Trick-or-treat

What a fun weekend! We enjoyed a beautiful weekend here in Michigan, perfect for fun with ghosts and goblins, or a monkey and a bumble bee in our case. We weren't sure how the girls would do in their costumes, would they enjoy wearing them? Would they want to take them off? Would they be scared of other kids in costumes? But they totally rocked this weekend.

Each of the neighborhoods in our area could choose to do trick-or-treating on Saturday or Sunday. Our particular neighborhood chose Sunday, but friends of our who live nearby are in a neighborhood that celebrated on Saturday, so we went to their place yesterday evening and Alyssa did her first trick-or-treating. She caught on pretty quickly...she'd walk up to a door and upon our prompting, she'd say "treat" (she can't quite get out trick-or-treat) and "tayn" (thank you), and then smile because she'd get a piece of candy. She and her buddy Gavin made out pretty well, and they were so cute because they just started holding hands and going from door to door together.

Tonight, one of the neighbors invited us to a party at their house before trick-or-treating. They live on a street that connects to ours, and there are a lot of families with kids on that street, so we got to meet some more folks. Aaron & I both really enjoyed it, and Alyssa loved running around after the other kids, even if they were all older than her. And of course everyone else was happy to hold Lauren and cooing over how cute the girls were. Both girls kept their costumes on for about 4 hours, with no problems. We left the party, and trick-or-treated at the houses in the cul-de-sac, and Alyssa did great. And then we came home to hand out our own candy, and Alyssa loved handing out the candy every bit as much as getting it. She sat on the front steps for a while with me and handed it out, then she'd look out the window and look for more kids. She kept yelling "more kids", "mom, more kids". She really enjoyed the whole Halloween experience. And although Lauren wasn't able to go door to door, she made an adorable little bee and was so agreeable during the whole experience.

And just to give you a little update, Alyssa is continuing to add more words to her vocabulary, although she does often need us to translate. She knows that she's going to be "two" next weekend, and she likes to "re books", her new favorite is "Baby amals". Lauren has started to sit on her own, we don't leave her too often as she'll still fall, but she's able to hold herself upright for a few minutes at a time on occasion. She's also starting to "giggle" a little, although it's kind of funny. We tried to get some video of her doing it, so I'll try to get that on here in the near future. In the meantime, we hope you like the photos of our little monkey and bee!

Fall Fun

Fall for me has always been associated with the beginning of another school year, and it probably always be. But this fall was different in a way because not only was it the beginning of another school year but also it felt like our new beginning here in Michigan, of us all exploring our new surroundings and enjoying every minute of it. One of the things we loved about living in Minnesota was all of the green spaces, but here in Grand Rapids nature surrounds us. We have trees and wildlife in our backyard and trees line nearly every road we travel on. This didn't strike us when we visited the area in April to find a house, but it did when we moved here this summer and saw all the green leaves. But these leaves over the past month have transformed into a palette of bright colors. There are colors that only can be found in nature and when the sun shines on them, they take on different hues and are truly brilliant. I've spent a lot of time over the past month traveling around Western Michigan to observe pre-student teachers, and being able to see the amazing colors was by far the highlight of this travel.

We, like much of the rest of the country, have had above average temperatures this fall.With the warm temperatures and the sunshine we were able to enjoy quite a bit of time outdoors. Alyssa gets so excited to go outside and explore, she's even started to say "outside". And Lauren's eyes just dart all around, checking everything out. She's so alert and observant, always taking in all of her surroundings. Alyssa has particularly enjoyed going down the slide in the backyard and landing in a pile of leaves, and she's very meticulous about making sure all the leaves are piled up. She makes sure that none are left under the slide. When she goes down, she'll even lift her arms and say wee!

We've gone to a few different parks in the past several weeks and enjoyed the trees, trails, fresh air, and play equipment. Most of these pictures are from our time at different parks, and while they don't do justice to the colors around us, they do show how much much the girls have enjoyed the time outdoors. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we can continue to be outside for a few more weeks before the weather turns colder and we have to bundle up in snowsuits :)

The sweetest words...

So I've had a rough week, feeling like I'm not being a good mom, wife, or professor. It bothered me that when Alyssa woke up in the mornings, she'd say "Bye mommom" and I felt that I wasn't getting the time (both type and quality) with my family that I wanted. And I had to leave early this morning for a conference in Bloomington, IN, missing Lauren's four month check up. So I was feeling kind of bad until I just called home...Aaron put me on speaker immediately and when I said hello, I heard Alyssa yell "mom!" So I tried talking to her, but she wanted to go eat yogurt, so I was going to let her go and said "I love you". Aaron asked Alyssa can you say "I love you momma"... and it happened, she said it - loud and clear "love you mom!". I couldn't believe it. Of course we couldn't get her to say it again, but she did it - I can't wait to get home on Sunday evening and give that little girl a hug. I love you Alyssa!

Lolo

Before each of the girls was born, Aaron did a lot of research into how common their names were, what people with that name thought of their name, what their nicknames were, etc. Nowhere in any of the research that Aaron did did the name "Lolo" come up for Lauren, but that is her new name. Alyssa has been calling her "Lo" for a few weeks now, but it has recently become "Lolo." The name is catching on though. I've heard Aaron referring to Lauren as "Lolo" and I think that what they're calling her at day care. We'll see how long it lasts...and what she thinks of it as she gets older.

Go Twins!

We may not be in Minnesota to cheer on our Twins in person, but we are definitely cheering them on from here. The girls both wore there Minnesota t-shirts today for the start of the series with the Yankees and Aaron and I are planning on watching as many of the games as we can. We've also been practicing with Alyssa saying "Go Twins" (it's not quite as clear as Go Vikes!).