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.