Better late than never!

I'm not a huge Halloween fan, so when it came time to pick a costume, I looked to Pinterest  (the new Google for inspiration on all things crafty, tasty, pretty, genius, and fabulous!) for some crafty cute inspiration... Instantly, I decided I was going to make Jayme this adorable peacock ... until I started doing the math on the feathers and accessories ($50+ for a toddler to take a cute picture was out of our budget and insane)! Since we weren't planning on taking her trick r' treating this year, I decided to go with a Costco (affordable) costume that she could help us hand out candy in. I picked out the last of the 18month costumes for her to choose from (cow, chick, lady bug, monkey)... and OF COURSE my child picks the one costume that is the furthest thing from girly! What does one do when their child is excited to be a gender neutral monkey (I still think boyish) costume for Halloween????? Add some bows and pink of course!!! I had grand plans for the pink additions, and when it cam time to get it done or let her be a boy monkey... I ended up just throwing a headband around the tail, some bows we already had on the ears, and of course no outfit (even Halloween) is complete without her absolute favorite shoes- pink crocs (seriously- she can't be without them: getting out of bed- crocs, getting out of the bath- crocs, Sunday best- crocs, pajamas-crocs... the list goes on and its hilarious and ridiculous all in the same)! Halloween came, and when we realized our only trick r' treater was her friend down the street, we decided to go show the neighbors our costume and stall time waiting for Aunt Tay... so the monkey got to go trick r' treating after all!

counting the candy to be handed out

she decided to take the pass out candy with her trick r' treating

"come on mom!"

note ugly pink (dirty) crocs

Happy Halloween!

Weekend wrap-up....

Highlights of this beautiful first October weekend.... seeing childhood friends... seeing 2nd generation friendships beginning... seeing my child's social butterfly personality blossom... church with just the 3 of us (first time by ourselves)... uninterrupted power nap... all 4 siblings reunited... Aunt Tay is back (for good we hope?!)

 

pint sized ice-cream cone for my pint-sized chocoholic

round 2 on day 2... giving mom the "don't you even take away my ice cream" glare

party highlights... jayme heisting the birthday girl's shiny new vacuum... annnnnd her birthday cake!

the girls made it home safe from their adventure road-trip home from Austin.... lovin' on the nugget

nutella fix.... as if the ice cream wasn't enough she suckered them into spoon feeding her nutella straight from the jar!

family funday sunday...

Our weekend started Friday night @ 10:30 when we picked up Aunt Tay (whom Nugget now calls TC) from the airport and headed out to Riverside for the weekend... I'm too lazy tired to go into the details, so I'll let the mamarazzi show you how awesome our weekend was...

first kid's menu breakfast... full of chocolate chips... white shorts and no bib = blonde mom move!

where we spent the remainder of our day after breakfast

one little girl might have been a bit spoiled with all the attention

apparently the only thing on Aunt Bebba's agenda was R&R

still a kid at heart

the kid making us our 5 o'clock somewhere beverages

typical Smitty's BBQ

snuggling with her aunt tc

an apple a day keeps the doctor away (and doubles as a teether)

10 hours later... ryan's hard work paid off and our plumeria has a new home

we finally got to meet and snuggle lil' Miss Lily

"more"

classic

weekend wrap-up

 Friday we had a girl day with Uncle Buck and Aunt Tay... Saturday we drove down to Murrieta to see great-gramps who treated us to a delicious lunch, then we headed over to grampa's to hang out with Aunt Tay and friends for the afternoon/evening... Sunday was a homebody kinda day complete with a trip to Walmart and cartoons and a visit from dad's friend Boydo....

showing great-gramps how she plays with Freddie-the-firefly

cheesin' with great-gramps and her hideous looking naptime binkie

she's not happy with him following mom's orders on bink removal...

the water looked so inviting, she had to join them!

the jury is still out on whose watch tasted better, uncle buck's or aunt tay's???

perfect weather for a poolside afternoon (actually it looks perfect, but 68 is still too cold for most of us normal people to go in)

catching up on the latest gossip

over the gossip, back to the watch tasting

snuggly nugget catching uncle buck's cold

Aunt Tay is back!

Since she is only in town for the weekend (boo), we made the most of our time... first was a quick visit @ Uncle Buck's office where everyone loved a happy baby girl! Uncle Buck treated all of us girls to some El Ranchito before we dropped her back at work... then as we were headed home, we took a detour and headed for the beach! It was too beautiful of a day to pass up our favorite swing set and  fresh ocean air (there was a break in the scattered rain showers- I think God arranged this just for us since Aunt Tay doesn't have a beach to visit in Texas- and the Gulf Coast doesn't count! ;-) 

beans and rice and my favorite aunts

seal beach

kicking her legs to make it go higher (my lil' adrenaline junkie!)

checkin out the other kids on the swings

one day we'll have to teach her its not polite to stare :)

how a steak knife washed ashore we'll never know, but the fact it was the 2nd knife that washed ashore in the same area in the same day is enough to keep me out of that water (other than the fact the water is ice cold)

aunt tay washing sophie off after a seagull tried to take off with j's favorite teething toy

snack time back at home

so excited she got to see aunt tay AND uncle benny benny boo bear (U4B)

yay for aunt tay!

besides great food, good friends, and a fantastic game... the highlight of our weekend was aunt tay coming to visit! she brought love & snuggles, giggles & tears ("charlie bit me!"- probably had-to-be-there-moment), adorable handmade headbands (for my lil' accessory queen), and some more threads to remind us where her heart is.... keepin austin weird!

lovin up on aunt tay before she goes back to austin

rockin her new (18 month onsie)

"special" aunts and uncles...

As I was sorting through my Christmas pictures, I came to realize where my sweet little girl gets the special quirks in her animated personality....

meet eclectic aunt tay (note the shoes)

the infamous "uncle" buck

uncle alex (he may look normal, but don't judge the book by his cover)

she <3's uncle benny-benny-boo-bear... ALOT (he brings normalcy to her life)

its no wonder, with so much personality in the family, that my little bug is such a character....

she is one super happy, silly, sassy little girl!