HALLOWEEN!!!

I have a lot to post about Halloween so I'll break it up into segments:

THE PUMPKING CARVING

Our good friends and used-to-be-neighbors (they just moved on base and we miss them SO much!) came over to carve pumpkins. We had a great time hanging out. Jo and Ed have Alex (Jay's 2 year old best friend) and Joselyn who is six months. We thought for sure that the boys would love carving the pumpkins but we guessed wrong. They could care less! In fact they ran around playing the whole time while the dad's carved pumpkins and the mom's took pictures. When we tried to get them to stick their hands into the pumkins to feel the goop they looked at us like we were crazy! It was a fun night though. Jo and I made pumkin seeds - which ended up burning - but the pumpkins turned out great. The men did an awesome job. The one time Jo tried to help carve she ended up making the ghost fingers into points, so that was it for her :)

THE COSTUME

Jay was a knight for Halloween. I loved the way he looked in his outfit. Jo said he looked like Heath Leger in A Knight's Tale with his long wavy blond hair.
It was definitely not easy getting Jay to wear his outfit though. He hates having extra "things" on him. Even hats and sunglasses are usually off-limits in his book. In order to get him to keep his costume on I had to bribe him with two ice cream cones and I had to put on the movie Cars. At least I got a few pictures. I just hope that next year he'll be excited to dress up!

THE PARTY

The Base held a Halloween party for all the kids and Jay had so much fun. Last year he was pretty scared at the party because there were so many kids and it was so loud. This year he got to join in on the fun. He played all the games, with some help. First was fishing for candy. Boy was he excited to get that candy! Then he "made" a lollypop ghost (well, he watched someone make it for him). Next he tried to eat a doughnut off of a string.He didn't really understand that one too well but mommy and daddy were all to happy to eat it for him. The last game he tried was "tossing" balls into a pumpkin mouth. He didn't really get the tossing concept so he just put the balls in the holes. Whatever works for a 2 year old! After the games McGruff the safety dog came to speak to the kids about trick-or-treating safety. Jay was terrified of the dog and kept trying to get outside and away from the dog. Once the presentation was over and he saw them handing out the bags to collect candy with he was back on track.

THE TRICK-OR-TREATING

Jay sort of understood the trick-or-treating concept this year. This is actually his third Halloween, although his first was when he was only about 5 weeks old. He ran from house to house with his friend Ahee (Alex) and waited to get his candy. He even said trick-or-treat, well his version of it, a few times. During one point Jay grabbed Alex's pushcar out of his driveway and took that with him to the different houses.

He seemed more excited by that than the candy. It was all over pretty quickly because there aren't very many houses on base. He made out pretty well though because everyone brought candy to share so each house would give out a handful. As it always must be on Halloween it was really cold outside so Jay had to wear his coat over his costume. I guess that's just a part of the Halloween tradition.

THE DINNER

I decided that we had better celebrate Halloween Connelly style so I dressed up our dining room, put out some spooky candles and created a "Halloween Menu" for dinner.
I had fun with it and Jay thought the fake spider webs were pretty cool. Thanks for all the ideas Jill! Well, our second Halloween in Spain was a success. Jay and I even got to watch Hocus Pocus on AFN, my all time favorite Halloween movie. Mike and I watched The Haunting after Jay went to bed and let's just say we'll probably be throwing that one away. It was pretty lame, which is probably a good thing since I would have been scared silly had it been well done! Happy Halloween to all our friends and family. We'll be seeing you soon!

Sevilla at Night

Last Saturday night we went to Sevilla to walk around and eat some tapas. I love Sevilla so much. It's such a magical city. Sometimes I wish we could live inside the city just so we could take late night strolls and live the Sevillian lifestyle. It's a little too far from Mike's work though so it probably wouldn't be worth it. We do enjoy visiting though. The new metro train is finally finished so the streets are no longer torn up. It looks really nice! Of course there were plenty of people out walking the streets at 9 pm. It was a Saturday but I doubt it would have been any different on a weekday. Sevilla is a city that never sleeps - except during medio dia :) Mike and I decided the very best time to travel anywhere in Europe is in the month of October. Everything is less crowded and the weather tends to be really nice. Of course if you have kids in school this isn't easy to do. That's why I think I would really like it if Jay went to a year-round school.
Jay loved running around the streets. One of the best things about Sevilla is that there is pretty much no car traffic within the old city. Jay loved the freedom. He's gotten so good at following us around and listening when we tell him to stop or go a certain way. He's so used to walking here. The cathedral looked beautiful at night, all lit up. We even saw a bride and groom taking pictures in front of it. When we first parked our car and were walking out of the parking garage a huge group of people passed us dressed to the nines. They looked like they were coming from an opera or a royal ball. Well, once we saw the bride and groom we figured out that they were just coming from the wedding. You wouldn't believe how fancy people dress up for weddings here! Seriously, all the men are in tuxes and the women must spend at least 500 euros on their dresses. There's this industrial part of our town where there happens to be two wedding halls where people hold their receptions. We're very confused as to why they would build wedding halls next to industrial buildings. On the outside it looks pretty hideous but I guess the insides are fancy. We always laugh though because when you drive by that area Friday through Sunday there are all these people dressed to kill walking around an industrial park! Oh well, to each his own.
Anyway, we had a great night in Sevilla. Mike took Jay and I to one of the bar/restaurants (in Europe bars are restaurants and restaurants are bars) that he's gone to with his Spanish contacts a lot. It's well known for these little pork sandwich tapas. When we got there they weren't at all busy yet, seeing as it was only 8:00 pm. Jay was instantly interested in the bar stools and decided he wanted to sit at the bar. So we sat up at the bar and ordered a beer...
just kidding. That was someone elses, we just asked the bartender if we could take a picture ;) Jay loved all the attention and we had some great food. Jay did get to order his own orange Fanta and he was pretty excited about that. His big night in the big city! After eating Jay ran around a fountain for about half an hour bugging all the jovens (teenagers) lounging on the nearby benches. We had a great time. It's nights like these that we're going to miss when we move back to the States. I guess we'd better enjoy them while we can!

New look

My friend Jessie inspired me to try to figure out how to make my own blog background and header. This is my first try so it's not exactly perfect, but I like it well enough. I spent way too much time on it but I had fun :)

Blast from the past

Mike's working this week in northern Spain and Italy and he has the camera so I decided since I can't take any pictures I'd post a few fun ones from my past.

This one's not too old but I thought it brings back great memories. This is me with my two beautiful sister-in-laws at Tempanaki. I think it was taken pretty soon after Mike and I were engaged. Megan has grown up SO much since then. I can't believe it! It really puts into perspective how long Mike and I have been together. Megan was in 6th grade when we started dating and now she's a Senior in High School. Wow!

Ahhh... such wonderful times happened in A Richards 105. These girls are some of my closest friends and I love all of them so much. It's crazy to think that we all met 8 years ago our Freshman year at BYU. Remember when we used to prank call people pretending to be the Honor Code office? L-R: Lindsay Glazier Grassick, Heather Davidson Kunz, Mary Shaffer Clark, Annamarie Johnson Connelly and Zinaida Alexevna Kouznetsova.

This picture just makes me laugh! It's also from freshman year at BYU. It features some really hot girls as Charlie's Angels on Halloween. Our friend David was playing Charlie. Lucky guy, huh? I think it's so funny that we all dressed up as Charlie's Angels. You know we were just trying to attract attention from guys. As far as I can tell this is L-R: Zina, me, Heather, Mary, Lindsay and Tisha. I love Tisha's shoes the best. Where were you find those beauties?

Here I am with Breanne Klein Smith. I don't think we were even in high school when this picture was taken. We were doing a service project for church and I remember this time sort of being the defining moment in our friendship. We were pretty much bff's after this. It brings back so many good memories to see us together. I love this girl so much. She has always been such a light in my life.

This picture is truly old school. doesn't it just epitomize the awkward days of adolescence? I love my big brother so much. At least he's looking cool in the picture. This reminds me of how we used to watch GI Joes every morning before school while we ate breakfast. Good times. My fluffy hair tells me this picture was probably taken when I was in 6th grade and Cory was a freshman. I can't believe I actually wore that hat to school! And I'm definitely glad the days of tucking shirts into tight belted pants is over :)

You know your child grew up in Spain when... (an American perspective)

1. All his friends have 3 a.m. bedtimes and a "morning" playdate starts at 1 p.m.

2. He learns to avoid dog poop while walking down the street.

3. He prefers cured ham and fine cheese to chicken nuggets.

4. His nickname is "rubio" (blondie).

5. Your the only ones out taking a walk at 3 p.m. and the only ones not taking a walk at 1 a.m.

6. He teethes on the ends of freshly baked bread.

7. He can go to the park and feed peacocks but playing on the playground may require a tetanus shot.

8. His best friend's brash advice is, "Hombre! Quita el chupe!"

9. He resents driving to the store instead of walking.

10. He's been to more countries than you've been to States in the Union.

11. He often feels left out because he doesn't have a "couch" to stroll down the street in.

12. He's the only one not wearing a heavy winter coat in sunny 65° weather.

13. He expects to see tractors and horse drawn carriages driving down the road (and occasionally on freeways).

14. He knows his way from his house to the center of town without any direction.

15. All his friends dress like girls - even the boys.

Party Time!

We celebrated Jay's birthday over the weekend at the club on base. It's newly remodeled and it was a prefect place to party! Jay had 3 friends come: Alex, Christopher and Sarah. Johnny was sick so he couldn't be there :( We had lots of good food and plenty of fun. My favorite dish were the mini hot dogs wrapped in bacon. Mike had heard about it from a friend and we decided to try it out. They were delicious! Jay liked the cheesy artichoke dip best. We had plenty of adult and child friendly food so everyone was happy. We also had cupcakes and mini ice cream cones. The ice cream cones were a big hit but the kids mostly just licked the frosting off the cupcakes. The adults loved the cupcakes - how can you go wrong with chocolate cake and vanilla frosting, right dad? The kids pretty much just ran around the whole time and played with each other. There were some balloons, bubbles and an air hockey game, which was a big favorite because everyone wanted to crawl around on the table, but we didn't do any party games. 2 year olds don't really know how to play in an organized fashion yet. They sure love to run though. Jay received some cool presents. He got a Thomas the Train set, a race car track, a talking vacuum cleaner (he likes helping with chores) and a few cars with a gift card. Woo hoo! He scored big time. He's been having a great time playing with all of his new toys. The best part about the whole party was that we didn't really have to clean up. The club staff pretty much takes care of the mess. It was so nice not having it at our house. We sure love our little 2 year old man. Happy Birthday Jay!

Finishing up in Utah

The final part of our trip to the States ended in Utah. We had such a wonderful time with the Connelly's. Seriously, How did I get so blessed? I have the best in-laws ever. I am so grateful for their hospitality, their kindness and their love. I love them all so much.

First off, here are some pictures of Jay playing at the park near the cabin. He loved the duckies! Isn't it beautiful?

Mamah (Jay's word for Grandma) and Jay had so much fun playing with bubbles. Mamah would blow them and then they would pop them and say, "Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!" Jay thought it was so funny!

Here's Jay helping Mamah shuck corn. He loved helping.

Mmmm... Corn!

While we were in Utah we got to visit with my cousins Jeff and Sarah and their adorable kids James and Mei. I can't believe how big they are now. James is such a mature little man and Mei is so beautiful and full of life. James showed us some of his cool Martial Arts tricks. He has been taking classes for a long time now and he's very good. We had such a nice time visiting with them. Their new dream home is incredible. We loved touring it and hope that someday we can live in a place half as cool! We can't wait until our next visit when we can have our game night. We love you guys and miss you!

Every day when Gampa came home he'd bring Jay a treat from his Office. Of course Jay looked forward to these homecomings :) Gampa Lynn's the best! These two also had many fun times watching cool animal shows and movies. Jay is definitely in his animal obsession right now.

We went to visit Uncle Rob's new house one night and Jay had such a good time playing with his Uncle Woggie (his word for Robbie - a mix between Wobbie and Froggie). Jay's favorite part was playing outside and saying bye bye to all the cars that drove by. It was sure nice to have a man around to rough house with Jay while daddy was gone. Frequently when Rob would leave us Jay would ask after him. Rob definitely knows his way into a toddlers heart!

Jill, Jay and I went up to the cabin on one of our last days in Utah. Here's a picture of the cabin from the front. It is such a beautiful place to hang out.
We keep trying to figure out why Jay now constantly asks for ice cream.

Any ideas?

Jay thought this totum pole was pretty amazing!

Jill put this little fake bird and a nest in a whole in the log and Jay loved looking for it and playing with it. We spent quite a while throwing it off the balcany and then back up to Jay.

I love you so much mamah and I can't wait to see you again soon!