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!

Lucy's Birthday Party

September 4 We went swimming at Lani's pool, let Lucy watch Disney movies (she chose "Sleeping Beauty and Aladdin," both she hadn't seen before. It was kind of a celebration of the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no t.v. watching before age 2! We are so excited to start sharing our favorite childhood movies with her. Plus I felt really sick in the evening and didn't know what else to do with her.) She went to the dollar store and picked out a princess necklace and then to the ward Fish Fry with Dave for dinner. I think she had a really fun day, which was the goal!

This is the only picture we got of Lucy on her actual Birthday, September 4. I realized we hadn't taken any pictures of her, so sleeping is better than none, plus I thought how she was completely turned around with her feet on the pillow was hilarious. She is such a crazy sleeper!



September 5 we had a party with all the neighborhood kids. Here is the invite we made. I am sometimes not very crafty so I am really proud. I had Lucy color a bunch of paper and then I cut them out and pasted them on the backside of brown paper bags. Lucy helped me write the invitations by handing me the correct color markers when I asked for them (I didn't know she knew her colors so well, but I would say she gave me the right color about 90% of the time. Yay Lucy!).


We started the party with fishy crackers. Check out the monstrous handful Lucy just grabbed. This explains the funny faces she is making in the next couple of pictures.



First Activity was an obstacle course. They had to dress up (girls in princess clothes, boys in Dave's clothes) crawl through the playhouse and then under the hi chair as shown below.Then hop over a bucket 5 times, throw 3 balls into a laundry basket, and then shake the music shakers and dance for 10 seconds (Lucy shaking pictured below).


To finish you had to make a tower 5 blocks high. We timed the kids and they had a blast. We had over 20 kids there (I know I am crazy! But I love having all the neighborhood kids over). Here is Lucy with her tower and a face still full of fishy crackers, even after the entire obstacle course!


Then we played animal charades. I cut out animals from magazines and had the kids choose one and act it out until someone guessed it.

Then we played drop the clothespins in the bucket as pictured below.
Not everyone played...some just doted on Lucy. She looks like such a little princess surrounded by all these fun girls giving her attention in this picture. They are such sweet girls! I love our neighborhood!
Before we finished the Birthday song, Lucy was already diving in. I just stacked Costco brownies for the cake. I didn't feel good the day before so I let Dave talk me into going the easy route for a few things. We forgot candles, to top off our already kind of interesting cake, so we put Belle and Beast on top and had her blow them over. Hey, it worked!


We finished the party by building towers with blocks. It was a hit!


Zach is so cute!


And here are some of the sweet girls, Linea, Mathilde and Aynslee
Here is a rocket launch

And here is an attack on Dave


Here is the gang. Some of the kids already had to leave and some were just playing in the house and not to be disturbed, but here is the majority.

We tried to wait until everyone went home to have Lucy open presents, but a few girls really wanted to stay and watch. It was so fun to watch the excitement on her face!

Princess Shoes


Princess Panties

A Barbie Tricycle (that we got at a yard sale in great condition for a few bucks! Yay!)

Dave's Mom Lisa came and spoiled her with a few awesome Princess Belle things, and a Toy Laptop as well.

A tired little girl after the party! What a sweetie! I can't believe she is 2 already!

Happy Birth Month (Since this post is so late)! We love you!

Pool Adventures

First off, I just thought I would mention...It is April 15th! Yeah! In my family this is pretty much another holiday! My Dad being a CPA, we always looked forward to this day (well really the day after I guess) with much anticipation. Starting in January Dad gets busy and that last month pretty much feels like he is on a business trip with the amount of time we see him. Although, I don't live at home anymore and fully experience this, I still can't help being happy about it. So, I will shout to my family, and all of you, but especially my wonderful and extremely hard working father: HAPPY APRIL 15th!!!!!

And now on to more Pendergrass adventures! On Saturday we went Yard Saling! Yeah! That is one of our favorite past times! It made me feel like summer is here! We got some great exercise equipment for David's Home Studio we are hoping to create. We calculated some of the money we saved and it was a lot! We got a set of weights for $5 that would cost over $40 dollars in the store! After our yard sale adventures, I was in the mood to buy (which is a very rare occurence!) It was warm out and having read that it would be 80 degrees on Monday, I really wanted a little baby pool! So we got one at K-mart! Check out the fun we had!Lucy and Aunt Lani (she was just getting ready to head to the pool herself), getting ready for fun, while David blows up the pool and I fill it with water.



I test the water , as our neighbor kids see us in the backyard and begin to congregate. They can never resist the Pendergrass activities. In their eyes we are just big kids with a baby. Sometimes they come over and ask where David is. When I tell them he is at work they usually say something like "our Dad is at work" and then look at me like "oh yeah, David is an adult, huh?" They were so excited about putting Lucy in the pool! They kept saying "I have just gotta see this!" By time we were ready to put Lucy in the water, we had five little ones around chanting "Lucy, Lucy." I love how uninhibited children are. I always wonder at what point they stop just running out to meet new people and adventures and think, "I can't talk to those people. I don't know them." Although every now and then I crave a private moment in my backyard, I really find the children in our neighborhood refreshing and there love for Lucy always touches me. Earlier Monday they brought there friend over and knocked on my door just to introduce him to Lucy. You have to love that!

Lucy is feeling rather unsure about things...


We test the water and...
Mom! Get me out of this stupid thing!


Okay, so it was a good idea and we had a lot of fun getting ready, but when it came down to it, this was not Lucy's ideal afternoon. I really can't blame the poor girl. What Mom would fill the pool up with freezing hose water and then expect her baby to like it. I think I have to give props to Lucy for even testing it out and waiting about 15 seconds before crying. It looks like next time I will be carrying warm buckets of water from the bath tub to the baby pool!

Of course her fun Daddy was able to cheer her up after her freezing experience.


Clapping for joy on what felt like a good summer day!

The Sun is out and so are we!

My wonderful neighbors invited me and Lucy to go with them on an outing yesterday. We headed to Ikea and then hit the Thanksgiving Point Barn. Sometimes I feel like it is hard to go out with a little one. It takes way more preparation and extra time-outs, but it is very very worth it in the end! I am always a way happier wife and mother when I take the time to get it all together and get out of the house! (The sunshine makes me feel like a new person)!

So it started, like I mentioned, hard to get out the door. It was just one of those mornings. After a last minute invite, I tell my neighbor we will be over in a few minutes. After getting myself dressed as quickly as possible, I decide we better feed and change Lucy. What should we do first, I never know. If you change her first she is likely to go again, but if you feed her first who knows what might happen. We feed first and then as I lift up her legs to change her diaper, out comes the spit up! Wrong choice. Should have changed first. Man, I thought we were done with spit up. Go get the rag. Return. Wipe spit up, off Lucy and carpet. Lift Lucy's legs for another try. Pooh , out the back of the diaper, onto the carpet because I was in such a rush I didn't put a blanket down. Clean pooh. Sit back down. Wipe bum. Wear is the diaper cream? I know I brought it out here! Oh, here it is! I was sitting on it. Lucky for me it is a little squeezable sample, that was already opened and now it is all over my bum. Ask David if it is that bad or if I can just leave it and go. He asks "What the bird pooh on your bottom?" Okay, so it is bad, but I am determined to wear these pants. Use Tide-To-Go Pen to take the edge off and decide not to care what anyone thinks and go (being a Mom has really helped me not to care what anyone thinks and it is usually because of moments like this when I am thinking: "don't judge my outfit, you have no idea how much effort it took just to leave the house!"). Finally throw a bunch of extra things in the diaper bag and head out!

IKEA: I loved this bed. It is circular, but you can't tell from the pictures.
While doing this photo shoot at IKEA a couple passing by stopped. The man announced "See this is what girls do, photo shoots. You would never see a bunch of guys doing this!" I could help, but crack up because we did look pretty ridiculous and boys really don't enjoy photo shoots. David practically cried when i took him in to get family pictures.IKEA is awesome. If you have kids there are a million things for them to do. I mean a play place with babysitters. You are kidding me! If you have a baby, they have a family restroom with a nursing chair. That is like heaven at this point in my life because Lucy is thoroughly done nursing under a blanket. Anyway, guys might not understand why it is any different than any other store, but ladies know there is no other place like it on earth!

The Barn at Thanksgiving Point was really fun. This time of year there are lots of new babies, which made it extra special. I couldn't resist snapping some shots of these darling babies, so animal lovers enjoy!
This is a black little Lamb. So adorable!


Here is the white Lamb. Just prancing around!


We went on a wagon ride. You can't see from this picture how funny this is, but we carried the stroller up a few really steep stairs and it is just funny that we took the stroller on the bumpy wagon, while Lucy was sleeping.



Wow. These horses were gorgeous. Lucy just woke up, and I still can't find her other sock. What do kids do with things?


The Horse bucked Taylor in the head throwing us all off guard. Here we are a little shocked.


We recuperated for one good group shot!


Hey Mom, I'm trying to be a good girl!

Rachel and Taylor, what a cute shot at the little jail!


Mom, I really don't want to go on this pony. You get kind of crazy when you want a cute picture.


Get me off!


Fine, but I am still mad and if you think you are gonna get a smile out of me...GOOD LUCK!

Anyway, it was a really fun day, with beautiful weather. Lucy was very good despite the looks she is giving in these pictures. I think they are classic mad kid photos!