First snow 2011

We got our first snow yesterday, and it was a good one. We got at least 3 inches. I didn't even know it was supposed to snow, so it was a surprise. When I woke the girls up, I told them I had a surprise, covered their eyes, and led them to the window. After they got done wowing, they of course asked if they could go play! I made breakfast, went and got my produce basket, and stopped on the way home to buy Ava a winter coat because I hadn't yet! Finally, after locating all of our winter gear and sorting through it, they were able to go out!

I love seeing little girls in their snow stuff in the snow.

 Poor Ninny. Her hands are too little for gloves, so she is stuck with mittens. She wishes she could use her fingers!

 It was good packing snow.

 I love Ava's big snowball, and Ninny's little one!

 Ok, hard to see, but here is Ava's finished product. It was really quite cute. And she spent a long time on it. She told me that her  middle ball kept falling apart, at least three times. But she kept at it. She also put her new scarf that came with her coat on her snowman!

 The one thing I don't like about the first snow is the mess it makes. Especially because we have moved so much! All of our snow gear was out in the garage, in boxes. I had to haul them in, go through them, located everyones snow stuff, then find a place to put it. What a mess! I need a house cleaning fairy!

Halloween 2011

 We had a great Halloween! The weather coudn't have been better. It rained all night that night, but not until all the festivities were over.

Here I am getting ready to go to work. Yes, I went to work like that! We all dressed up, it was lots of fun. I lost the hat pretty quick, but I wore the card all day. I loved the looks I was getting in my car on the way! Ninny's day care was doing a fun halloween parade, so she dressed up like a princess.

Here are all the kiddos. Michaela was very excited about her costume this year, as was Payden. The little girls cracked me up. They had been talking about how they wanted to be ghosts, or witches, or something scary. They went with Jason to get their costumes, and I was so not surprised to see them come home with girly stuff! Ninny was a tooth fair, and Ava was a black angel or bird, she didn't care which.

 Like I said, the weather was gorgeous. They were so excited to go trick or treating!

 Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Their first house, a great neighbor friend.

 Michaeal went out with her friends this year. Payden was waiting at home, manning the door and hoping that her friend from Syracuse would show like she said she would. She never did, and I felt so bad for Payden. So she ended up going out by herself later. Luckily, we live in a safe neighborhood, so that was ok. I just told her to go around the block. They already had so much candy from Jason's office trick or treating that she really didn't need more!

 Another neighbor in the ward has an outdoor party every year. They had homemade rootbeer, and the dry ice was neat. They also had yummy food to eat, and of course, candy!

 They also had strobe lights and loud music playing. The base must have gotten to Ninny, cause you could tell she felt it in her bones! She put on a stank face, and stood there and just sloooooly rotating her hips. It was so funny.

 Then she started bouncing to the beat, and her wings would flap in time! This one is a dancer, I need to put her in a class! I wish I had my video camera, it was great.

A great halloween!

Pumkin fun and sweet treats

Carving pumpkins is always an activity everyone looks forward to. The older girls really enjoy finding unique ideas to carve into their pumpkins and like doing very intricate designs. Because I usually end up doing at least one of the little girls in addition to my own, I like to keep mine simple!

Ninny jumped right in, had no qualms about getting slimy. Picking out the seeds one. at. a. time.

Ava doesn't mind getting messy either. She did grab more than one seed at a time, and did a pretty good job of cleaning hers out this year. I only had to scrap the sides for her, she did the rest. She likes to create her own designs, and draws them on paper, then on the the pumpkin.

 Michaela had an original idea this year. She had a jack face, with a guitar going through his mouth with "rock on" above it. It was pretty neat.

 Payden was the "scream" for halloween this year, so she carved that into her pumkpin. Here is Ninny poking little holes in hers with a toothpick. I think it made her feel like she was carving it!

 Go Michaela!

 As I said, I keep mine simple. This year, I just got out my drill and drilled a bunch of holes all over it. It was fun and looked really neat!

 Afterward, we had chocolate pudding with cool whip on top. It was pretty good, but the little kids liked it best, I think.

 Another day this week, we wanted to do caramel apples, but always find them difficult to eat. So instead, I cut them up and we drizzled (or dumped, as the case may be) our caramel, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and nuts on top. It was very good. Fall rules.

Ava's Art

This is a sample of Ava's awesome abilities. She is a natural artist, and always has been. I can remember her drawing very sophisticated things at 3 and 4.

She is now almost 7, and she amazes me with her talent.

 The other day her class went on a walking field trip to a home nearby that kept bees. They learned about bees and the process of honey making. They also got to taste fresh honey.

 She drew this picture tonight, and said that this was a boy bee. I started looking for body parts (he he) but she was thinking something else.

They had told her that the female bees do all the work and make the honey, and the male bees just sit around drinking the honey.

 So her drawing depicts a lazy male bee, watching bee tv (see the remote in his hand?) while drinking honey with all his other legs. There is also more honey on the table behind him. See his crossed legs, and one arm behind his head?

This girl astounds me.

 I should have her sign it.

I bet it will be worth money someday!

On catching spiders and cats

 I love the house we are renting. It is small and cozy and doesn't take long to clean. Doesn't take long to get dirty either, but oh well. We do have lots of spiders, however, in the basement. Really a lot. I got some glue traps and they are filling up. I acutally just looked at the one I took a pic of last night, and it looks like there are 3 new spiders on it. I guess I am glad the glue traps are working, but I wonder how many there are that aren't on the glue traps.

They are also good at catching cats, as evidenced by the cat fur on the trap. Have you ever watched a cat tear through the house trying to remove a glue trap that is attached to their stomach? Highly amusing.

This one is a huge bugger. The pic doesn't do it justice. It's big. *shudder* I have sprayed, but I am thinking I need to do a bug bomb. The only problem is the cat, keeping her in the car for the time of the bomb. I have sprayed around the inside and outside of the house, it doesn't have seemed to help. Or maybe it has, and we would have had a bigger spider problem. Perish the thought.

All I want for Christmas....

Can you tell what this is?

 It is the tiny little tooth that used to reside in Ava's mouth! She was so excited to lose this tooth. It had been loose for a while, and it seemed to her that EVERYONE had lost a tooth except her.

 It was very loose on Friday, she had worked it until it was sticking straight out. I told her she had until bedtime to pull it out or I would, since I didn't think she should go to sleep with it like that. I took Payden to a party, and when I came back, I was greeted with her triumphant smile, minus one tooth!

 Side ways pic. Driving me nuts. She was so happy to get her money from the tooth fairy! Her teeth are so tiny; like much of the rest of her. Except her eyes! But really, that tooth was so small I couldn't believe it. It was the size of, I can't think of anything that small. Smaller than a pea, maybe the size of a small lady bug, or smaller! I swear the diamond in my wedding ring is bigger than that tooth. Anyway, very small, and a very happy little girl!

Its fall!

On Sunday after conference, we went for  a drive to look at the fall colors and take some pictures. It was a very nice day, clear skies and warm. A lot of the pics I took are sideways, and since I can't seem to change that, here are the ones that aren't!

Silly girls.

Michaela took her guitar and wanted some pics with it.

Ok, this one is sideways, but so cute I had to put it in here!

We also went on a short easy trail for a little walk. It was a Mormon Pioneer trail, or so the sign said. We had fun!