Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween this year. Jenna is at the best age to dress up and go get candy. We got the kids all dressed up and headed out about 5:45 (after we had already had several trick or treaters at our house). The weather was cool, but not too cold yet. Jenna, Ben and I then headed out to knock on doors. We left Joel to man the door at our house, which he was more than happy to do. Jenna got the idea right away. Her favorite part was ringing peoples doorbell. There were a lot of people not home so she started to get really impatient. She would ring the doorbell, turn immediately around and say "No one's home!" and walk away. More often then not, someone would answer the door as she was walking away.

We went around our ward and were out until almost 7:00. Jenna was such a trooper and didn't get tired until we were at our next door neighbor's house. She got quite the haul of candy and will be wired for the next six months.

When we were all done with trick or treating, Dave and Sophie came over. We made some yummy BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner, played some Wii bowling, and watched Gremlins. To top it all off, we had chocolate molten lava cake for dessert! It was such a fun day!

Joel got this cute onsie when he was in Texas this summer.
Check out the "Baby of Steel" on his sleeve.
Too cute!
My super kids
My super family

October 22 Toddler Gym - Halloween Free for All

Our last gym class was a week before Halloween so they just had some Halloween based games. They just let the kids move around however they wanted which was better for Jenna. When they had to move around as a group she was always looking forward to the activity that was last in our rotation.

I am so glad that I could take Jenna to these classes. They were a lot of fun. She still talks about them!

Jenna would have been happy to just ride the elevator up and down than to go into the gym.

There was a bean bag toss that Jenna was AWESOME at

Bowling again

Sliding into balloons

Mini golf. Sorry, grandpa. It doesn't look like Jenna will be much of a golfer.

In the words of Dora...

We did it! We all survived the last week with me being back to work. Jenna is right back in the groove of things with all of her friends and Ben warmed up to his teachers right away. When I went to pick them up last Wednesday one of the teachers was saying how Ben was so spoiled. Since he is the only baby there right now someone is always holding him and playing with him. She went on to say that day care is for kids to be spoiled. That made me feel much better about leaving them everyday.

My boss has been really accommodating. He is allowing me to work half day in the office and half day from home. We are trying this out for a month or so to see how it works out and so far it has gone pretty well (at least for me). I must admit it is hard sometimes because when I am working I feel like I need to be doing more with the kids or with cleaning the house. When I am with the kids, I am anxious about getting all of my work done.

Well, wish me continued luck with this working mom thing. It stinks twice as much with two kids than with one!

Heaven help me

We took Jenna and Ben to their first day of daycare on Monday in preparation for my return to work on Thursday. It wasn't too bad. It could have been worse. We have a really good day care so that really helped. Joel came with me and helped get Jenna situated. She was more than happy to be back with some of her friends and a bunch of new toys to play with. Ben just fell asleep and couldn't care less that we were leaving him.

I don't know what was up with our camera, but here are a few pics I took:

I told Jenna to make a sad face. This is what she gave me.
I told Ben to make a sad face. This is what he gave me.
The kids and all the stuff we had to take with us.
Ben looks like he is trying to hide his tears as he leave. He is really just sleeping.

It's been a really great 12 weeks being home with my kids. I only wish it could be longer. I guess all good things must come to an end. Wish me luck on my return to work! And wish Joel luck in getting the kids up and ready every morning! This should be fun...

You don't kill buggies!

Jenna went out in the backyard for a few minutes where there was a red bug on the side of the house. She ran inside and said:

"I need something to kill the buggy"
"I didn't think we were supposed to kill buggies."
"But it's red"
"Use your shoe"
She proceeded to take off her shoe and go outside to kill the bug. I heard her talking to the bug/anyone in a 10 mile radius:
"You don't kill buggies. Only red buggies. And green buggies. And blue buggies. And yellow buggies. And black buggies. AND I LOVE ANIMALS!!"

Halloween Preview

Jenna's Halloween costume came in the mail the other day. We just had to try it on her. She will be going as Super Jenna and is soooo excited!

St George Getaway

Joel had fall break for school this week on Thursday and Friday so we decided to take a little road trip. We decided somewhat at the last minute to head down to St. George. We booked our hotel at 11 pm on Wednesday, Joel went to work until noon on Thursday, then we were off! We went swimming, shopping, to a movie (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), to Mesquite, and just relaxed. There was a lot of other things we would have loved to do, but just didn't have the time. We wanted to get back home for the BYU game on Saturday. The weather was perfect and we had a great time! Thanks, hon, for suggesting this little getaway!

On a side note, we did have some interesting happenings at all of the meals we had while we were there:
Thursday dinner - food not cooked all the way, water tasted like metal pipes, and Jenna's milk was "yucky" (she NEVER says that--was it another curdled milk experience?). We just dealt with all of this.
Friday breakfast - Joel had a hair in his food. He got his meal for free.
Friday lunch - consisted of popcorn at the movies served by an incompetent employee
Friday dinner - buffet in Mesquite where we nearly got in a fight with the older than dirt hostess who didn't understand what we meant when we asked for a high chair. Also, if you aren't a big fan of seafood, don't go to a Mesquite buffet on a Friday night.
Saturday breakfast - didn't happen
Saturday lunch - hit up from a couple for some "gas" money. Joel got mad at me because I gave them some.
Fun times.

We didn't take many pictures, but here are a few of the ones we did take:

Jenna watching movies with the giant headphones.
So excited to go swimming! I brought this floaty just in case and that's all Jenna wanted to play with.
Ben lounging by the pool in his giant diaper
Yay! Swimming! (Jenna woke up Friday morning from a dead sleep asking if she could go swimming. This girl is funny in the morning. She goes from zero to sixty in no time flat)
Ben's first dip in the pool. He did so well and didn't cry until he was tired and ready to go to bed for the night.
Ben was content to sleep in his car seat while the rest of us swam on Friday morning.
We went to the chocolate store when we were done shopping. We sat down to relax and eat our yummy treats!
Looking at the water features in Mesquite. You would have thought they would have lit them up at night.
This is what Ben did while Daddy and Jenna went swimming yet again!

Toddler Gym - Jumping

This week's theme for toddler gym was jumping. I think I would have called it just up and down, but that's just me.

Station 1: Dunk animal crackers in chocolate and sprinkles. Yum!

Station 2: Ring toss onto a rhino, tunnel crawl, and a blow up slide (not sure what all of these had to do with each other, but Jenna spent most of her time on the slide.

Station 3: Bounce house with a basketball hoop in it.

Station 4: An inflatable castle with tunnels and balls. Jenna was quite the bully. One little girl came toward her through a tunnel. Jenna screamed that she couldn't come near her then threw a ball in her face and made her cry. Nice.

Station 5: Stamping. Jenna was a rebel and found a marker to just color with. I think she was rebelling because the stamps were not Stampin' Up! stamps.

Pumpkin Patch & Pink Cookies

Jenna and I decided to head to the pumpkin patch the other day. I don't know that I would really call it your typical pumpkin patch, though. There were some animals, play houses, a play ground, and a corn maze. We went in to the nursery when we were done to pick out our pre-picked pumpkin. It was still fun--well besides all of the preschools that were there at the same time we went. There were a billion kids with moms standing off to the side not paying attention to their kids. A couple of them were pretty mean to Jenna and almost knocked her off this house thing, but that's another story.

Climbing on top of a house thing
Telling me about the animals
Doing a Rocky pose at the top of the pumpkin tower
Leading the way down the path
At the beginning of the maze
Leading the way so confidently. For some reason there were three entrances to the maze. We found all three of them but never found the exit.
Picking pumpkins (we found that the big one had big mouse bites in the bottom of it once we got it home--yuck!)
Going to buy the pumpkins
My little pumpkin!

We headed over to the Granny B cookie store when we were done since it was just around the corner from the pumpkin patch. I let Jenna pick out a cookie and of course she picked out the big pink one!

Open it!
Taking a bite (more like a lick) of her first pink cookie!

My Baby Burritos

Whenever I swaddle Ben, Jenna just has to get in on the action. She is too funny.

Ben's Blessing

Today Joel blessed Ben. He did such an awesome job! He was so worried but it all turned out great. I couldn't hear all of it because Jenna chose to scream the whole time, but my mom and mother-in-law were able to get some good notes of it (speaking of which, April--can I get a copy?). Also, I guess Ben decided to fart in the middle of it. You couldn't hear it in the audience, but let me tell you, his farts are rancid so sorry to all of you that were in the circle! I am glad to see that none of you passed out! After the meeting, we all came back to our house to have lunch and visit. I think it all turned out good. At least I had a good time! Here are a few photos from the day. I still need to get some from my mom. My camera was being difficult.

Oh, by the way. For those of you that I questioned on what Ben should wear--a blessing outfit or just a cute outfit, we just went with a standard Sunday outfit. We did get him a white little blanket to at least have some sort of special thing to remember the day.

My grandma and Ben
The grandparents and one of the great-grandmas. My diet starts tomorrow.

4 Generations

Ben with his cute blanket

Jenna says Ben is angry when he opens his eyes wide like this

My little guy
The closing song at church was "Count your many blessings". Here are two of mine.
Jenna had a long day. She fell asleep trying to climb on the table.