Day 31: Another adorable FHE

Tonight's Family Home Evening (which obviously took place right after bath time) was another short and sweet two-year-old attention span-long lesson. We talked VERY briefly about how we're all children of Heavenly Father, Emily colored a picture of a little girl and boy, and then we practiced singing "I Am a Child of God." I've been trying to teach it to her for the last few weeks. She's getting to the point where she can finish the ends of some of the lines by herself, which is the cutest thing! (First verse only, of course.) We sang it twice, once reeeeally slowly so she could repeat all the words, and then again slightly more quickly and she actually kept up with us for a little bit! I'm hoping if we practice enough, soon we'll be able to get some video of it! Cute!

Then, another favorite part of the night was finding this poster, which I really love! But.. I decided to make up something a little simpler and came up with the little subway art that Peter and Emily are holding. I'm thinking I'll eventually cut it out with different colored scrapbook paper and mod podge it onto a canvas for Emily's room. How adorable will that be??

Anyway. That is all. I love FHE with Emily.

Day 30: Posers

Grandma was trying to get Noah to do his Swimsuit Magazine Pose for her tonight. He was ALMOST there in this pic - he just wouldn't put his hand up on his leg like he usually does. It's so funny! She almost got him to do it - I just thought the pic of her trying to get him to pose was funny! Maybe he'll do it for me later this week and I can get a good pic of it!

Day 29: All the special blankies...

For REAL bed time, we have a complete routine. Emily prefers that I take her to bed rather than Peter, and as we walk in the room we turn on the "minifier" (humidifier - she likes the noise for sleeping, I think), then she climbs in bed, gets a pacifier, and lies down on her blankie and blanket. Then we have to layer her blankets on top of her one at a time - bright pink crocheted blankie, then, the monkey blankie (quilt), and finally the tickle blankie. Then she asks me to tuck her in, so I tuck the blankets under her all around her little body - making sure to get her feet, of course. Then finally I can turn out the light and shut the door! So funny! I hope Noah doesn't become this particular! lol.

Day 28: Faker!

Emily has learned to fake sleep. She even pretends to snore now. And for some reason, she has decided that she likes to "sleep" on top of the coffee table. it's so funny! Right after we took this pic, she asked Peter for a blankie too! So funny!

Day 27: My turn for cupcakes..

So tonight I tried out an idea I had last night for doctoring up a regular old box of cake mix.. I saw on the Pillsbury website a recipe where they used chocolate fudge (like you use as an ice cream topping) in the cake batter which cooks up around the fudge and so you have a lovely chocolate surprise when you bite into the cupcake..

So then I thought, how can I take this a step further? And I thought what about a s'mores inspired cupcake? So I made a graham cracker crust and put it on the bottom of the cupcake liners, added the batter and the fudge, then the frosting is good ol' marshmallow fluff.

Peter got out his tiny little pen torch and did all the "toasting" for me with it. I took some to my new Yarn Arts (crochet & knit) group tonight (wayyy fun!) and they were really good! Except.. the graham cracker crust was just a crumbly mess and you couldn't taste the graham crackers. I think next time I make these I'll do what I had originally thought of and just put some chunks of graham cracker right into the cake batter along with the fudge.. 

But aren't my pictures good???

Day 26: Dyeing for a change..

I dyed my khaki coat tonight. It had a stain and I didn't feel like going out to find another decent, lightweight coat, so, I bought some Rit dye and turned it dark brown. I kind of like how it turned out. Go to my other blog to see the step-by-step transformation.

Day 25: Slider

Emily was a bit antsy this afternoon, and Noah was making me crazy - not wanting to eat or sleep - so I packed them into the stroller and we took a trip to the little park by our house. Emily's been more and more adventurous lately, and climbed up the stairs to go down the "big slide" over and over.

She always comes out laughing - it's the cutest!

Day 24: Sink bath?

Emily and I had just gotten out of the shower and blown our hair dry this morning, then I got a phone call and took it around the corner. She played happily while I talked and when I got off the phone I saw her sitting in her kitchen sink. She proudly told me she was taking a bubble bath, and cleaning her baby, too! In this pic she's washing her face, "scrub, scrub, scrub." So funny! Eventually she asked for a towel to wrap her baby in, "so he be nice and warm." Hilarious! This kid is a crack-up!

Day 23: Why Grandpa is the Best..

We often have dinner at my parents' house, especially when they've signed up to host the missionaries. Sunday night was one of these nights, and while Peter and I helped clear the table and load the dishwasher, true to form when it came time to wash the dishes, Grandpa went to work! He got them all washed and rinsed in no time. Sometimes Peter (or rarely, myself) will offer to wash, but Dad says not to worry about it and, "there's not much here, I'll just do it." We love him! Thanks Dad!

Day 22: Couch Potato!

What are we teaching Emily? Haha. After her bath tonight Emily wanted to watch an episode of Mickey before she went to bed, and for once we obliged! lol. Then she wanted her water. And her milk. And a "tickle dwankie" - (usually this applies to any fringed fleece blanket, but tonight it was this specific  blue one). Peter, ever the humble servant of our Princess Emily, gave her all that she required. Haha!

And there she was, vegging on the couch like a pro when I came out to see what she was up to! Hilarious!

ps: don't you love the socks on the couch? They're waiting for mates to come out of the laundry..

Day 21: I love to see the temple...

Okay, so I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to taking pictures outside when it's dark.. AND foggy.. But I thought I'd give it a try.

We went to the temple tonight and did a session for the first time since I was seven months pregnant with Noah! The last time we went (in November) we helped out in the baptistry, so it was nice to attend an endowment session!

So, aaaaanyway, here are my pictures of the Fresno, CA temple! I took these as we were about to leave.. I should have called my mom earlier in the day and gotten her tripod so Pete and I could have been in the pic. Maybe I'll try that again when we go next month? We shall see!

This one was taken sans flash.. ISO at 800, shutter speed 1/60 and aperture at f/5.6 I believe. It's so grainy, but the colors of the temple are cool. I sharpened it a bit in PSE and LR.. but I hate that grain! Maybe if I look up how to texturize and make it look like I did it on purpose?? lol

This pic was with the flash, ISO 400, f/5.6 too I think. It made the fog show up too much which whited out the temple, so I had to do some correcting in PSE and LR.

Not that anyone cares.. but this whole thing IS about me taking better pics and becoming a better photographer, right?

Day 20: Swing Kid

Today is  a GORGEOUS day. It's been so gloomy and overcast lately it's been absolutely depressing. But not today! The sun is shining, it's 60 degrees, and the blue skies are so refreshing to see! So when we heard some of our friends would be heading to the park for lunch, we jumped at the opportunity to soak up some rays!

Noah tried out the baby swings for the first time. He looks like a little monkey holding onto the chains!

Noah and baby Reid (10 days younger than Noah) had fun "hanging out" together!

Day 19: Sibling Fun!

Noah is really going places these days. A week ago he was content to explore mainly just the living room and sometimes the kitchen, but lately he is all over the place! This afternoon he followed Emily into her room (she wasn't hard to find/hear - she found her "vacuum" - popper push toy thing - and was vacuuming the floor in her room). He enjoyed all the toys she had dumped on the floor and they hung out together for a while! Emily will even go up to Noah and try to get him to laugh - she gets the best laughs out of him! Adorable kiddos!

Day 18: Finger Foods

Dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's Tuesday evening included Noah trying out some Gerber Puffs for the first time. He actually did well getting them in his mouth, and only gagged a LITTLE bit if they didn't "melt" properly before he tried swallowing them. The best part, though, was when Emily started to "help" feed them to Noah.

Here you can see Noah's got a puff in his mouth, and two stuck to his chin. Haha!

"Thanks, sis!"

Day 17: Late Night Cry

Okay, disclaimer. I took completely different pictures today. Really cute ones of the kids playing together and Emily giving Noah lots of hugs and kisses. Adorable. But, because I am an idiot sometimes, I forgot to turn on the flash and because I was just snapping away as quickly as possible to get a good pic, I didn't check to see how my images were turning out. Well, surprise! They were all black. Lovely.

Luckily, right around the time I realized this, I heard Noah begin to squeal and cry in his room.. So I grabbed the camera and snapped away!

Poor guy must have gotten his big noggin stuck in the corner of the bed or something. I just gave him a bottle (he wasn't really hungry.. he just ate 2 hours ago..) and now he's on the floor by me playing so he can get happy enough to go back to bed.. he was really mad when I tried to leave him in his crib after taking his picture! Hehe, poor guy.

And yes, he IS wearing the same PJs he had on yesterday. No, he did not get changed out of them all day. No, I do not care. It's Monday, and we take Mondays off when it comes to putting on real clothes. lol.

Oh, and just for you, Mom, but mainly because I want to stop hearing you whine about it (lol) I took word verification off the comments. So, you better comment like crazy on my posts from now on! Haha.

Day 16: We have a crawler!

Okay, so he still army crawls (Injured Soldier Style, of course) most of the time, but today at church during Sunday School, Noah started to crawl! He only went a couple tiny inches forward before getting frustrated, but he repeated his new skill when we tried again 5 minutes later, and again tonight just a little bit while we were at Grandma & Grandpa McKnight's house! So I made him try again when we got home so we could snap some pics!

Up on all fours! Hi Mom, I'm coming!

Here's the concentrated look - you can see his right knee has moved forward and he's ready to come to me. Go Noah!

Day 15: Fancy Nails

Yesterday at Target I bought Emily some Wet'n'Wild nail polish (87 cents a bottle - that's my kind of price!) so today we tried it out!

She loves her "green" paint on her fingers (she consistently calls pink green. At least she's consistent, right?) But she especially loves the "sparkles" from a bottle of glitter polish I got! "Ooooh! Loook! It's so pretty!" she exclaimed while showing off her fancy fingers to Peter. Haha.

I did her toes too. She is in love. And so girly. We had to touch up (as in repaint completely) about 6 fingers after bathtime tonight. Wet'n'Wild nail polish is cheap for a reason - it comes off in no time. There were six little ovalish shaped pink glittery spots in the tub when Emily got out. Haha.

Day 14: Movin' On Up!

I have big kids now! Haha. Noah was really starting to grow out of his infant carrier - his little heels were touching the edge of the car seat and he just seemed so squished when we were in the car.. aside from the fact that I got sick of carrying his heavy self in that thing - it adds at least 10 lbs., I swear! So last night I went to Wal-Mart and got Emily a new "Special Big Girl" car seat, and gave the convertible car seat to Noah! This morning we tried it all out on our way to Mommy & Me!

Noah sits up tall like a big boy! And we can FINALLY push the front passenger seat back to allow for more leg room - his infant seat was so big we couldn't before!

Emily likes her very pretty "Special Big Girl" car seat! We had to sell it to her this way because she was pretty bummed when she found out Noah was taking her seat from her. Haha! It's nice, though - it's a forward-facing only, but the harness is removable and then you can use it as a belt positioner booster for up to 100 lbs. and 54" (which Emily will NOT weigh for probably another 10 years, so this may be the last car seat/booster she'll ever need!). Nice! And for only $64 bucks? Double nice!!

Day 13: Shopping Trip!!

My mom and I took the kiddos to Fresno today so I could make a return, and spend my Crazy Cash at Crazy 8 (one of my fave children's stores).. Emily was pretty good the whole time, but as you can see on Noah's face, he was a grump the entire day! lol. Emily was pretty stoked about the Silly Bandz Grandma got her at Babies R Us.. and her fancy hair and make-up - also by Grandma. She was in love with her OWN tube of "lipstick" (Burt's Bees chapstick) that she kept in her pocket all day!

Day 12: Budding Child Prodigy?

Peter's mom gave us her old piano (which was her dad's, I think) a while back.. two years ago? Maybe more, maybe less? I don't remember. Anyway, it's been in our house all this time - for a long time it was in our living room, and for the last six months or more it's been in the dining area. So all this time we've had the piano and Emily has never touched it - until today! She opened it up and started plinking at the keys. Haha! What? Where did this come from? She's never even so much as given it a second thought before today, and now she's "played" the piano three or four times just this afternoon! So funny!




I couldn't decide which pic I liked best - especially since all of them have that annoying grainy look because I had to up my ISO to get the lighting close to decent in our crappy poorly lit home. Then after my initial edit in Photoshop, I thought I'd play around a bit in LightRoom and came up with this "aged" wash on all the pics, just for funsies..