Happy Halloween!

The Friday before Halloween I went to Kaiya's school to help with their harvest party. The teacher is new this year so she was nervous about the party.... but it went well and the kids had a lot of fun. There were stations set up...bingo, decorate a pumpkin, spider toss, pin the magnet on the pumpkin nose and decorate a spider cookie. The kids were loaded up with lots of sweets and were bouncing off the wall. 




That night our ward had a Primary Halloween Carnival and Trunk or Treat. They had lots of different stations (bean bag toss, donut attached to a string, spin the wheel etc). The kids got their 2nd dose of all they could eat sweets and then everyone headed outside for Trunk or Treating. Kaiya dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and Ella was an Elephant. Kaiya got A LOT of candy and enjoyed walking around with her friend Faith.




Saturday I woke up and went to Target and the Party Store to get some last minute things for a baby shower I was throwing on Sunday for my cousin. It wasn't until I was in the stores that I started feeling really festive. Our plan that night was...no plans. We figured we would go to a couple houses for Ella and hand out candy to the few kids that made the trek up to our house. After shopping I called my brother to see if they wanted to come over for a little Halloween celebrating. Junior came and got Kaiya. Cirdan, Ella and I went trick or treating with them at a few houses. Ella loved it once she figured out all she had to do was run up to the house and people would give her goodies in her bag! Nate, Amy and Emma came over and we ended up making cookies, decorating them, eating yummy garlic dip that Nate brought over, played Wii and then played a DVD Pirates of the Caribbean game. My mom came after work. It ended up being a really fun night!







The back of the elephant costume was so funny! There was some really good padding and her little bum looked huge!

P.R.I.D.E.

Kaiya's school has a program named P.R.I.D.E. Each quarter teachers choose a student to receive the award. They will choose one student that best exemplifies the letter...

P- Positive Attitude

R - Respectful

I - Integrity

D - Dependability

E - Effort

The goal is for the student to receive each letter before they leave after 5th grade. If they do, they get their name on a plaque in the office and they honor you at the assembly.

Last year during the 1st quarter Kaiya received the letter P from her teacher...this year she has already received the letter D from the music teacher! We are very proud of Kaiya. She is a great student and her teacher has told me that she is one of the best in the class.

These were all the students that got the letter D.

Finding the perfect pumpking

We searched around on the Internet looking for a new spot to pick out pumpkins. Carpinito Brothers gets crowded, and there is never parking, plus not much else to do.
We found Thomasson Family Farm in Enumclaw which had a bunch of things for the kids to do.
It's a family farm/business, it was a great place to take the girls. There was a set up for rubber duck races.....hand pumped water. There were tires to climb on, slides, tractor rides, kids cornmaze, huge bubble blowing toys. They had goats, cows, donkey and a pygmy horse for them to pet as well. Ella and Kaiya both loved the animals, bubbles and duck races.
This was Ella's first chance to go to the pumpkin patch and run around which she absolutely enjoyed. We were lucky to be the only ones in the patch. Ella had to pick up just about every pumpkin she walked past.






Ella is like a weightlifter doing a dead lift....she has the grunt going and everything, trying to lift the heaviest pumpkins she can handle. She really goes after it....hilarious and entertaining.











Kaiya wanted to do the cornmaze so bad. I was happy there was a kids one that was super short.

We bought some pumpkin bread...Ella carried it all the way to the car and decided to plop down in the mud to eat some. I guess she couldn't wait any longer. I felt the same way about the slice of pumpkin pie I got for myself!

Things on my mind...

1. We got a Magic Bullet for our wedding from Cirdan's parents. I saw it on TV and thought it looked so convenient. I never really had a chance to use it while I was working so I decided to pull it out of the cupboard this past week. I LOVE IT!! I have made a couple smoothies and they are super yummy. 

2. Now that I am not working I think I am putting way to much pressure on myself to do 'stuff'. These are some things that go through my head everyday of things that I want to do...

Make homemade cards - my sister bought a cricut...I tried it out last weekend and I think I am addicted.

Paint - yes, I have been saying this for months and it still hasn't happened. The kitchen got done but I still have A LOT more to do.

Invent something - I don't know...weird, I know, but its what I think about.

Work out - I got a gym membership this past week so now after I drop Kaiya off to school I can go workout and take Ella to the little daycare there. Stacey also has been working out so Ella plays with Casey during that time.

Canning - I have canned so much these past couple months. Last night I did another 3 batches of raspberry jam. I really just need to stop buying fruit.

Dehydrating fruit - I got the idea of dehydrating some of the fruit I bought. I bought 2 boxes of pears that went bad before I got the chance to do it but I tried apples last week and they turned out really well! Now I want to do that all the time too.

Helping in Kaiya's class - On Thursdays I have gone up to the school to help in her class. The teacher really appreciates it and has said I am the only parent to help her this year. That just puts more pressure on me I feel and makes me want to help every day of the week. But I can't. :)

Digital Scrapbooking - I haven't done any pages for a month or so but think about it on a daily basis. I really miss it.

Taking pictures - I want to take a photography class. When will I find the time? Yet another thing that pops in my head.

Christmas presents - I really wanted to get my shopping done before Thanksgiving.

Reading - I want to read a book. When do I have the time? I think that I will take a book to the gym and read when I'm not running on the treadmill?

Seriously. I think I am obsessing a bit. Really just still trying to adjust to not being an office worker. Breath Heidi breath.

3. Why does caffeine have to be so addicting? I try to not drink it but then I don't get anything accomplished. Cirdan has pretty much came right out and told me to go get some...he sees I am a blob when I have none. It makes me happy.

4. We discovered the Red Box Movie Rental place at the Walgreen's by our house. Movie rentals for $1! Awesome and it's easy.

5. Have you seen the Saturday Night Live skit...Gilly? It is so funny! It's my new favorite...and it reminds me of Ella.

6. I'm almost 30!!! Ahhhhh scary.

Crazy hair day!

The elementary school had crazy hair day. Kaiya came home excited because the principle told them that if it was okay with their teacher then they could color their hair for the day. I wasn't too sure about the hair coloring thing but Cirdan said she could and my mom told me that you can buy some spray that goes on hair and washes right out. Her teacher said it was fine so Cirdan took Kaiya to Party City and came home with orange spray. Kaiya has always wanted to dye her hair so the night before crazy hair day she hardly slept. She even woke up before I went into her room to get her up. When we left the house for school she said she felt like she looked like Ariel from the Little Mermaid.

When I dropped her off at school it didn't look like any of the kids had crazy hair. I was worried that Kaiya would get cold feet but she hopped out of the car excited to join her friends in line outside her class.


.

The Nursery

Ella's 1st day in the nursery at church was last week. I have been waiting for this day for a while now. She has so much energy and at church it's no exception. I dropped her off and kind of just walked out hoping she wouldn't cry. She did really well. The nursery leader said that about an hour into it she put away the toy she was playing with and went over to the door wanting to leave and started to cry. She was fine soon after when they pulled out the snack. I am so glad that she had a good experience for her first time.
This is a picture of her with a picture she colored.

Milwaukee

Cirdan flew to Wisconsin last month to spend the weekend with Ava. I was so excited when he got home to see all the pictures he took but this is what I found...

Wow. No pictures of him or Ava. He is definitely not me!!

Cirdan and Ava went to Chuck E Cheese, swam in the hotel pool, went downtown, played with some books that he got her and went to Toys R Us.

He had fun with Ava and she was really sad when he left. I just feel so bad for her to be introduced to her family and then ripped away. These weekend visits are nice, but hard. We are all looking forward to her being here in November.

Ella at 18 months

24.9 pounds 31.5 inches

Words that Ella is saying...

Toes

Kaiya (she says Kaiya really clear now)

Go away (one of her favorite sayings...don't know where she learned this...hmm)

Mommy

Daddy

Papa

Oh oh (says this whenever she spills something or knows she did something bad)

No

Water (wa-wa)

Doggy

Meow (whenever she sees a cat she says MEEE OWWW)

Owie

Casey

Stacey

Nice

Baby

Ball

Cracker

Heidi (yes, she calls me Heidi sometimes)
Cheese

Nose (she shows us her nose by putting her finger UP her nose)

Eye

Hot

Binki

Blankie

Bye Bye

Hi

Nice

Feet

This

Fish (ish)

Duck

Shoes

pretty

na night - when she is tired and wants to go to bed she tells me.

She loves to dance. When the music is on she is grooving. Sometimes her dancing is turning around in circles until she falls down. She really has some good moves though.

Ella loves to pull hair...especially if its Kaiya's. For some reason Kaiya hasn't learned to not flaunt her hair in front of Ella.

Sing - Just recently every time she puts on a hat or holds something like a wand or the roll of foil she starts to sing (la la words). It is always the same song and its so fun to hear.

Climb - I have to watch her 24/7 because she is constantly trying to climb on and over everything. She wants to always be on the highest part of the house she can find.

Feed herself - Very Ms. Independent and wants to feed herself with the spoon. She loves big people cups with no lid.

Lots of funny faces - She goes from her cheese face to her muggin face in the moment of seconds.

Loves taking pictures - I caught her the other day with my phone up in the air thinking she was taking a picture of herself. She says "cheese" ..... I almost died of laughter.

Laugh, tickle - She loves to laugh and she loves being tickled and tickling her family.

Run circles around the kitchen - She will run laps around the kitchen and the family room. I think the most she has done at once is at least 15.

Loves dogs !!!...she loves to hug and squeeze and love on pinkie

Babies - Whenever she sees a baby she has to touch and hug them.

She likes spicy food, salt and vinegar chips, jalapeno chips, mustard, lots of flavors, fish.

Just last week she started to undress herself. First it was figuring out how to take off her shirt then her pants and once her pants were off she of course had to take off the diaper.

She loves smelling flowers. Whether its in a book, on a shirt or flowers outside or on the table...she will smell them.

She gives the biggest tightest hugs and she loves to gives kisses. I get at least 5 of each every day.