Growing Up

I'm so amazed at how grown up my little girls are getting! I still feel so young and it's hard to believe that I have 2 beautiful girls!

I love these eyes!

Playing together!! First time ever that they played together without Meili's life being in danger. I was shocked!! (That's our makeshift toy room in the unfinished portion of the house.)

Is it normal to be jealous of your 3 year old's hair?

Meili ADORES her daddy! The other day Meili watched the door for about 10 minutes after he left. It was so cute and so sad. She's 9 months old tomorrow!! I can't get over it! Slow down Mei! The newest latest: walking while I hold her hands, loves being chased, patting, waving, feeding herself bits of banana and peas. She's slowly moving toward just 2 naps a day, leaning more toward 2 hours a piece. Kind of nice for mom!

Sofie is getting so smart!! She loves joyschool and has made lots of friends in our ward. Her favorite things are spaghettios, cousins, and sleeping on moms floor... She dressed herself this day and I wondered if Jane Fonda and Denise Austin knew they had a 3 year old's sense of fashion!

Push ups with Daddy! This cute little thing already knows what Tae Bo, Kickboxing, Ellipticals, and Yoga are, if she is lazy when she grows up it won't be my fault!

Still Making Stuff

Sorry if you don't appreciate the posts where I just put up pictures of things I make or decorate with. The problem is I put time and effort into projects to beautify my home and then the only person who ever enters my house (other than the ones who live here) is my sister...so I put these up to make myself feel better I guess! :)

I modified the frame, but it was the preschooler that made the beautiful fall art. Those were all leaves from my front and back yard.

Fabric Pumpkins. So much fun to make! This white one was my favorite!

I found the idea and bought the fabric last year, but then we bought a house, moved, had a baby, etc so it never happened. And I'm kind of glad because by the time I got around to making them this year I had better ideas on how to finish them.

Turns out tying a quilt in the basement with a 3 year old and an 8 month old is really hard. I'm soooooo glad Lindsey came over for the evening to help! And Meili only almost died just once. She puked all over my floor in order to get the little piece of invisible plastic out of her airways. Wonderful. Sofie only pulled the quilt frame on top of her maybe twice.

I'm in love with this idea that my mother-in-law shared with me. Wait for the holiday flannel sheets to go on dirt cheap sale, put two flat sheets together, stuff, tie, bind, done. (Also it was so much fun to watch Heavyweights and Major Payne with Linds, I can think of very few ways to have more fun!)

Easy and way cheaper than buying flannel at the yardage store. This wasn't the first blanket I've tied, but it was the first I've bound. I hope to get better with practice...and now I've got to go back and tie some more, turns out they were too far apart.

Now that we officially have 2 blankets, my guests no longer have to bring their own when they sleep here!

(and no worries, although this blanket is darling, I do have a bedspread that matches my room)

Halloween Part 2: Parties and Costumes

Pretty sure Halloween gets bigger and bigger every year! And I don't think it's simply because my family is bigger every year. Just like most people we had a church/community party, a work party, a family party, and the real Halloween night. Fortunately we don't have school parties yet!

First was our church party. Each family brought a crock pot of soup to share, it was delicious! Then because our ward is mostly primary aged kids, the rest of the night was set up for them. There were games/activities set up in all the classrooms.

(I was Pocahontas)

My squishy butterfly

(Derek never dresses up...)

Sofie's real costume was missing a piece when we were getting ready, so I had her throw on this back up. I made the tutu and thoughts the outfit was pretty cute!

Probably my favorite picture ever.

In the "dance room." She loved the fog!

Then there was the family party. This time Sofie had all of her costume. She was a cat. (or at least this was the closest thing I could find to a cat at Kid-to-Kid.)

A few of us ladies pigging out and talking (Maryanne took the pigging out part a little too seriously...)

The whole fam. Thanks for being so festive Derek!

Lindsey always comes to our party, and this year we were actually both there at the same time! That never happens and it was so great to hang out, even if she is a big baby.

Bunch of babies.

Next up was Daddy's work party. Ancestry always does a great job of entertaining us. This year the weather was beautiful enough to hold a carnival outside!

Sofie totally scored on her first try!

Derek's co-worker's baby was born the same week as Meili, so we were all in the hospital at the same time. It was so fun to see them together for the first time at this party!

Daddy's exciting cubie

FINALLY it was the REAL Halloween. I was afraid that after all of the parties and all of the counting down that Sofie would be disappointed in the actual night of Halloween. But no worries, it was a huge success! She got to go trick-or-treating with her absolute favorite people in the whole world and she scored tons of candy. The weather was PERFECT! She loved saying Happy Halloween to everybody that gave her a treat! (even if she did stutter because she couldn't remember exactly what she was supposed to say)

The traditional loot picture

We caught her with 2 suckers in her mouth. Clever child. Don't tell the dentist that she skipped out on brushing her teeth that night. She was out cold in the car before we got home!

Halloween Part 1: Things We Made

October has kept us busy busy. I love the fall because for some reason I suddenly start to feel the need to create. Maybe it's because all the flowers are dying and I have to compensate or something, but here are some shots of what we've been doing.

Ghosts, Pumpkins, Moons, Witches, Cats

Pumpkin carving! Sofie refused to touch the inside.

(I also made the Halloween tutu)

Try holding an 8 month old while slicing up a pumpkin. She screamed and screamed unless I held her that night. Seriously?

Mine was supposed to look cooler. I used translucent beads to spell "boo" but when you put the lid on there wasn't enough oxygen to keep it burning brightly, and I should have used green or blue beads, instead of red...

Derek's

Sofie's (aka Derek's)

My "jug-o-lantern"

Goblin Eyes

(Any excuse for deviled eggs is wonderful)

I found the perfect thing to keep Sofie occupied for like half an hour! Chopping Velveeta into itty bitty pieces for our chili queso dip.

This dip (my new tradition) and the goblin eyes were a hit at the family party.

Some felt, some scissors, done.

My sister and I were making this haunted house kit, but it took so long for the icing to set that we gave up. I think I'll use them for Christmas next month!

Xiao Mei

Mei has insanely grown this month!! At 8 months she is crawling around like a crazy woman, wiggling, chomping, babbling, and racing up my stairs. (She taught herself the stairs and the first time I found her scaling them I just about had a heart attack!!) No surprise that I'm 11 days behind in making this 8 month post, she keeps me on my toes. Seriously, not hard to get my 10,000 steps in every day.

She's fearless. Jumping right in to the wrestle session with daddy.

She's climbing up furniture and walking along things already!! It's totally foreign to me. At this age Sofie had another month before she even crawled!! SLOW DOWN MEI!

Those blue eyes are turning slightly grey-ish brown and I'm sure they're be as brown as Sofie's by her first birthday. She's a pretty good eater, but usually doesn't have much of an appetite after finishing off her bottles. Her top 4 teeth are all cutting through this week! This is her typical snuggle for bedtime pose, however why she wanted to snuggle with a wet rag is beyond me! Those two fingers are still her favorite...any help?

Aside from my stairs, which she scales at least 20 times a day, her favorite activity is standing. She loves to stand one handed but occasionally is brave enough to let go. The longest she's balanced without holding on is about 3 seconds. Poor child's tailbone is probably so sore!!

Other random 8 month stuff:

favorite sound is "na na na"

sleeping 11 hours at night

3 naps usually 1 to 2 hours long

pats with her hand when she sees someone or something she likes

loves to be silly and tease

holds her breath instead of laughing outloud

sweetest darling ever and I want to keep her right here at this stage!!

This was a few weeks ago when she had a different babbling phase, then it turned into growling, and now it's mostly "nanana"

Kasey's Marathon!!

Over Conference weekend my sister-in-law Kasey ran a freaking marathon!

She did great and came in at 4 hrs 43 min!! It was a beautiful day (for those of us who weren't running...)

The whole crew!

Sporting our nerdy homemade shirts to show our support.

The kids melting in the sun.

Proud Mom and Dad

Almost at the finish line! Kasey is the less flamboyant one on the left.

Triumphant Kase! Way to Go!