Trick-or-Treat!

No Amelia was not a ladybug again this year :( We have a few ladybug costumes for different ages but they were too big to fit her this year and she is waaay to big to wear last year's (6 month size) ladybug onesie costume. I didn't want to spend much money and buy a costume so I decided she would be a bunny. I already had pink sweat pants for her and a white onesie. She wore pink socks and her pink sport-like shoes. My mom gave her bunny ears at Easter and I safety pinned a fluffy white pom pom ball to her sweat pants. I was looking at winter clothes at Wal-Mart the other day because it is getting cold now and she doesn't have any winter clothes really. I found an adorable faux fur white hoodie jacket. It has a little bit of pink where the pockets are and on the zipper area. I thought this would be a perfect addition to complete the bunny look for Amelia! It would keep her warm, look stylish, and still be useful after Halloween.

I couldn't get a picture of Amelia's complete costume without Clint holding her hands down. She always takes the bunny ears off her head in about 2 seconds after I put them on.

My little bunny :)

Look at that cute bunny behind! Hop hop hop

Mommy & bunny

I don't want these on my head mom!

Clint and I taught Amelia to fold her arms and close her eyes a few months ago so she could learn to be reverent and also join us when we pray. She will randomly fold her arms and close her eyes throughout the day and at the end of church hymns. She is getting better at doing it on command. Clint told her to fold her arms and she did so he was able to get a picture.


And we're off to go trick-or-treating! We practiced at our house first. I had Clint open our door and give her candy. She wanted nothing to do with it. We joined our neighbors, Matt & Holly, and we went trick-or-treating together. After watching their almost 2 year old son trick-or-treat, Amelia started to pick up on what to do. When people would answer the door and put the candy bowl in front of Amelia, she would actually pick out a candy. Sometimes she would try to share and give it back to them. But after awhile she learned to put it in her bucket.

I gave Amelia her first ever sucker to eat; I didn't want chocolate all over her white jacket so I thought a sucker was a better choice. She sucked on it for 30 minute sor more and got to the tootsie roll in the middle. Amelia was a very sticky mess! At one point, the sleeve of her jacket was stuck to the tray on the stroller. I had to pull the jacket out from the sticky area. We decided she was done with the sucker and got her out of the stroller so she could burn off the sugar rush by trick-or-treating some more. If you look closely, you will see the sucker stick stuck to the jacket near her left arm/shoulder area. The stroller is sticky all over the tray table and her hands are a nasty mess. We used wipes to clean off her hands and face the best we could.

After getting Amelia out of the stroller, we knocked on a door and got some candy. They had a few white dogs behind a gate past the entryway. Amelia heard the dogs barking, pointed at them, and said her version of 'dog'. She started crawling into the entryway and then walked over to the basket full of dog toys.

Amelia doing her 'I don't know' hand guesture.

I bet this was one of the highlights of Amelia's night...getting to see dogs and play with their dog toys.

Sweet moment...smiling at daddy :)

Her hands and face were still so sticky, even after we attempted to clean it up with wipes. The fur from the jacket stuck to the sticky mess and you can see some of the fur on her hands and chin.

We walked around our neighborhood for about two hours. It seemed very slow at first; like we weren't going to get any candy. There weren't many people home and only a few houses left bowls of candy out for trick-or-treaters. After awhile we found houses that had the Halloween spirit and were sitting out on their front porch with candy and great decorations in their yards. Near the end of our journey we got to a house that had only gotten five trick-or treaters. She gave us three huge handfuls of candy. When we got home our bowl of tootie fruites looked untouched. Overall it was a pleasant evening. The weather was quite nice, I got in a good amount of exercise from all that walking, we accumulated a decent stash of candy, and Amelia wasn't cranky. Happy Halloween!

Schnepf's Farm

My mom and dad came down for the weekend so we could all go to Schnepf's Farm in Queen Creek. I went a few years ago while in college but it's a whole different experience with your family and a child. When you first enter into the farm, there are people painting faces. Amelia and I both got our faces painted with a pumpkin.

Amelia wasn't sure what was going on. She stayed very still and only moved her eyes.

The finished product...a beautiful pumpkin

One of our first stops was the petting zoo area. There was a pen filled with goats of all sizes.

There were some adorable little baby goats roaming around. When we would try to pet them, this one bigger white goat would get jealous and come over to be petted too.

The baby goats were quite soft and the bigger goats had rougher fur.

There was a very large sheep who happened to be standing near the fence of his pen. Perfect photo opportunity for us!

The donkey was friendly but I think Amelia was a little uneasy about it.

Our next stop was to the pig races. We were able to sit in the front row and see it all wonderfully.

Before the show started Amelia was having a blast looking around at everything and other kids. A plane flew overhead and she pointed up into the sky and said 'puh'.

A bird was flying overhead in circles so again Amelia pointed but said 'buh' for bird.

Amelia turned around to see where daddy was and make sure he was enjoying the show too.

This was a very large pumpkin compared to Amelia. She did a great job posing on the hay bale!


We went on the hay ride through the orchards and they stopped along the way so people could see the deer. Clint took Amelia over to the fence so Amelia could pet them and see them better. Something must have smelled bad...the deer or the trash can?

Grandma giving Amelia some love on the hay ride.


We went over to the pumpkin area and let Amelia pick a small pumpkin out. These were more her size and she was able to pick them up.

We couldn't pass up another great photo opportunity of our little family in the pumpkin patch.

Mommy, Amelia, and the pumpkins.

We decided that we were getting hungry so we got some corndogs, cotton candy, and fresh lemonade. Amelia found a large pumpkin under one of the tables. She wanted to go over and touch it...so she did.

Last photo opportunity on the large hay bale mountain.

Closer family photo

Three generations on the hay bale mountain. Clint snapped this picture perfectly as Amelia saw a bird or plane in the sky and had her finger pointing and her mouth open and saying something.

Play Doh Fun

I was trying to think of a fun activity that Amelia could do now that she is a little bit older; almost 15 months. I thought back to when I was a child and I remembered Play Doh. My mom would make homemade Play Doh for me and my sister to play with. I went online and found a recipe to make Play Doh.

Homemade Play Doh
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• a few drops of food coloring

Mix all but the last ingredient in a small saucepan. Cook over a very low heat until it turns into a dough (it’ll take just a few minutes). Knead the dough on a floured surface until cool enough for kids to touch. Separate the dough into as many colors as you want to make. Put just a few drops of coloring in each ball and knead until evenly mixed. I store the dough in a fridge in an extra jar I have lying around. This way, it usually lasts for months! To add some texture to the dough, try a few tablespoons of rolled oats. Some kids love this, some are weirded out.

I doubled the recipe myself so I had enough to make a few different colors. If you have more than one child, you might want to quadruple this recipe so each child can have a sufficient amount to play with.

I put Amelia in the high chair and she poked at it then took a little piece off and ate it. I knew it wouldn't harm her because it's all natural ingredients (plus I know I ate some growing up too). I just told her, "No no Amelia. Play Doh is for playing, not eating." She understood and tried to take it out of her mouth but instead she ended up gagging herself and throwing up breakfast, twice! All over her clothes and the high chair straps. YUCK! So I cleaned her up, took off her nasty clothes, and wiped down the high chair really good. I left her in just a diaper and put her back in the high chair, not strapped in. I reminded her that we don't eat Play Doh. I showed her how to use the cookie/dough cutters and then she started doing it all by herself! I think she enjoyed playing with the Play Doh and will want to do it again in the future.

Create Your Own Font

Clint told me about this website where you can create your own fonts. The site is www.fontcapture.com. It is very easy to do! You just download and print the template page. This is where you write all the letters and numbers. Once completed, you scan in it and save it on your computer. You can preview your font and if you like it, download it to your computer. Then you can use the font in your programs like Microsoft Word and such. I'm sure you could also use it on your blog too! I don't like my handwriting very much so I use other people's handwriting fonts :) Good luck and enjoy!