Halloween 2012

Mommy and Daddy's favorite treats all ready for school on Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

Tonight Grace Crossing hosted Trunk or Treat at Runyan Elementary school in Conroe.  Emerson has been very ready for trick or treating and this was definitely the way to go!  Members from the church decorate the trunks of their cars and line them up in the school parking lot for all the little ones to trick or treat safely!  The girls had a blast!

Building up her energy before some serious trick or treating!

Grandma, the little bumble bee, and Rapunzel

Daddy's Little Princess

We didn't think we were going to get the hat on at all...she wasn't even too sure about the wings!

Emerson and Mr. Von, our children's minister

Braelyn definitely got the concept of filling her bucket with goodies!  Suddenly she was over her fear of strangers when candy was involved!

Fruit chews?!  Nobody said anything about fruit!

Fishing to see what treat she would get from Mr. Carl and Mrs. Nancy

Her fish said "candy"!

B's turn!

Daddy, Em, Grandma, B, and Papa

Some of the trunks were pretty elaborate!  This Super Mario one was pretty cute!

Hey Em!  Wait for me!

Wow this sun is bright!  Can I go get more candy?!

The next Disney movie...The Princess and the Bee!

Grandma and Papa are here!!

Grandma and Papa have been on quite the road trip.  The set out from Aztec last Wednesday and headed to Albuquerque for a doctor's appointment, then it was on to Cooper to visit Mikala and Russ and then they made it to our house last Tuesday evening.  The girls have had a blast.  They spent a good part of Wednesday at Incredible Pizza.  On Thursday, Grandma and the girls went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast and playtime and then met Papa and Uncle Tony for lunch at Chili's.  Friday was a somewhat lazy day inside thanks to the cold front making it a very rainy day.  Aunt Sissy came down late Friday night so we had a girls' shopping day on Saturday.  Sissy had to head back home after lunch today.  Grandma and I did a little more shopping then it was off to Trunk or Treat!  Definitely a fun filled week!  Have a safe trip home Grandma and Papa and hurry back!!

 

They came bearing gifts!

Em got a Tag Reader that she caught on to immediately and Braelyn got a laptop.

Choo choo!

You go first Grandma!

The girls laughed hysterically with Papa tickling them and putting them in bear traps!

So cute!

Looking very cool in Aunt Sissy's glasses on her way to shop.

Emerson's turn!

Papa and Emerson read books and ate popcorn before bed one night.

We never get tired of Chick-fil-a breakfast!

Listening to Papa play his traveling guitar

Such a good picture!

What a Catch!

Larry and Shawn went to Galveston for a half day fishing trip.  They thought they were going to get knocked out of going by the weather but managed to find a captain that was willing to take them out.  They set out from the house before 4:30 in the morning...that is really wanting to fish!  The lady that signed them up said that they had been catching trophy size red drum so we were anxious to see what the guys reeled in.  Not only did they catch red drum, but shark, and eel too!  The weather did make things a little interesting.  They actually had to go rescue another boat that was stuck up against the rocks!  I was very happy to get a text message with pictures of them back on land!

Go Papa Go!

It's a little disturbing to me how many sharks they caught!

This eel didn't make me feel much better!

That is one of the biggest fish I have ever seen!

I definitely think this qualifies as the "trophy size red drum"!

Cha-ching!!

Things are looking up for the Brooks' finances...as of a little over a month ago our sweet Braelyn is finally done with Nutramigen formula(a.k.a. Liquid Gold) and Emerson is now done with pull-ups even at night!  It is amazing how much those two little items can affect your checkbook! 

All joking aside, we are SO proud of Emerson.  She has been dry for 6 nights in a row...2 of those with big girl panties!!  I made the deal with her that if she could go four nights in a row with a dry pull-up, we would try big girls panties.  We only had to start the count over once.  She loves her new big girl status.  Grandma helped her to celebrate by taking her shopping to pick out a new nightgown and new big girl panties.  When I got her ready for bed last night, all of a sudden she looked really worried and said "Momma, I don't want to wear a pull-up".  I assured her that those are a thing of the past!  Way to go sweet girl!

My Brown Eyed Girl

I love those big brown eyes and beautiful long eyelashes!

New Vocabulary Word

Shawn and I learn new words from Emerson everyday...whether it is new words to songs or just in the way she sees the world. 
Word of the day:  fooding
Using the word properly in a sentence:  When I said that Braelyn was just snacking Emerson responded..."I'm not snacking, I'm fooding."  She was eating her dinner whereas Braelyn had already had dinner and was snacking on animal crackers!

Real Simple

Gransan got me a subscription to Real Simple magazine several months ago and I love it!  It has some of the best ideas.  I don't know if the one I chose to try qualifies as real simple but it was fun for Emerson and me nonetheless!  Emerson took a very long nap Sunday afternoon and when she woke up she and I set out for the store, Emerson with "recipe" in hand to get all the ingredients for our Halloween goodies.  She was beyond excited!  It turned out to be a two day process because I could bring myself to stay up late enough for the cupcakes to cool for decorating!  We got the cupcakes baked and all our decorating ingredients prepared and finished decorating when I picked her up from school today.  They definitely didn't turn out looking like the magazine but I think they are pretty cute!

Our "recipe"

Emerson built a castle with the ingredients while we were waiting on the cupcakes to bake.

Finding and sorting out the red and yellow M&Ms for the cats' eyes and noses.

Our cat ears(York Peppermint Patties) and pumpkin stems(green licorice)

Yea!!!  It's finally time to decorate!!!

At the very least a 3rd generation perfectionist on both sides of the family!

So excited about her punkin!

Muh would be so proud...you never let somebody else try something you have baked without a taste test!

These two are the closest we came to the picture!  They would have been much easier if we could have found the shoestring licorice for the cat whiskers...I struggled with drawing them with icing!

Who is ready to dig in?!  We have plenty!