these silly kids of our's....

Ian likes to jump in his crib and will do it when we promt him by saying, "Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!" in a voice that is annoying to anyone but a baby. While we were trying to capture it on video Madeleine came in to show off her lovely singing voice. She does a great "Jingle Bells" twice.

If you watched the whole thing (sorry if it was a little long) you saw how Ian was shaking his head back and forth with incredible speed. You may have even noticed my comment about how tired he was that he probably couldn't even see straight. Do your children do this when they are extremely tired? Another thing I have seen him do is hit himself in the face to stay awake. It's kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time.

When does the change occur in us when we decide we would rather let ourselves sleep than do crazy things to stay awake? I guess there is probably still a little of that in most people. Imagine if you were driving and beginning to nod off. You obviously can't let yourself sleep at the wheel so you start hitting yourself in the face or other assorted insane activities to keep yourself conscious. I think I might like to see a video like that.

Thinking about Christmas

I set up our tree a couple days ago in hopes of getting it to feel a little more Christmas-y around here. Madeleine helped a little. She put some ornaments on, all clustered together so I helped move them to be a little prettier. I think I may have to grow up to be the kind of mom who (when I have space for this) has one tree for me that is pretty and uniform, etc. and another tree for the kids. Is that lame? Or maybe the lame thing is keeping our tree as "mine" instead of letting the kids have at it and getting a tree of my own when we have room for two trees. I guess it will depend on how long we are in a one-Christmas-tree size home. Since the kids are still so young I don't feel too bad about not letting them decorate it. Maybe in a couple years I'll relinquish my interest in the beauty of our tree. Until then, I love my fake, pre-lit, beautifully uniform tree!

Football fun

We had tickets to attend the BYU-SDSU football game on October 27 in San Diego. But because of the wildfires and poor air quality, the game was postponed until yesterday. So, we got to spend the day down in SD with Curtis and Amy and their girls.
Madeleine and Avery were such troopers! A football game lasts a very long time for 2 and 3 year old girls. They sat and watched some, played on the rail some, and did quite a bit of snacking. They seemed to really like the paratroopers who landed in the stadium during halftime (that was my favorite part, too) and the fireworks when SDSU scored.
Ian with his Uncle Curtis, Spencer's younger brother.
Coral feeding Mikaya and Aunt Amy. We are so glad they live out here in SoCal now!

Ian's new skill

We didn't intentionally teach this, but it's pretty cute so we had to share.

We are going to see family in Arizona for Thanksgiving this week. I am so excited to see everyone and get away from the building for a little while. Plus, I LOVE this holiday! Mmmm, all the yummy food....I can hardly wait! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Welcome home, Spencer.

Spencer went out of town for business last week, leaving Thursday and getting home Sunday. The kids and I were SO happy to have him back! It's amazing the difference it makes for the kids to spend just a little bit of time with him each day. I'm sure it's the same way for most families with young children. By the time he gets home from work, we eat dinner and put the kids to bed. They get to spend maybe an hour and half together. The amount of time is small, but I've discovered it to be incredibly valuable. Not only do Madeleine and Ian get some fun playtime with their favorite playmate, but I get a chance to briefly focus my attention on something besides the kids. Don't get me wrong. I love my kids and I am so thankful I get to stay home with them, but it's got to be the toughest job there is. I am just about ready to stop even attempting to clean my house. I don't think it will make a difference in the way the house looks, but I might feel better for not having wasted my energy. Ian is going through an extremely destructive phase. At least I hope it's a phase. I felt like I literally spent all day Friday cleaning, but I guarantee you wouldn't think so if you had come over on Saturday. This is how it goes: I put Ian down for a nap and start cleaning. Madeleine will watch a movie for awhile so I can work around her. A short way into Ian's nap, Madeleine goes into their room to change her clothes and wakes Ian up. Thanks a lot. My hopes are dashed. I know I can't clean now. And once Ian is out and playing, it's evident that any cleaning I was able to accomplish is about to be messed up again. I know what I really need to do is clean after I put the kids to bed. But who wants to do that?! One of these days I hope I can figure it out. By that time it will probably be difficult to tell if I really progressed in my abilities or if the kids have just gotten easier and less messy as they have gotten older. Anyway, back to my original thought, I am so thankful that Spencer is back in town! Just knowing he'll be home for dinner and can help me with the kids at bedtime is such a comforting thought. Hooray for husbands!!

Happy Halloween!

Madeleine was the cutest Little Mermaid this year. She loves this holiday so much. She is already talking about what she is going to be next Halloween.
Here's our little Ian-dragon. I confess that we took this picture a couple days after Halloween. He was sick that night and fell asleep around 6:15, so he didn't get dressed up and go out trick-or-treating.

So, I stayed home with Ian, and Spencer took Madeleine around our neighborhood. They didn't get very far when she started rummaging through her sack looking for which piece of candy she wanted to eat. After about 45 minutes she said she had enough candy and they came home. When I was a kid, I wanted to go out as early as possible and stay out as late as possible in hopes of geting the most candy I could. Granted, I don't remember thinking that way when I was 3 (probably because I don't remember anything from when I was 3). Maybe we have enough treats at our house on a regular basis that she won't have to become a total candy fiend like her mother. Or maybe when she gets older she will develop the desire for more candy than anyone should ever have. We'll see what happens next year.

Fall Fun

Tonight we took the kids to the pumpkin patch at Pierce College to enjoy the little fair and to find the perfect pumpkin.
Ian was his normal, busy self--running around and checking everything out.
Looks like a good choice, don't you think? (This wasn't the one we bought, but Madeleine wanted to show us how many pumpkins there were that weren't too heavy for her to lift.)
Our masterpiece.This one was just asking to be sat on. It was pretty beastly.

Mad took a turn in the bumper boats. She didn't end up liking it as much as she thought she would. She pretty much hated it. I'm not sure if it was because she was spinning around in circles against her will or if it was that she bumped someone or something and then bumped her mouth on the steering wheel. Whatever it was, she cried until they let her out. Too bad. It looked like fun to me.
This was Ian's first ride on a carousel. He was all smiles when we first got on, but he seemed bored by the end. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

He was being a little daredevil standing up in the wagon. That was before they told us we couldn't let our kids ride in it.
Striking a pose, as usual.

We had a really fun time. This time of year is so much better for me now that I have kids. And especially now that Madeleine is old enough to appreciate so much of it. We are going trick-or-treating tomorrow, so be on the look out for the kids in their costumes.