Happy Halloween!!!!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!! The color orange, black cats, playing dress up... ahhhhh my mouth is already watering! I guess that is kind of weird since I hate hate hate being scared. I don't even watch scary movies and I totally freaked out in this mildy scary Haunted House we went to. I still love it. We usually have a Halloween Party (murder mystery are my fave!), but since we just got to California last week (Yes, we moved back sooner than anticipated: Dave found out that he could still get in state tuition for his SUU Graduate program even in California, and Utah was starting to get cold!) and I have been sick (just a little cold, not the dreaded swine flu for those of you who were worrying about talking to me at church tomorrow)this week, we didn't pull one off this year, or last year since we were in Korea (whoa I can't believe that was a whole year ago, time is flying!). Our tradition is falling apart after 3 solid years! That makes me sad. Oh well, I will just have to throw the best one ever next year and enjoy our first year taking Lucy trick or treating!! I love how she says "Trick or Treat." I am not as crazy about her candy obsession. What mixed messages we send our kids huh? Be cute, dress up, say "Trick or Treat" okay now "Thank you," but don't eat the candy! Kids must be pretty confused if you ask me!

Just wanted to mention a random occurence before I get to the sweet Halloween pics. We went to the beach today (and I think I should just rub in that the weather was perfect, don't be jeolous, just come visit me and feel lucky you know someone who lives here!) I got stung by a bee, which was unpleasant obviously. I stepped on it and found the bee stuck to my foot with the stinger inside my foot. Usually the bee flys away... odd, oh well. It hurt a little, but not really as much as I remember from being a child. I went and stood in the cool, salty ocean water and I seriously couldn't even feel a twinge of pain after only 10 minutes. SWEET! or should I say salty? I was so glad our beach day wasn't ruined! Yay.

Okay, what I really wanted to say about the beach was, people brought sleds and all the children were sledding down the sand mountains. That made me happy, because I was sad I had to leave Utah before taking Lucy sledding. Guess I didn't miss much. I thought you would enjoy this funny So Cal Sledding picture from Halloween Morning:


Isn't that one of the most awesome pictures you have ever seen? So funny, yet cool!

Anyway, here is the goods, the fall photo shoot back in Utah where leaves fall and things change colors, plus a very scary Lucy and Lucy as Belle for Halloween!


Is this not Halloween Worthy?


Scary!!!

Fall Photos. This is the first time I have ever braided her hair. I am no pro, but it is still pretty cute (of course Lucy has a way of doing that to anything she is involved in).


As Lucy would say "Heaby, berry Heaby"



I stopped getting genuine smiles out of her so I asked her if she could do a mad face. It turned out much cuter than her smiles at the time!!


Throwing Leaves
No toy can compare with a big pile of leaves! The neighbor kids actually raked them all up for us, just so they could play in our leaf piles. None of them had big trees in their yards! Good deal for us!


Lucy and one of her best friends from the neighborhood, Taylor. She used to come over and play with her all the time. The picture turned out very darling. Lucy sure misses her and so do I!


Lucy on her way to the "Trunk or Treat" church Halloween activity. She looks like and opera singer! She is really just blowing a kiss!


Her Nana Lisa got her this Belle costume for Halloween from Disneyland. So Spoiled! You can tell it is high quality as well as gorgeous on her. Thank you Thank you Thank you! Lucy loves it! Anyone who knows Lucy knows she is very very Belle obsessed. She couldn't be more thrilled to look like her!

Anyway, I hope you truly enjoy your Halloween! I would love to hear comments about your Halloween traditions. I am always trying to add on to the festivities!

Word to the Wise

Don't sautee dehydrated onions, even if you don't have fresh onions on hand the and recipe says to first cook onions in a pan of oil.

Just add them later, or else they will burn and you will have to start over.

Been there, done that!

Surprisingly, my second attempt to cook chicken curry with deydrated onions worked! All I had to do was wait until the simmering phase!

"When at first you don't succeed, try try again."

Thank you for teaching me that saying mom. Your family enjoyed dinner last night because of it!

Nana & Sleeping Beauty

September 5

I never finished blogging about Lucy after her Birthday party, so here it is! After Lucy woke up from her much needed nap, we went to go see the movie "Up," but it was sold out, so we went to a nearby park and played until dark (as you can see in the pictures!) Lucy had a ball playing with Nana.


One game we played was "Wake the Princess" where Lucy pretends she is sleeping beauty and then we wake her up with a kiss. Since that sounds like such an exciting game, I will brake it down into action shots for you!

The Sleep



The Kiss



The Awakening



Pretty Amazing how that works, huh? Okay, okay, but you gotta admit, it's cute!

The next day after church we had an adorable little photo shoot, since I don't have nearly enough pictures of these two!


Let's get them a little closer together...perfect!


They are both so beautiful and look so much a like (of course everyone at church was surprised when I said she was Dave's Mom and not mine)


Oh, I love when kids do sweet cheeks!


And the sweetest little kisses!



Lucy on her new bike! (That is not very new now, but was only one day new when we took this picture, even though it was second hand to begin with!)


Alas, Nana couldn't stay with us forever and this is such a sweet goodbye picture at the airport I had to close with it!

Thank you so much for coming Lisa! We had so much fun with you and miss you a lot!

Lucy Quotes and adventures

"I'm too big"

"Roll over Mama"

"Nope" It's never just "No," it's always "Nope"

"Yup" Yes, has turned into Yup, as well.

"Where Lucy seat go?"

"Go away Mama!"

"I wuv you Mama!"

"I wuv you more!"

Here's the details:

The other morning Lucy told me "Roll over Mama." We were on the bed and she wanted me to move, so she could open the blinds. Trying to be funny I said it back "Roll over Lucy." She answered "Nope , I'm too big!" I couldn't help laughing. You're too big? Then I realized I always say that to her because she wants me to put her clothes on, and play in her little tent and jump on the bed. My answer to all of those things is "I'm too big." And these days with her using the toilet, I tell her all the time what a Big Girl she is. So I guess she thinks you don't have to do what your Mom tells you to do if you are "big, " even if it is just little big, and that that is a good excuse! The next morning I asked her if she could read me a book and she again answered "Nope, I'm too big." Silly girl!

Crazy adventure the last few days. On Friday I went to Logan with my sister Lani for a conference about teaching the arts to children, with Michael Ballam's Opera For Young Children program. Dave convinced me to go without him and Lucy, and I am so proud I did my first over nighter without her! I'm sure it was harder for me than her! Dave said she was totally happy and fine, although she did wake a few times in the night, she went right back to sleep. Yay! I am so proud of myself!

But that is not all of the adventure. We decided to move back to California (which is a long story, if you want to know comment about it and I will write a post about it, otherwise it's just a lot of details I don't know if you would care for). Part of Dave convincing me to leave (don't get me wrong, I want to move to California, but I just always thought it would be in a year or two and then all of a sudden we are leaving, and I get really emotional when it's time to leave people, especially since I just got my dream calling in the Mia Maids a few weeks ago!) was that I could write a list of things I wanted to do before we left. One of the things on the list was go to the Salt Lake Temple. (I originally went through the temple there and haven't been there since, so it's kind of sentimental). We decided to meet in Salt Lake Since it is halfway between Provo and Logan. Lani and I drove from Logan, while Dave and Lucy drove from Provo. I was so happy to Lucy and she was happy to see me after our long night apart! When I told her I had to leave again, but would come back that night, she said "Nope!" Then I said "Will you hug me" and another big fat "Nope" escaped her lips. Then she just looked hurt and pouted "Go away Mama!" I told her that made me sad and then asked if she was mad at me because I had to leave again. She answered "Uh huh." Finally I got her to hug me a few minutes before leaving for another couple hours. Lani drove Lucy home, while Dave and I attended the Temple.

Well, Lani had a date at 7:00 p.m. and we got out at 7:10 p.m.,Whooooooops! Took a little longer than we thought. Luckily her date was a little late! Anyway, I asked Lani if any of her roommates were around that could watch Lucy. One roommate could, but she had to go at 8:00, which would be cutting it close. Lani called again because Lucy went into hysterics when she tried to leave Lucy with her roommate. I told Lani to leave and then called up our good friends, babysitters, and renters, Nathan and Lindsay and asked them to go get her because Lucy loves them. They so wonderfully helped us out and all was well! Crazy, crazy Day!

After all that, when it was time for Lucy to leave Nathan and Lindsay and go to bed, she told me again "Go away Mama!" I was sad. I tried to be a big girl, but she has never not wanted me before. When I told her that what she said hurt my feelings, she did give me a big kiss, so that helped. And she has been making up for it by telling me spontaneously all day today "I wuv you Mama!" answered by me saying "I love you Lucy! I love you more" to which she responds " I wuv you more" and then we go on that way about 20 times. She wakes me up that way these days and I love it. There is nothing else in all the world like waking up to Lucy touching your cheek and saying "I wuv you Mama."

Anyway to finish the explanation of all the quotes, Lucy's car seat was locked in Lani's car last night, so we just went without it to church this morning. (Shhhhhh! Please don't call the CPS!) When Lucy got in the car and saw that her seat was missing, she exclaimed in a very bewildered voice "Where Lucy seat go?" The way she said it was really funny. It is never quite the same in writing. Anyway, that is the low down on all of Lucy's recent cute quotes and the rest of our adventures!

The newest Usborne Book Consultant

I recently became an Usborne Books Consultant! I always promised myself that I wouldn't do Sales, and especially not Network Marketing, but then again I also always promised myself I would never marry before the age 21, nor have children before age 25, all of which I have done! I guess the moral of the story is not to be judgmental or make ridiculous promises to yourself (Beware of the humbling experience soon to follow)!

I am very excited about being a consultant, selling Children's books. I couldn't resist when I hosted a party and saw all the awesome books they sold (I hosted the party just to get free books, which is an awesome perk of hosting a party if you would like me to throw one for you! Ha ha, it is so weird trying to sell stuff. I can't believe I just threw in a pitch for you to throw a party! Selling things is going to take a lot of getting used to.) Anyway, I really loved the products they offered. Maybe it seemed grander than it was, just because I have been reading millions of ridiculously boring books to Lucy while in the process of potty training. I am so excited Lucy loves reading, but she asks me to read to her nonstop and they really need to be more exciting books.

I haven't really had any training yet, but I do know a little bit about what I can do. People can buy books from my website (click here to visit the website), home party's (awkward!!!! But seriously these are short, fun, educational get togethers) and you can become a consultant for elementary schools, and run Usborne Book Fairs and earn books for the schools. Anyway, I am excited about this company and my new job! I promise all of my friends I will never be a pushy salesperson. If you want me to come do a party for you I would be overjoyed! If you want to buy books through me I will be very grateful! If you are buying children's books for Christmas presents, please check out the website and all the awesome books we offer, before paying high prices at a bookstore. Other than that little plea I will not bug you. I might ask you personally if you would like to throw a party, but if you say no it won't offend me and I won't keep asking.

I will probably post again, some more details once I know more details, but for now I just wanted to make the exciting announcement! Wish me luck!

Click here to check out my website and browse the books!