Halloween Fun

We have had lots and lots of Halloween fun throughout the month. We started by making some of our own Halloween decorations because Calvin said we didn't have enough. We made cute little spiders and ghosts. We also bought a witch to put on our door to scare the trick or treaters. It cackles and shakes and moves its mouth and it's eyes light up. The kids love it. Calvin loves all things Halloween and Lily sure is into it for only being two. They don't really get scared. They pretty much get that it is all pretend and they think it is cool.



We went to Gardner Village to look at all of the cute witches with Grandma Nancy and Aunt Dominique. Calvin and Lily loved "Witchy Poo" the witch reading the paper in the outhouse.


Calvin's preschool had a family field trip to HeeHaws. Calvin and Lily loved the great big slide. We got to pick pumpkins and pet the animals. It was a lot of fun.

I took the kids to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving point. They really enjoyed all of the games and the train ride.

We carved pumpkins as a family and roasted the seeds.


We also went to a couple of ward Halloween parties. And to Jon's work party. At Jon's work party they always have trick or treating for the kids, Calvin and Lily love that. And this year they had the lab people do a couple of experiments with the kids which were fun to watch. They had vomiting pumpkins, goo making, and dry ice bubbles.

Jon dressed up as a member of the CDA. The child detection agency from Monsters inc. I was a witch. Calvin was a knight, of course. And Lily was Minnie mouse for the day activities and a flower for trick or treating.




On Halloween we had a party at Sam and Sam's which was fun. Everyone dressed up and had really cool costumes. We played fun games and had good food.







Halloween night I made soup and breadsticks, it's a Halloween tradition (my mom always made halloween chili and breadsticks). And we took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood. Jon got quite a few comments about his cool costume, however, not very many people new what he was. People thought he was a fireman or hazmat person. Lily absolutely loved trick or treating! She kept saying, "this is sooo fun Mom". And she would also say "I am warm", which I was grateful for because I had to convince her to wear her flower instead of Minnie mouse, because it would keep her warm. Our neighborhood gets really into Halloween and they make it really fun. With all the smoke machines, cool music, flying ghosts and buried goblins, we had a great time walking around!

Lily's Curls

I wanted to curl Lily's hair for Nielson family pictures, but there was no way I was doing it with a curling iron. That girl is so wiggly it would not have turned out good. I thought I would go and get some sponge curlers like we had growing up, but I looked online at some girly hair websites and found these awesome curlers.

They are called curl formers. You slide them in with a stick when the hair is wet, let the hair dry and ta-da, you have perfect little ringlets. They are pretty soft, she slept in them all night and didn't make a peep.

I think they are so cute when you put them in and when you take them out. She looked adorable for the pictures, too bad I didn't get a picture of her all dressed up. Oh well, I am sure I will get some of the family pictures on the blog sooner or later.

My favorite tree

It's the last one to bloom in the spring and the first one to go in the fall but I love every minute that it is here.

Jumping bean

I have a jumping bean in my belly! On Saturday night Jon and I were laying in bed and I felt the baby kick. I know everyone finds this to be strange but with all of my kids I felt them kick around 12 weeks. I told Jon I must be one week further along, just like I suspected in the first place. Low and behold we had our doctors appointment this morning and he did an ultrasound. The baby is measuring just over 12 weeks. I am due May 9th. One week further along than the last ultrasound. And the baby jumped during the ultrasound! It was one of the cutest, funniest things we had ever seen. The baby is so small inside there and it just kicked it's little foot and floated right to the top and back down. Sooo adorable! We walked out of the Doctors office and Jon said "That was cool seeing the baby jump!" We are so excited! The heartbeat was good and fast 15o. He said an old wives tale is that fast heartbeats mean its a girl. We still think its a boy. We will be so thrilled with either and we get to find out right around Christmas.

3 months pregnant and there is a little belly.

Potty time

It is that time, time to potty train Lily. One day down and she did pretty good. We will see how the rest of the journey goes. She seems really excited and ready for it which I think is a key factor with potty training. They have to be ready. So let's cross our fingers that it goes well.

Funny story: Lily wants to put her undies on all by herself which is great, but sometimes she gets them all tangled up. She came in to me and Calvy and said Ta-da! I did it! They were all twisted and legs in the wrong holes and it looked just like a thong! She is so funny and cute.
Something cute Lily says:
She always adds "ever ever" to anything she wants to emphasize. For example: "I not go to bed, ever ever." or "I don't like that ever ever" or "I want milk ever ever."
It is so dang cute and funny everytime. It is a mix between never ever and forever and ever.

Conference

A few weeks ago we had the great priviledge of listening to general conference. Oh, how I love conference. It is a little bit harder to listen to the talks as intently with two little munchkins needing attention. But I made them a conference tent and coloring book and got out all sorts of toys and I was able to hear most of what was said. Jon was working all weekend but he was able to listen while at work, in the piece and quiet, and he rather enjoyed it.

There were so many great talks but there are always a few that stick with you. Elder Hollands testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon was quite amazing. Elder Bednar and Elder Uchdorf's talk of love and the family were very touching. And of course I loved hearing President Monson's words. I am going to try out the warm fuzzy jar idea this next year in primary and we are going to send it to him. I think the kids will be so excited.

Every conference I seem to catch a general theme that stands out to me and that is how I remember that particular conference and why it was special. A couple of years ago it seemed like there were a lot of warnings and be prepared sort of themes. Last April's conference had a them of peace and comfort and turning to the Lord and being happy. This conference seemed like they were trying to say "Do just a little better" try harder to follow the gospel, it is true, so live it the best you can. I know everyone gets their own feelings after listening to the powerful talks and these are just some of my thoughts. I do know one thing for sure, after listening to conference I feel spiritually renewed and ready to do better in my own life.

Visiting

Last month my uncle Lincoln, aunt Tina and cousing McKay came to Utah from Maryland to visit. They really came to see their daughter as the lead in an Opera at the U of U. I had the oppurtunity to go to the opera, "Ruddigore," with BreAnna, Andy and Megan. Halley had the lead and she did such a great job. It was a comedy Opera and it was very entertaining and funny. But Halley's voice was the real delight to listen to.

We also got to go to dinner with everyone and it was so fun to visit with Lincoln and Tina. Not so fun to be nauseated while at the restraunt (and I even picked the restraunt). But there was great company. I have just learned that my other cousins Justin and Chancy will be coming out to Utah and it will be fun to see them again. Isn't family great!

Locked in Calvin's room

Sunday night I was getting Calvin ready for bed and Lily shut the door to his bedroom. I didn't think much of it until I went to get Lily to read a story with us. She had shut and locked the door, the bad news is, you can not unlock the door when you are inside. No, I did not know this, I was wondering what the previous owners were thinking. Did they want to lock their kids in their rooms? It was 8:00 and Jon was at work until 11:00, so I had to come up with some solution of getting us out of there.

I told Lily to unlock the door and in her sweetest voice she said, "I can't mom, its locked." We decided to say a little prayer for help. I immediately thought of my cell phone. It was probably thin enough to fit under the door. I told Lily to go and get mommy's cell phone off of the couch downstairs and she responded, " No mom, it's dark." It was so cute I couldn't help but laugh. I kept trying to encourage her but reasoning with a two year old through a door is not very easy.

I looked all over Calvin's room for some sort of tool that I could unscrew the door knob with. I tried putting a ruler down the door crack and using little knight tools to get us out, but they were not working. So I decided to tell Lily a little more sternly to get my cell phone, this time it worked, She responded, "Okay, mom I get it." She was so brave to go in the dark to get the phone. A minute later I hear her saying, " I get it, I get it." I told her to push it under the door, and that is when I realized she got the house phone instead of the cell phone, so I sent her back to get the pink phone and she returned with the right one. I can not believe she was able to push it under the door, she is tough, it was a really tight squeeze, it even broke a part on my brand new phone. I was so happy she did though. I called several neighbors and was finally able to get a hold of the Salmon's to rescue us. They used our garage code to get in (luckily the house door to the garage was unlocked). We were rescued after being stuck for 1/2 hour. It was so funny, Calvin and I could not stop laughing. We kept saying "what if." Like, what if I had to jump out the window. And what if Lily was destroying the house instead of listening. It was actually a very cute/ funny bonding and learning experience.