Beggar's Night 2010

As always here in Des Moines Halloween was celebrated on Oct. 30th for the annual beggars night.  We were pretty excited to take Charlotte out since she had some semblence of what was going on.  We met our friends Kelli, Justin, and their daughter Kinsley at the mall to start out with.  Not gonna lie, the mall was pretty lame and I am not sure I would do it again but it worked out ok this year.



After that we headed out to do some real trick or treating.  Since they live in a condo and no one in our neighborhood passes out candy (crazy right?!?) we headed to Waukee to do a little trick or treating there.  Their babysitter lives there and it was a perfect place for trick or treating.  Charlotte also went to that sitter's while ours was on vacation a couple weeks ago and we made the hard choice of switching there full time after our vacation so it was nice to get to know more of the neighborhood.

Charlotte was so funny because she was pretty tired at the beginning of the night but as soon as she started getting Hershey's bars she was on her game.  We made is all the way up and down one block, not bad for two little ones!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Last Farmer's Market

It is hard to believe the farmer's market season has come to an end.  We have certainly had many good Saturday mornings down here. 

 After today's market we headed to Smokey Row for lunch.  It was a local coffee shop in Pella when I went to college that we frequented, and they have since opened one here in Des Moines.  It was as delicious as I remember.

Charlotte was practicing her monster face before we left.  She was hilarious!

Jim's Dad...

has also received some sad news.  He too has been diagnosed with cancer.  He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and we, again, ask for everyone's prayers.

My Mom...

recently went in for all of her yearly exams including a mammogram.  They found an inconsistency in her results and after going in for a biopsy and additional tests it was confirmed to be breast cancer.  Prayers would be much appreciated.

Zoo Boo

Sunday we met up with Shaun, Sara and Sofia at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo for Zoo Boo.  We had a fun time checking everything out, seeing all the fun costumes, and watching Sof and Char play together.

 Seriously these lemurs were terrifying.  They about attacked us all when we went in there...not really, but they started this super creepy screeching and it was so scary.

We opted not to stand in line for the one piece of candy you would get at each table.

We watched a parade too.  Clearly Jim was excited.

Phew...we didn't do much relaxing on our weekend but it was so nice to have time together as a family.

In Need of a Break

This weekend Jim and I planned on heading to Omaha for a much needed break.  I have been working weekends non stop with photography and it was time to get away and have some time for ourselves.  We did something unusual and headed out on Friday night instead of nap time on Saturday morning.  I am not sure we will be doing that again.  Charlotte was so super ticked that it was her play time and she was confined to her car seat.  There was a whole lot of screaming...a WHOLE lot.  Not awesome.  Here was a rare moment of contentedness.

Saturday we went to one of my favorite places in the world...Vala's Pumpkin Patch!  We had my Mom come with us because she had actually never been there.  We had a fantastic time!  The weather was supposed to be iffy but it ended up being just beautiful and we spent a long afternoon doing about everything you can imagine...

Ate a sucker...

Checked ou a scarecrow...

Watched a dancing show...

Saw some bunnies...

Stood in line to ride the train.  Love this picture of all of us!

Got ready to depart the station...

Having fun...

Played on the train set...

Had fun with Gramma...

Peeked for the camera...

Played in a corn pool...

Squished a lady bug...

Had a snack... 

Pretended to be a farming cute family...

 Made friends with a goat...

 VERY good friends...

Even she can't believe she kissed him...

Rocked as a family...

And with Gramma...

Drank frozen apple cider...

 And at the end of the day, we got her to begrudgingly stand by the "how tall this fall" sign...

We followed up the pumpkin patch by heading to Nettie's and meeting my Dad for some delicious, allbeit greasy, mexican food.  So yummy!

It was an absolutely perfect day!

Breakfast

Yes...that is yogurt on her her forehead.

Halloween Sneak Peek

Trying to get her and Petey in the same shot was virtually impossible but still worked out when Jim joined in!

Lacy and Vinny's Wedding

Saturday we all headed to Northern Iowa for my great friend Lacy's wedding.  For once we actually made it somewhere early and had time to see her and visit before the ceremony.  She looked beautiful! 

The ceremony was wonderful and I couldn't have been happier for her.  They looked so in love up there!  After the ceremony, Lacy, her new HUSBAND Vinny and I went out for a little photoshoot.  We took complete advantage of the fall colors and small town Iowa downtown life.  It was perfect!

When we came back we ate and had fun playing with Charlotte.

We took her outside for a bit because she was getting pretty antsy and I tried desperately to get a cute smiling picture of her but I got nothing!  Plus, she had to be coloring the wedding program the whole time...

We waited while the dancing began.  In true Lacy style they had a crazy wedding party dance...let's just say that it involved zombies and I am not even joking!  We were all cracking up...see??

Shortly after Vinny and some of his friends that have played in a band sang some songs.  It was nothing short of awesome.  They sang a version of "If I had a Million Dollars" only everything that Vinny would get Lacy.  I seriously almost cried...he totally gets her and they are perfect!  By the end of them singing Charlotte was so tired she was sleeping on the table...poor girl!  We headed out shortly thereafter.

Grandma Joy Visits

Jim's mom came down last Friday to spend the weekend in Des Moines.  It was her birthday weekend so she decided to celebrate with everyone.  She was able to get here Friday night and we had dinner at our place and visited for awhile.  Charlotte was a ham like always, playing with cameras and trying to take her own picture.

Saturday we attended a wedding in Northern Iowa for my good friend Lacy from college so that occupied most of our day.

Sunday was Joy's actual birthday.  Happy Birthday Joy!  I had photoshoots so Joy and Barb came over and hung out with Jim and Charlotte, playing and having fun.  It looks like from the pictures Joy took they had a fun time.

Sunday night Barb and Joy were going to see 9-5 at the Civic Center.  We met them for dinner beforehand at one of our favorites, Spaghetti Works.  We had a wonderful dinner and then enjoyed the walk back to the car and a little playing before we all parted ways.  

Joy has meetings Monday and Tuesday so I am sure we will get together again before her weekend here is up.  And again, Happy Birthday!