Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

Life in Texas moves along at a mozy. It is beautiful weather here--70s and most days are sunny and cool. I love fall and the leaves here are finally starting to change. We have been going on 2 mi walks lately with Nana and Aunt Tammy to get some exercise. Dallin actually rides his bike the WHOLE way! However, he has figured out that Nana will push him if he stops so he does that quite often too. "Ahhhh, that feels so good. Thanks for pushing me Nana!" On our walks, we pass a flower bed and both of my kids get extremely excited and insist on stopping so they can admire and smell the beautiful flowers. It really makes you appreciate the small things that you tend to miss when you have little ones who think it is such a wonder. During this holiday season, it reminds me to stop and enjoy the little things because someday I will look back and realize that they were the big things.

Cornocopia

In Christopher's family, they had the tradition of making cornocopias every year when the kids were in elementary school. In fact, they would do it with all the classrooms in the the grade! We decided to give this a try this year to bring a little Thanksgiving spirit/fun to our family. I made up the cornocopia edible "play dough" (It is DELICIOUS by the way :) and colored it several different colors. Then we made various fruits and vegetables (or whatever we wanted) to put inside our cornocopia (sugar cone) without eating too much. It was really fun to share this activity with my family and see what everyone came up with. We even talked (briefly) about being thankful for all of the wonderful blessings God has given us like these wonderful foods we can eat. The picture on the top is my cornocopia. In case you are wondering, it has a watermelon, a pea pod, a pumpkin, bananas, a yellow squash, and a turkey in there (I was especially proud of the turkey). It was WAY fun and I learned a lot. For one thing, I did NOT need to double the recipe for the few people I had. Also, I needed to add more powdered sugar so it was almost dry so that it would be easier to mold and wouldn't melt. The meltiness definitely stifled the creative juices. I figure by the time the kids are in grade school, I'll have it just about right!
Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! We'll try to post pictures of the actual day soon :)

Here is Papa, Uncle Michael and Nana making cornocopias. Nana made an awesome yellow squash!

Here is Kate with her "apple". She loves the real thing and this sugary version was a real hit. She kept asking for them over and over.
Here is Kate stuffing her cornocopia.
Here is a spread of some of Dallin's food for his cornocopia. He has bananas, a pea pd, a watermelon, and the red blob at the bottom is a pizza.

Dallin is showing part of his cornocopia.

For those who are interested. Here is the recipe for the cornocopia "play dough"
(WAY YUMMY!)
1/3 c unsalted butter (room temperature..NOT MELTED!)
1/3 c light corn syrup
1 t almond extract
1/2 t salt
1 lb sifted powdered sugar
Mix together all but powdered sugar until creamy and smooth. Mix in powdered sugar slowly until has playdoh type consistency. You may need to add more powdered sugar to make it more dry so it molds easily without melting. You can also use sprinkles as leaves or stems. Use food paste or food coloring to make it different colors.

Out of the Mouths of Babes (and Studs :)

Dallin (Dallin is doing the robot in the picture...Uncle Willie taught him how at a family dance party...LOL priceless!)

• "you scared me to deaf! (death)" While this is sometimes used when you actually SCARE him, mostly it is just used when you catch him doing something naughty and he jumps.
  

• This conversation occured when Dallin found an old Sharp family photo from before he was born (Christopher was in it) It was the first time he was concerned about death/dying. It is sweet funny and sad.

Dallin: There is mommy and daddy and nana and papa and uncle willie and uncle michael. (looks concerned) Where am I?
Mom: You weren't born yet.
Dallin: (looks HORRIFIED!) I was...DEAD!?
Mom: No, Dallin. You weren't dead. You were living in Heaven with Heavenly Father. Mommy and Daddy were waiting for you to come.
Dallin: Oh ok. (waits for a moment, then looks sad) I'm so sad. All you guys are going to go away and live with Heavenly Father.
Mom: Yes, Dallin, someday we will die. But that is a very very long time from now.
Dallin: Oh. Ok.

• "and please bless my daddy to get a good job and take out the trash" Amen Dallin!!! This was in his dinner prayer one night.
• "moly moly!" This is "holy moly" Dallin style. It is apparently, however, very offensive to say this to his poops (the POOPS get offended....hmmm...who knew?)
  
• "you're the best mom ever!" I love the little moments when he is so sweet because usually they are followed by 22 hours of non-sweet. LOL He really can be a tender little soul. He has also told people they are the best uncle, friend, daddy, nana, papa, etc. He usually says it when he is getting his way :) A couple of times it has been without fanfare though...yippee!
  

• Mom: Dallin pick up your t-shirt off the floor and put it in the laundry.

Dallin: (picks up shirt and examines it. it is yellow with a dinosaur on the front. looks at me seriously) It's not a "T" mom...it's a dinosaur...See!

• "Katie Bug! Katie Bug! Katie Bug...c'mon Bug!" So we have called little Kate Katie Bug, Bug, or Buggie since she was born but all of the sudden Dallin will yell this after her whenever he wants her to listen to him or come with him. LOL It sounds really funny when he says it
• "blah blah blah blah" Dallin will now substitute this as a filler when he is telling a longwinded story or explanation.
• Dallin will "read" scriptures with us and gets really excited when it is his turn to "read" (repeat what we say) He also insists on having his little blue Book of Mormon out...it is never on the right page...it is just out.
  
• (while in sacrament meeting, Dallin points at one of the deacons while they are passing sacrament) "Look Mommy! See that one!? See that little one? That little one right over there. That little one....he has funny hair." I am frantically shusing him and he just kept getting louder. I told him it wasn't nice to say that about other people and so VERY LOUDLY he says "It's nice, mom. It's not mean say he has funny hair" (still pointing...sigh.)
• "It was a tough day for my feet, but they were good at church so they each get a sticker" (sticks feet up in my face, proudly) The kids REALLY LOVE their sticker charts.
  
• (upon seeing a very tall and large man and his wife in line at Burger King) "Mommy, that is a big daddy! That is the biggest daddy I ever seen! That daddy is huge. He is the HUGEST daddy ever. That is a BIG BIG BIG giant daddy" He would not stop in spite of my frantic shusing until I asked him to go find a table.
  
• "I love you Thomas" (kisses the picture of Thomas)
• "A B C D HEB" For those who don't live in Texas, this is funny because HEB is a local grocery chain...but in Dallin's alphabet song it often appears.
• Dallin is really becoming a big helper. He loves to help with laundry, make his bed, dress himself, and has recently started clearing the table and loading the dishwasher. (However, sometimes he throws out ANY food left on the table....like a whole bowl of grapes. lol) He also tries hard to take care of Kate and make sure SHE follows the rules (even if he is not). He will hold her hand and lead her around. It is really funny. He has also started singing BINGO and the ABC song and you can often hear him singing in his room before he falls asleep. He does not know all the words to either though, so it makes for some interesting renditions.
  
• "Jesus loves us and wants us to be happy!" I think they must have had a lesson on this in nursery because Dallin uses this EXACT phrase OVER AND OVER again. I am happy that he gets it...kind of....he seems to use it to try and convince me to give him what he wants...after all, Jesus wants him to be HAPPY why doesn't mom? LOL
  
• "Babies come from the grocery store" Dallin was asked where babies come from and this was his response. Apparently, you can go right on down to Wal-Mart and pick them up!. Who knew?
  

Kate

• Kate's vocabulary is expanding exponentially. These are some of her new words "car, choo choo, too, uh oh, cool, cold, little bit, piggies, princess, santa"
• "nana" Kate loves Nana and starts screaming Nana Nana! and running for the door if I even mention that Nana is coming over or that we are going to Nana's house. When we pull up to Nana's house (or even pass it) she will point and start yelling "nana!" She loves to climb up in Nana's lap for a good cuddle and rock.
• "pee"/"poop" Kate is still using the potty (although we are still at the early inconsistent phase. She is good about getting her poop in the potty most of the time, but pee is really hit or miss. She is very proud of her princess pullups. She will sit on the potty and swing her little legs and say "I poop! I poop!" sometimes she will even throw in a grunt for dramatic emphasis. LOL What a ham!
  
• "Talk! Talk! Mine! Talk!" Kate LOVES the phone and is at the phase where she will carry on a conversation with almost anyone for 30 minutes if you let her (and if she manages not to hang up by accident). Every time she sees me with the phone she runs up and reaches for it with her little hands asking for a turn. What a girl!
• "pretty pretty! Pink pretty! Purple pretty! pretty!" Her girliness keeps burning bright. Everything is pretty ("pidy") or beautiful ("booful"). She loves pink and purple and always points out how "pidy" they are.
• "it's my turn" Yes, sentences have emerged. This one is particularly popular.
• Upon being "interviewed" Kate answered the following

Tammy: What is your favorite thing to do?
Kate: eat
Tammy: How old are you?
Kate: two

• "B" B is what Kate calls her blankie. She is obssessed with it. It goes everywhere and she will ask "B? B?" if she can't see it. One day she saw me put it in the wash and she bawled "B! B!" for the entire time. I think it is kind of funny because I was a blankie kiddo, but I named mine DD.
  
• (while looking at pictures of Madison) "Oh, so beautiful! Ohhhh so beautiful!"
• "wed (red), boo (blue), pink, pohpul (purple), geen (green), rehrow (yellow)" Kate will repeat and point out colors. Most of the time she is wrong (except for pink) but it is still cute to hear her say them.
• "eye, nose, maow (mouth)" Kate will say and point to these part of the body. It is funny because she will poke herself in the eye, put her finger up her nose, and gag herself. LOL
  
• "fa la la la la la la la la" Kate LOVES this Chritmas song and will sing the fa la la through the whole thing. So funny!
• Kate is growing more and more. She likes to pick up, help with laundry, empty the dishwasher, and has even tried to clear the table (she will throw away ALL the dishes though). She has started nursery and usually has only 1 meltdown during nursery each week. She wants to do EVERYTHING that Dallin does. It is funny to watch her follow him around and copy him. She and Dallin both sing the hymns at church...they don't know the words and they sing off key, but they sing loud to make up for it. She is heading for those terrible twos really fast and we are getting more tantrums and "No!'. Fortunately, she is darling and a sweetheart most of the time so we will be able to weather toddlerhood.
  

Pretty Piggies

I have to take a moment to reflect on how grateful I am to have a daughter. Today we painted her toenails for the first time. Fire engine red with glitter! The girl was a pro! She sat right down in her little rocker and held perfectly still while I painted each little piggy. She even let me dry them. She was soooo excited and kept saying "pretty pretty pretty piggies! pretty see pretty piggies mama? pretty" She looked at those piggies for the rest of the day-walking around almost prancing and stopping every so often to examine them again. She even showed her daddy first thing when he got home (she couldn't quite figure out how to lift her feet off the ground, but she sure tried. I am enjoying all of her girliness so much more than I ever thought I would, and I am so thankful to Heavenly Father that He sent me a daughter against my insistance that I wanted a SON--now I can't imagine life without my little girl. She was exactly what our family needed.
Kate Alivia - you are a gift and a joy...a real blessing to my life. I love you my little princess!

Me?

You Belong in 1998

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

I found this on the Claridge blog and tried out the quiz. I'm not sure what I think about it. I have never really been with the times (always a step or two out of sync with style) so maybe 1998 is right on. I think I am probably just about there for being cool in 1998....just 10 years more to go! The gap is closing! WOOTAH!

Kate's 18 month Pictures

Here are Kate's 18 mo pictures. We had them done at JC Penny. I have the codes for the Smiles By Wire for those who want to see the entire session - just let me know and I can email them to you. Also, let us know if there is a certain size/quantity of picture(s) you want. The top picture (in color) we have a package of, but we really don't have many of the bottom picture to share. I just bought the one sheet because I thought it looked so classic, but I wanted most of the ones we sent out to have her smiling! Hope you enjoy them!

Trick Or Treat

Before it gets too late...we had a great Halloween! Hope ya'll did too! Here are some fun pictures of our spooktacular day! (The cutie at the top of the post is my fabulous niece Madison with her Halloween candy that she got on her very first Trick-or-Treat! Way to go Maddie!)

Here is Dallin and Christopher after putting out the little scarecrow we got at Wal-Mart. Dallin was obssessed with scarecrows this year thanks to Elmo's Halloween and he insisted that we HAD to have one. This was the first thing we did on Halloween!

Here are the kids painting little pumpkins. We rented Elmo's Halloween from the library and Elmo learns about a bunch of different Halloween activities...so, of course the kids wanted to try them ALL. We didn't manage the hayride and we didn't MAKE our own scarecrow, but we did paint the pumpkins, carve the pumpkins, get a scarecrow, and toast pumpkin seeds...mmm. Thank you Elmo, you are the standard by which we live!

Here is Dallin with the pumpkin that he painted. He actually did a pretty good job. He got lots of red on it and a few other colors too. He took it very seriously.

Here is Kate painting her nose. She tired of the pumpkin quickly but she painted that nose for at least 15 minutes and was upset when we finally took her brush away. She was blowing blue boogies for a week!

Here they are getting ready to carve the pumpkins. They were sooo excited to do another Elmo Halloween activity. However, poor Christopher did all the work while they watched.

Here is the kids helping with the pumpkin guts...err...playing in the pumpkin guts. It was even messier than it looks. Kate loved to squish it and throw it in the garbage can. Dallin did not want to have anything to do with reaching into the pumpkin because it made his hands "yucky" but he was happy to help Kate put it into the garbage.

Here are our finished jack-o-lanterns. We took them to Nana's house and put them out on the porch there. Dallin is WAY upset that we didn't bring them home and is STILL asking if we can go back and get them or get new pumpkins from Wal-Mart and carve them. He LOVED all the Halloween traditions this year.

Here are the kids trick or treating with daddy before we headed over to Nana's house. We started pretty early though (before 6 is TOO early) and many people weren't home or weren't ready. The kids got some weird "candy" - someone's leftover brownies and someone's old Valentines candy....hmmmm Next year we don't go out till at least 6.

Here we all are trick or treating together in Nana's neighborhood. It was so much fun to go together. The kids had a great time. Maddie even held her own bag. Sooo sweet. Dallin and Kate did VERY well at saying trick or treat and thank you and only taking one piece of candy! Yay me! I learned though that my kids' costumes were WAY too hot for Texas. We were all sweating the entire time and poor Dallin kept asking everyone for water instead of candy and laying down on the concrete. Yeah....we cut it a little short so he could strip down at the house and hand out candy instead.