Thanks and Stuff

We shared a lovely Thanksgiving with my brother Mike and his family in Virginia. Every time we visit Virginia I'm a little more inclined to move there as soon as possible.

I have much to be thankful for.
At the moment, I'm thankful Emme decided to learn how to get herself up
(and down) the stairs this weekend.

(giant cat!)

(regular sized cat)

We have a tried and true method for helping our kinder learn this important life skill:
we accidentally let them tumble down the stairs shortly after they learn to crawl.

This provides both a lesson in depth perception and a healthy fear of stairways.
(Never had a repeat offender.)
Within a couple of months they're ready to give them a go again with a new determination to
not get injured this time.

Judge away but it works like a charm (unintentionally) every time,
as long as you can handle a little well-earned parental guilt. Which I can.

Hope your Thanksgiving was groovy. (good + gravy)

Last Bit

I was confronted suddenly by yellow maple leaves against a blue sky yesterday and it made me quite unspeakably happy.

I think Emme noticed as well.

We all spent the rest of the day absorbing the last little bit of Fall.

Winter, I'm not ready for you yet. Please hold off a little longer.

Toothless

Yet another milestone being shattered by this young lady, who lost her first tooth last week.
She seems pretty happy about it.

 And a few classic Jane moments for you to mull over during your weekend:

Missionaries at dinner: "...and so we see that by small and simple things, are great things brought to pass. Taking the sacrament each week is an example of that."
Jane (with big eyes): "Yeah, like it's a really small piece of bread and a tiny little cup of water."


Jane, on her way up the aisle to the stand for her primary program, crouched over, gave me two thumbs up,
and whispered intensely as she walked past our row: "I'll make you proud, ok!?"


Then yesterday, as we were drawing pictures and writing words that start with "n,"
Jane, ever sensitive to others, held this picture to her chest before showing it to me and said,
"This is Nathan. He has glasses, but DON'T laugh."

I tried really hard, but I couldn't help myself.

Sure love that ever serious, always hilarious Jane.

Have a great weekend.

Project Runway: Halloween

Good grief, I love this holiday. And I decided to make the girls' costumes again, which apparently means I decided I didn't want adequate sleep in the month of October. But I did have fun doing it, and I did get caught up on my NPR podcasts in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I give you-

Hermione Granger:
(I love that Malan picked this! Smart, lovely, talented, strong. Like Malan.)
Alice in Wonderland:

(it cracks me up so much to see Jane like this.)

 Little Red:

(this was maybe the most fun to make because Olivia was SO excited about it and
told everyone we met all month "I'm be Red Riding Hood.")

 Little Bones:

(this one I just embellished a little. How I love her toothy grin!)

 I remember many a time my mom staying up late to sew things for me while she listened to books on tape. Thanks Mom. I sure loved all those costumes and prom dresses. I hope you enjoyed it like I do now. It's so rewarding for me to see the girls all decked out and happy.

That said, this may be the last year I do this for a while. I think it's time to simplify our life. We'll see if I have to eat my words next Halloween...

I sure am enjoying seeing all the great costumes you (family and friends) have come up with, too.
Happy Halloween!

Our New Roomie

Every night for the last little while (since we started trying to sleep train her roommate Emme)
Olivia has pitter-pattered her way into our room,
seeking a quieter place to sleep and dragging her quilt behind her.

 At some point, for the sake of her own good night's sleep, we'll probably need to re-train her to stay in her bed all night.

But for now, it's kind of sweet to wake up to this little face each morning.

Hope you get some sleep this weekend. We're headed here. Cannot wait.

The Party

First you must know: I am opposed to birthday parties. I am a birthday scroodge. I'm stingy. I want to share my girls' birthdays with no one and keep them all to myself. Plus, I feel guilty making other kids' parents buy my kid presents.
But Malan had her heart set on a friend party this year and chose a party over a family outing and/or more presents. So we partied.

She debated and researched online with me and finally settled on a theme. With a little pinterest assistance and several trips to the dollar store, we whipped up a pretty fun day.
Here are some tidbits from Malan's fairy birthday party:

 We painted and decorated fairy treasure boxes, filled our own pixie dust bottles, sifted for "lost treasure" and used it to make fairy bracelets, and had some fairy themed snacks.

Malan had the best time, and her friends are all very sweet (it was good to see that.)

A worthwhile event, all in all.

Though when the parents arrived for pickup and found their little girls jumping off the furniture trying to spear ceiling balloons with bamboo fruit skewers, I realized I hadn't thought through everything as thoroughly as I should have. Bad combination there.

P.S. Caleb used our air compressor to fill the balloons (brilliant) and did all the food prep. What a stud.

For my part, I am working on my birthday Scroodginess. I will honor birthdays in my heart and try to keep them all the year.

Seven

Sweet Malan, you were so excited for this birthday.

You counted the days, you prepared the menus: strudel for breakfast in bed, crepes with berries and creme for dinner.

 You wanted a "nature cake" and you took your birthday wish oh so seriously.

All my wishes are for all your wishes to come true.

We had fun today bandaging your and Jane's dolls, who must have been through something horrible, with your new doll first aid kit:

Malan: "Oh no! What happened to you?"
Jane: "I broke my arm and my finger and got lots of cuts on my face.
What happened to you?"
Malan: "I broke my leg and sprained my ankle and got lots of cuts on my arms and legs.
I need an ice pack. Oh look, here's one. Do you want to borrow my crutches?"
Jane: "No, thanks. You're the one with the broken legs."


Sure love you, sweet, thoughtful, bright, creative, beautiful Malan.
Happy Birthday.

Happiness This Week

For Olivia, it came in the form of a red balloon:

 For Jane, it was finding an old friend out in the yard who went missing last winter,

and fixing her up a dainty flower bed where she could recover from her ordeal.

For me, my cup pretty much runneth over after hearing this conversation earlier:

Malan: "I like Justin Beaver."
Jane: "No, I like Justin Beaver."
Malan "No, I like Justin Beaver!"
Jane: "No, I like Justin Beaver!!"
(giggle giggle giggle. Repeat.)

If Justin "Beaver" could only be so lucky. . .

Note to self: Begin Wilson girls' music education tomorrow.