What a great Halloween we had! Since Ed wasn't here to enjoy Halloween last year and knowing he'll be gone next year as well, we made sure to make this year extra fun. Ed got a smoke machine, strobe lights, and scary music to put by the front door so he could scare kids. He had a lot of fun handing out candy while Layla and I trick or treated in our neighborhood. We have such amazing neighbors, we are so happy with where we live. This morning Layla woke up to her Halloween presents. Yes, I get her presents for just about every holiday but she's such a good girl and deserves so much! She was very happy with her stuff, especially her witch Barbie (not only is she obsessed with Barbies but she has a new found love for witches as well, thank you Wizard of Oz). 
We had a great day, relaxing and hanging out around the house waiting for the evening when we could start trick or treating. As soon as Layla woke up, she wanted to put her Halloween costume on so she was a kitty cat all day long today. We had to go to the store for a few things and everyone thought she was the cutest cat they'd ever seen (of course)! Layla was so excited to wear makeup too. I promised her that on Halloween I would do her makeup like a big girl (eyeliner, mascara, sparkles, the works) so she felt extra special. When she went to bed tonight she said she was never going to take it off, I'm sure it'll be on for the next few days. Oh, and of course SHE decided she had to have her hair curled so we did that too!
And I made her take pictures with Mommy and Daddy, of course. Although I didn't get a very good one of her and Daddy, thanks a lot Ed! P.S. Don't mind my roots, those are getting done THIS week. Yuck!
I had a whole Halloween dinner planned for yesterday but we ended up being so busy that I didn't have time to make it. And with trick or treating tonight, I didn't want to go all out either so I just made a simple Mummy (pigs in a blanket), caramel apple dip (which Ed named ghost skin because of all the marshmallow creme in it), and our special witches brew. We then downed our meal with a bunch of chocolate candy afterwards. Yum!
After that (around 6pm) it was time for trick or treating. Layla is such a big girl now, it just amazes me how grown up she's become. This is the first year we've gone trick or treating where I didn't have to walk up to the houses with her. I would stand on the street and she would run up to the door, ring the door bell, say trick or treat in her cute, soft little voice, collect candy, say thank you, and run off to the next house while I trailed behind. Where did the time go? I can't believe she is doing that without ME!
Just look at all the candy she got! Someone even gave her this huge bag of Starburst jellybeans. She scored! We let her have like 10 pieces of candy (after all, that's what Halloween is all about, right?) and I was worried she wouldn't be able to go to sleep with all that sugar in her but she knocked out. I hope everyone had a great Halloween night! 
Ed has been working non stop since he's gotten to his new unit, I mean going to work before Layla and I wake up and coming home after we're asleep. We feel lucky when we're able to spend the weekend together since that's the only time we actually see each other. We're taking extra advantage of these times together also because guess who is deploying again in June? Yup, Ed is gearing up for deployment #3 this coming summer. So bummed since we just got back together but I guess that's just the Army life. Hopefully after this deployment, we'll get him for at least two years before he has to go back. Nothing is for sure but we're crossing our fingers. Anyway, back to our day. Last night Ed told me he had the whole day planned for us. Garden of the Gods in the morning, lunch, shopping, and then the Air Force vs. Utah football game in the evening. He is such a good planner, don't you think?
One of the coolest things we saw today were deers in some one's front yard! I'm sure we looked like the biggest tourists ever, stopping in the middle of the street to take a picture of wild deer in some one's front yard but hey, it was so cool. I basically could have reached out my arm and touched them, they were so close. Growing up in the desert, I'm used to running into snakes and scorpions, not deer! 
I heard about Garden of the Gods even before we got to Colorado and have been wanting to check it out since we got here so I was super excited we were able to go today. Plus, it's only about 15 minutes away. It was GORGEOUS! These pictures just don't do it justice, the rocks were this beautiful shade of red and the formations were just amazing. Layla had fun collecting rocks and pine cones and putting them in Daddy's pocket (which were bulging at the seams by the time we were all done) and petting the 87536023486 dogs we saw. We spent a couple hours there, just walking around and enjoying the beauty. The weather outside was a perfect 66 degrees and we just had such a great time. 
After some lunch and shopping at the mall, we headed to the Air Force Academy for a tailgate party before the game. We got there a couple of hours early and I was worried we would be bored waiting for the game to start but because Ed's unit was the guest of honor at the game, they had so many activities set up. It was so much fun! We got our faces painted, Ed and Layla got Air Force tattoos, and Layla got to go Trunk or Treating. 
Layla rode a horse. 
We met the cheerleaders and got to take pictures with them (Layla's goal in life at the moment is to become a cheerleader so she was amazed by them)!
We met a Falcon, an Ice Cream, and a cow (the Ice Cream is Ed's new best friend, they bonded over being unappreciated). 
And we cheered on the Air Force while Ed drank his free beer (guess who was super excited about that?). 
Then it was time for the game to start! We read our ticket wrong and ended up going in through the wrong gate so we had to walk a mile across to find where we were sitting. It was actually pretty neat though because as we were walking to our seats, there was the players tunnel with all the Air Force cadets running out into the field. There were people surrounding them and throwing money down to them so Layla got to throw a dollar over to them too. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, it was so cool to see. We got to our seats just in time to see the band and cadets performing the Presentation of Colors. 
Then there was an aircraft that dropped 6 parachuters out onto the field. 
And lets not forget the 4 F-18's that flew overhead. 
After that it was finally GAME TIME! It was so much fun to watch a college football game, it was our first. Layla even had a great time cheering for the Air Force. Being there, surrounded by Air Force, really made Ed and I think of my Grandpa, he would have loved to hear all about it. 
We sat right behind the cadets and the funniest thing was, whenever the team did something really good, they started throwing cheese (you know, individual slices of cheese wrapped in plastic) every where. I mean, at one point all I could see in front of me was orange. It was so funny and Layla kept saying "why are they throwing cheese? I want cheese, I love cheese!" She's so cute! It started getting really cold though so we left after half time. Does anyone want to guess the two things we did as soon as we got home? 1. I googled why the cadets threw cheese, and 2. We went back to hating the Air Force. GO ARMY!
I've been sick all week, ick! One of Ed's soldiers got him sick a couple weeks ago and I could feel my cold coming on, I just didn't know when it would hit. Well, it did, this week! I've been a wreck and haven't been able to get much sleep so all week Layla and I have been cooped up in the house (well, not yesterday, Ed had Organizational Day and we went with him to that). So this morning Ed went to get some RC practice in and asked us to come along with him. We usually don't go with him, for obvious reasons, but we jumped at the chance to get out of the house for a bit and we ended up having a really good time. Ed wanted me to take some pictures of his car for him so I brought my camera, of course, and Layla found one of her cameras (one of my mom's old, broken ones) and we had fun taking pictures. She would take some of me, I would take some of her, and we would both take some of Daddy and his car. 
Daddy also let Layla drive his car for awhile. She did pretty good too!
After RC playing we went home, Ed BBQ'd us some lunch, and then it was time to rake/play in leaves! I love Fall in Colorado (and Germany too!), the trees are such gorgeous shades of yellow and red and the weather is perfect. 
And then it was PUMPKIN carving time! I think our whole theme to Halloween this year is cats. Layla is going to be a cat, she wants to dress our cats up, and she wanted to carve our pumpkins like cats. I think we can thank Boots and Butterscotch for the sudden cat love. And Layla actually put her hand in the pumpkins this year! It's a miracle! Last year she thought it was so gross and didn't even want to look at the pumpkin guts so she made a huge step this year. 
Like father, like daughter... for real! 
Taa - Daa! Our beautiful pumpkins! 
We had a great day, relaxing and hanging out around the house waiting for the evening when we could start trick or treating. As soon as Layla woke up, she wanted to put her Halloween costume on so she was a kitty cat all day long today. We had to go to the store for a few things and everyone thought she was the cutest cat they'd ever seen (of course)! Layla was so excited to wear makeup too. I promised her that on Halloween I would do her makeup like a big girl (eyeliner, mascara, sparkles, the works) so she felt extra special. When she went to bed tonight she said she was never going to take it off, I'm sure it'll be on for the next few days. Oh, and of course SHE decided she had to have her hair curled so we did that too!
And I made her take pictures with Mommy and Daddy, of course. Although I didn't get a very good one of her and Daddy, thanks a lot Ed! P.S. Don't mind my roots, those are getting done THIS week. Yuck!
I had a whole Halloween dinner planned for yesterday but we ended up being so busy that I didn't have time to make it. And with trick or treating tonight, I didn't want to go all out either so I just made a simple Mummy (pigs in a blanket), caramel apple dip (which Ed named ghost skin because of all the marshmallow creme in it), and our special witches brew. We then downed our meal with a bunch of chocolate candy afterwards. Yum!
After that (around 6pm) it was time for trick or treating. Layla is such a big girl now, it just amazes me how grown up she's become. This is the first year we've gone trick or treating where I didn't have to walk up to the houses with her. I would stand on the street and she would run up to the door, ring the door bell, say trick or treat in her cute, soft little voice, collect candy, say thank you, and run off to the next house while I trailed behind. Where did the time go? I can't believe she is doing that without ME!
Just look at all the candy she got! Someone even gave her this huge bag of Starburst jellybeans. She scored! We let her have like 10 pieces of candy (after all, that's what Halloween is all about, right?) and I was worried she wouldn't be able to go to sleep with all that sugar in her but she knocked out. I hope everyone had a great Halloween night! 
