My little hooligan

Some of Lydia's favorite things to do:

Dig everything out of my purse, or the diaper bag.

And isn't that dress adorable? Once again, Other Mother's. And don't worry, the sweat pants don't go to church with her.

She also loves to play peek-a-boo.
Where is Lydia?

PEEK-A-BOO!

HAHA! Don't you love those faces? I crack up every time I see these pictures. She makes silly faces like this all the time, I'm just glad I caught it on camera.

One other thing Lydia loves to do is steal. She is a serious stinker. Morgan will be playing with some cars, Lydia will approach, cautiously, and when she is close, she snags a car with her lightning quick grabbers and then run away. It's not as though she wants to play with the cars, she just wants to be a meanie. It's still kind of funny now, but it won't be for long. Morgan is usually a good sport about it as he chases her to retrieve her toy, and she puts on her defensive screams.

Lydia is my crazy kid. Morgan wasn't so wild, so impatient, so loud, so adventurous, so I get to learn a different set of parenting skills. Boy do we love our Lydia.

Dolly

 Lydia has really started liking dolls and stuffed animals. She hugs them and cuddles them, and carries them around, and it's very adorable. Lydia owns three dolls. One, Morgan gave her when she was brought home from the hospital. That doll is soft all over, and has a button that lights up and plays music. The second doll was from her great grandparents. It isn't very big, has two braids, and eyes that open and close. The third doll Lydia got from her cousin Anna, when she turned one. The doll had been loved and used for a few years, I think, and when Lydia inherited it, it was scuffed and naked.
The third doll is Lydia's very very favorite.

Playing outside

It's about time I post again!
I have some pretty cute photos. See?

The kids still like to play outside, even when it's cold. See Lydia's coat? That was an Other Mother's purchase for under $10. I love that place.

Morgan's been getting braver. Here we have the ancient and tipsy swing set. Note the 2x4 propping it up. 

 And here we have evidence of Morgan's increasing boyness.

And a shot from underneath.

Lydia doesn't like to be left out of anything fun. She kept trying to climb the slide, but didn't get very far.

We didn't stay out very long, much to Lydie's chagrin. She is very vocal about her grievances, so the neighbors probably knew she wasn't getting her way when we went inside.

3rd Halloween

The real Halloween, we went Trick-or-Treating. We had a recommended neighborhood to go to, so we did. First Morgan and Lydia stopped at their Nelson Grandparent's house, and not only did they

get candy, but also some presents! 

We met Chris and Christine and their family in the neighborhood, and took the kids around. It was fun. Lydia was in the stroller, and soon wanted to eat all the candy she was getting. After awhile, I pacified her with a bottle of apple juice, which she drank for the remainder of the time. When I took her out of the stroller to put her in the car, I realized that she was absolutely SOAKED. Her diaper was very full. So we did a carseat diaper change. Her poor little legs were so cold. But she was happy and smiling, and not a complaint from her.

The most exciting thing though, was that Christine was in labor during the trick-or-treating. They were timing contractions while we collected candy. Christine had her baby the next morning, and they named him Ezra Taylor Martin. Love the name, love the baby.


Anyway, I took pictures after we went out, but here is my knight in shining armor.

 Love this.

 And my sweet lioness.

2nd Halloween

 On Saturday, we had a ward Fall Festival, or Harvest party, or something. We were encouraged to dress up. I decided I would just through on a plaid shirt and some jeans, top it off with a cowboy hat, and call myself a cowgirl. I didn't even have boots. Morgan didn't know about my plans, but when it came time to get ready to go, he told me he didn't want to be a knight, as he said before, but a cowboy. Well, okay then. So we were cowboys together.

 I love Morgan's face and stance below. Classic.

 And here's some of just my boy.

 Lydia was the lion again.

 Get this thing off!

 I just loved seeing her from behind.

I spent a lot of time trying to replicate this picture of Morgan.

Here are some of the results.

We had to get a family shot.

And...the family shot outtake.

The party was a lot of fun. In the end, I wasn't even bitter about not having a trunk-or-treat. :) There were lots of carnival type games for the kids, (wherein the could win candy) they had two bounce house things, a bonafide hayride, cakewalk, and dinner. It was even pretty nice outside, so we didn't have to wear any jackets over our costumes. Having it at 4:30 helped with that.

1st Halloween

My mom, sister, and I, took our kids to a community Trunk-or-treat. Never again! It was very lame. HUGE lines for each trunk.
Morgan decided to be superman for this event. Anna was little orphan Annie, Matthias was a racecar driver.

Lydia was a lion. This is the same costume that Morgan wore when he was just one. I added a bow, though. Oh, note Morgan's red underpants over his costume. Man, I get a kick out of that.

Stephanie and I had to leave early, to go to a choir practice. (We got into a choir that will be doing a Christmas program for the prisons) So Mom stuck it out at the trunk-or-treat for awhile with the kids. Go Mom!

Morgan's "Real" Birthday

 On Morgan's actual birthday, he got to have his birthday party at Jumpin' Jungle. We'd been planning to do that for months and months. I didn't want to pay the price to rent the party room, so I just paid admission for the Morgan and his cousins. And we lucked out! His birthday fell on a Tuesday, and for the whole time we were there, nobody else came. It was awesome! We had the entire place to ourselves. If you want a good time to go to Jumpin' Jungle, try Tuesday afternoon.

Lydia loves balls, way more than Morgan ever did. I think she might be a tomboy. She wanted to chase and throw the balls, or ride in the cars.

 Here's Kaien playing baseball.

 Ammon in a car.

 Pretty girls, Emmy and Anna.

 I played the gladiator thing with my brothers. I'd like to think I won...

 I caught this perfect shot of Christine helping Chris helping Ammon. Ha!

 Mom even got in on the action.

 The two littlest. (Until this past Tuesday that is. Christine had her baby!)

 Matthias.

 Morgan and Emmy, the two cousins closest in age.

 We did presents after over an hour of playing. All the kids were sweaty and red.
Morgan got an outfit from Grandma. He was preparing to be grumpy about getting clothes, but after a few warning words and looks from me, he changed his tune.

 Some hotwheels from Chris's family. You can never go wrong getting those for Morgan.

 

Since we couldn't have cake at Jumpin' Jungle without renting a room, we went back to the house for dinner and dessert. Morgan wanted spaghetti and meatballs, and garlic bread.

 Here is the cake we created. I haven't forgotten the Fondant Fiasco of 2011, so we're going to stick to simple cakes from now on.

 He got them all out in one blow. Happy birthday, Morgan!