Halloween

Here she is at our ward's trunk or treat. She was really shy about saying "trick or treat" when we got to each car, but as we were walking away she would say it. She would say thank you though when they gave her a treat.


Two of her Halloween books mention candy apples. She has been wanting one all month. So, finally after the trunk or treat we stopped at the grocery store and got a pumpkin and a caramel apple. She was so excited. She tried to take a bite of it, but it was too hard. So, we cut it up to share. She actually asked for one for breakfast this morning. It was yummy!

Halloween Party

My sister-in-laws and I had a Halloween party for the cousins (the ones who don't go to school). Everyone wore their costumes. They sang songs, had a Halloween snack, played games, danced, and made spiders with their hands using black paint. Here are some pictures of the festivities. Katie was very excited to be a lamb. Unfortunately, it is such a warm costume for Arizona and all that running and dancing, she was sweating by the end.

Here they are pretending to be Halloween animals. I think they are creeping like a cat.


Pin the nose on the Jack-o-lantern.


Dancing!

October Fun

We got a list of fun Halloween activities from my friend. Of course we checked out Halloween books from the library and read them everyday. She can now read them to her animals. Here are just a few of the other things we did this month.

I made pumpkin playdough. Basically it smells like pumpkin pie. Then we made them orange and green.


We made pumpkin shaped jell-o with mini marshmallows for the face. We found this activity in the Friend magazine to make Valentine hearts.


We used red and yellow paint to make jack-o-lanterns on plates. She did a purple one too because she got a purple pumpkin container for Halloween.


We worked on making patterns. Using Apple Jacks (orange and green for Halloween). She sorted them into the 2 big circles first and then I drew 2 different patterns at the bottom for her to match. Of course her favorite part was eating the the circles.

Pumpkin Waffles

I can't believe how fast October has come and gone. We started off the month with some yummy pumpkin waffles and apple cider syrup. I found the recipe on dealstomeals.blogspot.com. The recipe made a ton so we froze them and got to eat them all month. Yum!

Naptime

Katie's nap has been slowly dwindling over the past couple of months. And since the big girl bed, they are really almost gone. Yesterday I didn't even try to put her down. At 3:00 she asked for a snack. She was sitting at the table eating her pretzels and I was working in the kitchen. I glanced over to see how she was doing. Her head was bobbing all over the place and her eyes were closed. Obviously asleep, however, she was still eating her pretzels. I even tried to pry the last few out of her hands and she pulled her hand away head still bobbing and eyes closed. She did eat the remaining pretzels. Her last faint words as I put her down were "pacci, pac...ci, pac..." and gone.

August Idaho Trip

A few weeks ago Kimball got a new job as an RN! Yay! We are so proud of him. He is working on the Renal Diabetic floor. After we found out he got the job we jumped in the car and headed for Idaho. The weather was beautiful and Katie really didn't do too bad in the car. One of the first things she asked when we got there was "where's the snow?" One of the first things we did was check out their books. They have so many. She was just in heaven. The first thing she did when we got home was look through ALL of her books. Here are a few of the other fun things that happened while we were there.

They had some fun activities for the kids at the river. Katie wasn't as interested as the older kids so we only did a few things. She got to bang on some metal with her cousin Nick. The Hula Hoops were huge! She just liked standing inside while daddy held it up. The kids made boats and floated them down the gutters. She really liked this one.

She loves grandma's basement. Her favorite part was the kitchen.

A big girl bed! Yes, after the first night she decided she wanted to sleep in the big, blue beds instead of her pack n' play. Luckily they have a trundle bed and a bed rail. The first night in the bed took a while to get her to sleep, but once she's asleep she's good. She LOVED it! She just got a big girl bed at home too this week.

We floated down the river in Island Park. Katie's first boat trip. Unfortunately, the life jacket would choke her if she sat down, so she stood the entire time. That's probably what she would have done anyway, because she couldn't see out when she was sitting. The water was freezing cold, but she still played in it for a while.

Kimball celebrated his birthday while we were there. All the kids waiting with anticipation for the cake and ice cream (from Reed's Dairy, YUM!)

Here are all the cousins. Dillion is the newest memeber of my sister's family. It was great to finally meet him.

We played outside everyday. Tricycles, chalk, water, digging, trampoline, swings, and they even had an outdoor play kitchen. We love their huge patio. There was a dance practice going on outside across the street. A couple of the evenings there was loud music playing. Here the girls are dancing to the music.

Sewing

I was certainly not the one who was chosen "most likely to sew" in my family. But here I am sewing. I have an older sewing machine and we haven't always been the best of friends. However, my mom and sister-in-law inspired me and I decided one day to plug it in again. Then I threaded it and then tested it out. Here are the projects I have finished.

A very easy dress with no zippers, buttons, or 4-H judging.

An extremely easy skirt and flower.

My moms bandana aprons that we use almost every day. Love them!

RN

Congratulations Kimball! It's official, Kimball is now an RN. He took the NCLEX yesterday. We found out this morning that he PASSED!!! We are so proud of him. All of his hard work has paid off.

My Little Swimmer

We have been swimming a couple of times this summer. Katie loves it. She borrowed these arm floaties from her cousin Kaylee (thanks Kaylee). I know Katie has no idea what they are for, but apparently you use them when you swim. At one point she said, "I'm gonna swim" and then jumped off the stair. She must have seen someone else do that. Luckily I was in the water with her.

Stacking and Building

Katie loves to play "blocks" with daddy. Sometimes with me too. We made a pizza once and a cake. Of course we sang "happy to you" to everyone and everything we could think of . Kimball builds really cool things with her. They started out with airplanes, then animals and now he is building her bathtubs and showers for her baby. Of course, Katie likes to pretend to use them too. He is amazing. This is the shower/bathtub combo complete with soap dispenser. Depending on what they come up with next, she might be getting more blocks for Christmas (or Kimball's birthday).

This one is the first bathtub.

This is her new thing lately. She stacks and lines up everthing. She pulls all of her books out and somehow strategically places them just right and then reads all of them. She does this with her Little People and blocks and food. Bedtime stories have become a long process. She has to stack all of her books first and bring them to me. I'm pretty sure she gets this from all of the engineers and accountants on my side of the family.

Fingerpaints

This is Katie's first experience with finger paints. She was very hesitant at first. But as you can see that didn't last very long.

Cookies

I decided to make peanut butter cookies the other day. Katie loves to help me cook. We decided to use a potato masher to squish the cookies instead of a fork. I got the idea from my mom who used a meat tenderizer (clean and sanitized of course) to make the marks on the cookies. Katie was a pro.

Here she is with her tray of cookies. We need to find another word to get her to smile. Her "cheese" isn't really a smile.

Here she is reading some of the ads while we patiently wait for the cookies to come out. She also likes to go through the silverware drawer while she waits too. I usually end up washing all of the silverware afterwards.

Firestation

My friend Amber set up a field trip to the Fire station in Gilbert. They did a great job considering it was such a young crowd. The kids were really the most interested in the fire truck. They even got a call while we were there. When they turned on the truck Katie kept saying it was loud like the lawnmower and the vacuum. Thanks Amber it was fun!

Nursing Graduation

We did it! Kimball graduated from Nursing School last week June 24th. I am so proud of him. It has been a lot of work and not a lot of sleep. I was really sad that my pictures all came out blurry. But here are some of the highlights.

This picture is the Candle Lighting Ceremony. This is where they take their oath.

Katie did a pretty good job. She kept asking when it was mommy's turn and Katie's turn to go on the stage. Since daddy got a turn and all of those other people got a turn. She did pretty good considering how long she had to sit. We also had lots of snacks and grandma and grandpa to keep her occupied.

Here she is getting her turn on the stage. She was pretty excited.

Thank you everyone for all of your support and prayers. We couldn't have done it without you.

AB Song

Katie has been practicing singing the ABC song. She calls it the AB song. She loves singing along with the caterpillar. This is the second almost full time she sang it. Of course, the first time I didn't have my camera.

Science Fun

My friend Amber and I have done a few science experiments with our kids the past couple of weeks. It's fun to do something new and exciting. The first one we did was called "Dancing Raisins". When you put raisins in soda water they are supposed to dance. Only one or two of them did. They really enjoyed eating the raisins though. Katie actually ended up dumping half of hers in her jar. So we changed it to things that would sink to the bottom and things that would float to the top. When we finished the experiment we recorded it on paper. They had a chart that they glued things that went to the top on one side and the bottom on the other. A couple of days later we were talking to grandma on the phone and she started telling her about the bubbles in the water. It was funny because she hadn't said anything about it since that day.

Imagination of a Child

It's so fun to watch Katie's imagination blossom. Here are some pictures I have taken over the past couple of months. The stories she tells and the things she comes up with. It's great.

She always needs to be wherever I am. The blue thing is the sink from her play kitchen. It's perfect for giving her babies a bath. Of course we use all of the creams and the lotion.


I'm not sure what the things are around her wrist but they work great for bracelets. She has really been into playdough and paint and glue and coloring. She usually goes through everything in her art box. I know she's finished with one activity when she starts singing the "clean up" song and putting everything away. I hope that lasts. :)

She raided the closet one Sunday. She loves to help me pick out a shirt(since they are on the low rack) and a tie for daddy. She will go into the closet and say,"let's see." (I'm sure that's exactly what she hears me say.) The she says, "that one" and pulls it off the hanger and then repeats with several other shirts.

Sometimes she watches TV with some of her toys. The alligator won today. They are active participants in this activity. She will tell them about the show or ask if they need a drink or just talk about whatever is on her mind. I was too slow with the camera she actually gave the alligator a drink from her sippy. So cute.