sleep

When Mira gets over tired, the only way to get her to go to sleep is to lay down next to her.  Whenever Steve does this, this is the result.  It's just too cute for words.

Visiting the Nelsons

The first weekend in November we went to Colorado with Steve's parents to visit his sister, Nicole and her family. Their newest daughter, Kate, was being blessed, so we joined them for the occasion. I enjoyed the rather short 3 1/2 hour drive. The girls did well, though we probably had to stop more than Nick and Wilda had anticipated for dirty diapers, bathroom breaks, and food/nursing stops. We arrived Friday evening and relaxed, had a tasty dinner, and let the girls play. Then Saturday, we had a gourmet brunch of Creme Brulee French Toast (except me and the girls who had wheat-free waffles) before heading out for bowling and dinner out.

Baby Kate sleeping through all the noise.

It was Emilia's first time bowling.  With the bumpers and the ramp, she bowled better than everyone but Tristan and Dad.  I'm not sure she thought much of it though.  She seemed rather bored the whole time.

Bubby and Meg were troopers.  They were both tired by the end of our second game.

When we got home the girls played again until bed time and then the adults had some laughs watching Kid History on YouTube.  Sunday morning was the time change, so we were all up early with the kids.  We were ready for 9am church in plenty of time, which is nothing short of a miracle for my family.  After church I got a picture of all the girls on the couch together.  Meg was excited to be able to hold Mira. :)  We had pork tenderloin in peach salsa for lunch (which was delicious, by the way), and then packed up and headed home.  Thanks for a fun weekend, Nelsons!

the pumpkin patch and my cannibalistic pumpkin

Can you believe it's the 21st of November and I still don't have all my Halloween stuff posted yet? I'm so behind!

Before Halloween, I took Emilia, Vivian, and Mira to the Vinyard Greenhouse where they have a kid's cornmaze, tons of pumpkins, and other fun things for the young'uns to do. It was great to have Vivian along because she's a lot more outgoing than Emilia. She forged ahead and Emilia excitedly followed on a lot of these things.

Of course none of them wanted to walk, so Emilia and Vivian squished into the bigger seat on our double stroller.

Love these cuties!

Best friends holding hands through the maze. They were looking for the secret room with the Magic Beans.  It was really just a hard-to-find dead-end with a can of dried pinto beans in it.  Each kid could take one of the beans and bring it to the front desk to trade for a tootsie-roll.  That's kind of magic, I think.

They had a play area with this huge jack-o-lantern, a caterpillar you could crawl through, a castle with funny mirrors inside, and the straw house of the three little pigs.  The girls hung out here for a while and then on to...

 

the bounce houses!  Emilia was SO not going down this slide until Vivian did it with her.  Then they both went down like 10 more times.

That night, there was a "chili cook-off" and trick-or-treating as a ward (church) activity.  I made chili to put in the contest.  It was a little disappointing that it wasn't actually a contest, though.  No taste-testers! There were about 20 kinds of chili to try, though, so I guess that's something.  The girls were exhausted by the time the party was over, so I brought them home and they went to sleep almost immediately.  Alison came over as I was putting the girls to bed and we carved pumpkins while watching some episodes of Bones season 5.  Not my favorite season, by the way, even though it's probably my favorite show on TV.

I don't know if you can tell, but Alison did an amazing job of carving a Ninja Turtle into her pumpkin.

I decided to make mine a cannibalistic pumpkin.  Tee-hee-hee.  He's so fun!

I think that's it for my Halloween posts, so you all can heave a sigh of relief along with me. Ready, go! :0)

Steve's birthday

Steve turned 36 this year! He got to have two celebrations.  One with his mom (Nick was in Spain for work) where he got German chocolate cake.  His mom put all 36 candles on his cake.  Look at that blaze!

A happy smile from the Bubby Sue.

Steve blowing out his candles (he missed one) and Emilia waiting patiently for her cake and ice cream.  I don't know what it is about Grandmas but Emilia will eat her vegetables every time we're there so she can have dessert.

He also got to celebrate with Alison (whose birthday is the day before Steve's) at my parents' house.  He got brownies and ice cream there (and only 1 candle). 

Dylan and Mira playing on the floor at the party.

It was a pretty unexciting birthday, except for all the food, but I think he enjoyed all the presents he got.  I thought it was funny--he got a birthday card from his sister and family who live in Colorado (that's you, Strattons) where his nephew, Brant, wrote, "Happy Birthday, old man!" Lol.  Kids are so great.

Thanksgiving Point Barnyard Boo

The week before Halloween, Steve and I took Emilia and Mira to Thanksgiving Point's Barnyard Boo. They have all the regular petting-zoo-type animals, a few of which you can feed, but they also have Halloween themed games for the little ones spaced about the lawn area. The kids get a piece of candy for participating in any of the games, they can have their face painted and go on a wagon ride, etc. We went last year, too and it was even more fun this year because Emilia had a better idea of what was going on and more coordination to play the games. We are talking about Emilia here, so not a TON of coordination. But more than last year. :D

My first look at Mira after she woke up from the car ride. This girl's expressions are priceless. lol.

So are her smiles.

Steve facing off with the mean he-goat (the one that scares all the little goats into running away so he can have all the food--you know which one I mean).

Me and the cutest baby around.

Steve helping Emilia play Halloween croquet.  She loves things like this.  Before she loses interest, she's actually a pretty good little mini-golfer.

The whole fam waiting for the wagon ride to start.

Emilia still talks about how she got to have a kitty on her face.  She was pretty excited about it. I love that she can find joy in so many small things.

The face painting one and this one remind me of the movie Sabrina, when Linus says to his mother, "It's alright mother, I got my face painted and got my pony ride."

I decided this year that Halloween is a holiday for kids. It was fun when I was a child and it's fun again now that I have kids. Yea for candy smiles and feeling like a princess.

Steampunk

Sometime in the last two months (I'm too lazy to figure out exactly when it was), a photography group that I'm in had a steampunk photo shoot. (If you don't know what steampunk is, google "steampunk costumes" and you'll get a pretty good idea.) I got all gung-ho about it and thought we would use the costumes for Halloween. But Steve was far less gung-ho than I thought he would be, and I was a lot more busy, so we didn't make much of our costumes. Nor did I take many pictures. But I thought you might enjoy see the ones we did take. Alison did my hair and make-up, if anyone is wondering who did such a great job. :D

Pre-trick-or-treating party

Every year one of the ladies in the ward does a pre-trick-or-treating Halloween party. She invites a TON of people and has everyone bring something fun. The kids have pizza and play games. It's a fun way to start the festivities.

Here are Mira and Emilia in their costumes.  Mira is a mouse.  Emilia was her favorite princess, Aurora.

 It is nearly impossible to get these two to look at the camera at the same time!

The kids' tables.

Dancing to Halloween music.  Her friend Vivian was Belle--she's in the yellow dress, of course.

All the kiddos.  So many! I don't think I could handle a party for this many chillins!

After dancing, Aryn (the pointing one) had three stations in the back yard.  1-- throwing wet sponges at a monster poster...

2--Throwing bean bags at monster cans...

and 3--a dress-the-vampire sticker sheet.

Afterward, I took Mira home and Steve took Vivian and Emilia around the neighborhood trick-or-treating.  Mira was exhausted and went to sleep immediately.  Emilia and Vivian had a blast, mostly goofing off with some trick-or-treating in between.  Steve was out with them for over an hour and they came back with only about 20 - 30 pieces of candy.  Silly girls, everyone knows candy is the most important thing ever, right? :)