Two Halloween Nights!!!

At our house on Halloween, we had a too-precious-for-words baby lamb:

A sweet Little Bo Peep:

And Little Red Riding Hood!
I love this picture of me with Little Bo Peep and her sheep!

But I'm getting way ahead of myself!
After decorating the house (with lots of help from little critters who kept wanting to get inside the boxes and eat all the decorations). . .

Do you see why we call them the Halloween kitties?

Kirsten took her cues from the cats, and got inside all the boxes too. . .

After carving up some pumpkins with friends. . .

And playing around in the costume box with Grandma. . .

The night before Halloween was finally here!!!

This was the busiest Halloween I can remember, and it seems like it was that way for everyone else too. I guess because Halloween was on a Saturday??? It really felt like we had TWO Halloweens, one the night before and one on the actual Halloween night. We all wore our costumes both nights, and had a ton of fun both nights too! After all, the only thing better than one Halloween is two Halloweens!!!

There's a few things you should know before reading this post:
1. Yes, I know there are a ton of pictures. Believe it or not, I chose my favorites!
2. I take about a million pictures at a time, because that's the only way I get any good ones.
3. Yes, it does take me forever to go through them all, edit the ones I like best in Picasa, and get them all on the blog.
4. Maybe it's just because they're my kids and of course I think they're cute, but I think I got a LOT of really great pictures! Which explains why there are so many.

Now you can continue. . .
I couldn't resist ordering this adorable Little Bo Peep costume for Kirsten! And it really did look like it was made just for her. She loved wearing such a pretty dress, and even kept her hat on the entire time both nights!

And of course Little Bo Peep needs a sheep! Finding a lamb costume for Natalie turned out to be a nightmare. I had to order it from a separate website, and the company sent me the wrong size TWICE. Yep. . . twice. You can imagine my frustration. I ended up stuffing her into the 0-6 month size, and it was pretty snug but it ended up working out okay. She did look cute!

I just LOVE these pictures of me with my little lamb!

Every year for Halloween, Microsoft does a massive Halloween party in the offices, with trick-or-treating and buildings that are completely decked out for Halloween. It's a ton of fun! This year they had it the day before Halloween, so we got a group of friends to caravan down with us, strapped all the costumed children into the car, and we were off!

There were a TON of people there, but we managed to find some space to take some fun pictures. I know, Stephen's missing from these, but he wasn't wearing a costume that day anyway.

Our friends the Van Dykes came with us!

Doesn't Natalie in her lamb costume just melt your heart?

SO cute!!!

Kirsten didn't even take a nap that day, so I was really impressed at how good and happy she was. The Halloween excitement is pretty contagious!

Kirsten had such a blast all weekend, hanging out with her favorite people. Uncle Chance is definitely one of them. :)

And speaking of happy. . . Natalie just oozes happiness from every pore!

My friend Stacy had a pretty cool zebra costume!

The Microsoft buildings were seriously cool. They had two levels FULL of crazy decorated rooms for people to tour through. They had Candy Land. . .

Pirates of the Caribbean. . .

And Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory! Kirsten did really great in the whole maze of stuff and didn't get too scared of anything!

The Bad Egg Chute was pretty awesome.

Tired girls after all that walking around!

After we got home, we had our delicious, traditional Halloween dinner of Witches Brew and homemade cornbread. We look forward to that meal all year! And we watched our classic Disney Halloween movie, taped off the Disney channel in 1982. As old as me! But it never gets old. :) I can't imagine Halloween without our Witches Brew and cornbread!

Halloween night really WAS a dark and spooky night. It was raining pretty hard! We had our second Halloween dinner (same thing of course!) and then braved the rain to take Kirsten to the ward trunk-or-treat. The rain won't keep us down!!!
And you finally get to see Stephen's costume. Of course. . . the big bad wolf!!!

Kirsten had a total BALL getting candy dropped into her bucket from all the cars and people in costumes! She loved trick-or-treating!

She couldn't keep her hands off the suckers. She kept trying to eat them with the wrappers still on! I think we discovered her favorite candy.

My friend Rozemary was an awesome pirate! Stephen the wolf looks like he's going to attack us from behind. :)

Whew. . . all dry and warm at home!!! Natalie just stayed in her car seat during the trunk-or-treating, but she was happy to get out and stretch!

Natalie's face, after being in her too-small lamb costume for a few hours and carted around in the rain. . . gosh, I love Natalie!

Kirsten just wanted to dump out all of her candy, play with it, eat some of it, then put it back in the bucket and dump it out again!

Yep. . . candy makes me happy too.

Here it is, blog world. . . Kirsten's classic "Baby Natalie touched me!" face. The sibling rivalry starts early. Really early.

Finally. . . Little Bo Peep and her sheep smiling at the same time!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! I hope yours was as awesome and memorable as mine was! Can't wait for next year already!!!

Winners Galore!

Nothing like going to Random.org and letting that funny little thing choose numbers for me. . . I get all excited to see who my winners are! Now if only I could figure out how to number my comments so I don't have to go through all of them and count them manually. I went through a whole tutorial and thought I did everything right, but nothing changed! Grrr. . . anyway. . .

Winner of the Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters Prize Package is. . . #60!
FOKXXY said... I follow your blog.

Winner of the Fancy Frames Boutique Designer Clipboard is. . . #7!
karry said... I love the Tuscan Kitchen Wooden Recipe Holder

Winner of the Joolwe Necklace or Earrings is. . . #120!
Mrs. Sanchez said... I follow

Winner of the Binga Bows set of bows is. . . #7!
flowerchild said... entered the fall giveaway at binga bows blog

Winner of the White Lace Designs pacifier clips is. . . #28!
Eric & Sarita said... I added this shop as a favorite on etsy.

Winner of the Faithworks Boutique $15 gift certificate is. . . #12!
Greg, Sarah, and Macy Allred said... I follow you
(This winner is actually my old college roommate! And I think this was the first of my giveaways she ever entered. I love keeping in touch with friends through blogs!)

Adorable Etsy Shop. . . Love Mae Store Twitter Birds Giveaway!!!

I'm so stoked about this beautiful giveaway! I am having visions right now of my little girl's room all decked out in these sweet Twitter Birds adhesive fabric wall stickers from Love Mae Store. Aren't they just darling? And you can win a whole set, right here on my blog!

The designers who create these wonderful wall designs live in Australia, and all of their designs are hand-made there. The awesome thing about these wall decals is that they're made of FABRIC instead of vinyl, which makes them completely reusable! They can be scrunched into a ball and un-scrunched and re-applied to your walls, over and over. They can even be washed! Absolutely perfect for a kid's room!

If you have a boy's room you want these for, you can opt to receive your decals in masculine colors instead of the girly ones. SO artistic and beautiful either way!

Each sheet includes 1 owl, 6 different birds, 8 multi-colored leaves, and a piece of jute twine for the birds to sit on. I'm just DYING to have these!!!

Here's how to enter:
*Visit LoveMaeStore's shop and leave me a comment on this post, telling me your favorite thing that they design!

Get extra entries when you:
1. Follow my blog!
2. Tweet about this giveaway for the Twitter birds. :)
3. Mention this giveaway on Facebook and link up to me!
4. Blog about this giveaway and link to me.
5. Click on the Swagbucks banner on my sidebar (right underneath my followers) and start earning free swagbucks just for doing internet searches! You can exchange them for Amazon gift cards, restaurant gift certificates, and other really cool things. Leave me a comment and let me know you joined from my link!

*I don't know about you. . . but if I had a chance to win these I'd make sure to get every entry I could! Please leave me a separate comment for each entry, and make sure I have a way to contact you. This giveaway will close on November 17'th. Good luck!!! This giveaway is open worldwide too!

Bebe Dulce Aspen Review and Giveaway!

Bebe Dulce Aspen is such a precious place to find handmade baby items. These would make adorable Christmas gifts! I received the cutest little appliqued onesie and flower beanie to review for Natalie. The beanie is too sweet for words and it matches EVERYTHING, which I love! And the quality of the onesie is very high. After washing, it didn't shrink or fade at all! The applique design I received is a cute little camel. I'm just bummed that Natalie is already outgrowing the onesie AND the hat. She is growing like a little weed!

I can't get enough of Natalie in beanies, especially when they have flowers on them! This one has a beautiful white gardenia attached to it, and I love the white button center on the flower. I really wish I could find such cute hats for adults!

The only drawback to this beanie is the flower is sewn on, so it's can't be taken off and interchanged with other clips. Hopefully Bebe Dulce will add this option in the future!

Check out all their cute appliqued onesie designs! You can choose your fabric too, and they'll create a customized look that you put together.

I'm kinda REALLY wanting these cute little shoes that match the onesies. A really adorable baby gift would be one of these gift sets of the onesie and the little shoes. That's enough to give you baby fever, right there!

Claire, who created the Bebe Dulce Aspen company, has been sewing and creating her own designs since she was 7 years old! Her line also includes binky clips, blankets, burp cloths, tutus, and an all-natural body care line for moms. It's very cool how you can bring a little bit of Aspen into your own homes and into your baby's nursery!

Bebe Dulce is offering a giveaway of a beanie like the one I received for Natalie! This beanie comes in the 0-6 month size, perfect for keeping a newborn warm this winter, and you can choose a flower beanie or one with embroidery! You can get the white gardenia like Natalie has, a bright yellow flower, dark pink peony, or this stunning purple flower. They are all gorgeous!

You can totally enter this giveaway for a boy baby too! Bebe Dulce offers many embroidery options for their beanies, including boy designs like turtles, geckos, or sailboats. If you win, you can choose one of these!

Here's how to enter:
*Visit Bebe Dulce Aspen and leave me a comment on this post, telling me which item you love the most from the shop!

Get extra entries when you:
1. Follow my blog!
2. Mention this giveaway on Facebook, and link to me.
3. Tweet about this giveaway.
4. Blog about this giveaway, and link to me.
5. Go here to follow Bebe Dulce on Twitter!
6. Become a Bebe Dulce Facebook fan here.
7. Click on my Swagbucks link on my sidebar and join Swagbucks! It's totally free and you get Swagbucks daily just for doing internet searches. Leave me a comment letting me know you used my link to join!

*Please leave me a separate comment for each entry and make sure I have a way to contact you! This giveaway will close on November 17'th. Good luck winning a cute little beanie!

Deal Alert: Bebe Dulce Aspen is offering 10% off any order with the coupon code 'veater10.'

Cheeky Umbrellas Review!

To laugh in the face of rain is something all Seattleites strive to do. At least we all should, if we want to keep the smiles on our faces all winter. :) I personally LOVE the rain and find it very easy to smile and laugh on rainy days! But I've always been strange like that. "Laugh in the face of rain" is also the slogan of the Cheeky Umbrella company, and I adore it! I love to promote any company that encourages a positive attitude about rain.

The gorgeous umbrella I received from Cheeky Umbrellas most definitely brightened up my day. I've certainly never been so excited about an umbrella before! But that's because this is simply the most adorable, clever, and beautiful umbrella I've ever seen and I was so thrilled that it's mine!
It usually only drizzles and mists in Seattle, and really doesn't rain hard enough that we need an umbrella at all. I thought I'd be starting an umbrella collection when we moved up here, and I was very surprised to discover that we hardly ever need one! But after receiving this bright ray of sunshine, I was praying for hard enough rain and a place to go so I could show off my stylish new umbrella.

Think an umbrella can't be cheeky and clever? Think again! The underside of each of their umbrellas has a sassy statement scrolled around the edge in adorable font! Some of the cute sayings are:
"I sizzle in the drizzle"
"I'm not late, I'm rain-delayed"
"This is shopping weather"

And the saying on my Raining Men umbrella?

So if the fun design on the outside of the umbrella isn't enough to keep you smiling, the slogan on the inside just seals the deal! SUCH a cute idea, I'm majorly in love with it!

Some other things I totally dig about these umbrellas:

*They are SO durable and strong! These umbrellas will never blow inside out (like many of my flimsy little fold-up ones have), and they will hold up against the most serious of storms. They're made with an aluminum shaft and fiberglass ribs, and even though they're strong they are also lightweight to carry around!

*You will never have to worry about the quality of these umbrellas, because they actually offer a Lifetime Guarantee on all of their products!

*Not a detail is left out in the stylish factor of these umbrellas! I am loving the black hook handle and silver pushbutton.

*The pongee fabric on the umbrella is quick-drying, durable, and fade resistant. And, of course, deliciously cute! Check out all their fun designs here.

These would make such wonderful and unique Christmas gifts! Any girl who loves to show off her personality and style while still being protected would appreciate such a beautiful gift. Let's all band together to make complaining about the rain a thing of the past! :)

Deal Alert: Cheeky Umbrellas is offering 10% off all orders to my readers with the coupon code 'VEATER', until November 30'th!