Happy Halloween

For Halloween we went to our ward trunk or treat which lasted about 20 minutes and then ran home to meet up with our good friends the Woodwards for some trick or treating. THe Dinosaur and Buzz had a great time trick or treating and we let them go until Liam's pumpkin was so heavy that he kept tripping because he was having a hard time keeping his balance. They both loved it and I think they would have gone on forever if we'd let them. During the night Liam woke up from a bad dream and when I was leaving his room he asked me if he could play candy again. He seemed a little bum when I told him that he'd have to wait another year before he could play candy again. Also, my little dino was so excited to chase and growl at buzz lightyear that he ended up getting smacked in the face when buzz had had enough and was getting a little freaked out by Liam's ferociousness. I have to admit he probably deserved it but even after the smacking he didn't let up with the growling until he was distracted with the trick or treating.

Chair Bridges

Liam is very into making "chair bridges" lately and I find myself putting all these chairs back where they belong at least twice a day. Oh the simple joys of little boys and their wild imaginations.

Packages and Pumpkins

Liam received his Hallwoeen package from his Quillen grandparents today and he was so excited to open it (he's really into presents right now).  Needless to say he was pleased with the loot he found inside.

Tonight we decided to finally get around to carving our pumpkin which Liam really enjoyed.  He was not a fan of cleaning it out but with a little bribery we got him to take a handful or two out and pose for a picture.  My favorite pictures are of him and Michael carving the pumpkin.  I didn't notice until I went to post these that they have the exact same facial expressions as eachother in every single shot...makes me smile every time I look at them.

Toys in Timeout

Liam is not the only one that gets put in timeout around here. If he does something mean or is disobedient with a specific toy then the toy often will be put in timeout instead since this seems to have a greater impact then putting the boy in time out. This particular day tiger was in time out on the top of the fridge and when I turned around a minute or two later tiger was in Liam's hand and what I found was a kitchen chair next to the counter. I guess he discovered that I fridge is short enough that if he gets up and stands on the counter he can reach his beloved item. Needless to say tiger went back into timeout and mommy kept a better eye on the boy for the remainder of tiger's timeout.

Roar

I don't know why but I went back and forth what to have Liam be for Halloween until I finally decided on a dinosaur/dragon. I already had a pattern which I knew was fairly simple and easy to follow and I knew I could get all the material I needed for a fairly good price. However, he does have a current obsession with Toy Story so I thought Woody would be cute too. I finally decided on the dinosaur since I figure this might be the last time I have any say in his costume and he will probably be wanting to be a super hero for years to come. I have to admit I was so impressed with myself. I think for the first time I didn't have to rip out a single seam and this only took me one nap time to sew and he loves it. I had him try it on to make sure it fit and he ran around the house growling and chasing me. Then when his dad got home he ran around chasing him. He also tried it on for his Grandma Quillen via skype and violently attacked the computer and when his Grandma Allen came for a recent attack he was more then willing to show her the costume and chase her around too. Needless, to say before we even got to Hallwoeen I felt like my efforts were definitely not in vain and I will have a very happy "roar" running around my house for months to come.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

I've wanted to decorate sugar cookies with Liam before but I've never done it knowing that the controlling side of me probably couldn't handle it. However, this Halloween season I convinced myself that if I mentally prepared it wouldn't be that bad. Well, it really wasn't bad at all and I'm going to try and do it again for Christmas or Valentine's day since he LOVED it. We had London, Max, and their mom (some of our really good friends from our old ward) come over and decorate with us. I gave them a couple bowls of frosting and then I had frosting in bags. Well, the frosting in the bowls remained their and they loved squishing out the piping bag frosting. The amount of frosting Liam squeezed out on his cookies was disgusting and what was even more gross was that he consumed almost all of it by the end of the day. Liam wouldn't stop squeezing until every last drop was gone from those bags and he was just so proud of how big and tall his stack of frosting was.

Nut Hunt

Everyday while at my parent's house Liam went out with Grandpa for a nut hunt. Basically my dad has several walnut trees and he had a HUGE crop of walnuts this year so every night after work he goes out and collects all the nights that had fallen on the ground during the course of the day. Liam thought this was great fun and LOVED helping his grandpa. This was the day after the wedding so all the grandkids were around to help with the nut hunt.

A little side note: I don't have a picture of this but I thought it was kind of funny and just shows how much of a country girl Michael married so I wanted to document this. Wednesday night my dad comes home from mutual and says he just saw a coyote in the garden and that this is far too close to the house for his liking and it needed to be killed. I was quickly recruited to be the driver and to help him with the spotlight while this coyote was hunted down and sent to a better place. Well, we were successful but the funny part to me was the conversation my mom had with Michael while I was gone. Michael calls wanting to speak to me and my mom says, "Oh, she's out coyote hunting right now do you want me to have her call you back?" Michael doesn't he even hesitate or pause and just tells my mom to have me call back if it's not too late since he's tired and is wanting to go to bed. I love it. I just think it's funny and for the record I don't go coyote hunting all the time and it's been years since I've driven the pick up and held the spotlight for my dad.

Nick and Janet

Woohoo! We were so happy to be able to see Janet and Nick get married and it was just a wonderful day. The sealing was wonderful and they just look so happy. I just feel so blessed knowing that all of my siblings have been sealed in the temple and I can't even imagine the joy my parents must be feeling. I didn't take a single picture this day since I was flying solo with the little man so here's a few that my sister shared with me. I hope to get some more pics to add to this post when my mom gets the professional ones back from the photographer who I think was amazing.

Playing with (most) of the Allen cousins

My sister Janet was getting married so Liam and I headed off a couple days early to have some fun with most (we missed you Virginia cousins) of his Allen cousins before the big day. Sadly, Michael wasn't able to come to any of it because the end of his billable year is coming and he's right on track to get his hours but we couldn't risk him missing an entire day and trying to make that up. So, here's the kids at the park the day before the wedding getting out some energy. Yes, my son is wearing a necklace and he proudly wore that orange necklace and a snap on bracelet most of the time we were at my parents house. My sister brought all the kids little gifts and she'd brought the little boys bouncy balls but they still wanted the necklaces and snap on bracelets too. So we just made sure they had more manly colors. And hey, what harm does it do when he's only two.

Big News

I know most of you who read our blog already know this but I still needed to post it so it would end up in our family book. Anyway I had my first doctor's appointment and was able to hear the heartbeat and know that all is well. We are thrilled about this new addition. And when I say thrilled I really feel like that is almost an understatement of how excited we are about this baby. We'll find out November 19th if this little one is a boy or girl but Liam, Michael, and the Quillen family baby whisperer (AKA Emily) are all guessing girl so we'll see if they're right.