Happy Halloween!

1 Day Til Halloween

We went to our Ward Halloween Party last Friday night and the kids dressed up:



Avery is a royal princess and Camryn is a Cam-Lamb. Camy's going to be a little round pumpkin tomorrow night, though, because I actually returned the lamb costume after the party. Her cheeks were just too chubby to button the headpiece on! :) I can't get Avery out of her princess costume if I let her try it on. She's loving it. We're going trick-or-treating tomorrow with her best friend Lizzie.

2 Days Til Halloween

Did you carve your pumpkin yet? Here's mine!

3 Days Til Halloween

I taught Avery a Halloween song that I learned as a kid in Joyschool. Here's her rendition:

FYI - Here are the words:

I'm a mean, old witch with my hat

And I ride on my broom with my cat.

And my nose is pointy and my chin is too.

And you'd better watch out!

Or I might scare you.

I'm a mean, old witch with my hat.

The Blind [Feeding] The Blind

Ahh... the joys of having two kids:


Now we can just sit back, relax, and watch them raise each other! This parenting thing is a piece of cake!

Next objective: Teach Avery how to change Camy's diaper. Just kidding. I promise.

Cousin Company

My sister Britney drove up from Des Moines, IA with her two kids last week and stayed with us for three days. Avery and Camryn had a great time with their cousins Stephen (4) and Emily (20 months). Our two main outings were to a local park and to a pumpkin patch. Here are some photos of their fun together.

Yesterday Avery said to me, "I'm sad..." so I asked her why and she said, "I miss my Stephen and Emiy."

Milestone

I failed to mention last week that Camryn reached a milestone on Thursday - she got her first tooth!

She's done really well. Not drooling a ton, actually. She got her tooth a few days before she turned 7 months, about 3 weeks prior to when Avery did.

Attempt at a Photo Shoot

So I've been meaning to take Avery and Camryn to get their pictures taken professionally, but I still haven't. Not even once since Camy was born! Plus they have these super cute matching outfits my mom got them and I thought they'd work great for pictures. Anyways I thought I'd do a test run in the outfits out in the backyard. I didn't get my "let's print and frame it" shot, but I think my kids are so cute that a lot of them are pretty precious moments.

Life After Binky

Yes, there is life after binkies! Avery said goodbye to her binkies on Saturday night, after over 27 months. We had prepped her all week that the "Binky Fairy" was coming to take her binkies away (thanks to the suggestion of a book by Mark Brenner). We decorated a box for them and put it on the doorstep and then a few minutes later we opened the door and they were gone, replaced by a new Dora movie! Here's the progress she's made so far:
1st night - She had a little harder time than usual to fall asleep (1/2 an hour of us singing songs and telling her stories, then 1/2 an hour of crying). BUT she didn't wake up at all asking for it, which was very unexpected.
2nd night - She whined a little more than normal but not too bad. And once she was asleep she was fine.
3rd night - She hardly whined at all.
Tonight - Piece of cake.

And the amazing thing is she hasn't even asked for one. A couple of times she's mentioned the fact that the binky fairy came, but she's really done well! Great!

Oh... one minor problem though - she hasn't taken a nap since Friday!!!! Ah!

Camryn or... Kimryn?

Many family members have suggested that Camy looks like my dad, Kim. What do you think? Here are pictures of them both at 3-4 months:

I think it's a pretty good comparison. Plus they both have hazel eyes and dark hair. (By the way, I never would've thought I'd have a baby with hazel eyes.)

Ponytails

Avery's hair has been growing so much lately. I finally got most of it up into one ponytail the other day! It was almost all fallen out a few hours later but doesn't she look so cute and grown up?
And here's a cute picture of Camryn trying on some of Avery's halloween outfit from two years ago. We got our Halloween decorations out on Friday and even made some sugar cookies with our halloween cookie cutters.

We were all sick all week last week. Avery had strep throat, Camryn had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Syndrome, and my throat got really swollen but apparently it wasn't strep just some virus. Avery was the first to get sick, with a fever showing up just a few hours after we got back from Camy's 6 month checkup. (She weighed 17 lb 9 oz by the way.) Moral of the story: Don't go to the pediatrician's office! But we're all better now and we were able to enjoy Conference and have a nice normal weekend.

Free children's audiobooks

Free audiobook downloads! Go to Audible Kids and download one of the following:
* Rapunzel
* Gift of the Magi
* The Tell-Tale Heart
* Riki-Tikki-Tavi
* The Emperor's New Clothes
* Rip Van Winkle
They have thousands of other books too. No commitments, no credit cards for the free ones. I use iTunes to listen on my computer. Let your friends know about it too! Thanks for the support.

The Multilingual Limitations of a Two Year Old

At the doctor's office yesterday (our fourth trip in one week, but that's a post for another day), I was in a kind of sing-songy mood while we were waiting so I was singing "Hello" a couple times to Camy. Avery started repeating me. "Hello." ("hello") So I kept going:

Me: Hello
Avery: hello
Me: Hola
Avery: hola
Me: Bonjour
Avery: Bonjour
Me: Konnichi wa
Avery: (silence)
Me: Say 'Konnichi wa'
Avery: I can't do it.