Halloween - Oct. 31, 2009

Halloween!!!

Our friends Mat, Bri, and Olivia came up for dinner and to go Trick-or-Treating. They wanted Olivia to go trick or treating with some kids her age (and because we are the coolest people ever, they really like us!). And tonight Tes wasn't really afraid of Mat, she even let him hold her multiple times (check out the group shot above, progress).
Brian was his favorite "Wild Thing!" from the book 'Where the Wild things Are.' Love the horns and the Brigham Young beard! Us girls, PeterPan, Tinkerbell, Wendy, and Olivia was a pink painter!

First we went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat! Brian enjoyed giving out candy to the kids with our pet Alvin the Alligator. It started to sprinkle with rain as soon as we pulled up to the church. But of course we still made our round for the candy. We saw lots of our friends from church! Then we went to the neighborhood across the street from our neighborhood to go trick-or-treating (our neighborhood is lame and doesn't have to many houses that answer, we found that out last year). The girls loved getting candy despite the frequent drops of water coming out of the sky.

Dalia would almost run to the next door and Tesila was there running right after her. Miss Olivia just took her time and walked. They all would knock on the door (Olivia would sometimes keep knocking until they answered), Dalia would usually say Trick-or-Treat when the door would open, Tesila would say "tank-uuu" and turn away after candy was dropped in her bucket, and Olivia would start taking one candy after another from the persons candy bowl if they were letting the kids choose their own candy! It was sure fun to go Trick-or-Treating with such cute little girls!
And Dalia kept getting scared of different masks she would see on other trick or treaters. She would point and say "scary" and keep looking. I tried to tell her to not look, but she just kept looking.

Back at home examining the candy! Dalia started eating multiple suckers. By the end of the night i found about 7 suckers laying around with out wrappers. I guess it was a one lick deal and then back for another type of candy. The girls then watched a movie and kept eating candy while us moms and dads played a game!! Thanks for coming Mat & Bri. Happy Happy Halloween!!

Merry Christmas to Us! - Oct. 31, 2009

Merry Christmas!!!
Brian and i got our Christmas presents a little early this year!
The evolution of our TV! Thank you to Uncle Curtis & Aunt Kolene for our wedding gift TV. It was put to good use, but we are ready to move on. And thanks to Mama & Lane for the lovely white couch, but it too was in need of a change.

For quite some time now i have wanted a new couch and Brian has wanted a new TV. We would argue about which one we should get first, never coming to a conclusion. We finally decided that we would get new furniture for our TV room for Christmas. Which meant a new TV and couch. Labor day weekend it rained and we weren't able to go hiking with the O. family like we had planned so we went couch "looking" instead. With salesman Reuben we were destined to get a couch THAT day. I was hesistant and said we wouldn't get a couch that day. I was wrong. We drove away from the furniture store with half of the couch in the back of our Rodeo. Happy Christmas to Me!
Then in the middle of October Brian had some training classes right next to the mall for a week. So while on his lunch break he would walk around the mall and came upon "Best Buy." He came home from work one day and told me the price of a 50 inch plasma TV. I told him to go back and buy it. So he did. The next day he brought home his Christmas present! Happy Christmas to Brian!!
Brian opened up the box and Dalia said in the most excited voice ever, "Daddy a TV for me, Thank you thank you!" and went over and hugged Brian. She was so very excited!! Then of course we needed a new TV stand. So that next weekend we headed to ikea and found the perfect one!

Family Room - Oct. 31, 2009

This is over due, since we painted and redid the floors last year, but the room is now complete with our new furniture. Check out the before and after of our TV room! Brian did a GREAT job!! He even had to remove door and closet frames!! I love it! i actually really enjoy being at my home now that it is remodeled to how we like it!

Backyard Leaves - Oct. 30, 2009

Guess what we found all over the backyard today after our morning walk?! LEAVES!

And since it wasn't raining we were able to play outside. The girls had fun playing while i raked up the leaves into a pile. Dalia then came over and enjoyed kicking the leaves in the air. Tes was unsure of walking in the pile of leaves but she did so long enough for a picture (Tesa's hand is in the air because Dalia was trying to hold Tesa's hand and Tes was yanking it away). We also found a whole bunch of mushrooms in the spot where our stump used to be. And Dalia liked "helping" rake the leaves with the rake (more like drug it around). Note: there were NOT crisp crunchy leaves that are fun to jump in and cover yourselfe with. They were soagy, wet, rotten plums, and slug finding leaves. But we take what we can get. We love living in Washington!

OUR pumpkin - Oct. 30, 2009

Here it is...

Our Home Grown Pumpkin!
All 9 lbs. of itself!
Yeah i know, 9 lbs.! Awesome! I'm sure we won! We are great pumpkin growers, right?! I mean look how disfigured and deformed our pumpkin is. Look at the yellowish orange color, ooh. And that pumpkin scar and the scary stem. We are the winners, i just know it!

Playgroup Party - Oct. 29, 2009

Halloween Playgroup Party!

For playgroup we had a party for the kids at the church. Complete with costumes, games (pin nose on the pumpkin, cake walk, necklace making, coloring), trial run of trick or treating, and yummy snacks! Thank you ladies for putting on a great halloween party!
We went dressed as PeterPan (Dalia), Tinkerbell (Tesila), and Wendy (Britni)

P.S. Thank you to Carrie for the letting us borrow the PeterPan and Captain Hook costume!

Name.Pumpkins.TireMarks - Oct. 28, 2009

Our cute little red house (someone told me the other day that i live in 'snow white's house'). And our newly paved road!! Complete with Brian's tire marks from his car. He parks on the street when he comes home from work and likes to E-brake park his car. You can see the evidence in our new road. I think we had only had the new road for about a day when he E-brake parked and now the tire marks won't go away. So much for our perfect beautiful road, i guess it wasn't going to be perfect forever, and i think Brian is a little proud of his tire marks!

Tesila and Dalia with their finished pumpkins! Here you can see Dalia's pumpkins "Terrible Teeth." And most importantly, Dalia can write her own name!!! She doesn't quite close her A's, but i think she does a great job! And she even dots her i!

Olivia.Painted.Pumpkins - Oct. 26, 2009

This morning it RAINED and RAINED, okay it actually POURED and POURED!! But today was miss Olivia's 2nd birthday party in Auburn. We were excited to go and i thought that for sure the rain would let up while on our hour drive down there. Nope, i was wrong. It poured the entire time, yes the ENTIRE hour drive. It was not fun driving on the free way with pooled up water everywhere and trucks flying past spraying even more water on my windshield (if that was possible, it was). Needless to say i was VERY VERY VERY glad when i finally pulled up to Camille's house for the party! Had it not let up later that day we would have stay there over night, because i was not going to drive home in that again.

Okay, enough about rain, back to Olivia's party!! At her party the kids, decorated treat bags, played a pumpkin hiding game, make sugar cookies, and decorated them, sang happy birthday, opened presents, and danced!! The girls had lots of fun! Happy 2nd Birthday to Miss Olivia!!
We then went our for lunch with Brianne, Olivia, Amy, and Carlee. And since it was then sunny outside we were able to drive back home.

Back at home I had Dalia and Tes Paint their pumpkins! Since i didn't think they would enjoy carving them (i would have ended up doing it all). Dalia loves to paint, i think Tesila does too. But i've been hesitant to let her paint very much because she throws things when she gets mad or when she is done or bored with something and i'm just afraid of her throwing her painted brush all covered in paint.

The girls had lot of fun painting their pumpkins with only a little fighting (tes kept mixing the colors and dalia did NOT appreciate that). Tes seemed quite serious with her painting. Dalia is becoming a good painter. She was actually painting things and not just stuff (example, she was painting eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and most importantly "terrible teeth"(that's what she called them, her daddy reads her "where the wild things are").
After pumpkin painting i decided to paint the girls feet and hands to get thier footprints and handprints for their memory books! Tesila was a little unsure of it all. Dalia loved it!

UPstairs Bathroom - Oct. 26, 2009

This post is WAY over due!
Here is our upstairs bathroom Before and After pictures! Brian tore it all apart in January 2008. He worked on completing it throughout 2008 completing different things at different times. But i think everything was done December 2008 (minus the cabinet doors, which i want to say was January 2009?!). Well it is done and I LOVE IT! Brian did an amazing job! I'm very proud of all the work that he does around our house. And finally here are the before and afters of the bathroom!

Pumpkin Carving - Oct. 24, 2009

Tonight we carved our pumpkins!!!
We went to Eric & Emily's house for dinner (and to see their remodel of their family room! great job modernizing it up!) and then to carve pumpkins of course.

Dalia and Tes weren't all the interested in carving. I had Dalia grab a handful of the guts out of my pumpkin and then she was done. She did however tell me that i should make a 'sad face' on my pumpkin, so that is what i did. Tes and Dalia were way more interested in chasing Eric & Emily's Cats, Vader and Obiwan. I'm sure the cats were glad when we left, the girls (and Brian sometimes) chased them almost entire night trying to catch them. Eric and Brian of course always have to do something extra ordinary with their pumpkins. How do you like Eric's "green" pumpkin. Dalia kept calling it a watermelon. After we lit the candles Dalia said we needed to sing happy birthday. So we all sang happy birthday to the pumpkins! Then she of course wanted to blow out the candles. Here is a picture of her "blowing" out one of the candles will all her might. Love that Dalia!

Emily just got a piano! Dalia & Tes loved playing it! My favorite is the picture of Tes singing! She was all into it, throwing her head back and all, i just love it!! cute girl!! Brian and vader even had fun (well brian did at least, the blanket was left over from one of the times that he caught vader in the blanket).

Dalia and Tes love to play doll house! Here they are playing really well together. I like how Mr. Incredible (or as Dalia calls him 'incredi-boy') is just standing on the balcony. Dalia and Tes play a lot with eachother. They love to play dolls, ponies, animals, and sometimes babies. They however, do fight over toys and they each take their fair share of coming crying to me about the other one taking their toy.

Gluing.Tinker - Oct. 23, 2009

This morning on our walk we collected leaves that were on the ground. We found some HUGE leaves! Dalia thought they were pretty cool. Tesila didn't want to touch any of the leaves. When we got home we glued them onto paper. Dalia enjoyed gluing and putting her leaves on. Tesila just like putting the glue on (she didn't want to touch the leaves) so i had to place them on the paper for her. Also, at lunch Tes hid behind her plate and looked through it at me and Dalia. Funny Tes!! Today was the day that i was making Tesa's halloween tinkerbell costume. I tried some stuff on from the dress up box and i think she looked pretty cute! I almost thought i didn't need to make her a green dress, but i did anyways. The fabric frayed a lot! but i was able to create a little green tinkerbell dress. I love Tesa's little pose wearing her new dress.

Street.Ring.pop.Color - Oct. 20, 2009

Ring Pops!! The girls got ring pops from a birthday party awhile back and tonight they enjoyed them. The enjoyed wearing the ring on their finger to eat their pop! Tesila barely took her bling out of her mouth. Dalia's blue ring pop turned her tongue blue! and she loved looking in the mirror at her blue tongue! Dalia is also really into matching lately. She noticed that her and tesila's ring pops matched. So when Tesila's ring pop was out of her mouth Dalia made the two ring pops touch like in a toast and then said, "they match." Tesilas thought it was a fun game. Then tesila started to make the ring pops touch and say, "match," all proud of her little self. She says so many words and understands what i say, she is so smart. I do have a hard time understanding her though, and it makes her so mad and frustrated.

Make a Street, Make a Street, Workers in a Row, Make a Street for thing that Go!!
We have a book at our house about making streets and the girls have always loved that book. This week their are construction workers and all sorts of big machines and trucks on our street, making us a new street for things that go. The girls love to watch out the window and see what they are doing. Dalia always says as she looks out the window, "make a street."

The picture of the mama hen and baby chic was colored by my baby Tesila (1 1/2 years old) back in Sept. I think she is a great colorer. I was so surprised by this coloring job. I noticed that the she only colored on the hen and the chic. She did not scribble all over the page like i would expect from a 1 year old. To me it shows that she really tried to color just the hen and the chic. She is so artistic already!

Cooking.Tes.Choc.Bowls - Oct. 19, 2009

Lately Tesila likes to be up on the counter or standing on a chair (she will even push a chair over to the counter herself and climb up to watch) watching what i'm doing while i cook. So tonight i gave her her own bowl, spoon, measuring cups, and beans to play with while i cooked. It worked okay for awhile until the beans all started ending up on the ground and it hurt to step on them. I started spending more time helping her stir beans and i wasn't getting anywhere with dinner. She sure had fun! Also, Brian helped me create some chocolate bowls that i have been wanting to make. They didn't turn out how i expected but they still tasted good. Brian made some pudding to fill the bowls. What a fun treat! Thank you Brian for helping me.

Video:Cooking Tes

Snowpants.Isaac.Ikea.E.E - Oct. 18, 2009

This weekend, we visited with the O. family and saw their new home in Kent! Dalia loved playing with Isaac. They played so well not one single fight. We made a stop at Ikea for a lamp and bought a....TV stand. Why you ask?! We bought a new TV. Pictures coming soon. Hopefully. The girls loved the ice cream at Ikea, Brian did too!

Eric & Emily spent the day with us! Since Eric was all dressed up and looking so nice i had to get some pictures of them. And I got the girls snow pants at the thrift store. Last winter we had lots of snow and no snow pants. So this year we will be prepared. But since i am now prepared it probably won't snow, that's why i got them snow pants at the thrift store, at least they weren't expensive. Whether they wear their snow pants in the snow or not they love wearing them around the house, especially Tes. Tes brings me her pants and want me to help her put them on and then runs around all proud of her little self. I sure think they look cute!

Rain! - Oct. 13, 2009

It is rainy season here in Washington! The girls love to wear their rainboots and Dalia loves to take her "rella" (Umbrella) with her. Here they are in their rain gear getting ready to head to the library for story time! Later that night the girls were entertaining themselves very well. I finally went to go find out what they were doing. They were sitting in the food cupboard eating chips, playing with straws and food packaged items, and Dalia was brushing her hair with the mini broom. They were having so much fun!

On Oct. 13th i was called in for my first Jury Duty. I was so scared, because i didn't know what to expect and court rooms just scare me. Also, i was more upset that i had to drive downtown seattle at morning rush hour traffic, leave my girls with someone for the entire day and not be able to plan anything for two weeks (i was summoned for a two-week term). Thankfully i went that first morning and i complained that my undue hardship was that i needed to care for my two small children ages 1 and 3. The judge didn't really like my response, but the atterney's said i could step down. I was only there a total of about 2 hours. Thank you to Angie for watching my girls not knowing when i would return. I thank my Heavenly Father for also allowing me to be able to attend the temple that night for our Youth baptism trip and staying afterwards with my friend Tieryn for an endowment session. It was a little rainy day, but when we pulled up the the temple the sun was shining and the temple looked so beautiful.

If i haven't mentioned it before, Dalia LOVES to sing!!! Today Tesila was napping and Dalia started singing really loud. I told her to go in a room and shut the door and she could keep singing in there since Tesila was singing. Next thing i know i hear Dalia's beautiful song very faintly coming from the backyard. She had went out on the deck to sing. The video is of her singing her song.
Video:

The Farm - Oct. 10, 2009

Pumpkin Picking!

Today was the perfect day to be at the pumpkin patch! Clear skies and warm weather! We went to the farm with Eric & Emily and had fun playing on the playground, seeing the animals, holding the kitties!, and running through the pumpkin patch!

Dalia chose her pumpkin all by herself. She was very particular which one she got. She also had to be able to lift it. I would find a small one and tell her how great it was. She would take a glance and it and say no not that one and run off into the field searching! She finally picked up a little pumpkin with most of the stem broken off and a few little warts. It was the special one. Brian found Tes a little one with a cool stem and she thought it was pretty cool to hold it. She like walking around and trying to pick up the pumpkins and even liked sitting on them. She thought it was so funny to sit on pumpkins.

We came home with 4 pumpkin's for our family. Then had yummy Stuffed Squash for dinner, Mini Pumpkin Cakes for dessert and Games with Eric & Emily! What a Fall Day! It really feels like October now!

Watching.Cape.Walk - Oct. 9, 2009

The girls love to look out the window and watch for Daddy to come home! Then they run to the door to give him a huge little girl hug! They are the best! I tied Tesila's blanket around her neck tonight like a cape, and she loved it! It would fall off and she would run right back to me to tie it on again. Then run away with her cape flying in the wind with the proudest smile on her face! She can also say her name now, she says, "tesa," and will point to herself!

Here the girls are all ready for our morning walking. Next, Tesila & Dalia after church in their new fall sweater dresses! i think they look so very cute!! Dalia loves nursery class and can't seem to get enough of it. Tesila does not feel the same. Today i dropped her off and left. She was fine for about 10 minutes, then someone brought her to Brian. Brian tried taking her back to the nursery, but as soon as he opened the door she would start to scream. So he kept her with him. Saddest little girl you had ever seen. She cuddled with Brian on the couch in the foyer and went to sleep. That might be part of the problem. It is her nap time right when nursery is starting.

Frosting.Matching.Knex - Oct.7, 2009

I was on the phone with Jami back in the bedroom for just a couple of minutes (it was actually only a couple of minutes this time, i promise). Well i told her i had to go cause the girls were really quiet. I came out to the living room to find Dalia with all the library books scattered everywhere and her ready, not too bad. I then turn into the kitchen to find Tes sitting at the table devouring the last of the frosting by spoonfuls (i guess i should have put it away after snack time).
I just loved the girls stripped tights and matching sweaters! If you haven't noticed i loved to dress them alike. Brian gives me a hard time, but i think he just likes to tease me (i don't think he really cares). Lastly, Dalia loves playing with "Daddy's toys" (what she calls Brian's Knex). Today she built some type of sculpture and "train tracks!" Here favorite thing lately is GeoTrax. Some toy from fisher price that we don't even have. We got a free GeoTrax DVD in the mail, i think i came from Aunt Callie. Well she LOVES watching, "Trains!" and now likes to say, "Team GeoTrax All Aboard." Just like in the video. She tells me that's what she wants for her birthday. But lately she tells me she wants everything that i won't buy her now for her birthday.

Nail.Polish.Stroller - Oct. 6, 2009

For anyone that really knows me knows that i LOVE nail polish!! Probably not as much as i used to but i still love it. I have to have my toe nails painted at all times, just one of those things. I like to have my finger nails painted and try to keep that up, but it is a lot harder to keep up with ever since i've had babies. In high school i had just about every different color! I now have just an aray of pinks, reds, purples, and gliters! So of course my sweet little Dalia would love nail polish too. I did paint her little toenails when she was a tiny baby! She likes to get her toenails painted and now we even paint her finger nails. She sits so patiently while i paint her nails and then she shakes! until they are dry and we sing, "shake shake shake sanora!' while she shakes!

While i was painting Dalia's nails she started to play with the nail polish, like as if they were little figurines. She was calling them mom, dad, baby, grandma. She sat there at the table for a few hours just playing pretend with her little nail polish figurines! Sweet girl!
Video:

Next is what Brian called my "Impulse CraigsListing!" Yesterday i lay in bed thinking. I began thinking about my dear friend Jamie O. and how she goes on jogs with her double jogging stroller and pushes her two kiddos. I started to think how much easier it would be to go on walks for exercise if i had such a stroller. I still just have my most favorite red umbrella stroller, nothing that pushes two babies. So i decided then that i wanted a double jogging stroller to go on walks around my house. So i of course went searching on CraigsList. After a few searches i found just the one (it was actually the only double jogging stroller in my area). I phoned the seller and offered less then her price and she said come and get it. So here i am the proud new owner of a double jogging stroller! Hooray for me!

Knex Helmets & Swords - Oct. 4, 2009

Knex!

It is always fun playing with Daddy! Today Brian made a Knex helmet for him and one for Dalia. Then he made them swords out of Knex. Then of course they sword fought. The swords broke really fast. So Brian made new swords that were stronger! and the sword fighting continued. Even Tes joined in. Tes also rode around on her trusty steed, 'neighing' as she went along. I was working on a sewing project for one of my favorite people (more to come on that later, it is a gift). Tes had fun pretending to sew her blanket, she was so proud of herself.

Our New Kitty! - Oct. 3

We welcomed a new Kitty into our home today!

Here is "Gray Kitty!"
Dalia has a special Orange Kitty that right now is named, "Ballerina." Tesila is always trying to get Dalia's special kitty so i decided that it was time Tesila got a pet of her very own. So i took her to the pet store to see what we could find. We found a cute little horse, a yellow lab puppy, and this gray kitty. I let Tesila choose and kitty was the winner. She walked right over to the cashier and put kitty on the counter.

Tesila and Gray kitty right outside the pet store!
It was love at first sight! Look at that tight hug Tesila has on her new kitty! She was so excited and kept meow/neighing. I think she is confused at what kitties say, we will work on that.

Here are our two kitties, Gray and Ballerina!

P.S. However, as we took Gray kitty home tonight Dalia is deciding that she doesn't like her orange kitty and keeps asking Tesila to trade kitties with her. Dalia also told me that she wants to have lot a kitties for her birthday.

Color.Collin.Kitty - Oct. 3

My girls love to color. Tes say's 'ca-ler.' I had a cute video of her coloring, but i was showing it to Tes on the camera and she grabbed the camera and hit a bunch of buttons and deleted it. So Tes i did take a video of you coloring and you saw it once, i hope you remember it! Dalia was coloring a picture for her boyfriend Collin. It was the card for his birthday present. Collin turned 4 and had a spider man birthday party. Dalia dressed up as a Super Girl! She had a lot of fun at Collin's party and keeps telling me that she is going to have a 'guy' birthday party like Collin. While Dalia was at Collin's party and since Brian was home sick i took Tes out for a mama daughter lunch to McDonald's. She got her own little Happy Meal and danced to the music at the restaurant while standing on the bench and eating her food. I think she had a pretty fun time. After lunch we went to Bridges Pet store to look at the animals and Tes got to get a pet of her own. She choose a cute little stuffed gray kitty! She hugged that little kitty so tight it is a good thing it is stuffed. She stared making it 'neigh.' She loves horses and neigh's all the time. But i'm trying to help her meow more.