Family Photos 2009

We went to the portrait studio last weekend to get some updated family photos. It was a bit harder this year with Vince being mobile! Last year we'd put him down and he'd stay there, this year we'd put him down and he'd run all over the place pulling things down, or taking off his shoes! I feel for the poor photographer, he certainly had his work cut out for him, although he sure was flattering. He kept going on and on about how cute Vince was and how easy it was to make him smile. He repeatedly commented "oh my god this kid is adorable!"... it was great.

Amazingly enough, he was able to get a few cute shots of us and Vince......

Autumn Leaves

One thing about having a yard.... there's lots of raking to do in the fall! Being from California, I never really experienced the impressive amounts of fall leaves that cover the grounds about this time of year, making a virtual blanket of brown that needs to be cleaned up. Well...., there's that and also the gardner we had... who pretty much took care of our yard while I was growing up. I can't say I ever did very much in our yard growing up except pick oranges off the tree.

So fast forward to now, where I suddenly have this ginormous area of land that I have to figure out how to take care of. Thank God Mike did all of that growing up.... I'm learning though and it's really fun.

The day after Halloween was dedicated to getting the green grass to reappear in our backyard. I've never racked so much in all my life! As you can see, Vince had so much fun getting in the piles of leaves... he also helped scoop the leaves into the garbage bags, what a great helper!!




Can you guess who this might be in the photo below?! Taken around 1975 when he was about 2 years old.... hmm, I wonder where Vince got his idea for jumping in the leaves! They even have their mouths open in similar gasps in these two pictures!

Our Halloween Pumpkin

Yesterday was our big day to get Vince out there and have him round up some candy for his Mom and Dad. This year was *a lot* harder than last year.... as last year he was immobile, asleep most of the time, and we just wheeled him from house to house while he remained largely indifferent to the whole affair. This year he clearly had his own agenda, wanted to walk on his own, and half the time didn't want to walk in the direction we were going. He'd forget about his trick or treat bag and just leave it behind, or he'd dump out all his candy on someone's front porch to just play with it and then leave it there. He'll figure it out eventually. It didn't take long to teach him to grab the candy and pile it in his bag!

Adam (the little dinosaur) and Vince getting some goods

This being the first Halloween in our new neighborhood, I went around a few days before and asked some of the neighbors how many numbers of kids usually come around. I was told to expect a lot! Well Mike went to Costco to get the candy, and he came back with 16.5 lbs!! We pretty much used all the candy, we estimate that we had about 50-60 kids last night, showing up in huge roving packs all at once and taking each house by storm. We had some mulled wine brewing in the front entry way to offer to the parents that came with the trick or treaters... a big hit with us and most of the parents!

Here's Vince sporting a big grin while he's buried in 16 lbs of chocolate

Vince has taken to offering kisses quite a bit. He'll come at you with his mouth wide open and just smack you with a wet one, never closing his mouth. Not sure where he learned it, but here he his offering a big wet one to his pumpkin


Vince's outfit came with a little hat to complete the pumpkin look, but we couldn't get him to keep it on for much longer than about 2 seconds.

Here he is headed out for his first trick or treat!

Our neighbor Mary just loves Vince and always watches over him like a little mother. She was making sure he was paying attention to the carved pumpkins in our driveway. After all, we did slave over creating them in the kitchen

Another shot of Vince and Mary

Grab the goods and head to the next house!

Vince's friend Adam had apparently been getting some training ahead of time from his parents Chris And Kathryn on how to scoop up candy and put it in the bag. Well, he's a quick learner because when we would show up at a candy bucket, Adam would start scooping away, loading up his bag like a coal miner collecting fuel!! Vince took the slower route: choosing one candy at a time, examining it, and then putting it in his bag. Sometimes he'd go into his bag and pull out some candy and put it in people's candy bowls! He'd be putting the candy back! I clearly need to do some more training with him in prep for next year.


Here's Adam preparing for another session of scooping all the candy he can into his own bag. Vince is just confused and in the midst of losing his hat again.


It was a great first Halloween in our neighborhood, and we're looking forward to many more.