Trunk or Treating

     Halloween was pretty low-key this year. Yes, I realize that today is actually Halloween, but we celebrated on Saturday. I'm a lame-o, I know, but it is what it is. My mom flew in Saturday morning, and Saturday night was our ward's trunk or treat! Ava was Princess Tiana and Halle was a bumble bee. Yes, I realize that Ava was Princess Tiana last year, but she really wanted to be Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. I really didn't have time to make a costume, and I didn't want to spend $30 on a dress Ava is going to wear for a couple of hours, so I went to Target, bought a new Tiana crown, and came home and convinced Ava to be Tiana. Worked for her, and it worked for me! Halle was a bumble bee because I already had the costume. That's one of the perks of having 2 girls close in age. They can share costumes! Ha!
    Here's a little side thought.... I'm not really big on spending big bucks on kids costumes. It's just not worth it to me. So, my children will have to settle on the fact that most of their costumes will be homemade.
     Ok, back to trunk or treating...
 
     I tried to get a decent photo of the girls' in their costumes, and here's what I ended up with...

     Saturday was just a gorgeous day. Oregon is absolutely beautiful in the fall. The colors on the trees are so vivid and bright, I just can't get enough of it! But it was fun to see the girls run around with all their friends.

   
     Halle was absolutely terrified of this kid. It was the funniest thing to just watch her stare at him!

 
     I just loved Halle's look on her face in this next picture. She clutched her candy and wouldn't let anyone touch it! We discovered that her favorite candy is Tootsie Roll Suckers.
   

 
  My mom took our family picture. It doesn't happen often, so please excuse my looks. I just didn't feel like getting ready that day. :) Plus, I love the look on Nate's face! Hee hee hee!

     After trunk or treating we went out to eat. Halle now knows 4 letters, and she has been practicing writing her"H's", which really look like X's.

     What I love most about Halloween: eating my kid's candy. Hee hee..... in all honesty, it's fun to see them get so excited to dress up and say "Trick or Treat". Let's hope that next year I'm more on top of my game so that I can actually plan Ava and Halle's costumes rather than convincing them to just go grab something from the dress up box. :)

New Venture!

When I started my little blog, Cee Cee's Corner, I honestly didn't have high expectations. It was just something little for me to share what I create. I'm not really that good of a cook, I just basically know how to follow a recipe, and I just am lucky enough to pick out good recipes. :) I'm also a little crafty, but not completely crafty. If you want to meet some crafty people, then you need to meet the ladies in my ward. Holy moly. They honestly blow my mind with all their projects and creativity. One of my good friends started a blog called Portobello Road. It's a fabulous little blog on how she re-purposed furniture, bakes, and does tons of crafty stuff. She also happens to host a "Craft Group" every month, which I have been invited to attend! Basically, she chooses the crafts that we will do (or we can bring our own) and gathers all the supplies. We just show up, pay for the craft, and actually do the craft. We don't have to do any of the yucky stuff, we get to put it together! The group started as a way for some ladies to start crafting.  The group has actually grown quite large, and we've had to move it to a clubhouse to accomodate all the ladies!
     For awhile now, my friend and I have tossed the idea around of putting together monthly craft kits and giving other people outside our circle a chance to purchase them. After weeks and weeks of talking about it, we finally decided to do it! We just posted about our November craft kit!

Eek! I was so extremely nervous to post about it... I don't know why, but I just was! So, if you're interested in taking a look, head on over to Cee Cee's Corner and check it out. And, feedback would really be appreciated. I want to know if this is something that people are interested in!! So, here's to me and my new venture! AAhhhhh!!

Ava's Birthday

As you know,

we celebrated Miss Ava's 4th birthday!

We started the day off by going to the pumpkin patch with all of her friends from preschool.

We rode this little train out to the pumpkin patch.

As we were riding out to the pumpkin patch, we were graced with 

some gorgeous views of nature!

I thought it was pretty funny that a truck brought in all the pumpkins to the patch.

Apparently they are grown elsewhere on the farm and then transported here.

 Ava and her friends loved climbing this stack of hay.

There was also a little hay maze that they had fun running in.

Once we had picked all of our pumpkins, we rode on a boat back to where we were parked.

It was fun to go on this little lake. As we drove by the "island of pirates" this sea monster popped 

out of the water. As we rode further down the lake, there was also a "shark" that popped out of the water and sprayed us! The kids loved it!

Then we took pictures after we cleaned off our pumpkins.

And yes, we had to clean them off good! 

Since we're in Oregon, everything is wet and muddy, including the pumpkin patch!

After the pumpkin patch, we stopped at McDonald's for a Happy Meal. 

AFter Nate got home from work, we opened presents and Skyped with family.

Ava requested a Barbie cake, so this is what she got...

I didn't have time to make dinner, so we ate cake for dinner...

The day after Ava's birthday, she got this fruit basket from Uncle Ryan.

The princess jammies are from Grammie...

We are so thankful for all the phone calls we received on Ava's birthday. She was absolutely spoiled! It was hard this year because she didn't understand why she could have a party with all her family. But like I said, everyone was so great to call her and remember her!

Gymnast in Training

     Halle is crazy. People absolutely do not believe me when I say this, but this girl was made to be a gymnast. She has the tiniest little body... I had to actually pin her tights up because they just kept falling off her little waist! But she loves to climb and hang onto anything and everything. She has the strongest little arms I have ever seen. It literally takes all my strength to pull her away from something.
     She loves to jump off things and has no fear. One of her favorite tricks is to stand on our bed and just fall backwards. It's so funny to watch her do it and then Ava will say, "Watch me!" and I watch as Ava counts to three and gives herself a little pep talk and then slowly falls on her bum and then her back. We also play a game where they stand on the bathroom counter and Nate will catch them as they jump off. Halle leaps off without a second thought and Ava cautiously leans forward into Nate's arms with her feet still attached to the bathroom counter...
     Well, the other day, the girls were taking a bath, and this was Halle's little "trick"...

   Oh yes, my friends. She thought it was the greatest thing in the world to just hand like this. And she'll hang there for about 3 or 4 minutes! Crazy! Once she is done with that trick, she moves onto climbing anywhere she can... please keep in mind that the tub is extremely slippery and I don't even know how she manages to climb, but she does!

     

 
     Oh, and don't be offended by the naked bum pictures.... and if you are offended, then stop reading my blog. :) We are planning on putting Halle in gymnastics in a couple of years. I think she would do really well at the uneven bars...

Dear Ava

     Dear Ava,

     Today you are 4 years old. I can't believe it. Where has the time gone? You are such a sweet little girl and you have taught me so many things. I am continually amazed at how your little mind works. Just last night you painted your eyebrows with toothpaste and put neosporin on your eyelids because you were pretending that you had makeup on. You also put Fray Check on your hands, pretending it was lotion.

       You are so smart. You can count to 30 in English and to 10 in Chinese. You have a very good memory and can memorize things easily. You learned your part for the  Primary Program in just one day! You know all your letters and what they sound like. You can also write most of your letters.

     You love to sing and dance. I often watch you out of the corner of my eye and I just smile as I watch you dance in front of the TV. You love to make up your own songs and often use words that none of us know.  You love to dress up and usually change outfits 3 or 4 times a day.

     You love to snuggle and cuddle. This has been good for me because I needed to learn how to be more affectionate. Every night you ask if I'll sleep with you "for one minute".  You are also extremely dramatic and can turn on the tears with the snap of a finger.

     You are such a beautiful little girl. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you. I love you and you daddy loves you. He is wrapped around your little finger and always manages to wrestle with you right before bedtime. He often sneaks you little treats without me noticing, and gives you piggy backs all the time.  We love watching movies with you on Friday night, especially when it's "Hocus Pocus" or "The Chronicles of Narnia".

     I hope you will always remember that you are a daughter of a Heavenly King. Your Father in Heaven loves you and I'm sure He smiles every time you sing "Praise to the Man" or "I Love To See the Temple".  Always say your prayers. You already know that Heavenly Father hears and answers your prayers.
   

Love forever,
Mommy

Apple Orchard

    A few other mom's in the ward and I do a little preschool for our kids. The kids have preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we rotate which house it's at. There's four of us teaching, so basically I teach preschool once a month. We found an awesome place that sends us a monthly curriculum as well as EVERYTHING needed to do the arts and crafts part of it. What's even more amazing is it cost me $95 for nine months of preschool. Score!
     With our little preschool, we try to do a monthly field trip. We are going to a pumpkin patch on Wednesday, but last month we went to an apple orchard. It was so cool! I've never been to one before, and we were given a tour by Farmer Bob.

Ava and her friends.

The apple orchard had this lovely little pond. It looked like it was just out of a storybook.

There was also this little hay maze that the kids had a blast running through.

Our tour was on the back of a wagon that was pulled by this hefty tractor.

Oh, my little Halle. She is never looking when I take a picture.

Oh well.

And, they even got to jump in the apple bounce house.

I was totally jealous. It's the biggest bounce house I have ever seen!

And to conclude the tour, 

each kid was given their own apple juice

and apple to taste!

Artist in the Making

I know you will all be totally jealous of my daughter's artistic abilities.

But here is her version of a pig...

Cute, huh. 

Wait until I show you the picture she drew of Elder Oaks while

he was speaking in General Conference.

It will knock your socks off.

Stay tuned.

Barbie Bridge

I have some pretty clever girls.

I love to see what their minds come up with,

or what they're going to say next.

Please don't be offended by how messy their room is.

It gets trashed every day, but at 5:30, it's clean up time.

Until then, the girls go wild with their imaginations.

The other day, I walked in and found packing tape strung all over their room.

It was tied around the edge of their bed and was strung over to their bookcase

and then it was strung over to the window where it was wrapped around their little fan.

And then I saw that they had taped little puzzle pieces and cards to the sticky side of the tape.

I was completely baffled at what this could be,

and they simply told me it was a "Barbie bridge" that their Barbies used 

to cross the room. All the puzzle pieces and cards were the little stepping stones.

Clever, I tell ya.

Tualatin Nature Park

While the weather was still nice, we took a little family outing to the Tualatin Nature Park. 

It's a beautiful place, and I think the pictures speak for themselves...

These trees are over 100 years old. 

I had Nate stand next to them because I wanted to

show you just how tall they were.

But, they're so tall that I couldn't get a picture of the whole tree.

Oh Halle.

I truly wish that each of you could just spend a day in her presence.

She is one of the funniest little people I have ever met,

and she hates... let me repeat, HATES, being confined

in anything... Carseats, shopping carts, strollers...

so she manages to get out of them, no matter how tight I buckle her in.

She usually tries to hop out of the grocery cart while I'm still pushing it,

and strangers at the store get really concerned, but I'm not concerned.

She'll land on her feet and be just fine... she's like a cat. Lol.

But here she is riding in the stroller.

She would stand on the strap because it was her "wing" aka swing, 

and she would rock back and forth.

Here she is giving us the "stink eye".

She's pretty darn good at it.

And then she desperately wanted to ride the scooter.

And if you know Halle, you know she is persistant.

She will holler and scream until she gets what she wants.

I try not to give into her because I don't want her

to get her way everytime, but it's embarrassing when we're out in public.

So, she started hollering in the middle of this peaceful nature park,

so we let her ride the scooter.

Problem is, she didn't know how to push herself.

So, Nate and I would take turns hunching over the freaking scooter to push her.