never posted pictures of our Halloween decorations this year so I thought I'd include them in this post. 

I love all the chalkboard prints from the Caravan Shoppe and hang one for almost every holiday.  

I added a few new decorations this year thanks to the dollar aisle at Target (the cobweb garland & white pumpkin pail) and I framed that cute little Halloween card from Rifle Paper Co.

My paper bats are still going strong in their 4th year of use!  Halloween decorations are so fun I get so excited to put them up every year but then I'm always a little sad when I have to take them down :(.  Oh well, at least Christmas ones come soon after so I don't have feel sad for too long!