Bunny Mac

The other night, Mac came out of the playroom just before bedtime, and this is how she looked. She came out saying, "pretty, pretty".


She also had on some stylin' shoes. She loves the dress up shoes and wears them all the time. Surprisingly, she can actually walk in them!

Mercedes' Birthday

Brad was very good to me on my birthday, and he gave me a new camera lens! It's a prime lens, so I'm still getting used to the whole 'unable to zoom' thing. Here is a cute one of Mac from the testing run!

More Leiden Drawings

Leiden loves to draw. LOVES to draw! In fact, she's drawing right now as I type this. Here are her efforts from 11-3-09:

An umbrella


R is for rabbit--even Mac looked at it and said, "bunny"


L is for Lion


T is for Tiger



ladybugs



self explanatory


daddy and a dog we don't have



a lionfish


She's really very good, and she'll do it for long periods of time at a stretch.

Mac Sayings

We were sitting at dinner tonight, and I had received my new credit card as my old one is about to expire. I asked Brad why he hadn't gotten his in the mail, and remembered he had to have it replaced a while back because he lost it. I said this, and then Mac pipes up and says, "B.S."

What a crack up!

Trick or Treating

Finally we've caught up to Halloween night! I'm not sure what Leiden was doing with her hat elastic--I tried to help her fix it and she said no. Here they are on the porch, ready to go!


Mac was coming down with what we didn't yet know was croup, so she just went on our street. Which was a good thing, considering Brad ended up carrying her after the first about 2 minutes. He said every time they left a house she would say "more candy" about 16 times.


Here was Mac's modest haul.


Leiden's was a little more extensive. She dumped it, and I sorted it, just like I used to do with my own candy as a kid. You've simply got to know how much 'good' candy you've got! Surprisingly, she only had three things I wouldn't eat myself--tootsie rolls, licorice, and dum dums. Good haul, Leiden.



My latest hankering, she was kind enough to let me have: Runts. I had forgotten about them, and then my pregnant hormone ridden self saw them and all of a sudden they are top on my list of candy that I want--yet they are very hard to find. LOVE the pink heart ones. So, if you find any anywere, let me know!

Kicking Leaves

On Halloween afternoon, Brad went out to get the leaves, and a while later I peeked out the basement door to see this:

He would only do it twice, and she loved it!

Macdonald Halloween Party

Whew! Still catching up--my Etsy shop has taken flight the last 2 weeks. With the holidays upon us, I've got a lot to do!

We threw our somewhat traditional Halloween party this year, and decided to make it a dinner party. Here was the food table.

Drinks table...although there were cool bottled sodas with halloween-y labels on them that I didn't photograph.

The honeymooners, Taryn and Greg

Amy and Nick--he had the coolest tattoo arm sleeve.

The table

Brad and I. My costume loses some of its effect with my big pregnant tummy, not to mention that my beak didn't work, but it was pretty cool. Brad was a mix between an 80's guy with a mullet and a redneck. I tried to convince him to cut his shorts REALLY short, but he was a little leery of that.

I learned this phrase--(I'd never heard it before!): business in the front, party in the back. I'll have you all know I cut that wig myself!

Melissa and Enrique

Brad's blacked out tooth

Some close ups of the test tube soup shooters. There was pond sludge soup (chicken noodle dyed greenish brown), vampire blood soup (tomato), and sewer water (french onion). Delish.

I don't know how this happened, but Kelly and Ken Barringer were also there, as was Kristen Littlefield, but we failed to get pictures of them. Which is unfortunate, as Ken had THE GREATEST costume on. He was Elvis, and he had an enormous, 24 inch tall wig on. It was great.

Anyway, fun times!

Trick or Treating at Carlson

On the day before Halloween, Brad's work had a little trick or treating time, so we gussied up the girls and went to say hi! Check out the marble--Brad works in style! (Actually, he works in a cube, but it does have windows!)



Orange crayon costumes make for pretty yellow pictures.


The girls were very excited to see Daddy!

Everyone thought they were sweet, and I received an unexpected number of compliments about their costumes, which I could have pointed out any number of imperfections! But isn't that how it always is?

Halloween Play Group 10-28-09

As in a couple years past, I hosted playgroup the Wednesday before Halloween. It's a fun way to get the kids together, and adds a little extra excitement to the weekly get together. Of course, it's also another time to get the kiddos in their costumes! Here they are having their Halloween snack.

Pretty cute little pretzel skeletons!

We went outside to take pictures, and this is what most kids were doing before we could corral them up--wandering around, playing on the little swingset--it was a gorgeous day!

Then we finally got them together to take a picture, and we couldn't get them all to look at the camera group at the same time.

Others may have had better luck, but this is the best one I got! Mac isn't even facing in the right direction, let alone looking at us!

And then within about 30 seconds of taking the above picture, she was over on the other side of the yard, looking mischievous. (What other look does she have, really?) No amount of coaxing could convince her to come back to the group. And, as is obvious in all the pictures, no amount of coaxing could get her to keep her hat on, either.

Budding Artist

Leiden really has inherited a measure of her dad's drawing abilities. (One of these days I'll make him draw something and put it up on the blog--he can really DRAW!)

Here is a caterpillar, climbing a flower.


This is a cactus. Yes, a cactus. We saw one at the store, and she drew this at home. Very prickly.


And of course, a bunny--no relation to the ones daddy got this summer and are now resting in peace in the field across Blackhawk Road.

Carving Pumpkins 10-25-09

On the Sunday before Halloween, we got a short surprise visit from Grandma! While she was here, we decided we would carve our pumpkins so she could see them. Here's Leiden with the necessary tools.



Doing the necessary work, with Mac wondering what on earth is going on.

Mac getting into the swing of things.

Happy happy!

Leiden thought she'd try her hand at the saw. Good thing they are, in fact, quite useless!

Even Mac was having a good time!

I was a little surprised Leiden wasn't grossed out about the goo, although Mac is more my 'texture' child.

While Leiden was drawing on her pumpking the design she wanted, Mac was also in the artistic mode. This is a funny picture--it's the first time I've ever seen her stretch out on the floor like that to do something.

Leiden really really wanted an octopus, so of course, Dad tried to comply.

Our pumpkins (the octopus is on the other side of the one on the left. Sorry. No pictures of it!)