Halloween 2007!

Here are several 'Halloween' pictures from this month. We decorated Halloween sugar cookies a couple of weeks ago for neighbors, we went to a pumpkin patch/parade march this past Monday and that evening the kids painted their mini pumpkins while Scott and I (well mostly Scott, I just drew the face on the pumpkin and picked out the pumpkin seeds with a spoon for some later roasting...didn't want to touch the goop:))carved our larger pumpkin. Today the kids and I made 'Candy Corn Pizza', the name comes from the look of the pizza, not the taste, and then later this evening we went trick or treating and the kids LOVED it...minus the scary gadgets people would have on their porches that would shriek or move...and the kids didn't like people wearing masks either in fact Elisabeth got to the door before I did when the first set of trick or treaters arrived and they (3 boys) were wearing scream ghost masks. Elisabeth quickly backed away from the door, shaking her head and screaming, "No! No!" and then she promptly ran into the couch :). The boys apologized which I thought was sweet and then we explained to Elisabeth a little more about the masks.

Happy Halloween!!!

Is it really genetic?

You may have to enlarge these pictures to see what Charlie is demonstrating (tongue rolling). Below is Elisabeth trying so hard to roll her tongue, but is unsuccessful. In my 7th grade Science class we were taught that it was a genetic trait, and I never could roll my tongue, but once we learned this interesting little fact I decided that I would practice with my tongue and so I would sit there during class period with my tongue stuck out and I'd pinch my tongue together with my index and thumb fingers so that it would roll. After about a week, I was able to do it on my own, with no finger help! Now you might say, well you must've had it in your genes, and perhaps that is true, but I am a strong believer that if you practice, exercise and work hard, that you can do just about anything, including rolling your tongue.

Fall Photos

Enjoying the leaves in our backyard:





































And my favorite...

Folding Laundry

Elisabeth has been folding rags and towels for quite awhile but has recently learned how to fold shirts and pants too. She's such a happy helper, we love it!

Barnyard Boo

The weather started out terrible today, and it ended pretty bad too. Lot's of wind, rain, snow etc. But from around 330-430pm the skies were clear and the sun was shining so we put on our coats and drove out to Thanksgiving Point (about a 20min. drive) to check out some of their fun Halloween activities. We went to the Country Farm for the Barnyard Boo which has a lot of activities for younger kids. We started out with the pony rides, Charlie went on them twice, we tried to get Elisabeth to ride, she really wanted to before we got there, but if you couldn't tell from previous blogs, she's not one for change or trying new things, so when I put her on a pony she freaked out...instead we watched Char go around with Daddy. Afterwards we decorated pumpkin sugar cookies,they went bowling and did a bean bag toss,fished for toys,and Charles willingly got his face painted and helped milk a cow!

First Trip to the Dentist

Today I decided I better take my kids in to see the dentist because Elisabeth is 3 now and because this week Charles took a fall and hit his mouth(which isn't too uncommon) but this time one of his front top teeth turned a grayish color:(You'll probably have to enlarge the picture to see the gray tooth) So I made the appointment this morning to go in this afternoon and then I talked to Elisabeth about was was going to happen: the dentist would brush and floss her teeth and put a little paper in her mouth to have her bite down on and then take a picture of her teeth. When I explained everything to her she was okay with what was going to take place so I felt good about it. Once we got into the dentists office and the dental assistant had Elisabeth sit in a chair that moves up and down, the look in Elisabeth's countenance changed, she started to get nervous and so did I. Then the dental assistant put on some laytex gloves and tried to touch Elisabeth's mouth and then it was all over. Elisabeth started kicking and screaming, she stood up in her swivel chair, reached her arms out to me and screamed, "Mommy, don't let her touch me! Please!" So the dental assistant quickly decided that we could skip this portion of the appointment. Next we walked down the hall and found the chair that Elisabeth was supposed to sit in to have her teeth cleaned. So she sat down quietly but when the assistant told her we were going to lay her back so that she could get a better look, Elisabeth freaked out again, even though if she were to lay back she could've watched the movie "Cars" that was playing on the ceiling..she just didn't care at this point. In the end I sat in the chair and held Elisabeth (who was much more calm when I did this), and I brushed her teeth while the dentist looked around with his little mirror and metal hook device. He did find a cavity in the back and thinks she should come back to fix that and be given an oral sedation...but I'm feeling a little wary. They don't want me to be in the room while they're fixing the cavity because she's going to be loopy, but I really want to be. So I think we'll just wait it out and get it fixed in 6 months or a year or so when she's a little bit older and feels a little more comfortable at the dentists office. I figured out towards the middle of her appointment that she really didn't like them touching her with their laytex gloves on, so I might have to buy some and have her and I wear them around the house while we clean or something just to get her used to them.

Charles did really good. He was pretty calm and relaxed about the whole thing and the dentist said that his tooth is bruised or dead and that it'll probably just turn an opaque color and then once it falls out and he gets his permanent tooth it should be fine and go back to it's normal color. We just have to keep an eye on it for a little while because it could get infected and if that happens he'll get swollen around the mouth and then we'd have to get the tooth pulled. Hopefully it won't come to that.

I told the kids that if they did okay at the dentists office and let him look at their teeth that we could go to "Old McDonalds" afterward as a special treat(we probably go there a few times a year, so it's very exciting for them). Even though Elisabeth didn't really have an ideal visit, she did let the dentist look at her teeth and I figure it was probably a bit of a traumatic experience for her so tonight for dinner we ate at "Old McDonalds."P.S. look below because I just posted one more blog

Silly Kids

If you were to ask Charles to pretend like he was sleeping, this is the face he would make:

I know, it doesn't really look like he's sleeping huh? But he thinks it does...probably because his eyes are closed.

And Elisabeth has been making me laugh so hard at the breakfast/lunch/dinner table recently. For some reason she thinks meal time is an excellent time to show me all of her silly faces and try and make mom laugh so hard that food comes out of places that it doesn't normally :). I love children!

Baby Gate

I think this video clearly demonstrates why we've decided to take down the baby gate...the thing is really quite useless


Notice that he carefully unscrews the side so that the gate will loosen up, gives it a little jiggle to help it pop open, and then of course looks daddy in the eye to see what his reaction will be :)

Story Time with Elisabeth

Tumbling Class

Every Monday Elisabeth has tumbling class from 10-1030am. At first she was a bit wary, but now she LOVES it! Last week I brought my camera and took a few pictures so that you all could enjoy it with us :), and it was a good thing I brought it that week because their teacher, Trina, asked that from now on the parents wait out in the hall or somewhere else because she wants to surprise us at the end with all the new tricks they can do. So today I took Charles out to the grocery store with me during her class and then we got back a few minutes early and peaked in the window at her to see how everything was going...I'm going to miss watching her class practice, and I like to know what they're working on and how the teacher approaches it so that we can practice during the week. Most of the parents still stayed inside the classroom and watched the whole time, so we'll see, maybe Trina will change her mind and let us watch, I just need her to give me permission because I don't want to feel like a rule breaker.

Elisabeth's in the back wearing the long sleeve purple shirt...they're rolling their ankles:The trampoline is a favorite of most the kids:And last, a somersault down the triangle:

Kids videos

Charles learned how to get both feet off the ground at the same time this week(basically, jump). I wish I would've taken a video of it earlier in the week because it was funny to watch all of his attempts :), now he's gotten pretty good. Here's a video of Charles and Elisabeth jumping and then the second video is mostly of Elisabeth and her baby Evelyn.

How to make a PB&J sandwich

Step 1:
Spread lots of peanut butter on part of the bread













Step 2:
Lick the knife clean



















Step 3:
Spread the jelly on part of the other piece of bread













Step 4:
Put both pieces of bread together and enjoy!













(For those of you who have received food from us that Elisabeth and I made, don't worry your little heads, we did get a clean knife after she licked the peanut butter one; we try not to spread too many germs :))

The weekend

We had a lot going on this weekend so I thought I'd do a little blog mostly so that I could remember :). Friday afternoon, Charles climbed on top of our computer desk, grabbed a scripture marking pencil and scribbled all over our flat screen monitor; I'm reading this text right now through lots of multi colored scribbles :), cool. We've heard that rubbing alcohol should take it off so we'll try that soon. Friday night we picked up Scott from work and went to his Rome, Italy mission reunion that was held at his mission president's house in Salt Lake City. We all had a really nice time. They had extremely yummy Italian food, my favorite was probably an appetizer: fresh mozzarella cheese topped with tomato. Scott got to chat with some old buddies, and Elisabeth Charles and I played with all the other little children. They had lots of fun toys and not too many breakable things around so I got to sit on the floor with the kids for most of the time and just relax.

Saturday morning Scott worked out in the garden and I canned some pizza sauce from the tomatoes that our neighbors gave us. We watched general conference and during the last talk that morning(just before nap time) Charles went to give Elisabeth a kiss and she bit his chin really hard. So we sent her to her room for time out where she was playing with her door, swinging it open pretty fast, and then finally opened it so hard that the door knob went through the wall, cool :). They've ruined and damaged so many things that Scott and I have had a lot of practice 'staying calm', so I think we handled it okay. (Though it should be known that their was already a door knob dent in the door from the previous owners...practically none of our doors have door stops on them which I think is crazy, so we'll be getting some very soon)The kids napped during the afternoon session so I got to really listen to the talks which was nice. Our neighbor works for the Church and invited Scott to go with his family to priesthood session at the conference center. They parked in the church office building parking lot and while getting out of the car he saw President Eyring and they said hi. Since Greg, our neighbor, works for the church he usually gets pretty good seats. They sat in the 7th row from the front and in fact on his ticket it says, "Guests of the First Presidency"which we thought was pretty cool. During priesthood session, Elisabeth, Charles and I went with my aunt Luann and her friends and had dinner and played. We all had a nice night.

Sunday we got to listen to the Prophet again and afterwards went to my Uncle's and Aunts for dinner. We love getting together with them partly because they're the only other family we have around but mostly because they are very good at making you feel comfortable and welcome.... in fact Elisabeth was so comfortable that she was calling Uncle Fred 'Grandpa' and was climbing all over him most of the night and playing lots of games and singing lots of songs with him :). I wish I had my video camera with me because it was pretty funny, maybe next time.

Picasa Pictures

I just posted our September pictures and some pictures of the Garnica (my maiden name) family reunion from August. You can see them by clicking on our Family Pictures link off to the right. Here's one of my favorites :). If you click on it to enlarge it I think you'll see why. Notice that Charlie is screaming and crying, drawing lots of attention, and Shaun (in Fred's lap on the far right) is also throwing a little tantrum and the rest of us are trying to look as happy and natural as possible, oh and of course my eyes are closed. Isn't this how big family pictures usually go though? At least that's the way it is for our family. We do have other ones posted on our Family pictures website where just about everyone looks happy so you can check those out too if you like. Here's one more with just the siblings, we're in age order starting with the oldest (Luis) to the left.

20 weeks

Hi, here I am at 20 weeks with my big belly :). I don't like taking pictures of myself when I'm pregnant but Becca (my sister) made a special request that I do since we live too far away to see each other in person anymore. So enjoy it, because you probably won't be seeing too many more :).

Halloween popcorn balls

Today the kiddies and I made some marshmallow, Halloween, popcorn balls. We mixed in some reeses pieces and some special Halloween sprinkles and then stuck them on sticks. In the picture below notice that the kids decided to ditch their sticks after a couple of bites:












We made extras so that we could have some after family home evening:

The weather has been pretty cold and yucky here recently so if any of you have other good ideas for crafts or other activities for kids, please share them!

Marshmallow popcorn balls:
1 bag popped popcorn
6 Tbsp. butter
about 1 bag marshmallows (a little less)
any mix-ins you want to add

Melt butter over low heat in a medium saucepan. Add marshmallows and stir continuously until completely melted. Pour over popped popcorn in a large bowl. Mix together. You can add mix-ins now or you can wait until you've formed them into balls and put them on sticks. Cover your hands with butter or pam spray so the marshmallows won't stick to them and then form balls, insert stick and place on wax or parchment paper. (If you want the popcorn ball to stay on the stick you'll have to wait until they've cooled before you try and eat it.)