The Witches of Gardner Village

On Nate's day off last week we decided to take the kids to Gardner Village to see the witches. I'd always heard about the witches, but hadn't ever gone to see them. So this year we thought it would be fun to check it out. The kids loved looking for witches everywhere and of course, we had to take plenty of pictures. 

The kids loved these pink hats in the Way Out West store.

 

One of the first witches we spotted.  She would peek out her window and then go back inside.

This witch recently became a member of the fire brigade.

Lilly decided that she needed her picture taken in this chair...

...and on this bench.

This witch seems to be fishing the old fashioned way, with good ol' TNT. 

The kids loved chasing watching the ducks.

Lilly found another chair and recruited Jayne for a picture.

The Frog Witch

This time, Lilly's sitting place was already occupied. 

Jonah showed us his best scary face.

And Jayne showed us how she likes to suck on her bottom lip.  Not sure when that started. 

Ah, Lilly found a new place to sit.  

There were lots of other witches.  Some were playing baseball, another was flying on her bicycle, and yet another was directing traffic on the rooftops.  We didn't get pictures of all of them, so if you want to see them, you'll have to head to Gardner Village yourself.  It makes for a fun little family activity.  You can even print out a scavenger hunt list from the Gardner Village website to find all the witches.  

Happy Witch Hunting!

Jayne Turns 2!

Today is Jayne's 2nd birthday! We celebrated last Saturday with my family. Jayne got lots of wonderful gifts and she loves them all!
Some of Jayne's favorite things right now are....

• Baby dolls. She has one in particular that she likes to carry everywhere and wrap up in a blanket.
  
• Her "softy" which is her blanket that she sleeps with every night. She got a new one for her birthday, so now she has to have "softy" and "new softy" before she'll go to sleep.
  
• Dogs--or as Jayne likes to call them, "Woofys". Jayne loves dogs. One of the boys in Lilly's preschool class has a chihuahua and his mother brings it everyday to drop him off and pick him up. We cannot leave the school until Jayne gets to pet the "woofy".
• Chocolate milk---definitely Jayne's drink of choice.
• Shoes---especially sparkly ones. She just got a new pair for her birthday and even though they are too big, she insists on wearing them everywhere. She loves to steal Lilly's pink glittered shoes and wear them around the house.
  
• Gum---Yes, I know. She's way too young for gum. Don't look at me, we can blame this one on Daddy.

Now for the obligatory then and now pictures.....

Then.....












and Now.

They grow so fast, don't they? =)

So, I want to wish my sweet Jayne a Happy Birthday! We love you sassy-pants!

Arctic Circle's Halloween Horror

Last Friday, Jonah received a certificate from school for a free ice cream cone from Arctic Circle. I decided to take the kids over that day after a trip to the park.
We went inside because three young children with ice cream cones inside a moving vehicle is a disaster in the making. As soon as we walked in the door, I wanted to walk right back out again. There were bloodied knives and bones hanging from the ceiling. The entire place was draped in black plastic. They had a large skeleton along with a display of various body parts in jars. Oh, and there was also plenty of gory looking fake blood on the walls and ceiling. Jonah called it Halloween Horror and I must say that I agree. We ate our ice cream cones as quickly as possible and I was sure to try to keep the kids' eyes on anything but the decor. Is it just me, or does this type of gory, violent decoration not belong in a family friendly fast food restaurant?
Am I the only one who is disturbed by the way Halloween keeps leaning more and more to the violent, bloody, and almost satanic? I was on my morning walk around the neighborhood with Jayne this morning and I made it a point to notice the Halloween decorations on people's homes. Most had the murderer from Scream on their front door holding a bloody kitchen knife. Several had body parts and fake blood plastered across their windows. And, of course, we had plenty of the scary skeletons dressed as brides or waiters or whatever. What happened to cute Halloween decorations? Trick-or-treating children don't need to be greeted by severed heads and bloody weapons in their faces. Come on People! On Halloween night there will be cute little kids dressed as fairies and firemen coming to the door and your "cool" decorations just might give them nightmares or scar them for life. Think about it before you hang up your next dangling body part by the front door.

We're so glad when Daddy comes home!

As you can guess from the title of this post, Nate is home from his training in Denver. He flew in late Friday night. It's been SOOOOO nice to have him back. The kids were clinging to him for the entire weekend, especially the girls. Jayne had to have him help her with everything from changing her diaper to getting dressed to putting her to bed. Every time I went to help her with something she would look at me sternly and say, "But Daddy never helps me!" Lilly still would get out of bed several times to make sure Daddy was still home. We had to explain to her that he won't be going for long trips anymore right now. She was really worried last night because we had been talking about Nate going to work today and she thought he was leaving for a long time again.
It was so nice to spend the whole weekend together and now we're getting back into a routine. This whole "husband-less" experience was good for us. It challenged us and it helped us grow our relationship even more. I think Nate and I both appreciate each other more than we did just a few weeks ago.
So, that's all. I just wanted to say that it's good to have "Daddy" back at home again.

Nap time is in Peril!

I love nap time! For almost seven years now, there has been at least an hour, sometimes two, in the afternoon where one or more of my children is sleeping and the other(s) are quietly watching a video or playing in their room. Something has been happening the last few days, however, which makes me fear for the future of this precious ritual to which I owe my sanity. Jayne is climbing out of her crib and coming out of her room! I've known this was coming for a while now. She'll be turning two next week and I've been putting off converting her crib into a toddler bed, but I don't think I can delay any longer.
Yesterday, she laid down for her nap just fine. About an hour and a half later, she comes toddling out of her room to tell me, "I wake up all by myself!" So cute, but so sad at the same time. So today, she decided that she didn't want to nap at all. Each time I put her in her bed, she climbs out and comes out into the living room and tells me "I all done nap." How do I effectively tell her that Mommy's not "all done nap"?!
I remember this transition with Jonah and Lilly too. It's one of my least favorite of the baby to big kid rites of passage, going from the crib to the bed. With Jonah, I had to lay on the floor next to him and pretend to be asleep until he would fall asleep. Effective, but time consuming. Then when Lilly made the change, I had to do the same thing. Then we put Lilly and Jonah in the same room and nap time became this impossible feat that would taunt me all morning long making me hope for an hour to myself where my two darling children would just lie down in their beds and drift off into a peaceful slumber. Sadly, this was never the reality. The ONLY way I could ever get them to nap was to lie down next to them so they would hold still. Sometimes this would take an hour, but it was totally worth it when they would start snoring away and I could spend an hour eating my lunch and watching "Friends" reruns in peace.
Now we're at the point where Jonah never naps (he's at school) and Lilly only does on very rare occasions. Jayne's daily nap is the whole reason that I can even get Lilly to do "quiet time" so I can have a little "Mommy Time".
To complicate things further, we're planning on making a room switcheroo in the next couple of weeks, putting Jayne and Lilly in one room together and Jonah in his own room. I fear that my two giggling girls will never nap again! I know Jayne won't nap if she knows Lilly's not napping in her bed and Lilly won't nap unless Daddy's home and the whole family is napping at the same time and even then she and Jonah usually just sneak out of their beds and read books or play blocks or something which leads me to conclude that the days of the afternoon nap at my house are numbered! Numbered, People! Not a big number either.

On My Own

Nate has been in Denver for his training for an entire week now. It feels like an eternity! He calls home at least once a day. The kids love talking to him on the phone, especially Jayne. Whenever I'm on the phone now, she'll look up at me and say, "Daddy?" and if I say yes, then she starts pulling on me and yelling, "I talk, I talk, I talk!" She's a real chatterbox with him.
The kids are really starting to miss him a lot. Of course, they missed him right from the get-go, but now they're starting to ask more often when he's going to be home.

I'm trying to keep myself productive to help the time pass quicker, but I don't think it's working.
I've cleaned out the basement bedroom so the landlord can rip out the carpet and the baseboards and clean up the mold. Yeah, that's a whole other post just waiting for me to write it.
I've gotten ahead on my school work by an entire week.
I've been walking with Jayne almost every morning.
I cleaned the entire house. Not that it stayed clean very long. Three kids have a tendency to create clutter.
We put out the Halloween decorations, meager as they may be.
Went to Relief Society volleyball and I'll go again this week. It's a lot of fun. Thank goodness for Ciera, who lives two houses down and comes to stay with my kids so I can go play at 9:00 at night.
Went to cub scouts last week and am working on planning out this month's activities including one for this Wednesday. Yep, some major procrastinating went into that one.
Rented a couple movies and discovered that they're not as fun to watch by yourself.
Took the kids to the library.

I never realized how much I depend on Nate. He saves my sanity on a daily basis by making me laugh and giving me a precious bit of time to myself. He has a way with the kids that makes them happy and fun to be around. Not to mention, he makes a perfect bed buddy. Pillows just aren't the same.

I definitely wasn't made for this. I could never be a military wife. I don't know how you wonderful, strong, amazing women do this for such extended periods of time. You are my heroes!

He gets to come home this weekend, then he'll fly back to Denver for another week of training. Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to this Friday at 10:05pm. Not so much looking forward to this Sunday at 5:07pm and I am really, really, really, REALLY looking forward to Friday the 15th at 10:05pm.

I'm such a wimp.
The End.