Toadfrogs and Elephants

Of course we dressed Alex up for Halloween and it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that he was a monkey:

Abram came over to Trick or Treat and I got a few pictures:

I won’t be at all surprised if next year Wade wants to make Alex a costume. Wade has quite an impressive resume of costumes from Simon to Operation.

Wade’s latest project is putting a new floor down in part of the basement. We got a kick out of watching Alex explore:

And my favorite:

Happy Birthday Katrina!

Growing up everyone in my family always chose a favorite tree as the leaves were changing. It’s a little hard to do that being in different cities, but the internet helps. Here is my favorite fall tree in Milwaukee.

As I was getting Alex dressed this morning, I remembered buying these overalls while I was pregnant and thinking he could wear them for Valentine’s Day. Obviously that won’t happen, but I do like the overalls. Alex is now into funny faces – although I’m not sure he realizes what he is doing:

And lately we always have a picture with Madison:

Alex never used rolling to get across the room. He has been getting up on all fours and scooting backwards for a while now. A couple of days ago he figured out how to move and now crosses entire rooms. He has an inchworm type movement that I find hilarious. He is also very good at getting stuck in funny places:

Madison seems to think Alex is much too active now. She was trying to slow him down:

The bathroom is officially completed – construction wise. I still need to buy towels and mats. Wade surprised me with a built-in cabinet when I got home from Kentucky, but it took me a few days to get it painted. The shower door was also installed while I was gone.

Tonight Wade made the doorjamb and we are done!!!

Today we decided on a short road trip – to Apple Holler. I loved all of the activities they have for kids, but Alex was still a little too young for most of them. He did love the goats:

We looked at the pumpkins but decided not to buy one. We still have several at home that need carving:

Alex loved the hayride:

Everyone keeps asking us how much Alex weighs and how long he is. Who knew we could find the answer to both at the pumpkin patch?

I got a chocolate caramel apple for the road and we headed home:

Wade and I had a lot of fun getting ready for our pumpkin carving party. Finally the house was clean, the food was cooked, the pumpkins were out, and the fire was lit. We even let Alex play with the pumpkins before anyone arrived:

Mike, Carissa, and Emelia were the first to arrive. We put Alex and Emelia on the floor to play, but Alex must have gotten a little too close. Emelia wasn’t very happy. We tried the pacifiers, but that didn’t work either.

We ended up having about 14 people – a mix of church friends, work friends, and our friends from Craig’s List.

We got a group shot with the pumpkins (sadly after Mike, Carissa, Emelia, Heidi, and Andy had left) just like years past (2008, 2007, 2006, 2005):

The last people left around 12:30, but the candles in the pumpkins were still going: