Beautiful Christmas

Here is Arya in her Christmas dress next to one of our Christmas trees.

 Christmas excitement!

 This one reminds me of The King and I when Anna has to stay lower than the king.

Oh yeah!

Look at what Arya wrote on the chalkboard last night:

She's not even 3 yet!!

Autumn Leaves

At our house there is a gorgeous maple tree. Right now the leaves are a beautiful mix of orange and yellow.

I started raking them up last weekend and on Monday Arya got to play in them.

On a side note: our neighbor was nice enough to save me all the raking by using his leaf blower to get them into one pile this week. While bagging them up my wedding ring fell off! We had to borrow a metal detector from Grandpa Mike to find it!

Pumpkin

This year we decided to do a pumpkin a little different. Instead of carving, we got push-ins. And of course, like her costume- her pumpkin was Minnie Mouse.

 

 Posing

This is how it looks when Arya is told to smile for a picture.

Bonus: The best part of Halloween- The Candy!

Halloween

This was Arya's 3rd Halloween and the first time she got a say in what she was going to dress up as. She chose Minnie Mouse. This was also her first time to go Trick-or-Treating.
Last year we hosted a Halloween party and after the great one this year have decided to make it an annual event.
Before we went trick-or-treating we were finishing up getting ready for the party. Every time rang the bell, Arya would run to the door. She'd say "More friends!" Open the door and say "Hi guys!" When they held out their bags and said "Trick-or-Treat" Arya said it back to them. As they left she'd go "Bye guys!" It was adorable.
Daddy and Mommy dressed up as Westley/The Dread Pirate Roberts and Buttercup from The Princess Bride. We said that Arya was an ROUS (Rodent of Unusual Size) from the movie because Minnie Mouse is a rodent and not a the size of a usual one.
Arya will not being wearing her Minnie ears in any of these pictures. She refused to keep them on.

Obviously, Arya was thirsty more than into taking her picture with Mommy.

Party Set Up:

(we don't have picture of even half of the decorations)

Party time:

Dorothy (Jenny) and the Scarecrow (Schylar) skipping down the Yellow Brick Road. Schylar won best costume. 

 Arya getting a check up from Nurse Clenisha.

 Eric, Ethan, Kara, and Twan had a whole story line they acted out in pictures.

 Gambit (Johnnie) and a Cowboy (Twan). They are brothers. And I don't know what Twan as against Elvis.

 Elvis getting some love from Sailor Jupiter (Jess) and Dorothy (Jenny).

This Little Light of Mine

Game

In my family we love to play board and card games. Back in December, I bought Chutes and Ladders but never opened it. Yesterday, Arya found it in the closet. We opened it and found that all the pieces were not in the box, so we improvised by using dice instead of the spinner.
Arya decided to make her own game! You place the little movers on their matching picture on the spinner board. You then try to knock them down one at a time by throwing the dice at them. We have played this little game numerous times in the last two days. Today while playing Arya started doing a little sitting victory dance. I shot a video so I could share it with you all.

Rainy Day

This morning Arya asked to go outside. I told her we couldn't because it was raining. She ran off and then re-appeared saying "FIND!" carrying our umbrella. I conceded and said we could go out if she put on her shoes but we wouldn't be able to swing since it was wet.

 An umbrella with legs!

As you can see, Arya wanted to hold the umbrella. We ended up going for a walk around the block- jumping in puddles as we went. I held the umbrella, Arya ran ahead of me and got wet...

Tricycle

This weekend we were given a tricycle from my fabulous friend Michelle. On Sunday we went and bought Arya a helmet and other gear so she was ready to ride. The trike is Disney Princess as are her gloves and knee pads but she chose to go with a Minnie Mouse helmet (even though they did have Disney Princess helmets).

                                      

 

Arya's Animals

A trip by herself...Part 2

 Buying bananas for Gramma's banana bread!

 Visiting a neighbor

 Aunt Shannon and Uncle Terry came to play!

She can always find the toy closet at Great-Grandma Joan's house.