Sleeping Beauty Hair

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I made up names for my girls' hairdos.  I've found that it makes them more excited about sitting still while I yank and pull their hair.  There's The Jesse (braided pony), The Cinderella/Ballerina (messy bun), The Princess Leia (messy bun piggies), what used to be called "hair like Mommy's" but now is The Rapunzel (straight), The Jasmine (side pony/messy bun), and the most popular by far... 

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY-

Sleeping Beauty hair is pretty time consuming, so it's usually reserved for special occasions.  However, we have 1:00 church starting in January, so we might be able to have Sleeping Beauty hair a bit more often. Yay.

Play Time!

Cameron:  Let's play hod dog!  (roll each other up in a blanket)
Meleah:  No!  You just BIT me!
Lydia:  I know!  We can play princesses!
Meleah:  Okay!
Cameron:  Noooo!  I don't wan-new!  C'mon, let's play hod dog!
Meleah:  You can be the prince Cameron!
Cameron:  Me no wan-nit be da prince!  I be a monster!  Rrrrrraaaaaaaaar!
Meleah:  No!  You. Are. The. Prince!
Lydia:  Cameron can be whatever he wants.  There CAN be monsters in princesses.  And Savanna can be our baby.

And they all played happily ever after...well, at least for a little while.

Sunday Nap

Mom:  (excitedly) C'mon Cameron!  You get to take a nap with MOMMY today!
Cameron:  No wan-nit take a nap.  I go pway!
Mom:  Nope, it's nap time.  You can either sleep here or in YOUR bed. (Picking him up and putting him in bed)
Cameron:  (crying)  Maaaaaaaaaaa-maaaaaaaaaaaaa, Maaaaaaaaa-
(brief pause while he remembers that Mommy's actually the one causing his problem)
Daaaaaaaadddyyy, Daaaaaaaaaa-a-a-dy!
Mom:  Cameron, you'd better stop crying or Daddy's going to take you to your room.
(brief pause #2)
Cameron:  Graaaaammmpaaaaaaa, Graaammmpaaaaaaaaa-a-aaaaaaaa!

Fortunately he was only upset while I took out my contacts and changed into comfy clothes.  He really does love to cuddle, especially when he gets back tickles!  Not to mention that he fell asleep 20 seconds later.

Thumbs Up!

Halloween!

So, I think I bruised/cracked my ribs on Halloween night which is why I'm a little late with the Halloween post. Let's just say that I had a little run-in with the side mirror of my car and my double stroller and leave it at that.  Fortunately, I can now breath/move without causing intense pain and am now able to blog!  Yay!  Aside from my accident, and HORRIBLE traffic in Utah County, we had a really fun Halloween.

I practiced making Marshmallow Frankensteins for Activity Days with my kids .  It's a good thing I did, because the food coloring DID NOT work in the chocolate AT ALL.  We ended up making Marshmallow ghosts/monsters/vampires instead with white chocolate.  Do you like my kids' mean Frankenstein faces?  Carter really got into it -

We also had lots of fun carving pumpkins.  Carter carved the skeleton ALL BY HIMSELF, and the girls and I had a combined effort on the cat.  I was pretty impressed...and I even figured out how to turn off the flash on my camera this year -

The brave Iron Man!

The beautiful Fairy Princess Rosabelle!  The girls made up their names themselves.  Meleah was going to be Princess Jessa, then Rosa, and finally Rosabelle.  She also made sure everyone knew that she was a Fairy PRINCESS, not just a fairy.

And the gorgeous Fairy Princess Abeyta.  It may sound a little odd, but Lydia's teacher this year is Mrs. Abeyta.  She LOVES her, obviously. 

 Fairy Princess was a popular choice for Halloween this year!

SUPER-CAMERON!

It was tricky to get this cute little ducky to hold still long enough to get  a picture of her! 

We also had a fun family party at Tara's house that I forgot to bring my camera to.  We're so blessed to have such great family and friends that make every holiday so much fun.  Not to mention how they take care of my kids, fix meals, and provide medical supplies when I am a clumsy oaf and injure myself. What would I do without them?

Thumbs Up!

A few months ago, Cameron started doing this pose EVERY TIME I TAKE HIS PICTURE -
I apologize in advance for all the clutter, messy-faces, open cabinets, and half-dressed children you are about to see.  

He thinks it's the thumbs up sign if that makes it more cool...

 Even "piyates" (pirates) do the "thumbs up" sign apparently -

In line with the thumbs up sign, he's also been saying a lot of  "awesome!" and "shake your boo-ty!"  He thinks it's really funny to shake his booty in the middle of a diaper change.  Me, not so much.

1st Owie!

My little Savanna-Baby got her first owie the other day.  I don't even know how she got it. (I know...mother of the year.)  I think she was CLIMBING UP THE STAIRS. She pulls herself up to EVERYTHING (and everyone) and is not happy unless she's moving.  She's always been like that (even in the womb) and so I'm not really surprised that she seems to be doing things early.  I'm just wanting her to slow down a little bit so that I can still feel like I have a baby, and of course to avoid any more owies. 

Savanna has the cutest little giggle, and the kids LOVE to do crazy things to make her laugh.  She gets in these moods where she'll laugh at anything.  (Seriously, AN-Y-THING.)  She loves to wave, scream, and I might be crazy but I swear she says "hi."  She also says "ma-ma-ma," but only when she's crying...so it's kinda sad.  Is it just me, or does this phase remind anyone else of having a dog?  They're always crawling around at your feet, looking for something to eat...you reach down and put a treat in their mouth every now and then to keep them happy...  Just me?  Anywho, Savanna loves to JUMP and this is her favorite toy at the moment.  If I knew how to upload video, you could see how CRAZY this little girl really is.

She's also started pulling out her "pretties."  I hate when they do that!  Luckily, she still looks adorable even when she has crazy hair. 

We're having so much fun with our wiggly little Savanna.  I just love to watch her get around and see her big beautiful smile every day.

THE FINAL SUMMER POST (seriously)

I don't remember if I mentioned it on here, but Randall switched from Mountainland Rehab to Aspen Ridge this summer.  Aspen Ridge invited us to go to their Lagoon Day even though he didn't start working there until a couple of weeks later.  We had TONS of fun, and I'm SO happy that Randall is with Aspen Ridge now.  (Not just because they have an AWESOME Lagoon Day every year.)

 Savanna spent most of the day in her stroller, happy as can be. 

I can't believe my Carter-Cutie is getting too BIG for some of the rides!  Aspen Ridge also provided a delicious lunch, dinner, and an endless supply of ice cream and ring pops.  Every kids dream.  (And mine.)

 Everyone was so brave this year.  Carter and I even went on Wicked (once). 

We brought Grandma and Grandpa Stewart again this year.  They're SO much help, and they're kinda fun to be around too. ;)

 I'm sorry, there are just SO many cute pictures.  I have to include them all!

Towards the end of the summer, Randall woke up early one Saturday (SHOCKING, I know) and took the boys and his Dad fishing at Vernon Reservoir.

My little cuties on the way out the door with their breakfast.

 Aren't they just SO adorable?!

They had so much fun that Randall insisted we take our very first family camping trip the following weekend (even though it was cold and rainy).  I was a little overwhelmed not having any help from parents and siblings, but although there were a few difficult moments, (trying to get a fire started in the rain while setting up the tent in the DARK) it ended up being really fun.  SO fun that I might even plan another trip some time in the next ten years. :)

The best part of the night was when the kids were asleep and Randall and I finally got a chance to sit around the fire and enjoy our foil dinners and smores. 

 We went fishing at Payson Lakes the next morning and everyone caught at least one fish. 

 I think Lydia caught 4 fish that day.  She has excellent multi-tasking skills...

 Savanna was content sitting in Mommy's lap all morning bundled in a nice warm blanket. 

 We had tons of fun this summer, and I think my husband has finally gotten the fishing bug out of his system (at least for a little while.)  Now it's football season.  Yay.  ;)