dear santa,

I thought these would be really cool last year. But this year, it's all about these guys. I can't wait to get one. Scarlett wants one too. Then, they'll be able to harmonize together. Thanks.

P.S. We'll be in Vegas this year. My parents don't have a chimney, so you'll have to turn on your walking-though-walls power my older brothers told me about.

Julie

not what i signed up for

Scarlett is another month older. 7. whole. months.  I keep saying that this isn't what I signed up for whenever I see a smaller, tinier, more newborn baby. Little is soon going to be Big. But I seriously can barely stand her cuteness. I think I'll keep her, her adorable personality, and my night's worth of sleep instead.

Scarlett inch worms across the room now. Michael and I think she might be crawling by Thanksgiving. Yikes! We'll see. She says some syllables: ma's, ba's, and blah's. Takes two naps. Goes to bed at 7:30pm. Wakes up between 8 and 9am. Eats solid food like a hog. Can feed herself puffs. Sits on her own. LOVES paper, Michael's watch, and my ring. Is still nursing, but will take a bottle (loves her sippy cup too) and even formula. And is starting to be preferential towards Michael and I.

Out takes. She makes the best gross face.

My favorite.

Oh, you missed her 6 month update? It's because the pictures turned out like this:

happy belated halloween

This is us in 2008.

Since then, Scarlett decided to join us. Instead of making all new costumes, I only made one. Hooray for recycling old costumes! I think Scarlett was the cutest loaf of Wonder bread I've ever seen. Us 2010.

 If you are aspiring to be a model, Scarlett, please learn to look at the camera.

Amongst all the hubbub of October, we never got to carve our pumpkins. Although it's November, I'm still going to try convincing Michael to carve them. I am determined. There isn't going to be a repeat of Easter 2007--we still have the SAME EXACT brand new, never been opened egg dying kit. For heaven's sake, we've moved with it. I haven't been able to get him to dye eggs since...

big awesome sigh of non-relief

I'm the Activities Chair for our ward.

I hate it for the month working up to the activity. Loath it the week before. Want to kill myself while setting up. Wonder through the whole activity if everything is getting done when it's supposed to. Then, miraculously when it's all over and the key goes in to lock the building, I breathe a HUGE sigh of relief and fall deeply in love with myself. For a brief moment I am wonder woman.

Only for a minutia of a moment though.

I then go back to wondering if it was all worth it, did people have fun, what would I do differently, did I lock the closet, were investigators welcomed, was the activity pure chaos because that's what it felt like to me, how many bowls are left, it was just pure chaos, why did we have so much food leftover, why do I lose sleep over this stupid thing, and...you get the point.

Saturday was our ward trunk or treat. It was going to be our "easy" activity. The more activities I plan, the more I realize that there is no such thing as an easy activity.

I think it turned out well. The main thing I would have changed is the other ward crashing our party so we didn't have enough caramel apples. You should have seen me that morning unwrapping my 599th effing caramel swearing under my breath, damning the whole ward, and trying to figure out what grocery store was the closest so I could buy some vodka and spike the punch so I could get released. Oh man. Needless to say I was a little perturbed about people stealing our refreshments. 

I even remembered my camera for this activity and then forgot to take pictures. In addition to Trunk or Treating we had some fun little things. We had a table with Tragic Sam's body parts in a box with holes so you could reach in and feel without seeing:

Once upon a Halloween night
Living in this spooky town
Was a man who died of fright
Bearing the name of Brown.

Many and many a year has passed
Since they buried Brown away,

But his withering corpse we’ve here amassed

Dug up from his tomb today.

Here is his BRAIN,

Which feels no pain.

 (cooked cauliflower)

Here are his EYES,

Frozen in surprise.

 (frozen grapes)

Here is his HEART,

Nevermore to start!

 (peeled roma tomato)

Here is his HAIR,

Once so fair!

  (wet yarn)

And from just underneath,

You'll find his TEETH.

(unpopped popcorn)

His FINGERS and TOES

No longer will grow.

 (cooked baby carrots)

And just to make you quiver,

We found his LIVER.

 (spam cut into shape)

These WORMS are all that is left to feel.

For them, Tragic Sam was a lovely meal!

 (noodles)

Tragic Sam Brown is dead

and withered away,
Can you guess what

we really felt today?

We had a costume contest, a "Guess how many candy corns are in the jar" jar, and even a witch hunt:

I hid (or more or less scattered) Halloween erasers (because they are waterproof--it's Portland) around the outside of the church for the kids to find. They got to keep them, but if you were lucky enough to find a witch you got a mini pumpkin. 

For refreshments, we had caramel apples (big hit!) and steaming witches' brew complete with arms of a dead man--all in a cauldron no less (apple juice, ginger ale, dry ice, and ARMS!). The arms were awesome. I totally can't claim the brilliancy of these though. It was all Kinsey. Raspberries + Cranberry juice + gelatin + surgical gloves + freezer = AWESOME PUNCH ARMS! It looked so nasty! 

Thanks to my awesome husband, an awesome me, and my awesome committee we can check off Halloween. A big thanks is awarded to the ward for coming, dressing up so cleverly, and decorating their trunks! 

I can't forget Scarlett either. She was a trooper and was a super awesome baby through the whole day. She was definitely pooped by the time we got home though. 

Now, on to planning for Christmas. Only one month and three days. Let the stress begin.

here's how you play

Whitney tagged me. I answer her questions. I make up my own and pass it along.

1: You just won 1 million dollars. You have to spend it all in one month. No investments allowed. It all has to be gone in one month. What do you buy/do?

This question is just too huge! Shoes, shoes, and more shoes. Oh, and an awesomely furnished house with a pool, sweet kitchen. and a firepole. And all the lights have to be on dimmer switches. Student Loans. Art. Vacations. GPS. New Sewing Machine. Audi. Mini cooper. Maybe even a VW Toureg. Wooden toys. Build Michael a garage for all of his projects and crap that's currently taking up the majority of our closet space. Alpacas and sheep. A craft room for yours truly.

2: Three awesome blogs... Go.

Yours, mine, and Scarlett's. Haha. For real: u-create, hyperbole and a half, and nie nie.

3: Please share your most embarrassing life moment. 

Hmm. I don't have many that I can remember. I usually block these from my memory in a secret place never to be revisited. Alright alriiiight.... I do remember once when I was about 6 I went to the pool with my dad. I started taking off the clothes I wore over my bathing suit so I could take a dip. Then, without noticing (I guess my mind was elsewhere...thinking about unicorns or something), I started to take off my bathing suit too. My dad caught me before I was completely naked. I was 6, and I was mortified that people may have seen a little too much of my little two nothings.

4: If you had to choose between being an awful speller or awful at math, which would you choose and why?

Awful speller. Who cares if you can't spell? Now, if you can't do math that makes shopping, designing, sewing, etc. so much harder!

5: If you could be awesome at any one thing in the world (like painting, public speaking, roller skating, snowboarding, etc.), what would it be and why? 

I would want to be awesome at acrobatics. Those crazy Chinese acrobats are cool! Second on my list would be dancing. Going to a Zumba class made me feel incredibly uncoordinated. I'm working on it though. Thank goodness for Krumpin' it out with Exercise OnDemand. Oh man...I think admitting that equals my most embarrassing moment. Ever.

My Questions:

1. Most embarrassing moment.

2. If you could have an endless supply of any one food, what would you get?

3. If you could be someone else who would you be and why?

4. Top 5 favorite songs of all time.

5. Oh what the heck...If you had a million dollars what would you spend it on and why? You have to spend it all in a month!

These people need to answer my questions:

Scarlett

Alana

Heather W

Gayle

Chelsea

Anyone else that wants to play along!

i bet my baby can out stink-eye your baby

not much of a mirror

We managed to make the hour-ish drive to hike to Mirror Lake with the Gneitings. It was much smaller than we were expecting and a little bit windy so the water wasn't as ripple-free and mirroresque as is should be. It was beautiful nonetheless--and so nice to get out of the humid heat we'd been having in Portland.

Scarlett loved the freezing water! She passed our test and was allowed to go swimming the next day--not in the cool mountain water of Mirror Lake though.

Scarlett looks like she's asleep in the above picture, but she wasn't. She was trying to cower from the big mean sun in her face. But by the time we got back to the car, Scarlett was out. You would have thought that she just walked 3 miles. Being carried...walking...it's all the same to her.