Happy Halloween

We feel so lucky! We haven't had our daddy around to celebrate Halloween this year (to our disappointment), but we've been able so celebrate with BOTH of our grandma's! Bill's mom left on Monday morning & my mom flew in last night. Then we're driving to Utah for Tiff's baby blessing.

Today we went to a Halloween puppet show at the library. They did some cute stories & sang some cute songs. Madisen's favorite was the bat song, because they gave everyone a bat to put on their fingers and fly it through the air. Caitlyn had a CRAZY day- it started at 5 am, she had a total of 1 1/2 hours of naps & went to bed around 7. We sure hope that tomorrow's better! I think she's teething & just a bit uncomfortable.

Tonight we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with our friends Mara & Wyatt. People are too generous! I couldn't believe that they were giving 2-4 pieces. When I was young we got one piece at each house. My, how times has changed.

My flower & ghost

Wyatt- Bob the Builder, Mara- the Fairy Princess
Trying to get 4 children to cooperate for the camera is comical!

How sweet is this! I couldn't resist a picture!

The first door of the evening. Caitlyn did make it to a few doors,
but she spent most of the time eating a Tootsie Roll in her stroller.

Caitlyn is DONE!

Trunk or Treat

Tonight was our ward Trunk-or-Treat. We were so lucky to have our grandma here, it was extremely helpful for me to have an extra pair of hands! (Plus she brought matching costumes for us.) I did think ahead a little & feed them dinner before we went. Past experience tells me that my children don't eat very well when they're distracted by other people and events. The weather was perfect! My girls had a layer of clothes on under their costumes and it was the right amount of warmth.

The crew right as we arrived. I'm sad that I didn't get a
picture of our decorated trunk. Laura did a great job
hanging the ghosts that we made & some streamers.

Madisen with 2 of her best buddies, Rebecca & Makayla.I bought Caitlyn's costume first because I thought it was just darling!
Madisen wanted to be something white, to match Caitlyn.

Here we are waiting for the train ride.
We buddied up for the train ride to expedite the process.
Madisen & Makayla LOVED it & Caitlyn just seemed content.
Off we go!

I didn't quite get them in the act of them

jumping up and down yelling "Trick or Treat".
(Note: the hat didn't make it too far)

Happy Birthday Madisen!

Yesterday was Madisen's 3rd birthday! Since daddy is out of town, we celebrated her birthday on Friday. After we went to the Dairy, we had a little princess party with her friends. Enjoy the pictures from our birthday celebration.

{Our version of a cake walk: They earned a candy corn if they were on the princess that I called out when the music stopped. This game was one of their favorite & we played it at the beginning & end of the party. I got creative with what I called out: color of hair, dress, ribbon, shoes, etc.}

{Pretty, pretty princess (AKA Duck, Duck, Goose)
This was another favorite that we played at the beginning & end}


{We played a game with balloon boppers, but it wasn't a hit.
Dad had more fun than the girls with this one.}
{We decorated princess crowns.
They all turned out so cute & unique!}

{Opening gifts is a little like 'bunch ball'.}

{Madisen got this set of shoes from Makayla.
Immediately ALL of the girls NEEDED
to wear a pair of the new shoes.}{Of course, the cake & the ice cream were pink}
*When I figure out how to post a video
of singing 'Happy Birthday', I will.*At the very end daddy was having races with
the girls to keep them busy until their moms showed up.

Anderson Dairy

On Friday we were invited to attend a tour of the Anderson Dairy with a bunch of other moms & their children. We were lucky to have our daddy join us since he had the day off. He actually offered to take the girls by himself, until he realized that he'd be the only dad there. :) It was a great tour of their facility; complete with talking barnyard animals & a movie of their history. I was hoping to see the real animals, but I guess they graze at pastures outside of the city somewhere.

{Feasting on the generous sample of cookies & cream ice cream that they gave
EACH tour participant at the end.}

FHE at the library

Last Monday we went to the Pajama story time that is offered once a month at our library. The librarian does such a great job engaging the children in books, songs, & fingerplays! (It made me miss teaching just a little.) After the story time she hands out a little craft for them followed by a bed time snack. Last week the craft was a paper bag pumpkin- a great activity to keep the toddlers busy for anyone looking for an afternoon craft. Madisen's has become one of our favorite Halloween decorations this year. The other day she walked by it and said, "Oh look there's my pumpkin. It's so cute!". She was obviously pleased with her work.

Milestones & Funny Moments

This week Caitlyn learned to wave. When we say 'bye-bye' she'll wave her arm- it's so darn cute!

Madisen's phrase of the week is "Silly I." When she does something wrong she responds with "Silly I" . We're still working on the proper use of the pronouns 'I' and 'me'. All in good time.

Caitlyn & Chloe

Our friends who visited us from Utah have a little girl that is just 3 months older than Caitlyn. The two of them enjoyed following each other around all weekend. Caitlyn was a little sad that she couldn't fully keep up since she's not walking yet. We snapped these pictures just before the Bryant's headed home. The second one is so precious!

The Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend was the BYU/UNLV football game here in Las Vegas-go cougars! We had a house full of guests- some friends from Arizona & some friends from Utah. On Saturday before the game, we took the kids to an overpriced pumpkin patch. The kids loved getting some fresh air & jumping on the inflatable toys. I was a little camera happy, so enjoy.

{The inflatable slides & bouncing areas were a hit!
Madisen went up & down at least 100 times.}

{Caitlyn loved crawling around & feeling it bounce.}

{Right at the end, Madisen snuck into my purse &
helped herself to some lipstick.
Isn't she beautiful?}

A new look

Time for a change on the blog. Speaking of a new look, this is what I looked over to find Madisen doing tonight while I was feeding Caitlyn dinner. She was talking about painting the chair and I thought she was pretending, I even asked her what color she was painting the chair & she told me pink. Then I looked over & she was painting the chair with water, luckily it wasn't pink water.

Dance Class

Here are a few pictures from dance class today. I didn't want to get in the way of the lessons so the pictures are kind of far away, but enjoy my dancin' diva!

{Bar time}

{Madisen is so darn flexible! Check out her splits!}

{Every week they have the chance to do a solo in front of the class.
Today was the first week that she was brave enough to try. I'm so proud of her!
She ran around, spun a few circles, and did the splits.
At the end the teacher has them say into the microphone "I'm a star!"}

{Circle time}

Festivities

Instead of doing a preschool this year, we are doing a swap with our friend Makayla. Madisen goes to her house one day a week for a few hours for ‘organized play’ and then they are at my house one day a week. It’s fun for us b/c I’m more likely to get out big projects for more than one child. This week we went to the store & they each picked out a small pumpkin. Then we came home & read a few books about pumpkins before we painted them. They didn’t quite grasp the concept of painting a face on, but they had a great time coating the entire pumpkin with paint.

Last Friday we were invited to a friends house to decorate Halloween cookies. Of course, Madisen just thoroughly enjoyed the frosting. So I frosted the cookies for her & then she put on the eyes & sprinkles.

We went to dinner at Bill’s cousin’s house last week & were in charge of dessert. So I had to take the opportunity to make something festive. I got this great idea from kraftfoods. The kids & adults loved them & it’s even a relatively ‘healthy’ treat!
Last night we had a family in the ward over for dinner, again another chance to make a festive dessert. This is actually Bill's creation, another idea from kraftfoods!

P.S. For those of you who asked for the book list, it's coming sometime this week!

Cute Caitlyn

Caitlyn is such a joy! I just love her personality!! She usually plays by herself so well! Here are a few pictures that I've taken of her over the last couple of weeks that I think capture who she is so well. Some things that she loves are: unloading the silverware from the dishwasher when I’m loading it, climbing into Madisen’s rocking chair, playing in the backyard- especially on her car, climbing into anything she thinks that she'll fit in, the bathtub, dancing or clapping when music comes on, her bottle, the play kitchen, giving me high-5, and Madisen! Caitlyn babbles almost all day. She says 'hi' when the phone rings or someone comes to the door. She holds play or real phones up to her ear and says 'hi', I've even caught her holding other toys up to her ear pretending that they're phones. She says 'uh-oh' when she drops or throws something from her high chair. Now we're working on 'please' and 'all done' so she can quit saying 'uh, uh, uh, uh,' or just squealing for what she wants.

{After she unloaded the toys from this bin, she climbed right in.}

{Delighted with our Halloween decorations.}

{She thinks it's so great that she can climb onto her car all by herself.
Now she's starting to push herself around a little bit.}

{This just shows how much fun they can have together!}