– I hope everyone had a wonderful and not too spooky Halloween yesterday! Isla had a fun first Halloween experience yesterday, that’s for sure! The mall here does indoor trick or treating with the majority of the stores for the kids who want to stay warm and dry, so with a donation to the local food bank Isla scored some nice candy! She was a little skeptical of everyone walking around and was a little shy going up to some of the store attendant for her candy, but overall she had a good time. By the last few stores, she was getting a little cranky. But, here’s some photos!

– Somehow I managed to accumulate 4 pumpkins to carve up. Kyle was nice enough to gut them out for me (he wanted the seeds for roasting) so all I had to do was carve them. I got marginally more creative than I usually do, but they’re nothing spectacular. My favourite is probably my Jack Skeleton-esque pumpkin, followed by my polka-dot drill bit Pinterest-inspired pumpkin. (Which made a huge mess, by the way.)

– Kyle and I leave for Vegas SOOOO soon but it hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m sure once I drop Isla off at my Mom’s it will hit me and I’ll have a mild anxiety attack. But, I am excited to be going! We have a lot of stuff on our “To Do” list, including visiting the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, shooting some fully automatic rifles, and the Cheesecake Factory. Of course, I’m pretty certain you could be there for a week and not do everything, so here’s to hoping we get some things crossed off our list.

– Now that Halloween is all out of the way, I’m getting geared up to take Christmas photos of Isla for our Christmas cards. It’s a little sad (in a pathetic way) that I’m already doing it, but after last year’s screw-up when ordering them, I’m not risking it this year. So, this afternoon I’m hoping to get the photos done, and next week I’m hoping to get them ordered!

– I started reading “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed this week and I’m only about 2 chapters in but loving it! Amber had posted on Facebook that Reese Witherspoon was staring in the movie version, so I knew I had to get reading it soon!  It’s been on my Wishlist for a while now, so I figured it was the perfect time to download it to my Kobo.

– Isla has discovered television. She enjoys just sitting on the couch or standing at the coffee table and watching cartoons. She usually loses interest after a 1/2 hour or less, but I will admit to plunking her in front of it for 5 minutes of peace so I can get something done. She also has developed some kind of post-afternoon nap grumps where she just wants to cuddle on the couch with Kyle or I, which is challenging since that’s when I’m usually trying to get dinner finished. I don’t know if it’s because she’s hungry for her dinner, but wow – that kid sure knows how to throw a spaz.

– I believe I can officially say that Isla is off the bottle. I must admit, it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Our new bedtime routine is brush teeth, bath (when it’s bath night), PJ’s, sip of water, book, bed. She hasn’t protested at all and still sleeps right through the night until 8ish. No complaining from this mom!

– I’ve been going to yoga for just over a month now and I must admit, I’m really loving it! It helps that our instructor is super supportive and gives us great feedback and reassurance too. I love how that for one hour, I can just refocus all of my thoughts off of everything else going on in my life and just stretch and relax. I’m definitely going to look into taking more classes in the future.

– I’m getting a manicure tomorrow at my favourite spa ever and hoping that it doesn’t chip before we go to Vegas. Fingers crossed! (Pun intended)

That’s it for this Friday! Have a great weekend! xo