Popcorn Time!

We picked up a random book at the library called The "Three Bears' Halloween" by Kathy Duvall and Julia has been obsessed with it. They make popcorn spiders in the book and Julia pretends to eat them when she is reading the book and has, gross, even licked the book a few times in her excitement (I know, you are now thinking I will never get this book at the library). Anyways, we decided for family home evening we would make her wildest dreams come true and make popcorn spiders for our snack. I have never made caramel popcorn, and was worried the entire time I was stirring that it would burn, but it actually turned out really good!
Julia displaying her creation. The spider had skittle eyes and I honestly think that was her favorite part. She humored me by taking a few bites of the popcorn but then asked for more eyes. She was very excited about her spider though and if I moved it she would freak out. I actually made one for a girl I visit teach and when we dropped it off to her Julia threw a major tantrum because she needed the popcorn spider. Let me tell you, that was a good time. Not only Julia enjoyed them, but Bryan is a huge caramel popcorn fan I discovered. When I got up the next morning I found a bowl filled with sticky carmel and discovered Bryan had eaten it for breakfast. That's a way to start the day off right.
Here is a close up of our creation. We had a great time and as I said Julia loved it. It is so fun that she is at the age where Halloween is so exciting and making popcorn spiders is this huge event that calls for dancing in circles and singing (which she did in excitement when she saw what I was making). I don't think I ever realized how rewarding a holiday could be until I had a child of my own that gets so excited about it. Every time we go in the store she begs to see "Halloweens". And of course I humor her, enjoying it as much as she does, just because I get to see her so excited and pointing at the "happy pumpkins" because "scary pumpkins" are no good.

Check Out Those Freaks!

Bryan and I dressed up for a Halloween party this year and we decided we would be a goth couple. I can't believe how freaky Bryan in particular looked. It was so funny after we were all done with make-up at how different we looked. When we were driving to the party people were giving us some strange looks.
Wohoo! We won the Jekyl and Hyde award because our costume was so unlike our true personalities. We were very excited!
This is our arrival at the party. As you can see we had awesome matching t-shirts and Bryan's dog collar and my skull and bone tights really pulled the ensemble together.

Bryan totally looks like a crazy rock star. It totally freaked Julia out. She kept asking him to fix his face. She really didn't like the skull shirt.
Who is that Julia is cozying up to? I really have a hard time with the "serious" face, so it always looks like I'm just about to smile. I don't think I make a very convincing goth.
These are the awesome party favors and our award. The hosts are extremely talented and creative. We had so much fun.
I couldn't get over how freaky Bryan looked. We had so much fun getting dressed up and so much fun at the party. Thank you to everyone that was involved!

Pumpkin Picking Fun

We went to Circle S Farms to pick pumpkins for our ward's midweek. This is Julia playing in the hay. They have slides that come down into the hay and she was loving it. She went down the slide so fast that I couldn't catch a picture. This child has no fear.
This is a family pic of us on the hay ride. Julia thought it was so great. She is obsessed with Halloween and pumpkins so she was excited to find a pumpkin that was small enough for her to carry.

This is the big pile of pumpkins. We had to be careful because there were hornets all over in the pumpkins. Julia didn't care. She was just so thrilled with the piles and piles of pumkins that were everywhere.
this is Julia and her daddy on the hayride. She is holding the pumpkin that she picked out for herself.
We went with our friends the Gailey's and this is their little boy Zach. Julia loves him. She calls him Zachy and was thrilled that he came to pick pumpkins with us. They sat by eachother for the entire hayride.
Julia standing by the flowers. They have such pretty sunflowers there.
She thought this was so cool, to stick her face in the hole and smile. Now she's a genuine farmer.

This is a slide show that I made. I could only put in five pics, but I thought it was pretty so I added it anyway. I'm still pretty new at this blogging stuff. So anyways I think it has music-high tech I know. So enjoy!

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

Random Pictures

Julia with her kitty and playing with the legos.
Cheeser smile. Every once and a while I can get it out of her.

Julia feeding blue bear. She has to put him in the car seat with the buckle and with the bib on. If it isn't perfect she isn't happy. She's a funny girl.

My Birthday Girl!

This was Julia two years ago. I can't believe how fast time has gone. She has gotten so big so fast and I feel so blessed to have such a sweet little girl.
This is Julia at age one. We kept the birthday hat for this year. You can tell her hair has grown a little bit and she definitely has grown taller, but still the same sweet girl.
The big two. I love being your mom Julia and I hope you know how much I love you. Happy Birthday my sweet girl!
My two favorite people in the world. I don't know how I got so lucky.

Julia's Presents

This is Julia's cake face. I think that you can tell by her face how her day has been. She has loved every minute. It's been fun for all of us, especially when we gave her the presents. She was in heaven.
This is the kitchen I got at a garage sale for five dollars. It's certainly not the fanciest kitchen in the world, but she loves it. I love how she puts stuff in the microwave and pushes the buttons and how she fills the cups with fake water.
Here she is opening presents with me.
This is the food for the kitchen. We are going to be picking up plastic fruit and bread for the rest of our lives, but for her happiness I suppose it's worth it.
This is the shopping cart. Her baby fits perfectly in it and she loves it. We were actually going to take her somewhere to play tonight but we just went out to eat and brought her home because she was so happy with her toys.

This is a video of Julia playing with her new toys. I tried to get her to talk for the camera but she was in the playing zone. She wouldn't even look at us- she just wanted to play. She is pushing the baby in the shopping cart, and serving food to the bear at the table. I hope you enjoy!

Julia's Birthday Party

Julia had a little birthday party with her playgroup friends today. They had such a fun time and were so hilarious. There's nothing Julia loves more than playing with her friends and I think that was her favorite birthday present of the day.
These are my beautiful cupcakes. Julia has been obsessed with strawberry cakes (I think it's because of Strawberry Shortcake). The strawberries were a big hit, as were the cupcakes as you can tell by the frosting faces.
Nothing better than a frosting mostache and beard.
Jansen wouldn't do a bib so he's rocking it shirtless and it's a good thing or his mom wouldn't have been too pleased with me.
Such cute kids! Julia had the best birthday with her two favorite kids. They seriously just run around the house and giggle they love eachother so much. I am so glad Julia has such sweet kids to play with and to share her special day with.

Here's a video of Julia blowing out her candles. You're going to have to deal with my poor singing job since I'm the only one you can hear, so I apologize for that. Julia was totally afraid of the candels-but Jansen was helping her out. I think he's done this before. Hannah came to the rescue a little later, and with some help they got the job done. Thank you Hannah and Jansen!!

Eric and Aimei's Wedding

My Brother got married this summer and these are some of the pictures taken. As you can see Julia was a total handful and I love these two pictures because they really show what a fun day that was. We love having Aimei in our family and it was so fun to be a part of their wedding. I hope you enjoy the slide show of all the great pictures taken on that great day!

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My Brother's Wedding

St. George Marathon

I have to post a shout out to my mother in law Patricia. She just finished her 20th St. George marathon. She even had new shoes and blisters and still finished in four hours. We are so proud of her and are amazed at what she is able to accomplish. I wish I had a picture of her instead of these people I don't know, but we wanted to congratulate her on 20 amazing marathons. I can only one day hope to be in as good of shape as she is. Great job Patricia!!

A Big Day For Julia!

Today is a big day. Last night Julia was driving me nuts because she still takes a binky to sleep and she kept dropping it out of her crib and I had to go in her room several times to give it back to her. So this morning I told her that she was a big girl and that we needed to throw our binky away. She was really excited about being a big girl and so she walked down with me and threw them away and we threw them out in the dumpster. I must admit I was wondering if I made a good choice or if I was ready for this after we did it. I wasn't sure what I was going to be up against when it came nap time. But I continued to motivate her all day. She is obsessed with kitties and so we got her a stuffed kitty and told her she gets to take that to nap and bed instead of a binky because she is a big girl. So at naptime we walked upstairs and I gave her the kitty and laid her in bed. She then asked for her binky and was sad when I reminded her of their demise in the dumpster. She cried for probably fifteen minutes but then she went to sleep! I was so relieved. I hope she keeps it up. I am so proud of her. In the video she spells her name which she just started doing and I had to get it on video. She also tells you of her exciting day of getting rid of the binky. I can't believe how big my little girl is getting!







The cute lady bug boots that Julia is wearing in all of the pictures are from her Uncle Adam and Aunt Camille. They sent them for their birthday and she loves loves loves them. Thank you Adam and Camille. We love you and as you can see Julia LOVES the boots. I couldn't think of a better gift.

Summersaults!!

Julia has learned the art of the summersault and she has been showing off non-stop for the past two days. The only problem with her new found skill is that she is not too aware of the things around her as she preps for her big trick. I think we have collided with the piano bench, coffee table and several children since our big debut, but she loves it anyways. I caught some of it on video. She does the first one beautifully and the second one struggled a bit. She also tries to sing some of her Halloween song that I taught her. Hope you enjoy!

Who does Julia look like?

I thought this was interesting. I'm actually suprised by the results because I am told more often she looks like Bryan, but I am sure that this is 100 percent accurate so apparently she looks like me.

Apple Time

This last weekend we ventured out into the East side of Columbus and went apple picking. I hate to admit this but I have actually never seen an apple tree full of apples, or picked an apple. So it was really fun. The weather was so nice and Julia thought it was so great.
It was nice that the apple trees were so full because they were perfect level for Julia to pick an apple all on her own.
Julia proudly displaying her pick. She was so excited about the whole thing. I can't wait until we go to the pumpkin patch. Having children really does make the little things seem so much funner because they get so excited about everything.

Julia eating the fruit of her labors. She seriously ate right through the entire thing. I'm pretty sure she got a few seeds, but unless what my brother told me about an apple growing in your belly is true, I think that she'll be okay. I'm just glad that she enjoyed it.