Our Happy Halloween!

Making Progress...

One week later.

Some things in life are... "gooey"!!

bath toy-- not too gooey
make-up sponge and toy lizard-- gooey
pinching Regan's cheeks-- pretty gooey
Regan's binky (or "doe-doe" as we call it)-- very gooey
bouncy ball (sort of like a giant koosh ball)-- the gooey-est of all!!

It's an obsession with Emma lately. Gooey things. As you can tell by her face in the last picture...she loves to squeeze and smash "gooey" things. (I am a little concerned about how much damage she is doing to her teeth because I can hear her teeth grinding when she's really excited!) I don't let her squeeze and smash Regan's cheeks, but the lizard in the above picture you'll notice has a leg pulled off. Got a little out of hand when she realized just how gooey that lizard is!

I don't remember how it started... all of a sudden some things were "gooey" (totally figured that word out on her own) and it has turned into sort of an obsession. This is not only a funny thing, but it's easy to satisfy when almost all the best gooey toys are from the $ store. She did her "tense, gooey face" so much last time we were there that my mom and I were just dying laughing.

The best thing about her love of all things gooey is that it helps her calm down. Emma is totally inTENSE and I really believe it helps her to relax, sad as it sounds since she's just four! I need to look for one of those stress balls that they make for just this purpose.

~*Don't judge... you know all your kids are a little weird too!!

If You Don't Know Me Very Well...

then you don't know that I really love to do yard work. So, this is what I did this morning. Don't seem so shocked... I don't mind getting dirty (as long as I can shower that "outside" smell off asap! ) This house doesn't have very much of a yard at all, but it is perfect for the girls and so fast & easy to maintain, so I took over. I usually stand at the door and tell Brady how I need it done anyway so I thought I should just try a less annoying approach this year and take care of it myself! It's not that he doesn't know what to do, but I grew up watching my dad be meticulous about this kind of thing and it rubbed off on me.

I think I learned how to plant winter lawn when I was 15 and I HATED to do it then, but it is something I am glad that I know how to do now. There are so many things like that- you grow up and understand why your parents thought it was so important that the whole family be up and outside working together Saturday mornings. Between our small yard and the HOA maintained front yard our family hasn't quite adopted that tradition yet, but someday we will and hopefully my girls won't mind too much when I go in their rooms on Saturday morning at 7am (after a late Friday night) and turn off their ceiling fan (nothing makes me more furious to this day...a lesson Brady learned early:) and turn the light on to get them to join us outside!

*One more thing: the song I put on my playlist is one I can remember my dad humming/ singing to himself as he worked. I remember just being mad in general that he was so cheerful that early in the morning! ...sorry dad- love ya.

A Simple Standifird Saturday

Who doesn't love a lazy Saturday? Don't get me wrong- I look forward to soccer games, birthday parties, date nights, running errands, and getting together with friends and family, but every once in awhile there is a Saturday that's totally open. Sometimes we fill it with chores around the house or a trip to the mall, then out to lunch, other times we just go with what the girls think up and let the day pass slowly. That was today and today was good.

Our family picture explains it all...Emma wears one of her orange shirts (it's not her favorite color, but she has these two shirts that she thinks are the best items of clothing ever made) and gets to have her hair in "just a ponytail 'coming right out the back' " (If you haven't read Stephanie's Ponytail you are missing out). Brady wears a BYU hat or shirt or sometimes both and says that it's to remind me what the day is all about- as if I could really forget... as hard as I try, I can't. Regan goes for that natural look- no bow in the hair and sporting just a diaper and a tear on her cheek because I cut her off from the M&M's that she has been sneaking all day long. Me? It depends on the Saturday, but today I tried to do as little "prep" as possible so that I don't waste my valuable family time.

My advice to all for the day and everyday: simplify.

So You Think You Can Dance?!

On Tuesday night my friends and I got our much anticipated night out...we stormed the wild city of Glandale, AZ for a crazy night at the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TOUR!! The dancers were just as amazing as they were on tv and they put on a really great show! It was SO much fun to get dressed up (in heels, not flip-flops), be able to take a small purse (no big diaper bags), walk without pushing a stroller, eat dinner without having to tell anyone else to finish theirs, and keep our lipstick intact the whole night!! Thanks to Brooke for having a fun birthday party and thanks to Mike for persuading all of our husbands that this was a good idea!

Regan LOVES her cousin Merrick! She loves all babies really(sorry to baby Preslee, baby Beau, baby Annie and any other baby to which she has given a little too much love:)) but she has always just adored "baby Mert"...that's her name for him. It's really exciting now that he smiles back at her and he can even shake his head and clap his hands at her. We'll see how well this works while he transitions to walking and learns how to defend his space that she takes every opportunity she can to invade! These days he's just melting her little heart!