Trick or Treat

So I am a little behind to post Halloween, but whats new. At least it hasnt even been a month yet. Thats actually good for me. Anyway, Isabela was a fairy for Halloween this year. If you have little girl you may have seen the new Tinker Bell movie. Isabela was actually Silvermist from the movie. She loved the wings on her costume and told me, "I can fly. I cant fly inside the house, but I can fly outside." She did have the option of a pumpkin trick or treat bucket, but she chose the skeleton. (she is so my daughter!) I dressed up in scrubs as a crazy doctor, one of the few options that fit my prego belly. We had a lot of fun Trick or Treating. We did get rained on a bit, but greatfully it was pretty warm and we didnt have to cover up costumes with coats. She got quite a bit of candy, but the first treat she picked from her bucket was raisens.. go figure.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

If you know me then you know I like Halloween. I am not as crazy as some people. If you watch much news then you have probably seen seen stories like the one about the guy who started some sort of club that has to do w/ decorating your yard. He spends thousands of dollars on his Hal. decor... yeah like I said crazy! Anyway, what I have been doing is different activities w/ Bela in honor of Halloween. (most of them didnt cost anything). We made a big spider, using a soup can and some pipe cleaner. She painted the can herself.... sometimes a mess is worth the fun they have.. We printed, colored, cut out and put up our own decorations. We made a yummy jello skeleton. We also went to Cornbelleys and the Farmyard Boo at Thanksgiving point and of course we decorated pumpkins.

Our not so itsy bitsy spider

I forgot to take a pic before we ate the Jello, but this is the mold we used.

The bouncing pillow was a favorite at Cornbelleys and here is Isabela as the farmers wife!

The cow train.... rode a few times

decorating pumpkins... I just realized I dont have a pic of the final product....

and I saved the spookiest for last. I took a pic of some of our homemade decorations and the resulting pic was an accident but perfect for Halloween. I apparently caught a ghost on camera it's reflection shows up in the picture! HEhe Happy Halloween!

We got a new computer a few weeks ago and like most computers automatically come with solitaire, ours came with a new memory match game. All of a sudden Isabela is a master of the mouse and loves to play the memory game. I suppose it's a little more interactive then watching TV, but she wants to play computer all the time. Not only does she play the memory game, she loves to play on the nick jr website and she just navigates from game to game all by herself. She was even playing 'computer' at G'ma and G'pas. It's funny to think about what memories her generation will have from being a kid. I cant even imagine playing a computer at age 2. In fact I dont think we even had one then....

Summer Continued

So I finally downloaded the rest of our summer pics from the camera. We had a Family night at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Isabela had fun playing in the water fountains that shot up out of the sidewalk. She also loved rolling down the many big hills that are throughout the gardens. They also have big ponds with the largest gold fish I have ever seen! There were caves and tunnels in the childrens section of the gardens. We had a hard time getting her to leave those. The flowers were beautiful and I really liked the waterfalls. They're man made but I thought they were great.
In the very beginning of Sept. We took a road trip to Vegas with Claudia and Rafael. We stayed with Lena and her family. It was a lot of fun. We went to Excaliber and played the carnival games. Isabela won a bunch of stuffed animals and a plastic sword that she chose over a jumbo flower. We went out to dinner, road a Merry-go-round, played lots of family games and just had a good time. Then finally Isabela and I went to go see Melissa's baby Zoe. Carly and Amelia were also there. Isabela wasted no time in remembering, (since they only see each other about twice a year) and remaking friends with Amelias chicita Kaila. It was great to see the Chicas again.

Too Short Summer!

I cant beleive I skipped a whole summer of blogging. (More I cant beleive summer is over I am so not ready for the cold. We already had our first snow! It didnt last long, but still it was disheartening.) There was alot to blog about too! If I did each seperate event as a new post I'd be here all night and nobody is going to back track that many to catch up. So I put together a Super Summer Slideshow!
We took Isabela to the Sandy Aquarium this summer. It's neat, worth a visit I guess. But find a coupon if you can. It's fairly short and kind of expensive for what you get. Isabela loved it though and touching the stingrays was pretty cool. Not at all what I expected them to feel like.
We also went to Jessie's family pool party which was held at the Lehi Legacy center. It was really nice to have the pool nearly to ourselves. It is usually so crowded. Isabela had taken swim lessons there earlier in the spring. After a scetchy first day where all she did was cling to me she really became quite the water bug. All she wanted to do was jump from the side of the pool into the water.. her head going all the way under. She loved it!
We also had a few dinners in the canyon. One with Claudia and Rafael. Isabela decided she owned the river. We took a walkt to go see the water and some guy was kind of in the spot we were heading and Isabela shouts "Hey go away. Dont touch!" It was pretty funny but only because he didnt hear and a quick lesson in manners and sharing was given.
She also mastered the big wheel and her bike and loves to ride it when Tomas and I go for walks. Before her feet would barely reach, then she could pedal if she was going down hill. Now she goes all over. Uphill, down hill, all around the neighboorhood.
That is not the end of our summer but I have decided to split it up into 2 slideshows. Mainly because I still have to download more pictures and I dont want to go downstairs and get the camera right now!:)

AAAHHH

I cannot take it anymore! Can somebody please tell me how to get music off of a slide show without having to delete the slide show. Or at least permently mute it so it doesnt come on every time I log in. I tried putting new music on but it just blurs together in a remix nightmare!

Yayyy!!!! I did it! I am totally computer challenged so thanks to those who helped me through that music nightmare. Now I am just wondering one more question (one more for now anyway).. I have that slide show as a gadget instead of a post. I know I can change it to a post but is there a way that I can date that post so it doesnt come up as a new post? Does that even make sense....

Fourth of July

I hooope they call me on a mission, when IIII have grown a foot or two..... Alot of exciting stuff happened for our 4th of July holiday. One being Tomas' Mom and Dad got they're mission call.
They'll be serving 18 months in the Puerto Rico mission. They leave Aug 18th. It is coming up so fast and they'll be missed, but we are all really excited for them. Also Lena and Jason visited us and we were able to spend a lot of time with them. Isabela had a lot of fun with her cousins even the newest 3 month addition Easton. We were able to catch the big fireworks when we had the Pony Express Days , but for the fourth we just put on our own firework show. Isabela loves the big ones in the sky but it took her a while to warm up to the ground ones.

A few weeks ago we went camping up Nephi with my Parents and Taleshas family. I would never ever recomend the campground we went to which was Camperworld. They have a ridiculous amount of rules. Every time we turned around the camp "wardens" were telling us we were doing something wrong. Regardless it was just fun to be up there with family. There was swimming, games, fourwheeling and lots of yummy food. Isabela loved the swimming of course and hanging out with the G-parents and she even went on a neat fourwheel ride up the canyon with Daddy.

WE"RE PREGNANT!

Okay so I know I have been a bad girl lately and therefore there are still some of you out there who have not heard our excellent news. (I apologize for that.) We are pregnant! We went through the same thing as we did with Isabela. The odds were extremely stacked against us this time. We had some very stressful days, but apparently all it takes is one and I had the best Mothers Day ever! The Doctor called us that day to confirm the pregnancy. Now we are fourteen weeks along. I just went to the doctor today and heard the heartbeat. We are due on Jan. 13. It is part of my exscuse for not being a good blogger lately. I have been soo tired, but I cant complain too much cuz I dont get morning sickness. As long as I eat a small meal every three hours I am hunky dory! I did have mild hyperstimulation which is where excess water fills places it shouldn't be... like the stomach. In the first picture I am only about 3 weeks pregnant. I know some of you haven't seen me for a while but that belly is not normal for me... or any 3 week pregnant girl. It passed, my belly went in reverse and now I am getting big again. I was going to blog some other stuff before this, but the pictures of me are starting to be a little noticable and I didnt want to give it away before I could announce it properly.. even if it did take me awhile.

Egg Hunt

Okay so I have been so lame lately that I am still posting stuff from April. I dont really know what my exscuse is I just dropped out of the blod worl for a bit, but I am back and I have so many things to post. Our easter party was delayed this year, but who doesnt like to stretch out Holidays?!

Isabela really got into the egg hunt this year. She was digging through bushes and leaves to find eggs! After finding the eggs it's time to see how much candy and money you scored and see what prize tickets you have!

Romans Family

Troys Family

Terrys Fam

After that the madness of turning in your tickets and picking prizes begins!

Whats an Easter party without a little skateboarding and 4 wheeling!

My Daddy Rules!

Silly us, we thought it would start to get really warm once april was here. (who knew we'd still freeze all the way to June!) We decided it was time to get Bela a swing set. It wasnt a swing set that could be set up in one day. So I created a slide show to show off Tomas' building and instruction reading skills. Go Daddy!

Chicks and Dogs

It's nice to have friends who among other things are also teachers. Then, even though Isabela isn't in school yet she gets to do some things that otherwise she'd have wait til she was 5 to do. Jessie took us to the school (back in April) and Isabela got to see brand new baby chicks. She was really excited. We also got to see incubators where they kept the eggs until the chicks hatched out. There was one egg broken open and a chick was working it's way out of the egg. It's a lot slower proccess than I thought. We were there about1/2 hour or more and it still hadn't fought it way out. And oh my gosh do incubators stink! They smell really foul... no not fowl ...foul! (ha ha bad joke!) Seriously though, they reek! Isabela thought it was really cool.

The next day I took my other "children" to a dog fair at our park. It was complete with dog houses to buy, grooming, massages and dog psycics! You could also adopt a dog there. But the best part was the running course for the dogs! They have a rat lookin thing attached to this string that goes around a course and your dog takes off chasing the rat through different obstacles and gets timed. Max loved it. He took out part of the course half through when he decided to jump over an obstacle instead of going through as was meant. Bronx was there but he didnt seem interested in the 'rat' so I didnt have him run the course, but his cousin (Taleshas dog) went to the fair and ran the course as well.

The First Prayer

This is so cute (to me at least) I just had to post it! Last night I was putting Isabela to bed and as part of our routine I asked her who was saying the prayer that night. Usually if it is her turn I help her out and she just kind of copies stuff I say. Well she said it was "bella's turn", but when I tried to help her she got mad at me. So I just waited and after a little moment of silence I heard, (in her way a talkng) "Father ... stars, Cadence, apple tree, Daddy, Amen!" I just about died! A childs first prayer is about one of the cutest things ever. I just had to share this.

GREEN IS GOOD

So today was Earth Day and while I didn't plant a tree I thought I'd still see what everyone else was doing to "go green" as they put it. Not just today but anyday. Do you ride a bike instead of driving a car somewhere? Do you use energy efficient light bulbs? Do you recycle anything?
We a have multiuse recycling bin at the firestation in my neighborhood. It makes recycling super easy. I'm certainly no treehugger but I was just thought this was blogworthy and I like to try and use topics that will get a response from people. (So that means if your reading this then leave a comment:). Anyway, if you want you can go to http://green.msn.com/ for more on going green. Happy Earth Day!

New Books

So if you know me you know I love to read. If you like to read too then just give me a chance and try reading Twighlight. If you start now I guarantee you'll have the series read by the time the new book comes out. No matter how busy you are. Also another new book came out yesterday in a series that I am reading. It's the Fablehaven series. Yes it is a childrens book, but so was Harry Potter especially the first books.
If you have any books you'd like to reccomend, just leave a comment and let me know. Or if you have read these books let me know what you thought about them. Enjoy!

Dinosaurs!

We took Isabela to the dinosaur museum a couple weekends ago. She hadnt been in quite awhile.It was actually supposed to be a trip to the farm to see to horses. However, since spring is refusing to show itself!...it was really super windy and we opted for an indoor activityinstead. She was disappointed for about half a second. She gets pretty excited over dinosaurs. She was afraid of the big shark at first, she liked the one painted on the wall better, but eventually overcame her fear to take part in her favorite part of most of the exhibits... The bars. Yup the bars. You know the bars that surround most exhibits to keep people off of them. She loved to hang on them and swing back and forth. It was a fun family outing. Hopefully we'll be able to visit the farm soon.

Together Again Someday

If you haven't heard what happened to my sister Tonia then you will probaly want to go to her blog http://www.toniaeccles.blogspot.com. To very quickly sum up.. she was in a car accident that landed her in the ICU unit of the hospital and left her paralyzed from the neck down. While there she contracted a very deadly virus. She did not survive. However, before she left this earth she was able to donate her liver and kidneys and she saved 3 lives that night. She is now in a perfect body and home with her Heavenly Father. I am so greatful for the gospel in my life. It gives great comfort to know that we will be together again someday.
I have a quote on my kitchen wall that reads "If the sky should fall one may hope to catch a lark." (yes,a lark is a bird). To me it means that even in your worst possible situation you can take something good from it. Tonias funeral was on April 3rd. It was so uplifting to see the amount of people out there that loved my sister. I am 9 years younger than Tonia and so my childhood memories of her leave a little to be desired. What I learned about her from her friends, neighbors, ward members and others who knew her was amazing. I am greatful to them and to everyone else for the love that was shown to Tonia, her family, the Townsend family and to me. Tonia was a great example of love, sacrifice and service to others. I am proud to have her for a sister and hope that I can live up to her example.

* There are some pictures I am going to post later of Tonia and the funeral. I am just waiting for someone -hem hem- to email them to me.

Easter 2008

If I could pick I would alway choose to have Easter in April. You're chances of a sunny Easter Holiday are better than if it's in March. However, we cant pick, (I'm not sure who does. all other holidays seem to be a specific day, but Easter just kind of gets thrown out there), and I suppose as far as it goes for this year it was for the best. Easter wasnt super warm, but is was sunny. As for April, so far I have not been impressed. I get that it is supposed to be rainy, but man ..it has been cold here. I want spring already! So getting back to Easter :)... We celebrated this year just the 3 of us. After church Isabela searched for her Easter basket. We hid it in (the lovely addtion to our family room), her carboard playhouse. When she found it instead of taking the whole basket out to look at it, she would go in the house, pull out an item, bring it out to us, go back get another. Then do it again and again til finally I just pulled the whole basket out for her. She was really excited.
We... um I mean the Easter bunny also hid some eggs in he yard. However, the day before we had gone to the Eagle Mtn Egg Hunt and she was not interested. She saw all the eggs out there and wanted nothing to do with them. The whistle sounded to start the hunt and she wouldn't leave Daddy's lap. I should've have realized it probably had mainly to do with her distaste for crowds. Anyway not very many eggs were hidden in our yard. Leave it to children to be the master of changing minds. She was so happy to find eggs in the yard! Had I known I would have had the Bunny hide 3 times as many. If was so much fun to watch her run around.. "Mommy! Daddy! Egg! EEEee!"

Big Girl Now

A few weeks after Isabela turned 2 we finally moved her into a 'big girl bed'. She actually got a whole new bedroom set and so did we. She was a little weirded out by not being in her crib at first, but she soon realized the new freedom she had after we left her to go to sleep. She used that time to pull all books off her bookshelf, completely empty her dresser and even emptied the humidifier she was using during that time onto the floor. We are finally back on routine and now when I check on her I no longer find a tornado has passed through or that she has fallen asleep on a pile of books on the floor.

Our bed set is um.. a little big. Okay its monsterous. I didnt realize the nightstands were going to be mini dressers. But it is still nice to have matching furniture and to be rid of the dresser I have had since I was born. We also repainted and got -my personal favorite piece- a new book shelf. I would still like a new bedspread, but we haing trouble finding one we both like. Oh well I have enough new stuff to last me awhile...