Funny Things Said

Kelsey has been making some pretty funny statements lately. Some of the best were when we had visitors.

The night of the trunk-or-treat and after Macy told her about the gifts Emily brought Kelsey said the evening prayer and here are two things she asked for.

"Bless that Emily and poppy can give me candy."
"Bless that I can have more presents."

On another night she had a mint from restaurant. She accidentally swallowed it too soon and was a little upset. She said "My mint swallowed me."

On Halloween night Macy was unbuckling Kelsey from her car seat. Kelsey was so happy with the nights festivities. She looked up and Macy and said, "I love you Macy. I love you." It was the sweetest thing ever. At that moment in her life there was nothing wrong and she was completely happy.

Happy Birthday Kelsey

Another big event of the past couple of weeks was Kelsey's third birthday. Like Halloween it was celebrated over a bunch of days and she enjoyed every minute of it. Aunt Emily brought presents with her from all her aunts and uncle. Of course Macy found them and couldn't keep quiet about the presents, so Kelsey opened them a week early because she couldn't wait. Then Grandma Wendy and Poppy DeVon's present arrived by UPS. It arrived too late in the evening to open, so it was opened as soon as she woke up the next morning. They sent her a box of dress up clothes and she was in heaven. From that day on she kept talking about presents she was going to get.

Grandma Carol came to visit right after that and she took Kelsey out shopping for clothes and her Sleeping Beauty dress (her other Halloween costume). Kelsey is in love with her new shirt and pants and of course is happy about a new dress up dress.

Sunday we celebrated her birthday and she couldn't wait for more presents. We had told her that she could open them after church, so the minute we walked in the door she was ready. We had to make her wait because dad had to attend some meetings. Within this time Macy pretty much gave away every present. Macy is terrible at keeping secrets. Earlier in the week she told Kelsey that I was giving her a Fancy Nancy dress. Knowing this weakness of Macy I waited until Saturday to take Macy shopping for her gift to Kelsey. My one slip up was letting her help wrap. She knew every gift. So Sunday at lunch Macy mentioned every gift. As they were eating an apple Macy took a bite and said "This is kind of like Gezel on the Enchan... (covering her mouth) oh, we can't say that." Then Kelsey repeated her saying "This is just like Enchanted." Macy looked at me with wide eyes and shock and said "we can't say that". Then Macy walked over to the pile of gifts and picked up the movie and shook it and said "This looks like a princess movie." I can't remember how she mentioned the puzzle, but I know she did. All I can say is that it is a good thing Kelsey is only 3 and didn't really get it when Macy gave away each surprise.

Later that night we had cake and ice cream. She wanted a purple Ariel cake. I am not much a a decorator so I made a white cake and made if purple with food coloring. Since I was making it and she was too little to care, I chose chocolate frosting and wrote with purple frosting. I was going to put her new Ariel figurines on the cake, but of course I couldn't find them. She was just happy is was purple and was even happier when I agreed to put sprinkles all over the cake.

This is her in her Fancy Nancy skirt.

This video clip is of Kelsey sharing her new toys. I guess now that she is three the skill of sharing is a thing of the past. I swear the fighting over items as increased and it mainly stems from Kelsey and then Macy seeking revenge.

I am not the mom that throws birthday parties every year, but when Macy turned 3 I called some of her friends to come play that day. I let them sing Happy Birthday to her and eat left over cake and ice cream. This worked out well because it was very casual which is what a 3 year old needs. I decided to do the same for Kelsey except she has a regular play group on Wednesdays and it happened to be my turn. So for play group Kelsey and her two friends colored princess crowns, played dress up, played with balloons, sang Happy Birthday and of course had ice cream and cake.

Happy Birthday Big Girl!

Halloween

I figured I better get to this because grandparents are waiting to see these pictures.

The first Halloween celebration was our ward Fall Festival and trunk-or-treat. And lucky for Emily she was here for the event too. The night couldn't have been better. It was cool enough to wear long pants and a jacket. So it actually felt a little like fall. Dinner was served outside in the parking lot and it was homemade chili and apples with caramel dip. They had a few little carnival games for the kids. What amazed me the most was a lot of people actually decorated their trunks. The best one had to be a couple that dressed up in flashy 70s attire so for their trunk decoration they set up a disco floor. They brought the frame to an awning and had a disco ball hanging from it. Then they had laid out a large square sheet of vinyl flooring for the dance floor. From their car radio they had music playing so the kids could come and dance (and even some adults). Besides decorating trunks, someone made a little spook alley with a strobe light and people hiding. Macy and Kelsey were brave enough to ask to go through it a second time (as long as they were holding our hands). I was amazed because it wasn't a dorky spook alley.Above is a picture of our little Ariel at the trunk-or-treat. She looked so cute in this costume.

Here is Macy in here Abby-Cadabby costume. The character is from Sesame Street if you are wondering. She saw this costume in September and had to have it. I waited until October to buy it thinking I was good, but alas she only wore this costume that night. I wasted $30 on it. I doubt if Kelsey will ever have any desire to wear it.

Here is Macy with her vampire teeth she won at one of the carnival games. She loved these teeth and wore them all the next day. She also won a set of ugly buck teeth, but that picture wasn't as cute. She didn't mind putting those teeth in either.

At the festival Macy noticed that she only had one box of Dots and Kelsey had two. So she asked Kelsey if she could have a box because she only had one. Of course Kelsey understood her reasoning. After they went to bed Brian did his candy tax and took one of Macy's boxes. She was so upset the next morning. Brian was already at the church for meetings so she wanted to call him on the phone. I told her she would have to leave a message. Well Brian thought the call might be important so he stepped out of his meeting only to get an ear full from Macy. She completely yelled at him for a couple of minutes. This was not what Brian was expecting. I was definitely laughing on the inside and I am sure it showed through to the outside.

Macy's second celebration was her school party. So above is her in a new costume. It actually came from Kelsey's birthday present my parents had sent. Kelsey opened the present the day before Macy's party and from then on Macy was not going to wear the Abby costume. It was a little small for her (bare mid-riff) so I told her she couldn't wear it on Halloween and that is how we got the third costume.

Halloween night I made the traditional chili. When it came time to getting dressed there was another costume change. Macy had to wear her Snow White costume from last year. I figured Halloween was for the kids and it was an easy change so we went with Snow White without arguments. Kelsey had a costume change herself. She had asked her Grandma Carol for a Sleeping Beauty dress for her birthday. The gift was purchased the day before Halloween and she wore it non-stop. So of course this was her costume of choice. Again an easy change and a cute costume.

The girls had a great time trick-or-treating. By the end their buckets were too heavy to carry and they couldn't wait to get home to eat their treasure. The minute they got home Macy was trading Kelsey candy she didn't want for the candy she did want. I have to watch her because after the trunk-or-treat Macy managed to snag some of Kelsey's candy for herself and quickly Kelsey's bucket was empty while Macy had several pieces left. She is no dummy and never stole it. She always asked Kelsey for this piece or that and Kelsey would always say yes. So I have monitored and I Macy has been pretty good about eating her own and at least swapping for better pieces instead of just taking.

Oh yes, Macy had to wear flip-flops to go trick-or-treating. No cute church shoes to match the costume. That would be unheard of.

Why

There are three things I am ask myself "why?" Why is it that my children always decide to do the number 2 business when I am in the middle of a meal or in the shower? They may be finished but usually I am just beginning (they eat as I dish the food). These are the times I wish their arms were long enough to take care of themselves, the coordination was there, and the understanding of what they are doing was complete. Alas I have to put my fork down and be the mom. In my mind I sit and wish this upon them when they have children of their own. Brian says that is not very nice but I am sure almost every mother has wished certain things to come around to their grown child.

Why do my kids suddenly have to go to the bathroom once we have been in a store for about 15 minutes or when they see a store restroom?

My other why is "why do I have all my energy in the morning, start losing steam around lunch, get cranky late in the afternoon, and am exhausted the minute bedtime rolls around?" I don't get this, especially when I have done very little in regards to manual labor. There was a point before children that my ambitions to accomplish something after dinner were possible. Those days are gone. After dinner all I want to do is put my feet up. So I will add my ambitious task of finding room for my food storage and putting it away for tomorrow. If it doesn't get done in the morning, it might not happen until Saturday.

Grandma and Grandpa Came Next

The fun didn't stop when Emily flew home out because grandma and grandpa flew in the same night she left. The kids were in heaven. They absolutely love having family around.

With grandma and grandpa we got to go birthday shopping for Kelsey which of course led to a little gift for each of the girls. I figure this is a grandparents prerogative. I just wish Macy wouldn't whine to get what she wants (I wasn't buying her anything so she started the whining). Then it was off to find some pumpkins to carve, but it was getting late and no naps. The first place we stopped I thought was a particular pumpkin patch. It wasn't the right place and the only pumpkins they had left were the large ones. Of course the girls found the tiny "baby" pumpkins so those were purchased. Then it was off to Walmart and then dinner. Well Walmart was completely sold out of carving pumpkins. So grandma bought a painted one and we called it good on the pumpkin carving this year.

Other fun things with grandma and grandpa included lunch at Dairy Queen, a trip to Arizona Mills (along with throngs of other people on a Saturday), enjoying dinner on the patio in the nice weather, trick-or-treating, celebrating Kelsey's birthday and playing several games of hearts. I didn't win any of them but came close the last time. If I had won that would have been history in the making, but of course Brian managed to beat me. We also tried a new breakfast and lunch place called the Farmhouse Grill. It was delicious. I had some of the best restaurant eggs ever and Brian can't stop thinking about the grilled potatoes. We highly recommend this place.

Auntie Em

For the past 2 weeks you could find a lot of excitement and fun at our house. The first big round of excitement came when Aunt Emily flew in for a visit. She had a conference to attend for work. She arranged to fly in a couple of days before so she could hang out with us a bit more. When she arrived she had even more excitement for Macy. Her flight was a little late because a plane in front of hers sucked a bird into its engine on the runway. Macy thought that was a neat story and wants to hear about it the next time it happens.

The first stop for us was the zoo. There was supposed to be a lot of fun Halloween things going on like feeding the animals a special treat in jack-o-lanterns. Well none of us could follow a schedule nor find the exhibits we wanted (we are not regular zoo goers yet, however we did win a free year membership so I think we will try to use it more than this one time). So we only saw left over jack-o-lanterns that the animals didn't play with any more. We still had a good time because we bought a purple and a red snow cone and the girls got to ride the merry-go-round and the girls didn't have to walk (we dusted off the strollers).
We made sure Emily tried our favorite restaurant, Joe's Real BBQ. She also had to go to our ward trunk-or-treat. Macy and Kelsey were so excited that she got to take them around to each trunk. The girls got to see her hotel room and thought it was the best playroom. Vacationing in a hotel with them will be scary. We might have to prolong this experience. We also made sure she saw a lot of downtowns. Our adventures took us to downtown Tempe, Old town Gilbert, Downtown Mesa and the temple, Old town Scottsdale and the Great and Spacious Building (aka Scottsdale Fashion Mall), and also downtown Phoenix. Most of these were driving adventures but adventures nonetheless. On the way out of downtown Phoenix we even saw Play World. This was an adult store or club (not sure because we didn't stop this time) that welcomed couples. I thought that was a little out of the ordinary. Maybe Brian and my next date night :)

Don't Forget to Vote

Today is election day. Make your voice be heard. Do your research, ponder the topics and candidates, and then make the selection you feel is the best choice for you and your family. This is your right and responsibility as a US citizen.



While you are at it, take a minute and vote on whether you think we are having a boy or a girl. We find out on Friday so you only have a few short days.