31 days and counting

V dumped all the diapers on Claire
2 sisters hanging out.
Can you see her little legs poking out from the diaper pile?
Violet wearing my old ballet slippers. I love the way ballet slippers smell. It brought back a lot of great memories to see those old slippers.

Violet got a chocolate moose from Grandma Sue. She thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mom and Grandma shopping at the Olympia Bearzaar.

Diana and I at the Bearzaar. It was so much fun. I love the christmas bazaars you can find such cute presents for a really reasonable price. We were so worn out by the end of the day. We went to Elma's christmas bazaar too.

And some cute pics of Claire. She is growing so fast. we stepped on the scale with her and she weighs 15-16 pounds! She tried bananas and pears this week. Bananas were a success, pears not so much :)

Super Saturday

This Saturday was Our wards and my Mom's ward's Super Saturday. I signed up to go to my Mom's so we could have a girls day with my Sister too. We had a great time and we made a bunch of cool stuff. I made 2 of these crayon bags. V and Claire are getting them for christmas.... well V is, Claire may have to wait till she's older. (PS Claire is sleeping through most of the night! yay life is good!).

We all made at least one of these. I think a few people are getting them for christmas on my Mom's side of the family. It says Establish a House of Prayer, Fasting, Faith, Learning, Glory, order God. I've got to get one of those Vinyl cutters.

I also made this advent Calendar with the Vinyl and the magnets. I love Super Saturday. It is the kick off to the christmas season! Next week is the Oly Bearzaar! I'm so excited :)

V fell asleep in Costco so we put her in Claire's chair so we could finish our shopping. ha ha.

Claire with Grandpa.
Violet is so excited for all the Christmas Decorations to go up! She's going to help Diana make her Christmas forest in 2 weeks.

Red Shirt Friday

I received this in an email from Uncle Lamont, I think it's a beautiful story and a great idea to simply support our troops. No matter where you stand politically we can all support the men and women who serve our country. I'll be wearing red this Friday. Happy Veterans Day.

Red Shirt

If the red shirt thing is new to you, read below how it went for a man...

Last week, while traveling to Chicago on business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with a folded flag, but did not put two and two together..

After we boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who'd been invited to sit in First Class (across from me), and inquired if he was heading home.

No, he responded.
Heading out I asked?

No. I'm escorting a soldier home.

Going to pick him up?

No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq , I'm taking him home to his family.

The realization of what he had been asked to do hit me like a punch to the gut. It was an honor for him. He told me that, although he didn't know the soldier, he had delivered the news of his passing to the soldier's family and felt as if he knew them after many conversations in so few days.

I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said, Thank you Thank you for doing what you do so my family and I can do what we do.

Upon landing in Chicago the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement over the intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have had the honor of having Sergeant Steeley of the United States Marine Corps join us on this flight He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I ask that you please remain in your seats when we open the forward door to allow Sergeant Steeley to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. We will then turn off the seat belt sign."

Without a sound, all went as requested. I noticed the sergeant saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realize that I am proud to be an American.

So here's a public Thank You to our military Men and Women for what you do so we can live the way we do.

Red Fridays.

Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the "silent majority." We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or overbearing.

Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -- and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that ... Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women a far, will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once "silent" majority i s on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can we do to make things better for you?" is. "We need your support and your prayers." Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example, and wear something red every Friday.

NW Trek

Peter had Friday off so we went on a family outing to NW Trek it was so much fun. We took a tram ride through the free roam area of the park and saw a lot of animals. Violet loved seeing all the "cows" and Peter and I enjoyed a nice walk around the pretty park.

This is an elk that we saw on our ride through the park.
A view from the top. As you can see it is a beautiful place to visit. And it was a beautiful day.

A female elk that was part of a herd that had to get out of the trams way.

Beep beep!
oooh look at all the "cows" She calls everything in a field a cow.

Claire sleeps through just about everything.

Bison

BOO!

Well it was halloween this weekend, and we had so much fun. Here are some pictures of everything we did. This is Saturday at my parents house. Claire was a pumpkin and she was modeling her new hair bow. Very cute. A lady in my Mom's ward makes them.

Violet directed Grandma and Aunt Diana's cookie decorating efforts and then ate their handy work.

The princess herself with Aunt Diana on Halloween.

Violet trick or treating with Peter. We went over to my friend Sara's house and went with Wylie (a UPS man) and Jacob ( a cowboy) who is Michelle's boy. Sara, Michelle and I all went to High school together, it has been fun to get together with our kids who are only about 6 months apart in total.

All set to go trick or treating!! it was everyone's first time. It was so much fun. When the first door opened all 3 of the kids headed right on in, we had to grab them and show them what to do, they had a blast!

Getting into costume is sometimes not very fun. Violet was screaming and pulling on her dress and saying "Help! I'm stuck!!!" As soon as we headed out the door she was happy and ready to go!

This is on Friday at our ward trick or trunk. Violet won a cupcake at the cake walk, and Lily ( a witch) and Landon (a soccer star) look like they really wanted one too. I'm sure they got plenty of treats later :).

Claire the pumpkin slept through the party.

I went as Lisa Simpson. Peter and I only dressed up for the ward party. It was a fun night, the ward has a chili contest and we tasted some yummy white chili with Chicken in it (I'm going to find a recipe for that soon) It was so busy and crowded though that we didn't stay for dinner, we just got some drive through food and headed home to watch Charlie Brown.

Peter was the Phantom of the Opera, He got several requests for a song.... I don't think he actually sang for anyone though.

On Wednesday we carved a pumpkin. Violet helped scoop the guts out. It was so cute. Check out my facebook page for a video.

Claire watched with great interest.

Hope you all had a happy Halloween!!! now on to Thanksgiving! (We actually had a pre Thanksgiving dinner with Lauren, Brooks, Ben and Tiftin at L&B's house on Sunday....Yum).

What a beautiful time of year

Autumn is my most favorite time of year to live in Washington. The leaves are changing and it starts to get cold enough that I have a good excuse to stay inside with a cup of Hot Chocolate and read a book. It's also cold enough for sweaters to cover up the consequences of so many cups of Hot Chocolate. :) Today the girls and I took a walk before the weather turned wet and windy.
Claire slept through the whole walk. she missed some beautiful fall colors.

Violet and Claire took their first ride on our double stroller, they loved it. I like having V on that bench facing me so we can talk during our walk.

Claire wore her new shoes, jeans and coat from her Aunt Diana. She was so toasty warm and looked really cute too.
V and C like to cuddle. Well C doesn't have much choice in the matter.

Claire's head got stuck in her T shirt and this is the face she made to tell us what she thought about that. Claire is such a good baby, she loves to snuggle during the day but will sleep at night in her own bed (thank heavens). she is starting to let us go to sleep earlier and staying asleep longer so Peter and I are beginning to emerge from the newborn haze!! Yay!

Just another day in Paradise

It's been a great couple of weeks we are just having a lot of fun with our two beautiful girls. Peter is still working at Tuesday Morning and is excited to start the legislative session in either November or January (his start date depends on which job he gets). Here is a picture of Violet and Claire taking a nap together. I love it when they both take a nap at the same time and I can get some stuff done! Two kids keep you running!

Claire makes a lot of funny faces and her cross eyed ones are one of the best so here are a couple cross eyed pictures.

She also started smiling this week. Here is a big smile/coo. She is so adorable.

Peter likes to hold Claire and copy what she's doing. So here he is making fists and tipping over, he didn't realize she was beginning to cry otherwise he'd probably be making a sad face too.

More copying :)
Violet showing Claire all her cool toys! She can't wait until Claire can get up and play.

This is my before hair picture so remember this picture when you see the picture of my new haircut

Pretty in Blue
My two little monkey's in their matching monkey jammies. Violet likes to set next to Claire like this and she was laughing the whole time we were trying to get a picture.

My new hair cut, I'll have to get some more pictures to show it better but it's an inverted bob, it's shorter and more layered in the back and longer in the front. Diana also highlighted it so I'm more blond that I was before. I love it, it feels more like me.

Ok so Violet's face is covered in chocolate but she had a banana after her brownie. Plus we were celebrating Grandma's b-day.

Claire in her new toy. So much fun!