Happy Halloween!

Let me just preface this by saying I am so incredibly exhausted. So if I do not make sense at all... there you go! I just wanted to get this up so grandmas could see the kids on Halloween!

First of all, October has seriously been the most busy month ever. We moved into our new house the beginning of October even though our contract on our apartment doesn't end until tomorrow. We thought, "Wonderful! We will have a whole month to clean and move!" And then this month has been so crammed pack with tests (for Austin) and play dates (for me and the kids) and all sorts of Halloween things. So we were still moving today! And then we needed to start cleaning... and we still aren't done cleaning (Austin is there taking a turn cleaning right now!). So we really are so, so tired! We will need to spend all of November relaxing!

Anyway, so after cleaning and whatnot today, we went over to our friends' house to go trick-or-treating with them. I'm sorry but I do not have a lot of pictures of Baby Max because this is what he did all night:

Thanks Cole for letting Max sleep in your crib!

Anyway, as always my pictures are way out of order. So let me just tell the story now: We have had so many Halloween things to go to this month. In fact, this is the SIXTH time Makenna has worn her costume! We've had parties at two friends' houses, parties at church and at the library, a Halloween event at Austin's school, and trick or treating tonight. It's so crazy! But Makenna has loved the whole thing. I have found that she loves doing crafts and she loves playing little games. She also loves walking up to the people to get the candy. She will not say "Trick-or-Treat" but she will say the "Happy" in "Happy Halloween!" And she claps every time someone gives her candy. Oh and she really doesn't care anything about eating the candy which is good for Mom and Dad : ).

So these are just random pictures from all of our Halloween activities.

Two guys giving out the candy. JJ was the Scarecrow from Batman and Austin was... Austin. But I think he looks like a truck driver or something! Then we have Cowgirl Makenna, Batman Cole, and Robin Logan.

Thanks JJ for the candy!

By the end of the night Makenna was racing up the sidewalk to houses. Who needs mom?

But you definitely do need your thumb in your mouth!

She was absolutely fascinated with all of the decorations (except I'm wondering if some were a little TOO scary for her. As I'm typing this, she has already waken up three times crying. Bad dreams maybe? She usually doesn't cry like this!)

Okay this was at the party at Midwestern yesterday. It was a really neat thing. You could go from building to building trick-or-treating. Then they had games in the gym to play and activities and treats in the lunchroom. We had so much fun! Makenna was making some Halloween cards here. I think they were for children in the hospital but I'm not sure.

Getting candy at the Office Trick-or-Treat.

She was so good (most of the time) about just taking one piece! In this office building, they just had chairs lined up outside the cubicles with candy! Huge temptation, but Makenna handled it like an angel (with a little help from mom and dad)!

Pushing the buttons to go up for more trick-or-treating at Daddy's school! (The lack of Max in these pictures is just because we were holding him the whole time!)

Okay, this was at the Music Maker's party at church yesterday morning. Austin got done with class early and kept Max so Makenna and I could go play! Makenna was playing "Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin." She loved the games so much there and at Austin's school! She would just clap and cheer for herself! She didn't even want the prizes-- she just wanted to play the games!

Makenna and Brooklyn... just hanging out! This was a rare moment for Makenna. If she wasn't playing games she was dancing all over the place!

Ha ha, she doesn't really get the concept of throwing the bean bags... that's okay, she was awfully cute anyway!

Dancing with her cookie...

Walking in the Cookie Walk (I don't really think she understood what the heck she was doing! Mom, why are we walking in circles on this paper?)

Okay, this was at Kristen's party. We forgot our cameras at the actual Halloween parties, so I stole this picture from her! We were all cowboys/cowgirls! I was going to really go all out with the costumes, but I got lazy (see two posts ago). So all i ended up making was Makenna's skirt and vest and my skirt. Oh well! Look at little Max grabbing his big sister's arm... either he really loves her or he wants her toy! Probably both... : )

Sheriff Max

Cowgirl Makenna

Okay, there you go! I didn't get pictures at the other things... because both our camera and I stink... But it was such a fun month full of all sorts of parties and activities. Thanks to everyone for everything! Now, hopefully, we can get this apartment finished up. Austin is over there now and then he is off to an all-night relay thing he is volunteering at. Good grief! Busy day! I am finally going to fall into bed to sleep. My house is a mess, but this one time I do not care! : )

A Lot of Randomness and Our New House!

Okay, so although I posted some crafts I did last week, it's really been a while since I have posted about the children and whatnot (basically since before we moved). So I have quite a few random pictures and then pictures of the new house!

Today I made Makenna a pumpkin book and let her color it. This is mostly for grandmas to see how cute Makenna colors!

Also, Makenna insisted on another "Cheese" picture after breakfast this morning.

Okay, so we have had a massive cold front come through yesterday and today. It dropped, I think they said, 24 degrees overnight! So we have gone from 80s to 50s/60s. That may not sound cold to some of you, but with us who have already acclimated to Arizona weather, it is freezing! We had to quickly buy the children a few warmer outfits!

Baby Max in his pants and jacket. I'm not sure exactly what's up with that goofy face he is making...

Seriously so funny! He loves to stick his tongue out and also to suck on his lips. I think it's part of the teething thing.

And Makenna in her sweats... I may be a biased mom, but I think she looks so stinkin' adorable!

Yesterday Austin made some yummy banana bread-- perfect for cold weather! I think it looks way professional. Also, so yummy! Makenna kept saying, "Piece, Piece!" She loves that stuff! We have hardly saved any for Austin!

Makenna, a couple of weeks ago, being silly before church (she likes the witches hanging above the fireplace. They make her laugh like crazy!):

Makenna and Max doing their favorite thing: smooching each other! Slightly ridiculous how much those two love each other...

Max before church a few weeks ago (Austin thought he looked like a pimp-- but I thought he was adorable!)

We walked in on Makenna before bed one day. Who needs mom and dad when you can read the scripture stories yourself?

Okay, now on to pictures of our house. I have been waiting to take pictures, thinking I would get everything all set up and decorations up and everything clean and exactly how I like it. Then I realized-- it will probably never be EXACTLY how I want it. So I just took the pictures anyway... : )

Okay, first is our library/craft room/office/den. It is definitely a lived in room! I love being able to have a room to store and do my crafts in! Austin has also started studying quite a bit in here. I didn't take a picture of the built in desk area. I'm sorry, that was just TOO messy; I couldn't do it! So here is just the slightly messy side of the room...

Next, Baby Max's room:

It is wonderful to be able to have baby Max in his own room. When he is sleeping or taking naps, the rest of the family can continue with their own routines and not have to worry about waking him!

Makenna's room:

You can't tell from the picture, but it really is a cute little girl's room. Too bad she doesn't ever play in it...

Next we have our room (it is so hard to take pictures of rooms! You can't get everything!):

Okay, then we have our family room. We decided to make this a room where kids can just play to their hearts' content. So we only have a limited amount of furniture. The rest of the room is just open play area! We love it!

The kitchen (yes, the wallpaper really is hideous!):

And last is our living room. We made two separate sitting areas. Right now we really don't use this room at all, but I plan to start doing Makenna's school in there:

(Sorry it's dark-- we haven't put the lamps in there yet!)

And there you go! I'm all caught up on blogging! See you Halloween for pictures of the cutest little Cowboy and Cowgirl!

A Few Little Crafts...

So I'm supposed to be working on Halloween costumes right now... especially since our first Halloween party is tomorrow... but for some reason I just can't get into making them. But what can I get into? A million crafts for my house! : ) I'm not ready to post pictures of our house yet (I still have a few things that aren't like I want them yet and I want it all set before I put on here), but I did think I would go ahead and post a few things I've made for it.

First of all, my oops! Yesterday I was removing a picture that I had hung with mounting tape and this was my result:

I guess when they say don't remove at an angle, DON'T! : o

Okay, next, when I got the camera out today Makenna said, "Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!" So here is her, "Cheese" (notice the lack of smile, obviously she doesn't understand what cheese really means!).

Okay, this is a wall hanging that I made to go over our love seats in the livingroom. I have three on one wall over the love seat and three on the other wall opposite over the other love seat. I think they look better in person than they do in a picture taken by our crappy camera:

This is a close up. I just glued scrapbook paper to foam boards, glued ribbon around the edge, and mod podged the top to make it stiff and shiny.

Okay, for some reason the pictures of the other wall will not load... but it's the same thing, just three different papers.

Okay, next is a wall hanging/headboard I made for our room:

I just stuck scrapbook paper on stick-on tiles (to make them stiff). I think it looks like fabric!

In the livingroom I did the same paper stuck on tiles...

I LOVE this paper! It is textured and so gorgeous! Ha ha, now that I look at the previous picture I notice the picture is actually turned sideways... It was 11:05, not 7:50! Ha ha, oops

Okay, that's it. I suppose I should actually go back and START our Halloween costumes now... Argh!

Just a few things...

Hooray, hooray, hooray! We have not one, but TWO very exciting announcements! First of all, looks like we will be moving into our house TOMORROW!

So cute, huh? We are so, so excited! But we are a bit bummed (or at least I am bummed) because Austin has THREE tests this week so he will be zero help! So although I have had lots of offers to help with my kids, right now they are being super clingy to us. Like seriously, they are pretty much going nuts with anyone else-- even baby Max! So how the heck do we move? Well, my plan is to pack the car while Mr. Max is sleeping, then drive to the new house and let the kids play while I unpack there. And then go back to our apartment and let Max take his next nap... and just keep up that pattern. And then Austin will be able to help move the furniture on Friday (he does have another test the next Monday, but hopefully I will be able to get everything but the furniture moved and it won't take long to move that).

Okay, my pictures are in a random order. So here is just a picture of Max and Austin before church (yes Mother, Max isn't wearing "real" church clothes... but this is pretty nice... okay it was 107 today, just too hot for his normal church clothes! I'm sorry, but he is still way cute [and his daddy isn't too bad either, ha!]).

Okay, now for the SECOND bit of amazing news: Makenna stayed in nursery today! The WHOLE TIME! Woo hoo! So I took her to class and she instantly started howling! But I just told her I would be back after church and to have fun and I left. I went back to the chapel and Austin left for his class and by the time he walked past her class, she had stopped crying. I checked on her twice. The first time she was in the teacher's lap but was looking at the pictures and paying attention. The second time she was playing with toys, but had her thumb in her mouth. When I picked her up after church she was crying, but they said she just barely had started. I think it upset her when other parents came to get their kids and we weren't there yet... but still, so amazing! They said she didn't cry, but she didn't really participate very much because she still wasn't too sure what was going on. But she stayed! And Max was such a good little guy so we had an awesome church day!

Also, Austin's mom sent us a little package this week with some MUCH NEEDED clothes for the kids. This dress actually belonged to Austin's older sister when she was little. But Makenna looks so darn cute in it! Sorry, for some reason she closed her eyes in every single picture I took so I never got a very good one! She also wouldn't smile : (

Adorable! Next item of business: we decided about a month ago to be cowboys for Halloween. My mom sent a pattern for costumes, and I have even ordered cowboy boots from ebay : ). At Joann's the other day I picked Makenna and Max up some little foam cowboy hats. Makenna decided to try her hat on Max. Ha ha, so funny!

Also in the package, new pjs! Yes! Here is baby Max:

And cutie pie Makenna (we love here in these pajamas! so adorable! look how sweet she looks with her little wet hair and clean face! Ha ha, it's a trick! : ) ):

Okay, very last thing (I know, I know, I'm the queen of super long posts!). Makenna loves when we take pictures. So the other day, she wanted me to take pictures so I took pictures of me kissing her. Austin thought that looked fun and jumped in the background with Max. It resulted in, what I think is, an adorable picture!

Oh I love my little family! Cross your fingers things go well this week with MOVING!!!

Big Kids and New Skirt

Holy smokes our little guys are getting so big now! I cannot get over it! Max is 3 months old and Makenna is now 18 months old. Max is definitely NOT a newborn anymore. He can no longer fit into his 3 months clothes, he has rolled over, he smiles and laughs, he can completely hold his body up and can stand and play in the Exersaucer, he loves toys... he is a big boy!

I had Austin take this picture today because I thought Max's chubby little legs looked so cute crossed here. Ha ha, okay Mom's a dork...

Here are all three of my cuties dressed up for stake conference today!



See, this is not a newborn baby! This is a big boy! He is so cute for church! : )

Makenna is growing up so much as well! She has been going to nursery for 3 weeks now and she HATES it! The first week I left her after their lesson because she seemed to be doing so well... they had to bring her to me because she was so hysterical with me leaving. The next week I stayed with her... and she still cried the whole time! They have such fun activities, but for some reason she is just so scared of me leaving! Last week I left her immediately (trying to do a cold turkey thing) and she stayed an hour. Then when they went to wash their hands for snack she apparently thought they were taking her to me and when they didn't she went hysterical again and they had to take her to me after all! So it's not working out so well...

Let's see, other Makenna news. She is talking up a storm now! She rattles off these long sentences and we have no clue what she is saying! We ask her to repeat and she says the exact same thing over again... but we still don't know what she wants! Today I overheard a funny conversation between her and her dad:

Makenna: "Nice...nice... nice"

Austin: "Nice? You want to be nice? Okay, how about massaging dad's shoulders then..."

Pamela (laughing like crazy): "Austin! She isn't saying nice! She is saying snacks! She wants a snack!"

Ha ha, so although she talks a lot, it's often a challenge to understand her!

We also thought we would start potty training. Makenna has now gone twice in the potty. But I decided to stop for a while, because we had just bought a new case of diapers and I want to use them all before we potty train her... ; ) Hey, we can't afford to be wasteful around here!

Makenna is also getting really tall and outgrowing all of her dresses! They still fit around the waist, but are too short! So last night (at 10pm!), I decided to make her a new skirt for church. It was really simple to make. It took me about an hour and a half (who is dumb enough to start a skirt for church on Saturday night at 10pm?!?) but now that I know what I'm doing, I could whip another one up in less than 30 minutes no problem! I think it turned out cute (although it was maybe a little TOO casual for church today... oh well, at least it was long enough!)

Aren't my big kids adorable? One last note, looks like we finally have a house set up to move into and our move in date is October 1. Austin says we probably won't be able to move in right then because he has school, but still-- a house is in our sights!!!

A Few New Things...

So I just wanted to write a quick post tonight of a few new things that I have found that I think are going to be great for our family:

First of all, Austin and I have our couple scripture study each night before bed. Here lately (we have just been getting into words from Isaiah) I have been completely zoning out as we read the verses, say prayer, and call it a night. Finally on Thursday night, I was just like "Stop! We are obviously doing this wrong! I am not getting anything at all out of scripture reading. We should be STUDYING! Not just mindlessly READING!" So on Friday we went to Deseret Book and picked up a FANTASTIC scripture study book. It's called Scripture Study for Latter Day Saint Families. It was a little spendy, $25, so we only bought the book for the Book of Mormon, though they have them for all of the standard works. We have used this book to study for three nights now. In these three nights I have gotten more out of the scriptures than our months of reading combined! This book is perfect for discussion, activities, and journal writing. I HIGHLY recommend it for couple study, individual study, and family study. Seriously, get this book people!!!

With Austin and I enjoying our scripture study a lot more, I decided I wanted to have more meaningful study with Makenna. She is such a little ADHD child that it is so hard to get her to sit still for anything. Every night we gather in her room and read a scripture verse and then a quote from President Hinkley (following his book Stand a Little Taller). This is nice for me and Austin, but Makenna really doesn't understand it. So today I did a little Internet searching and found http://toddlerscripture.blogspot.com/ This is a fantastic site with great ideas for studying with a toddler. So tonight we read from the Book of Mormon reader the "How We Got the Book of Mormon" story (actually, we pointed to the pictures and talked about it-- Makenna really isn't into letting us read ANYTHING to her). Tomorrow night we will let her color a picture of Joseph Smith while we retell the story. On Tuesday night we will retell the story again and this time act it out. Wednesday we have the retelling of the story and another coloring page. Thursday we have yet another coloring page and will retell the story. On Friday we are going to make our own "gold plates" and let Makenna "write" on them while we retell the story. And on Saturday we will retell the story with the flannel board. For people with older children, this may sound extremely boring and repetitive-- to tell the same story over and over again for a week. But for someone as young as Makenna, the retell and the activities may actually help her get something from it! I will have to let you know how it goes (I've printed extras of my pictures and so forth and am keeping them in a binder), but tonight it worked great and we are really excited about it!

The last thing I wanted to share is Tot School. I feel badly because Makenna spends most of her day either extremely bored or watching Elmo (she honestly can quote the whole dialogue of some of her Elmo movies!). So I wanted to find something a bit more structured that I can do with her during the day when Mr. Max sleeps. So I found http://http//lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/TotSchool.html This is a fantastic program for "Tots," kids ages 1-3. This week I have made about a zillion little games for Makenna. I am hoping to start Tot School with her tomorrow. I am so, so excited about this. If you have small children, please go to this site and look at it! I can promise you will be excited about it too! I will also let you know later on how this goes, as well as take some pictures of the games I made. Most of them came from this website, but I adapted them to fit Makenna because she is a bit younger than the child featured there.

Anyway, so there's the new and exciting things I have found lately! I can't wait for this week to try/continue them!

Oh Man...

Today I decided to let Makenna try a little bit of finger painting. She really hasn't tried that before, and I thought she would enjoy it. And oh buddy, did she! But her ocd mom about had a heart attack! These are the results:

Yes, her toes are red and blue. Although Makenna was sitting in her high chair, she somehow managed to reach over and paint her toes... oh man...

Look at the paint in her hair and in her mouth! Augh!!!

Messy, messy hands...

This took her poor little mom FOREVER to clean up!

And the finished art work... so, so cute! Okay, okay, I guess I will let her do it another day!