Fall Fun

 Pumpkins

We bought and decorated pumpkins this week on Tuesday knowing they should last a week now that it is colder outside. I didn't want to carve the girls like I did last year because carving one is hard enough on my hand so I let them do paint. Chris carved a ghost, I carved Totoro, Claire painted Jasmine, Aladdin, and Abu, and Shay painted pretty colors. We haven't had them lit up at night because we are saving the candles for Halloween night, but we think they turned out great. Claire and Shay had a lot of fun and wanted to get more pumpkins to paint again, and Claire has even planned next year's painting to be Rapunzel themed.

Trunk or Treat

Our ward Trunk or Treat and carnival was Wednesday night. There were tons of games the girls got to play to earn little toys or treats, plus face painting and Halloween temporary Tattoos. It was fun to see all the costumes and trunks that people decorated and get to know more members of our ward better. Chris and I dressed up as some Monster's Inc. characters and Claire joined us as the little girl 'Boo', but Shay did her own thing and was Catboy. I hand-made the shirt for Chris to be Sully, my hat to be Celia, and my little baby bump was Mike, but somehow I forgot to get a picture of us all dressed up. We will be doing the same costume when we take the girls out for Trick or Treating this week so you'll see it next week!  The face paint even stayed on the next day when Claire dressed in Halloween PJs and I put a pumpkin bun in her hair for school and Shay joined me at the dentist. She had fun with their little arcade games and showing off her butterfly paint and witch tattoo.

Corn Maze

On Saturday, we went to a farm that had a lot of activities including a corn maze, animals to see, a zipline, a barrel train, a hayride, peddle carts, and a bouncy blow-up jumper. With so many things to do at a really good price, we had a blast and plan to visit in the future! The only complaint was that the corn maze map and checkpoints were all QR scanning and on a phone which wasn't easy with only 1 bar of service for it all so we wandered around instead of finding each checkpoint. They had this mini maze that the girls could figure out how to get through in less than 5 minutes and then we all did it together to read the trivia questions before the mighty maze! The animals weren't for petting exactly, but we got to see them and read the jokes that were posted about them. We all really enjoyed the car racing the most and the girls said their favorite was the zipline. The almost 3 hours we spent there wore us all out and Shay was cranky from her short nap in the car, but our day wasn't even over!

Party

There was a neighborhood Costume Halloween Party that we were invited to Saturday evening that filled the rest of the day. Claire dressed up as a mermaid, and Shay was Supergirl. Since I hadn't planned matching outfits with them, Chris and I didn't dress up, but honestly it was because I was tired from the corn maze and didn't want to change clothes. Not many other adults dressed up so I feel good about the decision even if it was mostly because I was lazy. The hosts had made a ton of fun Halloween themed food and there was pizza, a bouncy house, and plenty of talking to meet everyone. I can say I don't remember many names, but now that I know faces and got to know where people have moved from it will be nice to wave to people around the neighborhood. We have a lot of California neighbors living here! As we were getting ready to leave the girls go little goodie bags and opened them immediately to play with the fun things inside of course and wanted to see what the crazy eyes looked like. There were Jack Skeleton decorations that sang and danced that the girls were excited about especially since we had just had a movie night with it on Friday.

Another October Week

 Claire

What to say? She had another great week at school and is jealous whenever Shay gets to do something fun at home with me. On Friday, I had to take my car in to be checked on and since they were close to the library we went there for 5 hours! I saw our day as long, but Shay got to spend so much time at the library and then got taken out to lunch because the car service took so long. Her happy meal came with a Halloween bucket and made Claire jealous so I should take her on a date sometime soon to make her feel special, but then Shay would feel left out...so hard to keep them both happy! They both came with me to a new quilt shop to drop my sewing machine off to be serviced though and then we went to Chris's work for a pizza dinner together before he went hunting again. She also enjoyed being babysat by a new friend last night so Chris and I could go to a haunted house and then looked for her friend at church today.

Shay

She is such a good girl when I have her come to places with me and listens so much better than when they are both together! When the car was being looked at she walked and talked with me to the library and played quietly with all of the things there without disturbing anyone. We even read a bunch of books together and she played the computer learning games they have for kids. I admit she got distracted while I was ordering when we went to eat, but when we were sitting down she didn't complain too much that I didn't have a show on my phone for her to watch. Luckily the Happy Meal had a sticker toy she played with to keep her busy during the meal since there wasn't a play place. I caught her really focused when she was coloring her picture from church and sticking her tongue out really far!

Us

As mentioned before, Chris went hunting again leaving straight from work on Thursday, and didn't get home unit Saturday. No luck getting a deer, but he enjoys the time in the mountains and with his dad and brother which makes it worth it. What isn't worth it is being sick because he was feeling it when he left and then came home more stuffy and coughing than before! When he was coming home we talked about wanting to go to the Haunted World that isn't too far from where we are and I was able to get a babysitter on short notice to play with the girls and put them to bed. It was packed and Chris was disappointed because there aren't as many fun jump scares when you know where they are because the people 2 feet in front of you got scared. I personally think it was perfect that way because I dislike being too scared and was actually able to enjoy the decorations and even though some of the smoke and fog they used really stank, I liked it. Of course, next week when we go to the corn maze, I think I'll enjoy it way more and I'm excited!

Baby

Just a little news on how the pregnancy is going! He is kicking a lot more and Claire asks to feel my belly a lot even though it's hard to catch the perfect time to feel it. I certainly feel it a lot and notice aches after standing or walking for too long (like the haunted house this week). Mostly, I do short walks and then take breaks with Shay during the day so I wasn't used to the almost 2 hours of walking with bad shoes. I still don't feel like I'm craving things specifically, but sweets are a temptation I have to keep out of the house!

Too Much Fun?

Shay

On Monday we joined cousins who were visiting over the weekend at the Children's Museum but without Claire because she had school. She had so much fun and even spend the first 30 minutes playing in a little rock outdoor digging area that was basically something we could find at a park. She really doesn't need anything fancy, but eventually I got her inside to the rest of it and she found a lot more to do like shopping, pirating, farming, fishing, and oh so much more. Her cousins have different interests so they didn't play together very much, but we did all take a break for lunch and walk two blocks to a pizza place to eat together. Some of the pictures were catching her off guard but most of them were asking me to take a picture so we could show Claire at home! She was thinking of her sister so much and when we had to leave to go pick her up from school she even wanted to come back with her. Of course we will eventually go back....maybe when the new section opens and we have friends or grandparents in town again.

Claire

A short week of school had only 3 days because of parent teacher conference and I learned all about the things they are doing in school. Claire and Shay played with the classroom legos while I was talking to her teacher, and I was conforted to know she is doing well and always participates and is friendly. I was told that she got emotional when they used the laptops and she got stuck not knowing what to do and didn't ask for help, so I'll make sure she knows she can always ask for help even at home. She joined Shay and I for my midwife appoint right after the conference and thought the heartbeat sounded weird coming from the monitor, but told her all about how excited she is for a baby brother. She also liked the toys that she has for kids to play with and was obsessed with her ponies. Then there was this book she found at the library that she specifically wanted to make a video of reading it. I read it with her once and then she took daddy's phone to make a video of her 'reading' it from memory. I had to shorten it so it would upload so here is their ending.

Hunting

Chris was joining his dad and brother hunting this past weekend and because Claire was off school we left on Thursday and stayed through Saturday to visit. It's hard to schedule time with busy cousins though and they didn't get to see all of them, but we made new friends at a chili cook off for Grandma's ward. Chris was already hunting so it was just us girls with Grandma and they ate the corn bread and each took one bite of the chili I got for them so they could have ice cream at the end. No deer this weekend, but Chris will be going back next weekend to try again but I'm not sure if I like taking Claire out of school to leave early so we might have to be separated for a few days... The girls already didn't like daddy missing and were not afraid to tell him they missed him when we called to pray at night together. Their reaction to daddy when he finally came back was cute though and made Chris happy.

Hello October!

 Claire

We've been doing fun Halloween projects when we can and did some painting of some bats and then put eyes on them to hang on our fan. Claire hasn't had any Halloween homework come home from school but she says she sees people dressed up already! We also got her school picture and I think she looks so sweet and also way too old! If I look at her next to other 1st graders she still looks like my little baby though so it shouldn't break my heart that she's getting so big. Now I have a plan to put a row of school pictures on our walls to start filling up our home with family and I'm glad I got the digital copy to print whatever size I want. Sometimes there are positives about being indecisive and spending a little more to get the digital download and then printing later, it means I can share with her grandparents too.

Shay

She cuddled me this week! It was actually really sweet and I was surprised she fell asleep but it's been a long time and now I'm ready for my newborn to sleep on me all the time. I think Shay will be a very helpful girl when we are home together with him and I'm way too excited for being only halfway there. The girls call my tummy by the name we have decided to give him and they got to feel him kick a little, now Shay asks to feel him all the time. Unfortunately, he doesn't kick all the time and I have to disappoint her too often. She did help me a little this week with my sewing projects but my machine is acting up so I didn't get anything done and she was sad because I was working on making her a little stuffed witch! We were both pretty disappointed when I couldn't get it working after cleaning it which usually works and she tried to make me feel better and 'fix' it herself. Such a sweet girl I have!

Decoration

I would have included this last week, but I was too focused on a baby...and I didn't get pictures. The girls were a little too excited about decorating Halloween last weekend and kept wanting General Conference to be over so we could decorate. They didn't really listen to any of it but I tried to get them to look when Pres. Nelson was speaking. We also only decorated inside at first because it was raining all weekend! Luckily the rain stopped around 5 and we got to put up our big spider, her babies, and Chris's new skeleton. I also started putting hooks up so we can put some lights up easier but I had to buy them during the week to fill out our porch. This week I made a wrapped-up body for the spiders to feast on, I like our homemade decorations and this week I'm going to work on shadows in the windows. The only thing we can't make are the lights that will help everyone see them at night!

Ending September

Baby

I have been really bad at letting people know about this pregnancy for some reason but I'm now 20 weeks!  We had our ultrasound this past week and found out that we will be adding a boy to our little family and announced it through a video call with our families. We are very excited and Claire and Shay can't wait to have a little brother. They were both rooting for a boy along with me while Chris thought it was another girl so I had to make them be nice about being right haha. We put confetti in some big black balloons that the girls got to pop to find out and then spent way too long cleaning up because they didn't want to throw them away.

Claire 

She's been having a great time at school and I love seeing how smart she is getting with recognizing words when we read and using math. I also hear about all the friends she makes and she has started to bring a toy in her backpack to bring to recess and share with her friends. I was initially reluctant, but she is good at following rules even when mommy isn't around to watch like not playing with the toy except at recess. I remember early on telling her she has to eat her carrots before she gets to eat her Oreo at lunch and she listens! I check it when she comes home and she usually has all of her food eaten but there are sometimes that she says she didn't have time because she was talking too much. The two times the carrots weren't eaten, her cookie was still there so I know she is a good girl. 

Shay

We have a fun time at home and has been helping me with a lot of projects I've been keeping busy with like these new corner shelves in the garage so things weren't just in a pile. She helped me measure and mark the wood then stepped back when I did the cutting. Now I have other artsy stuff I want to sew for decoration for Halloween and we will see if she will help me with those soon. There is also more interest in reading as Claire is more excited about it and I'm glad because I found the flashcards Claire learned from kindergarten that I can now start teaching her. She still sometimes gets jealous that she doesn't go to school yet, but then she started resisting homework saying she doesn't like the page I picked for her twice this week! I think we need a new book that starts the alphabet over again.