Birthday excitement, or Election Day jitters???

Steven was up until 1:00 am last night!!! I just could not get him to settle down and go to sleep. I have not decided if he was so excited for his birthday (today) that he had to stay up to see it, or if he had election day jitters, but whatever the reason he was just so wound up. So, he helped me make his cake and wrap his presents. By "help" I mean he ate the crumbs off the kitchen floor from the cookie I dropped, and he majorly ripped the wrapping paper I was using to try to wrap his presents with. Lets just say that he's got the idea of trying to open a present down (even before they are completely wrapped. We were running short on wrap, so I had to "repair" some of the torn paper by taping it back together. And, his smallest present is wrapped very creatively because we had to make do with a VERY small amount of paper left after he opened it prematurely. Oh well. Here are some pictures of his Winnie the Pooh birthday cake and presents, and a couple of him staying up so late. By the way, I decided to do Winnie the Pooh to simplify because I have our Young Women in Excellence program tomorrow and it is a bumblebee theme. I made double so I am using a twin cake (minus the Winnie the Pooh candle, of course) and the same cookies for that. And he does like Winnie the Pooh anyway, so it worked out perfectly. I love it when that happens!.

Halloween Night

We had great Halloween. Here is a picture of Tinkerbell playing at Nana and Bumpa's house. We went to a street in a nearby town, Sierra Madre, which always does a big Halloween display. They close the whole street to cars and all of the houses go all out decorating. Several houses have 30 or more pumpkins, some as big as Elise, that are very intricately carved and set up in cool displays. Chris and I have gone to this fun little Halloween Alley every year since we were dating, so it has become a fun tradition for us. Here is a picture of our little pirate in the stroller. Unfortunately the pumpkin displays don't photograph very well in the dark.

My cousin's daughter Payton had a bumblebee costume that matched Elise's Tinkerbell costume because she borrowed my pattern to make it. We thought it would be fun to get a picture of them together, but unfortunately we had one mad little bumblebee and one stinker of a fairy that didn't want to be photographed, so this is the best we got. Oh well. It was kind of late and they were tired, so I guess we should have just put them to bed and forgotten about the photo.

We also hung out with Grandma and Grandpa, and Elise helped Grandpa give out "trick or treats." I thought that giving candy away might upset her a little, especially since we only trick or treated at Nana and Bumpa's house and Grandma and Grandpa's door, so she only got two pieces of candy for herself. But, she surprised me by having a great time giving out candy and loving every minute of it!

Happy Halloween!

I have these really cute pictures of Elise when she was one on Halloween with pumpkins wearing pumpkin attire, so I wanted to get a picture like that of Steven. As you can see, he was not so cooperative. I wanted his picture with the three big plain pumpkins, but in every picture he was crawling away, tearing off his hat, crying, or doing all three. He was a little more cooperative with the pirate pumpkin, although that was not quite the effect I was going for. I may have to try for some better shots later, and include Elise. When we took these photos she was busy watching an Easter Bunny movie we have on DVD and didn't want to be disturbed. I think she is a little confused at what holiday it is today.

DANCING DIVA

So the movie ended and I talked Elise into going outside for some pictures, but by then Steven was down for a nap so he was out of the mix. I decided to add a few pictures of just her to this post though. The ground was damp because it had rained, and being that rain is a novelty around here, this freaked her out a little bit so she just stood by the door crying about it and refusing to come outside for a good 5 minutes. When she finally decided to come outside, she didn't want to pose for any pictures either. She kept telling me , "I just want my pictues dancing and hopping like a bunny. NOT sitting with the pumpkins." Silly me, how boring is sitting? Oh well. So much for my idea for some cute photos.

Cute conversations with a 3 year old

Last night when I put Elise in bed, she asked me to lay by her, so I told her I would for a few minutes. I laid down and she looked at me with a big smile and patted my forehead. I patted her forehead back, so she said, "Mom, why did you touch my forehead?" I said, "Because it's so darn cute! Why did you touch my forehead?" She said, "Because it's so darn cute." I just laughed and it was quiet for a minute. Then she said, "Mom, I think I didn't touch your forehead because it's so darn cute. I think I touched it to say Goodnight and I love you." Sometimes she is so sweet.... SOMETIMES!!!

Halloween Fun!

Yesterday was our Ward Halloween Party, and this morning one of Elise's little friends had a Halloween party, so my kids got to dress up two days in a row, which was fun for Elise. I'm not so sure Steven thought it was fun, but he did eventually give up on trying to tear his hat off as I kept just putting it right back on his head. What a mean mom I am, but he was just so darn cute in that hat! Here are a few pictures of them in their costumes.

Confessions of a Chocaholic

So, has anyone else ever wondered why we're always told to get our Visiting Teaching done in the beginning of the month? Well, this week I found out why. I have had treats sitting ready to deliver to my visiting teachees for a couple of weeks now and haven't gotten around to it. No big deal, as long as I get to it before November rolls around, right? Wrong! I keep eating all of the chocolate out of the little buckets, so I keep having to go buy more chocolate to refill them, which I in turn eat. Maybe I should forget the chocolate and just deliver the buckets with the little halloween candles inside. But in my defense, it has been a stressful month. My kids have been sick and not sleeping, Chris had a car accident and destroyed his truck, not to mention his neck, and anything and everything electronic or mechanical that I own has broken over the last week. Seriously, everything (including my computer which is why I am on my mom in laws computer right now.) I think I ticked off the gods of electronics and mechanics. Oh well, it's only stuff, right? And I say, if a little bit of chocolate makes me feel better, then so be it. But I do have to get those pumpkin buckets delivered sooner or later.

P is for...

P is for...

PIRATE HAT


The whole idea for these little felt hats started with the fact that I made Elise's Halloween costume, but not Steven's, so I thought I would at least make him a pirate hat to go with his costume. He won't wear hats, so this should last about 5 seconds, hopefully long enough to snap a quick picture of him wearing it with his costume.


PRINCESS HAT


I knew that if I made Steven a hat, Elise who actually loves hats would probably want one too. So, I made her a princess hat, which she refuses to wear because she only wants to wear the pirate hat. You can probably tell by the look on her face in the pictures that she was complaining about wearing this particular hat. I guess she is more of a pirate than a princess at heart.


PARTY HAT


Then I decided to make Steven a crown for his first birthday in place of a party hat. Once again, I'm not too sure why I spent time on this as we will be lucky if he wears it long enough to snap one picture before he tears it off his head, but it was kind of fun and not too tricky to make, so oh well. However, in hindsight, I probably should have made just the pirate hat "for Elise" and let Steven "borrow it" for 30 seconds on Halloween to take a picture. They were fun though, and if anyone wants one for their little darlings, I can make you one, but I cannot guarantee that it will be very timely. My time should free up a bit after November 5th when our Young Women in Excellence Program is over, Elections will be over so no more hours to spend on prop. 8, and Steven's Bday will be over so no more planning his party. I could definitely fit a few in before Christmas if anyone is interested. I have supplies left over so it shouldn't really cost me anything to make them. Just let me know.

Jammies for Elise

I just finished Elise's Christmas jammies today, and I think they turned out cute, but it is hard to see the detail because it is all white. I actually still need to put a button on in back, but other than that, these are done. They went much faster than expected. This was my first experience with gathering, which was a little tricky but turned out okay. After I finished all the gathering on the bottom, I looked at it and thought, "I just made a ruffle. Does simplicity know that you can buy a ruffle for a couple of dollars?" Oh well. I think I'll make a short sleeve version, maybe in pink for Elise in the spring, and I will probably save a few steps by buying an eyelet ruffle for the bottom. It will match the cute eyelet lace that I trimmed this in, but the photos really don't show it because it is all white. Oh well. I think my next project will be felt crowns for Elise and Steven. I saw someone selling some cute one's for $35, and thought, hmmm... I could probably make that for $5 or $10. So, we''ll see how it goes.
Elise and Steven's jammies completed:

I know it must be October, because...

Even though it has still been hot enough outside during the day to do this.......

I know it must be October because at night my kids have been spotted wearing their favorite "bones jammies" to keep warm and cozy.

AND, Ms. Elise came into my bedroom Sunday morning looking like this....

saying, "Mom, I'm ready for church. I have on my pumpkin hat and my pumpkin socks." It took some pretty fast talking to convince her that pumpkin socks and a pumpkin hat were just not appropriate church attire.

More Fabulous Commentary from a Fantastic 3 Year Old!

As I was putting Elise to bed tonight, she told me her mouth hurt and she needed medicine in her mouth. I asked her to show me, so she stood up to start to walk to me, paused, and said, "Hmmm, I think it went away. I think it didn't like me."

I asked, "What didn't like you?"

Elise responded, "My owie didn't like me, so he went back to his home. It doesn't hurt anymore."

Whew, I'm sure glad we were able to take care of that one without a trip to the dentist.

Kisses in the Morning

A conversation between Elise and I as I put her to bed tonight:
Me: "Goodnight sweetheart. I love you. I'll see you in the morning." I then began giving her kisses on the face.
Elise: "Mom, you can give me kisses when I wake up, but not right now, because I'm just a little too grumpy."
Sometimes she seriously cracks me up. I guess I'll just have to wait to give those kisses in the morning.

Steven's Christmas Jammies!

I just finished sewing project #2. It was actually project #1 that I completed all on my own with no help. I think they turned out cute, but they definitely look cuter on than in this picture. It is hard to get them to lay straight for a picture, plus an iron probably would have helped. I had only planned to make Steven jammies from this fabric, but I had enough fabric left over to do pants for Elise as well. Not enough for a shirt though, I may get a coordinating solid or something, or she may just have pants. We'll see how ambitious I feel about that one later. These jammies are definitely not perfect, but I think they are cute anyway. It was definitely a learning project. For one, I learned that I don't sew pockets. After making 3 pockets, I decided to sew on the least hideous of the three, and then was unsatisfied with how I sewed it on, so I used the seam ripper to remove it, resewed it on, thought it looked worse the second time around, and removed it a second time. After all of this I decided it was just as cute without a pocket at all. (Was it really, or was I just fed up with the pocket? Who knows?). Button holes are also not my favorite, but I got through them, and I only had to redo three of the four. It was fun though, and I am looking forward to my next couple of projects, Christmas Jammies for Elise and matching robes for both Elise and Steven. Notice I'm not attempting anything that will be worn outside of the house. This way if they are a little shady, no one will know any different.

Fall

I LOVE Fall! It is my favorite season. Sadly, we do not see much of this season in southern CA. It mostly stays hot until at least November. However, we have had a few cooler days in a row, so I decided to take my kids for a walk this morning to enjoy it. We are due for a warm up again starting tomorrow, so it was short lived, but nice. I would love to live somewhere that there was an actuall Fall season, with leaves changing color and all! Oh well, I guess I just need to appreciate all of the really nice things about where I live. Here are a few pictures from our walk this morning.

Steven had fun just hanging out in the stroller. He loves to be outside.

Elise started out in the stroller too, but she didn't even last until the end of our driveway before she hopped out and started running.

I thought this was kind of a cute picture of her running down the street. This is just a couple of houses down from ours, so she still had a ton of energy. I love the look of old streets, and all the mature trees.By the time we got home, Steven was asleep in his stroller. I didn't even realize it until I went to get him out. I guess all that sitting in a stroller tired him out!

Happy Feet!

I love red shoes! I especially love red mary janes on little girls! This has got to be my all time favorite style of shoes. (I even have a pair of red mary janes myself). So, every Fall, Elise gets a new pair of red mary janes. These are the one pair of shoes she has had every year no matter what (I may have to add a pair of crocs in the spring to my list of necessities for her feet... she loves crocs. They are all she wants to wear.) So, anyway, back to my story. We bought Elise the very cute pair of red mary janes above in the end of August. She has only worn them once, but on Friday I went to look for them, and I could only find one. She has been into this game of hiding her shoes lately, so I thought it would turn up somewhere in her room, but we searched everywhere and couldn't find it. I was VERY sad. My mind immediately went to all of the worst case scenarios, like maybe she threw it in the trash, maybe she hid it behind a piece of furniture that never gets moved and I'll never find it, maybe she stuck it in one of the storage bins of too small clothes that I took up to the attic a few weeks ago..... ugggh! So, this morning I went to get a bag of Fall clothes off the very top shelf of Steven's closet, and when I opened it up, there was one red shoe mixed in with his clothes. How did it get there? I'll probably never know. Just one of those little mysteries. But I sure am glad I found that shoe. I am so happy, she is wearing them today, and darn are they cute!