Is It Naptime Yet

Wednesday night was our final Halloween event.

It was a carnival type affair at a local recreation center. Sam signed Britta up and I signed Lilah and Eden up. We met there in the chaos of Halloween fun.

They had lots of different activities for the children to wait in line for and attempt to try and all the children got candy whether or not they succeeded.
There was digging for treasure in a box full of shredded paper, throwing balls into a small blow up coffin with a skeleton, knock down the cans, and the like.

Eden was very weary of the evening. All the people and the high noise level had her clutching my hand all night, especially after we had the fire alarm go off for around 20 minutes. It was a false alarm, and mostly annoying, but not tremendously loud, though Eden covered her ears has much as she could since she only had one hand, like me.   I got so use to her holding my hand it began to feel strange if she wasn’t grasping it.

Lilah loved it and said it wasn’t too loud. I love that she loves Halloween this year. I think it’s adorable. She even wanted to go into the haunted house, but the line was too long and I was nervous about Eden. Instead they did the jumper obstacle course, which was Eden’s favorite. I think the night air and the lack of loud jarring music made it a lot of fun for her.

They had a cake walk and Lilah won our first time around! She was kind enough to share her cupcake with us. We played once more, but did not win.

It was a fun night, even though it was very busy and crowded. It wasn’t to the point that I felt like it was a waste of time and all the employees were very nice.

We’ve already filled up our gallon ice cream bucket with candy. I’m not sure if we can take much more candy.

Here are the girls doing the jumper obstacle course.

Add they’re off.

There was a mesh siding so I couldn’t take any pictures till the end.

Lilah having fun jumping while we waited for Eden.

Eden finishing. She had landed funny before this so she was a little hurt in this picture.

Tomorrow is Halloween and Nevada Day observed so Jon is at home with us. (Yay!)  I can’t wait to carve our pumpkin and maybe I’ll start cutting out the table runners. I’ve really been avoiding them for some reason, though I need to get over it no later than Monday.

Jon is registered as an Independent for his political party.

You wouldn’t know he was an Independent with all the attention he’s been getting.

I’ve had four to six  people from the Democratic party come by, all claiming he was a registered Democrat, and two of them were in the same day.

I’ve taken their info and politely said good-bye.

We’ve ignored phone calls from the National Democratic Party but, I was not fortunate enough to ignore a phone call from the Republican party.

I had been sleeping and I very groggily answered the telephone yesterday afternoon. They asked for Jonathan and I said he was not home.

The nice woman than went on to say she was calling from the Republican Party and was just wanting to remind Jonathan to vote and especially vote for McCain.

I mumbled something along the lines that he would be voting but not for McCain and then I told Lilah to be quiet since I was on the phone and she had began talking to me.

The woman said something and then hung up.

I admit I don’t like to tell the Democrats that Jon is planning on voting for Obama, but I get some sort of glee by telling the Republicans he’s not voting for McCain.

I am not endorsing Obama, I just thought this was amusing since I had just made the Palin post, but Jon plans on voting for Obama.

I’m a registered Republican.

Lately we’ve been having a lot of discussions with Lilah on trust, telling the truth, and lying.  Mostly we’ve tried to give examples of lying and then talking to her when we think she’s lying.

Like she had this rude habit of growling at you if you said or told her to do something she didn’t like. It might have been slightly micromanaging, but we we’re trying to teach her it’s not polite to growl at us just because she’s upset at what we had to say. When I’ve pointed out she’s growled and made her go to time out she would lie and say she was just clearing her throat. I would calmly confront her and explain why I thought she was lying about clearing her throat, but she would continue to deny it was a growl at us. Fortunately the growling has stopped, but there continue to be other teaching moments about lying.

When Lilah lies I try not to lay on the guilt or discipline super heavy. We try to explain that a loss of trust is what happens when she lies, and that is the main consequence. When she growled at me the time out was for growling at me, not lying about growling at me.

Tonight Lilah had her first “confession” of something she had done wrong. I’m know their have been other times she’s lied, but she could have gotten away with it tonight had she not felt guilt and the need to tell us what she had done.

The girls had been put to bed and about 20 minutes later Lilah came out. I asked her what she wanted, and she just continued to go to the kitchen. I told her to get back in bed and eventually she came out of the kitchen and went to Jon. She then started to get teary eyed, something I had no sympathy for. Jon asked her what was wrong and she told us she had eaten a piece of candy. Apparently she had taken this candy to bed rather than putting it in the candy bucket, and after eating it needed to throw the wrapper away.  We reacted calmly and told her the consequence would be not having candy tomorrow, but were thankful she had told us. Jon put her into bed and I came into give more hugs. I talked to her about the candy incident and she began to cry again saying she had forgotten, her most used excuse. I stayed calmed and talked about why I knew, she knew, that candy was not allowed that night. I let her know that I loved her and was happy that she had told us the truth, but she wouldn’t have any candy tomorrow. Some might see her crying as a manipulation, but I know it was from feeling bad that she had done something wrong.

We’re dealing with lying on a very low key basis. We’re trying to instill that  a loss of trust means a loss freedom. If I can’t trust her to not tickle me when I hug her, than our hugs are restricted to such a way that she can’t tickle me. If I can’t trust her to not play with the tape measure, it’s taken away and I mention that the consequence is from a loss of trust.

I want my children to feel that they can still come to us without us blowing things out of proportion if they’ve lied to us or someone else. A loss of trust can be a devastating thing, they don’t need to feel any extra burden of punishment from me. I want them to feel the loss of trust, which then becomes a loss of freedom,  is the worst consequence, not my wrath.

I’m trying to stay politically neutral on my site, but when Jon showed me this I just had to laugh.

Palin scares me.  It scares me that she may run for president in 2012. It scares me that people like her because “she’s just like me.” Really I don’t want ‘someone just like me’ as president. I haven’t the foggiest clue how to be president and I don’t think she does either.  I don’t think the next four years will change my opinion. She’s so far to the right that I want to run left.

That said I am not endorsing Obama on my site, I’m just not endorsing Palin as president.

I’ve finished Hannah’s pioneer/ frontier dress. I’m not sure what you want to call it.

Here it is lying on my couch before I put the buttons on, this is so you can see the skirt.

Here it is on Hannah with the apron and bonnet.

Here it is on Hannah next to their old time stove.

I forgot the pantaloons, they’re still in my closet, but I’ll see them on Thursday. I just wanted the dress at their house, in their hands, so it was no longer on the back of my couch since I don’t have any tall closet space for my own clothes, let alone this dress.

She seemed really happy with it and I’m happy to have rendered my services to them.

I don’t know how many hours I spent on it. It took me three hours to sew on twelve buttons, there were interruptions, like getting the girls to bed and watching Dancing With the Stars, but it took no less than  one and a half of the three hours. I think I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

My estimate is at least 20 hours of sewing time.  If I had a serger it would have been more around 12  since it still took a while to press in seams and put on buttons.  I like sewing french seams, I just don’t like the  time it takes to sew in french seams.

It’s done.

Now onto table runners for a wedding.

Saturday we had a few events.

I had a bridal shower to attend, which I brought Eden with me. Lilah had her primary program practice, which Jon took her too since I was at a bridal shower.

After the bridal shower I headed over to the chapel to watch the end of the practice. This was to be Jon’s study time so I was trying to stay out of the house. After the practice we headed over to Sam’s to decorate the playhouse and get the backyard presentable for the party on Monday. Sam’s husband mowed the lawn and tidied out the play house. He killed three black widows that were living under the few pieces of wood he had in there. We didn’t see any after that.  I cleaned off some bikes and outside toys. I killed 5 spiders in the process. It makes me wonder what spiders we might have on the girl’s, not played with very often, outside toys.

We returned home around 5:30 and had dinner that night.

Sunday was Lilah’s primary program. We tried to get to the church early, but ended up there right on time. Luckily, Jon’s mom and sister Dara were there early and were able to save a pew for us. My mom, Carolyn, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law Dara came to watch Lilah in the program.

Lilah was one of the more enunciated children in her age bracket. Her line was “The scriptures teach me about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how to return to them.” Lilah was on the left side of the podium and consequently could not see the conductor when they sang songs. Her and her other two classmates seemed to focus on whatever suited them. They still did pretty well on singing and were very well behaved.

During one song Lilah started playing with her curly hair. She was fluffing it and bringing pieces over her head and then did a classic hair toss. Jon said she was practicing for her shampoo commercial days.
She was really cute and we had lots of fun watching her.

I gave the closing prayer, or benediction, and had to teach Gospel Principles so we headed right to class.

Story about the closing prayer.
Last week Jon was asked by the executive secretary if he and I would give the prayers for sacrament. Jon declined for himself but said he would give the message to his wife. He gave me the message and we left it at that.
Sunday we showed up right on time, but I wasn’t positive I would be giving the benediction.  We got there and I looked in our bulletin, but it said: Benediction- By invitation.
So I listened intently to see if they would announce who was giving the closing prayer.
They didn’t.
We sang the closing song and I had my eye out to see if anyone else would stand to give the prayer, particularly the wife of the brother who had said the invocation. She didn’t move so I quickly got up to say the closing prayer. Luckily we were close to the front and I had the isle seat.
It frazzled me for the rest of the day since I get really nervous speaking from the pulpit and because of my confusion.

Jon ushered the girls to their classes and I ushered Carolyn and my in-laws to my class. The class did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, but I guess that’s just the way it is some days. ( I was teaching and with our busy schedule had not gone over it has much as I should have, plus it wasn’t really a big discussion lesson and I had family, which do make me a little more nervous.)
We then went to Relief Society and then to our house.

My MIL made the stop by our house to see my painted bedroom and finished curtains. I think it’s been nearly two years since she’s been to our house and she was interested in seeing our few, and minor, improvements. She and Dara only stayed for a short time since she needed to get back to my FIL.

Carolyn spent the day with us because we had family home evening that night, and it was at the Lee’s house, who live just a couple miles up the street from us, and she lives on the other side of town, like 20 miles one way.

She entertained my children while I did some much needed house work. We also made the sugar cookies that were for decorating at the party the next day.

At family home evening we saw our first cousin’s once removed little girl, who was not yet three weeks old.

All these babies make me want to have a baby, but that will have to wait.

After a night of family we came home and I slept through the make-up yoga class on  Monday morning.

Yesterday we had the Halloween party with Lilah’s preschool friends.  I helped Sam put the party together and we invited all of the moms that we use to have the preschool with.

We had:
bobbing for apples- video at the bottom.
Fishing for their prize.
bean bag toss (Toss bean bags through holes on a cardboard cut- out)
Make a jack o’ lantern place mat.
decorating sugar cookies
pumpkin toss (Toss plastic pumpkins into a bucket.)
clothespin drop (Try to drop clothespins by holding them to your nose and then trying to get them into a jar.)
spooky haunted playhouse

It was a like a carnival setup. We had each station and the kids could go and do what they wanted. Some stations had specific times but for the most part it was a free for all. We had everyone bring sack lunches and Sam provided a witches brew for drink. (Apple juice with dry ice to make it smoke.)

The kids seems to have lots of fun and they all enjoyed seeing one another.

Fun moments- Lilah being silly as she bobbed for her apple. Eden bending over as she did the clothespin drop and practically having the clothespin in the jar since her nose was so close. Seeing my friend Emilie B.’s new baby boy and just hanging out with the other moms that were in our old ward.

I forgot my camera, but Emilie S. brought hers and loaded this video onto google for us to view.

Tonight we went to the Springs Preserve for their Haunted Harvest festival. They had decorated it with lights and different scary things. There were scarecrows all around for a contest and we visited different areas of the preserve to get candy for the kids.

The girls seemed to really enjoy it and we might have spent more time had we gotten out of the house sooner. (I tried to have dinner ready early, but it wasn’t finished early enough to have Eden have plenty of time to not eat it. She didn’t get to go trick or treating, instead Lilah just got her candy, but it all goes into the same bucket, so really it’s not a big deal. She hasn’t been eating many of her dinner meals lately, so I’ve been frustrated with her a little. )

I forgot my camera, otherwise I would have taken pictures of some of the scarecrows and Lilah dancing.

We also had a couple young children, like two or three, be weary of the girls in their ghost costume make-up. They just stared at them, or walked very far around them.  We thought it was kinda funny that our girls were ghouls, were as all the other girls were something nice, like fairies and princesses, nothing against those, just funny that ours are such the opposite.   I bought some glitter make-up to put on them, but the white and black make-up doesn’t dry and the glitter make-up doesn’t work on it, it’s kinda like crayons and they just don’t write on the wet make-up. I wanted to make them more pretty ghosts, but I still think they’re cute. I guess they’re my scary ghosts.

After going to the Springs Preserve we quickly visited Jon’s parents so they could see the girls in their costumes.

Two parties down, two to go.

Last night we went to our first Halloween party of the season, we have four total. It was for my sister Carolyn’s work. The parties are for families, and since she has no kids, and even when she does I hope she continues to invite us, she invites us to be her family.

My girls love Carolyn’s work, though you wouldn’t know it by the expressions on their faces. Whenever we go, even on regular days, they’re so excited to see Carolyn. People at Carolyn’s work love my girls and sometimes I wish my girls were as excited as the people who see them are.  Lilah has become more outgoing, but Eden has become more reserved.

Anyways, as I was checking the time and trying to figure out when we needed to leave I realized I hadn’t called animal control on the cat we had caught the night before. I called, but they were not coming as quickly as I needed them too, so Jon had to come home, rather than stay on campus and study, so we could head out to the party. Since I wanted to be ready as soon as possible, in case animal control came quickly, the girls sat in their costumes and make-up for around an hour and a half. I had PBS kids on in hopes they wouldn’t touch their faces too much, and they did a pretty good job.  (I was going to go to JoAnn’s before the party, but we had to go after.)

Jon got home so we gave quick hugs and left. (Animal control came around 7, I think we were probably a last stop back to the office since we’re close by it, so it was a good thing Jon came home.)

We got to the party and ate. I had the girls on an empty desk which had a wall behind it, and many people commented on how cute they were, and some even said they thought they were apart of the decorations since they were siting so nice and still.

We went trick or treating to each office and the girls even went into a haunted office. Eden was holding my hand very tightly. A witch that had been going around, who scared and made almost every child cry who was under the age of 5 except my girls, was in the office. There were a lot of witch cackles, which made Eden nervous, but they did well and made it out OK. It was “just the right amount of scary” Lilah said,  according to my sister Carolyn’s blog.

Carolyn’s boss, Tim, was dressed up and sitting in one of their rooms to scare the kids. He gently got Lilah and mostly just hugged and gave her a few kisses, I think she was only slightly scared, but we told her it was Tim, so she seemed OK with it. When I took a picture of him with the girls, Eden was definitely not enjoying sitting on his lap, and even when he took the pantyhose off his head she was weary of him, though Eden’s pretty much weary of everyone lately.

It was lots of fun and the girls were pretty happy with their loot.

Lilah with her hair braided to crimp it.

My scary ghosts.

The girls with Tim. He was scarier with the lights out, which they were but I have a good flash.

The loot.

Last week was my niece Zarina’s first birthday.

She was asleep when we called to have the girls sing happy birthday, so we made a little video of them instead and e-mailed it to my sister.

Just for fun, and because I don’t have much more to blog about, here’s them singing.

Enjoy, and happy belated birthday Zarina!