Halloween Week

This past Tuesday, Rylan, Aiden and Ella were able to do some Trick or Treating at the Conestoga Staff Trick or Treat. We did it last year and Rylan cried through a great deal of it. This year, all decked out as an elephant, she led the pack most of the way and when I asked her what an elephant said she was happy to oblige and demonstrate her noise!

I was thrilled that she kept the costume on so well-especially the head piece since she won't wear a hat much.


Rylan needed a bologna snack before she could do her treating.


Apparently lions and elephants aren't friends, at least not according to the elephant.


Heading down the halls of Conestoga. It was a lot darker and spookier this year, but the kids didn't seem to mind.



Daddy "volunteered" to hand out candy (as in Mommy said, "They need help handing out candy, so I told Charity you'd be there"). Rylan got to see him for just a moment before we were in the way of other kiddos and moved on.


The big joke when I took the job as Librarian was that I would have to change my wardrobe and hairstyle. I finally played along and dressed the part. This was my trial run on Thursday night. Friday I wore a huge pair of white earrings from Mom's 80's jewelry stash. I only had a few questions about what "type" of librarian I was from adults (not the "naughty" variety thank you very much) and the kids all seemed to understand the costume.


Yesterday Rylan wore her Halloween outfit to pass out candy. This mission was a bit hard for her. She thought she should also get a piece every time the doorbell rang. Despite what her Uncle Tucker said about indulging her a bit, we made it through without too much of a sugar rush. Most of our trick or treaters were former students now in Junior High, who often were calling out my name before I could get the door opened! We give out the good stuff so they aren't tempted to trick us with toilet papering or egging the house!


I can't believe how old she looks in the pic above. And it seems like in the last few weeks she has turned into a totally independent toddler. She knows what she wants to eat, helps get herself dressed and is asking to go potty. Sometimes she's dead-on when she asks and we celebrate with a Skittle or M&M. Rylan also wants to help with all kinds of chores, like sweeping, putting away dishes and folding laundry. I'm learning to let her have some of the tasks and let go of things being just the way I like them (kind of like I had to do when I married a first-born who had his way of doing things like I had mine)!

She finally had her 18-month check-up on Tuesday. She is a whopping 24 lbs., 4 oz. and is 32 in. tall. She was 50th percentile for both so I've let go of my eating worries for now. I'm a little sad to see her growing up. I feel like I'm going to miss everything if I blink and she'll be a teenager asking for the car keys. It seems to be going way too fast!

The weeks ahead look to be busy ones. We should hear more about Aiden's EEG tomorrow when he sees his doctor. Please keep praying! Shaun and I are trying to plan a date night for sometime this week. It's been a while since we had dinner without trying to feed another mouth. Wednesday I'll be going to Ropes Course Training so I can join our 6th grade classes as a Facilitator. My Aunt Betty Jo and crew are coming Friday and we haven't seen them for a while so it should be a fun family weekend. Hopefully we will get to join in on the some of the things the church has planned with Brenda, a visiting missionary from Mexico. She did our cooking when Dad and I went down seven years ago and we're excited to see her again. Tuesday the 10th we are heading to Casper to see Skillet, Decypher Down and Hawk Nelson in concert. Woohoo! It's exciting because we LOVE Skillet and because Tucker will be joining us. This will be his 5th straight week working in Colorado; we've missed him around here. Of course, all of those plans could change if Baby Kennedy decides to make his grand entrance into the world! Daunee' has been measuring two weeks ahead, so she thinks it will happen sooner rather than later. She also thinks he'll come on Mom's birthday, which is Tuesday. We'll see if she's right! And now, in light of all the upcoming events, a girl ought to do some housework! Hope you had a safe and fun Halloween!