Halloween at Home with the Walters

I love Halloween, I get excited about Nov. 1st for next Halloween.
Mostly I love a holiday where everyone dresses up and eats candy! It's tricky business though, this waiting all year, crafting and fine tuning your costume, and setting out your bowl of candy with high hopes. Because you will often find that you work on your costume more than you wear it, (and in our case this year) get two trick or treaters and a lot of left over candy.
But I will do it all over again next year.
This year we solidified nerd status with home-made Star Wars costumes. (All except little Yoda, time was running short and that ewok costume wasn't going to make itself...so we bought Yoda.)

I have always wanted to be a Princess Leia and wear those iconic buns! So I got the whole family to go along with me. I think Kent made a very convincing Han Solo.

And Greta was impossibly cute.
Since Greta has been fighting a sick, we remained absurdly decked out in our living room and watched Young Frankenstein and ate another one of Kent's chili creations. (fewer spicy peppers, Guinness instead of Dos Equis, more chocolate, and ground meat instead of cubed...overall two thumbs up!)

We got a little antsy later on and went over to our friends house to peek at the other costumes and play a little Rock Band.
And now I have a case of the 'day afters'. You know, the day after your birthday, or the day after Christmas when the tree is bare and all the hub bub is over and often you think...that was a lot of work for just a day?
So now I'm looking at my costume and weighing the idea of just keeping it on! Just keeping it on for as long as it takes for me to get my years worth of happy anticipation out of it.
Maybe just one more night?

All smiles

Just a couple of pictures of Greta and her dad:)
Greta had just woke up from her nap and had sweet bed head and lots of smiles...I couldn't resist.
Greta has been fighting off a sick the last week so we have kept her pretty close to home. Let's hope she kicks it for good soon!
We have canceled our Halloween plans for tomorrow to keep her from spreading the love to others, so stay tuned for Lame Walter Halloween at Home! We will try and make it a party... but mostly it will be just the three of us way too dressed up, eating chili, and candy leftovers. Pictures to come!

Meet Frankie!

She's a spicy little gal! To get better acquainted, you can come visit her in the shop where she currently resides.
Happy Wednesday everyone!

Getting our Date on!

We have a lovely arrangement with some of the people in our community group to have a sort of baby co-op! We each babysit each others kids the equivalence of about once every 4-5 weeks and then have the other 4 weeks for Friday night dates with our hunnies!
Lately due to colds, and the house taking over our free time we have been doing without the dates. But yesterday we got our date on!
I wore heels (because that makes it a date and not just an every other day.) And Kent wore what I layed out for him;)We saw a movie (the ultimate mom/dad luxury as it's 2 hours of sitting with our undivided attention not on a certain squiggly small person.) We saw Where The Wild Things Are which was so very good and not a children's movie but a movie about remembering what it was to be a child. And then scooted off to the new Purple in downtown Bellevue where we glimpsed into the lives of single people who lived rumpus lives and ate dinner at 9:30. Meg and Ryan joined us for our late dinner and it was all in all a raging success and a very fun "pretend".
I think we really would have fooled people too only we did stop to take a picture in front of the restaurant (Clue #1 that we don't go out enough) and then goofed it up with my flinging my head into Kent's elbow as part of our spontaneous "non-pose" (I always have to have a picture that isn't posed) and screaming things like Ow! and what happened?
However, I think our shenanigans came off to bystanders more as wine induced frivolity and less like 2 parents still reeling from the absence of a baby on the hip and a diaper bag on the arm.
We did snatch a picture by the elevators though. Timer on a trash can.It's posed, but I like it. It reminds me of us three years ago when every silly thing deserved a picture and every day was a date...and really, let's be honest with Kent it still is. But on Fridays I get to wear heels!

The Ultimate Artsy Thing!

I haven't posted here in ages! Mostly impart to my newest and greatest project! A house! My husband and I bought a house last month and it has been moving, renovations, and "where does this go?" since.
I have just recently taken a room for myself, which we call "My Room" and damned if I don't have a pink chandelier so everyone knows it! It is a place where I can create, mix, and be:)
There is so much to consider during the nesting phase, and I am enjoying every minute of it! Colors, fabrics, which art where...it has been the ultimate artsy thing in my life lately.
But, I have had a few moments to myself lately by courtesy of The Barley:So I have worked up a few new prints for the shop. I will be posting them within the next week or so. Just as soon as I can get enough sunshine to take some decent pictures.

Lots more designs and colors are on the way!

Glad Tidings!

All kinds of good news!
Yesterday Greta had another ultrasound which a lot of things depended on and to make a long story short (as all medical stories should be made) her left kidney although still distended didn't get any worse, and our Dr. even ventured to say looked a little bit better!
Which means surgery is put on a shelf for now and we will continue to get ultrasounds every 3 months for however long it takes to either a) grow out of it (3-4 years) or b) get worse and they go in to fix it.
As much as I have not been known to enjoy this waiting game I find this wonderful news! If things are going to mend themselves, well that's different and I can do that kind of waiting with a smile.
So these glad tidings bring another. Since Greta will not be going under any knives this fall we can continue in our plans to go visit Kent's family in VA!
Kent will be taking his paternity leave in November which gives him a full month off of work to play with Greta and I. (I could kiss Microsoft!)
It has been much too long since we have seen his family last and we plan to swim in the company of friends-and-relations for a good 2 weeks of it. We will kiss the heads of babies newly born of friends, and shove our faces with BBQ. If there ever was a time I pine for VA it is during the fall. There is something so nastalgic in the air there. The excitement of starting a new year of school, falling in love, getting that boy to marry me...it's all thanks to good old fashioned Virginia.

My final and long awaited good news is that of a new addition to our small family...don't get so excited....Greta's first tooth!
It's just a pearly stub of a thing now, but thank goodness! Maybe she will feel the wastefulness of having such a fine tooth and start to eat with it.
I think this picture sums up her attitude toward eating perfectly.
But seriously, we cant have it all!

Enter The Will...

"Greta is going through stuff."
I find myself saying that more and more lately to shield her from the reproach of others. It could be teeth, growing pains, or who knows, but she is exhibiting her will a whole lot more lately.
One of her latest and greatest is her decision to not wear hats. No hats, no ma'am! But what she has yet to learn I think is that she got that willfulness from somewhere and I like the hats.
*The Hall Family Willfulness or better known as"The Will" is no garden variety stubborness. It is simultaneously both a magical force and scientific fact. It travels within the family circle and when used wisely it bears discipline, steadfastness, and standing ovations as it's principle fruits. Improperly used and it results in friends, family, and spouses with grey hair and brains turned to mush.

Not only hats but food! We are throwing the tastiest of meals her way (and I mean throw quite literally as the only time she opens her mouth it to howl at the idea, giving us a small chance to toss in some food) with a hope she will start to like grown up mealtime, but so far it's no meals no ma'am! Why she would prefer bottles to exotic fruits, yogurts, and liquid thanksgiving dinner is truly beyond me.


Ladies and gentleman this IS the main event. Barley vs. The Parents. Place your bets!