Saturday, October 30, 2010

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

On Wednesday I threw a Halloween Party for some of Audra's friends. It was an absolute blast! And, it wasn't horribly difficult so maybe someday I will have the courage to throw a Birthday party. Maybe.
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I did have Claire go to Grandma and Grandpa's during the party so I didn't have to entertain her as well, and let me just say...ONE CHILD IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN TWO!!!!!! I didn't realize how easy I had it with just one!
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Anyway, five of her little friends showed up. We read stories, made bats, decorated cookies, and danced. Which is appropriate since one of Audra's new favorite sayings is, "Shake your bootie!" as she points to her bootie. Lovely.
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As you can tell, Audra is a fairy princess. How creative, huh? It seems like at this age all girls must be some sort of a princess, and this one only cost me $1.00 since I already had all the stuff except the wings.
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I am so glad that Audra has such great little friends!!! I keep telling the moms that none of them can ever move!













































































Trunk Or Treat Street

Tonight was our Trunk-or-treat street at church. That's where people decorate their trunks and the kids go from trunk to trunk collecting candy. I had 5 bags of candy and ran out quickly...there were a lot of kiddos!
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My girls, of course, were pretty dang adorable. Even if Claire refused to wear her Dumbo hat. She HATED it. Oh, well.
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Audra was pretty brave and went through the "spook alley" whereas most of the other kids her age refused to do so. It was a dark tunnel, and Audra went in and then got scared, so one of the teenagers went in with their cell phone and helped her through.
























Here is Claire playing with a bumble bee. It was pretty cute- like most church activities, the kids ended up running around and playing chase in the gym. It's great that both girls can now participate in the fun!



Claire became rather possessive of her candy. Ben took the girls around while I handed out the candy. As her pumpkin got heavier Ben tried to take it to help her, and she threw a tantrum and refused to let him touch it. Then, she started taking the candy and putting it in her mouth, then she would spit them out really far. Eventually, she figured out how to get the candy, and as you can see from the picture of her in the carseat, she enjoyed it VERY much. She was VERY grumpy when we took the pumpkin away to put her to bed.
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Audra was really good with the candy. She wanted it, of course, and her pumpkin had a LOT more candy than Claire's, but when we told her she couldn't have any more, she listened. What a good girl!

Restoring Sanity

Ben and I actually considered flying to DC for the Restoring Sanity/Keeping Fear Alive rallies by Stephen Colbert and John Stewart, but then realized it would cost a lot of money and would probably not be much fun with kids in tow. So, we forgot all about it.
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Until this morning where I saw they were doing a satellite rally in downtown Denver! Being the spontaneous fun people that we are (oozing with sarcasm right now), we packed up the kids and headed downtown!
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I will save the politics (even though this really wasn't political at all) for the Moms site, and just talk about how much fun it was to be downtown.
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It was very much a spontaneous decision to go, which is a little unusual for us but I think Ben is inspired by Modern Family (if you happened to watch it this week you will know what I am talking about).
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We took the lightrail and were surprised to see a couple of thousand people there. They had a big TV screen and were broadcasting the rally live. It was GORGEOUS weather (weather has been crazy here- super warm, no moisture- we might have a big drought next summer) and everybody was in a fun, happy mood. It was fun and light-hearted.
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The girls did pretty good, though Claire fell asleep in her stroller on the way home, which means she now has enough energy to ruin my laundry piles, pull out all of the pots and pans, and drive me crazy as I attempt to post on the blog. Sigh.
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Here are some pictures of our fun, spontaneous adventure!





























Thursday, October 28, 2010

Calling All Recruits...

...to fashionista school!
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Yes, here is Audra dressing Claire. Claire was not a willing participant, but Audra thought it was wonderful- a child prodegy to use as her muse in her very own house!
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Actually, Claire has been trying to dress herself for the past couple of weeks. What genes did these girls get?!? Not mine, that's for sure!
























Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Straight No Chaser

Last Saturday night Ben and I had the BEST time. We finally celebrated my Birthday together. Ben took me to one of my favorite restaurants- The Cheesecake Factory. We took the light rail downtown, which was fun. Then, surprisingly, we ended up in a zombie-land. Unbeknownst to us, there was a zombiewalk that same night- and it was a little cool, but also a lot creepy. Nevertheless, we had a great time.
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Here we are at the Cheesecake Factory having some DELICIOUS food. Best of all, we ordered separate cheesecakes so I got to order a cheesecake with nuts in it- YUM!












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-Then, we went to a Straight No Chaser concert. It was SOOOOOO much fun!!! Seriously, if you can go to a concert of theirs, you should go! They are an acapella group- the one that sang the really cool 12 Days of Christmas song that I posted about last Christmas. Their concert was as fun as that song- we had such a GREAT time! I can't say enough about how wonderful it was.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Japanese Steak House

On Thursday night we went to the Japanese Steak House in good old FW (think Beni-Hana, where the chefs prepare the food at your table). It was, of course, a big hit with the kids! Claire, who is traditionally horrible at restaurants, was at least partially mesmerized by the show and by all the clapping being done for all the people in the restaurant who were having Birthdays- which happened to be quite a few.




Grandma was finally able to get Claire to eat something- Ben and I failed miserably in our attempts.

















Audra enjoyed using her chopsticks, and did a pretty good job of it, too!




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-Now we are back and adjusting to normal life. It's always hard for me to come back here after visiting my family and friends. I'm usually pretty grumpy for first couple of days and poor Ben has to put up with me. It was such a fantastic trip- I think I could have stayed at least another month. I loved seeing the girls playing with their cousins and having great fun with Grandma and Grandpa High and visiting with friends. It's always a treat to go home- thanks for putting us up and having such fun with us mom and dad! We love you!!!
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Here's a funny story to end with. On our ride home from this restaurant, Aud and I had this conversation:
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A: I have to go potty!
Me: You are going to have to hold it, honey.
A: Hold it in my panties?
Me: Umm...no.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I LOVE Friends!

I have the BEST friends! Seriously, I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends. Years ago I was admonished by a church leader to always be sure to make good friends throughout my life. I thought it was strange, because I have always had such awesome freinds. As I have gotten older, my friends are just better and better! Now I have friends from when I was as young as 2nd grade, and new friends who I know I will cherish forever. How lucky is that?
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The past couple of weeks I have been able to spend some time with some of the friends I have known and loved the longest- and gotten to know their kids as well. How crazy is that?!? One minute we are in Ms. McNeily's (is that even her name?) English class reading Shakespeare, and the next we are MOTHERS! Wow. Life is good.
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This first picture is of me and my girls, plus Danielle (who I've known since 7th grade) and her boys, and Heather (also have known her since 7th grade) and her little baby girl. We were roommates our freshman year of college as well. Oh, the memories!

















Here we are at a cupcake shop- Danielle took me there for my Birthday. I got the chocolate mint cupcake and it was UMM UMM GOOD!

























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-Here we are at the zoo with Danielle and her boys, and a friend from college, Susie, and her son James. I haven't seen Susie since before I was married and we went and saw the greatest movie: Napoleon Dynamite in theatres.


Here is what Nathan and Audra looked like the last time we took them to the zoo together:
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Here they are now:
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I LOVE this picture of Austin and Claire!
























































It was pretty cute at one point as James and Audra started holding hands. Gotta love little kids!















































The elephant at the zoo was dancing- or so it seemed- so Audra and James got down and danced with them.







I am so glad that we are able to stay in touch after all these years. I truly count that as one of the greatest blessings of my life- so thank you, once again, for all of the great times my dear friends!