Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!  We hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!  We had lots of fun trick-or-treating!  Leah dressed up as the most adorable 50's girl with a poodle skirt, bobby socks, horn-rimmed glasses and even saddle oxford shoes (which took the help of three people to find)!  She LOVED her costume and even kept her glasses on for most of the evening.  She loved looking for the "puppy" on her shirt and skirt!  James Dean himself showed up to be her date for the night!  What a lucky little girl!  Sandy from "Grease" was going to make an appearance; however, her skirt is from the eighth grade and we all know she's not the same size now as she was in the eighth grade!  I did cram my feet in the two-sizes-too-small (from the eighth grade again) saddle oxford shoes so that I could play along a bit!  Leah loved all of the treats she got!  A special thank you to Nana, Papaw, Aunt Kelley, Mimi, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Rachael, Uncle Tom, Brandon, Micayla, Christelle, Paula, Mark and Nora for sending Halloween love to our little sock hop girl!  The only bummer of the entire evening.....we have a basket FULL of candy left because we weren't home to pass any out!  I only need to lose seven pounds to be back to my pre-baby weight!  I have a feeling this might interfere with that!

Leah and James Dean (slicked back hair, pack of smokes and all)

She loved her trick-or-treat bag from Mommy and Daddy!

Pretty girl!

This picture is priceless!  Trick-or-treating!

Too cute!

If you can't say "trick or treat" wear it on your bum!

Dancing with Daddy aka James Dean!

Daddy and Leah at the end of the night.  Notice the smokes on the floor!

So sad that she had to come inside for the evening!

All ready for bed in her Halloween jammies!

First Art Project

Hanging up on the board in our kitchen is the most beautiful piece of artwork I have ever seen!  It was created by a brilliant almost fifteen-month-old (with a little help, of course)!  Leah brought home her first little art project from daycare!  She colored this pumpkin so good!  I was so excited to have something that my baby girl made!  I thought I was going to cry but I was strong and just gave her extra hugs and kisses!

P. S.  This inspired me to let her try out her new Crayola TaDoodles that Aunt Kristi sent her awhile back.  Ummmm, lets just say we're not quite ready for those just yet!  I know the box said 18 months plus but I thought I would try them anyways!  She knew how to "scribble" it across the paper but the whole activating the ink and getting the tip angled on the paper thing was a bit tricky!  I know we'll have lots of fun with them in a few more months!

Welcome Baby Emily

Our dear friends Jennifer and Shawn had their sweet baby girl, Emily Joy, yesterday!  She is absolutely beautiful!  I can't wait to meet her!  I was so sad to not be able to go and visit them right away!  This was such a realization to me of how far away we live from all of our friends and family!

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved three pumpkins for Halloween.....one for Mommy, one for Daddy and one for Leah!  Luke cut all of the tops off and we let Leah scoop out the seeds.  She had so much fun and did amazing!  She's getting to be such a big girl!  She sampled the seeds a couple of times but soon realized that they didn't taste very good so we didn't have any "taste test" problems after that!  She was very involved in the pumpkin gutting process until she discovered how to turn the sink faucet on and off!  That's when I decided it was time for bath where she got to play with her witch and pumpkin duckies!  When we carved pumpkins last year, she just sat in her bouncy seat and watched!  I think she enjoyed this year much more!

Mouse in the House

I think we have a mouse in our house and it must live in Leah's room!  The little critter seems to be having lots of fun gnawing away on her crib.  It has been gnawing on the top rail of her bed right where she pulls up and stands.  This little rodent has visited us several times now that we had to give it a name.....Leah!  Sweet baby girl has been having way too much fun in her room during naptime and bedtime.  We bought this furniture intending to use the crib for Leah and all following babies; however, I'm starting to wonder what condition it will be in for the next one!  This is a "built to grow convertible crib" so it looks like the future footboard already needs a bit of a touchup!  (This is only one of SEVERAL nibbles!)

On another note, Leah has been up to her monkey ways lately and has learned how to climb up to the TOP of the couch!  She will climb up to the top and fall off onto the cushions (purposely) over and over and over and over.  She giggles every single time!  I pray that we have no broken bones in our future!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Today, Leah's sweet little buddy, Noah, turned 1!  Unfortunately, I had to work so Daddy was Leah's date for the party!  Leah had so much fun and enjoyed the cake and ice cream, of course!

Leah and her date!

She loved the balloons!  She only popped three!

Helping Noah open his presents!

Checking out Noah's new car!

The only picture Daddy got of Leah and the birthday boy!

Harvest Party 2009

Tonight was the winery's annual harvest party, to celebrate the end of Bogle's successful grape harvest! This is a party that the Bogle family puts on every year for all of the employees and their families. We had lots of fun, stuffed our faces with tacos, drank beer and wine to our hearts content, visited with all of my co-workers and their families and "ju, ju, ju"ed in the bounce house! One of us had so much fun that we fell asleep on the way home! (I won't mention any names!)

"Ju, ju, ju" in the bounce house!

Leah had more fun carrying around this Corona box!

Part of the Bogle babies: Leah, Sarah, Nora, Jobe & Laney

On our way home!

Day with Daddy

I had to work today so Leah and Daddy got to spend the day together. This meant that Leah and I had to miss our "My Gym" class so Daddy had to come up with something fun to do! Because we had such a good time at the pumpkin patch the other day, Daddy decided to take Leah back, just the two of them. He'd been talking about doing this and today seemed like the perfect day! This time she got to pet a goat, bunnies and even got to go on a hayride. They had a wonderful day together! (Notice her "Daddy" shirt! He ALWAYS dresses her in something daddy-ish on their days together!)
Tonight after Leah fell asleep, I went in to turn her night light off and found her snuggled up with a bed full of clean clothes! She had pulled them all out of the laundry basket that, apparently, was a little too close to her bed waiting to be put away! Mommy mistake #4,267!

Daddy's Home!!!!!

The Hendricks girls are happy to report that the man in our life has returned home (and so has the one working computer)! Luke was away for work in North Carolina for the past seven days. While he was away, I realized how much I appreciate all that he does. He does so much with Leah that I've now realized, it's a two man job. I now have the most respect for single moms and for those who have to do it all with little hands-on help from Daddy! One of his jobs that I had to fill in for while he was gone was bath time. His word of advice before he left was that she loves bubbles in her bath. On our first night of bath time, I was sure to make lots and lots of bubbles! What Daddy didn't tell me was that she likes to EAT the bubbles, one handful at a time. Needless to say, we didn't make quite as many bubbles after that!

Attempting the Spoon

Leah has become very interested in the spoon during meal times (the messy ones that we don't let her use her fingers to eat because let's get real.....95% of macaroni and cheese or raviolis, for example, wind up in her hair, on the floor or in the deep dark crevices of the high chair). She likes to take the spoon from us while we're giving her a bite to try and feed herself. She's gotten pretty good at aiming for her target.....her mouth. Sometimes it goes in upside down or sideways and the food almost always falls off before reaching her mouth. Once the spoon is in place, she likes to bite down on it as hard as she can. The challenge is getting the spoon back in order to give her the next bite. This has made feeding times much more fun (and much longer as we have to have "spoon practice" in between bites)! There's certainly lots of laughter going on at our house when it's time to eat!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

There is no better way to spend a fall day than at the pumpkin patch! We spent the afternoon at Fog Willow Pumpkin Farm, and had so much fun! Leah absolutely loved getting to run around and touch all of the pumpkins. There was even a petting zoo where she got to pet a cow ("muh"), sheep and lots of baby goats. We also saw ponies, chickens and llamas! We promised her that next year she can ride a pony! She had a blast climbing and jumping on bales of hay ("ju, ju, ju")! It was a fun, family fall day! Happy Fall!

Daddy's Little Monkey

Leah loves her monkeys so much, that sometimes we think she's part monkey herself! If she could choose her own costume for Halloween, I know she'd want to be a monkey, but Mommy has something much cuter in mind! :)
This pretty much sums it up.....

(Please excuse the crazy "after bath" hair and the unbuttoned jammies! Who knows!)