Happy Halloween 2013

This year, Levi wanted to be Anakin Skywalker.  When I heard that, I immediately thought of cute little Anakin in the first of the Star Wars movies.  All the costumes out there, however, were for the "older" Anakin.  I just couldn't stomach it.  When I saw the Luke costume, I thought it looked like Anakin's costume when he was younger.  I thought I might be able to trick Levi.  Unfortunately, he saw the packaging first and read very quickly: Luke Skywalker.  Once he saw his new lightsaber, though, he quickly became excited to be Luke.  Sigh of relief.

When I asked Kara Jane what she wanted to be, her first answer was Doc McStuffins.  Quickly she changed her mind to "Sia" - i.e. Sofia the First.  I knew she would be one of a million Sofias, but she's let her opinion be known, so we went with it. 

This year added the cousins to our trick-or-treating group. What fun!!

 
AND, the annual tradition continues with the Happy Harpers - and I couldn't be happier about it.

Yes, two Sofias - aren't they the cutest Sofias you've EVER seen???
This year was different for us, though, because Daddy was in St. Louis for a history conference.  So, he didn't get to see first hand that Liza really didn't hate her chick costume.

 She even went around for a little while with the big kids.  See?  No tears!

 Kara Jane was pretty excited about these fake Dracula teeth.

 I promise that Liza wasn't crying the whole time.  Her tears didn't affect Levi's taste of Sour Patch Kids.

Happy Halloween!!

Liza is Ten Months

Time really does fly.  My sweet baby girl is really trying to communicate with us.  She is proficient with waving hello and bye-bye.  She has started to also sign "more" very well.  It sounds like she can say, "ball".  Still enamored with her brother and sister.  She is still quite the mama's girl, too.  She doesn't like many men - two really: Daddy and Q.  She seemed to warm up to Papa, too, when they visited the other weekend.  Liza has also been crawling more often on all fours, but she doesn't go too far before reverting back to the army crawl. 

I didn't get a chance to take the 10 month picture on her 10th month, so these pictures are from October 24.  Poor Liza's left eye was acting a little infected, but I had to take the pictures anyway.

She loves to splash in the little bathtub.  I have not been brave enough to try her in the big bathtub, and the big kids have been taking showers (yes, even Kara Jane - she has to do just about everything Levi does), so having her somewhat confined in the little bathtub is just so much easier for me.

Update from 10-25: She finally made it to her nine month appointment.  She had actually been to the doctor close to her 9th month "birthday" and only weighed 15 pounds 6 ounces.  About a month later, this baby had gained two pounds!!  They had to weigh her twice to believe it.  Still with that increase, she was only a smidgen over the 25th percentile in weight.

Levi's First Lost Tooth

Levi's mouth has been holding on to his first loose tooth for what seems like weeks now.  He has mentioned a couple of times having me pull it, and well I've been secretly grateful when he forgets his request.  I know I'll eventually have to pull one, but it just gives me the heeby-geebies to even think about pulling a tooth!

So, today we went to CC and Chris's to "surprise" Uncle Wesley for his birthday.  After the surprise, Levi was outside playing football with his uncles and cousins.  All of a sudden, they come bursting in the door, shouting that Levi got hit with the football - AND lost his tooth, and there's my boy - with one of the biggest, bloodiest smiles I've ever seen.

Not a single tear, and he loves that he can tell people that his cousin helped him lose his first tooth by throwing a football at him.

I can't believe my baby has lost his first tooth!

Another Greer Dress

Levi has been playing fall baseball.  Making it to the games is a bit of a struggle with the girls' napping schedule, so we usually just end up with ornery girls by the end of the day.  Just part of it when you want to see it all!

Here's another dress that my grandmother smocked.

Old Baker's Farm 2013

The annual trek to Old Baker's Farm started with a few hiccups and a couple of fun changes - Nana and Papa were able to join us.  

We made it to Old Baker's Farm with both girls asleep.  Not our intent, but the trip is a little long. 

Liza was not sure about the grass, especially since it was slightly damp.

The weekend we went to Old Baker's Farm was cowboy weekend, complete with a shoot out.  Levi was not excited about the possibility of gunshots.  Kara Jane was interested... until she saw what her bubba was doing.

Then she had to be just like him.

Levi climbed all the way to the top of the huge hay stacks, under Daddy's close supervision.

I was very thankful that Kara Jane wasn't there to see him.  I don't think this mama's heart could have taken watching her try to copy that!

Then, it was off to the pumpkin patch.  Thankfully, the "outlaws" didn't stop us with gunfire.  We think they saw all the kids and babies in the back of the wagon and thought better of stopping us.

 Kara found a pumpkin just her size.  It was totally lopsided - and absolutely precious.

We got a little smarter after last year, and we brought the wagon to help tote all our pumpkins.  We had no idea we'd have such great helpers to push the wagon!

We really wanted to take a picture with all the cousins.  BUT, Megan was asleep.  Levi didn't want to cooperate.

 Once Levi cooperated, I thought we might want to try to get Liza in the picture.

 Not a good idea.

After pumpkin gathering, we laid out quite the feast that Khaki and Q brought along.  Then we played (a new hula hoop champion was named - Gary Jr. beat Khaki!!) and visited for a while.  Levi played some football with Daddy. 

Another great year at Old Baker's Farm!