Happy Halloween!

I remember as a kid being so excited about Halloween and the prospect of getting obscene amounts of candy and dressing up in crazy home-made costumes. As an adult, the holiday has lost some of its magic for me, but I can already see how exciting and wonderous it still is for my children. This year's festivities began on Friday for Isaac's preschool Halloween party. I made Isaac a little street sign, but of course he left it at school. I love hearing him say "I'm a construction worker!" because "construction" comes out more like "constructxkin." Way too many consonants in there. After a while, he just started calling himself "Bob the Builder."
Friday night we went back to our old stomping grounds in Draper for our former ward's truck-or-treat. Our ward cancelled ours last weekend because of the swine flu (why can't people just stay home if they're sick?!?!?!?!?!), so I was happy that we could still go to one this year. Emilie took a little while getting used to her costume but was a pretty good sport about it all. She loved taking her little basked up to people and getting candy. She was so polite and would say "day-diyoo, bye bye!" and wave at each person. Way too cute.With the weather so nice today, I took the kids to Hee Haw Farms in Pleasant Grove and I just wish I would have gone sooner in the season so that we could have come back a few times! I loved it, the kids loved it, and it was a lot more affordable than some of the other autumnal attractions in our area. I expected it to be packed today, but it wasn't too crowded and the kids were able to do everything they wanted. Isaac thought the giant slides were a blast.
Why is it that kids love to get buried in corn? And throw corn? Maybe that's why these places have giant corn pits. Emilie just liked making piles and watching the other kids go crazy.Bouncing in the hay. I had to finally climb inside to get Emilie out, she was having such a good time in here.Riding the pony. I didn't let Emilie have a turn, last time I tried to let her have a pony ride, she let everyone know within ear shot that she did not approve. Riding in the tractor train. Isaac would have stayed in all day, Emilie was very ready to get out by the time the ride was done. The kids had so much fun in the petting zoo. The goats and sheep would eat right out of your hand. Isaac wanted to keep feeding them and would laugh every time they licked his hands. Emilie has two main categories for animals: cats and dogs. The goat, evidently, is a cat.And pigs are doggies.What do you do when you can't find your way out of a short maze? Just climb up on the top and jump out. Worked for Isaac.After we got home, Emilie took a quick nap and we had a fun BBQ with some of the families on our street. Then it was time to put the costumes back on and let the kids hit the pavement.Nathan and Julie came over with Justin and we all went out trick-or-treating. The babies only stayed out for a little while, then I went out a little longer with Isaac because he just wasn't done. He just about wore me out, but towards the end, he wanted to take a little break. After that, I knew it was time to go home and put that boy to bed!

Fashion

I will be the first to admit that I am no where near the cutting edge of fashion or trends, and that's ok. I've got the momma chic thing going on, if that's what you can call the cotton wardrobe constantly accessorized by various food products, usually plastered on my shoulders. That said, I didn't think that Emilie would start showing her inner fashion sense at such a young age, especially when it comes to footwear. Evidently, the sturdier the shoe, the better. In fact, why limit your footwear choices just to shoes, really. All you need is two sauce pans and you've got yourself a very nice pair of shoes. This "pair" kept her busy for a quite a while as she paraded around the kitchen while I was making dinner.And if the saucepans aren't working for you, then just look for your brother's shoes. To really top the look off, put them on over your footie jammies. Adorable.

Quickie Trip

Last week, Jarom had some contract work to do in California, so we used that as an excuse to all take a quick little road trip down to California. We had less than a day's notice to make all our plans, but I was able to take a few days off work and rearrange my schedule for a few days, got everyone's things packed, and left!

The kids did great on the drive down. We made one stop in St. George for gas and a quick bite to eat. Emilie thoroughly enjoyed her pizza and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her eat! From there we make our way to California and Isaac was thrilled to stay in a hotel. He didn't even mind sleeping in the pull-out bed. On Thursday while Jarom was at work, we kept busy by visiting Grandma and Aunt Chris. Emilie had fun coloring with Grandma. If she gets any artistic skills when she's older, we know who to thank for them.Chris made sure that Isaac was plenty spoiled and had a goodie bag full of all kinds of neat toys for him to "earn." We had a nice lunch at McDonald's and Isaac made friends with all the cute little girls playing in the play area. I had a few moms comment to me what a nice boy Isaac was as they were leaving and it just made me laugh how quickly he makes friends and goes out of his way to make people happy. What a good kid. After eating, I think the long night of driving caught up with the kids because they both needed a good rest.Jarom was done working Thursday night, so Friday morning we went back to Grandma's house and picked some avocados off her tree. Isaac loved picking them and worked hard to grab as many as were in his reach.After warming up to her, Emilie was so happy to just jabber away at Grandma and had to tell her all about everything. She loved visiting "Pa Ma!"
Way too soon, it was time to go home, but we wanted to do at least one exciting thing before we left, so we took the kids to one of our favorite places, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I think Emilie's favorite part was the shark tank. Her hands and face were plastered to the window and she just laughed and talked to the sharks as they swam past.Watching the sea lions swim around.They have a really neat Lorikeet exhibit that for some reason we've never been inside before until this year. If you get their special nectar, the Lorikeets fly right up to you and drink out of the little cup.
After we finished up at the aquarium, we got on the freeway, got stuck in some lovely California traffic, and drove home. We arrived home at about 3:30am and my bed has never felt so good.

And the rest

My blogging kind of comes in spurts whenever I have the time to write a few things and get pictures off my camera! Here are a few more pics of what's been going on around here.

A few weeks ago, my little nephew (who is anything but little) had his missionary farewell and left for the MTC. He's on his way to Guatemala for the next two years. I'm so proud of him for wanting to leave everything familiar and embark on an exciting adventure serving the Lord. My sister Michele, me, and Emilie.Emilie got her first hair cut last week. When my neighbor Camie was done trimming up my hair, I had her even out Emilie's hair and got rid of the baby mullet so now her hair will all grow in at the same length. And it's still long enough for her little piggie tails! Then yesterday, the weather was so nice and Isaac didn't have school, so we went to the zoo to see all the new baby animals! We saw the baby elephant, giraffe, and tiger cubs! TOO CUTE!!! Here are the kids lined up in front of the giraffe. (Emilie didn't want anything to do with the picture, she just wanted to walk around and explore.) Mommy and my little zoo creatures.

A pirate birthday, matey!

We went to such a fun birthday party for Kaleb last week! First, everyone got into the pirate mood by dressing the part:(I told Isaac to give me his best "pirate face" and this is what I got.)Then they went outside for a pirate obstacle course. Isaac loved walking the plank.Breaking the pinata. And no, Emilie's blow did not do too much to break the pinata apart.Can't keep good friends apart! Lincoln, Isaac, and Ben.

First Field Trip

Isaac's little preschool class had a fun and informative field trip to the Saratoga Springs Fire Station on Wednesday and I was able to come along to help carpool. Not only was it horribly exciting for Isaac to get up close and personal with the fire trucks (could that really surprise anyone?), but we also learned a lot of valuable safety lessons!

#1 Smoke alarms are very loud! And when you hear one, crawl on the floor to the door and touch it with the back of your hand. If it's hot, then crawl to the window. They had the kids practice doing this with a fake door and little smoke curtains to crawl under. #2 Since firefighters spend so much time at the fire station, they have it set up like a house with a kitchen and little bedrooms. Isaac was quick to point out a toy fire fighter on top of the tv console! Then the kids got little fire fighter badge stickers and they were sufficiently trained to see the trucks up close! #3 Fire trucks have lots of really cool things inside! The fire fighter opened up the different doors to show the huge first aid kit they sometimes use to help people.#4 Fire fighters really like their cool toys. This guy got so giggly happy talking about his hydraulic scissors that cut cars in half. #4 Underneath all their heavy equipment and clothes, fire fighters are just normal people and aren't scary. And they talk like Darth Vader when their oxygen mask is turned on. They had the kids practice yelling "I'm Here!" when the firefight asked, "is anyone in here?"
#5 Fire trucks are just neat to walk through. I'm sure Isaac would have been happy to spend hours exploring the big truck! #6 Field Trips to the fire station are so much fun! Here's Isaac's little class with the fire fighter.

Ladies Volleyball

I've joined the ladies volleyball team in my ward that plays on Thursdays nights after the kids are in bed. Until last week, I hadn't played a good game of volleyball since my MTC days. I forgot how much I love to play and get down and dirty! And playing with a group of moms who are all exhausted after a long day of changing diapers has proven to be a wonderful stress reliever! But as we were playing on Thursday, I couldn't help but pay attention to the conversations and actions that were going on and I just had to laugh because most of the things that were happening would never happen if it were men playing volleyball. For instance:

• If anyone made a mistake, missed a ball, didn't call the ball, etc, instead of swearing or laughing, you'd just hear, "I'm sorry!"
  
• In the middle of the first game, we had a lengthy conversation about one mom's new hair color.
• The other team got involved in the conversation about her hair color.
• Requests for the "beehive re-serve" were made, even though they weren't allowable with the new rules.
  
• When the ball bounced off the ceiling, we instinctively ducted out of the way.
• We laughed about how much less graceful we are now compared to the good old days.
  

At the end of the night, we all got in our minivans and went home exhausted but feeling great! And this week, we actually won!