Hah ppy Hall o ween "Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaa"

Remember the jack-o-lantern? I'm sure you do if you know what I'm talking about.

Our Halloween celebrations were kind of limited this year. We went to the ward trunk-or-treat. Alyssa was a skeleton and Erik and I were...

(Look at the picture)

(Take a guess)

Losers

Since both teams lost the night before we thought maybe it would be kind of obvious that we were losers. But notsomuch. Our confidence dipped a little lower when an 8 year old told us that we really were losers. He was wearing a U jersey, so maybe we'll forgive him... 

Alyssa was really funny today. Every morning when she wakes up she is a little bit different. She must learn things in her sleep. She inhaled (practically) half a slice of bread. I'm always surprised what she will eat. While we were playing on the floor she decided I work well as a baby jungle gym. She also thought it was funny to suck on my face. She decided that laying down and waiting for me to get her out of her crib is so for little babies. She now sits and waits until I come kind of babbling the whole time. She's got a funny little personality in that body that brings me so much joy each day!

Fall, Food, and Philly

Fall is coming! Alyssa and I went on a nature walk and took some pictures with the leaves. It still is mostly green, but there are lots of colors that are slowly manifesting themselves. Alyssa's hair fits so well with fall.

Alyssa turned 6 months last week. With this milestone we are trying out a few foods. We might have ruined her rice cereal appetite because we were a little too quick to give her the good stuff like graham crackers and apples. She chews on apples and celery because it helps her to feel a part of dinner. Apples, however, are becoming too dangerous! She can gnaw chunks of them off which requires us to go sweeping. She is not a very neat eater, but she does like food!

On Friday we went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! We rode the SEPTA, which eliminated city driving! We saw Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed (August 2, 1776 rather than July 4, 1776) as well as the Constitution. We strolled around Washington Square where there is the tomb of the unknown soldier from the Revolutionary War. We toured the US Mint where we saw lots of conveyor belts running without much explanation. It was a little colder than we had anticipated but by the look on Alyssa's face it was all a bit of a joke anyway! {Yes, I accidentally put the same pic on twice. Oops :)}

Do we all look the same?

[Just as a little disclaimer. I am not racist. I think people of all ethnicity, skin colors, heritages are generally great people. Just so you know and don't take this post the wrong way]

I looked out the window and saw an African American man leave his car. That's not really unusual around here considering that of the 4 apartments in our "building" we are the only Caucasian family. Then I thought to myself..."Do all Caucasians look the same to all African Americans like all African Americans look the same to me?" Now, I know they don't all look the same. The guy who wears really long shorts and a sideways baseball cap with a little bit of a heavier set is definitely not the same as the one who is a bit taller and thinner and limps BUT when there are like 6 guys with kind of gray beards who talk in their African American dialect outside my window, I just had to wonder...

Serene Saturday

Today was a lot better than yesterday. Our car actually is fix-ed! It turns out we were just in a Princess Bride dream and that the princess (stinky, broken car) who was booooed in the dream is really actually the good princess (Yellow Manly) that we all love. Hopefully it will stay good and lovely for more than 2 weeks this time!

Dodge Ball Friday

I got a card once that said something to the effect that "Some days are like playing dodge ball...you are pinned up against a wall with no where to go." That was today...Dodge Ball Friday. The short story is we tried to change our spark plug in our car which was successful after about 7 hours and getting a socket extension wedged under the air intake manifold. The spark plug, however successfully installed, did not fix our problem. BOOO BOOO BOOO (Princess Bride anyone?)

This picture basically sums up my day with the popcorn paralleling more than just the mess in the kitchen.

Luckily Alyssa is cute despite car failures. She was a Halloween Cat + Pumpkin today!

Yesterday she was a picnic lunch...

And she does smile for the camera now :)

Like Daddy, Like Daughter

Erik stayed home on Friday and did homework. Alyssa joined him. They are silly kids!

Pumpkin Girl

Today we went to Milburn Orchards. Alyssa took some pictures with the pumpkins. They matched her hair. :)

There's a spider on my cheek...EEK!

October is here. Really? When did that happen? Yet it did. We are singing Halloween songs at our singing group and the leaves are s.l.o.w.l.y... starting to turn colors. The wooded view behind our house will be something to behold in a few short weeks.

We enjoyed a round of General Conference. It's a whole new ball game watching it with a child but at least we stayed awake!

We are also avid football watchers now. Sometimes Alyssa participates (as seen below). The bummer thing is that we usually stay up way toooo late, especially during home games. For example: this week's game starts at 8:15 PM MDT (yes I'm sure) so that means 10:15 PM EDT. I guess it means I can still go to stake conference AND watch football...

 On Friday we went on adventures. We went to Wilmington and walked the "Riverfront." This is something that is happenin' place in San Diego, San Francisco and probably even Atlantic City, but it's not really such a crowd pleaser in Delaware. Either way the weather was nice and we got to see a tree huggin' environmentalist land place. It was well landscaped and built in a swamp...don't hurt the turtles :)

Alyssa's also been sporting quite the wardrobe. 

 

We still eat cookies...lots of them. Alyssa is starting to help make them! She's quite the chef. I have to add less liquid because she does such a good job of drooling in them. These particular cookies were snickerdoodles and for the FIRST time EVER they were not hard, thankyouverymuch! (Oh and please note the chandelier in our new apartment...yes it's gold and it does not hang straight.)