Tonight

While Trick or Treating tonight, we heard a man laughing after our kids got candy from him.  We asked him what was so funny, he replied that Kalia had told him "that's a nice car."  Sorry kiddo, that's not part of the 'treat.'

Pumpkin Festival

We had a busy day!  We packed up a lunch and headed down to the Pumpkinfest for the third year in a row.  It took us a bit to find a parking spot but once we did we filled the double stroller to hit the streets.

"Hi dada!  Where we goin'?"

Enjoying a peas and sandwich lunch on the sidewalk with daddy.

Amalyn enjoying her milk at lunch.

Walking the streets of down town with the masses.

Yummy mini pumpkin doughnuts (i.e: doughnut holes) to be enjoyed by all.

The later in the day, the more the crowds grew adding fun to the festival.  But we were getting ready to leave if we could only find the car.  A bit of a disadvantage to not know the street layout and having blocks and blocks of rides, booths, and vendors to navigate proved challenging.

Pumpkin royalty.

Pumpkin tower.

And new this year, pumpkin faces.

After wandering for a while to orient ourselves in the maze of the festival, we finally got back to the car and headed home.  Awaiting us was a package from our wonderful Aunt Marilyn.  I was pretty thrilled with the contents, and Kalia was excited, Amalyn wasn't so sure.

We ate a soup dinner (slow cook while we played) and headed to Boo at the zoo.  We were going to put our girls in their costumes but I couldn't pass on the new Halloween outfits.

It got pretty cold so we utilized the new gloves.  Kalia didn't mind much.  She was pretty excited about the candy.

A Daddy and his little girl.  I'm not sure why she's looking at him like that.  He was probably doing something silly to get her to smile.

You gotta teach'em young!  At this point Kalia had completely zonked in the stroller.  That's a good day, when the kids are out before you make it too the car.  Much fun was had.

Adventures in climbing

 Amalyn is walking most everywhere now.  With this new skill she's getting into things way more than before.  It's like she's decided that since she can move, there are no boundaries.  Kalia was a bit slower to get to this point.  I love watching Amalyn discover new places.  She loves to pull the books off the shelf and climb on the lowest shelf.  Sometimes she has a bit of trouble getting out.

I'm a cat

Kalia was showing us how Saphira sits.

Imagination

Can you see it?

It's her baby kitty.

I love her imagination.  Good times are ahead.

Creep Side festival

I was looking for some fun Halloween-ish activities online and happened to stumble upon one that looked fun.  Luckily it was the same day.  It hadn't passed, but I wouldn't have to try to remember it.  Perfect.  With small ones, I wanted to capitalize one every opportunity for Kalia to dress up.  That's the best part of Halloween, right?  Ok.  Maybe the candy is a close second.

We had an early dinner of chili, even sharing some with friends (they invited us to dinner as they were also daddy-less and I offered to share) and hit the road.  Kalia nodded off in the car on the way there.  As we were staying up a bit pass bedtime, I figured it was probably a good thing.  The only was this kid naps is if the stars aline perfectly.  Usually this includes some time in the car.

I was pretty excited to dress Kalia as Rapunzel from Tangled.  Especially when I got an awesome deal on the dress ($1 brand new) and made the hair.  She originally wanted to be a monkey until Daddy agreed to be Flynn.  Then she was fine with being Rapunzel.  Everyone loved her costume and we'd hear variations of, "Look!  It's Tangled!  She's so cute!" all around us the whole night.  Amalyn was the back seat of the stroller and didn't get too many comments, but I think she's a dang cute dinosaur.  Kalia commented that she looked more like a chicken... all to the imagination, eh?

Me and my girls.  They're so ready for bed.

The Pumpkin Patch

Kalia headed out to pick the perfect "mama and daddy"pumpkins.  The pumpkins were already off the vine and hanging out in the grass.  We didn't find out until later that we could have gone into the field to pick our own.  

These are Kalia and Amalyn pumpkins.

The actual Kalia and Amalyn.  It was a really nice day, notice no jackets.

Amalyn was pretty reluctant to touch the pumpkins.  "What in the world?  Why would I want this?" after her sister so kindly gave her a pumpkin.  I guess it didn't help that the thing had a pretty wet surface.

"I don't want to touch it!  Help Mama!  Get it off!"

Our Little Pumpkins.  But I think we'd have to charge more than 55 cents a pound.

Waiting to weigh in.

Kalia loved picking up the assorted small and mini pumpkins.

She even shared them.  Though, I don't think Amalyn got over the first gift from her big sis.

Birthday Girl

Happy First Birthday Amalyn!  I decorated this morning.  Here is her birthday sign.

I asked Kalia what she wanted to do today and she decided to go to the zoo.  So we packed a lunch and headed to the zoo.  They have a special preschool program on Tuesdays and Thursdays that we were able to participate in.  This week it was all about elephants.  Pretty cool.  They had different activities to learn about elephants.  Kalia wore a sock and put fruit into a bucket with her 'trunk.'  We looked at books and made a crafty elephant light catcher.  After lunch we headed home for a nap before heading to the doctor's office.  Then we finished off the night by sending the girls to the babysitters while mom and dad visited the temple.  What a day!   

1 year!

It's rough being one, but what a fun day we had!  It was a busy one.  Amalyn had her well check at the doctors.  She's growing and learning.  The doctor said everything looked good.  She then got 5 shots ( two in each leg, one in the arm) and the doc decided against getting the lead screening.  I forgot to ask for a print out of her growth, but I believe she was 29 inches tall and 22 pounds.  I don't know the percentiles.    She's wearing 12/18 month clothing and a size 2 shoe.  For diapers she's in a 3.  She's aboutthisclose to walking and can walk with a push toy (kinda).  I think it scares her a bit.  She'll take a step then sit down. She loves to walk holding my hands.  She's a pretty good eater and we're starting whole milk.  It seems to be going well so far.  She's a little smiler and such a happy girl.  She'll wave to people and loves to play the nodding game with daddy.  She has five teeth and knows a few words.  'Cat' and 'duck' are her favorites, but she also says the occasional 'mama', 'dada'.  I think she likes Dad.  She gets excited when he comes home, but she's still quite the mama's girl.  Separation anxiety is setting in and she cries when I leave the room.  We love our little Sis!

OUCH!

Kalia got the flu mist (not a shot) at the doctor's today.  She was beside herself and insisted on getting a band-aid to make it feel better.  The nurse was kind while I was cracking up behind my hand.  The best part is she's left it on.  She won't let us take it off!

Monumental day!

First day of Preschool!

We're doing a coop preschool with kids in the complex (mostly).  It's an hour and a half once a week.  We had a sick kid at the first teacher's house the first week so we had to bump it back a week.  Kalia was able to learn about the letter A.  She painted with apples and colored an A picture.  The kids got to try bobbing for apples.  Kalia tried it once and decided she was all done.  She's so excited to learn.     I'm excited to only have one kid for that hour and a half to give Amalyn some one on one time.

Preschool girl

naptime

Amalyn fell asleep with Tristan and Kalia had to join.  If only they all had really been asleep.