Is It Naptime Yet

I asked my sister Andrea how the whole getting digital pictures from Costco works and she told me how the whole thing works. With telling me she informed me that I can organize and upload them from the comfort of my own home.

We also talked about the great pricing on photo greeting cards and what not.

Well, as I finally logged on and starting looking I realized that I can make a calender for a mere $9.99. Of course is just 8×10 and not fancy, but I can make a fancy 17 x whatever that is laminated and fancy for $17.99.

Well, I’m not going to go fancy, but I think Dara and Jason would like a calendar of our family photos. It might sound narcissistic, but they love our little family and this way they get lots of pictures, rather than just one. So now I just have to figure out what photo’s I want on the calendar and I’ll ignore the groceries that need to get put away and eventually read my lesson for Sunday.

Ever since Halloween and having candy everyday, and yes they have a piece everyday and since they’re happy with one piece a day I just keep letting them eat one piece a day, Lilah and Eden share candy everyday and they make me share too.

Now not only do they share but there is a level of expectancy to share. Like when I eat a tootsie roll I have to give each of them a bite and they in return will give me a piece or two of their candy. If Lilah has a sucker she gives everyone a lick and expects them to then share with her.

All this sharing is a bit out of control.

I love that they’re sharing, I just don’t love the expectancy to share. Sometimes I want my Kit Kat to myself and sometimes I don’t want a lick of a sucker, or perhaps I don’t want to share my own sucker, which I’m sure grosses some people out.

If I didn’t have a headache as I write this I might now compare the mandatory sharing to some socialist or other economy that has mandatory “sharing” but atlas I’m tired so this sentence is all you get.

Besides sharing candy it’s spread into our real meals. Now mind you I’m not a short order cook, so what one gets we all get, except maybe Jon who makes his own food for lunch because he eats differently than us.

So while were all eating the exact same thing, Lilah will  offer some of her sandwich or fruit to Eden and then Eden will do the same. Or Lilah will want to have a sip of Eden’s juice box or hot chocolate which is exactly the same as her own drink.

Now it’s driving me nuts.

Am I strange to not like all this sharing going on all the time? Of course some days there is more sharing, other days less, but without fail their is a sharing of candy.

I just find it funny and maybe a little annoying. Like I said before,  sometimes a girl just wants to eat her candy in peace, or sandwich in some cases.

We have a pretty nice mail lady, and mailman for that matter, but this post is mostly about our mail lady.

I’m not sure how long she’s been our mail lady, but I only really remember her from sometime last year. I think before that we hadn’t had much interaction with her because most of our packages were delivered through UPS, and we just never saw her. Last year we began getting a lot of packages from Amazon through the USPS, and we saw her, even if it was just waving thank you as she pulled away in her truck or seeing her as we came or left our house. She also delivered the doll house we got from Conrad, and mentioned to Lilah that she could not open it till Christmas, since it was addressed to Lilah and it said not to open till Christmas.

Ever since last year we wave to her each time we see her and if she happens to be at the mailbox the girls go over to get our mail from her. They were wary of her the first few times, but now they seem to be a little more comfortable with her, though still wary if I just watch from the driveway.

(The mailbox is in our connecting duplex’s yard, so if it were just one house, it would be in our yard.)

She’s a very nice woman but she has an always busy or needs to be moving type personality. We see her dancing and singing to her i-tunes and when we’ve spoken it’s always been very quick.

Today we got another package and instead of just leaving it on the door and waving goodbye as I got it and she pulled away, she waited at the doorstep and also gave us our mail.

I had been taking a nap so she had rang the doorbell and knocked by the time I got there. She said, “Why so slow, slowpoke?” I replied I was taking a nap and she apologized for waking me and asked if the girls were sleeping too. I replied it was just me and the younger one as Lilah emerged and she commented on her being so quiet for me and then she was gone as quickly as she had appeared.

I really like our mail lady and her little quirkiness. With living in an apartment you got minimum interaction with the mailman and now with living right by the mailbox and receiving packages we see them on average once a week and they know who we are.  Our mailman also directly gave me a package and our mail the other day when I was out doing lights on Monday.

I wonder what it’s like to remember people and their addresses.  I wonder if they first know me by my address or by the name on the package. I wonder if seeing my girls ever brightens their day. In fact I know it brightened the mailman’s day on Monday. He handed me a package and Lilah asked what it was as I handed it to her. I told her it was a Christmas present for Daddy and she immediately replied, “Lets go wrap it right now.” Our mailman chuckled and replied how cute it was that she knew exactly what to do with it.

I wonder if I’m allowed to give gifts to our mail people, and I plan on trying to give them some of the truffles I make to show thanks for being such nice mail people.  I think interacting with them as given me teaching experiences with the girls on friendliness and being polite to those who serve us.

Yesterday the girls and I made pictures to decorate our front window. I cut out some snowflakes, Christmas trees and stars and they colored them.

Then last night we finally got to decorate the tree.

Lilah had been dying to decorate the tree since Jon put it up on Sunday and we finally got to it last night.
(Monday night we fixed the tree and it  got a little late to decorate so we just watched Shrek the Halls on TV.)

We had fun and Lilah loved decorating. Eden loved playing in the stockings.

Believe me when I say we don’t have enough ornaments to have 8 this close together.

It was Eden’s turn to put on the angel. Her mouth is full of a marshmallow that was in her hot chocolate, and it was a large one, not the small ones.

Since we only set up 2/3rds of the tree we had extra lights and I put some in our front window today. Lilah said I was the best at making Christmas fun.

Also, here are some pictures from us making a gingerbread house with Carolyn on Saturday so Jon could study.  She graciously let us give her company all afternoon, and into the evening,  at the house she’s watching since we had to wait 1 hour for the walls to dry and then another 2 hours to let the roof set. The girls played and watched Dora while we talked and took naps  waiting to decorate the house.

Eden eating candy.

Giving a big smile after eating candy.

Lilah eating candy too.

The girls also want to eat it right away, but I’m making them wait till after Christmas.

I put up the outside Christmas lights today and the fuses on two strands blew out, so I had to replace them. It took me a little bit to figure out why the lights worked and then would not work when I was messing with a light bulb but I figured it out and we have almost all working lights. A few light bulbs shorted for some reason when I took off the plastic hook thing that I was using to hold them up, it rubbed the wire or something so we now have four unlit lights on a  brand new string of lights, that I bought last year on clearance. I’m pretty proud of myself, except the whole blowing through two fuses thing, but I’m also pretty proud that I figured out the problem and fixed it all by myself.

We’re suppose to decorate the tree tonight, but I think we’ll be fixing it because a vital plastic piece that holds some branches in place broke, so the branches now just hang there because they are attached because of the pre-strung lights on the tree. I wanted to buy a new tree on sale at JoAnn’s, but Jon wouldn’t let me because we had a tree at home, but now it’s broken and we’ll make it work this year, but guess who’s going clearance shopping after Christmas for a new tree?

Anyways, we’re getting in the Christmas spirit and I’m loving it.

This year Halloween fell on Nevada Day observed, or the last Friday of the month, so Jon got the actual Nevada Day off and was able to spend the day with us. He worked on his paper throughout the day and was nice enough to take pictures of us taking our the seeds and guts of our pumpkin and handed out candy that night while I took the girls around.

Our tradition is to carve our pumpkin Halloween day. So the girls helped me gut the pumpkin. Eden really didn’t like getting so messy, while Lilah sat there and played with the seeds and guts.

The poor pumpkin had no idea what fate awaited him.

The only Picture Eden was smiling. All the others she has that look of disgust.

Lilah drew a face, which I transferred to the pumpkin.

Eden chose a picture from the carving kit I bought. (Her expression here just made me smile.)

I came up with my face on my own.  (Lilah took this picture.)

I got the girls ready a little before dark so we visited Beth’s house and Eden’s old nursery leader.

We then came back to our neighborhood and took the girls to the other four houses on our little block that were participating. Jon stayed home and handed out candy. We went through about 6 of the 8 bags and I will have Jon take some candy to work because we have plenty of candy from the girl’s adventures.

After going down our block I took the girls to my parents neighborhood. I took them down the cul-de-sac my parents live on and one more. We hit around 20 house but still came home with so much candy. I’m not sure why I took them down the second street. Lilah was just so into trick or treating and I guess the child in my wanted as much candy as we could get. Lilah started complaining about her bag being too heavy and I had to carry Eden’s bag for her towards the end. We have way too much candy for our house. I only let the girls choose one piece a day at lunch and I’m actually trying to not eat that much due to watching my weight, and Jon only eats a piece maybe once a week. I’m thinking I may put some in the freezer for Christmas. “I don’t know why you got gum with a jack o’ lantern on it or that gummy spider.”

Candy from our previous adventures.

Candy from Halloween night. (I don’t know if you can tell, but this bowl holds more than the 1 gallon bucket. )

I’ve noticed that even in my parents neighborhood, where there are a lot of families, there are not a ton of kids running door to door and only about 1/4 of their neighborhood participates in handing out candy. When I grew up there were kids everywhere swarming the streets and you rarely had a house that didn’t hand out candy. I feel like they miss out on some of the excitement I had has a kid.

Lilah still loved trick or treating and even though her bag was “getting so heavy” she persevered. Too bad she as a once piece of candy a day mom rather than a pig out on candy one night mom.

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.

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.

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!