Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Pre Halloween Fun!

Here are our Pre-Halloween Festivities! Yeah!

On Sunday, Avy woke up really early and was not going to go back to bed. So while I was up I made her this skirt to match Trae’s Halloween tie. It’s not the best, but it only took me a half an hour. :)


Yesterday was Traegan’s pre-school Halloween party since he doesn’t go on Wednesday’s. He was so excited to wear his Super Why costume!


With his clothes on under his costume, his costume, his coat, and his backpack... he was the bulkiest little Super Why you've ever seen!


Avonelle and I went to Traegan’s school and we dressed up. Avy was a hit with all the teachers and one said she will definitely be a flamingo next year! I didn’t get any pictures of her though because I was helping a lot and it was quite crazy.

I did take one of Trae and I when he got home from riding the bus.


I threw my costume together really fast that morning because I had had NO sleep the night before worrying about my sister in Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm! She and the family she works for are fine, but I don’t do well in situations like that. I’m a big time worrier!

After Trae got home we were all playing in Av’s room and she scooted herself under her crib. Ha!


So Traegan joined her.  He is so fun with her!


And I just had to throw this in.  This is my new cute Halloween decoration my mom made me.  I love it!  Oh and Trae's pumpkin he "made" (colored) at school.  Which I also love!


Last night we carved pumpkins since we hadn't had time yet.  Avy watched and ate her spoon and puffs the whole time.  She is such a good girl!


Traegan was more than a little freaked by the texture, but he helped a ton and got almost all the goop and seeds out of Avy's pumpkin!

(Also, don't mind the lack of pants.  We are still potty training over here.  It is going WONDERFULLY, in the last 2 and a half weeks he's only had one accident and he was in the bathroom for it.  :)  It's just a lot easier for him to not have pants on right now).


Once we finished making Traegan's pumpkin and he saw it all put together (see next picture) he was so happy.  He kept yelling "Mickey Mouse!  It's Mickey Mouse pumpkin!"


And he kept touching it and telling us where the eyes, ears, nose and mouth were. He LOVED it!


He brought home that Getaway Today catalog thing from school the beginning of the month and there was a picture of a giant Mickey Mouse pumpkin.  He hasn't stopped talking about it, so we did his pumpkin like it.  It was totally worth it!


Avy's was the last pumpkin to get carved and Josh and I were pretty sick of it.  So I did a simple heart for the biggest sweet heart in the world!


While we were out lighting pumpkins, a little black cat came to play.  Traegan was petting it and giggling and telling us how nice it was.  It was so funny and very fitting for Halloween!

(Don't mind the lack of pants again... potty training).


Here they are all in a row.  It goes, Traegan, Avonelle, Mom, and Dad...

Oh and funny story.  After Josh finished his pumpkin we were asking Traegan what shapes were on it. He said: "Eye triangle, eye triangle, nose triangle, mouth... (pause) banana!"  I love him!


And we are already having a terrific Halloween!  Yeah for fun holidays!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Halloween Costumes

So I've been excited about Halloween this year.  Really excited.  Generally it isn't my favorite holiday, but this year it has been fun.  Why you ask?  Because Avy's costume is the best EVER (flamingo)!  And Traegan was old enough to finally pick what he wanted and he has been super excited to be Super Why!

And because I've been so busy with photo shoots of my own, I had a friend take the kid's Halloween costume pictures and I'm so glad I did.  She did so wonderful with them!

You should check out Shanda's photography because she is awesome! http://shandalynncall.smugmug.com/





My little Super Why dude... wearing his "fun-glasses".  Which is Traegan speak for sun glasses and apparently for mask.  Ha!


Love him!



He is such a heart breaker!



 

And here's Nelle Belle the flamingo!  I'm so in love with her costume I can't breathe sometimes!



She is so beautiful!







Pretty little Bella!


And that's the costumes.  I'm pretty much in love!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Awesome Weekend!

We had such a wonderful weekend. Friday was our anniversary, but since Josh had to work and I had a photoshoot at night, we decided to celebrate on Saturday/Sunday.

So I went up to Logan early on Friday afternoon and had some fun at the Pumpkin Walk with my mom. Traegan was really freaked out by it for a bit (because that’s what he does), but after a few minutes he had a lot of fun.


I think the sun was in his eyes... ha!


Avonelle enjoyed the Pumpkin Walk a lot!


I tried to get him to put his cute little face in the cut out things for a long time and he was super freaked out. Then we saw the school bus one. Traegan loves his school bus!


Saturday morning, we got up and got the kids ready. Which due to a lack of hot water and Josh being there to help, meant our kids first BATH TOGETHER. After we asked Traegan if he wanted Avy in the tub with him, he was so excited! When we put him in first he kept asking when Avy would come. They are so cute together.


Avy's hair WAS spiked up too... it was so funny.


And Avonelle got her first ponytail that morning! So cute!

(And I’m obsessive about having my little princess not wear tank tops. Weird I know, but it’s important to me and I feel it will make it easier when she is a teen if it has ALWAYS been the rule. So I just have to say that she had a sweater sitting right there and I was just too excited after I got the ponytail in that I quit thinking. Oops!)


Then we dropped the kids off with Scott and Kathy on Saturday afternoon and had almost 24 hours of kid-less bliss. It is so nice to spend some time with the love of my life sometimes! We went to Gaucho Grill and then had a nice, quiet (actually quiet) night at home, watching movies, eating treats and not sharing with little people! Ha!

MANY THANK YOU’s to Scott and Kathy for giving us a night to ourselves. Especially since you didn’t get to sleep! We really appreciate you guys! 

Sunday night, the best thing ever happened. Avonelle. Said. Ma ma! That’s right! She said it. Yes it was just part of the babble, but she said it a few times and now she says it when she is sad and wants me. It is awesome and it breaks my heart! Holy crap! I can’t believe how big she is getting. I can’t believe we are at the point where she is starting to TALK! How did she get so big?

And then these two were from yesterday morning. We were all still in jammies so ignore the questionable clothing choices. But Avy was sad and Trae ran in to the kitchen and told me he wanted to hold her. Then he did. Then he rocked her and played with her and it was adorable. Holy poop my kids are awesome!

Avonelle dove right before I took this one.


I LOVE THEM!!!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Love My Honey!

Today is Josh and I’s anniversary.

I love him so much that I can’t really express it.

So I will just say what I said on Facebook:
“Happy anniversary to my best friend ever! Here’s to laughing everyday for the rest of forever! I love you!”

That pretty much sums it up. :)

Fishes and Witches

This week is UEA for my brothers and for Traegan (weird). Also for my mom since she works for the school district in Cache Valley. So we decided to go play yesterday.

We headed down to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We met up with Justin for lunch and then he went to a job interview near by while we started at the aquarium.

Avy did find a few of the fishes interesting, but mostly she just chilled in her stroller and looked pretty.  :)


Traegan drove a boat.


And he petted the fishes.  Which he loved and hated simultaneously.  My mom and Brandon and Tobin are right by him waiting for the shark to come around again.  That's right.  Shark.  In the touch pond.  It was cool.


When Justin joined us at the aquarium (after his job interview, hence the suit) he finally got Traegan to go near this rather large Megladon thing.


My babies and I watching the sharks.  Avy loved this because they would swim right by her face.  Trae loved it too, but wanted to be held the whole time.


Avy in the little boat.  Trae wouldn't get in.  And yes, I didn't realize until after I took the picture that she was in fact missing a shoe.


On our way home we realized we were in the thick of rush hour so we decided to pull off at Gardner Village and walk around for a bit (give Trae a pee break. Ha!) 

I was so excited for him to see the witches again. You may recall we went a few weeks ago and he hasn’t stopped talking about the witches. He tells me all the time about the dancing witch and shakes his bum. He tells me about the witch that crashed. He tells me about the witch on a bicycle and then petals his hands really fast. But my personal favorite is when he gets all quiet and starts lifting his shirt/pants up and down and looking up and down. It’s hilarious. And it will actually make sense if you watch the videos below.


Here is the dancing witch and the "silly witch".  I love my Traegan.


And the last time we were here we went into this store with some pretty freaky Halloween decorations. Trae had become so timid lately that I was holding him and showing him some of them trying to get him to not be afraid. When I came across this one with no face. Holy cow! I turned him around to see it and he started climbing up me and screaming, “Gramama help! Gramama! Gramama!” (My mom was in the store, but a little bit away from us). Hilarious. So I had to get him seeing it on camera. It wasn’t near as funny, but still good.


Then we gave him a donut to make up for scaring him.  It seemed to do the trick.  :)


And then I just had to throw this one in from this morning. This is Avonelle’s new trick. She is so awesome at eating I can hardly stand it!


Another day another adventure.  I love my life!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Forgotten Things and A Video

Yes I blogged earlier today, and now I’m blogging again. Which is weird considering the length of time between most blog posts recently. But I had to share this video I took tonight. It is too cute for words.

And I realized I missed some things in my last post. (I was reminded of these things because my dear sister went through and “liked” all my status updates on Facebook that she hadn’t “liked” yet. Wow!  I'm so glad we cyber-stalk each other to stay connected.  (I really am!) :) )

Potty Training… it goes. I feel I should update on this. Most days he does fantastic. When we are home he maintains an *almost perfect record. On the road, even in more familiar environments, things don’t go nearly as smoothly. But we are making progress. He is dry during naps. He wears underwear all of the time, except night-time. At home, he can now wear pants again. He will pee on other toilets, even the big ones (though sometimes not without trauma). He is doing really well. Better than expected. It’s just one of those things that is REALLY frustrating.

Traegan also had Parent Teacher Conferences on October 10th. I wrote on Facebook, “Guess what I'm doing today that makes me feel old? I'm going to Parent Teacher Conferences... Where I will be a named party and not the student... Weird!” And that pretty much sums it up. It was bizarre going to Parent Teachers as the parent. It was basically an out of body experience. But it was also super pleasant. They love Traegan at his school. One of his teachers is in our ward and she frequently stops me and brags about him for a while. Once she told me something along the lines of “If I didn’t know you guys I would want to steal him to make sure he had a wonderful family.” I love it. I love knowing they care about him. They had only positive things to say and that made my first PTC experience much better! Knock on wood they all go that smoothly. Ha!

Oh and one more for Traegan… On October 12th I was making myself a new temple skirt as the Brigham City temple doesn’t rent clothing. It wasn’t going great and I was really frustrated. But when I showed Trae my skirt he said, “You a princess!” He made me feel so much better!  He is a dear, sweet boy.

And a new development for Avonelle, she loves to play with my hair. I lay on the floor and she tugs and pulls and eats my hair, and I think it’s awesome! I’m in seventh heaven! Seriously she is amazing! Exactly what I dreamed having a girl would be!

And now that I’ve mentioned those few things… observe the cuteness that is Traegan feeding Avonelle. I’m in love!

What the kids are up to...

My kids are awesome. Epic really. They make my days so much better. I love them! But my blog has been lacking in their cute faces lately and you haven’t gotten to see the wonderful things they’ve been up to. So here is a catch up post. I know you will love it.

Really I know you probably don’t care. But I love my blog as a journal so I must document. And I know that Janece is waiting on pins and needles for new pictures of my babies. And Justin doesn’t see them much either, but I don’t think he reads my blog… Justin? Anyway…

September 17th 

During one of my marathon teeth getting worked on days, we had a break and so we went to visit Noelle and her cute boys. Traegan had a blast dressing up like pirates and jumping on couches with Jett and Owen.


September 20th 

Yet another teeth day and Kathy watched the kiddos for me. I just had to take a picture of my little fashionista. Seriously. I love her!


September 21st 

I know I already posted this next one, but I didn’t post these of the kids and they are so cute!



This is kind of a really bad picture, but I just had to post it so I could tell a story. I had just come from the T-Mobile store where I was trying to get my phone fixed. They were having some sort of big sale and they had these balloons everywhere. While I was talking to the chica, Traegan had picked up two balloons and was hitting them together and jumping up and down and had Avonelle laughing her butt off. Everyone in the store was watching and laughing and telling me how cute my kids were. I agreed with them all!


September 28th 

After almost a full week of being a nurse maid to Josh he was finally feeling okay and so I went to Gardner Village with my mom to go to our favorite little quilt shop. We had tons of fun there and walking around looking at all the witch displays. And I was super grateful for my new (to me) double stroller. Yes people, I’m just now getting a double stroller. I heart it. A lot!



October 6th

Avy is officially mobile now. She doesn’t so much crawl as somehow manage to get where she wants… but she’s moving. Now she can get up on all fours and then can’t quite figure out what to do. And she can sort of move herself forward somehow. But when I took this picture, she could only seem to move backwards. And she got herself into a little bit of a pickle.

She has moved herself from off her little blanket with toys, only to get stuck under the coffee table. What a doll!


And here’s Traegan because I can’t get the camera out without taking a picture of him and showing him it. He’s pretty cute though!


In fact, most of my attempts to photograph Avy under the table turned out like this.


And then after when I was feeding her she kept getting distracted by my ring and I thought it was pretty funny.


And while I had my camera out I just had to take some pictures of my two favorite features on this little beauty.

I love her big eyes and long, curly eyelashes.



And I think she has the most perfectly shaped lips ever and killer dimples.  Even with food on her face, she's definitely a knock-out!


October 8th

This was the first day I was able to put a bow in her hair without the headband. Whoot whoot! She looks so pretty.


And then just for fun, here is Trae and Avy at 7 months. I think they look exactly alike, with a few differences. But mostly, just Traegan is all boy and Avonelle is all girl.


So FYI, I’m kind of smitten with my children. They are the bomb. They rule.