ward Christmas party (the first one)

The first one, as in, we went to more than one ward Christmas party.  Actually we only went to two, but it seems like there were more.  Anyway, these are pictures from the Christmas party for the Lafayette 1st Ward.  I was very excited that the girls were going to get to see Santa.  Dustin and I had been telling Adelynne all about Santa and that she would get to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  I couldn't wait to see it first hand.  Santa arrived at the party and their was a long line to sit on his lap.  So the girls and I stood near Santa and watched the other children sit on his lap and talk to him, while Dustin stood in line for us.  We stood their for at least 15 minutes, and Dustin seemed to stand in the same place-others were jumping in line in front of him, I guess he just wasn't being aggressive enough with those children!  Anyway, the girls watched Santa for a while, and Adelynne became very anxious-mostly because she saw the bags of goodies that Santa was giving away.  Well, Amy got restless and ran off, so I chased after her.  When I finally got back, Dustin had managed to move up in the line, about 2 inches, but Adelynne had not waited her turn.  She decided to cut in line and get her turn in with the fat guy.  Dustin and I missed the whole thing!  I was really bummed out that I didn't get to see Adelynne make her plea.  Amy wouldn't even consider sitting on his lap, but she did take the bag of goodies from him.  

Amy trying to figure out who this guy is:


Yes, Adelynne is picking her nose. What three-year-old doesn't? Both girls are inspecting the bearded guy in red.


I imagine Amy saying, "You think I'm going to sit on that guy's lap?!?"


"You're funny.  Just get me the candy and no one gets hurt."

Pizza Pizza

My girls love, love, love pizza. Cheese pizza to be exact. When Amy sees a pizza box she lets out a squeal of delight and dances over to her chair. I never have to beg the girls to eat pizza. Someday, Dustin and I hope to catch Amy' reaction to the pizza box on film, but for now, just enjoy these pictures of the girls devouring (happily) their cheese pizza.

Not current events...

These are a few pictures that I took at the beginning of December, before the girls and I left on our vacation. But they are things I would like to look back and remember.

I had put the girls to bed one evening, and I could hear Adelynne telling Amy to shush. Then I think Adelynne felt the need to give Amy a stuffed animal. I was ignoring the girls for a while, but then giggling girls finally got my attention, and this was what I found when I went to investigate. It was too cute to be mad about. Adelynne had given Amy every last stuffed animal and baby doll available. What a nice big sister.


Adelynne was putting on her chapstick, or "lips" as she calls them, and Amy was watching very intently. Adelynne noticed her audience and very sweetly asked Amy if she wanted some. Amy nodded yes in her usual way, so instead of Adelynne handing over the chapstick, she very tenderly applied it to Amy's lips. It was one of the moments that I so love to see between my girls because they don't happen very often.


Adelynne loves building blanket forts in the front room. It has practically become a daily routine. Aubree was invited over this day, and the girls enjoyed it together. This day the fort was used as their own personal library and reading corner. Aubree was very sweet to Amy and was reading her books. Aubree is such a good friend to my girls, we are so glad to have her be our neighbor.

Today's funnies

The girls and I are currently in California, so there won't be any pictures or too many posts for a while, but I had to write about an event that happened today.  My grandmother called to ask what she could get the girls for Christmas, Amy was screaming at me while I was trying to talk on the phone, so my grandmother offered to call me back, for which I was very grateful.  So I had some time to talk to Adelynne about what she wanted for Christmas.  Now, Dustin and I have had this conversation with Adelynne too many times to count or remember, but Adelynne's answer has always been consistent.  She always has replied, "Roller skates."  (I don't know why, but that's what she wants).  At first she would call them "rollie skates."  But that didn't last long.  It has been great that she has been so consistent and it has made it somewhat easy for us.  But we needed to know what else she might want.  And eventually we got her to add on to her list.  So now she says "roller skates and a horse."  (When she says "horse" she means a toy horse).  This has been even more helpful.  So those two items are covered.  (Sorry to ruin the surprise for anyone).  Now I needed to give my grandma something specific to get her, so I had to drill Adelynne for something else she might want for Christmas, but all I got was the same answer as before.  Finally she said, "I just want 4 toys."  (I have no idea what the other 2 are), but I said, "Don't you want lots of toys?" And Adelynne replied, "No, that's too many."  I hope Adelynne won't be too disappointed with getting more than 4 toys, because between all the relatives she'll be getting more than 4.  Now, I don't know if I just have a practically minded 3-year-old, but I have to say that I am impressed.  What child would just say they only want 4 toys?!?  I hope she'll remember this when she's older.  

The second thing that happened today is while I was playing on the computer upstairs, and Adelynne was watching Bambi downstairs, the rest of the house was quiet with sleepers.  After about half an hour, I could hear Adelynne talking to herself.  Then she said something which wasn't quite clear, but I thought she said my brother's name, so I wondered if my brother had come over.  I left the computer, went into the hall, and leaned over the railing thinking I'd see my brother, but instead I just see my 3-year-old butt-naked.  Usually when she strips down to nothing it means she had an accident, but this wasn't the case.  She just decided that she didn't want to wear her clothes anymore.  But I was quite surprised to see that she didn't even leave her panties on.  It was a good moment to laugh.  

Maybe they'll be some other moments to write about, or at least I'll remember to write about them.  But if you don't hear from me for a while, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!   

Eating snowflakes

Monday night I was looking through "The Friend" for a quick lesson to give for Family Home Evening. I came across a very easy, fun, and quick treat to make for the night. Edible Snowflakes:

Fold your tortilla in half three times and then cut it up like you would a paper snowflake. Cook in some hot oil for a few minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. The girls love it. At first Adelynne didn't want to eat her snowflake, but she soon caved. We've made them again since Monday and they really are fun.

Amy and Molly

Amy and Molly are just a few weeks apart in age, so they are fun to get together.  We decided to get them to play "Ring around the Roses" together.  Its a classic, and something fun to watch any child this age play.  But here is our cute girls:

"... And they all fall down!"

Kim laughing hysterically (sorry Kim, but I think its a great picture). I don't know if its proof that the girls were funny, or if we were so tired that everything was hilarious.

Amy being tickled because that's what happens when you "fall down." Amy does this little fake laughing sound until we start to tickle her and make her really laugh.

18-month-olds are so cute!  I love this age.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Snapshots

Cute baby:


Strange super hero. She likes to put all the oven mitts on her feet and hands, but wouldn't let us get a picture. And of course, no pants:

"Oh Christmas Tree"

Yes, I know its a little early for this, but the girls and I are leaving town on December 9th, and we wanted to enjoy our Christmas decorations before we left.  This is actually the first year we've decorated a tree because we haven't had one before.  When our neighbors moved out the gave us their tree and some ornaments.  The girls had such a great time decorating the tree.  I didn't think Amy would get it, but she knew just what to do, and wasn't going to just be an observer.  Amy tried really hard to spread the ornaments around the tree, but there isn't too many places you can reach when you are 18 months old.  Adelynne did a great job too and was disappointed when we ran out of ornaments.  

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here are some of the decorations around the apartment:

What I found in the dryer

So I was just doing the laundry like always, and I had my little "helper" right beside me playing with the dryer door.  The next thing I know, Amy is climbing in the dryer.  And it didn't take long for Adelynne to join her.  They played for a good half an hour before I called them to eat their lunch.  Maybe next time I'll just find dry clothes.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Nursery Girls

Yesterday Adelynne picked out pink dresses for the girls to wear to church. Yesterday was a significant day for all of us because it was Amy's first day in nursery! She was old enough last week, but we had stake conference, so there was no nursery. Dustin and I prepped Adelynne about Amy going to nursery and being in there with her. We told Adelynne that she could take Amy all by herself (with us trailing close behind). Adelynne and Amy held hands down the hallway, and Adelynne walked Amy up to the door with the baby gate. Amy grabbed the gate and started shaking it so that she could get in. As soon as Amy was in, she ran for the first baby stroller available, and then she proceeded to find a baby doll to put in it. Adelynne headed off to snack time with the older kids, and Amy was as happy as could be. She never looked back for mom or dad.

When we picked her up, we were told that Amy had done great, but that she had started to get a little nervous. When she did, the nursery leaders just put her in snack time with Adelynne. From there, Amy followed Adelynne to lesson time, and then back into the play room. Once Amy was back with the toys she did her own thing and didn't care who was around. I'm glad that Amy had a great time, and it was nice to enjoy church without chasing her around.

A week of Halloween

Finally, here are all of the activities and pictures from the week of Halloween. We started the Halloween festivities on October 25th. First we went to Border's Book Store where they were having a little Halloween activity for children. The girls got some candy and then got to listen to some Halloween stories. I had just finished the girls' costumes the night before and I was very pleased with the outcome. So I was determined to let the girls take every advantage of wearing them-and they did!

Friday night I put Adelynne's hair in curlers so that she could be a curly-haired witch. Now, you should know that when we asked Adelynne what she wanted to be for Halloween, she would say, "A witch!" And I would ask her if she wanted to be a scary witch or a nice witch. She would say "A nice witch." I figured that having curly hair would accentuate the idea of her being a nice witch. Unfortunately, I did not wash her hair before putting the curlers in, and the curls just didn't stay in her hair. She turned out to be a nice, cute witch anyway. And Amy was an adorable black cat-which I thought made a cute accessory for the witch.

Saturday October, 25th


Sunday night we carved pumpkins, and this year I bought the stencil kit so I could carve a fancy one. As I was carving the top off, I was talking up to Adelynne how cool the inside of the pumpkin was going to be. When the top came off, she was not convinced. Adelynne refused to touch any of it, but Amy put her arm in the pumpkin, as you can see. It was funny to see the girls' personalities come out so differently through carving pumpkins.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Monday afternoon the girls and I decorated some sugar cookies. If I had anticipated all of the cookie decorating we would encounter throughout the week, I would have left this activity out of our day, but nevertheless, we decorated cookies and had fun. Adelynne would have filled her cookie with the pumpkin candies if she could have, but I convinced her that two was plenty.

Monday October, 27th: Trick-or-Treating
Yes, on Monday we started trick-or treating. Living in a college town is great for Halloween. The college students love to have the little children come to their dorms, and that's what we did. A set of girls' dorms hosted a halloween party and trick-or-treating. At the party, Adelynne had a spider painted on her cheek, and the girls decorated cookies. And then Amy colored a pumpkin, Adelynne played, "Put the nose on the pumpkin." Adelynne is really good at cheating at these types of games. And then Adelynne played in a game of "musical chairs." She only lasted two rounds before she was out. Then we headed down the halls for some trick-or-treating. The girls were so cute, Amy was practically running down the hallway from door to door. And Adelynne sweetly said, "Trick-or-treat," and "Thank you," at every door. I love it when the students would let out coos and awws when they saw the girls, and we heard lots of them.

Tuesday was the only day of the week that the girls didn't put on their costumes. But on Wednesday I took the girls to a halloween story time at the Lafayette Library. Sorry, no pictures.

Wednesday night we went to a local church: The Calvary Baptist Church (yes, the Mormons crashed the Baptist's party), for some Halloween carnival fun and trunk-or-treating. The girls enjoyed playing the games and getting more candy. I don't think we'll go back next year because it was really crowded, but we enjoyed it. Dustin and I have just been very ambitious and excited to do all the Halloween activities we could find. Sorry, no pictures.

On Thursday we did more trick-or-treating at the dorms. The first building we went to the girls buckets were over-flowing with goodies. Then we went to a second building, (and we had emptied the buckets), the girls filled their buckets up half-way. The difference in the filling of the buckets was the gender of the students. More female students participate in giving out candy, than the male students do, so naturally Adelynne and Amy received more candy from the female students. But after going to the boys' dorms we went home and counted up the loot. Sorry, no pictures again.

Friday October, 31st: The real trick-or-treating
Adelynne and I made and decorated a cake for Daddy. We just needed another excuse to eat sugar at our house. (Okay, not really). It was a dark chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting-who can resist that? Dustin enjoyed it immensely.

Friday night we started at the Purdue Village Halloween Activity, which wasn't much more than cookie decorating and coloring. We were there long enough for the girls to eat a cookie or two, and then we headed to our church for a costume parade and trunk-or-treating. The girls enjoyed walking around the gym and then they sat very well together with all of the other kids. After the trunk-or-treating I thought we could stop by a few houses so Adelynne could do the real thing. I was thinking we would stop by a friends house, but they weren't home. Adelynne was a little confused and kept asking to go in to someone's house, so I thought we should go to our friend's house, the Everett's. When we got there, Adelynne got to play with her friend Lizzy. This was her favorite part of the night. We visited with our friends for over an hour, and it was hard to pull Adelynne away, but Amy was so tired and crying over everything that we knew we had to go. Dustin and I had certainly had our fill of Halloween. And now we've got the candy to prove it. The girls each have a 1 gallon ice cream bucket full of candy, and then Dustin and I have a 1 gallon freezer bag full of our "taxed" candy. We'll see how long it lasts.