Happy Halloween

A look at our Halloween through lens :)

Pumpkin carving preparation. Nolan wanted me to carve a mummy, but it was far more advanced than my simple Jack-o-lantern skills could handle. He was still pleased!

2012 Pumpkin ~ 2013 Monster ~ 2014 Jake the Neverland Pirate

Last year we started the tradition of having everyone over to our house. We have pizza and then set out to trick-or-treat. We follow up the evening by letting the kids get into every toy and wear themselves out. This year they played hard. I hope we forever keep this tradition because I love every minute of it. 



Jake, Izzy and Superman

The Incredibles!!

Aun, I apologize that these are the family pictures that Ryan captured. I should have taken the camera from him before we even started.

The most adorable little Bubble Guppy!!

A little dinner date before we went trick-or-treating!

And now, a lot of trick-or-treating pictures,



Maybe the greatest photobomb ever?

Pumpkin down.

 

This will forever be the Halloween that Aunt Jamie's autographed Eddie Murray baseball was given to Nolan by Jamie's mama. Don't worry, we sent it back home with Aunt Jamie!  

Uncle Ry and Lily :)

These kiddos did so well trick-or-treating! They all loved it and probably would have kept going had we not turned around and headed back home. Oh, the years to come!

2013 ~ 2014

They have grown SO much.

And of course, we ended the night with some cuddles. Mama's boy indeed and I LOVE it.

Fall fun

We love fall in the Hurd household! From the decorations to the delicious smelling candles, slow cooker meals and pumpkin patches ever weekend. We I love it. We have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog. So instead I just created a photo album on Facebook of our latest happenings. Although I must be getting old because I couldn't figure out how to caption the pictures.

This year I assumed would be the last year that I would get a say in Nolan's Halloween costume. Wrong. I have an extremely opinionated 2 year old. The boy is not even 2.5 years old, but he sure does know what he wants (and doesn't want). So, we started out asking him what he wanted to be and got all kinds of answers, cow, rooster, Jake, Dora, Boots, dog. I assumed this would continue so since he had mentioned Jake from Jake and the Neverland pirates I went with it and bought him the costume. He loved it! Then...he started saying he wanted to be a doggy. Then he was saying he wanted to be a doggy and would get on all fours and say "woof, woof, woof"! So I started to look at dog costumes. At this point my very stubborn child threw at me, "I want to be a white doggy, I don't want my Jake costume." I felt I needed to remind him that he is 2 and I should be picking and am confused at how he is already to the point of deciding his Halloween costume on him own.

So, I have been searching for a white dog costume and have not had any luck, but I found a brown dog. Well turns out he is scared of the dog costume and refuses to even look at it. So, he is back to wanting to be Jake. I suppose he will remain with that choice, but stay tuned.

I am looking forward to Halloween this year! Last year we started a little tradition with the Hastings and Ainsworth families and I hope we continue to do so!

Larriland farm apple picking with cousins-

Clark's farm feeding animals and pumpkin picking with friends-

Gaver farm cider donuts, animals and pumpkin patch with all our friends-

Playing imaginary baseball in the middle of the "pumpkin patch"

This next picture sums up how busy life is right now-

 

Posted with Blogsy

Dear Nolan

Dear Nolan,

My dear sweet little boy, you are growing like a weed. Seriously, so fast. I haven’t done an update lately about all the amazing this you do, but where do I even begin? You are simply amazing.

 

You are starting to branch out a little bit more and try some new foods. Ok, I am being generous writing this post because let’s be honest if you had it your way you would eat macaroni and cheese for every meal. Every single one of them. You are still not willing to try any meat other than chicken..ok chicken nuggets. Seriously, why did I say you are branching out and eating more? I take it back, you are still extremely picky and make us want to pull our hair out at dinner time, but thankfully you throw in a few random nights where you eat everything without complaining. Those few nights keep us sane. J

 

You are obsessed with the ice bucket challenge. At first the ALS ice bucket challenge videos caused you to whine as if you were scared for the person getting the cold water dumped on them. All of a sudden you decided to get in on the action and started dumping all of your foam blocks on your head. Then you decided it would be even more fun to run over to your play kitchen and dump all the play food on your head. Every time you do it you say “ice bucket challenge” then dump your toys and scream “I’m wet! I’m wet!” followed by some ridiculously adorable giggles. This has filtered into the bathtub where you take a cup of water and dump it over your head and have since decided that it would be even more fun if you can dump it on mommy or daddy’s head. Not cool kid. So, basically what I am saying is that our house is covered in a mess of toys and the bathroom is usually soaking wet.

 

The things you say lately crack me up. I taught you a knock-knock joke which you love to tell and think is hilarious. When I ask about your day you tell me things like “Ayanna ate my raviolis!” or “I teach baby JJ to be a good boy!”. You talk nonstop. I mean you have always loved to talk, but boy you are seriously nonstop. You love to sing songs and sometimes make up your own songs to the theme of “row, row, row your boat”. No lies, every time you make up a song it is to that rhythm. You counted to 50 the other day! Thirty and Forty sound the same, but you go through both of them! I mean seriously, you are just a few months over 2 and can count to 50! You are also getting really good at counting in Spanish. You can do up to 15 easily, but always try to make it to 20! You are a little sponge and even when daddy and I think you aren’t listening, you are.

 

Everybody that knows you knows that you love baseball. You love the Orioles and your favorite player to watch is AJ (Adam Jones). I need to find a cheap Jones jersey for you. You find every Orioles billboard when we are in the car and scream “ORIOLES!” you usually follow it up by saying that you want to go see the Orioles. Lucky for you kiddo, we are hopefully going to see the birds extra long this season! (***Wrote this post Monday evening 9/15/14 - -since then the Orioles have won the AL East Division and are headed to the postseason! More on that night and experience to come!!!) J You study the players and copy them. I love watching you get ready to hit…you tap the plate, swing the bat around in a few circles and then bend your little knees and get in a hitting stance. It’s actually a damn good stance too. Recently, you observed the pitchers and take your hands together and are working on your leg kick. It is amazing how you watch, copy and remember. You love going to mommy and daddy’s softball games and really just love being at the field. I think we have a lot of Little League in our future and believe me that excites me.

 You have a wonderful little imagination and you pretend play. You like to go to the store, buy bananas and pretend to give us each one to eat. You also like to feed teddy bear and Elmo. You always check on them to make sure they are ok. You are such a caring little boy. If I ever even say “ouch”, wince, trip or make some kind of painful face you always quickly ask “mommy, are you ok?” You my sweet child, you melt my heart.

 

I could honestly write a book about just how perfect you are. I mean, yes you do have a temper and you can be a little brat. It is not all rainbows and butterflies, but to me you are and always will be just so perfect. Do I wish you cleaned your toys up the first time I ask you? Absolutely. Do I wish you loved food? You bet. Do scream and whine for no reason just to test us? Most definitely. But I would not change a single thing about you, or a single second of the time we have with each other. Every night before you go to bed I rub your back and tell you that you are my favorite, and I mean it.

 

You are the best little boy and I love you to pieces. I hope you fall asleep in my arms many, many more times to come.

Love,

Mommy 

xoxo