Trick Or Treat!

We had a little Mouse in the house tonight. This costume came in the mail about a month ago from Grandma Beam. Sooooo cute!

We didn't actually do much trick-or-treating. Just visited a few friends who live here in the neighborhood. And then we finally had Grammie's 60th birthday dinner--only four weeks late. The celebration was punctuated by many ringings of the doorbell, and Lorien liked saying "hi" to the trick-or-treaters.

I was surprised that she didn't try to rip the gloves and hat off, but she didn't mind them at all. She actually liked clapping her hands with the big mitts on.

I love the face she's making here.

Daddy and his mousketeer

Farmer Girl

Lorien decided she needed to wear her John Deere hat with her church dress this morning.

Breathe

We had a lovely weekend getaway in Denver. Lorien stayed here in Colorado Springs with the Abels. I’m not sure who had more fun—Lorien, or Jacob and Jessa, who are 13 and 11 and looooove kids.

We headed out late Saturday morning, stopped at the outlets in Castle Rock to pick up a few things for Lorien, and ate at Chick-Fil-A, which was a treat, because we have been working hard to cut back on fast food this month. We checked into our hotel in downtown Denver and hung out for a while before heading to Cherry Creek to eat at Houston’s. This was a new place for us, and we had been given a gift card to try it out. Let’s just say I hurt myself eating there.

Next stop was the Pepsi Center to see the Avs play the L.A. Kings. We just walked there from our hotel, which was super nice. And not needing to fight traffic after the game was even better. Pro hockey is always fun. Would have been more fun if the Avs had won, but...

Back to the hotel. I slept until 8:15 a.m. I don’t think I have done that since before Lorien was born. Heavenly. Josh was still asleep when I woke up, so I went and sat in the hot tub on the roof. Also heavenly. We had an awesome leisurely breakfast at The Corner Bakery before heading home.

Oh yeah, and we stopped in Castle Rock again at my brother Steve’s request to buy him some ugly sunglasses. :)

I can’t say how much I needed that. I really love my life right now. Love my husband. Love being a mommy. Love my job. Love my students. Love church. But I feel like I am ALWAYS trying to be 100% efficient with my time. Trying to squeeze the most out of every minute or things will fall apart. So I can’t explain how nice it was to have about 30 hours where we didn’t have to do anything efficiently (well, except for finishing dinner in time to make it to the Avs game before the national anthem, which we did. And which explains the hurting myself eating). Slowing down for 2 days and just enjoying each other and the fall weather, and some rest, and some beautiful and fun things was exactly what I needed.

Ready to make it to Thanksgiving now...

At Least She's Getting Some Calories, Right?

On Friday, we discovered that Lorien has her first ear infection. The PA thought that was perhaps the reason why she has hardly eaten anything since Tuesday. She's on antibiotic now, and I think she's starting to feel better, but up until this evening, it has been an adventure trying to get her to eat anything at all.

Oatmeal?

Nope. (And she really says "nope" or "dope" instead of "no.")

Sloppy Joes?

Nope.

Grapes?

Nope.

Puffs?

I'll try a few. (Too bad they have like .2 calories each)

Pears?

Nope.

Plums?

Nope.

Oreos?

Oh yeah!

Been Working on this a Long Time

Lorien finally has enough hair for pigtails. Kind of.

"Babies"

One of Lorien's favorite words right now is "baby" or "babies." Like many of her words, it has multiple meanings. First, the (sort of) literal meaning: anyone age 0-10 is a baby. She is adept at identifying pictures of babies too.

Meaning #2: Berries are "babies." And she loves them! She can really chow down.

Maning #3: Bellies are "babies." And she is learning to point to hers and others' bellies. When you ask her to find her own belly, she looks down inside her shirt for it.