Oh the fun!!

Our town does Halloween a little different. We trick or treat a few days earlier than Halloween with designated times in the evening. They also suggest an age limit (which I didn't really see happening because there were parents trick or treating. Weird.) Anyway, we went trick or treating last night and Emily had a blast! Emily's first costume--Abby Cadabby. This is one of the only pictures we have of her because she was running everywhere at our church's Trunk or Treat. The night before the Trunk or Treat Emily pulled off all the little "poms" around the waist and neckline (I had glued them on) and then pulled off her skirt (which was made out of tissue paper). I cried. The next day I remade the skirt (out of more durable material) and sewed all the poms on.

I LOVE this park....really close to where we live. Right now, there is a carpet of crunchy leaves and as we walk through the leaves, Emily and I say, "Crackle! Crackle!" Emily likes to crunch them. Nathalie tries to eat them. Isn't it beautiful?

I wore Matt's Tigger outfit for Trick-or-Treating and Emily was Eyeore. It was HOT inside that outfit!

"I know. I'm cute without dressing up."

"Yay me!"

6 months....already?

19 1/2 lbs
26 inches
Happy and beautiful
I love this girl.

Today when I got out of bed, I found Matt making breakfast to bring to me in bed. Emily had eaten and he'd started a load of laundry. While I was in the shower, he got Emily dressed and Nathalie up. While I was at Nat's Dr appointment, he made the bed, vacuumed the entire house and started dusting. While I checked my email, he put Nathalie down for a nap by quietly talking to her. Who knows what the rest of the day holds for me? All I know is, I got pretty darn lucky in marrying this man. And that I definitely do not deserve him!

Chunky Monkey

I love this baby age. It's when their personalities start to really show. Nathalie is my happy baby. She loves to be around people. Naps are hard for her, because she knows something is happening around the house and she wants to be a part of it. She laughs, smiles, giggles, shrieks (happily) and is just plain happy. Sure, she can get cranky when she's tired or hungry but so do I! She moves constantly. If she's not rolling, she's inching. If she's not inching, she's kicking her legs or sucking on something, or looking around. I can tell she's really asleep when her hands stop moving because she's literally moving all. the. time.

She's also mobile now. She can't crawl yet, but between using the inchworm technique and rolling, I have to be careful where I place her. She can sit up by herself for a long time now and just yesterday she figured out how to sit up from lying on her tummy! That's my favorite, because then she can get somewhere, sit up and play with a toy. We're having so much fun with her. I can't imagine our family without her. The only way I can get decent pictures of her is using the "Burst" technique, but even then they are sometimes blurry.

I love those cheeks. I want to eat them. One lady stopped me in Walmart and said,"Your baby is so cute! I love how her cheeks bounce when the cart moves."

Her mad face.

Disaster Averted.....for now!

It's been a rough morning. For the girls, that is. This morning I spilled a tub of Oxiclean powder on the floor when I grabbed the bucket for a load of laundry and the handle broke--spilling the powder everywhere. While I cleaned up, Nathalie woke up from her nap. I sat her up outside the bathroom while I swept, but she fell over and bonked her head. Emily got Oxiclean on her hands, which I didn't know until she started crying hysterically and I realized that one of her eyes was really red and she couldn't open it. The next 15 minutes probably scarred Emily forever, as I scooped her into the bathtub trying to rinse out the powder. Then I sat Nathalie up again, but didn't catch her as she fell (she normally sits for 5 minutes without falling). Then I accidentally bonked Emily on the head with Nathalie's carseat when it slid down my arm as I was reaching for my bad. It knocked Emily over and she cried.

But at that point, I laughed. Not in a mean way, just in a "okay, today's crazy. Let's stop worrying about it!" We got chicken nuggets for lunch and had a little Halloween candy. She's still hurting though, and has woken up several times from her nap because her eye is hurting.
Anyway, here are some pictures.
The picture doesn't really show how ORANGE this tree is. It's the most fabulous orange.
I like to climb. Especially when Mom tells me not to.

These are Emily's babydolls, named "Baby" and "Babydoll". We're only allowed to take one thing with us when we leave the house, but inside the house, we do everything with them, like diaper them, feed them, swaddle them, bathe them, put lotion on them...

I am in a constant state of being overwhelmed. This feeling has been around ever since I was about six months pregnant. It seems as though my to-do list is only getting longer. Every time I cross something off, I add two things.

It seems like I can never catch up to the things I want to do. There's always that load of laundry, or the piano I'd like to practice, or the lesson I really need to plan, or the scriptures in French that I want to read. Somehow, I never make the rounds. By the way, this is not a pity-party-type-of-blog. This is a smack yourself, "welcome to life as a mom" blog.

I've discovered that you can't have it all. Being a mother of two is hard. Do I finish the dishes or build blocks with Emily? Should I hold Nathalie or fold the laundry? I'd like to say I always choose my children. But I don't. Because if I did, then we'd all go naked and hungry. I'd also like to say that I choose my children 90% of the time, but I don't do that either. But I'm working on it. It's hard not to feel like a failure when the house isn't clean, both the girls are screaming and we're eating piggies-in-the-blanket again for dinner, and I don't even sit down to eat because I don't have time. Sometimes I forget to look through the fruit flies and ironing to see my blessings.

But when I do, the vision is joyous. I see a beautiful and bright two-year-old who sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" to herself all day long. I see a funny two-year-old who likes to wash her hands and put diaper rash cream on her baby dolls when Mommy's not looking. I see an almost-six-month-old who grins from ear to ear if you just take the time to smile at her. I see a baby who follows her sister with loving eyes and laughs in her carseat. I see a husband who works so hard just so we can have a little bit more. And a husband who, instead of going off with the boys, spends his days off with his ladies.
I see this--roads which I have been traveling quite frequently.
And I see this. The colors of my utmost favorite season. Welcome to Ohio.

And this, growing on my fence.

So when I do change my state of mind, I realize that I've got it pretty good. I'm a far-from-perfect mom. And I do feel like a failure, usually about 20% of the day. Would I trade it, despite the days when I eat standing up by the sink? Not in your wildest dreams. Because look at what I've got.

Lots of suction going on

We like to vacuum at my house. Introducing.....my new vacuum!!! Courtesy of my grandmother, who is moving in with my parents and decided to give me her brand-new Dirt Devil blue vacuum.

By the way, I've been having trouble uploading my pictures. Can you see them? Please tell me if you can't!

Garden Roundup

It is probably going to frost within the next week. Here's what our garden produced this summer.

30 heads of lettuce
10 heads of green cabbage
10 heads of red cabbage
7 lbs of green beans
50+ tomatos
3 pumpkins
7 pickle cucumbers

Pretty good!!! We had a small plot at my in-laws for the lettuce. The rest of the stuff we grew at our house in buckets and planter boxes. I'm bummed because we're going to lose about 20 tomatos that never ripened.
Our tomato plants as of yesterday.

Horsin' Around

A sister in our Branch has horses, and a while ago we asked her if we could do an FHE activity at her house. Today we did it! I know, it's not Monday. But we don't actually have FHE on Monday. We have it whenever Matt's available.

Anyway, it was great! She has 5 horses, 4 Arabians and 1 quarterhorse. She also has 5 miniature horses and one of them is a baby! They were adorable....and about the size of a Newfoundland. We all got to ride one of the horses. Emily was a natural. She was so excited to ride, and when she got up she held on tight. Matt didn't have to help her sit at all. Matt and I both got a chance to ride too, but we didn't get pictures of that because the girls were crying. Emily on the horse.
Nathalie loved the horses because they would nibble on her fingers and sleeve. She thought that was great.
Matt helping saddle.

Matt kept moving, so I have very few pictures that aren't blurry. The look he is giving me is because I told him to stop moving.

Where do I begin?

I feel a little behind in my blogging....even though I've posted pictures, I haven't updated much about our lives.

Emily is an adventure. She has so much energy and is incredibly smart. We have conversations, with full sentences, real questions and smart ideas. We talk about everything we see, and read about them too. She loves to run, and we go to the park every other day or so. We try to run outside everyday or else she starts tearing apart my house! She has figured out how to climb out of her crib and so, after the third time of hurting herself, we turned her bed around again. We'll see how it goes, but now, we don't really have a choice!

Nathalie is on all fours, rocking back and forth! She really wants to crawl, and has figured out how to move her knees but not her hands yet. It won't be long....... She loves to laugh, smile, giggle, roll everywhere, and play with her sister. She is ready to eat food, but since she's still okay with a bottle, I'm still not giving her food. I feed her baby food some days when her gums hurt and she doesn't want to nurse. She LOVES being outside and watching Emily play. She can sit up by herself, but not for very long. She's getting so big!

Matt and I are doing well. Matt started an IV the other day during clinicals which was exciting. I'm just doing mom things, and keeping busy at that!

My mom and little brother came this week. It was SO fun! It wasn't nearly so hard to have her leave as last time, because I feel like I've got a handle on having two kids. Plus, this time we made plane tickets for Christmas so I'm now counting down the days (9.5 weeks) until we visit her. We had so much fun! We got to see my Grandma (her mom) and my aunt (her sister). We got to go to the park, on walks, to the duck pond and out to dinner. We ate YUMMY food (that I humbly made) and drank apple cider. It was great fun.

And always, I'm including pictures of our adventures.
Nathalie.
Emily and my brother, Bryan, on the slide. Bryan was great with Emily, and she loved having a new best friend.
My mom and Emily on the slide.
My Grandma and Emily, playing with a toy my grandma brought, which is now Emily's favorite toy!
Seriously, this child is adorable.

Reading a book about potties. Hoping to potty-train by osmosis..... :)

It doesn't get much better than this...

We had lots of fun during our Conferencve weekend. I didn't actually get to hear too much of Conference...except for a couple of talks, including Elder Holland's. Even the children were quiet during his talk, and I have to say that if you don't have a testimony after his talk, it is nobody's fault but your own.

Over the weekend we played with cousins, roasted hotdogs and marshmallows over a fire, decorated Grandma's house with Halloween stuff, went on a walk, and got a woolly caterpillar to crawl all over Emily. Emily got attacked by Sally the rooster, and Garrett (baby cousin) got attacked by Emily the two-year-old. What could be better than being with family, eating tons of food, hugging and kissing children and listening to the Prophet?
The girls eating snack.
Matt having a good time with his dad.

Emily and Babydoll eating snack.

Both the girls have beautiful lashes. Nathalie's are darker, but Emily's are curlier.

Babydoll is hungry.

I love the fact that Nathalie doesn't have a chin or a neck.

Babydoll, blankie and Emily on the moosechair.

You're Invited to a Pity-Party

My day:

--8:00am-- Wake up. Tired. Nathalie woke up 3 times because she has a cold.
--8:30-- Emily up. Find her naked. Her diaper is soggy-side-down on the sheets. Have to strip crib.
--9:30--Finished cleaning up house, folding laundry, getting breakfast. House was clean before bed. Fairies must have come in the night. Nathalie poops through her clothes.
--10:15-- put Nathalie down for a nap.
--10:30-- Come out of putting Nathalie down; Emily has taken out most of her toys.
--10:45--Start cleaning up toys, laundry load, making Matt's lunch and sweeping kitchen floor.
--11:20--Wake Nathalie up to put her in the car.
--12:20--Get home from dropping off Matt's lunch, dropping off rent check. Emily wants to play outside and throws a tantrum when we bring her in.
--12:45-- Emily's nap time. I clean house again and sweep kitchen floor.
--1:20-- Start rocking Nathalie to sleep. Just as I'm falling asleep, someone starts banging on the door.
--2:00--Emily wakes up from nap. Go in and tell her to lie down.
--2:45--Matt leaves for work.
--3:00-- Emily wakes up from nap. Kind of grouchy, won't let me kiss her. Wants me to read her stories as she sits on my bladder.
--3:45--I go to the bathroom. Emily wakes up Nathalie while I'm in the bathroom. Nathalie cranky. Nathalie poops through her clothes.
--4:00--Clean house again.
--4:15-- Go to store. Forget cheese, but already in line.
--5:15--Home from store.
--5:30--Nathalie cranky. While nursing her to sleep, Emily poops, takes off her diaper and tries to clean herself. This happens everyday. I tell her to sit in the bathtub while I put Nathalie in her crib.
--5:40-- Nathalie down. Go to the bathroom--Emily has gotten poop on the rug, little stool, sink, her toothbrush, her toothpaste, my toothbrush, her shirt, her hands, her face, her hair. Not one bit of poop in the bathtub.
--6:10--Bathroom clean, Emily clean, toothbrushes thrown away. I go to the bathroom.
--6:11-- Emily wakes Nathalie up.
--6:30-- Dinner. Eat pancakes. I feed Nathalie a bottle while trying to eat my pancakes.
--6:40-- Come out in the living room to find my glasses broken.
--7:00-- Kitchen clean, leave for a walk. Put on another set of glasses brand new, still not adjusted quite right.
--7:15-- Starts raining on our walk.
--7:16-- Get a headache from the glasses.
--8:00--Home. Have to reassemble Emily's bed.
--8:15--Read Emily stories. Put her to bed. Head to my room to put Nathalie down. Cries when I put her in her crib. I go to the bathroom to soak some of her clothes.
--8:30-- Pick Nathalie up from crib. Rock her to sleep.
--9:15-- Nathalie starts crying again. Rock her to sleep.