The Children's Museum

A few weeks ago, Lois and I went to the Children's Museum and Lois loved it! I got the camera out at the end of our time there, so all I took were some shots of her in the fire engine and on the police motorcycle.  She loved that fire engine.  I couldn't get her to leave! Maybe it's because her great grandpa was a fire fighter!  :)

  Look at Lois looking at me like I'm a crazy lady.  I guess I better get used to that.

 Gotta love that face - what you lookin' at, mom?

 She's attempting a silly face in this picture.  I think it's pretty hilarious!

The motorcycle had a button that sounded a siren and Lois thought it was a little too loud, so she kept plugging her ears.  

She's pretty cute, huh?  I think so, too.

Halloween

Well, although it's like WAY late in the game, I thought I should still post some pictures from Halloween!  The candy-licious holiday was a hit for our lady Lois, I mean...our little Snow White this year, and I still can't get over how cute she was saying, "Trick or Treat!"  And then promptly saying, "Oh, thank you!!"  It melted my heart. 

A little story about our strong-willed Lois...she had been planning on being a fairy for Halloween for quite some time before the day rolled around.  I had bought this darling costume for her from Gymboree, complete with pink polka dot tights and a darling little fairy hair accessory.  She seemed really excited about it - until I actually tried to put it on her.  Slight problem, right?  She kept saying it was "too tight" - because, you know, leotards are form fitting.  She was not digging it.  But I thought the enticement of candy might help when it came to push or shove.  So I didn't worry about it.  

Fast forward to the Thursday night before Halloween, Jason and I were out shopping at Savers for some costume wear and I saw a used Snow White costume on the rack for $5.99.  Seeing as I'm an absolute genius and a mother of an opinionated child, I snatched it up knowing that she'd love it to dress up in - and here's the big genius moment: IF (insert: WHEN) the fairy costume was a serious no-go, it would give her another option for Halloween festivities. 

As soon as Lois saw it, she put it on and refused to even go near her cute little fairy costume.  A sad, yet successful moment for mom, but a happy moment for Snow White!  If I do say so myself, she made a perfect little Snow White even though she wouldn't let me put the cute little red bow in her hair!  Stinker.    Anyway, I'm glad that I had that stroke of genius - otherwise I'm sure there would have been many, many tears and tantrums due to a lovely fairy costume.  Like I said, I'm a genius.  HA!  :-)

 Jason and I decided to dress up as Dwight and Angela from the sitcom, The Office.  Many people "got" our costumes and there were many that were super puzzled.  Note to self:  Not everyone are The Office fans.  Noted.

We attended our Trunk or Treat at our ward on Friday night and Lois had a blast.   

 Here she is in the jumping castle, which is literally a parent's worst nightmare when your two-year-old daughter is jumping in there with rowdy tweens who don't give a darn about your child's precious head.  

 I think she was sick of me wanting to take her picture.  "Cheese??"

 The one and only, Dwight Shrute.

 Angela was mourning the loss of her cat Sprinkles, so she wore cat ears in remembrance of her.  If you watch the show, you know that Dwight killed her cat.  I'm so clever, huh?

 Lois in the back of the car for Trunk or Treat-ing.

Oh, gosh.  That wig.  If only I had a normal sized head...I had to buy a Hannah Montana wig in order for it to fit my head.  Almost as horrifying as having to buy GapKid beanies.  Sigh.

 On Sunday, we carved our pumpkins and Lois had a blast with daddy!

 Nice face, Jason!  Or should I say, Dr. Jason?  He takes his job very seriously.

 This was Lois' fifth sucker of the day, which provided an extra enthusiastic CHEEEEEESE!!  And blessed be those who came up with SMALL dum-dums.  Genius!

 Lois' scary face

 And of course, she wanted a picture with mommy and her scary face.

On Sunday, we sat in some lawn chairs in front of our house and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters.  Lois got to visit a few houses as well to get some more loot in her purple pumpkin.  She was certainly the "belle of the ball."

Disneyland in a Flash

My friend Addie and I went rogue, ditched our husbands and took our girls to Disneyland for a few days. What a trip! We were packed to the gills in Addie's car - complete with our little ladies, delicious food, lots of snacks and plenty of DVD's for the girls to watch! We left on Sunday night, which was great since the girls slept most of the way. We arrived in Anaheim at around midnight, checked into our hotel and went to Disneyland on Monday (10/11). Disneyland was packed, but we still had such a fun time being at the "happiest place on earth."

Although it was Lois' first time to visit the magic land, she was still a little too young to be "too excited to sleep" - if you know what I mean - but she still had fun. Some things that Lois loved were riding Dumbo and going on the It's a Small World ride. She also loved the princess performance where all the Disney princesses came out and taught the audience of children how to twirl and curtsy like a true, proper princess!

Things she didn't like too much? Um, what about Pirates of the Caribbean, where mommy quickly learned that underground pirates and spooky music don't exactly suit the likings of a young toddler. Whoops! Poor girl. She spent the entire ride with her face dug into my chest. Perhaps we'll have to try that one again in a few years.

And now, some pictures! YAY!

Here are the girls waiting for the Disneyland shuttle at our hotel. Callie, at age 5, was especially excited about the upcoming events of the day!

We got in trouble for not waiting in line to take a picture in front of the pumpkin Mickey. But we prevailed and still got a shot in before she could kick us out! HA! Take that, LINE lady!

Here they are in front of the princess castle - they were checking out a huge turtle swimming in the mote.

They're cute, huh?

Lois was refusing to look at the camera. She was done being told what to do that day.

Here's Addie and her girls on the Carousel. I tried to get a good picture of Lois, but I was feeling a little nauseous going around and around. Must be the pregnancy!

WE LOVE DUMBO! My earliest recollection of this ride is when I, as a little six-year-old girl, visited Disneyland for the first time and we were forced to wait 2.5 hours to ride Dumbo because Preston (my little brother) just had to ride it. It was, after all, his favorite movie. Thankfully, there was not a 2.5 hours wait this time around, and Lois was in heaven flying the friendly skies.

TEACUPS! Lois loved this one, too. We were doing some serious spinning!

Addie and her cute girls

Here's the princess show...the girls were enamored!

Isn't this so precious? Avery and Lois are two peas in a pod. Unless they are fighting over a toy. Oh, the fickleness of toddlerhood!

Can you see Lois twirling up front? My favorite thing about this while thing was that she just pushed her way right up to the front and didn't think twice about it! She focused on her princesses, found her way to the front and proceeded to mimic everything they did. She makes me laugh. And she's really cute.

Nothing like some Mary Poppins to brighten your day! As Lois likes to call it, "Pop Pop!" I thought it was hilarious that Mary did not have a microphone. She must have the looks but not the voice to match. No one can beat Julie Andrews.

We had to get a picture in front of Tinkerbell's house, of course! Lois was loving that map.

Waiting for the fireworks to start...Lois was not too happy about it, either. I think she was just a little beyond worn out and had some severe mood swings. That wasn't so awesome. But she did get a collection of Princesses - so that helped a little.

The nice man from Utah whom we asked to take our picture forgot to include Callie in his photog skills (she's down by Addie's arm) - Too bad, huh? It could have been a good one.

After the fireworks, we bid Mickey farewell and we headed back to the hotel.

We slept in on Tuesday, packed up the car and headed home around noon. Thanks for the fun trip, girls! Wanna join us next time?

And that, my friends, is how you do Disneyland in a flash!

St. George-a-thon

Over conference weekend, we went to St. George so Jason could run the marathon and rendezvous with my family. It was a whirlwind weekend, but we really had such a blast! Thanks, mama and papa and family for driving down to hang out with us. Family is the best.

The brothers

Phoebe is quite possibly the cutest little rugrat I've ever seen. She's at such a cute age and I just wanted to eat her up. Seriously, look at that face!

Matching jammies never hurt anyone! Look at those grins. These ladies had a ball together. Especially with their adjoining rooms and plenty of beds to jump and play on.

Jason and his two high school buddies (Paul with Jason above, Chris is not pictured) ran the marathon. Jason had to stop at mile 18 because he couldn't stay hydrated, but we are SO proud of him regardless! And I'm just grateful he decided to be smart and stop when he knew he should. While he was super disappointed, we are grateful he's alive and well and that he ran 18 miles. I mean, come on. 18 miles is a lot! I'm praying he'll stick to half marathons from here on out. But I'm sure he'll want to go for it again.

Playing dress up and cheesin' it up.

Nice face, Lois. Did your mom forget to do your hair? Yep, I think she did. Lil' rag-a-muffin.

The three amigas

Not for long...because two boy cousins are scheduled to join the crew in the next six months!

And yes, that's right. We are having a BOY!

Durango

When we lived in Washington, DC, I worked for an office of the White House that focused on Hurricane Katrina matters. My boss was a wonderful man named Don Powell, the former Chairman of the FDIC and a true-blue Texan. When he invited us to come and spend the weekend in Durango at he and his wife's new place, we couldn't resist! So, we made the quick trek to Durango and we had a wonderful weekend catching up with old friends and enjoying the cool weather of the Rockies! It was also very fitting that we were there the weekend of the fifth anniversary of this awful natural disaster. It wasn't planned that way, it just worked out that way. Nice.

Here's most of the gang, minus Scott and Taylor.

The ladies of the weekend

Lois exploring in front of the house

Jason fulfilled a life-long dream of going gliding while we were there. Here's a shot of Durango valley while he was up gliding away...

Here he is being towed up

And here he is in the glider! I'm such a nice wife to let him do this, huh? :) It will have to suffice because I won't let him buy a motorcycle, take flying lessons, hang glide, etc. Maybe I'm not so nice. Hmm...

Our lovely hosts, Twanna & Chairman Powell walking with Lois in Ouray, CO! What a beautiful little town! We ate at a delicious mexican restaurant and perused the quaint shops.

Going for a walk - it was so chilly compared to our AZ weather! I was very ill equipped.

Taylor and the Chairman chatting away

Jason and Lois

And this was Lois' best friend of the weekend, Lizzie the shih tzu. She wouldn't leave that poor doggy alone! "Come here, Lizzie. Come here!" is all we heard all weekend.