Halloween

Not to be overly dramatic, but tonight has got to be one of my very favorite moments as a mom. I don't remember seeing Bryn so completely happy and excited!

Bryn is Dorothy (hopefully that goes without saying) and Mya is the Cowardly Lion. I sewed Bryn's costume and luckily she approved of the finished product :)

 Not the most feminine costume, Mya's lion costume kept her comfy and cozy.

 Let me just say that I love our little neighborhood even more after tonight than I did before! We had so much fun at the neighborhood parade/pizza party. Josh was still on campus when the party was getting started, so I strapped the girls in the stroller and we headed out for the neighborhood costume parade.

 Bryn was so thrilled to see her friend Audrey was dressed as the good witch from Wizard of Oz. I don't actually think that was Audrey's intention, but Bryn was convinced that's who she was!

Lots of cute neighbor kids

 My friend took this picture....that's why Bryn stood still and did a normal smile!

 The kids paraded (raced) to the community club house for a fun party

 This was actually Bryn's first year trick-or-treating because in the past we've just done the "trunk-or-treating" at our church and called it good. It was the cutest thing ever to see Bryn go from house to house with a few of her little buddies. She was so giddy the whole way through. She stayed true to character and sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" as we walked around the neighborhood. Oh, I love this girl! She announced at bedtime that next year she's going to dress up as a lamb, then the next year she's going to be CInderella, then the year after that she's going to be a huge purple plum. So we've got some great things to look forward to.

Bryn's favorite treat was this mini apple from her friend Victoria's house. Bryn thought it was the funniest thing to have a tiny apple, and she ate it to the core by the time we made it home. 

Such a fun, fun night.

Thanks to all our friends and neighbors who made it so fun!

Rock Painting, Cookie Frosting, and Pumpkin Carving

We've had fun doing Halloween activities the last few days. Here are a few....

Halloween rock painting

 Bryn and I walked to the Boston Lot Lake trail and gathered rocks in a cauldron that we could paint.

 Bryn meticulously scrubbed each rock and then we laid them out to dry.

 So proud of her clean rocks

Candy corn (Bryn's specialty), Frankenstein, Ghost and Cat (yes, that's supposed to be a cat).

Jack-o-Lantern, Witch (or evil gnome??), Skeleton, and Spider

This was a fun activity! Bryn loves a good project and this one kept her occupied all afternoon.

 Frosting sugar cookies is a holiday must.

Yum. 

 We did pumpkin carving for FHE on Monday

 I volunteered to help Bryn with the sugar cookies, and let Josh take charge of the pumpkin carving. There's nothing Josh loves more than scooping out slimy pumpkin seeds!

 Bryn is so proud of this little guy. We keep our jack-o-lanterns simple at the Hawkins household, but Bryn still thinks it's the coolest one around.

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, but it's fun to celebrate holidays with Bryn. Her excitement about everything is so cute.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Festivities

There have been a lot of Halloween parties this past week and there are still a few more activities coming up this week. Bryn has loved all the opportunities to dress up as Dorothy! Mya is the cowardly lion, but with her chubby rolls and her fleecy costume there is a little too much insulation going on. She becomes a sweaty mess if she's in her costume for more than ten minutes, as we found out last week :)

 This is the best we could do! Mya's face is covered in this one, but Bryn's dancing around in the other pictures and totally blurry. So here it is...Halloween 2012.

 Most of my New Hampshire friends were in Cape Cod this weekend running a half marathon. While they were away, being their fit, healthy selves, I was at our ward Halloween party eating my weight in chili, chowder, and corn bread! Somehow I became one of the judges for the annual cook-off and so I spent my evening trying cup after cup of some very interesting soups. Most of the soup entries took the "go big or go home" approach, so it was lots of fun. Whew!

 Caught! It looks like this little fella is trying to take a peek where he shouldn't be. Alright, who's child is this?   Just kidding, I don't know what's going on here. These pictures were taken by Josh because I was busy eating chowder, of course.

 More games

 Costume parade around the gym.

That orange dinosaur is actually a grown woman....awesome, right?

Ending the night with a little trunk-or-treating in the parking lot.

Holidays just get more and more fun with Bryn. It's so great to see her so excited about the costumes, the games, the treats, and everything.

Four Months

 Oh my goodness, we love this little girl so much.

Four months is a wonderful stage! Mya is just such a sweet, easy going baby. Hopefully her mellow personality is a permanent thing because she's such an easy baby! Great cuddler, great sleeper, great eater: She eats at 7:30, 11:30, 3:30, 7:00, and 10:00 and has a couple good naps a day. I think Bryn was already rolling at this age, but Mya has only rolled over a few times....probably on accident. Mya loves to be propped up into sitting position so she can look around the room and keep tabs on what's going on. She loves to grab anything and everything....especially faces and hair. She's also becoming more and more interested in toys especially her favorite yellow hand...clearly her favorite! Oh, and did I mention she's giggling now!!! Ahhh....the best thing ever. Bryn and I get her to giggle the hardest when we do "Jiggity Jig" with her on our knees (Ha ha....Maybe that's a made-up game from my family?? I'm not sure). 

 We just can't get over how sweet this little girl is and how much we love her!

Bryn at 4 months, Mya at 4 months

Balding

Poor Mya has lost almost all of her full head of hair, but it hasn't stopped her from smiling :)

Bryn thinks it's hilarious and points it out five times a day that "Poor little Mya is losing all her hair!"

Brrr....

Last week our friends in Huntington Beach had weather in the 80's and were having picnics and beach days. (I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous....) 

Part of me misses that perfect weather! But there's also something super cute about seeing Bryn have to get all bundled up just to walk down the street to the park. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune in a few months when it's snowy and freezing, but for now it is really fun to have a "real" fall season. We love it!

On a side note, I think it's about time to find some new footwear. Last week I was running errands in 40 degree weather and my flip flops just weren't cutting it. Unfortunately, boots are a little more expensive than $2.50 Old Navy flip flops :)

If the bars of the playground are too cold, then we walk around the trails in our neighborhood. It's the next best thing to a beach day! I really can't get over how beautiful New Hampshire is. I wish I was a better photographer to try to capture it because it's really breathtaking in certain spots.

Vermont with the Newmans

We had visitors this weekend! My cousin Cara lives in New Jersey with her husband Ryan and cute daughter Livvy, and they did a "fall colors" road trip through New England. We met up with them in Vermont and then they came back and stayed with us in New Hampshire. 

Some of the colored leaves had already fallen, but Vermont was really beautiful! We were in the Woodstock area which is only about 40 minutes from where we live. 

 We checked out the Sugar Bush Farm where they make fresh maple syrup and cheese. It was pretty cool to learn how they make the syrup and to sample cheeses that have been aging for 6-8 years!

 I love that little face peeking out of her fuzzy fleece suit!

We took a trail to see the tubes full of sap running from the trees down to the farm...the sap that's eventually made into syrup.

 This little lady loved the trip!

 I didn't get good pictures of it, but they had 15 of their different cheeses that we could sample, and 4 of their maple syrups. Yum!

 Bryn and Liv loved their little spoonfuls of syrup.

 My three very favorite people!

 Cara is such a great mom and Bryn and Mya both loved her!

Bryn and Liv were so cute and silly together! They had so much fun running around and playing together.

Mya was pretty impressed with Ryan's phone :)

It was so wonderful to be with family and have visitors. Thanks Cara and Ryan!

General Conference

General Conference is always a time we wish we lived close to our families, but it was a great weekend for our little family. We tried to make it a bigger deal for Bryn this time around. Before General Conference we taught her the names and some basic info about each apostle and member of the first presidency, and she was so excited each time she saw them on the tv screen. Josh or I drew a quick drawing of each speaker as they began their remarks and then Bryn colored the drawings during the talks. Josh's drawings were especially great :) Why didn't I take a picture of those masterpieces? I also bought a print of all the general authorities and Bryn tuck a sticker on each one that spoke. We didn't do anything super fancy, but was fun to have Bryn more involved and excited about conference. 

 We also had a big brunch before the Sunday morning session in our neighborhood clubhouse with our LDS neighbors. I brought cinnamon rolls and there was lots of other yummy food. So fun! We love our neighbors!

This is during the last session. Flashing a little leg and attempting to burp Mya on her own. Mya looks really uncomfortable in this picture, but she actually loves it when Bryn gives her attention and tries to hold her. 

Yay for conference!

Links to all the great conference talks HERE

Boston Lot Lake

Just down the street there's a trail to Boston Lot Lake (remember how we live in a forest?) and Bryn and I checked it out with a couple friends about a week ago. It was the perfect little hiking trail to do with kids and such a pretty hike with the fall colors. Hiking was one thing I really missed while we were in California. This was a quick little hike, but it was so fun to be outdoors in such a beautiful place, letting Bryn burn off some energy, and chatting with friends.

Brixton and Brynlee 

 These first three pictures are from my friend Maren who got such great shots! She actually got Bryn to look at the camera and give regular smiles(!!!)

 We live in a beautiful place! I hope I can take advantage of it and do more hikes and things while we're here.