The 4th Annual Tradition Halloween parade

Halloween parades are one of my favorite parts of Halloween time - especially since the girls are so young and not too into trick or treating yet! For the past 3 years - we have gone to the Tradition Halloween parade hosted by the Hunter/Phillips family and it is always such a treat! Here are some pictures from this year (again - camera problems so I hate that the pictures look bad!) and the years past. Since Ali decided to hold off in 2006 and not make her grand entrance until a week after Halloween - we missed the first year but have enjoyed every year since! Also, Ali decided to change her outfit for the day from Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty for the day - b/c the Cinderella was too "itchy" that day!

Halloween Parade 2007

Halloween Parade 2008

Halloween parade 2009

October fun

Fall is a busy time and October has been a lot of fun! My girls are growing every day and I have started to hear the sweetest sound more and more lately - two little girls laughing while playing together! It's the best sound and it's one I want to record in my brain forever. They are turning into such sweet friends (most of the time) and their friendship makes my heart melt. I usually put Ali to bed while Ryan puts Rhodesy to bed and last night, Rhodes was not having it and started crying while Ryan was taking her to her room after leaving Ali's room where we had all been reading together. Ali told me, "Mommy, I think Rhodes misses me already. We are best friends and I think she just wants me to come in there!" (she seriously talks in complete sentences like this - I think she acts a lot older than she is sometimes!) Now, this was probably (definitely) just Ali trying to find a way to get out of going to bed - but it was still so sweet. They watch out for eachother and love eachother and I love every second of it!

Here are just a few pictures I got off of my Mom's camera from this month. FYI - I turned to camera to "kids" mode the last few pictures and they didn't turn out so well - but I like having pictures to remember the little things so here they are anyway! :)

We've been busy lately! Busy saying cheese..
Busy at friends' birthday parties!
Busy playing together! Rhodes' new favorite move is to climb on chairs (#1 favorite), couches, etc and then to stand up in them. She is quite the daredevil!

Busy matching!

Even in our play clothes!
I like this one...
Busy smiling and being huggable

Busy being silly

Busy carving pumpkins with friends

Although Rhodes was busy trying to get into trouble - climbing stairs, trying to eat pumpkin insides and seeds...

Daddy took the carving pumpkin job very seriously!
All of the little friends checking out their daddy's masterpieces!

Busy riding in pretend firetrucks
And busy riding in our first REAL firetruck at Evan's birthday party! (bad picture but fun time!!)
Lots of rainy days (and even floods!) so we have had postponed pumpkin patch visits and Halloween parades but plenty of time for indoor fun like finger painting! What a mess!


Rhodes just woke up from a nap with bedhead!
Busy Trunk of Treating at our church and ran into Papa!
Ali went Halloween shopping with daddy for a costume for him about an hour before Trunk or treating - and, lucky me, she surprised me with one too! A matching Cinderella dress to wear with her!
She picked out Big Bird for Ryan...

September 09 - better late than never!

So...I have been bad about blogging lately and am going to try to be better. Being the klutz I am, I broke our camera on Rhodes' birthday and luckily my mom has let me borrow hers in the meantime.....I just need to get those pictures on here to share! I just found some pictures on our computer from September that I never put on the blog and wanted to make sure to add them on here so I can remember some of these moments years to come! Pictures to come of October/more recently soon!!

A few pictures from cousin Savannah's first birthday party! She is exactly one week older than Rhodes and they had so much fun playing together!! Here are a few shots - trying to get a good picture of all four of the cousins-

Rhodes, Ali, Olivia, and Savannah


Ryan and his niece, Savannah - the birthday girl!
Rhodes playing some drums
Ali and Savannah, catching up
Some more random pictures from the month of September:

Sisters drumming togetherRhodes loves to sneak in some snacks of Baxter's delicious dog food! Yuck!
Why I call Rhodes my little escape artist.... She is always heading for this door and she is FAST!
Waving bye bye as she takes off!
Rhodes hanging out while the big girls play

My pretty princessTurning Libby into a pumpkin - "Bippity boppity boo!!"

Princesses Ali & Libby...best friends since zero

Rhodes' loved her first corn on the cob!