Halloween!

Two parties and trick-or-treating!! We are so happy this year to trick-or-treat right out our own front door in our neighborhood! We're also lucky Uncle Miles is stranded in LA (the only silver lining from Hurricane Sandy), joining us for Halloween adventures tonight.

Audrey's school party. Princess Tiana sang plenty of adorable songs with her super cute class.

Check out these cutie-pies.

My Superman date.

A princess and her castle.

Tyler's school party. Adam went and helped out. Storytime, Halloween crafts and cookie decorating.

Ready for trick-or-treating. Zorro - shoeless.

Me and my pumpkin all dressed up. Twenty bucks if you can guess his costume.

So much candy! (And that's just Tyler's). Who wants a candy care-package?

Another successful holiday!

My Little Girl

Audrey and I had a rough night tonight. Man, my heart hurts when she and I don't get each other. Can't find peace with each other. Right now my challenge with her seems to be listening. Days like today I feel like I try a million different tactics to get her to listen, but it has to end in a face off in order for it to finally happen. I hate that. I don't wanna over-analyze, but I'm also her mom and feel like part of my job is to try to figure her out, serve her as best I can. Even if needs can't always be met, they need to be met often. There are things about me and Audrey that are different, and that's ok. There are actually some things that are similar, and I love that. When days are hard with her, I hope she knows deep deep in her heart how much I love her. How much I am in awe of her. How much I think about her during the day. How much I talk and brag about her. How much I don't (necessarily) want her to change - I want to honor who she is. I want to be in her head, know what she's thinking, how she's really feeling. She is my girl. She and I have this thing we say, "We are the girls, and girls stick together". I know Audrey and I will have our ups and downs, but my desire for us to be close is so, so strong. She is my girl. I need to play with her more. I need to play what she wants to play, even when playing kitties or Barbies sounds boring. I need to be calm. Patient. I need to teach her. I need to put the computer away sometimes. I need to keep loving her hard, which is the easy part - because I seriously love this girl more and more every day.

One day Audrey was pretty rambunctious and Adam's dad said, "Man, Heavenly Father must love you and Adam so much to give this amazing little girl to you". I had never really thought of it like that before. I had thought things like, "What am I supposed to learn from Audrey?" or tried to figure out our challenges. But really he meant, Audrey is so, so special, and what an honor it is to be chosen as her parents. So true, leave it to a grandparent to give you that kind of perspective on an afternoon your kid is running wild.

Some nights Audrey has a hard time falling asleep so she asks to lay on the couch with me while Adam and I watch a show. I love her little body cuddled around me on the sofa, warm under a blankie. She's so itty. So sweet in those moments when, at the end of the day, she is finally still. When I take her back to bed, she wants me to sing her a song and scratch her back. I try to do it almost every time she asks, because if we've had a hard day (like today), I think we both long for that connection before bed. "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" is a favorite. Then she'll put her little arms around my neck and give me a really good hug. We say, "We love each other no matter what", then list the "no matters" - if we're happy, sad, giggly, cuddly, crying, angry, mad, silly, and so on. I try to have that moment with her. I hope she feels it.

I am a work-in-progress mom. I am not perfect. I will say I am good at apologizing, and being ok with my kids seeing my faults. It's hard to hide faults - I don't think you really can. Kids, especially Audrey, are pretty smart about that stuff. I will continue to grow. I will continue to learn. I will continue to do the work. I will most likely mess up a bunch, but I will continue to love her hard. I know I'm a lucky mama, and I'm sure as heck grateful for forgiveness. Here's to a new day...

The Pumpkin

Pumpkin Carving looked like this tonight. Audrey loved getting in the "pumpkin guts", as she called them. Tyler not so much. Cole has a fever, so he wasn't a very happy pumpkin.

Adam is a very dedicated pumpkin carver and gets totally into it. Very focused, it's pretty funny. Here is his creation:

Trick-or-Treating Begins

Kids raked it in at the elementary school Fall Festival. Trick-or-treated room to room. Halloween candy has officially invaded the house!

Award!

Blurry, but best I could do. Tyler got an award at school this afternoon: Certificate of Scholarship - Excellence in First Grade Skills, (which I take to mean he is a smarty pants). Pictured above with his principal, teacher, and two other classmates also acknowledged for first grade good stuff. Congrats Tyler! We love you and do know how super smart you are. Better yet - how hard you try in school, and with your homework, too, which in turn makes us super proud.

Family Afternoon

Promised Tyler a trip to the pumpkin patch, so we all headed to Lombardi Ranch today after school. Amazing, east coast fall-like weather. Look! We're all wearing sweaters! Cole wore shoes for the first time, too. Love this family. Heart full.

Party!

Our friends the Richardsons, from Tyler's Kindergarten class last year, threw an awesome Halloween party tonight. They love Halloween and spared no expense. Great decor, games, crafts for the kids, tons of food. Good times with great families that we sure do miss!

Clark Kent and Superman

Princess Tiana, from Princess and the Frog.

Tyler as Zorro, bobbing for apples. Super impressed he did this as he does not like to get his face wet.

Kinda blurry, but here's a big reason why we came - Tyler's old Kindergarten buddies. Jason, Camden, and Drake. Such great boys, and can you tell they have a blast together?! Love these kids.

Do all your family photos look like this? Good shot of mom and dad, kids can't sit still long enough to stay in focus. Oh well, three more Halloween events to try to get a good one.

Man I looooove Halloween. Halloween with young kids is the best! They are full of joy, excitement. Love the dress-up, (not so much the candy that's about to invade our house, but oh well). Happy first party of the season!

Vote!

Sooooo much talk of voting lately, right? For this still-undecided voter trying my best to do the research, there are days voting seems daunting (albeit exciting, and hey - for the first time in a while I may be voting along different party lines than I have since turning 18 years old. Maybe? We'll see.) Okay, but here is the easiest, no brainer vote: Vote for Ladybug Music!! Most Awesome Music Class in Los Angeles. And guess what? We are! Don't have to stretch or bend truth one bit, fact checkers. Super easy to vote and takes two seconds. Last year we were in the top three! Help us hit #1 this year. Thanks a bunch!

Friday's Do

Little Miss felt very fancy after today's hair cut and style. Must've been the glitter spray and pink and purple flowers that did it. Cutie pie.

First Pumpkin Patch of the Season

Audrey's school field trip to Lombardi Ranch. Nothing says October in Los Angeles like sweating your face off at a pumpkin patch. It was hot! Fun and hot.

Cute three and four year olds.

Audrey and her cutie-pie friends, Kara and Sydney.

They ran through corn mazes and haystacks, checked out all the animals, and picked a pumpkin to bring home.

Jailbirds.

Audrey's teachers are the sweetest ladies ever. Here is the adorable lunch they made for all the kids to eat at the pumpkin patch, complete with pumpkin-shaped turkey sandwiches, pumpkin cookie, and a pumpkin candy that Audrey ate first. Love her little school, and happy to tag along on today's field trip.

Super Kids

When I asked my mom if she wanted to help me with Tyler's Halloween costume, she up and made capes for all three kids. They came in the mail yesterday, and kids have been playing make-believe ever since.

Super Cole

Super Princess Audrey

Partial Halloween costume reveal: Tyler as Zorro. The costume is slowly coming together. Thanks G-Mom!

A Soup a Week

Trying to get a good soup on the menu each week since we have a bunch of favorites over here, and I've pinned a ton, too. Especially if they're easily prepped, and budget friendly seeing Adam is still on hiatus (oh my gosh!!) This was tonight's - Tomato, Basil, and Cheddar soup. Perfect for the rainy day - served with warm, crusty rolls for dipping. Tyler is a major tomato soup lover, so it's a keeper, and I loved using non-fat greek yogurt in place of cream. Thanks to Brooke for giving us fresh basil from her garden, too. Yum.

11

11 months is happy, happy baby. Crawls like crazy. Pulls himself to standing, starting to walk holding onto furniture. Working on four new teeth, which will make 12 total. Says "Dada", "Mama" (which might mean food, but I'll take it). Working on "Bye bye", waving, clapping hands. Cole is more and more fun everyday. Laughing at new things, fussing when you take him from a favorite toy, or when swing time is over (this kid loves to be outside). Always crawls to where Tyler and Audrey are playing. He is happiest when hangin' with his whole family, and is loving music class. Cole loves his blue blankie, and will bury his head in any super soft stuffed animal. Why do I feel like this is the last month of babyhood? Everything changes when they turn one. One month 'til one year, and it feels like yesterday he got here. Love our chubby boy.

Daddy poke.

Halloween Past

Oh my gosh - remember this?

Found this photo today. Tyler and Leah's first Halloween. About 8 months old. They won the costume contest in Encino. Now they're in first grade, once again neighbors, and in the same ward. I sold this costume and will totally regret it if these two end up getting married.

Weekend

Audrey is healthy again, and no one else got the bug! We're hopefully in the clear. Went to the park the other day and a few cute, older girls in our ward did Audrey's hair (the pig tails), and put bright pink lip stick on her. Man, she thought she was on the cover of Vogue - seriously. Adorable and funny. She licked most of the lipstick off by the time we got home, but you get the idea.

Mr. Cole can slowly pull himself up to standing now.

Spends quality time at his book shelf each day.

And it's beginning to look like Halloween at our house, inside and out. Work in progress.

Make shift cemetery.

Happy for General Conference weekend. Are you cooking anything yummy? Always a good excuse to sit home, church in pajamas, and eat good food while being spiritually fed.