Those little moments

Usually when I put Craig to bed for a nap or at night I say, "Good night, Craig. Say, 'Night, night Mommy." Then he'll say, "Night, night Mommy.'" And then I'll say, "Love you, Craigers. Say, 'Love you Mommy.'" Then he'll say, "Wuv oo, Mommy." Today, however, when I put him down for a nap he beat me to it. For the first time he said, "Night, night Mommy. I wuv oo," all by himself. I became a little puddle on the floor. How do they do that? He can make me burn in frustration at one time, and melt my heart at another. Motherhood is a roller coaster, for sure.

Or maybe more like an old time rail journey. :)

Family Halloween party

Monday was Robert's only day (and consequently night) off until next Monday, after Halloween, so we had our pumpkin carving and Halloween party all in one night. I made these little ham and cheese sandwiches from a recipe I got out of a magazine and roasted applesauce. The sandwiches really don't need a recipe. They're just pie crusts cut out with a pumpkin cookie cutter (the top pumpkin has the eyes and nose cut out) with ham and cheese in the middle, egg wash brushed on top, and baked for about 15 minutes. They were kid-friendly and fun. The applesauce recipe is awesome and I got it here. I think I might have posted this last year, too. Sorry for the repetition, but it's THAT good.


After dinner, we carved pumpkins. Craig didn't remember it last year, of course, so this year he was fascinated by the inside of these big orange things he's been seeing in all the stores for over a month. Here's Robert working on his while Craig is trying to set the house on fire.

Don't worry, I took the lighter away after this picture. It has a safety anyway, but just in case. And there's my pumpkin in the background. Here are the two finished products.

Robert's, of course, is awesome. Mine's cute. They look great outside on our wall together, though. Well, Happy Halloween everyone!

McDonald's Farm

We went to the Pumpkin farm yesterday! It was really a lot of fun. Craig was really able to enjoy himself this year. There were a few times he was afraid to try something new, but we convinced (pushed) him into it and he loved it. He is going through the phase where he likes the idea of something like riding a horse but when it comes down to it, he's afraid to try it. I guess that's pretty common, but it's annoying because I know he'd really love it, which he always does. When it came to horseback rides, we had to make Ethan go first.
He liked it, but was kind of oblivious. Once Craig saw Ethan go, he loosened up. Although, it wasn't for another hour, after the petting zoo and a hayride, that he finally started to get really excited to ride the horse. Even then, Robert had to stand on one side while I lifted him up onto the saddle. He was clinging onto me for dear life and whimpering all along the way. Once up, he decided it was awesome.It's funny for me to think that the last time I rode a horse I was about 12 weeks pregnant with Craig. On the way out, he kept asking for another ride. I think it was a success. Here we are on the hayride to the pumpkin patch:

That was something else we had to drag Craig onto. Once he got up and we got going, he loved it. They were so cute at the pumpkin patch. Ethan found a little one with a nice long, hooked stem and carried it around. Craig spent his time rearranging them all and saying, "I put away!" Then there was the petting zoo. When you walk in, there are several pot bellied pigs, two miniature donkeys, and a miniature horse. Regardless, Craig yells, "Chickens!" and starts to chase them all over the yard.


We also got to go into a bunny pen and pet all the bunnies. That was a big hit with both of the boys. I love this time of year. I'm glad we found this little farm/ranch right here in Scottsdale. They do trail rides and camp outs and all kinds of neat things. We'll definitely have to go back.

Ah, Facebook

Texting flushed the English language down the toilet for the first ten years of the twenty-first century. Facebook, with its on-the-fly status posting, seems to be proving itself the grammar-killer for the 2010 decade. My favorite mishap for today:

aspherguis

Any guesses what this says? (Hint: it's a vegetable.)

ANOTHER new addition to the family

We got a puppy! Her name is Jade, she's a Rottweiler, and she sleeps about 90% of the day. As you can see, she's just about the cutest little thing you've ever seen. We were looking at either her, her sister, or another person had an English Mastiff male puppy we were THIS close to getting. Both Robert and I really like Mastiffs but I was a little nervous about the size of them. I know they're really gentle and friendly, but with such little kids I was concerned he would just be too much for me to handle. We decided to go with the Rott because she's a girl, she's really mellow, and she'll be smaller than the Mastiff, of course. We came up with the name Jade because Robert has been trying to convince me for years to name our first girl that (if we ever have one). I, however, think we're just asking for trouble if we name our daughter something that sounds like an exotic dancer's stage name. (No offense to anyone out there named Jade who's not an exotic dancer.) It's a great name for a dog, though. Anyway, she's seven weeks old and is so cuddly, cute, and loves playing with the boys. They love her, too. We're trying to get Ethan to say "Jade" since he's pretty much called her "Kitty" since we got her. In his defense, she's a small black animal, just like the cat, so I can understand the confusion. Well, wish me luck!

First words and endless chatter

Two kids and "Mom" (or some variation) has yet to be the first articulated, recognizable word out of either of their mouths. Ethan burst out with, "didy!" (kitty) the other day when the cat walked into the room. He proceeded to follow her around the house, repeating his version of her name for the next fifteen minutes. He was only distracted from that activity when he heard Robert walking around upstairs. He toddled over to the gate on the stairs and yelled, "Da-ie!" To my credit, I have at least been able to prompt him to say, "Mama," which Craig refused to do until he was over 18 months old, at least.

As a side note, I need to get something off my chest.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Phew.

After the day we had at church today, I needed that. The last few days Craig has been a little monster and this morning while we were getting ready for church was the same. He is constantly doing something he shouldn't: taking toys away from Ethan, pushing Ethan, hitting Ethan, putting several movies into the PlayStation, saying no whenever I ask him to do anything, etc. I was continually stopping what I was doing to put Craig in timeout or count to three. We finally got to church and the only reasonable seats were in front of a family of three active children. Practically the only other active children in the whole ward. Any noise during church came from one or both of our families. Craig refuses to whisper (he's still learning, I know) and seems to think that everyone else is so quiet and reverent during the Sacrament just to listen to him. His cute/annoying motor mouth becomes unbearable during church. And again, any attempt on our part to distract him with toys, snacks, or coloring is answered with, "No!" For the second week in a row, I've had to take him out during the passing of the sacrament just so others could enjoy a little peace for fifteen minutes. However, our ward doesn't pass it into the foyer (or at least they haven't noticed me leave, somehow) so I've had to go without. Needless to say, by the end of the first hour we are all more than ready to send Craig off to nursery. Luckily, he gets nothing but glowing praise from the nursery leaders. He's a good sharer and very polite. The real kick in the pants is that so much of the time he is so funny, cute, sweet, and innocent I'm constantly feeling guilty for letting myself get angry with him at his worst times.

I know many of you have been there (or are there now) so what do you do for active 2 1/2 year olds during church?

Tangled necklaces? You've come to the right place!

The Relief Society here had an activity night where they made necklace holders. I couldn't go that night, but I did see the examples they had at church and made my own. I have been looking for a way to hang up my necklaces for so long and this was the perfect answer. I thought I would share it in case someone else out there is having the same trouble I had.

First of all, the example at church said to stretch a piece of fabric over the cardboard piece inside a decorative frame and glue it in the back. I didn't have a nice frame or a pretty piece of fabric, so I went looking at Ross. I found this picture instead. So mine's not fabric, it's the generic picture that came inside. I just had to break the glass out. The hangers are just decorative drawer pulls that I got at the hardware store. I screwed them in through the back of the picture and I was done! I did have to cut a little extra cardboard from an old box to use as spacers in the back, but that was the most complicated it got. Anyway, I thought I would share since this has solved about ten years of tangled necklaces for me and I think it's pretty.

Pinanta

I tried making my own pinata. Should've known that I always need to follow directions and looked up some tips online first. I did have the presence of mind to use a balloon with a rubber band on one end so I could hang it while I put the paper mache on. However, I forgot to build some kind of thing to hang it up with once I popped the balloon. I also started by using way too much flour and water so it dried kind of funny. Here is it while I covering it with the paper mache.


I wanted to paint it white and then let Craig have at it with his paint brush, but the thing's been sitting around for so long, I just want to punch a hole in it, hang it up, let Craig whack it with a broom, and be done. I love the idea of this, though. Here's a really cool one from Family Fun with all the directions you need if you want to try it. Maybe I'll do that one next time. I'm looking forward to watching Craig have fun with it, but it would've been so much better if I had been organized from the beginning.

Poor baby

Ethan was walking around outside the other day and started going up a slight incline in the driveway. When he realized it was too steep for his little unstable self, he turned around to walk back down. Instead, he fell forward and totally face planted into the gravel and rocks that run alongside the driveway. Poor baby. He just laid there until I ran over to him, face down, crying, with his arms tucked under him. I can't figure out why he didn't even try to save himself. Poor kid. His little nose was all scabby and red for a few days. It's a good thing babies heal so quickly.

My new toy

Meet the newest member of our family!

I have been wanting a freezer for a very long time and we finally got one. Now I can't wait to really start maximizing on the couponing thing and stocking up on perishables when they're really on sale and I can get a good deal. Is it weird that I'm so excited? I don't think so.

This picture says so much about my husband, Robert. First of all, they're all obscure Asian foods and sauces. Okay...so the little chocolate filled panda cookies on the left were my pick. But after that (from left to right) there's sweet soy, sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce, black sesame oil, and black bean garlic sauce. We found an awesome Asian market in Mesa and he just about had a heart attack among all the udon noodles, rice paper, weird sauces, and kim chee.

The other part of this picture that defines Robert is this. When we got home, I went upstairs to put the kids down for naps and Robert put the groceries away. This picture is what I found on the counter. We don't have an Asian food shelf in our kitchen, so these got to live on the counter for a while. Notice, however, that they are all lined up, tallest to shortest, and each with its label dutifully facing out for easy identification. This is a classic Robert move. If it were up to him, all the canned food would be lined up like little soldiers, labels out and in a neat row. The funny thing, though, is that he's not the one who has to use the stuff and try to resort everything back into their rows whenever I go shopping. I'm doing well to have a shelf for canned fruit and a separate one for veggies with no intermingling.

Anyway, I just thought this was funny and wanted to share a little about him.