Halloween

We were WAY lazy and uncreative for Halloween this year.

We didn't go trick-or-treating, and we saved the candy from some parties to pass out to other kids instead of buying our own when we heard our complex get hardly any trick-or-treaters.

We pulled out some old accessories from my mom's attic to make Reese a "rodeo princess" and Will her "cowboy coach"

I recycled last year's costume (click here for a reminder) to be Reese's rodeo steed. I know, she looks way excited about it.

We had a pumpkin painting contest at our church Halloween party. This one won. the plate in front of it is pumpkin guts that apparently have been thrown up by the pumpkin- a nod to the H1N1.

Our entry was another reminder of last year's much more creative costume, the headless horseman.

At our student housing association party. Will isn't really dressed up as anything, he just wanted to keep is robe on and figured people would just assume they didn't understand the costume. I didn't even bother to try (we didn't remember about the party until after it started.)

We were also lazy with Reese. We figured if we drew some stripes on her face, people would figure that she at one point must have had a costume on, but it just didn't last. Hm. I take it back, we're way creative.

Happy Halloween!

Around The House

Reese likes to help around the house. Some things she is very helpful at are: emptying the dishwasher (onto the floor), closing the dishwasher, sweeping (pictured), picking up clutter (and moving it around), and generally boosting morale.

I tried to think of something we might have around the house that we could stack up into a tower, when I realized we had just got a bulk purchase of tissue boxes. At first she had no interest, then she helped me stack, then, when I had knocked the tower over a couple of times ad she realized she could do it herself, wouldn't even let one box stand upright by itself.

We also let her play with the box from her new winter boots.

Unfortunately it's another case of the "drop what I'm doing so I can stare at the camera"s

I took the ingenious idea from another blogger and let Reese explore flour. She always watches me roll out dough and wants to help, and letting her play with just the flour was great.

Not a whole lot of excitement- this one's for you, Ellie.

Quirks

Last week, right before leaving for Bear Lake, we spent a bunch of time searching for one of Reese's sneakers. We looked everywhere but couldn't find it. Eventually we gave up and put her Church shoes on instead. While we were up at the apartment at Bear lake, we noticed that she kept opening all the drawers and cupboards. Hmmm. Sure enough, when we got home, we found her lost shoe in her dresser where we keep the diapering stuff. It's become a new hobby of Reese's: getting into all sorts of stuff she couldn't before (and doesn't realize we liked it that way.)

Yesterday I was working on some computer things (our computer is in her room) and she kept opening a cupboard in her dresser and pulling out diapers. I told her repeatedly not to do so and helped her put the diapers back and close the door, but as soon as I had my back turned, there she would go again. Today I found her in the closet, stuck in her shoe bin. (Will had a hard time finding her in this picture, it's like a where's Waldo)

She especially likes playing with shoes, which is something that she could do before, because we have a shoe rack out right by the front door. This is her in Daddy's sneakers.

And I finally found a way to get her to keep headbands in her hair for more than 3 seconds: let her put the hairband on all by herself.

And she still hates it that I try to ignore her when I'm cooking.

Trip To Bear Lake

Last week, Will's sisters, Becky and Christine, graciously invited us to share in their vacation at a timeshare at Bear Lake. It was three days of fun.

Reese Behaved herself pretty well, but she had to re-warm up to her aunts every morning. You'd think she'd remember from the day before that they're nice people.

One evening, she put a cloth on her head and ran around from person to person playing peek-a-boo. She only ran into the all once, and unfortunately I had just turned off the video right before it happened. (video below)

We went on a hike to some freshwater springs in Paris, Idaho. The springs were gorgeous, and it was pretty cool to see the water just come up out of the ground like that.

On the Hike

The springs.

The gang in front of Bear Lake. It was late enough in the season that we couldn't do any lake swimming, but the beach was exclusively ours.

Will and Reese on the lake front

Becky and Christine collecting some of the tons of tiny seashells for a future project.

Yes, I was there too.

Thanks for a wonderful time, guys!

No Birthday Pictures

Sorry. My birthday was a little stressful.
Last weekend was our church's general conference weekend. The conference broadcasts take the place of going to church for that weekend. I love the spiritual boost it gives. As we were watching the conference, I checked online at lds.org to see if the text of the talks were available. The web site said they wouldn't be available until Thurs, Oct 8. On Wednesday night, I was so excited to review some of the things that were taught, and I got a little jittery. "Hey Will, do you know what tomorrow is?" I asked excitedly. I didn't think he really knew.
"Uh, your Birthday?" He replied.
"Oh. Yeah, I guess it is," I said. I had to think about that for a moment. He's had to keep reminding me that my birthday was coming up and here I am, the night before, and I don't even remember. But it's just as well, my birthday wasn't a fabulous one.
In birthdays past, the focus has been on celebration- games, presents, cake etc. But this time, the highlight was talking to family. I had a lot of phone calls and emails and I think my birthday happiness depended on every single one. Most of the conversations didn't even stay on birthday wishes, which is alright by me.

I just want to say thanks to my whole family. Life would be a hundred times harder without you guys, and birthdays would not be worth celebrating.

Not My Post

I have a friend who occasionally blogs posts in a series called "recipes that don't work". Toni, I hope you'll forgive me for putting a link to your blog here, but whenever I need a laugh, I can always refer back to this episode. If you want a little chuckle, go here: A Post That's Not Mine

Marshmallows From Scratch

I wanted to make some s'mores completely from scratch. I don't remember what inspired this, but I've finally accomplished it. Last week I focused on the graham cracker, which turned out to be more like a graham cracker-flavored cookie. I spread chocolate directly on the cookie. This week, I tried my hand at the marshmallows. I was a little afraid because my dad tells horror stories of trying to make marshmallows on his mission, but I love it! They tasted great, and the finished product was just plain fun to play with. I felt like a kid with play-doh.

sugaring the sticky mallows

Some mallow cubes and patties

Round patties. I poured the mallow dough into a cleaned-out can, let the mallow set, pushed it out of the can, and then sliced the cylinder into slices. It was too much work. Next time I'll just pipe the liquid mallow into rounds before it sets.

The finished s'more. There's a chocolate layer on the inside of each cookie. I meant to take a picture of the gooey goodness once I microwaved it, but it got devoured before I remembered.

Playground Romp

My little girl is getting so big! This is kind of a long video for a blog post, but I thought it was full of suspense and a happy ending.

Playing Around

Reese wanted to help me with dinner, as she always wants to help when I'm in the kitchen. We compromised by letting her use the oven mitts when I didn't need them. She thought it was great. Will thought she looked like a green and yellow crab.

Reese just chillin' on the rocking chair. She's fallen asleep early for the past two nights in a row. On one hand, it's nice that she isn't running amok right before bedtime, but on the other hand, I miss bedtime story and song. Isn't it the kid that's supposed to complain when those things get missed?

Luckily, Reese did some extra day-time reading with Daddy. I love her enthusiasm.