The Elephant and the Peanut

We'll take more pictures tonight, but I thought you all needed a little Halloween cheer from the Blockburgers. Happy Halloween!

Julia's Song

This is part two of Kim's request, since she did ask for video of the girlS.

Today at Julia's preschool the kids went on a little Halloween Walk/Parade for the office workers at the church and the Happy Diners, which is a group of senior citizens who eat lunch together everyday at the church. (As an aside, I told our 95-year-old downstairs neighbor that Julia's preschool would be doing this today, and he made it a point to be there. He's our surrogate grandpa/great-grandpa.) They even learned a special song for the occasion, and we've been practicing all week.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

She is, indeed, wearing her swimsuit cover-up. She loves that thing and treats it like a robe these days.

Ella's Tricks

As per Kim's request, here is a video of Ella and her latest tricks.

We start out with some animal sounds, and then move on to body part identification. Finally, I try to get her to say some words, which is harder than you'd think. She doesn't say them on cue very well, it's all about spontaneity with her. But she does manage a few on camera. Like I said before, if you didn't know that's what she was saying, it certainly wouldn't sound like the word. Lots of "wah" and "daa," that sort of thing. But I speak Ella-ese, so at least I know what she's saying.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

My Imaginary Robbery

Last night I was startled awake at 11:30 by what I thought was a man in a plaid shirt, walking by our room. I, of course, had a silent little freak-out session in bed, before I realized that I had not seen a man in a plaid shirt walk by our room, because there is no way I could have seen anything to that degree of detail in the dark without my glasses on. It was all a figment of my imagination.

Let me take a moment to say that the number of times I have woken up in the night CERTAIN that someone was robbing my house is ridiculous. Has my house ever been robbed? No. Have I ever lived in a neighborhood that is particularly dangerous? No. One time, when I was a teenager, I'm pretty sure I laid in bed for 1/2 hour, my heart pounding, trying to keep as still as possible, waiting for the intruder to leave. And then it took every ounce of courage inside of me to slowly pick up my glasses and slide them onto my face. And then I saw that I had been hiding all this time from the closet. The closet. Not a madman come to murder me in my bed, a closet. Ridiculous.

So, back to our story. Clark left for work this morning to find the front door open a crack. It had been open all night long.

Cue a second little freak-out session.

Julia was playing down there yesterday, and we must have forgotten to close the door. Or there really was a man in a plaid shirt in my house last night! You wouldn't even know if we'd been robbed, our house is such a mess right now! But don't worry, nothing of value is missing. Just a few puzzle pieces. However I'm pretty sure the culprit of that crime is less than 3 feet tall and doesn't own a plaid shirt.

Piggies!

We have hair long enough for piggies!

On this day, at least, she definitely looks like a girl.

Family Pictures

I've had a request for family pictures. I feel so honored to have an actual request! (Note to all readers: if you request it, it will come.)

Here are our pictures from way back in June. If we're related and you'd like a copy to hang up on your fridge, you just let me know. Or you could possibly wait until Christmas, when we will possibly send out a Christmas card. But then again, we might not. I have last year's Christmas card right here, saved in the drafts of my emails, pictures and everything. Never sent it to a soul. If you'd like to read that, request it, it will come.

Smatterings

It would appear that I haven't blogged much in the past, oh, month. Here's a smattering of the happenings:

• Ella is learning to talk. It's amazing to me that I now have a little PERSON who TALKS and can communicate her desires! . . . OK, when I say talk, you know I don't mean talk, right? I mean that she uses the same sound to mean the same thing, and it's somewhat close to the actual word. For instance, she is BIG fan of hand washing. She asks for it numerous times a day, by rubbing her hands together and saying, "Wa." We're trying to keep track of how many words she has, and it's somewhere around 20 now. She's even starting to say Julia, "Ju-ah." It's all very exciting, and very cute.
• Julia loves preschool! I couldn't tell you exactly what she does in preschool, because she is pretty vague on the details, but I know it's fun! They started to practice cutting with scissors last week, and that was a big deal to her. She's been itching to use scissors for a long time now. We even got scissors to take home and practice with. So now I find little bits of paper all over the table. Good cutting, Julia! She tells me she is going to make them into a castle. I'd love to see how that turns out. She also told me the other day that someone's mom is having a baby. I'm pretty sure that mom isn't having a baby. So we had to have a talk about not assuming someone is pregnant. EVER. I just pray our talk sticks and we don't have any embarrassing situations on our hands.
  
• Have I ever mentioned how much I love fall? Because wow, I love this season. And fall in Michigan? GLORIOUS. Everyone talks about fall in New England, and while I haven't been there in person, the pictures look amazing. However, the fall here seems every bit as spectacular as the fall there. I think it feels that way to me because fall in Utah, while beautiful, doesn't compare. There simply aren't as many trees. And not as many maple trees, to be specific. The brilliant reds that are lining every street here are magnificent! I think the peak was last week, which the weather cooperated beautifully for. I went on a few afternoon walks with the girls, just in the neighborhood, and it was magic, I tell you. Absolute magic. The warm fall air, the sun streaming through the brightly colored leaves. And there are leaves all over the ground, but not in a dead, compost, mulch-y way, they are still such vibrant colors, it's almost like walking on rose petals. But they are crisper, so you get that fall crunch beneath your feet. AH, it's dreamy. Apparently I could do a full post on fall alone. I'll move on now :)
• Hey, remember General Conference a couple weeks ago? I just wanted to mention that it was wonderful. And since we had no expectations that we'd get to listen to any of it due to small, restless children, it was a much more pleasant experience than 6 months ago. In fact, we did get to listen to a good portion, which was a nice little surprise. We even went on a little drive Sunday morning and listened to a podcast of Saturday morning's session. (I love technology.) It was such a spiritual boost.
• We are getting geared up for Halloween. The girls' costumes have arrived (via mail), and they are pretty cute. Julia is going to be an elephant, and Ella is going to be a peanut. Julia wants to eat Ella. I kid you not. I'm a little concerned that we're going to be stuck with a theme for a while, as last year Julia was a gorilla and Ella was a banana. Poor Ella, I think 2 years of being Julia's food is enough! Next year you get to pick your own costume, ok? I'm not sure if Clark and I are going to dress up. Any suggestions?

Weekly Quote 10/14/11

"This is Halloween, this is Halloween,
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night."

This was from Nightmare Before Christmas, but more importantly, from the Halloween card so thoughtfully given to Julia last year. It just barely died. A YEAR of that song is a very long time. But there are worse things. And worse songs. So I won't complain. Much.

New quote up!