November

Can't believe November has already come and gone.  It was a busy month...we were gone about half of it.

Literally.

We had a few days to do things like...

 ...snuggle and...

 ...have sissy time, and...

...laugh at each other.

Then it was off to Utah for Madden's baby blessing.  (Madden is my sister, Karli's, baby boy born 10 days before Aspen.)  It was a great weekend with the whole family.

2 Growing Cousins (about 2 1/2 months old)

 The only downer to the weekend was Harper's little accident.  She opened a door to a set of stairs she didn't know what there and she rolled right down them.  They were unfinished, hardwood stairs with concrete at the bottom, so it was a pretty hard fall.  She got a few good bumps and bruises (the picture above was a few days later and she looked WAY better already), but nothing serious thank goodness.  Kids are so tough!

We came home and had a good solid week at home.  Lots of the regular stuff...playing, cleaning, recovering from the trip.

 Harper has become quite the artist during bath time.  She's actually drawing her own people now.  (You can see one example under my drawing of her...with the big circle body and 2 long legs hanging down.  She does facial features, hair, ears...everything.  The girl is Picasso II, I'm telling you.)

 Aspen turned 3 months old and posed in the rocking chair.

 Then Harper thought it was her turn.  She just learned (in nursery, I'm guessing) about shooting, so here she is shooting the bad guys.  Me, apparently.

The week before Christmas Chase and I took a vacation...but not together.  He took one with his brother and I took one with my girls and my parents.  (Details to come in the next post.)  So that was our next week out of town.  Then home for 3 days, then out of town for Thanksgiving.

 We had a great Thanksgiving with the Fly Family (and extended family) at Chase's parents house.  It was so great to see a lot of his family, I love them all!

I made my girls matching turkey shirts for turkey day with their handprints as the feathers.  I thought they were cute.

Once Thanksgiving was over, so were our travels.  We'll be staying put until a quick trip to see Chase's parents before Christmas.  But we'll be spending Christmas Day (and Harper's birthday the next day) at home.  It'll be a little strange, since we've never spent a major holiday at home, but I'm really kind of looking forward to it.  We'll still see our families around Christmas, but we'll be able to do our own thing too.

Just means I have to cook the Christmas Day feast all alone.  KFC, anyone?

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year!  This is really the first year Harper has really understood holidays, and everything really is more fun with kids.

 Best thing I bought for Halloween?  A "Mr. Pumpkin Head" set last year in a Halloween clearance bin.  Literally entertained her for hours.  I would recommend it for anyone who has toddlers.  I'm on the hunt for something similar for every. single. holiday.

 We carved pumpkins for FHE.  I thought Harper would love making a mess, but she is my child after all, and she would not reach her hands in to pull out the seeds.  She finally picked one seed off the top edge of her pumpkin and said, "There, Mom.  I cleaned up my seeds."  I have trained her well.

 She wanted Daddy to carve her a mad pumpkin.

 So here is the mad mouth...and her mad face.

 Chase's pumpkin on the top left...zipper mouth.  Mine on the top right...a face, but also a nautical scene.  Can you see it?  Harper's mad-turned-sad pumpkin on the bottom left.  And Aspen's crazy-face pumpkin on the bottom right.

Harper helped decorate the door with some sticky things that she was obsessed with.

On Halloween Aspen had her 2 month check up.  So she caught a few ZZZZs before getting her shots.

That night we had our ward's trunk-or-treat.  It was a hit and I loved doing that over hauling Harper all over the neighborhood in the dark.  We'll see how long she'll let us just take her to this as her trick-or-treating.

My mom made her the cutest fairy costume (or fairy princess, as Harper called it.)  She loved it and still wears it for dress up.

Aspen was a cute little leopard...and she slept the whole party all bundled up on my lap as I handed out candy.  It was perfect!

October

Lots of time spent holding my baby and playing with my big girl.  This month Aspen started being a bit happier and didn't have to be held 24/7 in order to stop crying.  We even started getting some big smiles!

 Love this big-eyed girl!

 We decorated Halloween cupcakes for FHE...and then promptly gave 90% of them away so I wouldn't eat them.

 She FINALLY started sleeping somewhere besides my arms.  Which means I FINALLY got some things done!

 Hangin out, watching some football.

The weekend before Halloween Chase ran in a 5k with his mom and sister.  It was a fun run 5k, full of obstacles and mazes.  The best part for us was that we got free admission and the 5k took place in a big complex with a couple different corn mazes, a petting zoo, a "town" for the kids to play in, slides, a train ride, a corn pit (i.e. sand box, but with corn kernals), and pumpkin patch.  Chase's dad, brother, and 2 of our nieces came to watch.  Harper was in heaven playing with her cousins.

 With Aunt Kylie after the 5k.

 With Grandma

Cute Madelyn wouldn't get in any of the pictures. :(

 More playing.  Harper says all the time how much she loves Aspen.  Melts my heart.

 Two months old...and a lot less screaming!

Waterfall Hike

At the end of September we took a little hike as a family.  It was the shortest, easiest hike of all time.  It was wheelchair accessible if that gives you any idea.  Anyway, we wanted to see the fall colors before it was too late (and it was almost too late), so we drove up past Sun Valley and found this hike.  It took us about 15 minutes to get to the waterfall.  On the way we walked through these gorgeous trees.

Had a picnic dinner at the waterfall

I stayed up at the top with Aspen while Chase and Harper explored the cold water.

These were Harper's shots...not bad

As we were walking back to the car, Harper took off in a "sprint" and between her cute little legs and flowing blonde hair, and the gorgeous trees and mountains, I just couldn't control myself.  (P.S. This was right before she took a huge nosedive into the gravel.  Ruined the picture-perfect moment.  Glad I snapped them when I did!)