the color of your eyes

This is what's making us smile today:

Anicka loves this video, and so do I.
:)

Why my husband is the greatest - reason # 47

How many dads can teach their kids to walk on the ceiling?

Adventures in Motherhood - Episode #3

One day last month we went outside to play in the grassy area next to our apartment, and it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of the trees... because the leaves were finally starting to turn. That's quite an exciting thing for me. Autumn is my favorite season, and we don't get much of an Autumn here in St. George.


It was such a peaceful, beautiful afternoon. The kids even played together nicely for some time before their game of 'kick the ball' turned in to a game of 'keep the ball away from Ryker'.


At which point I interrupted the game with the suggestion that we go exploring. Ryker decided to lead the expedition.
They were quite exhausted after their mad dash across the lawn, and found a nice stump to rest on. 'Ahh, a photo op!', thought Mom. But Anicka was intent on having her 'favorite stick' with her in the photograph. I was able to get one picture without the stick, where they were both sort of smiling and had both eyes open...

before Ryker decided that enough was enough.

(Mooooom! Ryker's eating diiiiirt!)
And then the children went their seperate ways. Anicka decided to spend the remainder of our time outside in a deep, meaningful conversation with her stuffed dog.


And Ryker decided to try his hand at mountaineering. (Hey. A stump is tough business when you're still trying to figure out the whole walking-with-shoes-on trick.)


Once he had conquered the stump, He moved on to bigger and better things. Namely, the picnic table. His look of satisfaction was pretty darn cute.
As was his indignation when I so rudely removed him from the table. Ah, the heartache.

Halloween in December

How sad is it that I'm only now getting around to posting Halloween pictures? Ah, well. life is busy, what else can I say? Anyway. (These pictures are just for you, my dearest Crystal. :D )

Halloween is my favorite. I can go all out on decorations and costumes, I get to try new things and let my creative side run wild... It's awesome. This year I made almost everything for our costumes. Anicka and Ryker were a Princess (Belle) and a dragon, respectively. And Adam and I went as Cleopatra and Marc Antony. My first idea was to go as Dr. Horrible and Penny, but I didn't think many people would know who we were. Anyway. Adam and I made the 'armour' out of cardboard, and I crocheted my wig and made all of the jewelry.

I made Ryker's costume out of a couple of blankets and a scarf from the dollar store. The cape/wings was my favorite part of his costume, but we couldn't get a good photo because this was about the happiest he was all night:


Here is Anicka's princess pose:
Her dress came from this:


Which I found at the D.I.
It was about three sizes too big, and pretty plain, so I spruced it up for her.
And here is a picture of the Three Musketeers, who had fun trick-or-treating together. Sienna is a ballerina and Kaycee is an old woman (complete with sagging bosom, though you can't see it in the picture):They are the cutest little girls on the planet, seriously.
Annnnnd, lastly, a few photos of our Halloween Decorations. There were the hanging bats in the window (can you guess which ones Anicka made?):

the pumpkins that we painted, plus Anicka's scarecrows (which she calls 'co-crays' for some strange reason) and her beloved stick collection:
our paper-bag pumpkins, which sadly looked more like orange pineapples:
and our cute ghost jars, which looked pretty sweet when they were lit up with glowsticks:

Well, folks. that is the end of my very verry verrrry belated Halloween post. Goodnight.