A Wish

A few months ago Jim took Tralee out on the deck at night, pointed to the first star they saw, and started repeating the nursery rhyme:

"Star light, Star bright,
The first star I see tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight."

When Jim finished the poem he told Tralee to make a wish. We've repeated this poem a few times sense, and always end it by telling Tralee to make a wish.

Flash forward to today.

Jim was going over shapes with Tralee before he went to work. My mom sent a Halloween care package, and in it she sent colorful lamented shapes she made. First Jim held up a circle and asked, "What's this?" Tralee answered, "Circle." The next shape was an octagon to which Tralee said, "Ah-ah-gone." We made our way through square, heart, and rectangle. The next shape up was a star. Jim asked, "What's this?" Tralee paused and thought for a minute. Finally she remembered and answered,

"A wish!"

So, just so you know, in our house, stars are now called wishes. :)

Trick-or-Treating

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. Friday night we went to a party. Saturday we went trick-or-treating. Sunday (I know it was past Halloween, but it was still the Halloween weekend) I made pumpkin pie from SCRATCH!! I'm talking, I hallowed out the pumpkin, roasted it, pureed it, and mixed it up into a delish pumpkin pie. I also roasted the pumpkin seeds. (Can you tell I'm a little proud of myself?) The pie is now gone, there are a few seeds left, so really, all we have to show for our super-fun weekend are these pictures and videos from trick-or-treating. Enjoy.

Hunter the frog. He kicks his little legs like a froggy swimmin'.

Before we left to load up on candy, Tralee bounced on Jim's Uncle's tramp. She kept saying, "Tralee's flying!" Especially when I doubled bounced her. I love that she thought she was flying. LOVED it!

Tralee the cowgirl, Jovie the princess, and Oakley the pirate warming up for trick-or-treating by jumping on the tramp

Our little froggy

Swinging

Trick-or-treat

Jim was a hockey player. He wore roller blades and everything. He couldn't get too far on them though, because Tralee wanted to hold his hand most of the night. . . unless of course she was getting candy.

Three little spooks getting some candy

Tralee became a pro at knocking, and ringing doorbells by the end of the night
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I love the above picture. Tralee would often ring the bell, and then peek through the window until she saw someone coming. As soon as she saw that candy was on the way she would get really excited and often say, "I seem 'em!" Check it out on the video below:

Tralee always said "thank you" or "thanks" after I stopped recording, and after the people shut the door. We'll have to work on her "thank you" response being a little quicker for next year. :)

At the end of the night both kid-0s snuggled with Grandma Trish.

We had a blast trick-or-treating. First we went around with the Jacobs family. Then we split up so Jim could do some haunting at his Uncle's house. Turns out, by the time we got back to Jim's Uncle's most people were done trick-or-treating in that area. So, we got Tralee back in her costume and made the rounds. We figured if nobody was going around that neighborhood, there would be lots of people unloading their candy into our little horsey's bucket. We were right. She loaded up!

We had a great Halloween! Hope you did too!

Things I love

• I love that Tralee says "fo" for nose.
• I love that when I put my face close to Hunter's, he puts his hand on my cheeks and pulls me in towards his face until we're touching
• I love how comfortable Jim is. Seriously, I sleep the best next to him. Tralee often falls asleep on him to. He was built for snuggling.
  
• I love that all Tralee wants to eat right now is pancakes, or as she says it, "cancakes."
• I love how Tralee hums little melodies throughout the day
• I love that when Tralee counts she can't quite get past 11. It usually goes, "8, 9, 10, 11, 8, 9, 10, 11, 8, 9, 10, 11" until we say, "12" to help her out.
• I love how Tralee is starting to sing along to her favorite songs
• I love that whenever she sees someone on a show kissing, Tralee goes, "Oh. . . Kissum!"
• I love that Tralee says "um" instead of the usual "ing" sound. For instance, "Tralee's eatum." or "Tralee's singum."
  
• I love how when Hunter laughs his whole body shakes
• I love when Hunter laughs and it turns into a high pitched squeal
  
• I love that as soon as Tralee hears the door unlock each night, she drops whatever she's doing, and runs towards the door while yelling, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!"
• I love how Tralee loves to help me in the kitchen. She pulls up a chair, or sits on one until I drag her up to the counter to help me stir.
• I love how whenever Tralee sees Jim and me hugging, she runs up to us and says, "Tralee the cheese!" Then we pick her up, stick her between us, and keep hugging while we all say, "Tralee's the cheese! Tralee's the cheese!"
• I love how whenever I'm bending over, looking for something, Tralee climbs up on my back and starting singing, "Horsey Horsey on my way. . . "
• I love how Hunter kicks and kicks and kicks those chubby little legs of his whenever he's excited, happy, bored, or angry
• I love how when Corky and Tralee are playing tug-of-war with a toy, Hunter gets really worried about his sister and starts crying
• I love how Tralee will follow Corky around, copying EVERYTHING that silly dog does, right down to licking our hands, sitting a certain way, or panting.
• I love Hunter's toothless smile
• I love how when I lay in bed next to Hunter, he immediately rolls towards me, ready to snuggle and eat.
• I love how excited Hunter gets about touching things, his whole face lights up at the prospect of touching something new
• I love hearing my children laugh with each other
• 
• I love how proud Tralee is when she shares with her brother. She'll run up to me after giving Hunter something and say, "Tralee share with baby!"
• I love it when my children hold hands. . . melts my heart every time
  
• I love when my whole family is in our bed, snuggling, talking, singing, tickling, and reading stories.

I love my life.
I love my family.

Best Friends

I love that my husband is my best friend. The other day we were fighting over the DVR. Jim wanted to record NBA basketball games all night, which would stop the recording of my newest guilty pleasure, Medium. The argument was getting pretty heated. Right when I was pleading my case, Jim started cracking up.

"What? What's so funny?" I asked, still fuming.

"Us! I love how our arguments are over stupid things that don't even matter." Jim chuckled.

I started laughing too, realizing how ridiculous our fight actually was. Jim then reminded me, "you're my best friend." I then watched him delete one of his games. He explained he would later catch the highlights on sports center. The funny thing is, after all this, Jim actually figured out a way that both of our shows could record. All that hubbub for nothing. Silly.

Corn Maze

This last Saturday we hit up a local corn maze/pumpkin festival with the other Jacobs family. We all had a lot of fun. This place was pretty cool, and had numerous activities for little ones to partake of.

Why oh why can't my husband take a normal picture?

This place had a large pillow-y looking bouncy thing on the ground. 100 people can jump on it at a time. Tralee loved it. So did I. I want one for our backyard.

Here's Jim and Jared having just as much fun bouncing as all the little kids.

Tralee fed some ponies hay, but she kept a wary eye on them.

The next few pictures are of Tralee's favorite part of the day. They had these barrel-cow things all hooked up to each other. They were pulled by a tractor. When Jim put Tralee in Greta I was worried she might start freaking out a bit once the tractor started going, as Tralee is not a fan of rides. However, she surprised me and LOVED this. She went on another ride with Jim a little later. I was so proud of my brave little girl.

Jovie, Jared, Oakley, and Tralee going for a ride

This is what Hunter did for most of the day:

Jovie went on a pony ride, Tralee chickened out. Maybe next year Tralee will be ready to ride a pony.

Tralee and Jim are watching the pig races in the picture below. This was really cute.

Jovie and Tralee watching for the little piggies

Jim and Jared think they're SO funny!

Tralee wanted to eat some corn SO bad! We ordered her some, and it took FOREVER before it was ready. It was worth the wait. She LOVED it!

Tralee plays with her ears when she's tired. This photo was towards the end of the day. We had been wandering through the corn maze, and she was definitely getting tired.

Where are we?

Jim had to ruin this nice picture of Audie and me. Typical. :)

I like this next picture of Jovie and Tralee wandering through the corn maze.

Towards the end of the day, Hunter decided it was time to wake up.

In the below picture, Tralee decided to peek through the hole all on her own, so Jim captured this shot. She was just hanging out like this. Funny girl.

We had a lot of fun! Now go find a corn maze/pumpkin festival and have some fun of your own.

Autumn at the Park

What's better than snuggling with your doggy after a trip to the park on a crisp autumn day?
And yes, I realize Tralee is only clothed from the waist up.

Hunter Talking Again

Hunter has really started babbling now. He can say "baba" and "dada." What's really funny is when you play this video back to him, he gets really excited and starts talking to himself on the video. Also, don't mind the sweet potato on his eyebrow. We trying some solids before this video was taken.