Carvey

(photo by William)

Meet Carvey, our Jack-o-lantern. We carved him a few says ago. I love that William named him Carvey, I think it is quite creative. I got some more pumpkins. I can't help myself I LOVE them. We will see if I get around to carving them. William wanted a happy pumpkin and Russ obliged.

I especially love this one. It was called a fairytale pumpkin - I had to buy it. I love it so much I am thinking of shellacking it so I can keep it forever. Would that work?

Never Fear! Batman and Robin are...

...playing Candyland.
Russ tried on the Robin costume to make sure it fit and William was already in his boots and mask (like always). William got so excited he started to jump around and said, "Okay Robin, should we do something?" "Sure", said Russ, "What should we do?" William then said very excitedly, "should we play candyland?"


Since these guys are going to be Batman and Robin, Gracie and I are going to be Poison Ivy, and Cat Woman (which basically means and black kitty, which works out well cause the LOVES kitties). And don't worry this Poison Ivy will be wearing a dress, NOT a leotard. Actually I need to go get sewing on that dress right now.

A long day

Last Thursday was a long day and because we also had a long weekend and I was sick for part of it I am just posting about it now. The day started off with a trip to the mall to ride the carousel but it was broken so we went down to the book store.

Here is William with Carter reading Batman books, they are both going to be Batman for Halloween.
Here is Gracie collecting as many stuffed animals, or "sha" things, as she can find...then piling them on my lap and laying on them.After Russ came home from work we decided to go to the Temple visitor center. I think the kids really enjoyed it. While William was looking at the statue he said, "Jesus takes care of us." Then he followed with "but he doesn't take care of our sunglasses", the item he was holding in his hands at that moment.Why daddy loves overallsThen we left to go thrift store shopping for Halloween costumes. Now that William has decided on Batman (by decided I mean that it is one of the MANY costumes he has said he wanted and since I have an adult Robin costume to my disposal that is what it will stay.) We got lucky. Below is a picture of him in our findings. We also found a suit, but it is too big so I will have to take it in. I don't think he cares about the suit though. I think he would be happy with just a "cipe". He can't for the life of him remember that it is called a cape.

Here he is driving the Bat mobile while watching the movie and using what I got for my costume as a steering wheel. Any guess who I am going to be?After our successful trip to the thrift store we stopped by Russ brothers house to drop of some poster board so that my talented niece could draw some posters for William's birthday party. Then we headed down the street to visit with Russ mom and let the kids play with toys for awhile. Here is Gracie getting her hair all nice staticy.Like I said, it was a loooong, but happy day.

Playing with Penelope

This last weekend we spent mostly at my parents because my cousin, Chris, and his wife, Darcey, and their little girl Penelope were in town. The kids had a great time and I loved seeing them too. Penelope is such a doll.

Chris about to play rock band holding Penelope but discovered that would not work
Luckily she discovered the extra microphones with William.

And when they got tired singing, Chris picked right up and we learned how well he can multitask.
I wish Idaho was closer.

Oh my Grace

I decided I had to sit down and write about the change that I have been seeing in our little family. The change is this little Gracie girl. Remember when she used to look like this? (photo taken by Jamelle, thanks!)

It is no secret that children grow up fast - way too fast. Many times the change is gradual and since it is always right in front of your face sometimes it is hard to see. You just look at an old photo and think of an old memory and wonder where the time went. Well the past week or so I have seen the change. Gracie is starting to talk and the words she can say are more everyday. She says Mama, Dada, Whi-wa (William), qwa-qwa (cracker), ma (milk), nana (banana - or any other fruit in the fruit bowl), ho-do (hold you), sha (soft), ni-nite, bee (blankie), choo-choo, sh-shoe (shoe or other articles of clothing), diap-ee (diaper), peese (please), ah-dah (all done), and probably more that I can not think of right now.
It is amazing what a difference it is that she can communicate with me with words and body language. Man is she a spit fire. She squints her eyes when she does not like something and hits and waves her arm about hitting anything in her way. The other day when I told her not to get huffy she bowed her head and sobbed. Now when she starts swinging (it is usually at my face while I am holding her) I say, "soft". Then she repeats me and calms down.


She brings me books to read to her all the time and she always backs her little self up to my lap, she HAS to be in my lap while I read her a book. She says "mow mow" when she sees a cat. In one of her stories it says that the mother bear kisses her baby bears head and Gracie always leans in and kisses the book.
(Here she is after backing herself up into my lap that is loaded with all the animals she could carry and a couple of balloons and pointing out the bears "no", you would probably call it a nose)
The other night during a family pre-bed wrestling session I realized that our family would be so incomplete without her little pop belly on top of the dog pile and without the sounds of her little squeal. Squeal on my dear.

Breath of fresh air

That is how this weekend felt. My aunt and uncle came down from Idaho and usually they bring us their honey (which William eats everyday!) but this time they brought more! Apples, plums, grapes and tomatoes, all from their own yard. My aunt and my mom have been busy making plum jelly and applesauce so yesterday and today I had one of my favorite childhood meals for breakfast -whole wheat bread with applesauce and milk. (I pored the milk on after the picture) Today I am going over to make some more applesauce with them using a all natural sugar substitute stevia. My mom used some brown sugar and Cinnamon which is much better that the high fructose corn syrup that is in like 90% of the bottles at the store.
I got a request to make a doll house tote on etsy, but she kinda wanted it to resemble a castle and I had to get it done super fast to make sure it got to her by her daughters birthday. It kinda stressed me out to have that pressure but once I finished it, I felt good.

But the freshest of the air came when I got to watch and listen to General Conference (a conference that our church holds twice a year where our apostles and leaders speak to us). I welcomed it with open arms. You know you are growing up when each session ends and you say, "that's it? its already over?" This wasn't the first time I felt that way but it makes me laugh to think about how long it seemed when I was younger.

On Saturday we watched Conference at my in-laws and that evening Russ went to the Priesthood session with his Father, brother, and nephew. Then we had dinner together. Sunday we got up early (ok, we were actually late) and went to my parents. While I watched both days I got a Christmas present half way done! This is a big deal. I decided that this year all the Christmas presents I give will be hand made, so you can imagine that I have a lot of work to do. I had one gift that I feared would take a lot of time, so to have it half way done feels very good. I will spending pretty much all my spare time from now on doing Christmas presents. Whoo hoo! Christmas!

New Buddy

My friend Amanda called me up last week and told about a kids club that meets at the mall and gets to ride the big carousel on Thursdays for free. This is a pretty huge carousel so it is kinda a big deal. We decided to go and it was a lot of fun. William really wanted the tiger and luckily no kid got on it before him. Here he is getting ready to go.Pure Joy.Amanda has a little boy named Carter that is Williams age and they have become good friends.The next day Carter and his sister Kiley came over and they brought worms!
They got them for their garden and the kids had a lot of fun looking at them and counting them. Carter did most of the picking up and William would poke at them a little. They all liked watching them squirm. You can see a cute video here.Today we went over to Carters house and then did a little thrift shopping for some holiday books, ate lunch at chick-fil-a and just had a fun day. William DID NOT want to go home and told me that they whole way home and Gracie zonked out in the car. It has been a good day.