Misc. Including Halloween

Family was in town last weekend, which meant lots and lots of swimming at Grandma's house (aka the hotel)*

And even more splashing. The boys had cannonball contests and I think everyone was a winner, except for the hotel.
Hazel and Geoff went to Texas a couple weeks ago for Alex's birthday. I had to work and stayed home, but asked Geoff to take pictures. This is what I got:

A picture of Geoff on the airplane, taken by Hazel.
A picture of Hazel at Alex's party. Where's Alex? Not pictured. Thanks, babe. I just needed a good picture of the cousins together.
Oh, wait I have another one. Of the sky. Because we don't have a million sky pictures.
At least they had a nice time in Texas...

So, we bought a membership to the Natural History museum, mostly because they are reciprocal with museums in other states (Exploratorium!) but also because Hazel loves dinosaurs. They had the What's in the Basement event at some point in the not so distant past so we went up with a couple of friends.
Halloween!! Hazel was little Bo Peep and Trixie was the sheep.


Oh, and we have this much done on our deck.
*The last time we went up to Wyoming, Hazel asked when we were going to "Grandma's other house, the one with the pool." Mostly we just see my mom at hotels. I can see how it would be confusing.

Happy Birthday!

When we went trick-or-treating at Jenni's work (the county), I would prompt Hazel to say "Happy Halloween!" but more likely than not, she said, "Happy Birthday!" Still, two and an ice cream cone excuses a lot.

Geoff and Hazel dressed for trick-or-treating at Jenni's work. I wore the hat (it says "Ice Cream") to work for my "costume" but for Jenni's work I dressed as a princess. The princess and the wig were Hazel's choices.

For Shauntil's party, I dressed as a "domestic terrorist" notice the TNT. I found it hilarious. Next year I vow to have better costumes. And maybe plan ahead. Then I can have just one awesome constest instead of three lame ones.

Geoff and Hazel grew pumpkins this year. This was the biggest one. Geoff carved it into a spider with web. I don't have a picture of that, but here is Hazel possessively hugging it. We went to the Red Butte Garden After Dark. Hazel made a monster head (dirt and grass seeds in a circle of netting. We made a yogurt cup face for it when we got home. And then it grew! And grew! And GREW! It is awesome. We spray it with water almost every day.

Last week, Hazel and I made cupcakes for Alex's 2nd birthday. It was a disaster. Nothing turned out how I wanted. The frosting didn't set up, I had a "helper", ummm...other stuff. They sucked. But Hazel had great fun helping and licking the beaters.

We wore aprons while we cooked. I think the outfit here is smashing. Not shown: Me FREAKING out about the stupid cupcakes not working. Seriously.

An actual account of the last two minutes at my house:
Meadow: Who's that cute baby?
Hazel: Hazel in a twirl dress!
Hazel: I want to see my blog.
Hazel: I want to play Sam's blog.
Hazel: I want to see my feet!
Hazel: I want to play Sam's blog.
Hazel: Feet! Feet! Feet! Feet!
Hazel: My hair is so pretty! Like Zoe Jane.
Hazel: I call me 'Hazel Zoe Jane Hazel'
Hazel: *Wanders off to pick the candy wrappers off my lovingly modge-podged candy bucket*
"Open your eyes wide." "Your EYES!"

Today Hazel and I went to early voting. And waited in line for 30 minutes. And then I had to do a provisional ballot because of a name change (SEVEN YEARS AGO!!). It took about an hour total. And Hazel spit some milk on the floor. And two old men were openly racist. But look how cute my kid is! And she allowed me to put in pigtails.

Our week

This picture is a good indicator of yesterday. Even the mermaid was in timeout. I am just saying some days are hard.

Today was better. Except when it wasn't. But, the mermaid behaved. So, that's good.

Tonight we went to the Red Butte Garden After Dark. It was pretty awesome, but COLD. Luckily, our wicked-smart friend, Christie went too and she had handwarmers. Oh, Jordan went too, but he did not bring us handwarmers. The Red Butte was fun. They had stories and crafts and blacklights. My contacts glow in the blacklight. So much that it was like looking through a dense fog. Like I have cataracts. Oh, and they had face painting. Hazel's awesome face paint:
And the entire family: We all have evil mustaches. Geoff had his the longest, that is why he is extra evil.

Halloween

Okay, so I made this costume for Hazel, per her request, and I am not loving it. Can you tell what she is supposed to be? And should I just suck it up and let her wear it or make her a, newly requested, princess costume. Or buy a princess costume? Or try and re-work this one? What say you oh wise internet?

Happy Halloween!

Hazel was a vampire for Halloween. You know, she bites. Although, she only tried to bite once the whole night. She had a great time Trick-or-Treating and was a big hit. She was cute and friendly and wished people "Halloween!" The "happy" was really more just implied, not so much spoken.

And the vampire family at home.

I was a Lazy Eye for work. It was hilarious. to me. No one got my costume. But, I found myself to be quite funny. But way too hot.

21 Months!!

Yeah, it has been a while since we had a monthly update but oh, what a month it has been. Hazel has now moved to a "big girl" aka toddler bed. This is the reason she had to get a new bed.
The new bed which she does not feel the need to nap in... She will go to bed at night, but naps are another deal all together. She had a nap today, so hopefully this whole no-nap thing will go away.


This has also been the month of "no way". I must hear "no way" one hundred times a day. Everything is met with, "no way", really more of a "no wee". Even if she is agreement, she will still no way me and then say 'yeah'.

Oh, and she says 'shut up' now. Awesome. She just started chanting "shut up, shut up, shut up" one day and seeing that it causes a reaction (because, come on, the "shut up, shut up, shut up" is kind of funny), she has continued on with the chanting. She is, in fact, this minute shouting "shut up" at our skull. It lights up with noise and apparently, especially with "shut up".



Hazel has also recently discovered the moon. We got out of the car one night and she started shrieking (joyfully) "The Moon! Hooray, The Moon!!" We always look for the moon, day and night. We sing songs about the moon.



We are also painting our house. It is far more difficult and time-consuming than we had originally anticipated. Plus, the weather had completely not cooperated. It has rained practically every weekend since we started (like today). My mom was nice enough to come down and take care of Hazel while Geoff worked on the house.












Geoff was kind of going crazy with the painting...






And since it is now Halloween month, I made Hazel this smashing dress. Frankly, I don't love it but it is okay. The pattern was kind of weird, and it was hard to match up the stripes and I was not as patient as I could have been. And I made a matching dress for the baby. And a hat for me. That I will probably never wear.

I have been on a sewing kick. You can see the pink skull dress that I made in the elephant pictures. It was made at the same time as the reversible spider/red flower dress. I hope I still have enough in me to get through Halloween costumes.


When Zoe Jane was one-ish, Auntie Jenni and Meadow gave her this awesome elephant. We even sewed a hat and saddle for it. Well Zoe Jane is old now, and too big for the elephant. So she gave it to her cousin Hazel. Hazel LOVES the elephant. Here are a couple of pictures of Hazel and the elephant.



Finally, a picture of Hazel's scared face. Oh, it is going to be a fantastic Halloween!