A Look Back at the Pumpkin Patch

This is Carter's 3rd year celebrating Halloween and going to the pumpkin patch. I love looking back to see what Carter looked like at the same time last year, and the holidays make it pretty easy to do so.

Here is a look back at my little babe at the pumpkin patch:

October 2009

I remember the lady who worked at the patch told us she thought Carter was the youngest little one she's ever had there. He was teeny!

October 2010

This is one of my favorite pictures of C, ever!

And October 2011!

We technically haven't done our official pumpkin patch visit this year, but we did go to the farm the other day and they had their pumpkins out so I had to get some pictures.

H A L L O W E E N

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a wonderful 1st Halloween for Carter. Ok, well not exactly his first. Last year he was 1 month old and we went to a Halloween party at my parents house. This was his FIRST Halloween Trick Or Treating and really getting into Halloween spirit. It was a nice relaxing day after the craziness of last week. I made some pumpkin rolls (not sure if I would make them again, they were ok, not amazing). I squeezed in a cardio class, then went to my parent's house where I cooked my Roast Chicken, helped with the mashed potatoes, my dad made Chateubriand with bernaise sauce and my mom cooked roasted brussel sprouts and carrots. I topped my whole plate off with some delish gravy I made, and my oh my. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. It's one of my favorite meals.

Then we headed to Amy's house for some trick, treating and treats. She had such a cute Halloween display out. I think Carter thought Trick or Treating was...interesting. I know he was having fun, but more like what the hell are we doing Mom? And why are these strangers giving me candy. I hope he doesn't think he can get candy from strangers ALL the time. Oh geez. He was in a slightly bratty mood because he didn't get his full late afternoon nap, so he was a mix of tired and on a sugar high.

He got very protective of his candy and his candy bucket and refused to let me hold it. He threw a tantrum or two when I tried to carry it for him as it got heavy. Man, trick or treating was a work-out in itself. We practically had to carry him to each door, and if we did set him down it was chase chase chase. But he seemed to get a kick out of it and we did too. We made sure he picked out all the good candy for mommy & daddy. We did let him have a few pieces.

He actually got into his candy after work today and I thought he'd be fine but I think the sugar is just starting to kick in. When my parents used to tell me I'd be bouncing off the walls if I ate sugar, I never really fully believed them. Now I do. I just returned from my Pilates Cardio Class (I know, two days in a row, right? Yay me!) And Carter is literally BOUNCING around. As I type this he is humming and JUMPING all over me and is laughing at practically nothing. Right now its really cute and amusing, but in another 10 minutes it ain't gonna be so cute anymore.

Work is getting better, I'm still not caught up, but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just need to get plugging away and knocking things off my list one by one.

Tomorrow I NEED to get my list done. NEED TO. I need some wonder woman power or something. I hope I can get to work ON TIME, and manage to get some voting in.

Tomorrow is Election DAY! Go Meg Whitman!!

Ok, here are some lovely pictures of Carter's Halloween Adventures:

Daddy and Carter. I think Daddy is a Beatle?

Or Daddy wearing a wig. Cute.

Carter grabbing some candy at his very first house of the night!
My lovely little fam. I was a bumble bee. buzzzzzzzzz.
Carter and one of his favorite people, GrandPAPA!
My little Yoda and I.

Amy's Halloween table!!

So cute and the caramel apples were amazing!!!!

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!

Xoxo, Michelle

TLPA 2010

FINALLY! I am done with our TLPA Convention 2010. It was 3 months of preparation for me, and two plus days of 6am-11pm of work, but we are done and it was a success. Our "fake" Paris was a hit too. I am really looking forward to starting the new week fresh and focus on getting caught up at work.

Happy Halloween!! If I have time, I will try and do a Halloween post after the festivities, maybe tomorrow though. I'm going to squeeze in a workout, bake some pumpkin rolls, dinner with the family, and then off to Amy & Mike's for some trick or treating and Halloween fun. Looking forward to a fun Holiday!

Here are some pictures from TLPA 2010:

My Hubby and I at Cocktail Hour

Hubby, first time TLPA'er

Laura and "PARIS"

"PARIS" and I..

Our booth

Have a spooktakular day!

And the winner is ... YODA

Should I not post pictures of his costume before Halloween?? Is there an etiquette for that? Oh well.

So today we were finally able to go to the Halloween store and check-out costumes for Carter. I had been looking at costumes online for a while, and I saw this Yoda costume and thought Carter would make a cute Yoda. My husband is a huge Star Wars fan so I knew Star Wars was going to play a big role in our son's life.


I wanted Carter to be a Bumble Bee (too girly according to some), or a cute little Tiger (or maybe it was because the baby modeling the tiger costume was freakin adorable) or a little monster, or dinosaur. But I kept coming back to the Yoda costume. It was sentimental in the sense that I knew it would make my husband really happy, and would mean something to him. And then everything else seemed meaningless.


So I held up the tiger costume next to the Yoda costume and asked Carter to choose. He instantly grabbed the Yoda costume and lugged it around the entire Halloween store for people to gush over and tell him what a cute Yoda he would be. Settled. While I was at the Halloween store he seemed especially concerned with the masks. I think he might think they were real heads. He seemed perplexed by them and kind of freaked out.


Today was a better day for me at the office. I'm catching up a bit more and didn't feel like I had the weight of the world on my chest when I left. It was also payday and that always makes me happy. We had a nice little dinner at Chili's just the three of us. They have the best chips and salsa there, sooo yummy! I let Carter chew on some of the tortilla chips, and after carefully watching Mommy dip hers in the salsa, he reached over and plopped one in the salsa and put it in his mouth. The salsa is kinda spicey and I watched him waiting for some sort of reaction. He loved it! He grabbed the next one and carefully dipped it in the salsa, and then the spice finally hit him and he started sticking his tongue out and spitting. I wish I had a video of it. After a sip of his milk, he went back for more and more! Our little one is going to love spicey foods!


It's so much fun watching your child develop their own likes and dislikes. Yes it has a lot to do with what you put in front of them, or what you do yourself, but when they decide they like something on their own, or dislike something that you think they should like - that is when it get's truly amazing.


We did a little trial run with Carter in his costume tonight. We dressed him and gave him his little pumpkin lantern we got at the dollar store and went outside and walked around for a bit. He loved it! He carefully toted his lantern around, stopping to take a break here and there and setting it down always remembering to pick it up before he started walking again. I snapped some pictures with my other baby, the Canon Rebel. See some of my favorites below.


The husband is bugging me to go upstairs to bed now. I think my nightly blogging is annoying him because I always start so late.


G'Night.

Halloweenie things

Ok, I get it. I'm a horrible blogger. It isn't meant to be. So I'm taking the pressure off myself. I DON'T need to do this all the time; I'm gonna allow myself to blog wheneverthehelliwant. Now I don't have to feel guilty about not doing it, or guilty if it has been months in between.

I've been feeling alone lately. I don't know why. I have a wonderful husband, an amazing little man who turned 1 by the way, and some pretty great family and friends. But I'm feeling a little lonely. I realize most of my friends don't have children and I'm starting to really noticed how

alienated I am. I'm never invited anywhere anymore and I don't know how to feel about it. I know I couldn't or wouldn't go in most cases, but I want to feel wanted and to feel invited places.

I'm 27 and I know I shouldn't take these things personally, but I am and I do. I'm noticing how I've been the "initiator" in most of my friendships with people, and when I stop initiating, those relationship's slowly disintegrate. I don't have the time to make plans with people anymore. I can't go have drinks last minute, or do a weekend girls get-away. I have a

little man who I love more than anything on the face of the planet, and I can't wait for my friends to have children so we can get together and do play-dates, but for now I'm just feeling a bit left out, but I'm making peace with it. It's a part of life. I have a really good group of close girlfriends who will always be in my life no matter what, but its hard being the only one with kids. I just can't do the same things as them anymore and sometimes I feel like I'm missing out. Obviously, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

On another note, I can't stop thinking about how badly I want to have another child. We really want to wait to start trying until next April or May, but I don't know if I can wait. I miss the whole process of having a child. The excitement, the pregnancy, and all the baby-mania that comes along with it. And I miss having a teensy tiny little newborn that I can hold and rock and love. But it's a lot of work, and having two little ones is going to mucho difficult and mucho expensive. I am determined to have 2 close in age, so what is the difference of doing it now versus later?? I've already been obsessing with everything TTC so I don't know how long I'll last. For now, I'm enjoying watching Carter progress everyday.

We took Carter to a Pumpkin Festival yesterday and it was so amazing to see him take it all in. He was sleeping when we arrived and once he awoke, he was so excited and enthralled with all the people, decorations, and music. He kept pointing and saying "Woooowww." I love seeing him so excited and I am looking forward to all the neat things we can do with him. We had a wonderful day together with my mom and took lots of pictures:

It was a perfect fall day, or as fall as you can get in Southern California. Still trying to decide what to dress him as for Halloween. We'll probably go shopping next weekend and pick something out.

Work has been all-consuming for me lately, and

my mind is rarely not on my job and what I have to do there. I'm only one person and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with what I have to do. But I've just got to keep on swimming, keeping on swimming.

Hopefully I'll be able to post about Carter's First Birthday soon and get some pictures up.

Got another busy week beginning tomorrow. G'night all!

Me