Halloween Eve... or something to that effect

I told them to give me their "scary face"

Our day started off with a trip to get flu shots. Every morning Allison is just busting to go, and she usually asks, "What do we get to do today, Mom?" Well, needless to say, her little bubble busted when I told her we were going to get shots. I thought about not telling her, but I've come to realize that it's easier to just shoot straight with her. So after I told her I was getting one, too, she was okay. Claire, on the other hand, was excited that she was "getting" something. She kept shouting, "I getting shots!" Poor Claire, she was so happy till the nurse whipped that needle out.

Life got much better after they got suckers and stickers.

The next few hours we spent doing errands. The girls went to their playgroup, I went to get my hair cut and Charlie went to load up on Halloween candy. Our church is doing a trunk-or-treat tomorrow night so we had to buy some decorations and costume attire.

This afternoon we finally carved our pumpkins which was messy and fun, then tonight we lit up our jack-o-lanterns for the girls to see. (Can't you just see the creativity?!) I'll post some pictures later of our costumes... you'll just have to wait and see what we will be!

Where, oh where, is Olivia?

You can see for yourself...

Poor Chuck...

"Why doesn't he have any hair?" This was Allison's inquiery while we were watching the Great Pumpkin last night. You know, in all my years of watching this show, I just took it as fact that Charlie Brown didn't have any hair, but now this girl raises a good question. Did he have some type of hormone deficiency... alopecia, maybe? In fact Linus's hair is a little thin, too.

You mean it's not all fair and balanced?

"Media Analysis: Coverage of McCain Twice as Negative as Obama"

This was a headline from Yahoo news. Did they actually have to do a study to figure this one out?

While I was cleaning house...

Allie was dressing Claire up. Later they came down and Claire was wearing her pumpkin costume from last year over what she's wearing here. At least it kept them busy for a couple of hours.

All the way to Moscow and back

What did we do this weekend? I'm so glad you asked. One of our favorite pasttimes, or at least mine, is checking out new places. I love going to little towns and just seeing what they have. So this weekend, I was itching to go see some pretty Fall foliage and possibly take some pics of the girls. I talked Charlie into a little day trip and we headed to Moscow... Idaho that is. It is a small town with around 20,000 people just across the Idaho border, about an hour and a half from us. We had both heard that it is pretty in the Fall, so we decided to check it out. It was a great place to just stroll around and relax. It is also the home of the University of Idaho and this just happened to be their homecoming weekend, so they were having all sorts of festivities. We got their just in time for the parade which was pretty good and we also went to the Farmers' Market. And just as reported, the trees were beautiful! I just love this little town, it is very quaint and homey. On our way home we took a different route just to take in some new scenery. If you've never been to Idaho, I'd definately recommend it, there are some really pretty areas, at least in the NW part. The downers of our trip were Olivia screaming all the way home, I think due to teething and b/c she hates her carseat; also I didn't get any pictures of the girls b/c by the time we found some good backdrops, Olivia was finally asleep and I didn't want to wake her up. So maybe later... Nevertheless, we had a good time.

Uh oh!

I love the look on her face. Her favorite new word is uh oh!

By the way...

Just to clarify:

"Snakes have bleach... I mean poison... in them, Mom."

oh, good to know.

BTW- Olivia went to sleep with no fussing last night and she slept soundly till 7 this morning. It was a good night.

And she's off...

If you heard loud weeping and nashing of teeth last night, have no fear. It was simply Olivia spending her first night without her pacifier. I finally got tough and took it away. I kept telling myself that I'd just wean her off it, but let's get real, there is no weaning off when it comes to the pacifier. You just gotta yank it! The night before she woke up 4 or 5 times b/c she kept losing the darn thing so I decided that it was rediculous to keep letting her have it and continue depriving both of us of sleep. So with one full day behind us, she is doing fine. She just went down for her nap and she only cried about 5 minutes which is much improved from yesterday. And, she only woke up once last night (although she cried for about 15 or 20 minutes). This too shall pass, right?

Just some pics

Bound and gagged- yes, Claire is actually smiling in this one! Actually Olivia stuck the washcloth in her mouth right when I told Claire to hug her.



Just cheesin' for the camera. Notice the "mosquito" blister (aka fever blister) coming up on her lip. This is the second one in about 3 weeks. When I saw the last one starting, I put ice on it (something I'd always heard) to see if it would go away, and it actually did not turn into a big blister. So I tried it again today... we'll see how it turns out.

Here's to the next four years...

We fulfilled one of our patriotic duties yesterday, no it wasn't paying higher taxes, it was voting. Here in Washington you vote by mail, so that was a little different. It was also interesting to see that there are actually like 6 people running for president. Granted, I had never even heard of three of them nor the parties they represented, but now you know that you have a few more options (I didn't say they were good options, I just said they are options). One of the state measures we had to vote on was allowing physicians to administer life terminating drugs for people who are terminally ill or had "six months or less to live." I'm not really sure if that falls under murder, suicide or murder for hire but what do you bet insurance companies would back that one? I am continually amazed at the issues we face. We've done our small part to steer this country in the right way, hope you will, too.

Date Night

Tonight was "Date Night" for all the young parents at our church. Since there are quite a few of us here that don't have permanent baby-sitters (i.e. grandparents or other family), we decided to have a "parents night out" once a month where we rotate baby-sitting and going out with our spouse. Unfortunately for us, Charlie was working tonight so I had a "my night out," and it was pretty exciting, let me tell you. Actually it was a nice break and Charlie and I did get to have dinner together. I dropped the girls off around 4, then I picked up some Chinese food and headed over to the hospital. We had a nice little dinner, and then I ventured out to the mall. I strolled around for a while, then ended my evening at B & N with a pumpkin spice frappucino and a book. A pretty low-key evening, but it was nice just to have some time to myself and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Here is our conversation on the drive home:
Allie: "Mom, why do hornets sting you when you bother them?"
Me: "B/c they don't like to be bothered. That's how they take care of themselves."
Allie: "Well, why do we spray them? Do they die?"
Me: "Yes, they die. We spray them so they don't sting us."
Allie: "Do they go to heaven?"
Me: "I don't know. Maybe they go to bug heaven. Do you think they go to heaven?"
Allie: "Well... do they sting God if he bothers them?"
Me: "No, they don't sting God. He made them."
Allie: "Why do they live in nests?"
Me: "That's what God made for them."
Allie: "Do they have bathrooms?"
Me: "No, I don't think they have bathrooms."
Allie: "Well, what do they do?"
Me: "I don't know... better go ask your grandma (jk)."

"Yeah, Grandma said..."

Allie asked me today why snakes have bleach in their bodies. "Hmmm, I don't think they do," I replied. "Yeah, my Grandma said they do; they have bleach in their bodies."

Now, I'm not sure which Grandma she got this info from, but hey, you learn something new everyday!

Allison's newest feat: not bad for a 3 year old!




Olivia attempting to catch a baby cricket. She did succeed, and the poor little guy almost lost his life to a curious 13 month old (she did have him in her mouth). I managed to save him from Olivia but then Allie stomped him to bits. And then she says, "Mom, are crickets friendly?" So I replied, "Well, Allie, they are until you step on them."

Couldn't think of a good title

Hope everyone is having a good week. We are just strumming through the same old routine, not too much going on. We are starting to make plans for our move. We did decide against buying a house and instead we have decided to build. We found a nice plot of land, 20 acres, and we've found a house plan that we really like and a builder, so as soon as all the financial work goes through, and we're hopeful it will, we are good to go. We looked and looked through houses in Enid, but for what they were asking and what you were getting, we figured we'd be better off, and happier, just building our own. Plus it is a little bit out in the country, which both of us grew up in the country and we wanted our girls to have that as well. That is about the highlight of our lives right now, which we are very excited about, and we'll let you know how it turns out. I posted some pics from the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago. Allie is anxiously waiting to "crum" her pumpkin, also known as carving. She is also becoming a music lover all of the sudden. She found a CD of the Oakridge Boys and plays it over and over really loudly. The song, "Traveling Man" is her main pick. I told her to turn it down but she says she has to have it loud so she can dance. She also has an ear for the group Sugarland which is kind of funny b/c she doesn't really know who they are, but she can always pick their songs out. She has this Elmo DVD that Jennifer Nettles (from Sugarland) sings on and Allie always has to hear that song, then when we're listening to the radio, if Sugarland comes on, she says "turn that up, Mom." Funny girl.

What did you learn in Bible class... and getting the last word in

Me: "Claire, what did you learn in Bible class?"
Claire: "Cheetos!" (very excited)
Me: "Did you talk about Jesus?"
Claire: "No!"

We all take what we want from our Sunday experience.


After a hectic morning the other day, full of "why's" and continuous talking...

Me: "Allie, I need you to stop talking for a little bit. Mama's brain is tired, okay? No more questions."

After about a minute of silence...

Allie: "Mom, where's your brain?"

Didn't we just get here?

Well, just as we were getting settled here (kind of), we will be packing our bags yet again and heading South. Yes, we are moving back to OK, Enid to be exact. Charlie has changed his 1 yr assignment to a 6 mos assignment. It's kind of a long story but essentially he has all the C-section numbers he needs, plus some, and frankly we are ready to move back. Washington has been a nice place to visit but neither of us really wants to stay here longer than we have to. So we've decided to move on to bigger and hopefully better things. Charlie already has a contract with one of the hospitals in Enid and they have given him the O.K. to start early. So January is our projected date of departure. I can definately say we are ready to finally settle down and have real jobs. Since we had already planned on me taking a year off, we're going to stick with that for now, and sometime later I will go back to work part-time. Now we are house hunting and getting things in order in that area. We are interested to see how this whole economic situation will affect us, if at all. At least interest rates and prices of houses are low, that is certainly a plus. Stay tuned and we'll keep you advised of any other news.

The rest of the story...

Claire: "You gonna fix my drawers, mom?" (part of the railing broke off when the dresser fell over)

Me: "Yes, I'm going to fix your drawers. And you're not going to climb on them anymore, are you?"

Claire: "No, I might bump my head!"

Allie: "Your head will fall off!! Mom, does God stick our heads on tight?"

Me: "Yes, Allie, he sticks them on so they won't come off."

BTW- the rest of our day has thankfully been uneventful (so far)

Can we do this again?

It is only 8:00 in the morning but I would like to restart this day. Claire has already come close to killing herself and Olivia exposed herself to a potential case of salmonella. I'm just waiting to see what Allison will do. The girls and I were all in the kitchen making some breakfast, scrambled eggs to be exact. Claire was complaining of her hair being in her face so I sent her and Allie upstairs to get her a hairclip. After a few minutes they hadn't returned, so I called to them to come downstairs. Allie came down and I expected Claire to come running in right behing her. Well, she didn't. Instead I hear some bumping around then a loud CRASH and what sounds like some glass breaking! I swear my heart actually stopped when I heard the crash, it was so loud. As I'm running up the stairs I hear Claire screaming but it's muffled which scares me even more. I run into their bedroom and all I see is their dresser turned over with stuff scattered all over the floor and no Claire. I stood the dresser up and there's Claire laying underneath it screaming. Thankfully (thank you God!) she was not hurt. She said she bumped her head but that seemed to be her only complaint. I checked her over but didn't see anything significant and she seemed fine. Apparently she was trying to get something out of the top drawer and used the bottom drawers as a ladder. We will use this a valuable lesson, when the warning label says not to climb on them b/c they will fall over, they aren't kidding!
So while I was trying to pick up some of the mess in the girls' room, Olivia waddles in with a mouth full of eggshells fresh out of the trashcan, but at least she was kind enough to offer me some. Wow, I can't wait to see what the rest of this day has to offer. I'm sure it will be good though...

Tumbling Class

I signed Allie up for a month-long tumbling class and this morning we went to the first one. The best of her parents really came out in her. We got there and had to wait around a few minutes till they actually started, then when the teacher called them over, she froze to my leg. She wanted nothing to do with any of the other kids. So I picked her up, all the while she was hollering No, No, No and I took her to join the other kids. Now, I would expect this of Claire, but Allie is not a fit-thrower. I tried to reassure her that I wasn't leaving, that I was just going to sit on the side, but she was not buying it. I started to walk away, but she just followed me. So we just sat on the side lines watching for a few minutes and I could tell she was somewhat interested once she saw the other kids jumping and playing. So finally, being the softie that I am, I told her if she would participate we would go to McDonald's for lunch. I know you shouldn't bribe kids, but I had already paid for this class and I knew if I didn't get her out there this time, I would have to endure the same scene next time. And I knew if she got involved she would have a good time. Luckily she took the bait, just by saying McDonald's she was a different kid. She got out there, took her shoes off and started playing. She was a little hesitant when it came to frog jumps and log rolling though, she doesn't like being in front of crowds of people (not that it was a huge crowd) for things like this, she definately gets that from her parents. Anyway, I am proud of her for doing it, and she even said she was ready to go back next week.

Character Counts

Saturday evening after we had cleaned up from dinner, we heard a knock on the door. Charlie was on the phone so I went to see who it was. I peeked out the window and saw one of our neighbors who lives about 4 houses down from us, he was standing there with one of his little girls. We don't know them very well, expect for brief introductions made previously. So I opened the door, curious as to why he was at our house. He said, "I just wanted to apologize to your husband. When he and your daughters walked by our house earlier, I said some things that I shouldn't have said in front of your kids, and I'm really sorry. I don't like it when people talk that way in front of my kids so I'm really sorry I did that in front of your girls." First I was kind of dumbfounded as to how to respond. Charlie had taken the girls to get the mail earlier, but he never said anything about such an incident. I told him I really appreciated his apology, even though I really wasn't aware of the incident, and I know that sometimes things happen. Sometimes people really impress me (and sometimes they don't). But how many people, especially ones we don't know very well, would come back and apologize for things like that? Not many that I've met. He definately gets in "A" in character.

Punkins...

Well, I'm giving up on trying to post pics with this one, I've been trying since Saturday with no luck so I'll just tell you what we did and hopefully I can post the pictures later.
I will start off by telling you it is absolutely beautiful here right now. Autumn is in full swing here, the leaves are all changing and the air is nice and cool (sometimes cold). We had been wanting to take the girls to a pumpkin patch, so Saturday we finally got the chance. It was kind of cold and rainy, but it made for a perfect Fall day. I love the rainy days with big gray clouds, it makes all the Fall colors look so pretty. Saturday we went out to Green Bluff, which is a farming district north of Spokane. They have lots of fruit orchards there where you can pick your own fruits/veggies. Right now it is apple season so there are lots of apple festivals going on and you can get apples pretty cheap. We picked out a place called Siemers Farm that had pumpkins, a corn maze and hay rides. They gave us a little wagon that we loaded the girls up in and headed out to the pumpkin field. We let the girls each pick out a pumpkin; Claire was not too impressed with the vines on the plants. Some of them were about as tall as she was so she stood there and cried. Once we got up to the stand to pay for them, it started raining again so we decided to head back to town. It was a fun morning.

Those who've gone on before...

This has been a subject of discussion around our house lately. For the past couple of months or so, Allison has been asking all sorts of questions about dying. I'm thinking the death of her fish may have sparked the whole thing, but now we are talking about her great-grandparents who have passed away. For so long, she knew of only one great-grandmother, Grandma Ferrell, who is living and doing well, so she was a little surprised to learn she actually has four great-grandmas and grandpas. Of course, then I had to explain why they aren't here anymore. We've talked a lot about heaven and why we go to be with God after we die. While my parents were here, this talk came up and grandma was telling her about Grandma Chavez, my grandma, and Allie says, "She went to heaven so Jesus could make her wake up?" Pretty wise girl, don't you think?

Kids... what are they learning these days?

"Mom, this is my baby, Olivia, she's 8 miles old." (yes, she said miles)

BTW- that blue and white baby carrier was from my first baby doll.

3 year old observation

While sitting at the drive-thru window at the bank this morning, we saw one of the young guys that works at the Mexican restaurant that we frequent, he was walking down the street and passed in front of us. Allie sees him and says, " Hey, mom, is that our Mexican?" I confirmed her finding, pointing out that the guy works at the Mexican restaurant. Then I was impressed that she actually recognized him; or maybe that means we just eat there too often.

Anyone got a Kleenex?

The snot fairy has arrived at our house and she is hunkering down for the winter. For the next five or six months I will be wiping snotty noses hundreds of times a day. I should invest in Kleenex, I'm pretty sure our house alone could keep that stock up.