Halloween.

Happy Autumn! We have been thoroughly enjoying all the fall activities and loving the chilly weather when we get it.

As stated in my last post though, I'm gearing up for a blast of Christmas come November 1. I've been working on Christmas planning all month in an effort to get ahead before I have to go back to work. (I anticipate I will have no bandwidth to focus on anything else besides work and baby soon.) We already have most of our Christmas present wrapped and the decorations are sitting on standby in our garage. I can't wait!

October is a month full of family celebrations.

Early October was our second wedding anniversary. We had a low-key celebration at home and decided to exchange gifts in December (when we had our California ceremony) to give us more time to arrange gifts. I like to follow the traditional anniversary gifts so this year we'll be exchanging something related to cotton.

Next, my mom celebrated her birthday. Since we aren't able to be together, we had a family FaceTime call and I arranged some flowers to be delivered to her.

Then, it was time for Zach's birthday. Again we had a small celebration and just ordered some dinner to share at home. We had a lot of visitors that day to wish Zach a happy birthday. He's not big on gifts, so we didn't get him much but I think he was happy with the day, especially because we got to share it with Liam this year.

Our friends Brandon and Tony came to visit us again! I'm so thankful to have friends willing to make the trip out here to see us and friends that don't mind hanging out at our house.

Liam and I have started going to the local library on Tuesdays. They host a story time for babies and he loves observing the other kids.

Lexi was awarded "Viking of the Week" so Liam and I went to congratulate her. That weekend we also carved jack o'lanterns!

We wrapped up the month celebrating another birthday for our friend Ivy who turned five. I remember attending her first birthday. So crazy to think how much time has already passed.

And finally, Halloween!

Sometimes Liam looks like the baby Grinch, so we thought at the last minute we could change his Halloween costume. I couldn't find anything I liked enough though but maybe we will attempt next year. I am still happy with the costumes we chose and that we were able to be in the Christmas spirit on Halloween!

We are ready for the holidays! I'm so happy to share this year with my growing family. This is all I have wanted and looked forward to for the past few years.

Until next time.... Happy November!