oh tricky treats

In case you don't know, my mom loves to make Halloween costumes. She mad this awesome Buzz Light year for Dennis with wings that flip out when you pull a string. 

Saturday we had a trunk or treat at our church and everyone LOVED Dennis' costume. Some of his favorite people gave him handfuls of candy. He was so happy! Even the missionaries wanted to pose with him for a picture. 

 My favorite costume is the nun. She is adorable. That is Stella's family.

 Zola made her rounds with Herb Pyne. They are buddies.

 Dennis was a little bit more active in the cleaning out stage of pumpkins. He still wouldn't touch it with his hands but he got a lot of seeds out with his spoon.

Daddy helped with the actual carving. 

 And when it came to be October 31st... Dennis was SICK!!! He had croup and could barely breath.

 Nothing was going to stop him from going out.

 This is what our front porch looked like.

 Dennis had to go see Mary and tell her the joke that she taught him. Knock knock- who's there?- boo- boo who?- Why are you crying?

 He had a pretty good time and ended up going all the way around the block. He would have gone further if I had let him.

It was a great holiday. As soon as we got home Dennis decided that he wanted to be a King next year because King's have swords.

suomi

My Finnish cousin, Teppo, came to the US and drove down to Florida with my parents. It was nice to see him again. (Notice our pumpkins in the window) We plan to go to Finland to visit all our cousins there in a couple of years. 

We took him everywhere important in St. Louis. Here is Zola and Grandpa in the museum at the Arch. 

 Everyone needs a best friend. Who is yours?

 Who doesn't love baby fat? Zola loves wet wash clothes. If I don't give it to her after I wipe her down she throws a fit.

fall is here

We have been enjoying this beautiful weather (upper 70's). Every time I put Zola in a swing she LOVES it. I think she could probably swing all day.

 Eloise is so beautiful and sweet. She always wants to hold Zola but is pretty shy about it. She will go up to her mom and whisper it like a secret while staring at me.

 Jude wants to do everything too but doesn't quite know what to do...

 ...and gets distracted easily.

 We love our Emily. She is my greatest blessing living in Saint Louis.

 Zola is getting bigger! 17.5 lbs. She is almost too big for this swing.

 Here she is trying a new food that she didn't like.

 What's not to love?

She growls almost as much as she babbles. She flaps her arms like she wants to fly almost constantly. She is as mild as any baby can get and has one of the quietest cries that I have heard. She is always happy. She loves to look at people and loves people to look at her. If someone is not looking at her that she wants to look at her she will stare them down and lean as far towards them as she can. She does this at church all the time to whomever is sitting next to me. She will lean until she is almost directly in front of them and kinda startles them when they look up from their scriptures. She has a good stare, doesn't she?

 Dennis is getting really good at drawing. Here is a friend swinging at his school. Its a good thing that I snapped this picture when I did because he always colors scribbles over his art. :(

 I can't help myself sometimes... she is just too cute.

 Here Dennis demanded a photo shoot right after seeing old pictures of him doing the same thing with olives.

 I can't get over how big she is.

 We got our trains from a friend that was done with them so some pieces were broken when we got them 2+ years ago. This last week Dennis decided to fix this one with glue. I let him do his thing... knowing it wouldn't work because it wouldn't allow movement to go around turns. He did an excellent job and let it dry all day. 

 And to my surprise, it works great! Dennis sure is handy.

 Dennis LOVES to decorate our house. He wants to do it everyday. We did a couple of cute things and now he just hangs up random things all over the house.

video time

ikea room that i loved

I am posting these pictures so that I can pin them on pinterest and have them when I need them... in June.

marathons and reunions

After we went to the cabin, we spent a couple of days in Minneapolis. I love that city. We got to watch the Twin Cities marathon from our front yard. It brought back some great memories...ah what it feels like to accomplish such a feat. Our house is at mile 18. I remember not being able to really stop for fear that my knees would buckle.

 My mom asked me jokingly if it made me wish I were in their shoes... and surprisingly my answer was yes. Not that my body would let me... but my mind wants it. I am so glad that I was able to do it once.

 Then we headed off to our Land family reunion. All of Great Grandma Zola's descendants that could come were there. It was pretty cool for Zola to be at the party for her namesake. She is the perfect girl for the name because she is so sweet. We got all the cousins born this year together. First just Zola and Owen- Zola sure loves him. She kept going in for a hug and pulling him close to her. She did it about 6 times or so but I got the last one of video... (at the end of this post). I love this picture. They are holding hands and Zola's expression says it all.

 Here are the three cousins: Janae 3 months, Owen 4 months, and Zola 8 months

 This picture is hilarious. Owen just flipped his arms up and smacked both girls in the face.

 ... and a couple from the cabin that I forgot to include... Here we are at Grandma Holly's grave.

 ... giving lovins to grams.

 ... my funny boy...