Sunday dress and hair

 

We are here in sunny California for Sunday dress and hair today!

Kristen was in hair heaven, so she styled Elle's hair for church :)

She wanted to do something even fancier, but alas, she was lacking in bobby pins.

I think it turned out fabulous!

I am Thankful

Here is our annual Thankful Turkey
He looks amazingly normal this year
(except Elle decided to make him into a Native American turkey--
which is fitting I suppose

And now for a SNOW update

Here's a picture of the car out front yesterday afternoon

and here it is today!

Elle's snowman is unrecognizable except for his little arms

I called Chris at work yesterday at 4 to tell him how crazy it looked up here.
He decided to leave for home immediately.
Two hours later he came home.
Some of the buses were running, some weren't.
Thankfully, Chris was chatting with a guy who happens to live near us.
He was going to catch a bus, then meet up with his wife in a 4 wheel drive vehicle (I have no idea what kind)
They were kind enough to take Chris along.
It turned out to be a symbiotic relationship since Chris used his phone to navigate.
Roads were closed because cars had gone up, then gotten stuck on the side of the hill.
Chris and the nice neighbors found an obscure path that only 4 wheel drive vehicles could manage, and came home!
Our friendly neighbors were one of the first feathers on our thankful turkey last night!

I am thankful for friends in California
It had better be nice and sunny for us!

Sunday Dress and SNOW!

I thought this picture was rather symbolic--

The last leaf on the tree while the snow is falling

this shows the snow a little better
Crazy, huh?!
This is what "they" have predicted is our fate for the rest of the winter
Cold. and. Wet.
Elle is thrilled!  She's already planning what to use for snowman accessories :)

Way cool blog post!

So, I know most of you who read my blog also read my three sisters-in-law's awesome and cute and clever blogs too, but just in case, you have to check out the Lunch Lady's blog from, like, a month ago:

http://sacklunchconspiracy.blogspot.com/2010/10/cougar-pride.html

I'm proud to be a "coug" too!  :)

Happy Halloween!

Elle made her dollhouse into a haunted house for Halloween.

I thought she made it look pretty spooky

 

Annual pumpkin carving.  I did the candy corn, Chris did the monster, Elle did the haunted house complete with 3-d ghost! She wanted to carve her pumpkin all by herself this year.

She did a great job!

 

 

We were the Waldo family for Halloween this year!

Chris was Waldo, and Elle and I were both Wenda.

A woman in our ward put together a map of all the members who wanted to participate in a Saturday trick-or-treat so we wouldn’t have to miss out on all the fun, and we could keep the Sabbath Day Holy.

There were 37 members/participants right in our neighborhood!

Elle invited a friend to go along with us.  They even agreed to go in on the fun by giving out treats on Saturday too! We were out for two hours, and we didn’t even get to all the houses!

The picture we had taken at the Ward Halloween party on Friday didn’t show mine and Elle’s cool socks, so I decided to post some of Elle on the night of her MONSTER CONCERT!

Her piano teacher and teacher’s friend pooled all their students together and had a recital with three pianos. (two kids per piano each playing a duet).  It’s pretty cool.  The kids only practice with their partner one time before the concert.  It is a good exercise in listening.  All three pianos are playing the same duet, so they all have to listen to their partner, as well as the pianos around them to stay together!  They did a great job!

 

ps I was a “beater” helping to keep time, and a page turner. That’s why I’m peeking out from behind the piano.

 

AND. . .

Today we decorated cupcakes!  Elle got a cupcake decorating book for her birthday, and she’s been anxious to try it out.

We finally did!  Elle frosted the pumpkins, and Chris made the faces.  Elle and I did the spiders together.

It was a fun day!

Sunday leaf and hair

 

This morning, instead of fixing Elle’s hair, Elle made breakfast.  She made blueberry muffins all by herself!

Unfortunately,  just as she was going to put them in the oven, the muffin pan slipped and landed on the floor   Face down.

It was very sad.  Luckily, she remembered that we froze our left-over waffles from yesterday!  We warmed them up and had a nice happy breakfast.

We always try to have a big, late breakfast on Sundays to hold us over until we get home from church.  11:00 is a hard time. 
But today, Chris and I subbed in Jr. Nursery today.  We were lucky enough that the primary presidency chose today as “teacher appreciation” day . They took all the teachers-a few at a time—into the kitchen for muffins, breakfast cake, pumpkin cookies and milk! 

After church, as we ran to the car in the pouring rain, Elle stopped to pick up an awesome leaf that was bigger than her head!

 

I did Princess Leia buns at home just for fun.

Vote today!

   Chris is going to get some new glasses, but we can’t decide what style is best.  He’s thinking square since that’s the current “hip” style, and I’m all for glasses that look pretty much like the pair he has now. 

What do y’all think? And Why?

First, here are his current glasses. They are like Barbie’s magic color changing hair, only they turn dark in the sunshine instead of pink in the water.

 

 

Vote for your favorite and tell us why you chose it.

Thanks!

A

 

 

B

 

C

 

 

D

 

Now some square pairs:

E

 

F

 

G

 

H

 

I

 

J

The 3 Amigas!

This morning Elle as very specific about her wardrobe:

shirt, hair, converse, coat.

She told me how she and two of her BFF's had it all planned out so they could be triplets today!

"But we didn't say anything about our pants!" Elle told me. "We planned everything, but our pants! " *giggle giggle*
I'm sure they all have jeans, but they probably didn't think about something so trivial as pants.










So, even though Elle wore her shorts expecting a beautiful sunny day, she wore her coat so she could match the other two.

The pose was totally THEIR idea.

One of the awesome moms (not me) bought them matching shirts (scratch-and-sniff BTW).

They HAD to have pictures of their shoes too. If you'll notice, they show off each foot in the two pictures. This was a very important part of the picture :)

Then they went singing off the school. (Literally--they were heading to choir)

Sunday Dress and Hair 10-10-10

Today Elle wanted me to curl her hair! I was pretty excited because she NEVER wants me to do THAT!

I used the teeny tiny curling iron and a LOT of gel.

It took TWO Leave It To Beaver episodes to finish.

I told Chris to take a picture right away since I knew the curls would probably fall out before we even got to church.
They lasted pretty well though!

Happy Birthday, Elle!

 

Can you believe how big she’s getting?!  We put balloons on her door last night (with much difficulty) so that when she opened  it, the balloons would all fall on her!  It worked

 

Since it was General Conference, we had our semi-annual “conference breakfast” of cinnamon rolls, eggs, and orange julius.  It worked out perfectly for Elle’s birthday breakfast!

It’s so nice that we get to watch conference via internet, and then plug it into our GIANT bigger-than-life TV!  It’s like we are practically at the Conference center itself! 

Elle took full advantage of  watching at home, and stayed in her PJ’s until about six o’clock when we told her she had to put on something cute for her birthday pictures.

After conference, we taught Elle how to play Settlers of Catan.  She caught on really well!

 

We had macaroni and cheese, and broccoli for dinner—her favorite!  She got to eat on the “You Are Special” plate and everything today

She chose the theme “rocks and minerals” for her birthday.  THAT was a challenge!  I decided to make a cake that looked like the layers of the earth.  Then, I put some rock-looking jelly bellies in the top graham cracker “sand” layer, and she had to excavate them with a pastry brush.   I also shoved some gushers fruit snacks into some cupcakes and put them on the cake too.  She had to use her little “pic axe” to dig them out.  It sounds great on paper, but I’m afraid it didn’t hold  together very well.  It tasted good though! (Especially with mint brownie ice cream [which, next to peppermint, has to be one of the finest ice creams out there] )

 

There’s Polly Pocket the geologist in her sun visor, bag of gems, brush, and pick.

You can see how Elle had to find the “rocks”

 

Elle is imagining the flames that will come from having so many candles

 

As always, we have a “pin the (something) on the (something)”  This year Chris decided it would be “pin the flame on the explosive you will use to blow up a rock”

(she was back in her PJ’s by the time we played!)

 

She got some awesome presents and some big hugs from us!

I read her the “long version” letter I wrote her for school (she was the ‘star of the week’)  It turns out that the smaller version was even too long!  They had to take three days to get through i!  I had nine years worth of stories about her complete with pictures.

Then, it was time for bed.  She said it was a good birthday—considering it was on “boring Conference Sunday”

We’re sure glad you came to our family, little princess!

Happy Birthday!