An amazing Halloween weekend!

As you all know, fall is my most favorite time of the year...with Halloween being the grand finale! Before Owen, Cory and I would usually have a marathon of our favorite scary movies, watch lots of football, bake terrific goodies and stay up late for trick or treaters.....and as much as we loved those times, we've fallen in love with our NEW priority - Owen :)

The weekend started off on Friday, when I attended a ballet at the Pike Performing Arts Center called "The Casket Girls" with Crista. The story line was based off of a New Orleans legend of vampire lore, voodoo practices and Wicca legends. It was an amazing show and a great way to start off the Halloween weekend. This was my first real evening out in a LONG time, so I enjoyed getting dressed up, putting on some heels and not being "mommy" for a few hours.

Then Saturday we attended a pumpkin carving/Purdue football game party at the Bancroft's house just down the road in Carmel. Rachel, was one of my former college roommates and I'm so happy that we've been able to reconnect! Despite Purdue's seriously awful loss to Wisconsin, it was fun to get all 3 of us dressed up in our Purdue gear and head over to the party with a HUGE tray of scotcheroos in hand :) Cory got a kick out of one of the attendees costumes when he showed up as the bobble head boy from the video game "Fallout" and we all got a good giggle when at one point, everyone had their iPhones out talking about apps....boy did we fit in, ha!

Here are my PURDUE boys!

Once Purdue choked, we decided it was time for Owen to get dressed up in his froggy outfit. Here he is after making new friends:

A froggy smile!!!!

Fussy time - not wanting to leave.

However, there was a bit of drama when it came to the actual pumpkin carving. Owen was awake and didn't want to be put down, so Cory was sweet to hold him while I worked on our pumpkin. I brought a whole bag of tools for carving (that we had left over from our wedding pumpkins 3 years ago ) and a few kitchen knives to help. Well.........apparently it was my turn to offer up a blood sacrifice to the pumpkin gods because as I started work on our 2nd pumpkin, I sliced my thumb pretty good :( Even though Rachel was on hand with bandages and antibiotic ointment, I threw in the towel and didn't finish the 2nd pumpkin.

Our fantastic artwork combined:

Rachel's Purdue "P" pumpkin:

Sad to be leaving the party - but had a great time!

Mommy's pumpkin masterpiece!

Yes, we have it lit in our fireplace - that way we can enjoy it for the next few nights! Cory and Owen ended up passing out candy to trick or treaters without me - I was SO tired by 6pm that I just headed up to bed.

Then on Sunday, Cory and I were confirmed into official membership at Epiphany Evangelical Lutheran Church. Service was wonderful, we were able to take our first communion with the congregation and stayed for Sunday school after service. As I've said before, we feel so blessed to have found our new church home and to have made several new friends through God's work.

After church, Cory and I sat down with our HUGE to-do list and picked a few things to tackle. We were able to pack away all of Owen's newborn & 0-3 month clothes that he's outgrown, along with a few other items like his car seat positioner, sleep positioners and his baby bath swing that he's outgrown as well! I won't lie - a few mommy tears were shed as I looked back at how tiny his clothes were when he first came home with us. We used space bags for the first time and I was so amazed at how well the worked, that I literally giggled each time Cory vacuumed one of the bags down to size! Owen was a handful during all of this, we think he's entering the first stages of separation anxiety (maybe?) because if one of us is not holding him or laying down right next to him, he just cries and cries - so it made it a challenge to get things done. We took turns holding him the rest of the afternoon while the other worked on a few remaining chores. Boy were things easier to get done before him!

We've started working on a bedtime routine for Owen and while we're not seeing any sort of results yet, each night we do a bath with lavender scented soap, then some baby massage with lavender scented lotion, give him a bottle, read him 2 books (Goodnight, Moon and I'll see you in the morning) and rock him until he's drowsy. His bath on Sunday was the first baby bath without the newborn sling for him to lay in - and he did great sitting up!!!

Jammie time - this was his 2nd set of jammies after a spit up incident, ugh!

Cuddles with daddy before bedtime:

It was a great weekend - exhausting, exciting, productive and memorable :) We're looking forward to Cory's parents being here this coming weekend for a visit - and for the extra help, ha! We already have a "date night" planned as we've not had a night away from being mommy & daddy in almost a month. I honestly think that nothing could have prepared me/us for the HUGE change in lifestyle that having a baby makes- not that we couldn't anticipate it, but just the bizarre contrast of it being an overwhelming - joyful - exhausting - challenge is something that you can only really know by going through it.