Happy Halloween

Well, there is a pretty nasty typhoon outside, so we did Halloween at home.  We got all dressed up and took pictures and did "trick-or-treating."

These pictures are actually from  yesterday when Ellie and I stopped by a Halloween activity the Young Women were doing for the primary kids. 

 Ben taught Ellie to use this pencil as a wand. So she runs around the house hitting herself on the head with it.

 Grandma and Grandpa Lewis might like to know that Ellie is all excited because I'm holding a picture of them with Ellie to get her to look at the camera.  She got super excited.

Ben is a very serious ninja, Summer is a very serious...Japanese something, and Ellie is a very cute "Japanese" ballerina.

 But these are our true colors.

Ben showing Ellie how to enjoy the spoils of trick or treating. Ben ate 75% of Ellie's candy.

Ellie-O-Lantern

We picked up a pumpkin at the commissary a few weeks ago, and finally Ellie and I sat down and carved it this morning.  

She wanted to help draw on the pumpkin, which was about as much help as she could offer since clearly she wouldn't be doing any cutting.

 Mostly Eleanor was interested in trying to eat it.

Happy Halloween everyone!

In the Kitchen

We made brownies.  Ellie and Ben helped to clean up.

We have very limited cupboard space, and we can't screw in latch locks on the bottom cupboards, so I knew I would have to be okay with Ellie being able to pull out whatever was on the bottom.  Like this.

 She thinks the colander makes a particularly fine hat, or mask, depending on her fancy.

My Old Dress

My mom made this dress for me.  As I recall, she had one in matching fabric as a maternity dress.  Correct me if I'm wrong, mom.  So since our stuff arrived I've unpacked clothes that Ellie now fits into, and this dress was in there.  However, it's a wee bit short.  At least she has the legs to pull it off!

Moving Day

Our shipment of household goods, the majority of our stuff, came by boat and got here on October 6th.  Our unaccompanied baggage, which came by plane, was a month late and got here on October 7th.  Whatever, we didn't have to pay for our move, and for that I am grateful. Anyway, at 8 am the movers showed up with our stuff.  Ben was at school, and so I strapped Ellie into her front carrier and checked off each item as they unloaded it in the house.  I had them put all the boxes in the tatami mat room.  I should have taken a picture before I unpacked half of the boxes.  The room was packed.  I swear our stuff gave birth to baby stuff during the two months it was on a boat.

Ellie loved wandering between the rooms looking at and touching everthing as I unloaded it. And of course, she played in boxes.

She was also quite excited to unload some of her toys, many of which she enjoys a great deal more than she did before.  What a difference a few months can make!  For instance, she HATED wearing these glasses before, but loved chewing on them.  Now when she finds them she tries to put them on and then toddles over to me and has be put them on properly, and then takes off around the rooms looking at everything.

At any rate, most of our stuff has a home now, except sewing stuff.  I have too much of it.  So I'm determined to finish several projects that I started long ago before I'm allowed to start any new ones.

Because You Can Never Get Enough

And because I need to clear off my SD cards so I can take even more pictures.  Can you handle the cuteness?

Clearly Ellie adores her Dad.  And rightly so, he's pretty great.

In fact here he is, already for his first day of school, with his "new teacher bag"

We love to read the Book of Mormon!

And to play under the computer with the cords, which is forbidden.