Halloween 2012

Princess M designed her own jack-o-lantern this year.  She drew the face and Alex cut it out for her.

Princess M (with her purple vampire teeth) and Monkey.

This was Monkey's first Halloween where she became aware of what was happening as we trick or treated. She got very good as saying "Trick or treat" and "Thank You" and then running as fast as her little legs could carry her to the next person she could find holding a candy basket.

Princess M wanted to be both Rapunzel and use the neon pink spray on hair color that I had bought.  So we modified Rapunzel's hair do just a bit.  

Ready for School!

That afternoon, Monkey managed to climb her way into the crib full of stuffed animals, but couldn't get out.  It resulted in an unintentional forced nap.  Isn't she adorable?

I was feeling festive and made these jack-o-lantern quesadillas for lunch.  

We got to have the girl's best friend along with us for Halloween this year.  We started out at the ward's trunk or treat party, and then proceeded to the mall for their festivities.  Everyone had a great time, and went home to bed exhausted.

Unfortunately, in all the excitement to get out the door, we didn't get a picture of the girls in their trick or treating costumes this year.  Monkey was the cutest little green witch, Funny Girl chose her favorite mermaid costume, and princess M wore the same costume that she wore to school.  Now that I think about it, we had a family picture taken at our ward Halloween party, but I have no idea where it is now.  If I ever find it, I'll tack it on at the end of this post.

2012 Family Photos!

We haven't gotten new family photos in so long due to a lack of knowledge of any good photographers in town since moving back here.  (Rachael, we miss your amazing photography skills!)  But I finally found a local woman, from the blog of one of our ward members who used her.  We spent an afternoon up the canyon and this beautiful site; and I was very pleased with the results.  Our favorites are now decorating the blog, but you can see the whole shoot in this slide show.

2012 Family Photo Shoot - slideshow

Last of September Photos

Here's just a couple cute photos we have of the older girls:

 These are of the girls reading scriptures together.  After the first one, I had several on the camera of them smiling; but as is the nature of photographing kids, one would have a great smile and the other would be blurred out or not paying attention.  So thanks to photo editing, I just took the best smile from each, and put them together into one photo.  I thought it made a great photo.  (just ignore the line down the middle of the room where the floor and china cabinet don't quite match up.)

 And here's the girls getting their hair curled.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the results, but they were adorable with and without the curlers.  Banana Girl looked just like Shirley Temple.

One of Those Days

I walked out of the computer room to find this:

I'm thankful that at the sight I didn't blow my top, but instead saw the humor and ran for the camera.  She was having so much fun, and her little footprints were precious.  I cleaned it up with a smile.

That very same day, I walked into my craft room to find this:

 What you see here is about 1/4 of the packing peanuts that were scattered in this room as the children swam in them.  I did not feel quite so humorous about this one.  And I wasn't feeling up to cleaning it either.  I shooed the children out of the room, turned off the light, shut the door, and tried to pretend that the mess did not exist for a while.  (I don't think I got around to cleaning that one for several weeks.)

A Mermaid Birthday

The later end of September brought a double birthday for Banana Girl and Alex.  This year was a "friend party" year and Banana Girl chose to have mermaids as her theme.  I had a lot of fun preparing the food and Mermaid tale towels for the girls and we had a great time partying at the pool.  Unfortunately, Alex had a class for his work and ended up missing the whole party.  I made him his favorite meals that day and had a little family party for him that night.

2012 Sept Birthday Party - slideshow maker

Here are the results of Banana Girl's Annual Birthday Interview:

Age: 4

Favorite Color: Yellow

Favorite Toy:  Merlia Doll, Big Ariel Doll, Mermaids, Cinderella doll

Favorite Movie:  Tangled, Beauty & Beast, & Brave

Favorite Song: "Slippin Through My Fingers", "Honey, Honey" (both by Abba), & "I Like to Look for Rainbows" (Primary Song Book)

Favorite TV Show: My Little Pony

Favorite Clothes: Black, sparkly dress

Favorite food to eat: Zucchini Bread (w/chocolate chips), Ramen Noodles, and Mac & Cheese

Do you collect anything: No

Best Friends: Lacy, Julie, Lexie, Mazzy, and Hannah

What do you love about yourself?  My special things, toys.  I'm a good friend.  Good colorer.

What do you love about each person in our family? Daddy: always does what I want to do.  He loves me sooo much.  Mommy: She likes to sing with me.  She loves to take me places and loves my favorite color.  Princess M: She loves to play with me.  She teaches me to read and do ballet.  Little Mouse: She plays pink-a-boo, she laughs when I'm silly.

Why do you want to go to school?  I want to learn stuff about school.

Who is your teacher?  Princess M

Favorite thing to do with Mom:  Mommy & Daughter Dates

Favorite thing to do with Dad:  Daddy & Daughter Dates

If you had a day alone with Mom and Dad, what would you do?  Play princesses & princes

What is something funny that Mom/Dad say?  "I wish that you were a little Boo Boo."

Best thing you have learned this year:  to be like a princess.

What makes you most proud?  Giving people presents

What makes you happy? Playing with friends & swimming

What makes you laugh or smile?  I don't know

What makes you sad?  Mommy or Daddy doesn't let me go in the car with them.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year?  a park or McDonalds

What are some of your wishes for this year?  Wish for no time-outs.  Wish that it was Christmas.

What is your testimony of Jesus Christ?  He loves me.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  an adult & a mommy

Is there anything that you've never told me that you want to tell me now? no

Is there anything that you've never asked em that you want to ask me now?  no.

Grandma's Birthday Party

Early September saw a return to school for Princess M.   Here's my big first grader on her first day:

Immediately after starting school, we took her out for a week to leave on a another trip/reunion up at the Heber Valley Camp for Grandma Kidman's birthday weekend.  We did remember the camera this time and took a TON of pictures.  Here's a slide show of all the pictures from the birthday retreat:

Grandma's Birthday Retreat - how to create a free slideshow

We stayed a few extra days and were able to attend my nephew's eagle scout court of honor.  Congratulations again J man!!!  You rock!

On our way out the door to start our long drive back home, Grandma taught my girls to do a proper cartwheel.

We Love You Grandma!!!  Happy Birthday!

We stopped halfway home for the night in Vegas at my Aunt and Uncle's home.  They have such a lovely home there and are always so willing to let us stop and rest up before driving the rest of the way home.  Plus the girls were so excited to be able to swim in their backyard pool.

As it so happens, after taking these pictures I set the camera in my lap while I read by the side of the pool.  Well, Little Mouse started throwing towels into the pool and as I jumped up to save the towels from the water, the camera slipped right into the water instead.  Thank goodness we were able to salvage the pictures from the camera; but the camera itself was ruined.  You can guess what we got this year on Black Friday.  Until then, we pretty much just took pictures on our cell phones.

Anyhow, ruined camera aside, it was a very nice trip and we were all very sad to have to come back to normal life again.

August Catchup

Well it took longer than we expected, due to a loan company that just really wanted to pull our teeth out (they delayed our closing by 3 weeks), but we finally closed and were able to move into our new home.  Alex left the very next day on a week long work trip, so I pretty much got to unpack by myself.  But since that task mostly falls on me anyway, I didn't mind.  It was pretty slow going though with him gone and with a reunion with his side of the family in California though.  

(By the way, that reunion was a total blast and unfortunately I don't have a single picture.  We completely forgot to take a camera with us and haven't gotten around to forcing everyone to send us copies of their photos.)

Here's our last photo in our old home:

Once everything was packed up the girls would play hide and seek in the empty cupboards.  Way cute!

Mom and Dad decided on the spur of the moment to come out and help me with the unpacking at the end of the month.  We had them for a week.  Our girls had a blast having them all to themselves.  And they helped out a ton with unpacking, mounting things on the walls, weeding our old yard (oh, did I mention we were also frantically trying to get our old home ready for renting, with a huge repair/maintenance list as well as our new guest house renovated and ready for our friends to move into?) moving a ton of stuff and trips to the dump, etc.  Oh, and their last day here, while I had to go to work, they painted my front room!  Not just your everyday paint job, either.  They did a beautiful job faux texture painting the room in a soft warm brown, tuscan style.  You can kind of see it here.  But you all will just have to come visit and see it for yourselves.  I still love it every time I sit in there and just look around.  Thank you, Mom & Dad!!!

Now if I could just find the time to paint the rest of the house...