Halloween Party Madness

This Halloween Season has been awfully exciting. Last year it was exciting, because we were seconds away from having a new baby ... and then we had a new baby. But now. It's been fun because Camille turned one year and we've had a whole bunch of parties to attend.

There was a party thrown by some sisters in our ward and their friends at the beginning of the month. The theme was "Freak Show", and these girls went all out! They held it in the Halladay's backyard (a family in our ward that is loaded and has a huge property where we throw many of our ward parties). They had a dance floor, tables and chairs, a setup for taking pictures, treats and drinks. And the decorations were amazing! It was carnival freak show all over that yard: freaky dolls hanging from the trees; scary clowns hanging out in random places; tents and hay bails; balloons and a hotdog stand; skulls and creepy busts. A ton of people went; there was much dancing and fun all around. We didn't even know the majority of the people there, but we had a great time.

*Jill Newbold, Megan Hebdon, and me*

Then, last weekend, of course, was our ward Halloween party. Also in the Halladay's backyard, and with many of the decorations from the other party. It was a fun party! And much more comfortable for us than in years past, probably because we know people, finally, and have some friends. I made some veg chili for it, mostly for myself ... :) And we all dressed in our fun costumes. The girls had taken a pretty late nap, again (that seems to be happening a lot more lately), so I felt like we could stay a little later than we normally would. Although, Camille was getting pretty restless towards the end. Brooke had fun following Daisey around and playing with her and Miley Delhoyo.

*Tweedle Dee and Alice*

*Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee, and Alice in Wonderland*

This year, I wanted to start a new tradition for our family for Halloween -- a Halloween Feast! A special dinner, where I make something delicious and possible Spooky themed. Everything had spooky names. I put out some candles and pumpkins, we played a Halloween station, and we had a great time. Unfortunately, Daniel was working late and commuting home, and Gramma was working at Grandpa Bowen's house, so they missed our fun dinner. But the girls and I had fun. And I had fun planning and making it all. Hopefully next year, Dadda will be able to do it with us. I'm also thinking that next year, we'll have to do some Halloween themed activity afterwards, like carving pumpkins or making little Kleenex ghosts or decorating Halloween cookies. We'll see. But I see a very fun future with this new tradition!

*Our Halloween Feast -- Witches' Wands, Spooky Salad, Worms and Eyeballs, Bones, and Pumpkin muffins. So fun! Camille loved the feast -- the bones and eyeballs and muffins in particular. But she's a really good eater, nearly all of the time. *

Daniel didn't have to go in to work this morning because of his assignment for today. So we had some time to be together, which has been rather rare of late. And we carved pumpkins! Brooke had a great time drawing on, poking holes in and cutting up her pumpkin (with help, of course -- Daniel ended up carving her pumpkin with a happy face, like she requested).

*My vampire pumpkin, Daniel's silly pumpkin, and Brooke's smiley pumpkin in the front.*

This afternoon, Daniel's old firm, KKAJ, had a Halloween Party at their office and invited all the families and children, and they even invited us, which I thought was so nice. They had pizza there for everyone for lunch and they did a fun little Halloween Parade for the kids to show off their costumes. The kids were led around from office to office, trick-or-treating for candy from all of the employees. Brooke had a great time, and it was so fun for Daniel and I to see our friends. They loved having all the kids together in the office, and I must say, they were all pretty cute.

Aside from all of these fun Halloween festivities, I've been reading Dracula during this season. I've missed the last few Octobers; the month just seems to slip away, and I would find that I hadn't read it ... again. (And honestly, you can't read Dracula during any other month of the year. Honestly.)So this year was the year. And I really love it! I keep wondering how it is that I haven't been reading this book every single October! It's the perfectly spooky book to read during Halloween. Spooky, but not really terrifying like you feel during horror movies. It's an interesting and fast-paced story, and it's fast becoming one of my favorite books. I'm not done, yet, though, so that could change in the last 150 pages.

This October has been perfect!!

Birthday Week Madness

Camille's birthday was on Tuesday, so the first part of Monday was spent doing some birthday shopping. I still had presents to buy the little angel. We got part of our shopping done before afternoon naps, and I had planned to finish it after naps. But I noticed that Brooke was starting to fade towards the end of our outing, and then after she'd slept for a while, she woke up crying. I got her out of bed and let her watch some tv, and sat cuddling with her, trying to get her to calm down. But it wasn't long before she got sick and threw up. The poor little thing was sick. We got her all cleaned up, and then I set her up in the toddler bed in her room with a bowl and some cartoons on the laptop while Camille and I did our own thing.

Brooke seemed to start feeling better around dinner and bedtime, so I gave her a snack while I got Camille fed and in bed. Brooke was pretty chipper; I gave her some stomach medicine and put her to bed. She threw up once more, before I went to bed; we got her cleaned up and her bed cleaned up, and she went back to sleep.

*This little bad started crawling up the stairs last week. It's time for her to learn to go down the stairs too.*

Poor little Camille didn't have the best birthday. Brooke was feeling a lot better, but still under the weather, and not well enough (I thought) to go to the park, which is what I had planned for the Millie's birthday. We stayed home for most of the day instead. Brooke helped me make cupcakes while Camille napped. They had a quick lunch, and then I had to them both to Camille's 1 year check up.

The whole thing was a miserable experience. We got there early, hoping they would see us earlier. Nope. They were late in getting us in. They did all their normal measurements of Camille, we waited, and the doctor came in with all kinds of negative language about Camille's growth, or rather, lack of growth. She is still not on the charts, and the doc said that she has only gained about 2 pounds in the last 6 months, which is not good. We had a little chat about it, she asked me all the usual questions about Camille and her development, and then basically said, "Well, except for the fact that she is unusually tiny, she seems to be doing fine. However, I'm gonna run all kinds of tests on her to make sure everything is alright." We then waited for a while; the nurse came in to give the poor kid 5 SHOTS; we waited some more; and then went into the lab for them to draw Camille's blood. The poor little thing! She screamed the whole time they did that, and I was on the verge of tears as well.

On top of all this, Brooke had pooped in her diaper and was stinky and miserable the whole time. We ended up being there a total of 2 hours, and the girls were just ... done. And so was I. And yet we still have to go in for them to collect some other specimens and do an x-ray of Cam's wrist.

This was not how I wanted Camille's first birthday to go.

We went home and I put both girls down for a SUPER late nap. They both slept, though. They were clearly exhausted and fed up.

Daniel came home from work a little early to celebrate Camille's birthday, and we had a nice birthday dinner, complete with cupcakes and presents. Camille dove right into her little mini cupcake. She had no reservations about it at all, and stuffed the whole thing into her mouth. It was so adorable. We got her mostly books for her birthday. But I had Daniel pick up another gift for her, and he chose a little baby doll. Camille was so cute opening that present. Her face just lit up and we could tell she was so excited to have her own baby doll. She loves playing with Brooke's Dolly, so it was just perfect.

*Birthday breakfast -- Pancakes and berries*

*Birthday Girl! And mini Chocolate cupcakes!*

I let Daniel put the girls to bed while I went to a Relief Society Activity making some cute Halloween decorations.

My birthday, on Wednesday, was a whole lot more exciting than Camille's was. Camille gave me a sweet little gift right off: some rare morning cuddles. And I loved every second! Then after getting up a little bit early and getting ready, Heather Delhoyo (my running buddy), Megan Hebdon (my visiting teaching comp and friend) and I walked to breakfast about a mile and a half away at a fun little deli nearby. We met Chelsea Bulkley and Allison Leishman there, and it was so fun. The girls, I think, loved getting out that morning, seeing some friends and getting good food. And I enjoyed all those things as well.

By the time we'd walked home, Camille's first nap was well over, and we'd missed it. I played with the girls for a little while, gave them a light lunch and put them both down a little early. They both slept for me while I worked on Camille's Halloween costume (an Alice in Wonderland dress and apron that I had started only a few days before). Daniel came home while they were sleeping with wraps from Chop Stop (one of our favorites), and after the girls woke up, they sequestered themselves off to prepare birthday goodness. And he let me take a little birthday nap while he went down with the girls to make dinner.

We had a pretty light dinner -- Daniel and I were still full of Chop Stop -- of salad and roasted potatoes. It was really perfect after the 2 fairly heavy meals I'd had before. We didn't make a cake, but Hillary Erdmann (a new friend, neighbor, and member of the ward) had brought me a mini bundt cake from a bakery, and we still had about a million mini cupcakes leftover from Camille's birthday. We're going to have to figure out this whole double-birthdays-thing. Because next year, for sure, I'm gonna want my own cake. :)

Daniel and the girls gave me some great gifts (basically what I asked for ... perfect!) -- the new Cinderella movie, a gift card to Bath and Body works (so I can get some delicious fall candles), and almond butter. I know that is a weird combination of things to ask for, but ... that's really what I wanted.

After we put the girls to bed (mostly it was Daniel putting the girls to bed), Daniel humored me and watched most of Cinderella before he had to go to bed. He gets up really early these days and really needs to get to bed early. And I, of course, stayed up and finished the movie. I love that movie!

*Run a mile in mamma's shoes!*

So, the next couple of days after that were busy mostly with taking care of the girls and trying to finish Camille's costume. I had a Stake Relief Society meeting on Thursday night and then we had the Ward Halloween Party on Friday night.

Because of the craziness of this week, and being focused on so many other things, the house had gone to pot. It was ... so messy by Saturday. So, all morning I spent cleaning it up and putting it back together; threw some loads of the laundry in the wash; swept and mopped; vacuumed upstairs. It took about 5 hours, but it was a beautiful thing when it was finished. Daniel helped me a bit with it, as well, which was nice.

When the girls woke up, we took them to a local pumpkin patch, Nancy's Ranch, to pick out pumpkins. They were so cute, getting so excited about it. We let Camille pick her own little pumpkin, and she loved just holding onto that thing and playing with it. And then Brooke picked one out. She liked all of the pumpkins, and we kept getting her to look around at all the pumpkins for the one she liked best. But every one she saw, she would say, "Let's get this one!" She was also fairly obsessed with picking the "big ones". We had fun. (Daniel and I got our pumpkins at Sprouts. They were quite a bit cheaper...)

Daniel started working on putting up shelves in the garage (hooray!) while I made dinner -- roasted potatoes, salad, french bread, and sparkling grape juice. We had our date dinner with the girls ... well, it wasn't much of a date, because Daniel had to rush down his food and jet off to the Adult session of Stake Conference.

It was good he went, while I put the girls down, because I had much preparation to do for our date night. I had set the table up with a candy and snack buffet, and each item had it's own Halloween special name. Red licorice was "Witches Hair"; Peach Rings were "Frogs Tongues"; popcorn was "bone chunks", etc. I lit a bunch of candles, too, and it was the perfect atmosphere. We made our own "Witch's Brew" by combining all of the candy and snacks we wanted into our own bowls, and then we settled in for a late showing of Hocus Pocus. It was so fun!

Mom flew into LAX this morning while I was doing Stake Choir stuff and Conference. And now, everyone is sleeping while I write. It's been a great, busy week. And I'm looking forward to a calmer week with my mom.

*From our morning long run on Saturday the 17th. It was a beautiful foggy day, nice and cool, for our run. This week, I sort of lost my motivation to run. I only put in about 8 miles this whole week, which is not normal, or good for my training. I'm hoping that I can pick it up again this week.*

What's New With Camille

• September 7th, we went to the Aquatic Center with our neighbors, the Antwis. It's a really fun little water park, with a shallow little pool, and a playground in the water. We had a blast with them. Camille started really crawling on her hands and knees that day in the shallow little pool. Since then, she kind of reverted back to army crawling while adding real crawling in here and there. And now, she's a pro at crawling hands and knees! No more army crawl here!
• Camille's bottom two teeth came in at the end of August; she was 10 months old. And in the last month, her top two teeth came in. It all seemed to happen at once, and it was a little rough for a few days each time a new tooth was popping.
• Camille's "Monster Face" is my favorite, and I've been trying, without much success, to get a picture of it. Recently, though, Camille will do Monster Face on demand, which is so cute and hilarious. "Camille, do Monster Face!" And she delivers! :)
• Camille and I are just about done nursing. I've cut us down to just nursing in the morning when she wakes up. Last week sometime, I dropped the evening nursing. She'd been getting so distracted nursing, especially at that time. She likes to look around and see what Brooke is doing in the other room. And she had started to look up at me and start jabbering away: "Aaaah - yayayayayayayayayaaaa!" It was so funny and cute!
• One day last week, while the girls were playing in the loft, I sat down on one of the stairs leading up into the loft, and Camille came over and started practicing the stairs, while I was there to catch her and help her. First, she would crawl over to the stairs, put her little arms and hands down on the next step, shimmy her little body forward, face plant onto the stair and slide her body and plop down. Then she would crawl into my lap and sit with me for a minute, turn back and crawl up that stair and away. She'd crawl away from me for a little bit, maybe go look at a toy or book for a few seconds, and then she'd come back to the stairs to try again. She did it several times, over and over, while I was sitting there, and she was so funny, I was cracking up. I tried to get a video of it; but, you know, babies never perform. I kept trying to explain that we go do the stairs feet first, but ... babies. She has been a lot more interested in the stairs lately, though. Months ago, she fell down the first few stairs a couple of times and has since been pretty good at staying away from them, unless I'm there. But lately, she's trying them more. And when we are downstairs, she likes to try crawling up them. The other day, she'd climbed up a few steps, and I was watching her pretty carefully so she wouldn't fall and hurt herself. But then the moment I was not as watchful, she fell and bonked pretty hard on the floor. It seems I need to teach her how to do the stairs safely. :)

*These girls love to look at books. And they also love to be together!*

 

*Brooke and Camille were playing outside, and there was some sidewalk chalk on the ground. Camille found it.*

Brooke-isms

• One night, after I left Brooke in her crib for bedtime, she started crying, fussing and screaming, which is unusual. I went back in after a few minutes, and, more calmly than I probably felt, asked her what was wrong and why she was crying. She said, still crying, "I don't know!" It was so funny and cute. I told her it was okay to cry if she needed to, but that I needed to go so that she could get some sleep. I said she could cry as long as she felt like it, but that then she needed to be quiet and go to sleep. And that seemed to calm her down, and she was quiet when I left.
• After giving her a toy she wanted, "Thanks, Pirate Mom!"
• "Watching Word World is good for my brain, right Mom?"
• Randomly, "You're the best mom ever!"
• Brooke -- "do I have bosoms?" Me -- "no, not yet." Brooke -- "yes, I do! (lifting up her shirt) See?"
• One day when we were shopping at Walmart, we were checking out, and while I was busy doing that, Brooke was singing about everything -- everything she was thinking and seeing, especially about spooky things. The lady behind us said, "She's the person I've seen all day!" And we both laughed about how cute Brooke is.
• "The dog has polka dots."
• Brooke, as she's wearing a tie, "I don't do that. I'm a man."

*For about a week, I was trying to do some fun little educational things with Brooke while Camille naps. Yes. It only lasted a week, although I keep thinking I should be more consistent with it. Anyway, one day, we learned about rainbows and even talked about Noah and the Ark and how a rainbow appeared in the sky when it stopped raining. We both colored some rainbows, and for hers, I just colored a little portion of each stripe the color it should be, and she did the rest. I was so proud and surprised at how well she colored her little rainbow. And she loved it too!*

*Getting to snuggle with my girl while Camille sleeps. We hunker down with one of Brooke's favorite shows, and watch together for a while before I get up and start doing things.*

*LEAVES! She and Camille went outside to play while I made dinner one day. I think they had fun together outside. They're always screaming and giggling to each other.*

*Daniel bought this shirt for Brooke: Wickedly Awesome Just Like Dad. :) *

*After I pulled all our Halloween stuff out, I had all of the Halloween clothes in a basket that Brooke found. I kept explaining to her that these clothes would be too small for her, but she insisted that they were fine and put them on. This result was too hilarious not to snap a picture -- little mini-skirt and short shirt. :) *

*Brooke is getting pretty good at dressing herself now. I have all of her clothes in drawers that are accessible to her, and she likes doing it all by herself. Everything is "all by myself" these days. She's growing up and getting so big.*

September Fun

Daniel has a new calling (and I'm not sure I've mentioned it before)! He's the assistant scout master. It's kind of been keeping him pretty busy during the weeks so far. He has meetings every week, and he has to attend at least some of the activities that the young men are doing.

I kept busy in September with some house projects, trying to pull some Halloween costumes together, training for my half-marathon (which is in 1 month! YIKES!), and putting together my fall wardrobe capsule (which included a lot of planning, researching and online shopping. I'm so glad I'm done, and I'm sure Daniel is, too. :) ).

*Daniel and I had our Africa Safari Date night the weekend after Daniel's birthday. It was fun! I built a fort (we were on safari, of course) and had some jungle sounds playing in the background. We had African Peanut Stew for dinner, colored some African Tiki masks, and watched "A Far Off Place" to finish off. It was a fun date night!*

*This little girl started pulling her little feet up when she's in her high chair. This combined with Monster Face made for an epic picture. So cute!*

*Someone got stuck one day. She was so sad and cried a lot before I got to her. This girl is a big mover. She doesn't like to be held for too long before she wants to get down and be on her own.*

Daniel's Birthday

Well, ... Daniel's birthday was a month ago, and I've been meaning to write ... for a month. Brooke and I had a lot of fun getting ready for Dadda's birthday. We didn't get any shopping for it done until that day, so we did present shopping and grocery shopping that afternoon while he was at work. We were pretty short on time, getting dinner, cupcakes and presents ready for when he got home from work.

That day, it was a Thursday, was the first real day of work that Daniel had at his new job. He'd had two days of training down in Irvine, and that was his first day. They'd already assigned him to work at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, and he said that it wasn't a great first day. They expected him to already know more than he did, and he felt lost all day. But when he'd ask questions, they would answer, but not give too much help. It was sad for me that he didn't have a good first day, especially on his birthday.

But, Brooke and I tried to make him feel good and special. We made some carrot cupcakes for him, put up a "Happy Birthday" banner, and were all wearing party hats and blowing on some party blowers when he came in the door. I made a big deal of it for Brooke, telling her to be quiet, put her hat on, stand on the chair there, and yell "Happy Birthday!" when he came in. She loved all the build-up and the party things we bought. It was pretty fun. :)