Trick-or-Treating! - Oct. 31, 2012

  

Trick-or-Treating!
The past few days before Oct. 31st were super rainy.  I was worried it would just rain during trick-or-treating.  Not the case, it didn't rain at all, not even a sprinkle, and it was warmish, not cold.  It was perfect!
Since no kids really come trick-or-treating in our neighborhood we go to the neighborhood across the main road from us.  It makes it nice because then Brian & I can both go with the kids.  No need for someone to stay home.  We did set a bowl of candy on the porch just in case some kid did stop by.  On our walk to the other neighborhood we ran into our neighbor Kenya (she is 12) and her dad.  So we Trick-or-Treated together.
The girls were of course excited and knew just what to do.  They were also really fast.  Dalia wanted to run from house to house.  Rock wasn't sure what to do at first, but he picked up fast.  By the third house he was saying "chick-cheet!"  So so cute!!  Then at every house he would follow the girls up and carry his bucket.  He would help knock on the door and then hold his hand out and say "chick-cheet!"  And he never got tired.  Even when it was late and i knew he was tired, if he saw his sisters going to a house.  He wanted to get down from Brian's arms and run up to the door with his sisters!
Back at home we had 3 full to the top buckets of candy!  too much!  The kids had fun dumping out their candy on the floor and sorting it.  They ate some candy and then it was off to bed.
 

Video: Rock says, "Trick Treat!" - Oct. 2012

End of October - Oct. 28, 2012

 

Just a few things to end out October.  My kids (mostly the girls) love watching movies on Netflix on the iPad.  Usually when it is quite i will find them hiding somewhere watching a movie on the ipad.  They are usually hiding under a blanket, because i obviously can't see them under the blanket or hear the movie.  There is some good that has come from their ipad watching.  Dalia has had a hard time getting up and getting dressed in the morning for school.  One morning I woke up and found Dalia downstiars in her pj's watching something on the ipad.  I told her it was okay to watch something if she was dressed for school.  So now if Dalia wakes up before me she gets dressed and goes downstairs to the couch and watches something on the ipad until i come down to get her her breakfast!  Tes gets dressed and usually joins her.  Great incentive!

-The other morning after Dalia left for school I found Tes and Rock on the couch snuggled in Dalia's big yellow blanket watching "Angelina Ballerina" on the ipad! 
-We went to the Children's Musuem in Everett where they have an awesome train table.  The kids played there for awhile.  Rock mostly liked watching the model train go around and around again by itself. 
-Rock has found a new game.  He has discovered that he can buckle his high chair buckle.  Cool trick.  It takes him awhile sometimes and he sometimes gets frustrated because he can't get the buckle in just right.  But what makes him most frustrated of all is when he finally gets both sides buckled.  Oh that makes him SO mad!!  He screams and cries until i unbuckle the buckle so that he can start all over and work on buckling them.  So funny!  (Dalia did this too, maybe Tes as well, i can't remember.  But i know Dalia did).
-Rock loves Tes.  He likes to give her hugs.  The other day he was sad about something and i picked him up to hold him.  He motioned to get down.  So i put him down and he ran to Tes and hugged her.  Tes thought that was so cool, that Rock wanted HER!
-As you know my girls LOVE to dance.  Tes was dressed up as Ariel so Dalia dressed up as Prince Eric and they danced!  They even ended their dance with a kiss.  Sweet sisters!  I am so glad that they play so well together and that they love each other so so much!

Rock really enjoys looking at books lately!  The books need to have things with wheels in them or animals.

Video: Rock reading to himself. - Oct. 2012  

Video: Rockwell crawling up the stairs and saying "Cheese" because he wants me to take his picture. I like how this video captures Rock at this age. -Oct. 2012  

Video: Rockwell buckling his highchair buckle and gets mad when he buckles it. Oct. 2012

2012 Halloween Costumes! - Oct. 27, 2012

 

Halloween Costumes 2012
Dalia - "Ariel", Tesila - "Briar Rose" (Sleeping Beauty), Rockwell - "Thor"
This night we were headed to our ward Halloween carnival & trunk-or-treat.  Brian was out of town this weekend at a Chump car race in Portland (which they came in 5th place at!!!!)
Check out my friend Adrianne's Jelly Fish costume, cool, huh?  Dalia liked hiding in the tentacles!  The girls played the usual carnival games while i ran after Rock.  Then we went outside for Trunk-or-Treat.  Lets just say it ended quickly.  There were not many trunks and when we got to our car i thought about passing out candy.  I let go of Rock for a second and he ran off into a grassy puddle where he tripped and feel in mud.  He didn't care.  But now his candy was in the grass and he was muddy.  I decided that we were just going to go home.  I told the girls to get buckled up and Dalia just started to cry and cry and how it wasn't any fun.  Rock was screaming because i buckled him in his carseat.  I had had enough.  We drove home with a crying Dalia, screaming Rockwell, grumpy mom, and a sweet Tes saying how she wasn't crying and that she had fun.  Whoa.  I missed Brian at that moment for sure!

Earlier in the day the girls went to Olivia's "Hello Kitty" birthday party!  They had so much fun.  Thanks Bri!!  (i have a picture of them on my iphone, but i haven't taken the time to figure out how to get my iphone pictures onto my computer.) 

Zoo Field Trip! - Oct. 25, 2012

 

First Grade Zoo Field Trip

I was so lucky that I was able to go with my Dalia on her first grade field trip to the Zoo!!  My friend Jenna was so kind to watch Tes and Rock the entire school day!  I had so so so much fun with Dalia!  I love being with Dalia and i enjoy seeing her interact with her friends.  Also, i remember my grade school field trip to the zoo when my mom was the chaperone.  (Thanks mom!)
In our group was me and Dalia and two other girls, Emily (who lives in our neighbor hood so we know her) & Chimera.  A couple of weeks before the field trip Dalia asked me if i would buy her a camera to take to the zoo.  Great idea.  However, she didn't know what a disposable camera was.  I actually had to go to a couple of store to find one.  Dalia had fun taking pictures of her friends and the animals.  (Now she is excited to get the pictures back and make a book of her adventure).
We rode the bus with her class to the zoo.  We sat by her teacher Mrs. M. and i enjoyed talking with her about Dalia and about Mrs. M's daughter and soon to be baby!  At the zoo we took off to see the animals!  We saw the giraffes, hippos, lions, warthogs, elephants, tapirs, snow leopards, penguins, meerkats, bats, flamingos, tropical birds, snakes, monkeys, aragatangs, parakeets, and gorillas. (to name a few).
When i asked Dalia what she wanted to see the most she said, "the Birds."  Okay, so i thought we needed to find the tropical birds.  We started to pass the parakeet bird place and Dalia got excited and said, "Mom, we need to see the birds!"  She was so so excited!  I take her all the way to the Zoo and she wants to see the parakeets.  When she was little the wild dogs were her favorite.  We really need to get her a pet don't we.
The last few weeks Dalia has taught herself how to whistle.  She even taught herself how to whistle and sound like birds! 

Later we happened upon the Gorilla's,  They were being very playful.  There was a mom, dad, son, and grandpa.  The son kept teasing the dad and trying to make him play.  Sometimes they would start to wrestle and the mom would brake it up.  Back at school Dalia wrote about how her favorite part of the zoo was watching the Gorilla's fight!  They were fun to watch.

Whistle Story:  One day Dalia came home from school and told me how she was whistling in class.  The teacher said, "Whoever is whistling will you please stop."  Soon after Dalia was whistling again.  So the teacher asked again, "Whoever is whistling will you please stop."  Dalia said, "Mom, she didn't even know it was me."  I think Dalia probably didn't even realize that she was whistling since she has been whistling so much.  She says that she practices a lot at recess.

Pumpkin Carving Night - Oct. 21, 2012

 

Carving pumpkins!! 
Eric came over to carve pumpkins with us! (Emily was sick so she didn't come :(
This year Dalia & Tes designed and carved their own.  Tesila was so very proud of her pumpkin!  We said it was the most scary!!  She drew the face on the pumpkin herself and i helped her cut it out.  Dalia drew her face on and Uncle Eric helped talk Dalia through carving it!  I like the picture of Eric & Dalia, check out Dalia's cute little face deep in concentration!  I choose a little pumpkin for Rock and choose to carve a train on it, since Rock is so into trains and goes around saying, "choo choo."  After we were done carving we had pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for dessert! 
Brian and Eric each went with a car theme this year as they both took their pumpkins to their Chump car race that was held on Oct. 27th in Portland.  Eric carved a BMW and Brian carved a VW bus.  Brian one a prize at the Chump car race for VW bus and got $100!!  Go Brian!  His pumpkin did look pretty awesome!

Halloween 2004

Halloween 2004

Check out this gem that i found!

Brian and I back in 2004 about 3 1/2 weeks before we got married.  We were at a Halloween party with my cousins at my Aunt Charla's!  So fun!!  We like to dress up if you couldn't tell. 

Playgroup Halloween Party! - Oct. 18, 2012

Tes, Rock, & I went to our annual Playgroup Halloween Party at church.  It was our first year without Dalia, I was sad not to have her there.  It just means she is growing up.  Tes was so very excited for the party!!  We had fun dressing up!
Tes was Briar Rose, Rock was Thor, and i was a black cat. 
At playgroup i was in charge of the ball toss!  Rock enjoyed knocking the cans down.  There were other games, stories, fashion show (kids walked across the stage to show off their costumes), we had lunch and treats!  Tes helped me make some pumping rice crispies!
When we got home we had a fun little photo shoot in the front yard.  Tes had fun taking pictures of me and telling me where to stand or sit and where to look.  She is one sweet little girl.  Rock loved running around the gym at the church during the party.  I was surprised that he left his hat on pretty much the entire time.  And when his had did come off he would touch his head and was concerned that it was gone.  So we would find his had and put it back on. 
Our first Halloween event of the season.  We were excited!

Pumpkin Patch! - Oct. 13, 2012

 

We went to The Farm pumpkin patch again this year.  Eric & Emily, and Mat, Bri, Olivia, & Hudson joined us!  We ate lunch there, corndogs and apple cider doughnuts!  We looked at some animals.  Rock enjoyed looking at the ducks and quacking at them!  The girls enjoyed holding baby kittens.  While me and Mat were taking pictures of the 3 little girls holding the kittens Rockwell got lost.  I only panicked for a second or so.  Brian quickly found him walking quite a ways down from where we were at.  I am just glad we found him.  It is so scary to loose a kid.   The kids liked sitting on the old trackers.  We watched the very short pig show and saw this awesome jumping thing that we didn't go on.  Dalia kept asking.  I felt like such a bad parent for not buying her a ticket to go and jump.  There will be next year, right?  We rode on the wagon ride and then off to the pumpkin patch to find out pumpkins.  I thought it would rain and be muddy (it POURED the ENTIRE night before we went).  But there was no rain and it wasn't muddy.  It was windy in the field which made it cold.  Dalia had fun searching for her pumpkin.  She found a nice little one that still had the stem attached!  She immediately called it her Rapunzel pumpkin.  Tesila complained because i wanted her to carry her own pumpkin, "It's too heavy!"  Rock liked to sit on the pumpkins and say, "cheese!"  You can tell he is my kid.  He knows to smile because i am going to take his picture.  And of course a trip to the pumpkin patch wouldn't be complete without the kids riding in the wheel barrows!

After the patch we went to the M.'s house for ribs!!  So so yummy!  Thank you Mat & Bri!!

Train Song Video - Oct. 2012

Video:Rock LOVES the opening/closing song to the show Thomas the Train. He gets so so so EXCITED!! Check out his excitement dance!! He is the cutest little boy EVER!!

Beginning of October 2012

Beginning of October 2012

I got a New cell phone!!

Phone on the left: my old acient cell phone bought in Dec. 2006 right when the "chocolate" came out.

(Yes, i have been living with a cracked screen since June 2012.  I have got made fun of plenty.)

Phone on the right: my NEW cell phone!  I got an iPhone 4S!!  I now have a smart phone!  It is really cool.

Brian took me on a date the last weekend in September, we went out to dinner and then cell phone shopping.  The next morning i showed the girls what i got.  When Dalia saw my new phone the first thing she said was, "Wow, you got a smart phone!!"  i didn't even know that she knew they were called smart phones.  i just expected her to say, you got an iPhone.

 Tesila gave a Report in Preschool about who she thought was the Greatest American in History!  

I helped her to choose "Nikola Tesla"!  I am working on making a video of her telling me her presentation.  She was hesitant to present in front of her class and she did NOT want to dress up like a boy.  So she just dressed up like Tes.  (I tried to get her to wear a shirt and tie, and a mustache.)  I whispered the first few things in her ear and then she finished what she was supposed to say.  She did great!

Tesila's Report:

"I think that Nikola Tesla was the Greatest American in History because we have the same name.  And because he helped invent the radio, AC power, and x-rays."

(She held up the picture of Nikola Tesla, and displayed a radio, an AC power converter, and a picture of Dalia's x-ray of her arm.)

 Greatest American's in Histroy

Neil Armstrong (Kaho), Rulon Gardner (Tucker), Maddie (I can't remember who she was), Sacajawea (Mia), Nikola Tesla (Tesila), Abraham Lincoln (Rig), one of the Wright brothers (Joshua), American Pirate (Tray), Walt Disney (Aubrey was dressed as Sleeping Beauty but had to leave early.)

The girls started swim lessons!

Dalia is now in the older class: Beginner from 6-16 years

Tesila is in: Beginner from 3-5 years

We need to go swimming more often.  They are so excited to have swimming lessons!

Eric, Arlen, Brian, & Rock

Arlen came to visit us for one day.  He is headed from Georgia to Alaska to drive a moving van full of his families belongings and the family dog Oscar to Georgia.  We are so glad that he took a day to visit us.  The boys spent the day at Traxx racing go carts, tour Electro Impact (Eric's work), going out to lunch, and driving the BMW.  That evening we had dinner at our place and Emily came too.  Then at our place the boys took turns playing grand turismo and racing some more.

 Rockwell enjoys dumping things out of there containers.  Check out the four empty containers that are sitting around him.

Home from grocery shopping and Rock took the cans out of the bag and began to stack them.  He would then knock them down and stack them back up to knock down again.

 We realized that their was a baby swim class the same time as the girls classes, so we add Rock to the class.  Rock has more fun playing with daddy in the pool rather than watching all the kids play in the water from the pool deck.

Dalia is having fun in her class.  She wears her goggles the entire time!  She enjoys putting her face in the water and watching everyone's legs move in the water.  She told me that she pretends that all the feet are fish!  She also knows how to tred water, but only with her face in the water. She is getting good at putting her face in the water while her teacher hold her and she moves her arms and kicks her legs!  She also learned that if she 'hums' when her face is in the water then water doesn't go up her nose.

 While dad went to the priesthood session of general conference we rode our bikes in the front yard!  Dalia and Tes enjoy riding them up the street to the north of us because it has a slight incline that they love riding down!!  Rockwell did really good sitting on his bike and using his feet to push himself around.  He insisted on wearing Brian's old helmet.  It is way to big for Rock.  I guess it is time to buy Rock his own helmet.

On Sunday, after the two last sessions of General Conference our college friends came over to play and for dinner!!  It was great to all be together.  We hadn't been all together since the super bowl in February.  It was so much fun being together again.  We always laugh so much!  I like these people.

 Rock, Brian, Eric, & Parker!

(Our May 2011 baby boys!)

Our entire group!  Wow their are a lot of us!

Eric, Amy, Parker, & Carlee: Brian, Britni, Dalia, Rock, & Tes: Mat, Bri, Hudson & Olivia: Jamie, Reuben, Ava, Bella, & Isaac

You Tube Star - Oct. 2012

Did you know that Dalia is a YouTube star?  Did you know that I have a video on You Tube that has over 3 million views and counting?!  Well I do.  I thought I would share with my favorite people (those who view my blog of course) the apparently irresistible video.  Can you tell me why so many people watch this video?

Video: Dalia blowing out her candles on her snow white cake. April 2010 Do you love the singing? It is courtesy of Dalia's dad and her Uncle Eric! You can tell that Dalia didn't like it much. Some of my You Tube fans think the singing is funny, some think it sounds like cows, and some hate the singing and think we are terrible for singing to our kid like this. People actually leave comments about how they like or dislike it. Some were very rude so i deleted those. But it is still weird to me how popular my video is. I hope you enjoy!