Halloween Festivities

Our Halloween festivities began early in the month with a trunk-or-treat at the YMCA. We got this costume for Liv last year but we were in AZ and it still fits!! I did some mimi face painting on the girls. I know mom, yours is better:)
Liv was a garden fairy and Kate was Tinkerbell
Livy's preschool has a "silly hat parade" instead of letting the kids dress up (LAME). I didn't know people actually got really into it and made crazy hats so I just gave Liv my witch hat. Which is way too big. I laughed till I cried when I saw Liv walk in peering out from under the hat! And of course baby Kate was scared and wouldn't be put down.

Still not sure why she has to wear a hat or why she is on stage
She decided she did not like her hat so Miss Tiffany gave her her hat.
With the new hat, she was ready to perform. She snuck to the front so she could see me
There she is! My little star


And last week I got to go help Johnny's class with their Fall Festival. The kids go to dress up as super hero's for drug awareness "be a hero, don't do drugs" day.

I just had to add a picture of Seongwon, a boy in Johnny's class. I think he is sooo cute. He's about three inches shorter than Johnny and about twice as wide. He's soft as a marshmallow! Like look at the neck roll and the rubber band wrists. And he's SIX! And he has a laugh like Long Duck Dong from "Sixteen Candles".
Saturday was our ward's trunk-or-treat. Another fun night with candy and dressing up!
This is Livy being funny. She is so weird!
Johnny preferred to pass out the candy instead.
I was a bum and didn't decorate my car
Our ward ended up inviting the whole stake so we had TONS of kids there!
Grams, Papa J, and Greg came over Sunday night for dinner and Grams left her car decorated from her trunk or treat so we took some pics before the kids went out.



The kids were so excited to actually knock on doors in the dark, I think they were sick of trunk or treats.

Big kids can do it all by themselves mom!
The kids were SO excited to have Gramz with us!
And we ran into Cody, our neighbor and friend from down the street!

The rest of the night was hilarious with Livy getting spooked by peoples masks (the "scream" mask was her least favorite), dogs, and little haunted houses. She screamed and we would laugh and laugh. And once their little bags were full, we went home and gave all the candy to the rest of the trick or treaters:)

Random phone pics and some stories...

I got a fancy new phone in late September and it has such a great camera that I stopped using my real camera. My phone is always sitting there so I snap random pictures all day. But then they sit on my phone and never make it to the blog. But I will be doing iphone dumps from time to time to get all of the these cute little pics into the blogosphere.

Livy has finally started to play and color and do things other than follow me around and destroy things. She LOVES to color and read books.

First braids!

I've been using my phone to document livi's sleep issues so this one would be the last ones where she is actually in her bed. But the story begins at school...

I got a text from her preschool teacher in September that said, "Livy's tote was wet when she got to school and it got her blanket and paci wet. Livy said that your dog peed on it so I threw the paci away and put the blanky in the washer, hope nap time goes well!"

I was like, "Whaaaaat? 1: we don't have a dog. 2: do NOT throw that paci away, I'm not ready to get rid of it yet!"

She said that she was doing fin without it and that I should just bite the bullet and be strong.

So we did. We told Liv the paci was gone and she was a big girl now. And then it was time for bed and all hell broke loose.

That very night she decided to climb out of her crib and cried all night. So I was up at every hour putting her back in. The next night we took the front off of her crib and it was worse. So we switched the locks on her door and she screamed so hard she puked everywhere. And she woke up all night again. So the next night (night three) I put the gate back up on her crib thinking she would just cry again but hoping she had forgotten how to climb out. I laid her down and she climbed out of the crib before I could even get to the end of the hall.

I couldn't handle it. I couldn't take the paci away and deal with the big girl bed non-sense all at once. So that fourth night I took the gate off her crib for the second time, pulled out the paci, and she went right to sleep.

But that only lasted one night. She would walk out all night and we'd have to take her back to her bed. I think my kids have sleep walking issues. Big time. And then she got scared of the dark so she wanted lights on, door open, mommy and/or daddy to lay down next to her and hold her hand AND she wanted to play games on our phones. And of course we let her like the idiot push-overs we are and she would eventually fall asleep. Then we would wake up and our little bug would be asleep on the couch. All of our hard work to get her to sleep on the bed and she would prefer the couch. Whatever.

So yesterday we sent her two last paci's up into the sky to the paci fairy on two pink balloons. The wind started blowing the second she let go and they flew down, barely over our neighboor's fence and into their back yard. So the poor girl didn't even get to see them disappear into the sky. But they're gone and now we are pretty much starting over with the crying and fits. But I'm done. And she can be a big girl now.

On Saturday (the third night) I was desperate to get her to like her bed so I took her to Target to get some big girl treats. She chose this outfit and a Barbie. We took the kids to the Greek Festival down town and had fun people watching and eating some yummy greek food. These little honey puffs are pretty amazing! I will gladly wait in line for an hour again to eat them next year.
and the kids go tot wear the shirts Denise brought back from their cruise to Greece two years ago!
Pizza all gone Livy.

Johnny's first father/son date to mini golf

Liv still loves her dance class!
Johnny is totally allergic to grass so I bring a towel for him to sit on (another reason we shouldn't play soccer) and Livy likes to join him and cheer the team on. I believe she is about to do a somersault here. Or maybe she's telling the other team how much they stink!

Johnny's first trip to the dentist. The doc was so nice and friendly, they even had Aladdin playing on the TV above him and he still had a panic attack.


For being such a big boy at the dentist (at least he didn't puke on the guy), I made shrimp pasta, Johnny's favorite.

The October festivities were started with these little gifts from Grandma Betty. The kids have slept with them all month! Thanks Gramma B!

Bean Town Baby!

Ahhhhh. That's what I think of when I think of last weekend. Heaven. Sheree, Linley, Taylor and I all met in Boston for a girl's trip. Totally last minute and totally worth it! We got in late on Wednesday, Sheree's birthday and all flew home Sunday morning. I had so much fun. Here is the proof:My pics are out of order but I had to document this picture, the last day. We went to Bloomingdales for frozen yogurt. Kind of over-hyped but still yum. And totally over priced.

The first day was our "down town" day. We missed the T, so Michelle dropped us off on Newbury St. where we (window) shopped at all of the high end, super cute shops.

Cute sisters!
Could I look anymore BLAR? Oh well. I bought a scarf that day at H&M to fit in with all the fall-ishly dressed Bostonians. I really needed some tall boots.
Is that red tree not amazing?
Our walk through the Public Gardens. So gorgeous!
More Newbury St.
It started to rain so Tay and I used our scarves as umbrellas.
Our walk back through the public garden

We had fun daring Sheree to do random things on the trip. Our first dare was to climb this tree in the Garden. She did it. Duh.
I went in my first Jonathan Adler store. Very under-whelming. A few cool pillows and some great chairs but WHO would pay $1800 bucks for ONE dining room chair? Not me.

LuLu is probably the best and cutest baby ever. She sits and sleeps in her stroller all day until it is time to eat, then goes back in her stroller. She was in the Bjorn just because we wanted to see more of her cute face. Notice Taylor will NEVER show her face in a pic? She's wierd. But we love her anyway!
After a day of walking in my new flats, I had to buy some slippers because my nubbins (tay's favorite word) were rubbed raw on my pinky toes. I have Mike Toolson pinky toes, if you know what I'm sayin...

And while I slipped on the peds to try on my slippers, the girls slipped the peds over their faces. And then we laughed until we cried in the middle of the store.
We eventually got rained out and did not get to see much so we took the T home. And this is what we found when we got there. Who would want to stay in a hotel?

Crystal had prepared this scrumptious meal. Michelle's sausage pasta, salad, fruit and bread. You know me and my foodie pics.
And then an apple pie. What?
Oh, and for lunch we ate at my favorite Boston restaurant, FIGS. The BEST pizza ever. The four of us ate every single morsel of these two pizzas.
Sheree was the only one willing to pose in the pics for me. Thanks Ree. And how cute is Tay in the background?
We boxed up the leftovers and ate them at a Wendy's a couple hours later. This is Sheree's full face. I told her to do it.

And now, THE GALA! Danny had a few extra seats to the Celtic's charity gala and wondered if we were interested....UH, YESSSSS!! We are the ultimate super fans. Well, Sheree and I are. Lin and Tay play it cool.
I have a secret bucket list and going down a red carpet is on it. I love all things fancy and flashy. I watch every awards show, well the red carpet part anyway, and love the glamour of it all. And while ours was not glamourous whatsoever, we were late and there were no cameras, it was STILL a red carpet and we got a picture on it!
The tables were a little crowded, where were we supposed to put our cameras?
Dinner: braised beef short ribs, butternut risotto and haricot vers. Eh. I've made this before and I'm proud to say, mine was better. But I was cooking for six and they cooked for 200. Still.
We were giddy all night long. The ENTIRE team was there and we had a front row table!
These pics are from my phone, Sheree and my camera so they are all mixed up. I don't know what this picture is of but I'm sure there are a few famous guys in there!
All dressed up and ready to go. After looking at these pictures, I've come to the conclusion that I am old enough to not have to put my arm around everyone and will make it a point to stand all fancy like, like the other girls. Hip out, hand nicely planed at side or on the arm of the next person, shoulders down. I was just sooo excited!
RED CARPET!!
PAUL PIERCE!!!! The ultimate super fan pose. So embarassed. I might as well be giggling saying, "like, oh my gosh, I'm totally taking a picture with Paul!"
Danny wanted to introduce Kevin to the "rest of his wives"(he thinks all Mormons are polygamists thanks to that stupid show Big Love.) so he stood up and took a picture with us!!
Highlight of my night: SHAQ!! We shook hands and said hello. It was loud and he didn't stand up but I have met one of the people on my "people I want to be friends with" list!

Another getting ready picture
Saturday was our "Fall foliage walk" as requested by Sheree and was probably my second favorite part! The weather was brisk, as they call it out East. We looked at all the gorgeous houses, even broke into this beauty on sale for a cool 2.8 M, climbed some trees, played in the foliage and danced our way home.
Allen Street.
This picture would probably look better without the wire at the top. The perfect old Boston home at Fall time.
The fall foliage
We even played in it!

Gorgeous garage doors

We found an excellent climbing tree and couldn't help ourselves.

BFF cousins


The girls
Another dare. We couldn't help ourselves

Allen St. Again
She thought this was so cool until she saw all the trash mixed in with the foliage!
The most beautiful street on earth
I turned on my pandora radio and we "boom boom pow-ed" all the way home.
Dre and Fin were so cute! They LOVE baby lulu. Taylor just bumped her out of her tummy! (dre)
And this is the salad we ate on Saturday. Greens, goat cheese, green beans, walnuts and a balsamic vinegarette. So good. I just made it for John and he did not agree. But he is a boy and boys don't appreciate good chick food!

So as you can see, we didn't do much but we had soooo much fun. We shopped a lot and ate a lot of delicious food, and laughed a ton, and sang in the car, and stayed up late, and slept in a little. It was heaven. And I can't wait to do it again. A huge thanks to Danny and Michelle for their incredible hospitality. And Thanks to Coop for letting me sleep in your bed without any dirty looks or complaints:)

The end.