Halloween Festivities

 William's Halloween class party was Friday. It was so cute and well organized. I was grateful, as I watched the room mom, that I had enough sense NOT to volunteer for that job this job. (Or ever?) I was at the craft table helping, so picture were few and far between, but we did have a great time!

 We decided to paint William's face because he couldn't wear a mask to school or the ward party later that night. It was fun (haha!). Naturally I had to thrown in the blue hair, too. That was my favorite part!

 Marie loved being Dorothy, mostly because she got to wear red sparkly shoes. Her costume was supposed to be the starting point for costumes for the entire family. That did not happen this year and I think William was much happier being a Transformer, rather than Scarecrow or Tinman.

 Techinically, Anne's costume is a garden gnome. For our intents and purposes she was a munchkin. Whatever the case, she was the cutest little thing ever. That costume was seriously the best $5 I have ever spent.

Happy Halloween!

"Great marriages begin in the temple and are maintained on their knees." M. Russell Ballard

Black Island Farms

The best pumpkin patch nearby is a ridiculous price if you go during public hours. Ridiculous, as in we would pay about $50 to take our family. Yuck. That's just not our style. Luckily, they do field trips during the day that are significantly less and the only thing you miss out on is the crowds, loud music, and over-priced food. 

The last couple of year we have gone with William's preschool group. This year I organized a little neighborhood field trip and the best part was that it was Brandon's Friday off so he got to come along, too. Woohoo!

William's perfect pumpkin. Gosh, he's darling.

Marie prefers the especially round pumpkins. Cute girl and handsome man. Love them!

Some of our favorite people joined us for the day. This was they best they did at looking at the camera. There were way too many other interesting things to look at.

Crazy best buds.

Anne found the "corn box"and was in heaven. We came home with corn in her pants, socks, shoes, diaper... everywhere!

Marie thought it was a pretty good deal, too.

Yay for the pumpkin patch!

Randomness

• Marie's birthday was wonderfully magical, as all birthdays should be. I love making memories for my children and reminding them in simple and special ways how much they are loved. Pictures are coming. Soon. Ish.
• Anne is teething again. Thank heaven this is my third child and I know they do eventually survive getting all their teeth. I  might have pulled all of my hair out if William struggled this badly with teething.
• William is testing a new form of independence called going to friend's houses without asking "because it looked like so much fun!" Four times in one week. I grounded him every time, but didn't have the heart to follow through because I hate making him stay inside during this beautiful time of year. I've learned my lesson. He is officially and solidly grounded from playing out front and riding his bike for a while. It's painful for all of us. 
• We are putting our house on the market on Tuesday. What?! I know. It's crazy and sudden and scary and I've already cried more tears than we need to talk about. Our life is so happy and perfect right now. I love our schedule and having the kids home with me every morning, William loves his kindergarten teacher. Marie is positively beaming with how much she adores dance. We love our ward and our friends and our neighbors. Our house is just way too small. It's time to upgrade. The plan was to move in the spring but we fell in love with a house that is currently on the market. We don't know if we will get it or not, but now that the ball is rolling we've decided not to stop it. If we don't get this current dream home we will still work towards finding another existing home or maybe building. Goodbye sanity, at least for a while.

Anne-ecdotes: Millions of Peaches

After a friend passed on a couple of peaches to our family (and we devoured them in a matter of minutes) we knew we had to go find some peaches to enjoy and to can.  Both Brandon and I knew we had better keep the box on the table or our busy little toddler would get her hands on them. We suspected she would try throwing them or start poking at them. That evening we set the box of peaches on the floor so we could eat dinner. 

Imagine our surprise when, after we forgot to move the peaches back up to the table, we looked to find Anne biting into a peach. We thought she would grab them and throw them on the ground. We never imagined she would start chowing down. And she really did chow down. I plopped her in her booster seat with that peach and she proceeded to eat the entire thing. Silly girl.

William-ese

Last night, after overreaction number 571 from Marie over something silly and ridiculous I said to her, 

Mommy: Do you know what your Grandpa Pulsipher used to say to me all the time? He used to say 'Don't sweat the small stuff.' And then do you know what he would say?

Marie: What?

Mommy: Everything is small stuff. Do you know what that means?

Brandon and I then proceed to explain what it means and how Marie can apply that to herself. Meanwhile, William is listening very intently and then chimes in,

William: So we are small stuff un-sweaters, right?

Haha, you got it, Bud.

Marie-esque

A little bit of background.

The Beehive Advisor (leader to the 12-year-old girls) in our ward bore her testimony a couple of weeks ago and shared a conversation she had with one of the girls. They were talking about the upcoming General Conference. She encouraged the girls to think of a question they wanted to pray about as they listened to Conference. One girl said she wanted to know how old the Prophet was. The leader said she listened all through Conference with hopes that this girl would have her prayer answered and in this talk, he mentioned his age. The leader then bore her testimony of how our prayers can and will be answered.

I was taken back as I heard that testimony because my first inclination as she shared the story was how I might have reacted to the young woman. I probably would have corrected her and encouraged her to think of a better question to have in mind. I would have put a bushel over her small candle of faith, rather than encouraging it and nourishing it the way this leader did. I thank this wonderful woman for her example and for sharing this.

Fast forward a couple of weeks.

On Sunday night Marie informed me that in her prayers before bed she asked Heavenly Father for new shirts. It just so happened that I was awaiting a box in the mail for Marie with 3 new shirts for her. I wondered if I should tell her that asking for things like clothes wasn't appropriate or wasn't the right thing to do in our prayers.  Then I was reminded of the wonderful sister in our ward and her testimony. I gave Marie a big hug and told her that I'm glad she said her prayers.

The next day the shirts came in the mail. When I opened the box Marie exclaimed, "Jesus gave me new shirts! Jesus loves me!"

To some it may seem frivolous or materialistic coming from a child that has never wanted for clothes on her back. To me, it was a beautiful answer to a simple childlike prayer.

Jesus certainly does love you, Marie, more than you and I will ever know or comprehend. My prayer is that you never forget that.

Finding Fall

We love living near the beautiful Wasatch Mountains. I look at them in awe in a daily basis and this year we were determined to enjoy some of their fall beauty. We almost didn't make it before dark and before it rained, but we got our Sunday drive up Trapper's Loop in. Such beauty. 

 Far from our favorite family picture, but it is certainly real. Anne would have nothing to do with being held, which is always the case when we are outside. Marie is distracted by Anne, wouldn't you be? And William is experimenting with anything besides smiling. It's like he's 5 or something.

An obvious shortage of picture of Anne. Can you guess why? Haha.

The Cake

I have to post about this cake. I was so excited and thrilled about it because the results are stunning and it. was. so. easy. I'm not even kidding. Easy. Have you ever done so much as pipe "Happy birthday" on a cake before. No? Well, have you ever drawn a squiggly line? If so, you too can make this cake. Really, you can.

First, watch this video from one of our local TV shows.

Second, buy a #103 tip (or was it #104?, watch the video, it tells you) from your local craft store.

Third, bake a cake, any kind of cake. Bake it out of a box. I did.

Fourth, make some frosting. Lots of frosting.
My go to buttercream frosting is 1 stick of butter, 3.5 cups powdered sugar, and 1-2 tablespoons milk. Whip. Test consistency. Add milk, if needed. Whip. Test consistency. Enjoy the testing. 
(I doubled this recipe for Marie's cake and used all of it.) 
Or go to a grocery store bakery and buy a tube of frosting from them. Just don't use the canned stuff found by the cake mixes. Please.

Fifth, make sure your computer or mobile device is near you as you begin frosting. I watched the video a couple of times with my piping tube in hand, did two or three trial ruffles that I scraped off, and then proceeded with the decorating. Once I got the hang of it it was easy peasy. Ten minutes later I had a beautiful cake!

They don't show in the video how to ruffle the top and I didn't have quite enough frosting to do that anyway, so I opted to make the top smooth.

Now go make yourself a no fuss ruffle cake. And enjoy!

Marie's 4th: Part III: Pajama Party!

For Marie's "friend party" we decided to have a Pajama Party. Naturally, I knew I had to get Marie some new pajamas for the occasion and, naturally, I enlisted Grandma P.'s skills to help with this. My request was for a very girly nightgown. And grandma, well, naturally, came through. Marie's favorite feature? The buttons. She told several people about her new nightgown over the days that followed and she always had to include, "And it has buttons!" Who knew that would be the key to winning her heart? Naturally.

Marie opened the package from grandma the day before the party. I think her face tells you how she felt about the gift. 

 First on the agenda at the party was decorating cupcakes. This was the hit of the party, hands down. I didn't even go super fancy with what they could decorate with, just three different colors of frosting and a variety of sprinkles and we had 45 minutes of creative bliss.

Just a side note: We opted to allow William to join the party and boy did we learn our lesson. Any wild or craziness throughout the event was totally instigated by him. Wild and craziness we can expect from his parties, but we kind of like the calmness (in comparison) that resides when Marie and her friends are together. Next time, sweet boy that I love, you are not invited to your sister's party. Of course, by then, you probably won't want to be.

 Some of their beautiful finished creations. 

 Next came some games, including pillowcase races! We tried to do the races relay style, but they totally didn't get that concept, so it became individual races after that. 

 I don't think I even need to mention that they had fun, based on the looks on their faces. We also played clothespin drop, freeze dance, and candy pick-up after the pillowcase races and then moved back to the kitchen for some monster pancakes.

 Or German pancakes. Or puff oven pancakes. Choose your name. Whatever you want to call them they are delicious. Brandon has become the resident monster pancake maker. I am more than happy to give him that role. Yum! I had fruit for the girls to eat, as well, and totally forgot to pull it out of the fridge. Oops!

 After presents we attempted some group shots. These girls are so funny. I took SO many pictures and did not have a single shot with all 5 of them looking and smiling. In this day and age of digital cameras I think our kids have become totally immune to any antics that we do to try to get their attention and get them to smile in our general direction.

 This picture just cracks me up, Brandon was being silly behind me and they thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately, the photographer (uh-hum) did not do so hot at centering the subjects. 

 Presents were followed by the last event of the night, singing "Happy Birthday" and eating some of the gorgeous cupcakes. 

Phew! Another birthday party under my belt, maybe one day I will feel like I am good at this.

Marie's 4th Part II: The Big Day!

Yes, part II. Part I consisted of a Saturday spent with Grandma and Grandpa S and Marc, Eliza, Lucy, and Emma. We had a great time, but I didn't take a single picture so you'll have to take my word for it.

And now back to the task at hand. Marie's birthday!

 Brandon and I spent some time the night before setting up streamers, balloons, Marie's birthday outfit, and William's cereal of choice for his sister. It was something I planned to do anyway, but we made it extra fun after Marie talked to me the night before about how excited she was to see the house decorated for her party when she woke up.  It was an unintentional tradition, really. I have always decorated for birthdays and holidays during nap times and after the kids are in bed for an obvious reason... they are asleep. However, now it has become a must in Marie's mind. I can deal with that.

When Marie saw the decorations she exclaimed, "*gasp* My family party! I love this part!" 

 Our beautiful 4 year old on the morning of her birthday.Would that we could all have such great "bed head", huh?

 That evening, after daddy got home from work and mommy finished piano lessons it was time for the family party. Marie insisted that because she was the birthday girl she got to choose the order of events. First item of business, open presents.

The gifts were beautifully wrapped by daddy. One from Anne (Snow White figurine doll), one from William (Tiana figurine doll with accessories), and two from mommy and daddy (spiral bound notebook and pink scooter). 

After presents it was time for cake. Yay!

We Skyped with Grandma P and Sara while we sang so they could join in on the festivities.

I am pretty sure the 4th birthday for each of my children will go down in history as some of my favorites. There is so much excitement and anticipation and yet they are still pretty easy to please. We had a lot of fun celebrating 4 with Marie. She is a blessing to our family, that's for sure!

Dear Marie

You are 4. 4?! You were our tiny little baby with a spitfire cry and opinions to match it. You stole our sleep and our hearts. You could make me smile and cringe within minutes of each other. In the beginning, life overwhelmed you, but you adjusted and grew and developed. 

It was a tough year, but we all survived and then the time began to be a blur as you developed into a toddler and then a little girl. 

Was it really an entire year before you turned 2 or did we somehow time warp? It all went so fast. If it weren't for the pictures and written memories I would hardly be able to remember that time. 

And suddenly you were three. The only way I can describe this year would be Girl with a capital G. Your world consists of princesses and dolls, pink and purple, dresses and skirts, singing and dancing. And you are growing up so fast.

Some days I blink and you are even more grown up, older looking, more mature. Becoming a big sister sped the process up even more. What a good big sister you have become. You are just as quick or sometimes faster than me to attend to Anne's needs and you are almost always spot on with what she needs.

You are our nurturer and our care taker. You remind me to love more, listen more, and care more. You are thrilled to be 4 and I am thrilled for you. Your daddy and I can't wait to see what this year has in store for you. I love you, sweet Marie. Happy 4th Birthday!

Love,

Mommy

Gender Reveal

General Conference October 2011

Our challenge as parents is to prepare our homes so that our children might be “armed with righteousness.” In the future, a discernable distinction of the true followers of Christ will be the heed and attention they give to the living prophets and Apostles. As our children listen to these men, they will find their way.


Neil L. Andersen, Teaching Our Children to Love the Prophets, Ensign, April 1996, 44