Ghosts say:

Boo!

Cami has learned some new words this week, including "boo" - it's pretty funny.

Our Halloween started off with a parade at Cami's daycare. All the kids dress up in their costumes and parade around the daycare to show off. It was always so fun when Alaina was little and definitely was fun this year with Cami as well!

We then went home to wait for Daddy to get home from work so we could go trick or treating. Even Boomer was antsy! :)

We decided to go out this year with a bunch of families from our neighborhood. It was CRAZY. Absolutely crazy.

Cami loved being in the middle of things (except for the group picture!) and so enjoyed walking, while holding her little spider candy bag.

Alaina had a blast being with her friends and getting candy. We walked too far north, so the walk back was long and it was late. So Alaina rode in the stroller -

And I chased Cami - until she lost it and just sat down in the middle of the sidewalk, about 2 blocks from our house.

We got home just in time to hand out some candy and take some more pictures.

And we can't forget about our carved pumpkins! I did the funny face and Adam did the spider. He likes to be challenged. :)

ZooBoo!

We have always gone to the ZooBoo each year, so that the girls get to wear their costumes an extra time. It's always so fun, seeing them dressed up for the first time!

And the zoo is a GREAT place to go - somehow the weather is always perfect and the animals are so lively when the weather is just a bit cooler. Cami is finally getting to the age where she runs from one animal exhibit to the next because she gets so excited!

Here's a cute picture of the girls together - or should I say my witch and my tiger kitty?

Cami wore Alaina's tiger kitty costume - and dang it, she looked just as cute as Alaina did!! We got LOTS of compliments, just like we did when Alaina wore it. I wish you could see her tail - it's so cute! I'll have to make sure to get one showing her tail on Halloween night.And little Miss Witchy Witch - she LOVED spraying her hair with streaks of hot pink to match her costume. She is really looking forward to Halloween this year!I'm really looking forward to Halloween - we're going trick or treating with a bunch of neighbors. I'm excited to spend the evening walking our neighborhood with other parents and kiddos. I just love our community of friends - nope, family. They're our family. It's just so cool.

Pumpkins galore!

As most of you know, we historically have grown our own pumpkins - great, big, huge pumpkins! Well, this year, the weather messed with our poor pumpkins a bit too much and they weren't so great or huge. We kept them of course, but felt we needed a nice, good pumpkin to carve as well.

So we headed to the pumpkin patch! It was our first time and the girls enjoyed it so much - as did we! :)

The first think Alaina did was run up this HUGE pile of hay - she sank pretty quickly!

We then took a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin. Cami didn't like the hayride too much!

Wow! So many to chose from!!!

Um, a little help here please!

Finally, we agreed on one...I think we may have started a tradition of growing our own AND heading to the pumpkin patch. :)

sixteen months ago

cami was born. wow. 16 mos. already. it's so crazy how quickly time goes. and even more so with the second child!

see the difference?

i'm truly and completely taken with her. she is the sweetest little thing. the way she smiles at me all the time. the way she looks at me from across the room and just stays put and says "mama, mama, mama" like she's saying "i love you." she's a great balance to the attitude of a growing 5-year old.

god is good. he knew i would want cami once i had her. he knew he had to make her extra special. extra sweet. extra loving. extra snuggly.

extra cami.

i pray for her heart. that when she's 16 years old, rather than 16 months old, that her heart is as loving, sweet and snuggly as it is now. that it is as much in love with god then, as she is with me now.

cami. alaina. my girls. then. and now.

Yea!!!

I found it! It finally came to me late last night. I realized the last pictures we took were of a recent family jaunt to Holiday Park. Then it dawned on me! It had to be in the picnic backpack!

And it was. Whew.

Here are a couple pictures from that trip....

So thankful!!!!

Lost

I have searched and searched. No camera. I can't for the life of me remember where it is, when the last picture I took was (to remind me where the camera was) or where it could possibly be.

Maybe Cami took it.

Pray I will find it.

I'm totally annoyed. I pretty much could lose my head right now if it weren't attached. I wonder what else I've lost...

friendship

it's such a special thing.

yesterday, my friend sarah and i had the same last-minute idea while separately leaving to pick up the kids from school - take the kids to either the park or the zoo after school together. toby and alaina decided on the zoo.

i, of course, left the camera in the car. i'll describe a picture i would have taken:

sarah and i pushing joshua and cami in strollers, look back for toby and alaina. i see them walking, hand in hand, faces lit in pure delight - not because they were at the zoo, but because they were together. we could have been ANYWHERE. delight, simply because they were together.

they have this unique, amazing friendship. it's constant. they run to each other EVERY day like they haven't seen each other for weeks and engulf the other in a huge hug. they just truly enjoy each other.

it's crazy, because when we were both "expecting" these two, we always said: if they're the same sex, they'll have to be the best of friends and if they're not, they'll get married.

i pray for their friendship. that it endures all the crap that's ahead of them. i anticipate it being hard to maintain a friendship like theirs during the age when boys and girls aren't supposed to like each other.

maybe someday i'll turn around to look at the two of them and they'll be walking down the aisle. oh, to have in-laws like the castors... :)