The Halloween festivities continue! It's been a fun week with plenty of entertainment and goodies. Last night we visited Ben's parents for a wonderful Sunday dinner with yummy fall foods and a quick pumpkin carving. I'm thinking I will stick to tiny pumpkins from now on... they are so much easier to carve and not nearly as big of a mess and they make a lovely little decoration for my kitchen counter. :) To add to the growing list of festive events, we had a pleasant little Halloween gathering with friends this evening. Games, treats, and splendid conversation... there's nothing better... except maybe Disneyland. ;)
We went to the State Fair today! It was a total blast! We were happy that Ben's family was able to meet up with us there as well. This was my first time to the Arizona State Fair and I have totally been missing out all these years I haven't gone. It was so great! Emma rode the carousel, pony ride (click for video), ferris wheel, and a few little kiddie rides that she was able to ride all by herself. She was so happy to be able to ride the pink elephants by herself. She's so fun. She also tried the mini bumper cars (click for another video!), but she was too short to reach the pedal, so the attendant had to help her the whole time... but what a trooper! Emma is such a fun little girl. Becca slept much of the time... maybe next year she'll be able to get more out the fair. :) My favorite was riding the log ride with Emily. We both got soaked, but it felt so nice in the heat... and I was all dry in a short time. We also had corn dogs, funnel cake and cotton candy... mmmm... healthy fair food. ;)
Last night we had our ward trunk or treat. It was also sooo fun! What a splendid weekend we've been having, eh? We all dressed up as Winnie the Pooh characters. Emma was such a cute Pooh and Becca was a darling Roo. :) I was so proud of Emma getting so into the trick or treating... she went up to everyone passing out candy saying "Trick or Treat!". Such a pro! I was impressed with the many clever costumes in the ward... we have such a fun ward! There was an ice cream sundae, a LOST character, a Tetris piece... and the Man in the Yellow Hat with Curious George (good work getting that costume together Ashley!) I was also impressed with Ezra finishing off a whole sucker. Good work! Emma also has been enjoying her treats here at home... there is even plenty to share with mommy and daddy!
We had a lovely ward playgroup activity this morning. It was so nice to be outside with the beautiful weather! The high today was a cool 79 degrees! It's nice to finally be cooling down around here... and have an excuse to start wearing long sleeves and pants. :) The kids painted pumpkins and enjoyed playing in Lora's fun backyard. I love chatting with the other mommies. Ben and I were discussing the other night about how I'm always wanting to chat his ear off when he gets home from work, while he would much rather relax on the couch watching a show. We realized that this is mostly due to the fact that I spend the majority of my day having only Emma to talk to... that doesn't make for the most intelligent or stimulating conversations... so when Ben gets home I'm desperate for some grown-up communication. Anyway, I bring this up because this is one of the reasons why I love so much to get together with my girlfriends so that I can have people to really talk to!
So, one of our favorite places to go is Costco and now that Becca is sitting up we've recently been having her sit in the cart at the stores. It's especially fun at Costco, because they have the double seats so Emma and Becca can sit right next to each other. It took a picture because I thought they were so cute and odd looking sitting next to each other like this... it makes Emma look like a giant and Becca appears even smaller than she really is with her big sister keeping such close company. You can also see that Emma takes just after her daddy with her interest in XBOX games. :)
To add to the list of things that Becca likes - she also enjoys playing with the laundry. I've found that she can be entertained through most of the 'putting away laundry' ritual each day just sitting up on the bed and grabbing, eating, and covering her face with clothes. She's funny. Doesn't she look so happy in this picture? Her head also looks extra big... but that's because she has a big/smart brain, remember?
I feel like I've been focusing completely on Becca lately with my posts, so now I will pay some attention to my dear Emma. :) She enjoys the following: Reading stories with mommy and Becca, hide-and-seek, strawberries and kiwis (in addition to the string of typical foods that young ones like such as macaroni and cheese, cheeseburgers, corn dogs, and pizza), dressing up, dancing, and helping in the kitchen (when mommy is patient enough to allow it). These last couple of items I will dwell on a moment - Emma LOVES watching Dancing with the Stars and she also very much enjoyed So You Think You Can Dance when that was on during the summer. She's so funny about this. When it's time to watch "the dancing show", she insists on changing into a dress, which she calls her "dancing dress" and she dances with the performances throughout the whole show. It's really hillarious. She gets so into it... it's very "interpretive"... I'll have to try and remember to take a video of it this next week. The other item of cooking/helping in the kitchen has been a fun one lately. I'm usually not that patient with having her help me cook dinner because I tend to be in a time crunch and I'm hungry and I just don't want to take the time to have her really help me much... so I've recently started having a cooking time each week together, in which we make a pre-planned recipe together that's rather simple. This morning we made a caramel/peanut butter dip with apples (courtesy of Rachel Ray's Cooking with Kids book). Emma acts so pleased to be given so much attention and be allowed to do so much of the cooking. It's also been a good teaching time to get her acquainted with the names and uses of various cooking items. We do this while Becca takes her morning nap, so that I can really focus on Emma. I think she needs that sometimes.
So, I feel like so many of you have been making posts about your favorite songs... it made me think of this one I discovered a while back... the group is called The Bird and the Bee... I don't necessarily endorse their other songs, because I fear they would need some editing (aye!), but this song is a winner to me. It's called Again and Again. I get it stuck in my head quite a bit, but I really like it.
Once again, I have a bunch of random things to write about. I love blogging! It's nice to have an outlet for all of the stuff that floats around in my head. :) First of all, Heather already posted about this and she made the cutest collage of pictures from the Murder Mystery party we had at our place this weekend. We did one of these in Provo once when we were first married with our friends there... and this time around was definitely just as fun - and the costumes were awesome! I was so impressed with everyone's effort to make this a memorable gathering. :) I'm going to post Heather's picture page below so that my friends and family outside of Arizona can see how cute we all were. ;)
Oh, and to answer any questions about who was the murderer... well, it was Craig. And I always thought he was a nice guy. ;)
On another topic, Taya's craft fair was this weekend and her unveiling of Jonesy Baby seemed to be quite the hit! I'm so impressed! I wish I was crafty and clever enough to start up my own business... you're my hero Taya! :) Look how cute Becca looks wearing her very own Jonesy Baby hair accessory. I'm glad to have some cute flowers for her hair, so that now no one will mistake her for a boy... especially for those days when she isn't already in pink.
And speaking of Becca, I thought I would include some of her likes... since she is now getting more easy to read with these types of things. Rebecca enjoys being held my mommy, sitting up... especially in a cart at the store, playing with Emma, crunching and mashing up pieces of paper, staring at people with her huge eyes, and eating biter biscuits. I've included some pictures of this last item. She makes a huge mess, but she is so funny to watch when she eats them... she gets so into it and vigorously mashes it up with her gums. It really is a sight.
Lastly, I just read on Brittanie's blog that you can get your blog made into a book! What a great journaling idea! So cool! Click here to learn more.
Happy 6 month birthday Becca! Today is Rebecca's 6 month mark and I can't believe it! I feel like I just had her and yet it's hard to remember life before her. How odd. We went to her well-baby visit today and the poor thing had to get a bunch of shots. She was very sad about it, but now she is napping. Her 6 month stats were rather interesting (but not surprising really). Height: 24 1/2 inches (25%ile) Weight: 12 lbs, 11 oz (3%) HeadCirc: 17 1/4 (75%). So... in conclusion: bitty body, huge head. That's definitely my Becca. Once again I was rather alarmed at her tiny weight percentage. I'll be going back in a month for another weight check, at which point, I may need to start supplementing with formula. Emma was always really small like Becca... but not quite this small. Oh well, the doctor says she's healthy but wants to make sure she doesn't continue to go down in percentile on the weight chart. Regarding her very disproportionately large head, I attribute that to a huge brain... because she's just that smart. :)
Look at my cute little Rebecca! She's sitting up! This photo is slightly deceiving, however... she can definitely sit up, but falls over after about 10 seconds. But I say that if I have the time to take a picture before she topples, then I can say she is sitting up. Hooray for Becca! She's the cutest little thing... with the biggest eyes I have ever seen! :) I love her so very much.
Emma continues to do well with the potty training. Hooray! She's going to the potty without me reminding her and now I am just waiting it out till I try to go on an outing with her in underwear. I'm so scared she will pee in the store! Any suggestions or advice? Emma's been enjoying one of her potty prizes... bath crayons. Very fun! I suggest trying these out for your little ones, if you haven't already. Emma thinks they are so amusing. On a side note, I bought the bath crayons at Cost Plus World Market. I'd like to put in a little plug for this fun store... in case any of you haven't already discovered it. They have really unique kids toys and trinkets and also fun foreign candies and treats. Their house decor is really cute as well! It's kind of like Pier One, but I think their stuff is even more fun.
Since we've been stuck in the house quite a bit lately, I was particularly thankful to have Benjamin over this morning to play with Emma. Melinda and I have been doing a kid swap for the past few weeks and we've both been loving it! We both get one day each week without our crazy 2 year olds and Emma and Benjamin love playing together. How nice is that? Today we colored Halloween pictures and played in the backyard. Becca loves to hang out on the porch as well... she can stay out there for the longest time as long as Emma is out there to keep her entertained. She just really enjoys watching and interacting with other kids, especially her fun big sister!
This post will be a little random (as is evident from the title!)... but sometimes that's fun, isn't it? :) First, my mom has been bugging me (in a nice way of course) for a while to post pictures of the insides of our house. So I took a short little video of me walking through the place. I realized afterwards that I talked rather fast during it... so have fun trying to understand what I'm saying. ;)
So, I've begun potty training Emma... again. This time, we're actually doing really well! Hooray! I feel like Emma's been aching for a while to give it another go and she's been doing so well this time around! It's been 2 days of no accidents! Yippee! This is only at home, though... she is still wearing pullups out of the house. I'm going to give it another week at least before I dare venture out of doors with Emma only in underwear. But, I am so proud of Emma using the potty at home without me needing to remind her... what a big girl! The picture above is from yesterday morning... Emma was just wearing her panties and nothing else and both her and Becca were both on their tummies watching a show. Pretty cute, I thought.
Lastly, there are few you tube videos I've been wanting to post. I'll put them below. The first is a pretty amusing song about things mommies say during the course of day. It's quite funny. Below that is a video from the "Will it Blend" series of clips... They're basically cool videos showing how powerful the Blendtec blenders are by blending up everything from hockey pucks, to glow sticks, to ipods. Odd, but entertaining.
Our trip to Utah was very pleasant. The weather was perfect! It's nice to know that some people in other places are experiencing the beautiful Fall season. I enjoyed getting to wear a jacket! :) I put all our photos in the slideshow for you all to enjoy. We kept very busy and Emma had soooo much fun! I did too, of course. It was great to spend time with my family. I love them dearly! :)
The Halloween festivities continue! It's been a fun week with plenty of entertainment and goodies. Last night we visited Ben's parents for a wonderful Sunday dinner with yummy fall foods and a quick pumpkin carving. I'm thinking I will stick to tiny pumpkins from now on... they are so much easier to carve and not nearly as big of a mess and they 
make a lovely little decoration for my kitchen counter. :) To add to the growing list of festive events, we had a pleasant little Halloween gathering with friends this evening. Games, treats, and splendid conversation... there's nothing better... except maybe Disneyland. ;)
