Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! What a fun evening :) Matt and I got off work early and drove out to Matt's parent's house to pick up Hannah to take her trick-or-treating at Matt's grandparents' house. They live a few minutes from Matt's parents' house, so after we hung out there for a while we went back to his parents' house for dinner.

Hannah had a ball answering the door at great grandma's house and watching me hand out candy. Every time the doorbell rang, she would yell "OOOOOOOOH!" and start hopping with excitement, and run over to the chair that housed the beloved candy bowl near the door. She liked seeing all the kids in costumes. . .but she was a bit weary of me handing out the precious candy! Every time I'd grab some from the bowl and put it in a kid's bag, she start yelling "Aaaahhh!!!!!" Like I was giving away her most prized possession EVER! It was so hilarious! She hadn't eaten any candy (yet, anyway! more on THAT craziness later) so she didn't even know what we were giving away! But she liked all the pretty colors, sizes, shapes, and crinkles of all the different candy wrappers. So apparently, she thought we were giving away all her toys or something. Poor kid. But despite the alleged horror of seeing me give away HER candy each time we opened the door, she was super excited to answer it the next time the bell rang! So, either she has a REALLY short memory, or she was not as horrified at the loss of the precious candy as she appeared to be. . .We'll probably find out the answer to that in about 15 years and $30,000 in therapy sessions from now.

I'll be sure to keep you posted on that.

OK, here's what you REALLY came in here for. . .Who am I kidding? Nobody actually reads this thing, you all skip right to the photos, don't you? :) Thought so!



Lil' Miss Pumpkin head in her festive day clothes. . .she saved the best for last (well, later today anyway) !


CHEESE!!!
No seriously mom, I want some cheese! I'm not smiling for your camera! Sheesh!

Can we go trick-or-treating NOW???
Ummm, no my little eager pumpkin! It is only 6:00am!!!

HEY! You better gimme candy, or ELSE!!!

Our cute lil' bug :)

It is a dragonfly costume, for those of you who might be thinking it is a butterly (we got that a lot last night) I eventually gave up saying what it was if someone asked, and just said she is a bug :) I got weird looks whenever I said dragonfly. . .whatever! She looked cute, and that's all that matters! :)

Oh, there was ONE very smart lady who trick-or-treated at great granny's house, and when I opened the door, she knew right away that Hannah was a dragonfly! I was very impressed :) Her little boy was dressed as Buzz Lightyear, complete with lights that flash and everything! Hannah was really impressed. She likes a man in uniform :) But alas, he didn't ask for her number. I guess candy was enough for him, and he was not looking to be tied down by a relationship right now. . . I suppose it is for the better, I've heard those astronaut guys can be kind of spacey!

Trick-or-treating at great grandma and great grandpa Dwyer's house :) Great grandpa looks sooooo surprised to see her!!! ha ha But something tells me they knew Hannah was coming ;)

"tee tee!!!!" (trick or treat)

OK people, you see this bucket? This is where you deposit the CANDY! Mommy keeps saying that the things that get put in here are "crinkle toys" but I am no dummy! I've seen her open those crinkley things and eat whatever is inside! I know it is CANDY!

Hannah had a blast in great granny's backyard, rearranging their pebbles! Each little pebble she found on the patio had to be strategically placed back with the other millions of pebbles surrounding the patio. Not sure what her method was, but it was probably something very scientific, I am sure! And since science and math were never my strong suit, I just enjoyed watching her be cute :)

Signing for "more" rocks after she had cleared every last stray rock off the whole back patio :)

Ummmm. . .Ok, WHO GAVE THE BABY CHOCOLATE!?!?!? :o

Yep, that would be her great granny. GEE. THANKS! Glad it was at YOUR house and not mine :) It was only a tiny Hershey, but Hannah held onto to a piece of it for a while, and then was quite surprised to see it had changed shape and was melted all over her hand when she remembered it was there. . .not to worry, she did a pretty good job licking it off!

Trick or treat! (later at granny and Bopbop's house)

This scary skeleton dude scared the crap out of me when we arrived at Matt's parent's house because it has a motion sensor and yells "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!" and "HEY! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?!" Hannah was not even phased by it. . .but apparently she thought he looked hungry. . .he is a skeleton, afterall. . .he COULD use some meat on his boney head! So she offered him some of "her" (read MOMMY'S!!!) candy :p

In search of a "der-dell"

OK, now we're back in Michigan again for these photos. . .are you getting jetlag yet?

Hannah developed a love for turtles. I am not sure how that came about, but the kid is obsessed with them! And it is one of the words she says clearly :) You'd think with a house full of furry animals both here and at granny's house, that she would be obsessed with dogs and cats. . .but instead she loves turtles :) Sure, she is good friends with her furry friends, but it is a turtle that she longs for.

So anyway, while we were at my parents' house, Hannah overheard her cousin say she saw a TURTLE by the side of the road earlier when she and her mom were driving to the house. So, Hannah and a bunch of her cousins set off on a walk in search of this turtle. The whole time we were walking down the road, Hannah kpt repeating "der-dell" "der-dell" "der-dell". . .she was determined to find one!

Alas, we never did find any "der-dells" but she still had a GREAT time watching her cousins skip, she thought it was HILARIOUS! She tried to skip too, but she is not yet coordinated enough to do it. It was more of a cute run :) But it was a nice try!

Chicago

These photos were taken on our trip to Chicago (piggybacking the Michigan trips). These are out a little out of order, sorry.


Here's Hannah at Gino's East Pizza! A place where it is OK (and slightly encouraged) to write on the walls :) A perfect place for kids! Someone already wrote Hannah Banana on the wall near the entrance, so we just stood her under it and took a photo instead of trying to find our own blank spot to write her name. She can't write yet anyway! hee hee


She LOVES the pizza, by the way! She takes after her mommy and daddy. No pizza compares to Chicago deep dish. YUMMY!





Picking out some bling bling at Tiffany on Michigan Avenue. . .she's so spoiled! She likes shiny things and has VERY expensive taste! Her husband will not know what he's getting himself into. . . I feel sorry for him--whoever he is!

NOT happy that we interrupted her exploration of Michigan Avenue and shopping to stop and take a photo.



She has other plans: "OK, fine, I'll just take Mommy's purse and go shopping by MYSELF then! Sheesh! "

Lovely face, I know. But that's me wrestling her for my purse! She's STRONG! ha ha

Learning how to throw pennies into the fountain to make a wish. . .can you read her mind? I can!

Penny #1: "I wish they would buy me some more pizza, a few more rides on the carousel, and a necklace from Tiffany!"

Penny #2: "I wish I could climb into the fountain and go for a swim!"

Penny #3: "I wish grandpa had more pennies. . ."

What do you mean you are out of change!?!? Hummmpf

Bopbop lets her pick out an American Girl doll, and the one she picked looks like her! I don't know who was more excited about her going to that store to get a doll. . .Hannah or Bopbop! In fact she fell asleep in her stroller on the walk over there, and we had to wake her up to select a doll. She must've thought she was dreaming at first! A store full of dollies! A little girl's dream come true :)

Letting her dolly go for a ride in the stroller--she put the doll in there herself! (with a little help from mommy since the box is almost as big as she is!)


Hannah also had a blast at the Lincoln Park Zoo running all around and looking at all the animals.

Fighting another family photo again. . .she just didn't want to be bothered to stop for photos! She had places to go! What places you ask? Apparently ANY place or general direction opposite of whatever direction we wanted to go. . .Oh well!

That's better :)

Hannah LOVED the carousel at the zoo! It was her first time riding one. . .and she rode it three times :) She enjoyed waving each time we passed daddy and granny/bopbop who were watching from the sidelimes. It was adorable.

Cool chick

"Hmmmm. . .Are these bars here to keep ME from getting in? or to keep the animals from getting OUT? I tried pulling them apart to let me in, but it didn't work. Note to self. . .listen to mom next time she tells me to eat broccoli or whatever stinky veggie she serves at dinner that is supposed to make me stronger. . ."

Trying to figure out how to get closer to the animals. . ."if only these bars were made of cheesies, I could eat my way through!"

And of course, no trip to the zoo (or anywhere Bopbop happens to be, apparently) is complete without some ICE CREAM!

Mama and baby cuddling. It was so cute :)

I still have more Michigan photos to post! I have a ton of stuff in draft. . .

So stay tuned this week for much more!

Apples!

While we were visiting my dad for the second time in Michigan, Hannah got to hang out with all of her cousins! This was the 1st time all of them had met Hannah and they had such a good time together :) My sister Cassandra has 5 kids and my sister Kim has two kids. . .counting Hannah, that's a total of 8 grandkids for my parents!

One of the highlights of the visit was going apple picking at an orchard close to my parents' house. Only six of Hannah's cousins joined us for apple picking. Baby Fulton was at home keeping his mama busy and keeping Pop pop entertained. . .he is a master smiler and drooler (the baby, not my dad! ha ha) :)

The kids picked apples in record time and they were DELICIOUS!!! I wish I could have taken a bushel back with me.


Hannah and her cousins getting ready to go apple picking!
from the top: Ryan, Logan, CJ, Shannon, Nikki, Caroline, and of course Hannah :)

Hmmmm. My bag appears to be empty. . .

Where are the apples?

Caroline found some!!!

My mom found ONE! I guess the kids, who picked apples like a whirlwind and emptied two trees in about 15 minutes, were kind and left one on the tree for her to pick :)


Shannon found a bunch!

Logan, looking adorable and very Little House on the Prarie in this photo :)

Me and my little ankle biter

Posing for a picture to show off the FRUITS of their labor . . .

Ummmm. . .momentary insanity broke out! Apparently Kim and my mom thought my apple was better than theirs but I refused to give it up, no matter how big their mouths are and how scary they looked! :)

OOOOOOOO! Apples!

Hmmmm. I wonder how many of these apples I can smuggle out of here?

This is a pretty one!

Walking back to the farm with ONE apple in the bucket. That was about all she could balance :) Her little legs are too short for her to carry much more weight!

OK, maybe one apple in each hand will do. But that was really her max.

Coming back after a hard days work in the apple orchard.

Uh oh! Not at ALL happy about mommy taking her apple bucket away from her :( We had to give it back and she wanted to keep it :( She eventually settled for the apple bag instead, but it was a tough fight! Bless her little heart. It looks like her whole world came crashing down! Don't you just want to scoop her up and give her a big hug??? :)

Caroline, Nikki, Hannah, and Shannon

Sluuuuurp!

The farm dog thought Hannah was quite tasty! He came back for a second helping later. . .don't worry Hannah is used to it :)

A cute video of Hannah walking back to the farm after apple picking :)