HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

At Stella's request, we've been dressing up around here for a couple of weeks now--(thanks to all of the adorable hand-me-down costumes from friends and family).

The purple unicorn never made it out trick or treating...

it was a great option had it been cold out though!

The BIG NIGHT...October 29th!

???

Don't ask me...as far as I know, Halloween is Oct. 31. In our neighborhood, it's whenever they decide. Who are "they"? Again, I have no idea.

Anyway, our "Tinkerbell, Cinderella Princess" and her cow father hit up a bunch of houses down our street and brought home more than enough candy for a 2 1/2 year old's little tummy!

Uncle Jon and cousin Mike were here!

This time WE were the guests

Nick had "Dudes' Weekend" with a bunch of college buddies this weekend. So, instead of staying home by ourselves (which we do all week anyway)...we decided to roadtrip to Indianapolis to visit another wife who was home alone with the kiddos, while her hubby was away on Dudes' Weekend as well. Not only did we get to invade Katie, Avery and Brady's home, we made a quick stop at Tim, Emily, Henry and Sam's place as well!

What a treat to catch up with so many dear friends in such a short time!!!

We took the kids to the park...here's Brady all bundled up!

Avery and Stella couldn't have gotten along better!

Rub a dub dub!

No, we didn't forget about Charlie...this is what he did during tub-time!

Oh, if they're still hanging out when they're 15, we may be in trouble!!! --although, I certainly hope they know each other then and for many years after that!

I couldn't get over how cute Brady is!

Normally Stella and her girlfriends outnumber Charlie...this time the Beckman boys helped to dominate. Henry and Sam are as cute as can be!

Charlie and Emily

Mommies of 2 little ones!

The best shot we got of the 4 "Boggy babies" together!

Little brothers, we hope you know how lucky you are!

Almost caught up...

October has been dubbed "the month of visitors." ...and we love it!

Here'a sampling of what we've been up to....

CC, Vince, Stella and Joe doing their thing

Vince, Charlie-bear, Stella

We've ventured into the world of rice cereal for our BIG boy and I have a great helper....

2 weeks ago we had a "really full house" according to Stella. A small reunion of girls from my Cincinnati Bible study group got together at our house with their kids...Lauren and Rosalie, Emily and Ellie, Katie and Ava, as well as Gail and Kyle spent the day with us. We can't wait to see everyone again! Come back anytime!

Stella trying to make it all better for Rosalie

Katie and Ava

Gail and Kyle

Lauren and Emily

Katie, Liz, Gail

Charlie and Ellie

Stella and Ellie

We also got to see Grandma Bettcher and Great Aunt Sandy on their road trip down to FL. We're so glad that they stopped for a lunchtime visit!

LONG overdue...Stella's 1st day of preschool. She attends every Wednesday morning for about 3 hours and LOVES it! They've studied apples and shaped and pumpkins. Tomorrow is picture day! I can't wait to see how that turns out!

Grandpa Robert generously purchased a piano for us so that we could add even more music to our house. It's electronic, so that we can still play while naps are happening...note Stella's awesome headphones!

And our Charlie-bear...he's getting big. 4 months now and he weighed in at 15 lb. 15 oz.! He's 27 inches "tall." We keep marveling at his size and decided to do a comparison...at 4 months, our sweet Stella was 13 lb. 15 oz. and 25 1/2 inches tall. So this kid has her by 2 pounds and an inch and a half! He's giggling, rolling all over the place and trying to scoot around. We cheer him on, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready for him to be mobile yet! YIKES!

Yesterday morning we said "goodbye" to "Aunt" Amanda and her precious Bella. They took all the photos over the weekend so hopefully I can get some from them to put on here. We had a great visit with a trip to the zoo, the playground at the mall, and outing for just the moms while Nick took all 3 kids...it was great!

I'm pretty sure this is most of the photos we've taken lately. There will be more to come soon!