Carving Pumpkins

Time to carve pumpkins!

Dad and Grandpa did the actual knife work (and the loosening of the icky stuff inside) but the kids had fun watching.

Carving Pumpkins! It's not the most exciting video ever - but it's here. If you're silly enough to want to watch it, I don't want to hear any complaints! I warned you it was boring...

Gross!! She's actually touching it!!

Time to draw a face!

Shelly actually did pretty good all on her own with no coaching.

With a little instruction she drew a mouth that we can actually cut out.

Jason, on the other hand, still needs some practice.

At least he's intent on the project.

Daddy helping Shelly carve out the face she drew

Shelly helped me carve the one Jason drew on. Jason isn't that good an artist... We copied it from a book. I'm not that good a copier - sorry.

It needed some cleaning out

Jason 'carving' the pumpkin

Jason wanted to 'fix' the pumpkin, so he put some tape on its head like a bandaid.

Shelly 'carving' the pumpkin.

Emily was totally into it! So much so that she fell asleep.

Shelly with the finished product outside with candles! Exciting!!

And we're dressed and off to go get some candy! Sugar here we come!

Emily's First Cold

It's official. Emily has her first cold. Her poor nose is running and she's extra sensitive... I could post pictures, but that would require me to take them, which would require me to actually look at her nose - and I'd rather avoid that if possible. It's goopy and gross!!

So, as a consolation prize I'll put up a video from Disneyland on Monday night instead (which is probably where she got the cold from - see how they relate?).

We decided to have Family Night at Disneyland. Mom and Dad bought new passes (they claim it was so they could come with us before ours expire, but I think the real reason was to go on the Halloween Space Mountain...) So, we left after Dad got home from work, which wasn't until after 6. This is typically a cardinal sin for us. After work/school is when it gets busy, the kids get cranky, and it gets dark, we're tired from the day already and don't want to deal with kids, etc - but it turned out well! Mom and Dad took the kids while Mark and I went on Space Mountain and then we caught up with them about 10 seconds before they were loading into Finding Nemo, enjoyed the ride with them and then we went home. It was good! I'm not sure the grandparents were quite as excited about it, but I didn't hear any loud complaints... They took the kids on Honey I Shrunk the Audience and then to Buzz Lightyear and they watched a water show and then got in line for Finding Nemo where they did all the hard work and we got to reap the rewards of the ride without the pains of the line :)

So, on the way in we walked through Downtown Disney. Apparently in Downtown Disney at night there are several musicians who show off their skills. Shelly was having a blast enjoying said skills and wanted to show off some of her own... Here she is rocking out to one of them. It took me a few minutes to decide it was worth it to video - I kept thinking she'd stop as soon as I got the camera out. Instead she hammed it up once she saw it...

Sorry for the poor videography. I was walking.
Somehow this was much funnier in person...

This was the only way to keep Jason in the stroller on our way out to the car. I gave him sunglasses. It was 9:00 at night. It was dark. I don't think he could see a thing. He loved it! He's insane. It's going to be a sad day when they diagnose him... I guess I'll just enjoy it until then.
(Thanks for the sunglasses Becca! They've come in handy a time or two...)

Um, yeah - she didn't last too long on her dad's comfy shoulder!
To her credit she'd been awake almost 3 hours, jostled around almost the whole time, traumatized by loud sounds and bright lights, and left without food for a good length of time while Mark and I were in line for Space Mountain (we realized a few minutes in that she hadn't eaten since before her nap that we woke her up from to come...)

First Night in the Crib

Emily spent her first night in the crib - she's growing up...



Emily spent her first night in the crib - she's growing up...

Shelly's 1st Hair Cut

It's official. Shelly has had a hair cut! I couldn't take it anymore! A person should only be expected to put up with so much! Those ends were horrible and hideous and a pain and a half to brush! They're gone now.

Here's the 'before'

Here's the fed-up mom trying desperately to get a decent cut with a horrible pair of scissors (they came with our clippers, and we've never used them before. I doubt we'll ever use them again - they were not good!!) Yes, I had already put her hair up in a half pony tail. That didn't stop me. I was quite bugged ... I mean 'determined' ... yea, that's what I meant. Determined. I'll stick with that.

The end result - after realizing that there was no way anyone would even notice that it wasn't a straight cut.

Here's what I cut off. It doesn't look like much, but it's so nice to have it gone!! Normally I'd say 'We'll miss you. Be sure to write.' But I'm not going to miss this - so I don't want to give it any ideas about trying to write... Don't mention it to them when you see them either. I'll know it was you!




Wow - I really need to get more sleep at night! That was a bit out of control.

Quote of the Day

[Shelly's holding a toy elephant]
Mark: Who's that?
Shelly: Beedee (we have no idea what she actually said)
Mark: Beedee?
Shelly: Yup. He's my brother
Mark: Oh?
Shelly: Yep, and I'm his mom.
[Insert Mark deciding he was tired because he was laughing so hard]

It's entirely possible you had to be there to find this funny...

Another D-Land Trip

We made it to D-land for the first time since Emily was born. It was rather fun! We're planning on going back again sometime soon.

I took Shelly and Jason on the Carousel while Mark stayed with the sleeping Emmie
Mark took the kids on Dumbo while I fed the baby.
Hah! Suckers, waiting in line...
I hear it was worth it
Here's Emily (and Shelly's back) on Small World. We're pretending she liked it... We're also pretending those cheeks are blimps and she can get airborn if we fill them with hot air. Not sure which of those pretendings will land her in protective custody, but we're keeping them both a secret. Don't tell.
Jason and Shelly trying to put with the folks wanting them to pretend they're in jail. It only kinda worked...
Driving. In Toon Town. In a pretend car. That crashed into a mail box. Pretty sure we're not letting either of them behind the wheel of a real car anytime soon.
Pretend you can actually see Shelly in there. Not sure why her hand is coming out the nose. I just hope it's not a habit that picks - I mean sticks...
Here's Jason. At least he's only poking the guys eye out.

School Pictures!

After spending the last week or so mostly pent up in the house trying to get stuff done (mostly failing, but that's not the point) we were ready to take a break from being inside and decided to take a walk. Grammy's co-workers hadn't seen the baby yet, and I'd been informed that they were anxious for a peek, so we decided it would be fun to take a jaunt over to visit. Out came the triple stroller that we're in love with (it's actually a two seater with a sit/stand part in the back) and - after some drama of who got to sit where - off we went. Amazingly enough the kids both stayed in the stroller the whole time! Usually they like to walk, but apparently the drama of the morning subdued them (see previous post). Once we got there we were informed that it was school picture day. Grammy thought it would be fun to have pictures of the kids taken. I had to scramble to clean Shelly's face from her 'breakfast' and try to tame some of the wispy hairs from her braid. I was glad that they had gotten clean shirts that morning at least, and the shirts were even sort-of picture ok even! We'll see what turns out... :)