Halloween 2016 was a great success. Ryan was The Claw vending machine game, Luke a tub of popcorn, and Leah a sweet black kitty cat. I love helping them come up with costume ideas and then figuring out a way to pull it all together. I did not help with Luke's Voyager 1 costume last year and I know my costume making days for Ryan and Luke will come to a halt sooner rather than later. I am not creative, I'm just good at finding ideas on the Internet and then copying them.
We went to Boo at the Zoo this year. The weather was gorgeous and the kids had a great time. Leah loves animals and it was fun to watch her get really excited about seeing different things. It was also hilarious to watch other people's reactions to Ryan's costume. Lots of people took pictures of him. He was really proud of himself.
Leah was the sweetest little kitty.
A girl and her Daddy.
Leah didn't really get Halloween but she totally understood that if she put her bag up and said "trick or treat" she would get candy in return.
Love the tail.
Luke's costume was a total mess. We used polyurethane spray and then added popcorn to the top layer. He shed popcorn everywhere he went. But it made his costume edible 😃
Ryan's was more of a challenge - but we found a few ideas online and created our own version.
Annual pumpkin carving.
I love this picture - it is one of the very last I have of Davis, the inspiration for Leah's costume. I got Davis a few months before Greg and I got married 17 years ago. He was our first baby and truly the best cat ever. I took him to the vet 2 days after Halloween and we had to put him down that day due to kidney failure. I picked the boys up from school beforehand and we all got to tell Davis goodbye and be with him to the end. The 3 of us then went to Baskin Robbins and had ice cream in his honor - he would have loved that.
But to deal with my grief, I talked Greg into adopting a puppy 2 days after losing Davis.
Meet Oliver, our sweet new puppy. He has been a lot of fun and has brought a new energy and chaos to the family. Ollie has been a great dog. He has settled right in and has been energetic, tolerant, and snugly. The boys love him and Leah loves to talk to him and tell him what not to do ("No Ollie, my toy" "No barking, Ollie")
I started seriously talking to my parents at the end of the summer about moving to Colorado. My dad said he would be willing to talk to a real estate agent to learn more about the market, and they ended up buying a house later that week. Their move was delayed a month thanks to a detached retina, but they moved a few blocks away from us at the beginning of November. It has been great having them around. I'm not 100% sure they feel the same way yet, they left a great group of friends and some family behind in Lubbock, but I'm hoping that my kids will become a regular part of their lives. 
The day they moved in was the Veteran's Day Assembly at the boys' school. Ryan and Luke were thrilled to have their Grandad be there and watch them with the flag ceremony.
Denver cousins during Thanksgiving
Leah had a great time getting to know all about Santa Claus this year. If you ask her what Santa does on Christmas Eve, she will say he "brings presents." We went to the Littleton Christmas Tree Lighting this year and she got to see Santa from afar.
Annual Gingerbread house making - this time at Nana's.
Leah insists on having books with her at all times. This is how her bed looks most evenings. She wants all of her books in her bed and she reads them by the light of her aquarium crib toy before falling asleep. She then wakes up and reads her books for a long time before asking to get out of bed. She knows the names of all of her books and sometimes recites them along with you as you read them out loud.
Leah went through a period where she gave herself "time outs" when she felt she was getting upset or overwhelmed. If she started to get upset or mad, she would tell us she needed a time out and then would proceed to walk to the time out spot and sit down. After about a minute, she would be just fine. She doesn't do that too much now - but fortunately time outs are few and far between.
Leah knows how to work a remote control. We got new remotes with a voice command feature. She likes to talk into it and say "Super Why" in hopes that she can watch her favorite show.
2 Videos:
Leah's new shoes
Ollie
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