Don made Chloe a high stack of pancakes this morning.

 Last week we had dinner with some old friends, Ardie and Cheryl, and we took this picture so I could showcase my double chin.

 But I did get this picture, pretty much the best picture ever taken.  Oscar in suspenders makes me extremely happy.

 I love reading papers Chloe brings home from school and getting a glimpse into her world.  I didn't know that swinging counted as a talent.

 Macie put a tootsie roll on her teeth and said, "Look Mom I'm Olaf!" Speaking of Macie, I really miss her.  She went to St. David with her little cousin Lyla and it has been so quiet around here.  But I hear she is having a lot of fun without us.  I miss her!

 With every baby, I have come home to find something hilarious that Don has engineered to assist him in his Dad-ly duties.  He hadn't come up with anything hilarious for Oscar yet...until now.  I came home to find Oscar in his crib, asleep, as lullabies accompanied dancing kaleidoscope images on a precariously positioned Tablet. Oh, and he had blue shorts over his red jumper. This was after he woke up..But when I first came home...

 he was like this.

 This is a Thank you note written by Chloe, I love it.

And Target set up a special picture taking backdrop next to their Frozen merchandise, which unfortunately is already sold out of the Anna nightgown I so desperately need for Christmas. And oh, good luck finding an Elsa ornament.  (grrrrr.)

Meg's Baby Shower

 I hosted a baby shower for my friend Meg a couple weeks ago.  We tried to do it on a Saturday morning, but had to switch it to a Thursday night because no one could come on a Saturday morning.  I thought the night shower was cozy, and we had the most delicious spread, thanks to so many amazing friends and their spectacular culinary skills.  We had pumpkin cinnamon rolls, zucchini bread, apple slices with chicken salad, warm spinach dip, veggies and dip, homemade caramel sauce with apples and little lemon cakes.  Thanks Meg for having a baby in the Fall so we could throw you an Autumnal shower!

 This weekend I was able to spend with my childhood friend Charlotte, helping put on a baby shower for her younger sister Anona.  I am so glad they let me help, it was the perfect excuse to spend some much needed time together.  I had fun setting up the table, and displaying all the delicious food that they all made.

 I made a picture wall, which took an incredible amount of time.  Don really loved the project (uh not.) Every day when he tripped over them on his way out to work he would say, "Picture Wall: Day ___ ..."

We spend a good amount of time at the Mesa Children's Museum. I bought a season pass off Groupon and it was money well spent.  The girls love it. And I love taking them somewhere else where they can make a mess besides my house.  

 The other day I was at Gymboree looking for a baby gift for my friend.  Bad idea.  It was a 40% off day.  And I found this hat.  I was going to buy it, but then I decided to show some restraint, and told the cashier to take it back.  well I got out of the store, and realized she had taken it off the bill, but not out of the bag.  So I inadvertently shoplifted.  Lest you be alarmed, I AM going to go back and pay for it.  I was considering just taking it back, but once I saw Oscar in it, how could I not buy it? I have decided that baby boys need to be dressed like it is 1890.

One of these days I will get a decent picture of Oscar in his Olaf hat. (Here we are at the ward annual chili cook off).   By the way, if you are looking for a little different kind of chili, ie. you don't want chili at all but a variation of taco soup, well then, I have the recipe for you.  I loved it.  And also I found a really good cornbread recipe too.  Don said that the cornbread was not real cornbread because it tasted too good.  He said cornbread is supposed to be gritty and tasteless, and should need a lot of butter and honey to make it edible, "that's how the pioneers ate it."  I made it in a jelly roll pan and it was still really thick.

Also, Oscar is a dreamboat. As long as he is fed and receiving attention from someone, anyone, he is extremely happy.  I guess wretched pregnancy is worth it after all.  He still doesn't let me sleep through the night, or without him, but to tell you the truth, I don't really mind.  He also rolled over I think a couple weeks ago at Emily's house, but he doesn't repeat it that often.  He is pretty good at scooting himself around on his back though.

story 1: Yesterday Macie was begging me for a dress she saw at the Mall. I told her to ask Santa for it. And she said, "But Santa is not real." And then I said, "Uh...whaaaaaattt??!! who told you that?" To which she replied, "ummmmm....Danny!"  (Who knows if that is even the case. She might have pulled a name out of the hat."  Then I said, "Well who brings your presents then?"  Her reply? "You do.  No, Dad does!" So then I lied. And lied some more. And then Chloe told her she was wrong too.  And that,"If you don't believe, Santa will not bring you any presents!"  Didn't think it would be my 7 year old convincing my 3 year old that Santa was real.  When all was said and done, Macie said she was "just kidding!" about the whole thing.  (Oh, and when asked how Santa got his presents here, she said "a car.")

story 2:  My friend took Macie to the train park with her kids.  I asked her beforehand if she wanted to go on a train ride.  She got wide eyed and asked, "Is it fast? Does it go up and down?"  I had forgotten that ever since Thunder Mountain she is deathly afraid of trains.

story 3: Chloe likes to make worksheets for Macie.  She also has a behavioral chart for Macie, which is a whole other story  and a folder with a calender that I am supposed to sign and stamp every day for Macie, an almost perfect replication of her teacher's homework folder and behavioral chart. anyway, Don found one of Chloe's homemade worksheets in which she wrote this question:
I have ______  penices.
(translation: I have ___ pennies.)

story 4: we had the missionaries over for dinner last week.  Don told me they were coming at 5:15 PM. well 5:40 rolled around so I asked Don if they had called and canceled.  "No, "he said. "They are actually coming at 5:45 PM. I lied to you."  Which really made me laugh.  And has made me realize I really need to work on my punctuality.  

Baby Oscar-almost 4 months

2 things.
First thing.  I gave the girls an hour to pick up all their junk strewn about the house, and said whatever wasn't picked up, was going into the attic. Well, they didn't do a single thing. So without warning when the hour was up, I began collecting all their beloved toys.  Chloe began weeping and wailing.  And Macie, pretended to sympathize with Chloe, but in reality didn't care one smithereens, she was actually rather jovial about it all. Maybe she realized I was doing them a favor by giving them less things to make a mess with! ; ) Anyway, Macie did tell me I was being a "teeny weeny mean" and held up her fingers about an inch apart to illustrate.

Second thing. Chloe watched Toy Story 3 yesterday. When it was over she came into my room with a quivering chin and told me that she didn't want to grow up.  She went on about how much she loves her toys and that she doesn't want to forget how much she loved playing with them...and how she doesn't want to go away to college..and that she wants to be 6 forever, that was the perfect age in her opinion because she was still little enough to still play with all her toys but big enough to be independent.  It was a really heartbreaking conversation because I knew what she was trying to express-it's that bitter sweet feeling that comes along with growing up.  She understands that she is a child, and that she likes being a child, but that everyone grows up and changes and so will she, and that makes her sad.  She has always had a great sense of self and makes keen observations of the world around her.  Anyway, the whole conversation brought out those feelings that I always have at the back of my mind, the fleetingness of childhood and this desperate desire to cherish every moment of their sweet innocence.  As soon as she left the room, I cried for a half an hour.  Don walked in and I am sure wondered what in the world was wrong with me!  I am sure he found it odd that in the middle of folding laundry I was crying thinking about how I never want my children to grow up!  Or maybe it was just the 8 loads of laundry that I am behind on. Ya, that's go with that.

This is Halloween, This is Halloween

 Halloween.  Umm. I thought it was a little sad this year.  But hopefully the kids didn't think so.  Chloe had a "Fall" party at school. Um. Lame.  I took macie to music makers, that was really fun.  Annnnnnddd...once again no sign that Oscar was there looking adorable in his Olaf hat.  Oh by the way, it was HOT on Halloween.  I was sweating. At night.  I think that is a crime. And the only pictures of the actual night I got after the fact, at Amy Paun's house,

 by the way, I DID NOT make this cape.  Amy Paun did. she felt sorry for my pitiful attempt at a cape so she made me this one. Now that is a true friend. chloe wanted a white strip in her hair for authenticity.  The only thing I could think of was Desitin, so Chloe went around the whole night smelling like a diaper.

So we decided to stick around our neighborhood this year. Which I thought was super sad.  There are hardly any children in our neighborhood, so a lot of people had their lights off, and there were hardly any kids in costumes walking the streets.  so then we headed to the church for the trunk or treat.  Which was better, there were more people, but still the girls friends weren't really there, so then we did a little more trick or treating around the church neighborhood, but same thing as ours, just not a highly populated kid area. So then we headed back home and sat outside because the girls were tired and wanted to hand out candy.  There were only 2 groups that came by for candy. Then Amy Paun invited us over for some big candy bars, the girls fell asleep on the 5 minute drive over there.  So we stayed a little and talked with them, and that was fun.  I just felt bad that the kids didn't have the Halloween that I remember with lots of trick or treating with friends.  Oh well.  I think I was more disappointed than they were!  I think I am going to have to get them all dressed up again so I can get a picture with them and Oscar.

Disneyland part 2

 The girls and their Disney lollipops. Don told them to not eat them, but to hang them up in their rooms like trophies.  You can imagine how fun it is to supervise that,

 In other news, I cut my hair after our trip.  I don't love it.  But I hate it less than doing my longer hair.  I was so tired of my hair making me feel hot.

 okay, back to Disneyland.
So day 3 we did California Adventures.  It was much less crowded there.  Grandma and Grandpa came again and so did Oscar.  And where are all my pictures of Oscar? He is such a 3rd child. Grandpa bought the girls these cool light up necklaces.

we spent a good amount of time in Bug's Life.  Lines were short, and kids could do everything in there.

 Oh there's Oscar! Oscar did so well on the trip.  He is so much happier being out and about than stuck at home.  He loved being pushed around in his stroller and all the attention he got from Grandma from Grandpa.

I put him in his Olaf hat the first morning, but it was way too hot for him to wear.  He got a lot of attention in his Olaf hat, and darnit Melissa, why didn't you get a picture?!

 At the Halloween party, We followed the parade and I had the girls wave and pretend to be part of the parade.  They loved the parades.  Macie said she would rather watch the parade than go on that "scary fast train."  Macie hated Thunder Mountain.  we made her go on it twice and both times she bawled for ten minutes after the ride was over.  Every ride she asked a few questions.  Is it fast or slow? And does it go down?  She did not want to go on any rides that were fast.  Or that went down.  Her favorite rides were the Winnie the Pooh ride and the caterpillar ride at California Adventures.  She also really liked Soaring over California and the Jungle Cruise.

 This was before Chloe had her autograph book stolen,

playing with parasols before Halloween party. They wanted to take them to the party, but I made them leave them behind out of fear that they would constantly be hitting people with them. It's a good thing, they probably would have been stolen along with the stroller.

These pictures are all out of chronological order, this was on Halloween night.  The barbershop quartet sang spooky songs on a dimly lit raft on the hazy pond in Fronteirland. It was so cool.

we must have not taken any pictures in California Adventures.  we had a really fun day there.  We had lunch in Cars land at a fun 50's style restaurant.  We spent some time with Julie's family in the afternoon.  California closed at 8 so we headed to Disneyland that closed at 9 pm.  Chloe, Wyatt and me went on thunder mountain one last time.  And then we headed out, our time at the parks done.  We were all tired, but it was still sad to realize it was over!  I know the girls were sad, especially Chloe.

Friday Grandma and Grandpa left.  We headed over to San Diego with Greg and Kirsten and spent some time at the beach with the California cousins. The girls made sand castles and played in the water.  After that we had some delicious chinese food and then we all headed back to the hotel.

Saturday we packed up, went to downtown Disney, and then headed out, back home to Arizona.
we have been home  week, I am still behind in laundry and homework! But it was worth it.  So many fun memories.

ps on an unrelated side note...Macie had some french toast with her syrup.

Disneyland!

we have been looking forward to our Dinsey trip for a long time.  We didn't do any trips this past year because I was busy  having a baby.  Don's brother arranged the whole trip and invited all the family to come along.  It ended up being us and his parents and his sister Julie's family.  we had a fantastic trip, returning home we had that day after Christmas feeling.  Good thing the holidays are coming up, that at least helped me not feel so sad about our long anticipated trip being over.

Here we are are the tram, returning back to our car to drive home.  Chloe was so sad about leaving. However our trip home was delayed an hour because our car battery died.

Here we are at Downtown Disney, saying goodbye to our family from Utah.

These girls loved playing together,  Macie and Lyla got to know eachother better and are best friends now.

Our last night at Disneyland, we bought the girls these dolls, courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.  Lyla got an Elsa doll too, the girls loved playing with their dolls together.

Grandma and Grandpa made the trip so special.  They were incredibly helpful and it was a huge treat to have them with us.

Chloe rode the Cars ride three times.  It was her favorite ride.  That and thunder mountain. She was afraid to go on Thunder Mountain the first time, but after she went on it, it became her favorite ride, I think we did it 4 times.  Macie even liked the Car ride, she thought it was a little scary, but she must have liked it, because I got her to go on it twice.

I have no idea why there is a stamp on the side of this picture.

Macie loved this ride.

Chloe did not like Splash Mountain. I bribed her with more spending money if she went on it.

So our trip consisted of: Monday night: stayed the night with family friend Mona, who treated us like royalty. Grandma and Grandpa stayed too.  The girls were in awe of her house which is covered with collectibles and antiques.
Tuesday morning: woke up early and made it over to Disneyland.  Discovered that Disneyland in the Fall is still busy.  First made our way over to Fantasy Land to do some kiddie stuff.  we met up with Greg and Kirsten and spent the day together.  Even the babies were able to go on some rides.  I tried my first Dole whip.  And my first Disneyland corn dog.  Don finished my corn dog while I left for a few minutes to attend business, when I came back I said, "hey! you ate all my corn dog." and Don said, "trust me, you'd rather be in your position than in mine right now."  Which I guess was true.  It left room for my dole whip. Which by the way, I didn't think was the most amazing thing I have ever tried in my life, which I heard it was life changing.  The line for the dole whip was ridiculously long too!
The coolest thing I discovered about Disneyland was their Mother's room, which I had no idea existed.  I felt like I was going back in time, when it was probably different to have babies. ie: Did mothers nurse in public? (probably not) and a time when cloth diapers were the norm.  This building had large changing tables, a basin for washing out cloth diapers (ick), 2 small toilets which might have been Macie's favorite thing about the whole trip (I have never seen a kid so excited to go to the bathroom), and a room with curtained areas to nurse your baby.
We had a lot of fun Tuesday, our first day there.  We took the bus from the hotel over to Disneyland that morning, and I wish I had taken a picture, the girls were beaming with anticipation and excitement.
Other Highlights of Tuesday: Jugle Cruise (Macie wanted to ride it again, we all got to go on that one together), the night parade, Star Tours (Macie actually liked that one too), girls getting personalized pink parasols courtesy of Grandpa Joe, no wait time on Thunder Mountain and convincing Chloe to go on it, and her LOVING it.

We checked into our amazing hotel that night, and had no problem falling asleep that night.

Wednesday: we had a free morning.  We bought tickets to the Halloween Disneyland party, so we had to wait until 3 pm to get into the park.  In the morning the girls went swimming in the hotel pool, and we just relaxed.  Lyla borrowed Macie's swimming suit, she went to the bathroom to change, and when she came out Macie said, "Wow Lyla! That looks really good on you!" It really cracked Don and me up.
We headed over to Disneyland at 3 pm, and excitement was in the air!  everyone was showing up in their costumes,  There were A LOT of Elsas and Annas.  I had bought Chloe a Princess autograph book and she was anxious to fill it up.  We found Micky and Minnie  near the front of the park.  Chloe wanted me to ask for their autographs.  Oh, and Wednesday, the babies stayed back at the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa, so we were thinking that we could really take advantage of our baby free night at the park. ha. That's funny now.  Because early into our day, around 5 PM, Greg and Kirsten's stroller was stolen outside of Star Tours. We had seen the parade (again, and this time we had front row seats and the girls were able to wave at Anna and Elsa, which was so exciting for the girls.  Chloe was so excited that Anna swished her braids around, acknowledging Chloe's imitation braids) By the way, the Elsa/Anna hysteria at Disneyland is insane,  You have to get a fast pass to meet them, and they sold out of fast passes for the day by 10:30.  So I really made a big deal of seeing on the parade float, because we were not able to get the fast pass to meet them.

Back to the stroller incidence.  We went on the Buzz lightyear ride by Star Tours, and Greg and Kirsten left all their stuff on their stroller.  Luckily Don took our backpack, but I did leave our trick or treat bags on the stroller, with Chloe's autograph book and my sunglasses and hat.  When we got off the ride, we made the unfortunate discovery that the stroller was gone.  It took a few minutes for us to realize that it had not been accidentally misplaced, but had been stolen.  We felt awful for Greg and Kirsten.  They spent the next few hours filling out police reports and walking around with the keystone cops, ie Disney security.  Later that evening they got a call from Rey and Mary, that a lady had dropped off a bag at the hotel that she had found at Disneyland.  she had seen the hotel keys, so she found the hotel and dropped it off at the front desk.  The thieves were so kind to give them back their wallets, sans cash, and their car keys.  Oh and my hat and sunglasses, which actually really made me laugh.  But they kept everything else including chloe's autograph book, Lyla's Elsa and Anna barbies, Greg's nice sweatshirt, and of course the $400 stroller.  the whole thing was so infuriating and it took a few hours for us all to decide to let it go and not let it ruin the rest of the trip.  When someone steals from you, you just lose faith in humanity for a little bit.  I mean, what kind of a person do you have to be, to steal from children? Instead of spending the night with their daughter, they were dealing with the crap of the world.  We still managed to have some fun, but man, I think the night would have been so much better had that not happened.

During the stroller aftermath, we were able to meet some villains.  Chloe was really scared to meet them.  I thought the villains were so fun to meet.  They did a great job being in character.  Cruella asked Chloe and Macie if they had any puppies.  They said no, and she said, "Well I have nothing else to say to you then."
I overheard the ugly stepsisters, but didn't get to meet them, they were my favorite. They were so funny.  They had the laugh and the voices down perfectly.  A girl dressed up like Cinderella came to meet them and they started saying, "Oh Cinderella, did you know the cat came back? Ya Lucifer is back...." I want that job at Disneyland.

Maleficent was awesome too.  We also hung out a bit with Kirsten sister and her family.  Her daughter was dressed like Maleficent and when the real Maleficent saw her she said, "Finally. someone who knows how to dress for a party."

This is us at the parade, before the stroller was stolen.

Notice my hat and sunglasses. I just can't figure out why they didn't want them?

The girls and their fancy parasols. You see that cape Chloe is wearing? I made it.  And it took me like 6 hours and 3 attempts.  and it STILL was sub par.

We stopped for a little Mary Poppins show the first day.

The girls got a lot of compliments on the Target Elsa and Anna dresses.

Disneyland is really cool during the Halloween party.  they really do a great job making things look spooky but fun.  We had left our stroller at the hotel thinking we could all just share Greg's stroller, so unfortunately when that was stolen, we had a lot of really tired kids. Once again, super crappy thing to do, steal from kids.