Happy Halloween!

Because we live in a community where a majority of the people try to honor the Sabbath Day, we have already had our Halloween celebrations, even though today (Sunday) is Halloween. Here's a look at what we did to celebrate this holiday.

Friday morning found me trying to carve a pumpkin while watching 3 kids. It took me a lot longer to do than planned because there were a few interruptions, but Tyler liked the final result, even if it is pretty plain.





Also on Friday, Darrell's work let the employees' children go in and trick-or-treat.

Tyler had a ball. He ran around helping himself to more than one piece of candy if he could get away with it. We borrowed his cousins' bee costume and he loved wearing it. (I was kind of worried after his "aversion" to his costume last year.)


He even had a stinger on back.



Tyler's favorite treat was the Tootsie Rolls. He held on to several at once and wouldn't put them in his pumpkin basket.


The girls were little fairies. (The wings are on upside down because it was easier to carry them with the smaller wings on top and not having them hitting Darrell or me in the face.)


Megan enjoyed sucking on her skirt.


Later that night we went to the church for a chili and pie dinner. Tyler ran around amusing everyone with his costume, and the girls enjoyed being held by whoever would take them. (I actually got to eat a meal with 2 free hands!!)

Darrell took Tyler out trick-or-treating last night while I stayed home with the girls and handed out candy. Unfortunately it was rainy, but Tyler didn't care one bit.



Yep, there's another Tootsie Roll in his hand!

A Small Giveaway

In honor of this post (number 200!!!), I am having an itsy, bitsy giveaway of my "pinky print" note cards. The winner will receive 4 flower note cards with 4 white envelopes



and 4 "jelly bean guys" note cards with 4 white envelopes.















If you'd like to be entered in the drawing, leave a comment on this blog or send me a message via e-mail or Facebook. I will post the winner on Monday, Nov. 1.

A Squealer, A Conductor and a Laughing Girl

Megan's little squeal (you might not want the volume up real loud for this one)




Tyler loves music, and Tyler loves CONDUCTING music. He will often request, "Song," while we are eating. So I put a CD on and he will conduct the music. Sometimes it's with his bare hands, but he has been known to grab whatever is closest--like a carrot stick or a fish stick--and direct the music. Sometimes objects (like a pen or chapstick) become instruments that he either blows on or moves across his shoulder like a violin bow. (You'll have to turn the volume up on this one to hear "The Ants Go Marching" in the background.)



Here Emily is laughing at my nephew Kyle. Both Emily and Megan will laugh at Tyler while he is laughing. It is so cute and it makes us all laugh. Unfortunately I'm usually always holding a baby when that happens and I haven't gotten it on video yet.

It's a Boy Thing, Right?

Tyler has access to the backyard through our sliding glass door and will often head outside and then back inside by himself. One day a couple weeks ago I looked in the family room to see him playing at the couch. He gave me one of those "I hope you don't come check on me" looks, to which I decided I'd for sure better go check on him. This is what I found.



Apparently the sand in the sand box was just too much of a temptation.

I thought this whole thing was kind of cute until it happened again this week. This time it wasn't sand, it was dirt from the flower beds. Argh!

Lately I've been spending time outside in the yard every day as I try to attack the HUGE (that's an understatement) weed patch we inherited with our new house. Sometimes the kids are out with me and sometimes they're taking naps (or the girls may or may not be camped out in their bouncers in front of a Baby Einstein DVD. Did I really just admit to that? Oh well, it only happened once cuz I really, really, REALLY needed to get some weeding done.)

Sometimes when we're all outside together, Tyler thinks that the girls need to experience dirt. So, while I'm busy pulling at weeds, he's busy bringing handfuls of dirt to the girls and throwing it on them, even though he KNOWS that there will be one upset Momma when he gets caught!

Poor Megan got the worst of it on Saturday. The dirt, mixed with her abundant drool, formed a little beard.




Mr. Dirt Thrower took the liberties to drop handfuls of dirt on his own hair too, thus making it necessary for 3 midday baths.



The girls won't ever do anything like this, right?

"Big Beds" for All

Although the girls aren't sleeping all the way through the night regularly, I thought it was time to move them out of the bassinets and into their cribs. By doing this, it meant that Tyler had to move out of a crib and into his queen-sized bed. (Yeah, we could have borrowed a toddler bed, but we already had this mattress set--and that way we have a "spare bedroom" for visitors too.)

I figured the girls would be just fine in their transition, but I was a little apprehensive about Tyler. Would he stay on the bed? Would he fall off?

Well, so far, so good. He hasn't tried to escape (yet) and when I'm up at night I just make sure he stays in the middle of the bed.

The girls in the morning after their first night in the cribs.

Emily


Megan


Big Boy Tyler

4 Months Old

Four months old means new experiences like

1. Rice cereal. Emily loves it so much she cries in between bites. Megan likes the flavor, but is still working on the whole swallowing (not pushing it out with her tongue) thing.

Emily


Megan


2. Rolling over. Megan rolled over Sept. 27 and Emily on Oct. 6.

Megan


Emily


3. Time for the exersaucer. Tyler also had to try everything out. (Thanks to Darrell's parents who scored this for us!)



4. Another Bumbo. (Thanks to my parents who made a VERY quick trip to visit us and help me out with the girls' 4-month check up. They also bought another Bumbo for the girls.)
Emily


Megan


Sisters! (I love their shirts. They both say "I'm the Little Sister.")

Bonuses and Blessings of our New House

The process of showing and selling our old house, as well as moving, all while being pregnant, was VERY long and tiring. But as we look back on everything, we can see how Heavenly Father was guiding us so that everything would work out exactly right. (Isn't that always how it is?)

The Lord's timing was "spot on." Even though it seemed like it was taking forever to sell our house, the timing couldn't have been better for the procession of things that had to take place. We received an offer on our house on a Wednesday and accepted it right away. The buyers wanted full-asking price (plus our washer and dryer and fridge). It was only at that point that we could seriously start looking for a place to move into.

We had put money down on a lot to build a house, but the house would have taken 3 months to build. That meant we would have had to move everything into a rental property and/or storage shed and then move everything AGAIN once the house was built. The thought of moving twice, once while being pregnant and then again with 3 little kids, started to look less and less attractive.

I had looked a little bit into buying an existing house, but hadn't seen anything that worked for us. So, it was a very huge blessing when our realtor e-mailed us the listing for the house we eventually bought just 3 days after our old house went under contract. (It had just been placed on the market the day before.) Two days after that we went to see the house. We put in an offer that night and after a little "haggling," it was accepted the next day. All of this worked out perfectly so that we were able to have our new house under contract before the April 30 deadline for the first- and second-time buyer tax credit. Thanks to a fabulous realtor, everything worked out so that we didn't have to be out of our old house until May 29, the same day we were able to move into our new house.

It wasn't easy to show the house 33 times in 2 1/2 months while dragging Tyler out the door with me every time someone came to look. AND it wasn't easy packing and moving a whole house while being 8 months pregnant. AND it wasn't easy unpacking and rearranging a new house pre- and postpartum. BUT, we were greatly blessed.

I am SO appreciative to the good people in our old ward who came in and helped me pack up everything in our old house. They also helped load not one, but 3, U Haul truck loads worth of stuff. And then to top it off, there were people from our new ward waiting to help unload the truck loads into our new house. Three days after we moved some ladies from the ward came to help clean, paint, and move boxes and furniture so that we could actually sit down in the living room.

Six days after our move, the girls were born. On the day we brought the girls home, my mom came to stay and help, help, help. She also brought Tyler back with her. (She had taken Tyler home with her for a few days while we moved and had babies). Members of our new ward stepped up once again and brought in meals for us for a whole week.

There is NO WAY we could have packed, moved and survived newborn twins without SO MUCH HELP. I'm in awe at those who selflessly helped us in so many ways. Service to others is truly the way Heavenly Father takes care of His children here on earth.

It's true our new house needed/needs quite a few improvements, but there are so many blessings and bonuses with this house, that we really can't complain. Besides being in a great neighborhood with great neighbors and only minutes from Darrell's work, here are some of its best features.

A fenced-in yard with a swing set. It's nice that Tyler can go out and play by himself.





Fruit. We have peach, plum, apple and nectarine trees.





Here are some plums and nectarines. The nectarines were the sweetest I've ever tasted.


Strawberries. Tyler loves strawberries and will follow me around the berry patch to eat the berries right off the plant.


One day I had a bowl of berries in the fridge.


I kept hearing the fridge door opening and shutting. I went to look and found Tyler helping himself to the berries--leaves and all.



And one last bonus of our house is the beautiful rose bushes that are still in bloom.