Mixed Emotions

This is how Lauren and Gavin feel about the snow:

 

 

And this is how I feel:

The lovely fall weather was great while it lasted!

The Sparkly Shinin' Princess and a Growly Bear

The "Sparkly Shinin'" Princess

....and the growly bear!

Cousins make the best trick-or-treating companions.

Bobbing for donuts, Gavin had the right idea- just pull it off!

Lauren thought it was pretty fun.

"Singing" at her preschool parade. She wouldn't crack a smile or sing the whole time! Little stinker! :)

 We had a great Halloween! How about you?

Autos Anonymous

Hello, my name is Amy and I'm a car killer.


Update: The van is fixed. It wouldn't start leaving us stranded in a parking lot. But thankfully my sister came to rescue us. After replacing the starter, taking it back after the mechanic broke a solenoid...we have our "reliable" vehicle back. I must have jinxed it with my previous post. Seriously, but all's well that ends well! :P

Sassy Pants and Dapper Dude

Took some pictures the other day... this is what I got. Sums these two up just right! Now to pick some for the Christmas card.... :)

Transportation

I think I can safely say we now own reliable methods of transportation.

Introducing: Dash, a 2005 Honda Odyssey. Pretty sure this van was designed by a mom. It's awesome.

 And Big Truck-Truck, a 2003 Ford F250. It's HUGE! The acquisition of this vehicle was completely unexpected. A few weeks ago when Chase's grandparents were in town, Chase mentioned he was casually looking around for a bigger truck: one that he could haul drywall and cement to finish the yard and basement with. Lo and behold Papa was in the market for a smaller truck, like a Ford Ranger, that was sitting in our garage and he happened to own this nice F250. Papa was so generous to just swap trucks straight across! Chase couldn't stop smiling for days!

 So now he has his "man-card" back since his truck is now taller than the van. His manhood was in jeopardy for awhile since the van was taller than his truck. ;)

And not to be outdone... Gavin had to pull out his truck too. :)

Lauren is quite taken with this new Big Truck-Truck. 

We're sure feeling royally spoiled and blessed around here!

Big Kiddo, Little Kiddo

We've been watching Cinderella a lot lately. Lauren was dancing and asked if I would dance with her, I grabbed her hands and she said, "Phew! My prince is here. I'm the princess and you're my Prince Mommy!"

Playing the other day I was pretending to be asleep after spinning Lauren around... without skipping a beat she jumped on top of me and said "You wanna build a snowmaaan?" I had a good laugh.

Tub time is a favorite, especially when it involves bubble fights.

Even his sad face is cute...life is hard when you're little and get stuck behind the couch.

"I'm a good helper Mommy!" She thought the apples were magic that they turned into applesauce.

Playing at the park enjoying the fall weather. (Lauren did have fun. :P)

Whenever I'm carrying both of them Lauren tells me they're my two kiddos. A big kiddo and a little kiddo. :) Gavin really is a little kiddo, today at his well check appointment he'd dropped to the 8th percentile for weight, but jumped to the 32nd for height! Guess that's what happens when you live on crackers and cheese! Lauren, on the other hand, is already transitioning out of toddler clothes and into girls. Sad day.

Conglomerate Update

Gavin's walking! Has been for about a month now. It seems like one day he decided to let go of the furniture and the next he was running. He has a temper. For the most part he's pretty chill and content. But now he knows how to stomp his foot and scream, very loud. He's still a great sleeper, he hardly makes a peep when I lay him down. He just giggles and grins, grabs his blanket and rolls over.  I feel like he's grown up a ton these last few weeks. He doesn't seem like my little baby anymore. He has the cutest smile ever, it just makes me happy.

Lauren loves preschool for the most part. Today she didn't want to go because the other kids have giant hands. (?) Can't figure out that one. I was worried about melt-downs but she's done great! She's trying so hard to give up her daily nap. I don't think she needs one every day, but I can definitely tell that she needs one every few. She gets quite ornery when she doesn't have one for a few days! I'm quite sad that she's almost given them up.

My birthday was last Saturday. Chase's family took me out to breakfast, I went to lunch, shopped and Women's Conference with my mom, sisters, grandma and aunt. It was a great day! I was thoroughly spoiled by my family and good friends. Chase found me a patio umbrella for our picnic table. I'm excited to try it out. Maybe next year.

We've been canning up a storm this year. Pears, tomatoes, and salsa are done. Applesauce is tomorrow's project! I like seeing all our shelves full.

We found a reliable vehicle! We found one here in town that we liked fairly well, we just didn't like that we'd need to do some maintenance on it in the next few years and the leather was all cracked, but it was a good deal and had low miles so we thought we'd just go with it since we hadn't found anything else. But Chase looked online the day before we were supposed to buy the one in town and found an awesome one...in Provo. Long story short, I ended up going to Provo with my sister driving us and our three little kiddos, frantically trying to find the dealership and the bank before they closed. But we made it! We named the van Dash, since the first movie we watched in it was Incredibles and it was seriously a mad-dash to get it.

Chase's sister blessed their baby this past weekend so we had family in town. Chase's grandparents from Arizona stayed at our house and it was fun to see them again! I was glad Lauren was so excited to see them, it's hard to remember people when you're that little but she knew exactly who they were.

I've got a ton of sewing/craft projects on the docket... so many that I'm not sure where to start. So much fabric and so little time! I've got sewing ADD I think. Work for a few days on one project, then move to another so my sewing rooms ends up looking like a fabric store threw up. In my defense I'm trying really hard to use scraps and not buy any new fabric!