Is It Naptime Yet

So I did popcorn on Sunday night and the truffles today. The girls were actually pretty good and only in the afternoon was the TV on.
Lilah liked to watch me do things and was there to lick up any stray chocolate that got on the counter.
At one point she was relieved of her chocolate counter licking duty when she was getting in the way and trying to lick things like the spoon I still needed. She wasn’t too happy. Plus I’m not having her take regular naps so she becomes pretty sensitive.

So I made about 150 truffles.
Yeah.
Craziness.
I did have some difficulty when a batch of the candy melts were terrible and not looking nice as the coated the truffle. It had an oily separated look, so I made a lot of chocolate covered almonds with that chocolate and a went through a few bowls trying to figure out what was wrong.
Jon has 25 things of chocolate covered popcorn and 25 bags of truffles, each containing one of each truffle I made, and I did 5 kinds.
He has a lot of people at work to give them to. The list became so long because Jon would want to give some to a person in one office but they share the office with other people he knows and somewhat works with so he feels obligated to give a some to the whole office. Hopefully he has enough. He gave me 22 names and he has 3 to work with.

I’m just happy the day is over and the dishes are washed. (All our bowls had been used so I had to do dishes tonight so we could have something to eat from tomorrow.)

For tomorrow Christmas shopping and cutting out snowflakes for our window.

This weekend we kept out of Jon’s hair so he could study and write his term paper. (Something that is hard to do at a library and nicer to do from home, but as he said, he can’t study with kids around and admires those who can. Thanks honey.)
Lilah had a primary activity in the morning on Saturday so I just went and took Eden along.
We were in a group of mostly boys between the ages of 8-11. Some girls were added later on, also between 8 and 11, but I was glad that I stayed so Lilah didn’t get lost in all the traveling to room to room.
After the activity we came home and ate lunch.
Once Carolyn got off of work we went to her house to make some cookies. ( I invited myself and the girl’s on Friday knowing that Jon would need space.)
We made some carrot cake cookies, very yummy and some sugar cookies.
The girls were good at rolling the cake cookies.
We let the girls decorate their own sugar cookie and eat it. After watching them decorate their own cookie I decided Carolyn and I should do the rest.
(Lilah was piling all our white frosting on her snowman. We had to take some away to have any for the other snowmen and snowflakes.)
I do have a few pictures, but since my hands were mostly dirty I didn’t take any.
I mostly wanted to get the cookies made and clean up so we wouldn’t be there too late.

These pictures are by Carolyn.

A chair after Lilah was helping to make cookies.

Carolyn and the girls played while I got frosting made and the sugar cookies ready to cut out.

Where’s Lilah.

They loved what Carolyn’s couch did to their hair.

Today we’ve been home. Jon came home after Sacrament and had those two hours to himself.
I took a nap while Eden was taking hers and Lilah stayed up and watched a movie while Jon studied.

Tomorrow I’m making truffles. A lot of truffles so the girls will probably be glued to the TV, fighting, or possibly getting along with one another in their bedroom, but probably making a mess in the process.

It should be interesting.

So I just bought the girl’s gifts.
I am totally an amazon.com shopper.
Though some things will need to be bought in person or at the dollar store.
Wouldn’t that be funny if you could buy things from the dollar store on-line?
Anyways. I’m excited for Christmas and some of the things we’re getting for the girls.
Yay for the Holidays!
Now I just have to purchase for Jon and my brother and one close friend who does a lot for me without asking for anything in return.

Even though we both have amazon accounts, it still makes it hard to buy things for Jon because he only puts things like books and Cd’s up there and I want to get him something other than a book or a Cd because that’s what I always get him.
I like thinkgeek.com we’ve gotten t-shirts from there and there are a couple of gadgets Jon liked.
Though I may just buy books and more books for him.

One thing my mom gives us married people every Christmas is one or two Cutco knives or other Cutco gadgets. ( I love Cutco.)
We’re so close this year to having a full knife set, or at least the basic knife set.
Heck, I don’t even care if we get the last knife, or spatula spreader,  I just want the block to put my knives in and use. (I’m strange and have wanted to get the whole set before we used any.)
Besides knives we’ve also receive a pizza cutter and vegetable peeler, seriously the best pizza cutter or veggie peeler you could ever have.
And then baking stuff, like spatulas and serving stuff. ( I forget I have a huge spatula that would be lovely for frosting large cakes but it’s tucked away with the knives for future use once I get the block.)
I really hope my mom got the hint in my e-mail and gets us the block to put the knives in because I would love to get rid of one of the knife sets on my counter. ( I won’t say which one. And yes we have two knife sets, soon to be three if I get my wish. We got two for wedding gifts. One is a new one, well five years old now and whatever cutlery brand you get a Target and the other is a Union Pacific set that I wanted more for sentimental value that is from Jon’s parents, but Jon didn’t like having only one butcher knife and he pulled them out a while back. Though we really only use the butcher knife out of that set and when I say we, I mean him.)

Anyways, as I’m typing this I have the knives in their boxes on my computer desk. Whenever I pull them out to survey what we have and let my mom know, it reminds me how sharp they are and how dull my current knives are.
A block to put them in would be the perfect Christmas gift.
I want sharp knives to use this new year.

Jon has been a doll. He has let me sleep in on the weekends and he takes care of the girls and gets them breakfast.
It’s been great.
Thanksgiving Day:
Jon made Thanksgiving breakfast. Yummy blueberry muffins that we’ve had in our cupboard for a while.
We hung out at home and I made pies for my parents house.
We got there at 12:45 thinking “dinner” was at one. Only the people who live there and were staying there were there and the turkey was an hour behind because my mom started a turkey dripping fire in the oven.
No one else showed up till around 2 so we only saw some people for about an hour. We ate at 3 or so and we jetted out of there around 3:45.
We got to Ann’s house late, 4:30 but they waited for us since I had the rolls.
Ann and Doug have a new little Yorkie and the girls just loved him.
Lilah held him at every chance and she thought it was funny that he liked to nibble on my belt.
We got home around 8:30, just a half hour past the girls bedtime, though they didn’t get to bed till 9.

Friday:
I went to my parents house with the girls because Andrea and Brien would be heading over there later and Jon needed time to work on a term paper.
I hung out with family and held the baby a little and I even cleaned out my car.
It was a nice day.

On a down note I’ve been getting sick since I went out on windy Wednesday. Today I feel my worst and since I’ve procrastinated writing my lesson I still need to prepare it.
I’m terrible I know it.
I’ve also slept or rested most of the morning since I’m feeling stuffy and just plain terrible.
I have gone over it, so that’s a plus.
I love the holidays, just not when I’m sick.

Jon asked Lilah what tomorrow was and she enthusiastically replied “Turkey Day!!”

I’m excited for Thanksgiving. I’m not sure why.
I made some really good rolls to take to the in-laws tonight. Like really good. The last batch I made, just last week for Carolyn, weren’t as good as these.
I’m making pumpkin pie that unless I take a piece with me I may not get any since we won’t be at my parents house for desert.

Andrea and Brien stopped by after their dentist appointments today.
It was funny because the girls got to see Zarina and even got their picture taken before I saw her.
She was grumpy and needed to be fed so I took a quick peak of the cute girl and ate lunch while I waited for her to get a full belly.
She’s adorable and decided to poop or pass gas while I held her.

I really love that Andrea and Brien make time to visit us when they’re in town.
Often on there way out or in they stop by since we’re just a small detour off and back onto the freeway.
And they have dentist appointments twice a year so they visit after or before their appointments.
It makes me happy and I feel loved that they do this.
I’m use to many relatives always saying we traveled this far you need to come see us, but it was hard when we only had one car or I never knew when they’re going to be at the house.
Also since our house is so small about only 2 or 3 other people can fit in it comfortably, though we’ve had more, and is also seen as a reason to not stop by.

I guess I just appreciate the effort put forth by Andrea and Brien to see my family.
It makes me feel loved.

Thanks Andrea and Brien.
We love you.

Anyways, tomorrow is Turkey day and it looks like I won’t need the turkey to be tired since I’m up at 1 am and my body likes to nap in the afternoon anyways.Jon is also up so I’m not sure who will be more fit to drive tomorrow after we have turkey at my parents and have to drive the 45 minutes across town to his sisters.(They’re 33.3 miles apart. So fun.)

I just have a gigantic cold sore to start off my holiday week.
It started Wednesday and I’m pretty sure it won’t be healed by Thursday.
Oh well.
At least my family loves me, beautiful or not. 😉

In extended family news:
Jon’s father went into the hospital Thursday because his parents felt he had a mild heart-attack.
He’s doing well and is still there.
They ran test, I think Thursday but possibly Friday, and they still don’t have any results, I think that’s why he’s still there,
Dumb hospitals.
As an added bonus Mom’s knee cramped up on her so she’s been tied up at home and unable to visit him since she can’t get around or drive easily. She needed knee surgery a while back, but didn’t have it and now she’s the only capable one in the house. (At the time she first needed it Dad could drive, but they decided not to do it.)
Dad hasn’t driven for a while and he doesn’t cook or do anything domestic.
We’re hoping he gets home soon and that things get back to normal.
Life is crazy for them right now and with the Holidays this just brings added stress.

I really love my in-laws and it’s hard to see things go down hill. They are closer to the age of my grandparents than my parents and with that I think they show a lot of love towards us and are very patient. Not like typical in-laws.
When we saw them on Sunday Dad mentioned how tall Lilah was and how grown she is compared to Eden. Eden still looks like a baby, or toddler and Lilah looks grown up to him.
I had to agree with him.
Lilah and Eden are their youngest grand kids and the ones they see most often since we try to see them once a month, though it’s been hard with different sicknesses so it was more like August the last time we saw them.
When we were there on Sunday Dad mentioned how before his fathers death he didn’t visit him because he had a cold, and then he died the next day so it wouldn’t have matter that he had a cold.
Jon and I don’t know how to take that story. I feel like he’s letting go and he just wants to see us and the girls. Even if it’s just to watch them play and even if they’re sick.
But we still want to be careful because we don’t feel like he’s going to die tomorrow and we wouldn’t want to hide the fact that our little girl’s cold, or our own, gave the final blow to Dad’s immune system. That would bring some unnecessary guilt.

I’m still happy for the Holidays because it means seeing the family and being gathered together. We’re going to focus on Jon’s family this Thanksgiving. Not because of Dad but because we hardly see the rest of Jon’s family and we see mine fairly often. ( I’ve also been asked to bring rolls and I love making rolls.)
Andrea and Brien will be in town and I hope to see my new niece Zarina on Wednesday since they have a dentist appointment just down the street from me. (You guys better come over.)
I can’t wait and it’ll be nice to only fight my girls to hold her.
Ah family.
I can’t wait till Thanksgiving.

We went on a date Friday night.
I love the ward we’re in. We have great people with great daughters who are willing to watch our girls for free and what parent doesn’t like free babysitting, unless the person is a total weirdo? (The Jewitt’s daughter, Shelby, is 14 and is the ‘technical’ babysitter when they have the girls, but my girls also love Hannah, who is 10, and is their playmate. I love the Jewitt’s. They are an awesome family, and not just because they give us free babysitting. 😉 )
Anyways, we traveled the 16 miles and saw the Elizabeth movie. I used a free pass and one we bought from Costco. The theater we went to charges $10.25 per person for a movie. Yeah, that’s why we’re picky and I buy discount tickets at Costco. ( It’s just hard to pay $20 for 2 hours of entertainment unless it’s really good.)
It was a good movie and we headed over to Coldstone afterwards for some yummy ice cream dessert since it’s only like 60 something degrees in the evenings still.
We got the girls to bed late, but we had a fun night.

Saturday we did various things round the house. I inside and Jon outside.
He found a lizard while cleaning outside and the girls had fun looking at it and touching it.

Our side-yard bug eater.

Don’t hurt the lizard.

Later that night we bit the bullet and cut Eden’s hair yet again.
She loves to play with her hair and lately she wakes with big honking knots in her hair. And she complains about me taking them out.
So Jon cut her hair and I helped towards the end.
It’s very short.
It gives me confidence that we can cut our boys hair, if we ever have one.

An example of the knot I face after she sleeps. I mean both nighttime and nap time I’ve had to deal with taking one of these out.

Her hair is pretty ruined at the tips where her knots have been.

The last picture with her having longer hair.

The first cut.

After…She might be destined for short hair throughout childhood.

Even though it’s so short it kinda fits her personality.
She’s still so cute but I’m gonna miss putting her hair in pigtails.

She didn’t enjoy the haircut. She was crying a little by the end when we were trying to make sure everything was okay. She has crooked bangs, but I think that’s standard on little kids.

We also visited Jon’s parents today after church and the girl’s naps. It’s been forever because someones been sick or we’ve had other engagements with my family.
We finally made it today. Jon also set up a machine that helps send information to Dad’s doctor from his pacemaker each night.
Dad was very slow getting around tonight and it was a slight reality check to see how bad he’s gotten, though it might also be that we just haven’t seen him for so long and have forgotten how slow he was before.

We also had a family from our old ward, as in the ward we were in for the first three years of marriage until we moved two years ago, move into our ward boundaries.
It’s ironic because Jon has a lot of respect for the father and he is probably the one person he didn’t want to know, or have to tell, about his change of heart. (His wife knows because we share a close mutual friend, so I’m sure he knows also.)
It’s still nice to have a family move into our ward because it seems like everyone is moving out.

 I gave the girls an early bath and put Lilah’s hair in curlers to start off our Halloween.
Then in the morning we carved our pumpkin.

  (I bought it for it’s cute stem and beautiful orange color, never mind it was lopsided and had a scar on it. )

 

Lilah enjoyed taking out the “guts” of the pumpkin.

Lilah sketched a face for  me to carve.

 

 Eden just scribbled so I carved an E for her.

 

I did my own pumpkin face also. ( I love Eden’s “smile” I think that’s what it’s suppose to be.)

Jon came home early, a very nice surprise,  so I left early to go to my parents house. I met my sister Kristi there with her kids and my sister Carolyn. (Jon was left with candy duty. I love to take the girls out trick out treating.)

We started trick or treating shortly after dark and the girls looked beautiful.

Glinda and Dorothy.

 

Dorothy

 

Glinda

We just went up and down my parents short block, then we stopped by “Grandma’s store”, aka JoAnn’s, to see my mom as she had to work last night.

We got to our neighborhood and went up and  down our little block. There was actually 8 houses including ours this year giving out candy opposed to the 5 or 6 from the previous 2 years.

Then we visited one of Eden’s nursery leaders, because they love her so much and I love to show the girls off. Then the Jewitt’s since they’re in the same neighborhood and the girls were more excited to go see the Jewitts than the nursery leader. (They love the Jewitt’s cats, toys and daughters who watch/play with them.)

Funny story: When we pulled up to the Jewitt’s, Sis. Jewitt, or Beth, was walking her oldest daughter and her boyfriend to the daughter’s car. As we walked up I said they couldn’t leave without seeing their cutest trick or treaters. So they said how cute the girls were and then Beth said to the other two that they needed to go into the house so the girls could knock and say trick or treat. So she ran the other two into the house with her.

After a short visit at the Jewitt’s we stopped by the store for milk and cereal. I heard a  a lot of how cutes. (Have I said how much I love to show my kids off, though we went to the store because we were completely out of milk and it’s on the way home from the Jewitt’s.)
We came home and had a little fun with the glow sticks Britta gave the girls.

 Then the girls had fun in their candy.

Mmmm, candy.

 MMMM, candy!

 

MMMMM, CANDY!!

They got to bed about 10 pm. Only an hour past their bedtime, though it’s been more like 9:30 lately anyways.

We had a great Halloween and Lilah has decided to be Dorothy, a mean witch, and Tinkerbell for Halloween next year.
Our pumkins with the candle. (I forgot to take any pictures before the girls went to bed so you get just the pumpkin.)

 

 Lilah’s pumpkin face.

The holes from my carving’s eyes give an interesting affect, in which Lilah actually had a circle within her larger circles, so this is more true to her drawing.

Now I know why you only carve one side of the pumpkin.

My carving illuminated.

It’s Nevada Day observed. Nevada Day is the 31st, but a couple years a go they passed a law to make the last Friday of the month Nevada Day observed instead of giving us Nevada Day or Halloween off, totally bites. I loved having Halloween off as a kid. So Jon has today off and we’ve been busy.

Jon’s going through all his books. Yes we’re actually getting rid of some books! If you’ve never seen our house we have two six foot tall book cases, then four three foot tall book cases. All full. With books. Overflowing.
We have duplicate books, like two of each Teachings of the Presidents, and lots of doctrine gospel study manuals.
We have about 5 sets of Scriptures that we’re keeping. (our first sets, our seminary sets etc.)
Our books haven’t been organized since we moved here 2 years ago, so even though it’s not a immediate ‘wow, look I organized the books’, like ‘wow I cleaned the kitchen’, I’m still very happy it’s getting done. Especially the getting rid of some books. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

I’ve also done slightly needless things today but it makes me feel good to get things done. Like I organized my sewing stuff so I could neatly pack it away. Though I still need to make drapes. 🙂
We’re also doing tons of laundry and two loads of dishes, and I’m planning on cleaning our bathrooms today.

I wish I could take a picture of the book chaos, but our camera broke. We do get to ship it free to Cannon and they’ll fix the sensor, but it won’t be fixed for about 2 weeks. So you only get this picture of the girls in their costumes from yesterdays party. It broke when I went to take a second one.

Lilah as Glinda the Good Witch and Eden as Dorothy.

Yes, I made both costumes. I did Lilah’s Monday and Tuesday, with hand sewing Wednesday. I hate costume satin. It frays like nothing. Despite difficult fabric I think Lilah’s dress turned out nice and shiny.

Anyways, if anyone has a digital camera I can borrow for Halloween, give me a holler, otherwise we’ll be recreating the event. 🙂