The kids loved the bath in the big tub the other night and begged for another. Scott got it ready for them and then washed their hair. I went to check on them and found this winter-wonder-land. When I gave them a bath the other night I turned on the jets for them and everything seemed fine. But when Scott did the same the tub was piled in bubbles. In fact, 24 hours later and the tub is STILL covered in bubbles. He said he only used enough shampoo to wash their hair and nothing else. Anyway, I think we were able to get a Christmas card picture for this year. I'm not putting that one on the blog, it's too good.
This is just to tease the kids 10 years from now! I'm not sure what the deal with the water-wings is. Clay calls them his butter-wings. I guess it makes it feel more like swimming. They were doing the back float and the tummy float that they learned from swim lessons this summer.
Emmie was missing for awhile and I went to find her so she could help us carry some things to the basement. I found her in the laundry room eating Mini M&Ms. She would barely pause long enough to tell me what had happened as she stuffed them in her mouth. The kids stack the clean laundry baskets up and use them to climb up on the counter next to the laundry sink. It drives me crazy! I store all the candy high up in a cupboard to try and control the kids from eating it all the time. After Emmie had gotten what she wanted this time she jumped off the counter and hooked her belt loop on the drawer pull. She was just tall enough to reach the floor but not tall enough to unhook her pants. I asked her to tell me what happened and she sort of spit it out in between M&Ms. She wailed, "Can somebody help me?!?" So I suggested we get Scott. She nodded yes then thought about it and said, "No! Dad will be angry!" I went to get Dad of course because it was too funny to just let her go. She could only walk as far as the drawer would pull out. I even took a video to torture her further. I actually sent it into AFV. So I'm not supposed to post it here, besides it would show how truly disorganized and messy I am. That would be pretty great, however, if it made it on the show mess or no mess. I'll let everyone know if anything happens with it. I think the best part of being a parent is laughing at your kids' expense.
We all piled in Scott's monster truck to go pick up grass seed. As we were driving down the road we noticed something funny, other than the footprints all over the windshield. There were 2 pieces of Halloween candy on the hood. Clay crawls in the bed and up over the cab to slide down the windshield. It's just about the biggest truck you can get without modifying it so that makes it all the more fun to use it as a jungle gym. The candy blew off somewhere on American Flat road. And dang! That was one of my favorite chocolates too! Now is that not just the most redneck story or what?
Is there anything more wonderful than getting new sheets? Maybe new socks. The kids picked out their own sheets and we hurried and washed them so they'd be ready for the next day. Emmie and Clay talked about them all night and reminded me all the next day to put them on. When I did, around 3:00, they hurried and put on pajamas and crawled into bed. It was such an exciting thing to get new sheets.
The kids were inside and driving me crazy so I told them to go out. They wouldn't budge. So I gave them a choice 1. Go out and play or 2. Help clean the playroom. Easy Choice! They took off like a shot and went to the playground. Today I asked them if they wanted to help me and they both screamed, "Run! Mom's coming!" I'm glad when they go out but I would like them to help. "Help Mom" has become code for "Quick, run to the playground!"
Today Emmie and Clay were out by the playground and I overheard Clay say he wanted to go to see Jesus. Emmie was telling him to stand on one end of a ramp so she could put rocks, sticks and leaves on the other end to catapult him up to heaven. He was getting very impatient and demanding. Emmie was all too happy to help him get up to heaven as soon as possible. She doesn't quite understand physics or simple machines so Clay didn't get to see Jesus yet. Clay better be nice to Emmie or she will figure a way to send him to heaven one day. The kids were saying that actually Scott will get to go to heaven first because he is 39 and that's so old. They say they will continue to work on getting Clay to heaven but it will take a lot of dirt.
These two are best friends in everything they do. Unfortunately they work together the best when they are concocting some scheme that will undoubtedly leave a huge disastrous mess. I was having them pose for me because the house was finally clean. I was trying to keep them distracted from making any new messes.
We went to Nonni and Grandpa Larry's house to celebrate Grandma Dora's 95th birthday on the 10th of November. She spent the day at Thunder Valley Casino and then we met at the house for a little party. She had a full day even if she wasn't turning 95!
Emmie got dressed for church in her very best new early Christmas dress. Then since she had time to kill and she was now a bike pro she went out to ride. Scott had to take her bike apart to get her now ripped and greasy skirt and ribbon out of the chain. I told her I was taking her picture because I was so mad I wanted to see if was funny later. I don't know where the toast came from. Well by the look on her face I can tell it's a lesson learned.
Clay decided it was time to ride on 2 wheels. He said he was 4, and 2 and 3 year old kids can't do that but he can. Em saw how easy it was for Clay so she wanted to do it too. The pure confidence of these kids is all it took to learn to ride without help. The absolutely most difficult part of teaching them to ride on 2 wheels was the need to wear shoes. They both started out barefoot and ended up with cuts, bruises and shoes.
We took lots of video of the kids learning to ride their bikes without training wheels. To our amazement they both took off on the first tries. Scott held onto them and ran behind like dads are supposed to but then they went off on their own. Clay was hurt and flipped out for awhile but he soon recovered. Emmie had a bit of trouble turning. She was attracted to obstacles like a magnet.
The broken pot in the background is actually not from a bike crash. We had a big wind storm and had yet to find a replacement pot. It would make for a good story though.
We are planning on teaching the kids how to rollerskate soon. I only hope it will go this smoothly.
It was pretty early in the morning and it seemed like the kids were still sleeping. I thought they had adjusted to the time change very quickly. What a relief! I went into the kitchen to find this little disaster all over the floor and the Clay desparately trying to sweep it into the dust pan. Emmie was looking on with pleasure because she knew he was going to get it. When they saw me they both took off leaving pink footprints through the kitchen and into Clay's bedroom. Clay just wanted to make a glass of strawberry Quick and didn't want to bother me. I'm so glad I found the mess before they started mopping it up with water and towels!
Clay went to the trailer with Scott to check it out to see what it will take to make it clean enough for me to want to sleep in it. Used trailers are like used underwear no matter how nice! While they were down there Clay explored around and found the bathroom. Later that night Clay told me, "Ha! Ha! I peed in the trailer potty!" I told him Dad was going to be mad. When Emmie heard that she jumped up and ran to tattle. She hurried and told Scott the juicy gossip she had just heard, "Clay said he had a trailer party!" She really thought she had gotten Clay this time. They love each other so much they will shove the other under the bus just to have a little fun at the other sibling's expense.
Emmie and Clay took turns arresting us. Emmie was more gentle. Clay slapped the cuffs on like he meant it. Ouch! Emmie told us we were arrested until she counted to 3 so it wasn't too bad. She was very serious and played her part well.
Emmie bought pink rain boots with white polka-dots and a bright pink umbrella with green polka-dots just in time for the season's first big rainstorm. Pink makes everything better!
Emmie loves Pixie Sticks. They are a little sour for her but that doesn't stop her from enjoying them. She doesn't say it's sour but says it's "spicy!" Look how happy a little straight sugar makes our pink leopard.
I can always get Clay to pose for a picture by telling him I will take a picture just so HE can see how he looks. It works every time. He loves to see himself on the camera. He had lots of fun trying on funny teeth and smiling for us. The red lips are wax. He had a few of them but he kept biting through them before I could get a picture. I took this one just in the nick of time.
We went trick or treating in Ione with our friends after the Trunk or Treat. It was a fairly warm night and it started out dry. Then the rains came and went throughout the rest of the evening. Each wave of rain soaked us more than the one before. The kids seemed to enjoy it even more because of the rain. They were all very brave this year. Emmie and Madelyn kept saying, "I hope I'm dreaming!" when they went to an extra scary house. Clay pooped out first. He was exhausted by 8:30 and I had to carry him. Emmie and Madelyn wanted to keep going and stopped at all the promising houses on the way back to the cars. Actually Scott pooped out long before any of the rest of us did. I imagine Clay will be carrying Dad back to the car in about 5 years.
Every year so far that we have been out trick or treating with the kids, they have fallen asleep on the way home. This time even though they were exhausted they stayed awake. Well, Emmie did. Here they are pretending to be so tired they fell asleep instantly upon getting in the car. See those little smirks on their faces? Clay actually was asleep a few minutes after this.
We went to the church for the annual Trunk or Treat. The kids ran around with Madelyn. Emmie and Clay played bean bag toss and bowled for prizes. Then we trunk or treated to the cars in the parking lot. It was pretty small this year since it was on Halloween. Most people stayed home to pass out candy from their houses. Emmie and Clay had fun anyway.
Emmie wanted her face pink with white whiskers. Clay wanted a moustache and beard. Mom wanted him to have chest hair like Dad. Clay was all for that! I went as a last minute rabbit with ears from Emmie's dress-up box and Scott went as a republican. Shockingly we did not win any costume contests.
Clay really wanted pizza for dinner before we went out trick or treating. They had a special pizza that looked like a jack 'o lantern...sort of. We also bought the cheesy pizza breadsticks. I put them in the fridge until dinner time but when I went to bake the breadsticks they were missing. It was so weird. I walked all over the house looking for them thinking I was losing my mind. Finally I asked Clay if he knew anything about it and he said he put the breadsticks under the computer. I have no idea what he was thinking. It had been sitting out all day but we cooked it anyway. We all survived.
We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins this year. It was really REALLY windy so we had to take it in the garage. The wind added to the spooky effect whistling through the manzanita on the other side of the driveway. It made the typical "woooooo" sound you'd expect from a ghost!
The kids insisted on taking their shirts off to scoop out the goo. I wanted one year where the kids weren't partially naked. This year was a great improvement over last year however.
The kids picked out designs from a book and we taped them on the pumpkins and scored them. Then we took the paper patterns off and tried to make sense of the markings to carve them out. It's a little tricky taking a flat pattern and trying to trace it onto a round pumpkin. Clay wanted a monster which fit best on his short round pumpkin. Emmie wanted a flying ghost that seemed to fit well on her tall skinny pumpkin. They turned out all right but I like the ones they designed themselves.
Emmie and Clay each picked out a pumpkin for their own carving design. Emmie drew a sweet little face and Scott cut it out for her. Clay scribbled a crazy design and I had to try and cut it out for him. They were fairly proud of their accomplishments.
With the time change occurring after Halloween this year it wasn't dark enough to light them with candles by the time we left for our Halloween festivities. By the time we came home Clay was asleep and everything outside was drenched from the rain. We will never know how they would have looked with candles but they were cute nonetheless.
This year Emmie was a pink leopard. Clay laughed and said, "Emmie's a leprechaun!" Clay was a skeleton pirate. He was even scarier than a regular pirate! I stopped in The Children's Place to see their sales and this caught Clay's eye. The store lady saw him looking at it and hurried over with a the accessory sword that went with it. Clay's eyes bugged out. He was going to be the Black Spiderman that he had worn to the carnival. Once he saw the sword it was his. Thank goodness the outfit was half off! The store lady certainly knew what she was doing.
If Clay was getting a new costume then of course Emmie needed a new one. She had seen this pink leopard costume at TJMaxx but it was really expensive and she already had a costume. I told her if it was still there when it went on sale she could have it. Luckily they did have it and it was half off the day before Halloween. The lady who worked there said some customers were about to buy it the day before.
Unfortunately the one for Clay was huge on him and of course the one for Em was entirely too small. I spent hours shrinking one and enlarging the other the night before Halloween. I nearly had to remake Emmie's completely. She made me take off the feathers around the neck and headband, "But Mom cats don't have feathers on their heads!" It didn't seem to matter that cats don't have feathers anywhere else either. I also had to line the sleeves because the feathers were poking her wrists. Ah ha! This is probably why the customers from the day before passed on this outfit. Try explaining that to a 5 year old. The kids were ultimately thrilled with their costume choices this year. I'm really hoping they will want to wear them again next year. What would be the odds of that?
We had a pumpkin patch party for Relief Society. Emmie and Clay picked out their big pumpkins to carve. Clay was getting a ride because he had a big blister on his ankle, probably from running through the corn maze. He was nice enough to let Emmie and Madelyn hitch a ride for just the trip to the car to offload the pumpkins. Scott was about done for the day at this point.
Clay put this puzzle together almost by himself. He needed a hint a couple of times. He wanted me to take a picture to see how big it was compared to him. Clay's preschool isn't open yet this year so he finds other ways to keep himself entertained.
The kids loved the bath in the big tub the other night and begged for another. Scott got it ready for them and then washed their hair. I went to check on them and found this winter-wonder-land. When I gave them a bath the other night I turned on the jets for them and everything seemed fine. But when Scott did the same the tub was piled in bubbles. In fact, 24 hours later and the tub is STILL covered in bubbles. He said he only used enough shampoo to wash their hair and nothing else. Anyway, I think we were able to get a Christmas card picture for this year. I'm not putting that one on the blog, it's too good.
Look how happy a little straight sugar makes our pink leopard
We went to the church for the annual Trunk or Treat. The kids ran around with Madelyn. Emmie and Clay played bean bag toss and bowled for prizes. Then we trunk or treated to the cars in the parking lot. It was pretty small this year since it was on Halloween. Most people stayed home to pass out candy from their houses. Emmie and Clay had fun anyway. 
