Sunday, October 30, 2011

Pumpkin Carving

I've been realizing all weekend long just how much more of a "big kid" Raegan is compared to last year. She was actually able to do some of the activities at Fall Fest yesterday. She totally knows what candy is and is all over it. She can participate in pumpkin carving. Man, I cannot WAIT until Christmas! :)

All that being said, Raegan just was not feelin' the pumpkin carving this year. She wasn't feeling very good today, so that may have been some of it. Although she does have her moments of being a prissy girl, so that might have been it too.

There was no way she was going to touch anything that came out of the pumpkin!


I'll look, but that's about it!


Putting Daddy in his place with a look!


Ooooooh!


I don't remember what I said here to get such a big smile out of her


Finished product


Kind of blurry, but you get the full effect. In case you were wondering, it's the symbol from the Halo video games. It's going to be so weird when Zane's out of the house and we have to do non-superhero/video game/boyboyboy pumpkins! :)

Fall Fest

Raegan and I went over to Fall Fest at our local college on Saturday. We always get there a little early while the costume contest is going on, so that we can enjoy the activities before the millions of children descend upon the gym. Every game station gives you candy and Raegan kept asking and asking and asking to have some. When I finally gave her some Smarties towards the end, you would have thought I offered her the world the way she just lit up. Trick or treating should be interesting this year, because last year she really had no idea what candy was.

Coloring a pumpkin


Playing basketball


The Beanbag Toss is really so much easier if you just walk right up to it. #truefax



I tried to get a pretty fall picture of Raegan when we left, because the campus at KWU is just beautiful. I got some pretty silly faces before I got one that I liked. Well, I like them all actually!




Saturday, October 29, 2011

New Slide!

One of my coworkers told me that she was getting rid of this plastic slide set that she had. I jumped on it right away, because Raegan loooooves slides, but we just don't have enough room in our backyard for a big playplace. She will probably be too big for it by the end of next summer, but for $10 it was well worth it to me. She kept saying, "I like it!" and she was so excited when she first saw it.





Friday, October 21, 2011

ABCs

Here you go, Mom! :)

Pumpkin Patch

Today Raegan and I went to the pumpkin patch with my mom. Raegan was excited to spend time with Granny since we haven't had a chance to see her for awhile. It was a perfect day for the pumpkin patch - no wind and about 70 degrees out. We had a blast, but my girlie sure was wiped out tonight. :)

Raegan liked looking at the sheep and the calf, but didn't want anything to do with petting them. She probably remembers the psycho sheep from the zoo!





Raegan LOVED the big slides. She kept zooming up the ladder and she wasn't the least bit scared. I'm glad she doesn't have her mama's fear of heights.


Even wiping out didn't upset her!


Wheeeeee!



Playing on the playground equiptment




Corn maze


Wait up Granny!




Raegan loved having Granny push her around on the pedal carts!



Me and my best girl!



I put up the picture above from last year to compare to the picture below from this year.It's crazy how much Raegan has grown and changed in just a year!!!!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Chocolate Chip Graham Cracker Blondies



This is a pretty simple recipe that is absolutely amazing! I've made them twice in the last three weeks, and I will tell you from experience that they turn out much, much, MUCH better if you undercook them by a few minutes so they are still a bit gooey. Mmmmm.... Just thinking of the gooey-ness of my second batch makes me want to go whip some up right now. :)

Ingredients:
-2 sticks (16 Tbsp.) butter, melted
-2 cups brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-2 tsp. vanilla
-pinch salt
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1 cup chocolate chips (I use semi-sweet, but that's just me. To me there is no other kind of chocolate chip than semi-sweet!)
-approx. 2/3 to 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (I crushed my own by putting graham crackers in a sealed baggie and going over it with a rolling pin.)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and butter a 13 x 9 pan. Mix the melted butter with brown sugar, and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs and then vanilla. Add the salt, and stir in the flour and baking powder. Mix in your chocolate chips and graham cracker crumbs. Pour into your prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes, or until the middle is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting.


Sunday, October 16, 2011

Counting!

Raegan is counting all the way to 13 now, and has been for about two weeks. We're really working on the 14, because she consistently says 18 every single time after she gets to 13. For some reason when I took this video she kept talking about Grandma, so you'll hear her say that at the beginning and then again at the end. :) I also should point out that it's just audio. Raegan kept acting super silly every time I pointed the camera at her, so I just recorded this on the sly, with the camera pointed down at my leg.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Diaper Changing

Raegan randomly started doing this yesterday evening. Now I really want to get her a baby that comes with diapers! :)

Love!

Here's a few pictures that Luke took the other day. I couldn't decide which one to post, because I love them all. So here you are!



Saturday, October 8, 2011

Hyllningsfest

I decided to take Raegan to Hyllningsfest instead of Pumpkin-PaZooLa this morning. I figured Hyllningsfest is only once every two years, and we have been to various zoos so many times already this year. And either way, we would have been rained on. :) We pretty much only stayed for the parade. I had wanted to stick around after the parade to see our nieces dance, but it was starting to pour, and it was getting close to lunch time and the lines for food vendors was long, so that was that. Raegan did enjoy the parade though!

She had a death grip on her box of Nerds!


Look at my candy, Mama!


I KNOW I can get this open somehow....

Happy Mommy and Raegan before we got rained on


The three girls more to the front our our nieces.

Wichita Zoo Videos

Here are those videos I promised from our visit to the Wichita Zoo last weekend. The first two are of the baby chimp and the last two are of the elephant training.













Friday, October 7, 2011

Wichita Zoo

Last Saturday we took the kids to the Wichita Zoo. It's probably my favorite zoo in Kansas (and really, probably the only zoo I like more than Wichita's is Omaha's!) We got half priced admission thanks to our membership to Rolling Hills here in town, so that was pretty nice. It was beautiful weather for the zoo, and Raegan held up pretty well, even though she didn't get down for nap until we got home a little before 3:00.




They had fun entertaining themselves on the car ride down.


Baby chimp!



Luke and I both swear that this bird talked to us. And mooed. It was pretty awesome!


Giraffe looking for a handout


Strange child....




My best attempts at getting a picture of the kids together.


Yuckyuckyuckyuckyuck! Giant spider in the Asia exhibit. Ugh.

I have some really cool videos that I'm going to post once they all load. The baby chimp was being absolutely adorable, and I got some good footage of the keepers training a couple elephants. :)