The Many Outfits of Halloween

So here we have the "I love my mummy" outfits. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Those kids are too young to buy their own clothes. That means their vain mother purchased those for them." And you are right. And they do love me. Too much at times.

The good witch Natalie.

Jansen's teeth before Halloween sugar overload attacked them. I think he actually only had 2 suckers and a Tootsie roll tonight. Not bad. On our way to have hot dogs and visit at the bishop's house. Isn't it nice the way I'm clutching poor Natalie?
Happy Halloween everyone!

Natalie's Blessing

We blessed Natalie on Sunday. I have been so excited to post these pictures because I think she looked so beautiful and it was such a special day. Nate did an excellent job...ask anyone who was there. I love how much he loves his little girl.

Getting ready for the big day!

Love my daddy!Happy girl
Kisses
Not so sure about my mommy
Not very ladylike!

Jansen loves pictures

That's the Columbus temple in the background...Natalie is not happy

Trunk or Treat, Smell My Feet

I think I must have pulled Kiki from some burning wreckage in another life because she is ALWAYS doing such nice things for me. She must owe me big time. As many of you know, Jansen is not fond of costumes, but Kiki had the great idea of making him a costume out of a T-shirt so that he would feel more "normal." She created an adorable superman shirt complete with cape and even made one for little Natalie. THANK YOU KIKI. We had to do some adjusting to Natalie's...she is wearing some 6 month onesies these days! It definitely went over a lot better than the monkey and lion costumes I tried to get him to wear. So here we are at the ward trunk or treat (everyone decorates a door in the church and hands out candy and the kids go around and trick or treat and show off their costumes.)

Super Natalie!

Not liking the Hot Tamales

Showing off the loot

Giving peacock Lincoln a hug

One big happy trick or treating family

Chuck E Cheese

I'm getting pretty creative with my titles lately aren't I? Bet you can't guess where these photos were taken! Yep, Chuck E Cheese. Nate is studying about infectious diseases right now so we thought, what better time to go to Chuck E Cheese? Diseases galore! Jansen was very cautious and frankly just not interested in most of the games. He had fun watching me and Nate play though. I think we burned like 100 tokens in a little over an hour. (If you ever go out there, print out the emailed coupon from their website!) Natalie was great...I think she was in over-stimulation-land. There was a little girl there that thought Natalie was so cute and she asked me, "Is this her first day? Or is it her second?" She was basically wondering if Natalie was born that day. I thought it was pretty funny.

Taking Some Time to Enjoy Fall

Crazy Nights

Some nights are pretty crazy. And they usually don't include many hours of consolidated sleep. Here's how Tuesday night went.

11:10 pm I think Natalie is in a deep enough sleep to lay her down in the Pack n Play. I'm successful so I crawl into bed and fall asleep immediately.

1:45 am I hear Jansen crying for me. I wait a minute or two and he is still going strong so I head in there and tickle his back and help him fall back asleep. I decide to leave him before he's all the way asleep so that I can check on Natalie. Jansen begins crying as soon as I leave.

1:50 am Natalie is still asleep so I go back in Jansen's room and this time I stay until he is all the way asleep.

1:55 am When I get back to our room, Natalie is stirring and waking up a few minutes later. I feed her and settle in on the recliner with her so that she will sleep longer.

4:00 am I wake up and see what time it is...Nate is still not home from work (he had left at 2 in the afternoon that day) so I call him on his cell phone. I hear it vibrating and see him sit up in bed to answer it. Oh...so he was home. I just couldn't see him from the recliner.

5:40 am Jansen wakes up. He is calling for "mommy" just like he does every morning.

5:55 am I need to go get Jansen but can't decide what to do with Natalie who is asleep in my arms. I don't want to wake Nate up because he got home at 3 in the morning and if I put Natalie down she'll wake up. She ends up waking up on her own and I head to Jansen's room.

6:00 am We begin our day. I am exhausted from nights and nights of this. But I have good day with my beautiful kids and Nate is home studying. It definitely could have been a lot worse. No one was throwing up, there isn't a wildfire at our back door, etc. Life is never dull!

Another Eventful Day

Jansen loaded his sippy cups into the dishwasher today.

Peek-a-boo!

Finally Got Some Time to Put These Pictures Up!

It's so hard to find a free minute these days to blog and I hate that. So this will be short and sweet since I want to get it posted before Christmas. Jansen officially hates his costume(s) and to his delight I returned the lion one. It's looking like he will just wear a Halloween shirt...unless he's really inspired on Halloween by everyone else's costumes and in that case we'll borrow one from Kiki probably. These cookie pictures are from last week when we had Jansen's friend Aiden over who also hates his costume. We wanted to see if they would put their costumes on for each other and hopefully start getting excited for Halloween. It was a no go for both of them, but they loved decorating the cookies!

And then there was THE HALLOWEEN PARTY! A really fun night. A bunch of couples from the ward came over to our house and we ate great food and played some fun games. Nate dressed up as a pirate and I was a treasure chest...complete with a padlock on my necklace and seashells all over. I had to change my shirt a little while into the party because Natalie wasn't too fond of being snuggled against a starfish. Here are some pictures:

Natalie's Smile

Natalie has been smiling for a week or two now and I kind of caught some of them on camera. Some of the pictures are not the best quality, but you can still see her cute little smile so I wanted to use them. It seems like Nate is the best at getting her to smile...probably because he smiles a lot naturally. It's so hard for me to believe that someone so little can be so socially responsive already. She has been SO much better lately (referring to her fussiness). She loves the little vibrating bouncer we got her and it is the BEST $25 I ever spent. I swear she is internally programmed to go to sleep at 11:00 pm...she just fights sleep until then...but after that the nights aren't too bad. And it has given me an excuse to stand and dance her to sleep while watching strange shows on TLC (Brookhaven Obesity Clinic).

Train Tracks

I hope you will all forgive me for being a proud parent for a moment. Jansen loves to sit in the highchair and color with markers. It has been such a lifesaver to help him stay occupied! Lately he wants Nate and me to draw pictures for him (trucks, train tracks, trains, circles, etc.) which is wonderful...for the first 50 trains or so. He never wants us to stop! But it gets boring and the house and Natalie need my attention too so I have really been encouraging him to "draw" stuff on his own. Yesterday we found this on his paper:

He said they were train tracks! I was so proud of him and I think he did a great job. He just may be our budding artist!

Pumpkin Time!

We carved some pumpkins last night for our Family Home Evening activity. Jansen was disgusted at first by the pumpkin innards but he eased up and eventually helped us empty them. I roasted the seeds this morning and he really liked those. He wanted a Thomas the Train pumpkin (way too hard) but Nate did a Thomas sort of face on one of the pumpkins and hopefully that will suffice. I don't think he's even seen it yet because we had to carve the pumpkins after he went to sleep. He didn't like to see us cutting them. I can understand that I guess!

The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

Jansen saw Nate chewing some gum yesterday. This isn't the first time he's spotted us, but we usually just distract him or give him something else to eat. I guess Nate felt it was time to introduce Jansen to the wonderful world of gum (I'm fine with it). Jansen chewed this piece for a little bit but I am not sure where it ended up exactly. I am about 90% sure it's in his tummy.

Sunday Best

Now let's get one thing straight. By "Sunday Best" I do not mean the way that my children behaved in church yesterday. Oh the adventure that church has become!

But I wanted to get a picture of Jansen and Natalie dressed for church since most pictures of them are in diapers or pajamas. I wanted one of them together but that just didn't work out for reasons spelled j-a-n-s-e-n. And of course Jansen is posing by his train set...the eternal backdrop for all photos of him it seems. And Natalie is...well...just posing in that last picture. I just love them.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Today is Nate's 27th birthday. I have been reading several blogs lately about wonderful husbands having birthdays...so here's another one! I love to hear about these great guys and how sweet they are to their wives, children, etc. Nate is certainly no exception. I also love to think about how these men started out as little boys and how they all turned into such loving, responsible, hard working, righteous people. Below is a picture of Nate when he was a little boy. I hope I can raise Jansen to be as amazing as his father.

And for the grandmas and other family members...here are more pictures of the quickly growing Natalie!

Tub Time

Natalie loves her baths. If she is crying or fussing and we turn on the water she stops almost immediately. She is starting to splash a little bit with her legs, but mostly she just lays there while I pour warm water over her again and again and again. I remember before I had any children and before I was even married I think, I always looked forward to holding my kids wrapped in their towels right after a bath. It's the best! Jansen on the other hand is not loving his baths. But he's going through a stage where he really doesn't like anything besides cookies and trains. His latest saying is, "Don't talk!" How cute right?!