Saturday morning

Look closely, the squirrel is having a treat.

Saturday morning, Dustin was gone and the girls were doing puzzles. Amy is getting better and could do one on her own if she didn't get so frustrated.

Adelynne is a puzzle pro

Dustin let me sleep in and when he came in to wake me before leaving he said, "Sorry about Aurora's outfit. Amy picked it out." Adelynne and Amy take turns every other day picking out what Aurora will wear and then they have to help dress her. She is their living baby doll. Normally they pick out clothes that are meant to go together. But with girls, its not hard to pick clothes that match with all the pink going around. The outfit doesn't look all that bad, really, but none of the clothes go together, just random. But Aurora doesn't seem to mind. (And I did try to rotate the picture, but it didn't rotate for google).

Halloween {week}

On Thursday, Dustin took Adelynne and Amy trick or treating. I stayed home with Aurora because I was sick all day. On their way to trick or treat they stopped by our community center and participated in coloring and face painting. Adelynne and Amy love to have their faces painted. On Friday we took the girls again to trick or treat at nearby dorms. We were in the lobby and a student girl saw Amy and gasped, "Ariel! How cute!" Amy turned and looked at her admirer. Then as we were walking away she said in an almost disappointed tone, "Everyone likes my costume." And everyone really did. She got plenty of oohs and ahs from students, parents, and children.

Not sure why she looks so grumpy, maybe its her concentration face.

Ariel in her natural pose.

When Amy said she wanted to be Ariel for Halloween I asked my mom to make the costume. My mom did an amazing job, and she even made it modest too! But the amazing costume would not have been complete without the famous Ariel Red hair. So my mom got Amy a wig too. The wig made this costume complete, and Amy LOVES it. Amy had a preschool party on Friday, so I dressed her up and did her make-up to look a little like Ariel. Amy also wanted me to do some face art and make a crown with sea shells. Amy was the cutest Ariel I've ever seen!

Adelynne really wanted me to "paint" her face after she saw me doing all of Amy's makeup. So I used her picture from Disneyland and did a "unicorn mask." She was very happy with the result, and so was I. Its hard to draw details with those crayons used for face art. More pictures to come of Adelynne in her costume.

I'm a mean mom.

I feel like such a mean, terrible mom.

We were planning to go to the trunk or treat tonight. The last chance for the girls to dress up for Halloween since we are observing the Sabbath tomorrow (at least by not trick or treating). We have been trick or treating the last two nights and we were looking forward to tonight. But its not going to happen. After dinner I asked Adelynne to come sit down so I could do her hair. She told me no. She wanted to go play with a doll her friend let her borrow. I insisted, she sassed me and ended up in a time out. During time out she emptied her doll drawer onto the floor in blatant protest. So then I moved on to Amy. I wanted her to put a sweater on under her costume so she wouldn't be cold. She refused. I wanted the girls to be ready a little early so we could get on the computer to talk to my parents. They said no. After all the "no's" and whining I threw in the towel. I announced that we are not going trick or treating. And I'm not giving in this time. It takes so much work to get these girls ready, to get them out the door, in the car, and on the road. They resist the whole time. I repeat and repeat myself over and over, louder and louder, until I am so angry that I wonder why I am even bothering. The last two nights Dustin and I have threatened that we would not go trick or treating if they didn't obey. Eventually they would obey, after they were threatened, and then we would give in and go. Well tonight I decided that I was going to follow through with my words. I didn't want to get angry at them during the process of getting ready, its just not worth it. Instead, I break their hearts. Adelynne was sobbing. She was begging. She put on her costume and begged me to do her hair. She went on and on, all the while I was wanting to give in, wanting to make her happy. It made me feel awful. All I can hope is that maybe she learned a lesson, hopefully something other than that her mother is so mean.

Something to remember

I've been sick throughout the day. Yesterday I was trying not to be sick, so mid-day I knew I needed a nap. I laid down on the couch and dozed a little while Amy watched a movie and Aurora slept in the swing. But I started to get cold so I asked Amy to go to her room and get me a blanket. I dozed again, and when I came back awake, Amy was putting a blanket over my arms. She told me she needed to cover my feet, but the size of the blanket wouldn't cover all of me, so I told her she would need another blanket. Amy had already thought of that because then she picked up the other blanket she brought from her room and put it over my legs and feet. I told her thank you, and she leaned over and gave me a kiss on my cheek. Nothing cold have made me feel better than that. She knows how to take care of her mommy.

Carving Pumpkins

Monday: We carved pumpkins among other things. Here is Dustin beginning the process. The girls were very careful to keep a safe distance from the dangerous knife in Daddy's hand:

Here they are looking at the grossness inside.

They didn't want to have anything to do with putting their hands in the pumpkin until I bribed them with a quarter.

Adelynne went first:

She did it! She earned a quarter!

Amy's turn. I think it is so sweet that Adelynne was holding Amy's hand:

I love Dustin's amused face in the background:

Amy did it! She earned a quarter!

And then Amy helped herself to a spoonful of peanut butter.

A girl after my own heart:

I was going for an Anne Geddes picture here, but Aurora did not find this amusing.

She calmed down pretty quickly though. But then she started slumping down into the pumpkin and I started to panic about being able to get her out. We did get her out, without any problems.

And here I am doing the tracing:

Our wonderful neighbors, the Walker family stopped by. Brycen is the cutest boy, I just adore him. (I hope Aurora will someday adore him too). That's right, we arranged their future together.

Brycen wanted a turn to hold Aurora.

Aurora did not like being held by Brycen.

Then we went to DQ with the Walker's. It was late, and Amy was very tired. You can see it in her eyes. She had to go to the bathroom while we were there, and I didn't wipe her little bum. A few minutes after I took this picture, Amy started crying, very loudly, "You didn't wipe my bum! You didn't wipe my bum!" Luckily she was hard to understand because she was so upset. DQ was filled with lots of people too. I had Dustin take her outside before Amy became more decipherable.

We got home from DQ and Dustin finished carving the pumpkins. Adelynne was excited to help carve her little pumpkin. Here are the finished products:

They turned out great! Can you see Adelynne?

smiles

Sunday, October 24th:
Aurora has been smiling for a few weeks now, and I finally captured it on the camera. She has such a sweet smile, which she seems to give easily, to me anyway. She makes others work for it a little more. I guess she loves her mama!

Countdown to Halloween

October 22, 2010:
I love to get the girls something to wear to help celebrate Halloween. They were really excited about these sequence pumpkin shirts. Adelynne had asked me the night before to put her hair in curlers--something she hasn't asked me to do in a long time. I also trimmed her hair the night before as well, her hair is getting so long and thick, it is a lot of fun to do. She looked so cute with her hair curly. Amy asked me to put curlers in her hair too, but then she didn't keep them in very long. She has pretty little curls naturally anyway. When I asked the girls to smile for a picture, this is what I get. Adelynne does these sweet little poses for the camera, she does them all on her own. Unfortunately, they were in the middle of watching a show when I was trying to take their picture, so not one of these 10 did they both look at the camera. Oh well!

I pulled out this skirt for Amy because she wouldn't even consider wearing the shirt with pants. She will only wear pants if they go with the shirt, otherwise she has to have a skirt. I'm tempted to turn all her pants into skirts, but I want Aurora to have pants to wear when she gets older!

Perfect curls