Halloween--Curious George & The Man with the Yellow Hat

Last year I took a break from the insanity involved in making Halloween costumes, but this year I was back on duty.  I really wanted them to have costumes that went together and I decided to let Isaiah choose.  I was thinking something classic like Rageddy Ann and Andy.  Instead he chose Curious George and The Man with the Yellow Hat.  I tried encourage HIM to be the man and letting Eliza be curious george, but to no avail.  I guess either way Eliza would've ended up cross-dressing...

We went to trunk-or-treat at our old ward AND our new ward.  And on Halloween I took the kids over to our friend Elizabeth's house.  She's in our neighborhood and has a six-year-old daughter.  She invites several families over for pizza dinner and lots of desserts followed by trick-or-treating.  So I headed over while Jerel pretended to stay home and hand out candy so that our new neighbors wouldn't think we were lame-o's.  In actuality he sat at home with the lights off playing his computer game...

Eliza liked trick-or-treating this year.  She would knock and even say "chick-a-cheat" and hold her little bucket up for a treat.  Isaiah was good for a couple of blocks and then ripped off his costume and climbed into the stroller.  I would've thought his love for chocolate would've encouraged him to press on, but it didn't.  So Eliza bravely went by herself!  I stayed back at the sidewalk and let her go up--I try to encourage them to be independent.  But after one scary house (decorations, dark music, etc.) she wouldn't go by herself anymore.  So we came home, turned on the lights, and handed out some candy.  Oh, and I should mention that although their costumes are adorable, Isaiah was disappointed that his costume has a tail (Curious George doesn't have one which, curiously, means he is not actually a monkey).  And Eliza didn't like wearing her yellow hat that I so cleverly designed, so people thought she was a banana or a witch or they just weren't quite sure what (especially since Isaiah was hiding in the stroller, thus leaving out the Curious George clue).  All in all a success, just don't ask about pumpkin carving...

The kids love standing on the windowsills in the living room and looking outside.

Here they are with their addiction--the iPad.  Even when Eliza finally gets a turn, Isaiah is always leaning over her pushing buttons and telling her what to do!

Getting ready to move

Here's Eliza and Isaiah on their last day of nursery in our old ward.  This is Lorrie Soelberg, one of their teachers.  Christie Hammer wasn't there that day.  My kids loved both of them, and so did I!  They did wonderful things with the kids and somehow kept them happy while also getting them pretty well trained for a transition into Primary, which happens in January for Isaiah.  Also key to their happiness and success in nursery was their music teacher Sister Turner.  She used to be the Primary President, so I worked with her for a number of years there.  She's pretty much the perfect person to do music with the little ones!  She had all kinds of props and pictures and things.  I knew she was wonderful when my kids started singing songs that I had never sung to them before.  Isaiah will always remember her as the one who taught him that Jesus wears a blue coat...Zay loves blue and he kept telling me that Sister Turner says Jesus wears blue.  After some investigation Joan and I figured out that one of the songs they sing has a picture cue that shows Christ with a blue robe over his shoulder.

 While we were busy packing, the kids were busy making Truck Soup.  They stir it all up and then have Jerel and I taste it "too salty" or "not enough hot wheels" or "too much monster truck" and they'd run off to make a new mixture.  Of course it had to be refrigerated...

I just want to say one more time:  I hate packing.

 Here are the moving trucks arriving.  The second one was pretty much empty, but since they had charged us for it I think they felt obligated to drive it over to the new house.  It was so much better than a ward move!  I just sat down by the garage and told them where things went (the boxes were all labeled, but furniture and other things weren't).

First meal in the new home.

Roommates

It's been a while since I've had roommates, but I learned so many good things from them so that in some ways they are still with me.  Not the least of which is popcorn with m&m's.  I love it!  The m&m's get all warm and melty, and I love the sweet/salty combination.  So thanks Megan Preston-Kellems!

Finally here!

 After a last-minute debacle that delayed our closing, we finally own our new home!  We love it!  (Mostly).  Things that are still irritating Jerel are:  the stairway wasn't big enough to get our queen-size box spring up.  After a few nights sleeping on just a mattress on the floor, we thought of taking off the hand rails and that gave us just enough wiggle room to get it up there.  So, all is well now, but Jerel's holding on to the irritation for just a little bit longer.  Also annoying him is the fact that our top-of-the-line fabulous furnace isn't working correctly.  It has two zones and downstairs hovers around 67 while upstairs is around 80 (even though both are set to 68).  The repair people are coming (again) today so hopefully that'll get fixed.  Things that are still annoying Mandy:  it is not an big, old farmhouse with a wraparound porch.  That's okay; who wants to get their ultimate dream home in their 30's?  It would leave you nothing to dream of!  Really, though, we are delighted with our home.  It's almost twice as large as our old one at 3200 square feet, has an enormous garage, a huge playroom for the kids, and some beautiful features we were able to select.  Of course it's still half empty, but that's okay.  This is a home for us to grow into.  (And by "grow" I am referring only to quantity of stuff, not quantity of children, lest any false rumors start flying around!)

The kids seemed to have inherited their photo shoot dispositions from Jerel.  They just were not interested a bit!  We were able to get enough good shots, but there are so many where the kids just plain refused to look at the camera.  My fault--I only offered them the promise of m&m's when we got home; I should have had them right in my pocket to bribe them for each shot.  I'm all for teaching delayed gratification, but I'm also all for having darling family photos.

 I wanted a shot of both kids together.  This is as close as they would get to one another.  Silly gooses!

Me and my boy.  Love him!  For our Utah friends and family, be aware that this photo is being used on some posters for an autism study.  Don't worry--Isaiah doesn't have autism!  It's just that our photographer's sister needed a picture of a mother and son, and seeing how Isaiah is so adorable, this is the one she wanted.  So no, no family secrets here (I don't think they can even diagnose autism in someone as young as Zay can they?) it's just the beginning of Isaiah's career as a super model.

Oh Eliza, just smile!

My favorite of the whole photo shoot.

Almost there

Here's the new house, just about finished.  The last few weeks seems to have dragged along waiting for our closing date to arrive, and it still isn't here.  Some things I won't miss after we move:

1.  Living by the dump.  For the most part it's been fine, but there are days now and then when it just smells all day.

2.  Not having air conditioning.  A true trial for me.  I think I was born with extra & overactive sweat glands or something.  And of course we had like the longest, hottest summer ever while living A/C-free in the rental.

3.  Having a kitchen junk drawer that is only 4 inches wide.  

4.  Carpeting in the dining room.  What a dumb idea.  I vacuum it way too often, but it's never often enough. I've found, though, that if the kids spill food it's better to just wait 24 hours for it to crust over and then it vacuums right up instead of mushing into the carpet.  They sure spill a lot too--I think our vacuum bag probably counts as a 72-hour supply of food.

5.  Tiled kitchen & bathroom counters.  Those are the most annoying thing ever.  The grout lines are never clean.

6.  Sliding glass doors and their accompanying screen doors.

7.  Having half of my stuff boxed up in the garage.

8.  Parking outside

9.  A dishwasher that melts our plastic plates (which my children cry about), and refuses to wash sippy cups without turning them upside down and filling them with dish water.

10.  Making visitors sleep on the floor in Isaiah's bedroom.  Usually on an under-inflated air mattress, and often while freezing because the blankets are lost (see #7)

I'm sure there are more things; I'll add them to the list as I think of them.

Isn't she lovely?

A Car & A Day at the Beach

 Zay wanted to make a car from a box. Jerel got a marker and drew a steering wheel on it.  Not bad, but someone with my breadth of Pinterest experience had a few more ideas.  Paper plates became the steering wheel and the tires, an empty toilet paper roll became the exhaust pipe, a cereal box was turned into a license plate, and two clear plastic cups were painted yellow for headlights.  He played with it for a few days and then tore it up.  Here he is, car parked in the kitchen, pretending to be asleep but letting a little bit of smile slip out!
 

A few weeks ago I decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the beach.  I told them in the morning that I was going to take them somewhere special.  I snuck and put all their beach toys in the car, and since they only have like two beach toys I also snuck in any regular toys that could be fun at the beach.  We stopped at the library on the way and the librarian pulled a bunch of picture books about the beach for me. I kept giving them to Zay and he'd tell me what they were about but he still hadn't caught on.

About halfway there he figured it out and was super excited!

Here's Eliza demonstrating what happens if you cry with sand all over your face.  She's at an awkward age, not having grown enough to ride Isaiah's bike yet, and not having one of her own.  A downside to having two kids so close:  Zay is not yet big enough for the next size up but Eliza is ready for his bike.  Soon enough the weather will turn yucky and by next summer he'll get a new one and she'll get his balance bike.  In the mean time she cries and cries until I finally wear down enough to put her on his bike and push her around in circles.

They had a good time.  It was in the 90's at home and I checked the forecast before leaving and for the town we went to it was supposed to be in the low 80's.  It actually didn't even get up to 70, so it was yet another cold day at the beach.  In all my secret packing I forgot their jackets so they ended up wearing two sets of clothes at once to keep warm.

Just when I was starting to think the kids would never want to go back home, I noticed the tide was coming in a bit and mentioned that if it came up too high it would get us all wet. Zay was already wet up to his waist from splashing in the water, but for some reason this terrified him. He ran over and starting pounding on the car door begging me to let him in so he wouldn't get wet.  I guess he doesn't understand that the timing of a tide coming in is not as quick as a tsunami coming in.  The poor kid was in a panic while I packed everything up!

On the way home, Zay told his exhausted mother he would rather have gone to the splash pad (3 miles from our house).  I am continually reminded that just because I think something will be enormously fun for my kids doesn't mean they'll actually enjoy it!