Brooklyn's Halloween Photo Shoot

My sister Briana has always gotten her kids pictures taken for Halloween and I've thought it is the cutest idea.  I knew I wouldn't be able to capture the cuteness with my own camera and lack of photography skills so we found a local photographer to do it. 
You can tell in the first pictures she is just staring at the camera like "what is going on?".  haha although I wanted her to smile it is fun to remember "the look" she gets when the camera comes out. 
Towards the end the photographer pulled out a toy that played music and I started dancing and the smiles appeared. 
Love that little witchy of mine.

5 months

This little girl makes me SO happy! My favorite thing in the world is going to get her from her bassinet/rocker when she wakes up from a nap or in the morning.  She gives me the biggest smile ever and is so happy to see me.  It doesn't matter that it's 6:30 in the morning, I am a happy mama to see that smile.

At 5 months Brooklyn...
- Goes to bed around 7pm and generally sleeps for 12-13 hours. Wakes up 2-3 times to eat.
- Takes 1 hour naps randomly throughout the day.

-  Is working on sitting up.  She will lean forward over her spread out legs and can balance for a few seconds before she starts to topple.
- Loves to watch us eat.  I noticed that she starts to move her mouth and imitate the motion of chewing and will start to drool even more when watching us eat.
- Will tolerate tummy time if she is laying horizontal across my tummy or on my shins airplane style.
- Is starting to be more interested and engaged when I am reading her books.  (She really tries to eat them)
- LOVES dancing with us to music.  Her faves are Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber (a girl after my own heart).  She smiles and giggles when we dance.
- Giggles when I make exaggerated faces at her, when dancing, and when getting kisses.
- As soon as a camera comes out she gets a straight face and just stares at the camera.
- Wears size 1 diapers
- Still really enjoys being out around other people. But she wants her mama nearby.  During the day if I set her down and walk out of her sight a lot of times she cries.  I really want her to be able to go to anyone and not have separation anxiety but it's hard when she is just with me the majority of the time.  She loves her mama.
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Halloween Party

Our good friends the Howell's hosted a Halloween party this Saturday.  Halloween is so much more fun with a little one to dress up.  I have been planning Brooklyn's costume basically since she was born haha.  I wanted her to be a witch because I loved being a witch when I was little.  I think I went through a stage of being a witch like three years in a row (maybe two).

Cousin Bethany, me, Erin, Ashley Halloween 1988

Halloween 1990

 My sister Briana has an Etsy shop where she sells crocheted goods.  She made Brooklyn the cutest little witches hat, leg warmers, and ruffled diaper cover.  Then I found on Etsy a lady who does appliqued designs on onesies and she made one that says "Broom Rides 5cents".
I was Brooklyn's cat and Thomas was her bat.  My MIL helped with my tutu and Thomas' bat wings (made out of an umbrella) and Thomas sewed his ears onto a beanie with some felt fabric.

There were 5 couples and a bunch of kids at the party and we had fun eating and chatting, watching football, and playing a candy game.  The game goes like this: somebody sits on a chair blindfolded with a rolled up newspaper or magazine in their hand. Their is candy under the chair and everybody else tries to grab the candy without getting whacked.  If you get hit you are out for that round.  Each round lasts one minute and then the person with the blindfold changes.  So much fun for both the kids and the adults.

Robbers

The old man, boyscout, and house from the movie Up

We ended up having to leave early because our little stinker refused to fall asleep even though she was exhausted! So weird because just last weekend we brought her fold up bassines with us to our friends' house and she was just fine but this time she FREAKED out!  Never a dull moment as a mom you think you have something all figured out and then your baby decides to change things up a bit :)

I've been feeling so festive I decided to make another wreath using the extra purple tulle I was originally using in my tutu but decided it was too poofy and that the purple didn't really seem to go with a cat. 

Pinterest Party

I went to a Pinterest Party this week and loved getting my Pinterest on :) We each chose a craft we had been wanting to do that we found on Pinterest and brought the supplies and a treat to share.  I am now wanting to craft away.  I did a burlap wreath that was super easy and will be versatile for the holidays because I can just switch out the bow for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We are planning on making this a monthly event so more craft projects to come.

Bunko

My friends Lyndsay and I have talked about starting a bunko group for awhile now.  Now that I feel like I am starting to get a routine down with Brooklyn, and the new momness has settled down a bit, I felt ready to get the ball rolling on starting a bunko group.
I use to be in a group with my mom when we lived in Yakima and will sub when I am there visiting.  I made a group page on facebook and added the event and then Lyndsay and I both added people we both thought might like to be a part of the group.  This first time it was hard getting 12 people. Some people want to be part of the group but couldn't come this first time but said they will come next month.  Luckily my MIL and neice were here during bunko since we were short a few people, so they were able to sub.
I hosted this first time and planned to have a little halloween theme with the treats.

Monster teeth (and there was caramel for dipping for apples)

Candy corn, M&M's, and Chex Mix

Witches brooms and hats

The prizes were gifts cards to some of Thomas and I's fave restaurants around here.  I thought it went well but I think some people felt it was a little akward cause people didn't really know each other.  Hopefully it becomes more successful as we play more. 

Perfect Fall Day

Today was picture perfect.  (And just want to throw this out there but life is not always perfect and I hope I don't portray that on the blog.  I know it can be disheartning when all the things you read on facebook and blogs are about how wonderful everybody's lives are.  Some days stink.  Today just happened to be perfect.)

We started the day off with a fun two mile run as a family.  The fall leaves were so pretty.  Red, yellow, orange, and brown and falling down all around us.  I loved the crunch of the leaves as we ran over them with our feet and jogging stroller.  Boise is so beautiful in the fall.  They don't call it the "City of Trees" for nothing.
This is the first weekend in a long time we have had just our little family at home and we enjoyed watching football and dancing around the living room to make Brooklyn giggle with our pumpkin candle lit and pumpkin spice cake in the oven. 

Go BSU!!!

We worked on a little project finishing up the bow board Thomas' mom made for Brooklyn. Went to the grocery store and then I read I book while Brooklyn napped and Thomas watched football. We ended the night over at some friends' house for dinner and games. Perfection.

Boise Temple Open House

We were excited to find out that the Boise Temple was having it's open house starting this weekend after being closed for renovations for almost a year. We were happy to have Thomas' mom and Lexi there with us. So beautiful and we can't wait to go again once it opens.

Ziplining

For Thomas and I's 3rd anniversary we made reservations to go ziplining.

 I had seen a commercial on t.v. and thought it looked like so much fun.  We knew it would be at least a half day thing so Thomas asked his mom to come and watch Brooklyn.  She came all the way from Washington to hang with our baby girl.
Zip lining was a BLAST! We definitiley want to go again sometime.  When we got there I was chatting with the lady at the front desk and she mentioned that Carrie Underwood had come on Monday! They were passing through Idaho and had a free day on their tour and decided to go zip lining.
In our group were two mom's and their daughters one of which was turning 16 the next day.  They were super nice and fun.  Luckily our two guides were male so Thomas wasn't too outnumbered.

There were six different zip lines and at first they start small and then get longer and longer.  The last one was a double zip line and you can race.



The scariest part is when you are up in this little tree house and have to step off, it just doesn't seem natural to step off a ledge.

The colors up in the mountains were so vibrant and it was the perfect fall day.