Pretty Witches

Mistake number 1: Asking your almost 3 year old what she wants to be for Halloween. "I want to be an elephant" she replies. Great.

I'm all about the thrifty Halloween. I want it to be fun and cute, but also thrifty and preferably homemade. Do you think I know how to make an elephant costume? Not even a little bit.

Mistake number 2: Asking your almost 3 year old, who is terrified of flying insects, if she'd like to be a bumble bee instead...something I think I could definitely pull off making and having it turn out adorable. "No, no, I going to be an elephant for Halloween" with as much passion and determination an almost 3 year old can muster up. Great.

Finally, a turn of events. Gabs was reading a Halloween book with a witch in it. I ask if she'd like to be a witch for Halloween. "No. That witch is scary." So I say, "How about a pink, pretty witch?" Jackpot. A pink, pretty witch it was. And even bigger jackpot, Gwen could wear Gabriella's first Halloween costume and be a purple, pretty witch. Score!!

She's been in her costume for the past 4 days and keeps saying "I want to go to Halloween. Where go Halloween?" Tomorrow Love, tomorrow.

So, this weekend Joe was home and we managed to get a few un-rotted pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. Joe laid out all sorts of blankets and plastic and paper bags on the floor so he and Gabs could carve them. I was making dinner and enjoying listening to this event take place.

Joe: "Do you want a scary face or a smiley face?"

Gabriella: "A scary face." That shocked me, but luckily for Joe that is his only pumpkin face, or at least that's what he tells me.

Soon, this father daughter bonding moment turned into Joe scooping out the guts and Gabriella running in circles around him. Is it just mine, or do kids have a fascination with running in circles for no apparent reason other than there is something or someone on the floor to run in circles around?

As Joe is marking the pumpkins face Gabs suddenly stops and says: "Mommy says we don't draw on pumpkins at all Daddy. We only draw on paper." Joe looks at me for help and, smiling, we decide only on Halloween is it okay to draw on something other than paper. So, our beautifully carved pumpkins has lovely scribble marks up and down every side, and I love it! Happy Halloween!

Sharing Our House

Ever since I was 17 I've lived away from my family. First off to RICKS for a year, then it was BYU for 2 years, we lived in St. Louis for 4 years, now, we've been here for 2 1/2 years. I miss my family always. Mostly though on holidays and summer BBQ's, baptisms and blessings, even those every so often date night movie nights they have. It's something I have gotten use to I suppose, being away, but that doesn't make it easier.

Sitting here thinking, there is only one thing that comes to mind as being a positive about living away from family. That is, when family comes to visit I get them all to myself! No sharing them with anyone, no leaving at the end of the day, just quality time with the family. This last week my mom and dad were here to remind me just how lucky I am. It means so much to me that they come visit us often. I love chatting and talking with my mom, we always have good conversations. I love having them see our girls and just what they're doing and saying these days. I love how Gabriella wakes up extra early because she knows Grandpa will be awake to turn any show she requests on for her and feed her bananas on the floor while laying under blankets. I feel spoiled about all the time we get to ourselves when they're here.

It's always fun when they come because we do something different every time and we do the same wonderful things we have found out here that we love. Really though, for me, it's about the quality time.The absolute hardest thing about being away is how little they know our girls compared to all the other grand kids. We miss seeing them on Halloween or Christmas morning. Or, when the time comes, soccer games and school plays. That's definitely the hardest.

I always have a tough time saying goodbye when they leave after a visit. We've been blessed recently because we saw them in September in California, then this last week, and we'll see them again in Arizona in a month, so it wasn't quite so hard this time. That is until we just barely pulled away from the curb at the airport after dropping them off when Gabriella said "I love sharing my house with Grandma and Grandpa." That's when the waterworks started and that's when I realized that my girls will miss being away from their grandma's and grandpa's just as much as we miss being away too. But just so you know, we love sharing our house!

Meet Malesh

My little Gabriella doesn't do a whole lot of "pretend" playing. She plays well, but I just think being the oldest and only little one for a few years she doesn't quite have a handle on how to play with her imagination. Tonight as I was trying to clean bathrooms, fold laundry, put sheets back on beds, straighten my hair, iron my jeans, make dinner for the girls and get traffic reports from poor Joe's 45 minute commute turned 2+ hour commute, all the while holding an ear-infected Gwen at my hip, I noticed Gabriella was playing so quietly and well all by herself. I saw her with her stroller and baby doll. She had a pen and paper and was "writing" things down. She strolled out of our room talking about needing to find Malesh. Who's Malesh? And where did that name come from? I played along because I was curious about this Malesh person.
I asked "Who's Malesh-a"
She said "no, Malesh." Oh, my bad.
"Ok, where does Malesh live?"
"Under the computer desk" (Where I saw her earlier playing so well with her notepad and pen).
I ask what Malesh looks like, but by this point she wanted to hold the Macaroni and Cheese box in my hands. (Ok, so making dinner was a huge overstatement, but in my defense, I was going to a baby shower and wasn't eating at home, so mac and cheese it was.)
I hand her the box and she looks at it and says "This looks like Malesh."
I look at the box and it has a Cheetah Girls picture on it...the only thing I know about these "Cheetah Girls" is that one of them is on Dancing with the Stars, and Gabriella doesn't know anything about them at all!
So apparently Malesh looks like a Cheetah girl, lives under our desk, and has made Gabriella a great little play mate tonight. Hopefully, we'll see a lot more of Malesh around here!

Confessions

Ahhh, nap time. The coveted nap time. I have a confession to make. I love it when the time comes in my day for the girls to take a nap at the same time. It's at least 90 minutes of uninterrupted quiet...that is if you don't count the sound of me chewing, because that is usually what I am doing when the girls are asleep, pigging out! There are few things happier to me than enjoying whatever food I want, eating it wherever I want, without little hands and feet crawling and climbing up me to get to it too. So, there it is, a true confession, I love nap time. And while I'm on the subject, I'm just going to confess a few more things and throw it all out there. Please still be my friends after reading this.
I eat frosting from the can. I think it's something I started in college, just because I could, but I really haven't kicked the habit and I still sometimes crave frosting right out of the can.
I am super duper self-conscious about my toes. I'm pretty sure they are the ugliest in the whole world. Even growing up in California I avoided open toed sandals at all cost. I'm just lucky I found a man who loves me despite my long toes, because I really enjoy a cute pair of wedges and strappy open toed heels.
I have a fear of bridges. Why do I fear that Joe, or anyone else driving will suddenly become incapable of driving in a straight line and drive us right off that bridge? I stare as hard as I can straight forward just because I think it helps the driver while they are enjoying the view. I don't fear water or heights, just bridges.
I generally keep a pretty tidy house. Things are usually in there place and orderly around here. My stove top burners on the other hand are a disgrace. Things boil over, stain the burner and I hate cleaning them so I leave them. I prefer to pay $15 to replace them every so often than just clean them after the mess.
I look forward whole-heartily to the day when my children are old enough to unload groceries from the car and place them nicely and neatly in the refrigerator and pantry. And fold the brown bags too!
I failed (unfairly I might add) my driving test 3, yes, 3 times. I didn't get my license until I was almost 18 and still hardly drove because I was so paranoid. I finally faced my fears when I went back to school in St. Louis and no one would drive the 30 minute commute for me.
My biggest pet peeve is people with no manners or no common courtesy. I expect people to say hello, identify themselves and ask "how are you?" before they ask to talk to someone. I expect to hear "bless you" after I sneeze, and "excuse me" after you've, well you know what I mean. It's high expectations I know, but we didn't get away with anything less growing up and neither will my family.
I have a sick, sick addiction towards coats. I own quite a few , more than I need or even wear, but I still feel this desperate need to go purchase many, many more coats. Joe seriously believes I need to seek help on this one.
I'm have a little OCD. My clothes hang according to color in my closet and they all have to face the same way on the hanger. Joe's side of the closet practically makes me mad when I see his dress shirts facing one another.
I watch What Not To Wear as frequently as possible. It is my guilty pleasure show and I take it very seriously!
I can't carry a tune to save my life. I know absolutely nothing about music, and that's kinda okay with me. I'm sick, aren't I?
I love to cook dinner. I take pride in having a hot cooked meal ready for Joe when he comes home. You might be rolling your eyes, but seriously I do! I think I'm a pretty good cook. I hate, no, I loathe baking. I stink at it, except cheesecake. I can do cheesecake. But any other baking I avoid at all costs, I just don't have the skills.
I love the smell of Play Doh. I secretly want Gabs to play with it so I can too. It just smells good to me.
Oh, I didn't realize I had so many secrets to confess. That kinda felt good. But now my once napping girls are crying and I've got to destroy the frosting evidence before they emerge from their room.

Goodbye Lucky Charms

My lucky charms are gone. This last week Bryn and Dax were here visiting. I told Bryn to pack for rain, but that she better bring some Arizona sunshine with her. Boy, did she deliver! We had the most gorgeous couple of days while they were here! Guess what I woke up to this morning? Ugly, rainy rain, with the 10 day forecast set for "sprinkles" and highs in the lows 50's! Yuck!

But, we had such a fun time doing outdoor activities! We made sure to get to several pumpkin patches with petting zoos (they're hard to come by in the Arizona heat), we went to The Museum of Flight, had an unexpected afternoon walk filled with hopping from park to park with a warm sun and beautiful blue skies, went shopping-without kids (thanks Joe!), and worked on a sewing project for Christmas gifts! It truly was the best visit, but she'll never believe me when I call depressed about the weather again. Dax and the girls really loved each other. It's funny to watch 3 kids between the ages of 1 and 2.8 years old play. There's such a pecking order, and Gwen was definitely at the bottom with Gabriella ruling the play. Dax was a good sport being stuck in the middle.

Funny story: At one pumpkin patch there was a little train giving rides. Each seat was made from big water barrels (think food storage water barrels). They alternated blue and white and the last one was red with a flag sticking out on top. Gabs of course wanted the red one. But the hinges were set up so the last seat got all the whips and bumps the hardest...like when you went roller skating and played crack the whip, that last person always went flying off into the wall, that's what I pictured this last little train doing. I was nervous about her going, telling her to hold on so tight, but she was up for the task and couldn't wait to take off. She smiled like she was at Disneyland again. The train started up-the music on the train was Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, it really was kinda bizarre, and off they went in circles right in front of all the parents. Gabs just giggled and giggled, she was having the best time. Then it happened. Off went the train over bumpy gravelly rocks, around the corner and out of sight. Panic struck! I could see her turning around looking, but I'm sure she couldn't focus on anything bouncing up and down like she was. Then I couldn't see her, only hear her! She was not happy in her little red train barrel. Finally the train came around into sight, and the "conductor" looked so pleased to have a crying child on board. I think he probably strives for that each trip just to keep things interesting. She was happy to see us again, and happy to get out, but it was such a funny thing to witness. Everyone within a hearing distance got a good laugh out of it, except Gabs of course. We thought better about giving Dax a turn, because he would have been thrown overboard for sure!

I loved, loved, loved having Bryn here and feel so lucky to have a twin sister! It's something I always wonder about, why I am one of the few lucky ones to be blessed with a twin! Thanks for coming and come again soon, Washington could use the good luck!

The Big Hoop-la

Yesterday was the day of celebration for the birthday girl! At one year and one day old, we packed the day full of birthday festivities. Things kinda started the night before when Gwen got her new birthday jammies to sleep in. The next morning the girls woke up to the birthday tree. Gabs came in my room early in the morning before Gwen woke up and said, "Mama...there's a Christmas tree in my room!" She was so excited, she couldn't wait for Gwen to wake up to go and play. Once the birthday girl woke up they both undecorated and re-decorated the birthday tree many times. After breakfast, we rushed off to the dollar store so Gabs could pick out a very special present for her sister. We came home with flower finger puppets, and Dora stickers (I'm sure there was good intentions behind the stickers, but they were opened and stuck to everything before we even got home.) Gwen took a gigantic nap in the afternoon, so Gabs and I hurried and made a birthday banner, birthday hats, and wrapped presents. It's tough explaining to an almost 3 year old that these presents aren't for her. She was a huge help though, and made sure all the presents had plenty of "sticky tape".

We got the highly anticipated phone call that Joe was on his way home, so we all sat down for a great birthday dinner. Afterwards, we quickly took pictures of Gwen in all her birthday glory. I've never seen her so excited! Was it because she knew it was her special day? I don't know, but I think she was just thrilled to see her daddy home. Gabs could hardly wait to open presents. She was a great big sister and made sure that Gwen got a quick touch of the present before she whisked it away to unveil the surprise inside! Once Gabs gave over the new toy, Gwen loved her new things.

Cake was last on the agenda. Boy was it fun! She started first with a touch of a finger, then a fist full of frosting, then, two-handed, she picked up the cake for a mouth full of chocolate. She even shared, a favorite thing of mine...when babies share their mashed food with you! It's too irresistable to say no. A bath was in order. Then, back into the birthday jammies once more for a good night's sleep after the big day of hoop-la!

I can't believe my baby's 1. We went today to her appointment to find that she' s not quite hefty enough to turn around in her car seat-25%, but that her head circumference is in the 95%. She makes me so proud! I love you Gwen Gwen, thank you for choosing us!

She's Only One

Today is Gwen's birthday. Shhh, don't tell her. We are going to celebrate tomorrow when Joe is home. I hope that I'm not psychologically damaging my children by never celebrating birthdays and holidays on the appropriate day. We would just rather have dad home for those celebrations. One day off isn't that big of deal right? Please say "no" because I, personally, am feeling guilty not doing any thing for the birthday girl today. But, I would feel even more guilty if I did something that Joe wasn't here to enjoy with us. They only turn one once, and so, tomorrow will be the big hoop-la! We can't wait to celebrate.

Since I'm all alone on this cold, windy, rainy Conference Sunday with no where to go, I started to think of my amazing little Gwen Gwen. Boy, has she grown...especially in the last month. She is quite the talented little thing. And so, since I'm not giving her any presents today, I thought I could at least be a better memory keeper for her, and record the wonderfully talented things she is doing, today, on her first birthday.

- Fake Laughing. She's the master. Especially when Gabs starts to laugh, she looks up and joins right in with the most hysterical fake laugh ever.

- Uh-oh. She is brilliant. She knows to say uh-oh before the "uh-oh" even happens. Like before her food "drops" of her tray, or her shoe "falls" out of the shopping cart. Brilliant!

- She can say mamamamamama.

- She can clap. Especially after her fake laugh, she is so pleased with herself.

- She can stand independently and take 3-4 steps. It's often bribed with a toy or food, or daddy, but she has taken steps.

- She can unfold my laundry faster than I can fold it. What a help that is!

- She's sneaky. She knows just when Gabs isn't looking so she can swipe her baby doll. Tomorrow, she'll have one of her very own, but keep that on the down low.

- She has a sixth sense. She always knows when I leave the pantry open. She quietly crawls over, reaches for the syrup, and then runs her hands through her hair. Nice and sticky when I finally turn around.

- She also can empty the box of Ziploc baggies before I find her in there too.

- She is freakishly fast. She knows, before I do, when the bathroom door is left open and gets in there to play in the toilet and roll the entire roll of toilet paper onto the floor before I get there. (It's starting to sound like I don't pay attention, but really, she is just mighty talented!)

- She can knock off every lower and upper case Leap Frog magnet on the dishwasher to the floor, spread them evenly throughout the kitchen and crawl away and frame her sister for doing it...who unfairly has to help clean them all up.

- She loves to clear out drawers. Her favorites, the Tupperware drawer in the kitchen and ribbon drawer in our bathroom.

- She's a houdini. She can successfully get one arm out of her long sleeve shirt sleeve while being strapped into her car seat. Amazing!

- And lastly, our favorite talent of them all. A little something we like to call "the flop". This has taken months and months of practice, but we think she's reached her peak and has master this talented move! The flop is when she's sad about something such as Gabs being picked up and not her, when a toy gets taken away by her sister, or when someone else has food and she doesn't. She lets out a squeal, rises to her knees, raises her arms above her head, flops her entire body to the floor, buries her face into the carpet, lays there limply and sobs. It really is quite the talent, I laugh every time she does it!

She's a little girl who loves all food, baths and jammies with feet in them. She just giggles when her feet go into those jammies. She gives the best kisses. I can't wait to see what other amazing talents she develops! She is only one after all!

Winter Resolution

When my friend brought me over bags of hot chocolate and an "Autumn Tunes" CD that she had made to cheer me up, I realized I had been sounding a little dramatic about the weather situation. I am absolutely not looking forward to winter, but maybe I need a new attitude.

With Joe maybe coming home only a few nights a week for the rest of the year, I better get myself feeling a bit happier. I've decided to embrace the seasons changing and make a New "Winter" resolution. My resolution for the winter is, Go and Do. Last year Gwen was itty bitty and sleeping all the time. I would see the sun starting to shine at some point during her nap, decide we would finally get to play outside, and by the time she woke up it was already pouring down rain again. This year, there will be none of that. If it's nice out, right then and there I'm stopping what we are doing and we are going outside.

I have been faithful to my resolution for 3 days now. Monday we went to the pumpkin patch and played at the petting zoo. Gabs loved the kitty's sleeping on haystacks. While there, I thought about picking apples. Why, in the state of Washington had I never been to an apple orchard? I remember seeing an orchard in a neighboring town, so today we were off again.

The orchard was tiny, but there were lots of trees. Those trees however, were completely bare! Oh no. I was so disappointed. We walked around anyway because we had been in the car for so long, and for goodness sake, it wasn't raining.

I'm glad we got out, because even without trees full of apples we had a ball. We found a cute picnic bench right under a tree, a few left over apples on the ground, and many dandelions to make wishes from. The girls loved it. Gwen took impressively big bits of her apple while Gabriella made wish after wish.

I love how easy kids are entertained. It wasn't anything elaborate. Simply trees, apples and flowers for a great afternoon. So, I'm welcoming the hot chocolate, soups and breads. I'm going to beat these winter blues. I'm going to show my girls a good time. And I'm going to love every minute of it.

Little Known Facts

My sister Nicole had this on her blog so I thought I would be a good sport and give it a try. It's an interview where she picked the questions and I have to answer them. If you want, when/if you leave a comment write "interview me" and I will choose five questions that I will e-mail to you for you to answer. You can update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions. Include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. Maybe we will learn some little known facts about you too. So here goes.
1) I know that you love being a twin, but was there ever a time when you wished you weren't? When, why and how long did the feeling last?
I know what Bryn's answer would be. She'd say she wished she wasn't my twin when I was being a huge pig and leave clothes all over our bedroom floor. She even moved out one summer into a spare bedroom when we were like 7 because she couldn't take it anymore. I'm much better now! People always say to Bryn and I that they would love to have a twin. We always thought it would be so great if we were triplets. Being a twin is the best thing in the world. But there is the being compared issue. It comes with the territory. One's better at school, one's better at sports, one's funnier, one's kinder, and that's just the way it is. I never wanted to NOT be a twin, but I wished we weren't compared all the time in high school mostly. Other than that, I'm the luckiest twin ever!
2) You worked hard to get your degree. Is there a part of you that wishes you were using that degree? Is there something you want to do with your degree that you could be currently doing as a SAHM?
I'm lucky to use my degree everyday. Communication and photography. Sometimes, I only communicate in one word sentences, and sometimes my girls hate me taking their pictures...that's where the one word sentences come out "Stop. Smile. Pleeease. Gabs! Look. Gwen. Gwen! Smile. Stooop!
I did intern at a gallery and I curated an art show. I loved it. I was surrounded by beautiful things and I interacted with wonderful, inspiring artistic people. I mostly hoped that their creativity would rub off on me. So, when the time comes, I would love to work in a fine art gallery.
3) You got married at a young age, is there anything you wish you would have done before getting married that you didn't do?
There is absolutely nothing that I wished I would have done before I got married. I do wish that Joe and I wouldn't have let debt and med school be our excuse for not going on more trips together. If I knew what I know now, I would have told myself, "What's another couple hundred dollars on top of that $**,***.00 debt? Go to Chicago! Have fun!"
4) If they made a movie of your life who would play you and why?
Oh man, I have no idea! Bryn. Because she's really adorable!
5) You recently said you wanted to be a cartoonist when you were younger, what was your favorite thing to draw? Was it any good?
I drew a great Ariel. I even drew it the other day for Gabs and she loved it!

Thanks Nic, those were fun questions. Maybe you didn't even know some of those little known facts!