This is Halloween, Halloween Night

Finally, after all the planning, sewing, buying, decorating, and stressing, it is Halloween. After all the canceled parties we decided to take the kids trick-or-treating on Broadway during the afternoon, then head over to the ward party. At the ward party Eric entered some Chili in a cook off, and his was very good, as usual. They also had costume competitions, which I think should never be done at church. How do you tell one kid their costume is better? It's not like the kids made/bought the costumes. Ella cried when she didn't win, and I felt so guilty. Here I had spent about 15 hours on her costume, and it wasn't good enough. (Yes, that is a house on my head) Sorry, I'll stop rambling. So after trunk-or-treating at the church we headed out with the Bagleys to do some tick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Ethan is Treeko, a pokemon, Eric is a pokemon trainer named Brock, Ella is Glinda the good witch, Maddi is Silvermist from the Tinkerbell movie, Carter (held by Melissa) is Tiger, I am the Wicked Witch of the West, and Caleb is a pirate. It was fun to have friends to go door to door with. I think the kids had fun having people to run up to the doors with, and I had fun having other adults to talk to. All in all it was an awesome day, but I am VERY happy not to have to do anything else Halloween related for another 11 months.

Jealous?

How can you not be jealous? Snow is absolutely the best! We got over 16 inches of snow on Thursday, and it was beautiful. Ella's preschool was canceled on Thursday, causing us to miss her Halloween party. Ethan's school was canceled on Friday, canceling his party. They were VERY sad about these missed opportunities to show off their costumes, but on the bright side, they did have over a feet of snow to play in. By today, not 2 days later, the snow started melting. Eric, Ethan, and Ella went out this morning and made an awesome snowman. Ella's hands got cold, leaving the boys up to their own devices. Well, they made some silly piles of snow, and one of them somehow turned into a throne that they had to fight (wrestle) over, of course.

One Year of Livi

This may be a big file, but it's worth it to see the change in Livi. She is such a charming funny girl, and I am so glad we were blessed with her in our lives.

My Baby is 1

I can't believe it has been a year since my beautiful Livi came into our home. This year has flown by and I am so sad that time is going this quickly. Olivia, of course, had no idea what was going on today, but it was pure joy on her face to be able to rip paper and I didn't scold her, I even encouraged her.
She was very good at ripping all the paper off, much to the chagrin of her two big helpers who were dying to open the gifts. I had to remind them earlier today that they would have 2 Christmas celebrations coming up and that this day was about Livi (both had complained that they didn't get any presents).
We had the Bagleys over for cake, sweet rolls and icecream. I was about to break off pieces of cake for Livi when I got distracted (as I so often do these days). When I turned back around she had managed to stuff most of the cake in her face. She seemed pretty relaxed through it all. Thank goodness we have the Bagleys here. It would have made for a very lonely 1st birthday if we didn't have them as surrogate extended family. Livi kept begging Melissa to pick her up and even went and stayed sitting in Melissa's lap for a quite a while (which she rarely does with me). Having them over seemed to be the highlight of her day. Carter even got in the birthday spirit and offered Olivia one of his socks.And for all grandparents who we missed terribly, here is the big moment:

Boo at the Zoo

The weather this week is suppose to get bad, so we decided to go to the zoo last night for their Halloween celebration. I had to hurry and get Ella's costume to a wearable stage (still missing some trim) Ella is Glinda the Good Witch, Olivia is Dorothy, and Ethan is Treecko a pokemon character. It was super fun until......



I dropped the camera. I love this camera. It is the best camera I have ever owned. This camera goes every where with me, takes awesome pictures, and does video. I feel like I lost an apendage. Here is the last picture I ever got to take with it:

Livi and the Kitty

Our next door neighbors have the sweetest cat. Whenever he sees the kids are outside he runs over to play. He lets us pick him up, pet him, love him, and even lets Livi come over and be "gentle." In the video Livi gets so excited she can barely "stand" it (that one's for you Dad).

Oh the Pains of Sisterhood

Poor Ella. She is so patient and loving. She has the most beautiful, long, hair, and Livi loves it. Loves to pull it, actually. She pulled a huge chunk of hair out of Ella's head, and had to go to time out for the first time. It doesn't seem to matter, though, she keeps trying to pull out Ella's hair. Ella's has never gotten mad AT her, never looks like she's going to do something back, she just sits there and quietly cries. We've had to start putting Ella's hair in buns and ponytails all the time just to keep her scalp intact.
It reminds me of sharing a bed with Julia. We shared a double bed and she would turn sideways and take up 90% of the bed. I would lay on a 6 inch sliver of bed while her feet kicked and pushed me all night long. I don't think I took it as patiently as Ella does, but I certainly know the pains of being a big sister. (I love you Julia)

The View From My Window

I am a lucky girl. I love to look out my front window, especially in fall.

Stinky Air, Disgusted Stares, and a Chocolate Trail to Follow

I was whipping up some of Joan's yummy banana bread this afternoon when I noticed Livi acting a little odd. She would run over to my legs, then run away as quickly as her cute, chubby little legs would carry her. I wasn't to interested until I felt something wet drip on my foot. I looked down and...
there was a great big drop of brown slobber on my foot. Well, I looked at the floor close to my foot and found a trail...which led me to a beautiful, messy baby.

I had dropped some chocolate chips that were going into the bread, and she would run over, grab one, and run away before I could notice she had something she wasn't suppose to have. Funny Livi.
As for the "disgusted stare" if you look closely at the picture above you can kind of see the black eye that Olivia is recovering from. She was running in the house and fell, didn't catch herself, and fell right onto her eye. A few days later she did the same thing at the mall, and landed on the exact same spot. It gave her a real shiner, and people have been looking at me weirdly and straight out asking what happened ever since.
As for the stinky air...for those of you who have ever lived by a sugar beet plant (only Grandpa Bud, I think) you know exactly what I mean. For those of you who don't, sugar beets, when refined into sugar, smell like rancid peanut butter. Not horrible if it is for a day, but for months on end? Well, it gets pretty old.

The Little (Fire) Engine That Could

One of the benefits to living in a smaller community is the opportunities the kids constantly have to go on field trips. Ethan went to a pumpkin patch and a play this week, and Ella was able to walk to the fire department to visit the firemen. I couldn't go with Ethan because I had already promised to help with computers in Ella's class, and I have the girls during the morning. I was able to go with Ella, and it was a blast. The talk to the kids about fire safety and even dress up in their fire gear so the kids wont be scared if they ever need to be rescued by firemen in their full uniform. We got to see all the fire trucks, spray the hose and then the kids got to ride back to the preschool on a vintage fire truck. Melissa and I had Carter and Livi in backpacks so, alas, we could not fit on the truck, but we consoled ourselves by walking to the bakery and getting some yummy doughnuts. We then walked around until the end of preschool (about an hour and 15 minutes) hoping the babies would take a nap. Livi finally did for the last 20 minutes, but carrying around 30 extra pounds for that long really did a number on my knees. Oh well, the doughnut was worth it!


The poor little vintage truck stalled in the middle of the street, and after my initial mother's freak out of my daughter stuck in the road, I had to laugh.

Franken-Blankie and the Shelf from Hades

I've been a little under the weather lately and have neglected some of the upkeep around the house, but something happened yesterday that could not be ignored. Ella was playing a game with Eric involving tossing her blanket and Eric trying to get it away from her. All people who have ever loved a blanket know that this game is not a good idea, but Ella was unaware of the dangers, and unfortunately blankie got ripped up the middle. I had to pull out the sewing machine and repair the damage plus all the damage that I'd been putting off fixing. The results were great, super secure, but it does look a little like a blanket Frankenstein's Monster's daughter would love.

We have recently tried to make our house more live-able to cut down on my desire to move to a bigger home. It's really been working (thank you again Mom and Dad for the new couch, we LOVE it and it has made the single biggest difference! We love the entertainment tower too!). I also bought some shelves to put above the piano and have been trying to figure out how to get them to stay up on our plaster walls (never buy a home with plaster walls, no matter what the home inspector guy says about insulation and sound proof benefits, not worth it). I ended up having to repair the wall, call my dad, and eventually add shims underneath to keep the stupid shelf up, but I think it's worth it (or I'm just blinded by the hard work and effort put in, and it looks badly, and will probably fall down on my head while I play the piano).

Signing Time with Livi

We've been working on some sign with Olivia, and she seems to like it. She even signed "sorry" to Ella the other day, but I think it was just empty words, she seemed pretty happy about pulling Ella's hair.

Snow? In October?

Yep, we've been blessed with snow at the beginning of October. Last year we put up a video of Ethan riding on a shovel. This year it is Ella's turn.

Dance Magic Dance Part 2

Livi had a couple of short videos where she was rocking out to the song, but she kept hitting the space bar and pausing it. I posted the other video because it was uninterrupted, but on reviewing the video I found her moves were pretty awesome on this one. It's longer, but the good moves are at the beginning. Enjoy!

Dance Magic Dance (for Julia)

Livi loves to bounce to music. Everytime she hears a good beat she bounces. We were looking up video from the Wizard of Oz, when somehow a clip from Labyrinth came up. Labyrinth reminds me of Julia, so I clicked on it. It's one of the funnier scenes, so I turned it on to let Ella watch it. Here is Livi's reaction.

The Dancing Train

Ella is in ballet again, and it is a real ballet studio. I am very excited to have her dancing, and more importantly she is very excited to go every week. We aren't allowed in the room (they get distracted), but it is a very safe set up, so I feel okay with it, although I'd love to watch her learn. The part we do get to see is when they line up in a "train" and walk on eleve into their class. I love it!

Climber Livi

9 months and she's walking, 10 months she's dancing, 11 months she's climbing, what's next? Maybe she'll do a back flip for her 1st birthday. I guess there is one more room we need to close the door to. One more area I have to sit and watch her in. Her independence and my leash.

Getting Better

It's October, Yeah!!!!!

I love October. It cools down, rains, and leaves start to fall. I became a Mommy for the last time last October. I love Halloween (everyone gives out free candy to cute kids, how often does our society get together like this anymore?). I love costumes, chocolate, ghosts and ghouls. I love the idea of dressing up and being something else for the night.
To get in the mood I decided to make some yummy sugar cookies (my mom has the BEST recipe) and since Maddi was coming over I thought the girls might enjoy helping me decorate them. I made traditional Halloween colored icing, and when I asked the girls what colors they wanted Ella looked and me with a perplexed look on her face and asked "Where is the pink?" Where was the pink indeed? Well, I whipped some up super quick, the girls were happy, and we made some beautiful cookies!