Is It Naptime Yet

 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.

So I’ve finally been able to get the picture files opened.
Here’s our family pictures from earlier this month.
Ones we ordered:

Some of these I like so I’m sad we didn’t get them.(Jon didn’t like the fake or forced smile, because Lilah doesn’t smile like that on her own.) But to reorder would defeat the purpose of using a $3.99 a sheet coupon because it would be like $15 a sheet plus a fee for reordering.

Ones we didn’t order:

The ones the send you online are fuzzy so a person isn’t tempted to print them, though you can but they’re just not high quality.

 How the girls have grown from a year ago.

Eden coughed and Lilah said “Say excuse me Eden.”
So Eden said:
“Excuse you!”

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. 🙂

Today was Lilah’s first primary presentation. I’m getting old. I feel even older knowing that Lilah will be in her second year of Primary come January.

It was a hectic morning. Lilah was suppose to be there at 8:30 am, in which I think they said 8:30 in hopes that the parents would get the kids there by 8:50. 🙂 I took the girls and let Jon finish getting ready on his own. (I made him help me so we could get there at a descent time.) We got there at 8:45 and while walking up to the building I realized I still had on my casual brown flip-flops! I didn’t want to return home since I was waiting for my parents and Jon’s mom and sister to arrive.
I had our regular phone line on call forwarding so I would get any phone calls, so I called my cell phone, I had his, and left a message. He didn’t get it so I wore brown flip-flops with my black skirt and green top. Oh well.

Back to the real post.
Lilah was great. She gave her line, even though it took a second or so for her to start, once at the pulpit.
“Jesus Christ was Heavenly Father’s first born son. I am also a child of God.”
It went by so quickly that I almost wish she had a longer part or another one. 🙂
She gave her line great, and even though she’s shy in certain situations, she’s always spoken well when she’s had to give a talk in primary or say the prayer in front of them. I think talking into a microphone helps.
She was also super cute in her yellow dress and curled hair and she sang, when she wasn’t yawning, all the songs.
She was in the second row of the stand and even though we knew she was standing while singing the songs, she’s so short it was hard to tell if she was standing or sitting.

She sat well during the program and her teacher told me that Lilah said it was soo long, when our primary president came up to to speak at the end. It’s hard to sit still for over an hour, even if you are singing a lot, when you’re a 4 year old.

I got a little choked up once it started and after Lilah gave her line. But since she was at the beginning I was able to control myself the rest of the program.
The primary did a great job and I’m happy we’re in such a great ward.

When Lilah was 2 1/2 she used the word probably. It was funny, because she used it often and in the correct manner and most 2 years old don’t use words like that very often.
Last night at dinner Eden started using the word probably, like three time in a row. It was too cute. (She is around the same age as Lilah was.)

Then Jon said how Lilah mimic something I said. I had used “like she really wants to be eaten” while Jon was playfully pretending to eat Lilah. Then later Lilah said something with “like” in the sentence and it reminded Jon of me.
At least she wasn’t being the mommy. I have to remind both girls they’re not the mommy.

Another fun thing. The girls were being babysat while I was at the temple and Lilah started telling them about gravity. “Gravity holds us to the earth otherwise we’d be floating around and it would be silly.” My summary of what the family told me an what I sometimes hear from Lilah myself.
Kids are funny. I like mine.

Friday was a wonderful day. The girls played all day with very little fighting. It was dreamy.

We called Andrea that night and the girls sang happy birthday to her. Her birthday was Monday but I kept remembering  when one girl was asleep or it was in the day while she was at work or her phone line was busy. I found out that she was pretty far dilated, to a 4,  and the doctor thought she might have the baby this weekend. I told her I was at a 5-6 with both girls and had to be induced for both, so I think it’s normal in our family to get far along all on our own. Brien got woozy at the thought of having a baby this weekend and Andrea had to drive home from the appointment. I thought that was funny. I wonder how he’ll be the day of the delivery.

Eden’s costume is mostly done. I just have to put the zipper, collar and the buttons on.
I have to teach Lilah’s preschool type class the next two Thursdays and I’m not sure what I’m going to do. We are having a costume parade the second week so I have two weeks to do Lilah’s costume. I will be working with the costume satin and chiffon and I am totally nervous. Both are soo slippery and the time I’ll spend hunch over my machine is going to make my back ache again.

We had fish an butternut squash tonight, yum.
Lilah’s first primary presentation will be next Sunday. (She’s getting too big!)
I went to her practice yesterday and they had me sit on the stand because they were short like all their teachers but the one who showed up, luckily it was Lilah’s teacher, but I think I hindered Lilah. Lilah puts on a needy persona when I’m around her in new situations, or she acts tired. It totally bugs me, and she was needy and tired while I was on the stand.
When I sat on the congregation’s benches the second time through she did much better, though she did pretend to be tired through one song.
It totally bugs me because I don’t know how to discourage her behavior without wanting to just get upset at her.
I try to be patient but it runs out fast when I know she’s really just fine. Like she was totally fine until I was on the stand to help, and sitting behind her with Eden didn’t help.
I think I would decline a calling in  Primary just because Lilah gets needy around me.
Anyways. Life is pretty normal.

Have a baby Andrea!

Today we went on a field trip to a local fire station.
The girls had tons of fun and Lilah had her ears plugged most of the time, in which Eden also decided she should plug her ears. It’s becoming my children’s signature.

Plug your ears, everything is loud.
So here goes.

Most of the group.

Jon said at least she puts her fingers in her ears and not her nose and Eden just does what Lilah does.

Our tour guide fire fighter put on his gear for us.

He crawled towards the kids, telling them this is what they would see if they were ever trapped and a fire man needed to get them out.
Most were not hot on the idea of seeing him crawl towards them in his gear.

They turned the trucks lights on.

They showed the kids some of the tools they use .

Sitting in the fire engine.

We went through the whole station.

The tv room was a hit. The kids were fascinated with all the recliners.

The other fire truck came back so went to look at the hoses.

The fireman asked if I wanted to try on the gear, but I’m not too hot on putting on sweaty things. I also didn’t have socks and would have had to put my bare feet in the boots.
One mom had long pants and socks so she was volunteered by her SIL.

Our group.

Are we done taking pictures yet?

The kids had tons of fun and when we came home Lilah played a fire fighter game on the computer.

It was lots of fun and the fire fighters were very nice and spent lots of time with us.

Fun fact: Eden says fighter fighter instead of fire fighter. It’s just cute.

Yesterday I worked hard on Eden’s costume. I’m about 2/3rds finished. She’ll be Dorothy. As I cut the fabric Lilah asked if she could be Dorothy.

Uh, no.

I bought Lilah a wand to go with Glenda’s outfit and I think that will make her very happy, and it will probably make Eden jealous.
I made some dumb mistakes while sewing and I added a little detail that if I were to ever charge for this costume I would add another $20 to the price just so someone would know how annoying it was to do. I’ll explain once I get pictures of the finished product.

Today I went and bought some bows for our family pictures, plus some that I just wanted and some for Andrea. I went to the women’s house, since we have met before and it was on short notice, so she gave me a good discount. She had a five year old son that was way too friendly for Lilah’s comfort, but she got over it and they did play and have a good time as long as I was in the same room as her. Then we played at the park in the woman’s complex. The girls had lots of fun, but wondered where the swings were. It was a small park. I was happy there were no swings because then I would have been put to work pushing rather than just enjoying them playing together.

We took family pictures tonight. Finally. The pictures turned out OK, but my one complaint is we did not get a very good family picture, because she only took three, so we had just three shots to choose from and the first one was out of the question, so it left two mediocre shots. I miss my sister’s friend Marie doing our photo’s, but her photo company is just way to expensive for us now that she’s left Penny’s and has gone off on her own.

We were the last ones of the day so I’m sure that made her speed things up, plus she was working with 3 babies before we came. One thing I know is you just have to take a lot of pictures to get nice pictures when children are involved. If it wasn’t a 20 minute wait to view the pictures, so we could even order the ones we wanted, I would have insisted on more family pictures to be taken, but it was 7pm and we were all tired from smiling and keeping Eden from messing up her hair.

Lilah and Eden were cute. For once Eden was shy and Lilah was all about the smiles.
A little too smiley for Jon, but I thought she was adorable.

So I was sick like all last week. Well my throat was swollen and I started sounding funny Thursday and today, Monday or 5 days later, I’m finally starting to sound like myself.
At one point I thought I might get laryngitis, but the girls weren’t so lucky as to have a mom without a voice.

I’m so happy to start sounding normal. I hate having a sick voice, though nothing else was wrong with me, any stranger wanted to stay five feet away from me, and I’m sure some friends too.

So I’m hoping to begin cutting Eden’s costume today. I’ll be going to the store to get the rest of the materials later tonight before FHE.

I’m going to have Naia 3 days a week this month again, so I’m not sure what I will and will not get done.

I’m hoping my sister Andrea has her baby soon, though it may be a little bit still.
I’m so excited for her.

I’ve heard that there’s been a lot of funk feelings going around.
I sympathize with you all, in different ways though. I hope we’re all able to get over them.

For me making the girls costumes is exciting to me. I really enjoy making things and having the girls look cute is so fun. I do like praise after all. 😉
I am bummed that our trunk or treat is the night of Halloween. The other ward that we combine with for this party decided to do it the night of Halloween, and the youth are in charge of games and carnival type booths. Yeah, what youth wants to be at a ward party rather than trick or treating. Honestly as a parent I would let my 12-17 year old decide where they wanted to be since they’re old enough to take care of themselves.
Also our block and neighborhood is always so quiet that I feel like it’s my duty as one of the few people who participate in Halloween to be home and give out candy. Literally we had five house on our little block out of 20-30 homes be home and give out candy last year, which included our home. I also don’t like having to pick between a church function and my community.
So I may stop by the trunk or treat, but that’s it. Which makes me sad because I like the fact that the girls wear their costumes twice when we have the trunk or treat on a different night than Halloween. I may crash my parents or sister’s trunk or treat if they have theirs on a different night.
I guess if we do dress up for Lilah’s class they get to wear them that day also, but I just don’t like ward activities on Holidays even if it is just Halloween and the trunk or treat is suppose to help replace the dangerous going out and trick or treating. I think to do it on the holiday secludes you from your community and how many wanderers off the street are we going to get the night of Halloween. “Hey there’s a lot of cars giving our candy lets go.”
Totally a bad idea.
Anyways, I’m off to start cutting fabric. The girls are going to be so cute.