Halloween!

 Our family Halloween party was at our house this year. I meant to take pictures of the whole house and all the kids and decorations. This is the only picture I took. Such is this plight of the hostess. :) But here are my treats offered. :)

And Lance was at it again with the pumpkins! He never fails to impress.  The kids choose what they want and he makes it happen....EXCEPT....Mikey actually did most of his! We were quite proud. :) Lance guided him through the process and helped here and there, but he did great!

Mikey's:

Luke's:

 Elise's: (She loves Hugs, so we chose this for her.)

Lance's: (Alien vs. Predator for those, like me, not as familiar with such things.)

Joey's:

 Just wanted to prove that she didn't hate her costume. She was willing to wear it around all day! Don't be fooled by the pictures that follow. 

School parade: 

White Ninja, Luke!

 And Red Ninja, Mikey

 Everyone ready for the big night! I know the Ninjas suddenly look a little like Sumo Ninjas.... We forgot to get pictures before we made them put sweatshirts under their costumes.

And Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I kind of think he made the cutest Jake ever :)

 And the tightness of the costume made it that much more awesome. ;) (It was a 4T so I don't know what the deal was!)

 Back to Elise's costume. It may appear as though she doesn't like her costume, but it's actually posing for the pictures that was the problem. Pure torture. She just wanted to get out the door. :)

See? Now she's fine. :)

 As per the ushe, I answered the door all night. This was the absolute BEST tick-or-treater I had! Her little voice asking for candy, was the stinking cutest thing ever. :)

Elise 15 to 18 months

Elise is 18 months!  I just want to freeze her in time! Are you tired of me saying this? She is just too cute. She's walking and talking like crazy. Her first step was on June 26th, a little over 15 months, but it was almost exactly 16 months before she was really moving about.

Like I said, she is talking lots. She will attempt to say most things you ask her to. Hearing her little developing voice is so much fun. I love, love, love it!

One of the funniest things she does right now is that when she wants more of something, she says, "more nana" or "more shie shies" (fishies). See, she loves bananas and she loves gold fish. So for some reason when she wants more of anything, and I mean anything, not just food items, but things like playing games with her, certain toys, whatever, she will say, "more nana" or "more shie shies." It rarely means she wants bananas or fishies. It's kind of hilarious.

I also love the way she says juice (Juuush), shoes, milk, yeah, and no and so many other things. Oh and she says, "Sit down!" very forcefully and it kills me. When she says "sit" it doesn't exactly like "sit," if you know what I mean. Lance thinks it hilarious. Her little voice is just so cute.

She has also started dancing and I love it. If you say "dance" she stops and starts shaking her bum. I love it. :)  When you hold her, she says, "go!" and tries to steer you by pulling on your shoulder in this direction or that. If she picks up a stick or sword she starts says, "ching ching!" A clear indication of the type of siblings she has :) Although she's still all girl as she absolutely LOVES shoes. I mean LOVES them. She can't get dressed without putting on shoes. Sometimes she even gets mad if I take them off when putting her down for a nap. Loves them.  LOVE HER! :)

And now a million pictures of the last three months. :)

About 15 to 16 months:

This is at the pool by my parents house. It's a pretty deep pool with no shallow area. So they have this little kiddie pool for the little ones. They loved it! Although Joey kept taking Elise's toys so she's a little frowny in some of these :)

She loves the bath so much that I can't let her see any of the other kids take one unless I'm prepared to put her in too. If I don't, she just tries to get in anyway and gets sopping wet in the process.

Yes, I took this picture during Sunday School. Is that bad? She just looked so cute walking around with daddy. :)

About 16 to 17 months:

I just love these pictures. I don't know what it is about them, but I just love them. Both of my cuties :)

All ready for church

I couldn't find Joey and Elise. They both love being on the porch so I finally looked there. This is what I found. Sopping wet and covered in dirt. Joey had turned the water on for Elise and she was taking full advantage. All the dirt is from my potted plants Joey was rearranging (dumping).

She sure loves her yogurt

Just some good times with dad and brother

About 17 to 18 months:

She was so excited to discover she could just sit on the couch without climbing up onto the thing

She's just rocking that Luigi hat :)

Just looking so grown up

Love watching them all play together :)

It was raining, and she would NOT come back inside. Finally we carried her in and she bawled.

Just one of the big kids

Just some morning play time while ALL her brothers are at school :)

And some afternoon play time (different day)

Snack time with Joey. She sure loves her big brother, Joe. When he's at school she walks around saying "Joe? Joe?" It's ridiculously cute.

Kind of love Joey's face there :)

She's loved the pony ride at Thanksgiving point even though she looks a little concerned. And she looks kind of darling :)

Taking a little break from jumping with a sippie. Actually, there was very little jumping done by her. She didn't love Kangaroo Zoo. :/ But at least she looked cute! :)

I thought she looked so cute after church, but she was super tired so she was kind of crying in all these pictures. But I love her dress! :)

Elise with cousin Maddie getting an early start on dinner. That's the advantage of being the babies of the family :)

So so SOOO in love with her! :)