Halloween festivities!

First of all, I need to take a moment to explain my last post .... you know the one all about the Sutterfly cards!?!? I know it was completely RANDOM and I have been dying to explain it, but had to wait. I found a deal where I had to blog about them and follow certain guidelines, in order to receive 50 free holiday cards! I had to write at least 150 words and it took me 2 days to figure out what to write. No joke. I felt so stupid writing about that. Then I had to wait to receive my code for my cards. I was starting to think it wasn't going to come and that it wasn't for real .... but then tonight I finally got the email. So there you have it!

Ryder has added 2 words to his vocabulary - "No!" and "dog." I have thought he was trying to say dog for quite awhile now and it usually came out "do-og" or sometimes "god." Now he can say it pretty well and it's cute. He goes over to them and says it over and over. The other day, Rudy was telling him no (getting into something) and he started responding with "NO!" And now he says it all the time. It's cute and funny right now, but I am sure at some point we will regret him learning that one. Today in the car I heard him say, "NO! Dog." I had just been telling someone on facebook that it would be funny if he could put the 2 together. It will be funny if he starts saying that to them.

Anyway .... Halloween. Ryder's very last First Holiday. SAD. We had 2 of them. The weekend before the real thing we took Ryder trick-or-treating at the zoo. It was a madhouse! I was SHOCKED at how many people were there! We got there early and there were already hundreds of people in line! Thankfully, our membership allowed us to get in the shorter line and not have to wait tooo long. But it was set up so that you basically stayed in line through the whole thing (with the number of people I don't know how else they could have done it). We met Karina and her family there, and despite the ridiculous amount of people, we had a good time. The decorations were pretty cool. We bought Ryder a costume a couple of months ago and then Rudy's sister bought him one also. It worked out nicely that we had 2 different Halloweens because he got to wear both costumes. He wore them both around the house a little too. :)

This is the one we got him. We thought the tights were pretty funny!

And here is the one Melissa got him ... Monkey boy! I am sure everyone expected me to buy him a monkey, but I thought I'd surprise everyone with the cow. I am happy he got to be both! This costume was adorable. I put it on him and he ran all over the house in it, slipping and sliding. I took it off after about 5 minutes and he was drenched in sweat. He is such a boy!

The view from the back cracks me up!

I love the hands and feet!

Halloween pj's that glow in the dark, and I am pretty sure it freaks him out!

At the zoo

Love the monkey hands :)

Haha, my face totally says it all here.

Star Wars!

Had to get in one last family shot, even though Ryder was pretty much DONE.

Ghostbusters!!

I absolutely love this picture! Soo funny!

(A few random pictures between Halloween events)

I finally got a picture of his teeth and he has food all over his face ....

Messy face

Showing off his new, cute diaper!

Ryder and his buddy. Before I got the camera out he was sitting on the dog's head.

The real Halloween - Ryder and I had a bit of a rough day. I spent most of the day trying to get him to take a nap, knowing he would be up past his normal bedtime. He had other plans - no nap. He was crabby, tired and clingy all day and I thought it would make for a horrible night. I finally got him to sleep in the afternoon, he woke up after about 25 minutes cried for 10 minutes and slept for another 35 minutes. Better than nothing, I guess. However, he was tired the whole night. We went to a party at Rudy's cousins house. We have gone pretty much every year (I didn't go with him last year because I was super pregnant and not at all in a party mood, ha!) and it's always a good time. There is sooooo much food! I can't even begin to explain how much. Anyway .... we hung out for a bit, did some trick-or-treating, ate and then called it a night. In the midst of that, Rudy set a cup of shrimp cocktail on the table in front of Ryder and me - I didn't see because I was talking to someone. Suddenly I was soaked! Yup, Ryder grabbed it and dumped it all over both of us. All over his costume and my new jeans. (We got most of it out, but if you look closely in the picture below you can see his right leg looks a different color).

Heading out for trick-or-treating

First Halloween as a family!

Notice Rudy's John Deere shirt ... he was going to be a farmer and I was going to be the "farmer's wife," but we never got costumes together so this was his alternative.

Getting some candy with daddy ...

You can see the cow face in this one.

Trick-or-treating!

Not a single good picture of me was taken the whole night, but I think his face is funny in this one.

The only 3 Desjardin men in the family

We .. I mean, Ryder, made out pretty good! ;)

This might give you a better idea. :) I know some people don't think it's right for people to take their babies trick-or-treating when they can't even eat the candy, but I say what the heck!? Really, about 3/4 of candy was from his cousin's house .... it is insane the amount of candy she buys! I mean, NUTS!! Next year I am taking pictures!

So that's it in a nut-shell. I am exhausted and have tons to do tomorrow!

Hope you all voted today - I did! Oh and quick story about that ..... the lady handing out stickers was very obviously sick, flu-like. She coughed all over my sticker, proceeded to hand it to me and tell me how raw her throat was. UMMM, DISGUSTING!! I almost didn't take the sticker .... but I love the sticker! I stepped out the door and doused myself and the sticker in anti-bacterial hand gel! Let's hope I don't get sick .....