Halloween Week

Monday night for Family Home Evening we carved our pumpkins. Darcy loved taking the tops off and putting them back on. I never got a picture of the finished product, but Drew carved a skull and I carved a ghost. They were awesome!

Friday night we went to the ward Halloween party at the church. They had a chili/cornbread cookoff, a doughnut eating contest, and trunk-or-treat. Darcy was a super cute strawberry this year! She didn't like to keep her hat on, but a couple times we put it on her and she forgot about it so we were able to get a couple pictures.

They convinced Drew to be in the doughnut eating contest. He insists he wasn't even trying, but he ended up winning anyway. I was very proud! :)

Some serious doughnut eating action!

Our friends Rich and Brittany and Ari and Abbi live in an awesome duplex together and they had a Halloween party on Saturday night. We had so much fun! They had a cake walk and bocce ball with mini pumpkins in one side of the duplex and rock band in the other side. There were tons of cute decorations and delicious treats! Rich & Brittany were a cowboy and Indian. Ari and Abbi were a tree and tree hugger, and Evelyn was a little fairy. Will and Amanda were an angel and devil. Ben and Kelly were Africans (with authentic costumes from Africa!) Linwood was the Brawny man and Brook was a kid in a candy store. TJ and Melanie were Arabic. Dean and Penny were two pigs in a blanket. There were a few people there who's names I didn't know who were ghosts, a jail bird, a whoopie cushion, some white trash folks, and some safari people with a little monkey and elephant. Lots of fun costumes!!

I bent down to take a picture of Darcy and she thought she was supposed to bend down with me.

Here is the cute strawberry again with a gun from the cowboy and a toy from the kid in the candy store.



The family picture. I was a witch (I really hate this picture of me) and Drew was a 70's guy (Drew really loves this picture of himself). He was so excited to wear this suit. The pants were really tight! :)

We had so much fun playing rock band. We had an awesome girl band! (The Arabic girl, the witch, the African , and the kid in the candy store.)

One of the boy bands. (The Brawny man minus his paper towel roll, the African man, and the 70's guy minus his afro.)

They got a little excited because they were singing the "Woo Hoo" song from Blur and they felt it was necessary to do some jumping.

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but the other day we got this video of Darcy spinning, jumping, and trotting.

First Injury

I thought I should document Darcy's first injury besides just a bonk or a scrape here or there. We were just out on a walk and she tripped and face planted into the pavement. It was so sad and it gave her a bloody fat lip. I have always been so nervous about how I would deal with injured kids. At first when I saw the blood on her face I wanted to cry too and I wanted to yell for help. Since it really was a very minor injury I'm glad I didn't do either of those things. Just a couple minutes after it happened and I had cleaned her up and held some ice on her lip she was as happy as a clam. A clam with a fat lip.

Here she is with her fat lip.

A close-up of the fat lip (and up her nostils). It is actually even fatter now.


I just wanted to add this picture because her eyes look so blue.

Finally

Last night Drew got the offer from PNNL! We are relieved and excited. We were both having a hard time sleeping over the past few weeks waiting to hear from them. Now we are having trouble sleeping again because we are anxious about all the details that need to be taken care of to make the move and get Drew all set up for work. We know there are lots of people out there right now looking for work, so we feel really blessed that this has worked out for us, and now we get to be close to our families! YAY!!!!! (My brother Luke would be totally annoyed that I put five exclamation marks, but in this case it really reflects how I am feeling. HA!)


Side Note: Thanks for all the tips about throwing fits and shopping with babies a couple weeks ago. Things have gotten much better. We go shopping with lots of snacks. :) The biting thing ended up being a really short phase. One time she bit me and I was stern with her and she got mad and bit her own arm. It made her cry and she did it again and cried again. I was having the hardest time controlling my laughter. It was the craziest reaction ever! She hasn't been into biting since then. I read online that if a baby throws fits at this age you are just supposed to ignore it, so that's what I've been doing. I also decided she was really just doing it when she needed attention like when I'm cooking or cleaning...or maybe a little distracted by the computer or something. So I've been working harder at always having things for her to do. She lives in the spotlight. She really is a happy girl if she has something to do or someone to pay attention to her.

Here's the happy girl this morning!

Pictures/Almost News

We thought we were going to hear today whether or not Drew was getting the job in Tri-Cities, but they are waiting on one more guy to give the OK. They told us we will know for sure by Tuesday. They said he will be getting an offer, we just have to wait to see what the offer is. We are so excited and anxious. It just sounds like such a dream come true to be there so close to our families. We will keep dreaming for a few more days I guess.

I have been waiting to update my blog until we got the news about the job, but I am getting in trouble with my family for not posting. So, here are lots of pictures of this last week to tide them over until Tuesday. :)

Darcy needed some shoes that weren't sandles for the fall, so we went shopping. I think her new shoes look so cute on her and I had to take some pictures.

A close-up of the shoes.
We've been getting crazy with Darcy's hairstyles this week. Here is the pig-tail messy buns look.
I just thought this was cute.
I do a little yoga every now and then (seriously not very much) and Darcy must be watching because one day out of the blue she bent over and did downward dog. Sometimes she will be walking along and just stop to do downward dog and then move on. She is serious about her stretching.
The other day I was filling up a water bottle and Darcy wanted whatever I had. She was crying at my feet so I decided to just hand her an ice cube. I figured she wouldn't like how cold it was, but I was wrong. She was so excited about it. She just kept switching hands and sucking on it and talking and laughing. The strangest things make her happy.
Another hair style. Today I did a french-braid across her head. I added a flower for the clip later and she looked so cute.
The french-braid with the flower.
This is just really Darcy's favorite thing. She would hang out all day outside on and around this step if I would let her. Some days we spend a lot of time out there.
I just really wanted a cute picture of me with Darcy so I had Drew take some today. The headband I'm wearing I made at a church Young Women's activity I was in charge of.
Oh so naturally having so much fun together on the door step. She seriously is fun to have around! :)
Trying to get away from the camera.
I made my first cheesecake today. It was meant to be a celebration cake after we found out good news about Drew's job. The news was only semi-good, but we ate the cheesecake anyway and it was "totally" good. (We just got back from playing tennis so don't judge us for looking nasty.)