Bad pictures of funny things

** Kaitlyn has figured out her little push-kart. I don't know what you call them exactly, so you will have to check out the video. The first couple of times, she let it run away from her and never moved her feet. But we just waited a couple of days, and then this video was taken within the first 5 tries. I think Daddy has been right all along, this girl just might be walking by Thanksgiving!



**Also, Kaitlyn loves to clap. She is very proud of this new talent, and I need to get a video of this one too. I have been working on showing her some sign language, and each time she studies my movements very carefully, with furrowed eyebrows. And then her face will light up, and she will start clapping. Like "huh, what is she doing . . . that's weird . . . OH I know! I can do THIS with my hands! Yeah for me!" Just adorable. (Okay, I'm slightly biased.)


**Today, Tyler's playgroup at Kids On the Move wore their costumes and "Trick or Treated" for their snack. We have been trying to practice, so he knows what to do, but I don't think he has gotten the idea yet. Once chocolate is involved it might clear things up a bit. Sorry I don't have pictures of that! But I do have pictures of this:




Tyler got these glasses from his neighborhood playgroup on Wednesday. It cracked me up everytime I put them on Kaitlyn especially, but she had absolutly no intention of letting those things remain on her head. You can't see them in the picture, but I have one hand trying to hold down both of hers with all my might while aiming and taking a picture though the viewfinder. Hence, the bad picture.


**While I am on the subject of bad pictures I still find hilarious, I was taking pictures of my kids the other day. Some of them were rather cute, actually. I was in a tilted mood, as you can see.





And then Kaitlyn came up and grabbed my camera strap. You try taking an infocus picture of a toddler yanking your strap!



I will always wish I had gotten the chance to crank up the shutter speed on that last one, because that awful, out of focus blur makes me laugh every time. This is the "HA! You can't have it back now, Mom!" look if I ever saw it. She is our little investigator in the house, that's for sure. She was absolutly sobbing when we were carving pumpkins on the kitchen counter the other night and she couldn't see what was going on. That girl cracks us up!

Halloween Block Party

Every year, our little ward area has a Halloween Block Party. I love it! Especially because it is a better time to see everyone's costume and chat than trick or treating time.

First we all gathered for the costume contest. You will notice that Kaitlyn is holding my lens cap, because otherwise she would have yanked her "stem" off her head already. And Tyler's friend Hailey is Horton, in case you can't see the little flower stuck in the trunk.

Once Daddy got there, Tyler apparently had things to tell him. But mostly he just stood around and stared at everything.

And then we paraded across. Tyler won the award for "Most Original". He didn't think this was very interesting at all.

Then we took a hayride over to the face painting station my Beehives were running. I had her paint his hand, so he could admire it. He was mildly impressed.

After that, we walked over to the food station for some chili. And finally, we found something that impressed Tyler that night! Root beer. Daddy was late because he was dropping off the homemade root beer we brought, and in a rare use of actual words, Tyler kept coming up and saying "more" and handing me his cup.

Once we got home, it was time to inspect the stash. His prize from the contest was a Halloweeny cup filled with candy. He liked it. Kaitlyn wanted to grab it ALL. So he flattened himself down on it so she couldn't get it. Ha!

Dump truck done!

As promised, here is Tyler's dump truck. He really loves wearing this around!

It has tail lights, that are reflectors for a trailer.

It also has head lights, which is an under cabinet light thingy. I was rather dissapointed when I brought it home and it was an inch or two too long, but as you can see I made a "bumper" so it worked.

Such a cute little guy!

Macro lens

Well, I finished my projects! I will post pictures of Tyler's shirt and dump truck later, once I have had time to take good pictures. For now I wanted to show off my "play time" today with my new camera. A co-worker of Christopher's loaned us two of his lenses to try out, along with some books. I was especially intested in the macro lens, since it was one of the few terms I knew. Close up shots! I tried it out, and WOAH. Next time I do this with my kids, they are having a really good bath first, because it shows every single speck of dirt and detail. But it is SO COOL!

Better not get too attached though, because it was a Macro 100mm lens like this one. $500. Ouch.

Anyway, here are some shots I took this morning in my front yard. At first I only though of doing plants, which is funny considering I only have like 3 flowers in my entire yard. So here is a pumpkin stem. I didn't even notice the fleck in the spider web behind it until afterward.

And a yellow rose by our fence suddenly looked really awesome!

So then I started to turn it on the kids. I started with Kaitlyn.

I took some of Tyler, but his hair was out of whack, he had a milk mustauche, and let's face it, baby cheeks are cuter.

And then I remembered how much I love baby toes and fingers.

Such a cool toy! I am going to be sad to give this loaner back, that is for sure. Wow!

New toys!

Today we each got a new toy. Well, at least, they both arrived today. When Christopher drove the bike back from Vegas, the radiator sprung a leak. That sounds like really bad luck, but it was actually exceptionally good luck that he drove it so many miles that week. If it hadn't happened right then during the long trip, it would have happened a month or two down the road. As it was, he got it in to the dealer 3 days before the warranty expired. Free fix! So he just got the bike back today, with a brand new radiator, and is a very happy man.

And I finally took the plunge and got my camera. There is a long story to how I got it, involving a local camera store ripping me off on a floor model that my wonderfully protective pit bull of a husband took back for me, but the one we ordered online shortly afterward arrived today. I still have a lot to learn about how to use all the features, but I am looking forward to it! We ended up getting the Canon EOS Rebel XSi, for those who are curious. There was a big rebate on the 75-200mm lens, so we got that in addition to the kit lens. It will take me a while to learn how to use that much, so that ought to do it for now! Oh, minus the camera bag I need to get now.

The bike shot above was the first thing we took pictures of. They don't look too different from my point and shoot, but the one of Tyler on the bike looks better than usual and Kaitlyn's portrait was awesome. Next time I should put a clean shirt on her when we shoot that kind of detail!

I know, the windsheild is in focus instead of Tyler. I kinda like it that way.

Holy craft projects, Batman!

I haven't posted in a while because I have been really busy with a bunch of projects. It has begun to spiral out of control, actually. But it is so much FUN! I can't let myself get hooked too often, because the housework (which I don't enjoy) suffers when I get going on a fun craft (which I do enjoy). The wake up call came on that last weekend, actually. I had spent three days straight on costumes, so the dining table was covered in the projects, and the house was a mess. We went to a kid's B-day party at a park, but it was flippin' freezing outside! The fierce cold in the wind had people retreating to cars to warm up while we waited for others to arrive. So since the host lived 15 min away, and our house was less than 3 min away, we had everyone come to our place. I don't regret that, since I didn't want to be in the cold one more minute with my babe, but I also never want to have company over with 3 days of dishes on the counter again. (We managed to stash all the craft junk upstairs in the 5 min before 30-40 people migrated from the park to our house.) Lesson learned.

So here, in order, are my projects.

**I felt rather left out that I didn't get to make Tyler's costume this year, so when I saw some fairy wings cheap in Wal-mart, I decided to make myself a tutu to match the wings. How hard could that be, right? My mistake was that first I tried to make the tutu with the tied method, and then didn't like it and made another one the same way I made Kaitlyn's. If any of you need help making a tutu, I think I have this down pat, but I will spare you the details for now. Then I made the shawl thingy, because I didn't like all the black on top. But the tutu stuck to the cotton skirt I was going to wear underneath, so I had to take another silky skirt I didn't like anymore and cut it to be a short skirt and keep me modest under the tutu. Whew.

**And then there is Tyler's costume. I found that fire truck online, but decided to check local stores and see if I could save the shipping cost. That's when I found my wings. No luck on the fire truck, so I went back to get it onine. Every single store was sold out of it, and the ebay auctions jumped from $20 shipped to $40 plus shipping. ACK! So, back to square one, I decided that he will be a dump truck. I made this out of diaper boxes, black felt to line the inside, wheels taken from a crappy looking truck at the thrift store, and a fabric belt of Christopher's that he was going to throw away. Tyler adored it, and wanted to wear it every time he saw it. I thought the boxes would be awkward for him, but he doesn't care about that.

I also got him some construction shoes, a hard hat, and a flannel shirt to wear.


And then I decided that it looked too much like a yellow box with wheels, and started to make modifications. I ended up taking the entire thing apart. I was stumped on how to make it a more dump truck like shape- I wanted those indentations on the side, but clay was too heavy. And then on "My Name is Earl" they were making fun of a girl he dated who did paper mache. Jackpot! I have now put on one layer, with a couple yet to go, and then I can paint it and reattach the wheels and strap. My husband thinks I am crazy for putting in so much effort. But seriously, when was the last time you got to paper mache something? Hee! Watch for headlights and tail lights in the final pics.

**But I'm not done with this list yet! Hooo, no. Christopher works at a company called DigiCert. They have official shirts for everyone with their logo on them, and have been giving them to family and friends because they are great advertising. But hubby decided one of his had a strangly large neck opening, and he didn't want to wear it anymore, so he donated it to me to make a shirt for Tyler (since they don't have toddler shirts yet.) I used an unattractive shirt to take apart and use as a pattern, and the pieces are cut out, but I haven't gotten further than that yet. But there was a logo on the sleeve, and I thought, "it's a shame that I won't be using that!"

And then I noticed that my daughter is the same size as the sleeve.

Yes, that's right, my daughter is wearing a men's shirt sleeve as a tube top. I used ribbon for the straps and the trim at the bottom, and then buttons for decoration. I wanted them to be functional on the back, but my machine gave me hissy fits for a couple of hours trying to make button holes. (It literally ate the fabric! Chewed up little bits of it! Grrr.) Velcro time.

**Next: Tyler's DigiCert shirt will hopefully come together soon . . . assuming I ever finish his dump truck.

Vegas trip

This last weekend we took a quick trip down to visit my brothers in Henderson, NV. When I saw them all in August they mentioned that we should come down in the fall instead of the summer, like we usually do, since that is when the weather is great down there. And then my dad was there for a conference and a class and had a weekend off between the two. Still, Christopher wasn't thrilled about the idea of driving the kids down for 6 hours until he found the bike.

He has been eyeing this bike for a while now. He almost bought a brand new one, but they are between models and he was going to wait until the next model was in stock. And then he saw this one on ebay for half the price of a new one, and not even 2 years old. But where was it located? Henderson, Nevada. Suddenly my trip to Vegas was a brilliant plan!

We always eat at the same Timberline Restaurant in Beaver on every trip. It is the only place I know of in Utah that sells a true Monte Cristo sandwich, and I love it so much! My boys are so handsome.

We stayed at my 2nd brother's house, who has 5 kids and luckily still has a guest room. Most of the weekend was spent just hanging out and going to soccer games for all of the cousins, though we did get everyone together for a big dinner on Sunday night.

My niece is in the purple jersey. I can't believe how big they are all getting! There are three girl cousins her age, and I remember going to see her cousin Lauren in the hospital when she was born. I had already moved to Utah to go to school at that point, and now she is getting baptized soon! That's crazy.

Tyler liked their bunny, CJ. I think he also liked staying with so many cousins, because he is used to a very quiet house at home. Megan is the youngest out of the 5 by almost four years, so she was quite excited to have little cousin friends her age to play with. She is about 5 months older than Kaitlyn.

Tyler spent most of the weekend in their dirt spot in the backyard, digging around with his trucks. Sometimes I wonder if we are pushing the trucks thing too much- he now has trucks on plates, bibs, toys, books, stickers, and even a step-stool. But the kid is seriously drawn to them!

He laughed hysterically every time that thing dumped out! Too cute.

The stinky part about picking up a motorcycle down there was that we had to drive home separately. And since Christopher had to be at work on Monday, he left only 36 hours after he came. I was a bit worried about how the kids would do the next day when I drove them home by myself, but all things considered it went ok. Kaitlyn screamed lots, but what can you do?

Ooh, and before I leave I just have to brag. Kohl's sent out $10 gift cards in honor of their Grand Opening of a new store in the area- minimum purchase was $10. So I went tonight and got a shirt for me and a sleeper for Kaitlyn for $1.06. And then I went and used some frequent pizza cards to get a free large pizza from Pier 49. That meant that I got all three items tonight for $1.06 total! Happy dance!