Halloween and Thanksgiving

 Halloween and Thanksgiving! That's right, neither of those holidays had enough going on to warrant their own post. All the lead up to Halloween mom was here for, but she left just a few days before the holiday actually came. Riley had been talking about who she was going to be for this Halloween since October 30th of 2021. After she'd worn her Branch costume once she was already on to who she wanted to be next time. Needless to say I was a bit worried about getting her to actually nail down a final choice. I was giving her ideas back in September trying to feel out which ones she seemed most excited about. Eventually I'd say okay are you sure you want to be this? I'm going to start getting it ready, if you still want to be this tomorrow morning then we will order it. In the end she landed on a different Troll named Harper. I liked this idea because she is an artist Troll so I thought the outfit could look pretty cute. Surprisingly, after deciding on Harper she never went back. There were no tearful discussions about you've already made your choice. She was totally on board. 

I was able to create her Harper costume without too much trouble since we already had the hair, I just had to throw a bit of paint on it. Then I bought a pair of pants the color of Harper's skin (we already had a shirt I didn't care about in that color) and splattered them with paint. Lastly, I bought her a little artist smock and made a leaf shaped paint pallet using the left over felt from her Branch costume. I was real happy with how it turned out!

I remembered last year that after wearing her Branch costume at the trunk or treat she had wanted a new costume for the day of Halloween. Although Ben warned me I was setting a dangerous president I told him we weren't getting anything special, I'd just offer to let her choose a dress up outfit we already had to wear on actual Halloween. I did this because that face paint took some time and since Halloween was a Monday I was going to be doing all the prep on my own to get out the door before it got too dark. Thank goodness she decided she did want to be Aurora for actual Halloween. That meant just throw her in a dress and we were ready! The only downside ended up being it was a rainy night and her dress was just a touch too long so we ended up using hair-ties to tie it up the wet/dirty dress in little balls. She looked like a princess who had fallen on some hard times. 

For Thanksgiving we decided to take advantage of Ben's time off and travel to see his Aunt and Uncle who live in Ohio. They are about 6 hrs away, so not a super easy trip with kids, but doable enough we felt like we needed to visit before our 3 years here were up! I had thought in the past that Thanksgiving would possibly be a good time to visit, but I didn't think we should invite ourselves to their Thanksgiving. Well, luckily for us we didn't have to! At the reunion in Mesa Aunt Lynn invited us for Thanksgiving and we said we are there! They have a fun group of people that come over every year so it didn't feel like we were intruding on an intimate family gathering.

It's wasn't the easiest thing ever to travel that long with two kiddos, but definitely not as hard as it could've been. On the way there I thought it would be good to be traveling in the evening so after a few hours it would be bed time and the kids would just fall asleep in their carseats. Welll turns out Nelson does not like sleeping in his carseat anymore. I guess the trade off of getting a baby to sleep really well in their crib is that they expect their crib when they go to sleep. He had a bit of a rough patch, but finally gave up and went to sleep. After driving for a few hours we gave in to letting Riley have the ipad. She was so excited about getting to watch a show she kept herself up way later than she wanted. When the ipad was finally taken from her a little later than normal bedtime she said in a groggy voice, "I think I'm gonna take a nap," and promptly passed out. For the rest of the drive it was just a game of let's not let Ben fall asleep. So, we played a few rounds of a rousing alphabet game...by the end of our travels I think we'd played maybe 10 rounds of that dang alphabet game and I swear I won maybe one or two. He's a competitive man. 😅 I was looking for letters everywhere after that trip. On a stop on the way home I was looking around and said, "I can see every letter except an X from where I'm sitting right now!" It became a sickness. 

We snuck the kids upstairs immediately upon arriving in Ohio, but the next day Riley discovered something that made the trip all worth it. They have a dog! Riley was immediately in love with Tornado. (Pronouced Tor-nah-do.) She brought him every chewed up dog toy he had (which was a lot) wherever he went. 

Random Moments from 2022 Part 2

 Watching me scrubbing stains out of laundry. "You sure are working hard!" It's nice to get a little recognition. :) 

Riley can be a stickler for the rules (when it suits her.) There is a road near our house that closes it's gates on the weekends to allow bikes to use it freely. One day when the gate was open she saw a bike driving down the road. Getting very upset she says to me, "But you said the bikes go on the road when the gates are closed!" Took me a minute to figure it out, but then I explained bikes are allowed any day, they just have to share with cars when the gates are open. 

Riley loves to hear about Ben's patients. She says she wants to become an ophthalmologist for kids and adults. Whenever he comes home she requests to hear about some illness he saw that day. Preferably one from a girl patient. One day when she asked to hear about his patients he said, "My patients were all fine today." Riley replied, "Then why were they there??" Haha well visits are too boring for her. 

Sad seeing her Dada heading to work she tried to convince him to stay by saying, "But it's kind of hard to take care of two kids if there's only one grown-up." Hahaha she's not lying. 

Very excited to be sharing a milkshake with me. She says with glee, "We are gonna have to brush teeth really good today!" 

Riley requested I play a hymn that she chose. It happened to be "Count Your Many Blessings" so I explained to her what the song was talking about. She sweetly says, "You know what I'm grateful for? You! And Nelson!" Every mom's dream come true. :) 

*Tapping at her temple.* This is what I do when I'm thinking. 

The word we use for your gluteal area is usually your bottom. One day Riley was obsessed with using the word butt. She said it over and over with happiness in her voice. I can only imagine she heard it at preschool and was excited to show me this new word she learned. Part way through the day she sat in some water. She said. "My botto-...my BUTT'S wet." Surprisingly, this fad ended after just a few days. Even though it was just a silly thing it was a hard reminder that the more I send her out in the world the more other people will influence her choices. 

Riley asked Ben to play doctor with her so he told her his ankle was hurting. He said it hurt when he walked or stood on it. While demonstrating very sweetly Riley asked, "Have you tried tip-toeing?"

One day I was very frustrated that Nelson wasn't falling asleep. I had already gone in 3 times to try and calm him down. Riley helpfully said, "Maybe if you just do it 100 times he'll stop being fussy." 

"This is a catastrophe!" Said whenever anything goes slightly awry.

Riley likes to play a game when I pretend to be sick and she takes care of me like a mom. She wanted it to be clear that I wasn't sick with covid so as we played she'd call me "negative girl". 

Riley has some real rockstar energy sometimes. The other day I asked her to not take a toy away from Nelson. To express her discontent she burst into song, singing about how she's upset at mom for not letting her take that toy, all while playing her inflatable guitar. 

If you are a Paw Patrol fan you will appreciate this comment by Riley. "Marshall always has something going on with him." Haha we feel the same way about Marshall apparently. Why can't he ever get into the Lookout without tripping and falling over everything? 

Things I didn't expect my toddler to say (in tears), "Did you vacuum up my Canadian Lynx??" Haha no dear, I moved your beloved magnet before I started vacuuming. 

"I'm doing a Korean braid in your hair." I mean there is a French braid and a Dutch braid, why not Korean? 

"But how will Nelson not be allergic to chips?!?" Hahah oh Riley. I explained that you are supposed to feed babies peanut butter, eggs, and shellfish when they are young to reduce the chance they will be allergic to them later in life. Now whenever I tell her Nelson isn't allowed to have a certain food she gets very worried he will become allergic to that thing. 

The idea of moving is brand new to this little 4 year old and it's created a lot of funny moments. She's often asking me if specific items will come with us. "Will we move our toys?" "Will we move our pillows?" "We will have to get a REALLY big box for the couch!" 

On our ride home from preschool one day Riley said, "You chose a cute name for me!" :)

Driving home we were talking about someone who wasn't alive anymore and Riley says, "Like King Martin." I'm wracking me brain for what King she could be talking about. She's starting to get upset saying I know who she's talking about, that we were talking about him just the other day. Finally it hits me...Martin Luther King! 

Ben was gone for a week in January. When he came home we had an outing to the park. In the car on the way home Riley says, "It's fun being a family again!"

Riley took a very unflattering picture of Ben. Proud of her work she says, "He's so cute!" She sat there with her finger poised on the button and I asked if she was going to take another picture. She said, "I'm waiting for him to be cute again." 

Ben gave a little talk/testimony the other day and Riley had everyone around us laughing and she declared, "Good job Dad!" "You're doing great Dad!" "You're doing awesome with your loud voice Dad!" When he was finished and was walking towards us she ran up to meet him and said, "You did awesome!" 

Oh fall, we won't miss these GIANT piles of leaves, but Riley probably will. 

Our little boy LOVES food.

I can't get over these BLUE EYES. 

Riley went through a horrible stage of asking to do my hair every day. I can't stand a child touching my hair, but it brings her so much joy. Luckily, it hasn't happened for a bit now so I'm hoping the phase is over.

A few months ago Riley finally painted a recognizable picture and I was so impressed! 

My handsome men! 

Riley wanted to breastfeed one of the babies in the library. 

When you unpack a bunch of new shirts from Mel, Riley must wear them all at once. 

Riley loves taking pictures with my phone, they used to always be pictures of her forehead or the floor, but recently she's gotten better and now there is some "evidence of mom" in my photo roll! 

"I'm a lamp!" :)

Our new gym location has a splash pad. Not sure we will ever return because we discovered a splash pad is very LOUD when it's inside, but we had a good time this day. Ironically, it worked out because we accidentally went when they had a water fitness class happening. So they had to turn off the water basically the moment we arrived. We were sad at first, but then discovered it was ideal! The slide was still wet from the water, but it wasn't super loud and annoying. Riley had a great time running up the stairs and down the slide. 

My heart! 

I love seeing her creating with her legos. This was the first time she was using legos without a guide to tell her how to build them.

This video is a bit long and wacky, but Riley was just cracking me up. This day she'd fallen asleep around 4 pm...so that meant at bedtime she was FULL of energy. Ben and I were sitting in our room and all the sudden we hear Riley say, "My puppy luggage!" She burst in our room declaring she needs her puppy luggage because we need to start packing for our move. Then she decides that she'll just start making a pile instead. It was just so silly. I love capturing these day to day moments.

Nel trying to grab Mama during church. 

Riley's fun time at the gym splash pad.

This is another long video, but Riley was just being so cute. We got these paw patrol costumes for free and she just about died from happiness when she saw them. 

Nelson finally started babbling! Using his ba and da sounds. I love seeing even the tiniest milestones!

Fall with Family

 This fall was so fun for me! Mom spent almost all of October with our family, Dad came for the last weekend of her trip, and then early November Nelson and I went to Utah. 

Mom started her trip cracking me up, I tried to offer her a sparkling water and her response was, "Oh I'm scared to death of those things. I took one drink of one of those and wasn't sure what to do with it. I wasn't sure how to tell [Mel] that was the worst thing I've ever tasted!" Dad tried one when he visited hoping that he would end up liking this time and immediately regretted it. 

Mom got to witness a few of Riley's classic moments. Riley's skin is so sensitive so she's always got skin stuff happening. One night Ben collected 5 different creams to put on various places. As he appeared with all the creams Riley exclaims, "Wow! You really are a doctor!"

I asked my gym about adding my mom to my membership for October and they said that'd be fine and they didn't even increase my membership fee for that month. So nice of them! One day she told me at one point in her walk she was sure it was the end, not due to difficulty breathing, but because the sound coming from behind her was surely a rocket about to blast off. Haha I guess one of the runners behind her was really going for it on a loud running machine. (It's not a treadmill or at least not a normal one.) 

While Mom was out of town Dad had quite the adventure at home. He had to capture a mouse in the house! Listening to Dad tell the story of accidentally concussing a mouse was hilarious. It was even funnier a few weeks later listening to him tell the story to Britt in person. Watching him act out the mouse staggering away in a dazed state was hilarious. Although it took a sad turn when Britt found out the mouse died and said, "My guinea pigs are literally rodents!" He also threw in an extra detail he hadn't said over zoom that after he'd thought he saw the mouse, but wasn't sure, "for the next few days I'd go around kicking things." Hahaha just that image of Dad kicking everything he walks by cracks me up. 

It's so nice when Mom visits to not have the expectation to go and do a bunch of things. We tried doing outing the first time Mom and Dad were here, but now we just get to enjoy our normal life with extra help and it's wonderful. Just getting to leave Nelson or Riley with Mom when I needed to do something with the other child was awesome. Although, this did lead to me accidentally leaving Nelson in the car the first time I took Riley to preschool after Mom left. Luckily, it was still fall so it wasn't too hot or too cold to be dangerous, but I definitely felt a little silly. 

Dad flew in for just the last few days of fun and then Mom and Dad travelled home together. I picked them both up from the airport when they arrived, but we agreed they could take an uber to go to the airport on their way home. Well I kind of felt like a horrible daughter letting them get into the car after watching the driver drive back and forth past our street multiple times, finally decide to turn the wrong way up our one way street, and then make it worse by making a u-turn into oncoming traffic to get to us waiting on the sidewalk. Miracle of miracles they arrived to the airport in one piece. 

General Conference entertainment. Our craft loving girl used a whole bottle of glue within the first session. 

Nelson's General Conference entertainment.

Riley's "Pumpkin Patch". I had told Riley that we were going to pumpkin patch one day. I thought it would be a fun Grandma activity, but when the day arrived it was very wet and cold. Grandma definitely couldn't go, but Mom didn't really want to go either. It was a big drive and I knew it was just gonna be all muddy. Soooo instead we postponed the pumpkin patch, but I still didn't want to make the long drive. I knew there was a little farmer's market near our house that had a bunch of pumpkins. So I crossed my fingers that Riley would accept that as a pumpkin patch. When we arrived she was THRILLED. No complaints at all. We will see how many years I can get away with this. :) 

Mom and Dad left a few days before Halloween, and then just a few days after Halloween I followed them to Utah! The sisters and I had sprung an impromptu clean out project on Mom and Dad in hopes that it would help them feel like moving was a viable option for them if they decided it would help mom's health. Ben had asked for a few days off in November for a trip his sister ended up having to cancel so it worked out perfectly! Ben had this Thursday to Sunday off during which we had no commitments. I told Britt and Mel the only weekend that would work and they both said they could make it work too so we all booked a ticket for Utah. I brought Nelson with me, but Riley stayed home. (When I told Mom that she said, "Well at least I would've just seen her.") Britt and I booked the same Frontier flight there, and on that same day vowed to never fly Frontier again. (Our next trip together is a nonstop Delta flight...treat yo self!) 

We were getting in at midnight, and had been expecting to take an Uber to Springville. A few days before our trip Mom told us that Dad didn't like the idea of us having to Uber so he was going to pick us up from the airport. Awesome! Well then at some point during our travels I get a text from Mel saying that it's looking like it might snow in Utah so Mom is starting to talk about staying up to be moral support for Dad in the ice and snow. So Mel is putting a stop to it and saying she thinks it'll be like $60 to Uber and she'll spot us $20. Well I'm thinking it's gonna be more like $80, but I'm not going to argue with Mel and insist our parents go out in dangerous weather to get us. So, we land in Utah and I check Uber, it's a $120 ride. Oh dear. Welp, just don't think about that and maybe it'll change. By the time we are off the plane it's down to closer to $80, but then Britt tells me to check Lyft. On Lyft I had some credit for some reason so it ended up just being $55. Such a blessing! 

When we got in the car I tried to make a little small talk with the driver (asking if the roads were icy...information I actually wanted to know!) I wasn't going to talk the whole trip, but he definitely wanted to shut that down immediately and just said, "Lady, I don't speak English." Haha so I respond with the question in Spanish, but he still only kind of mumbles. Nelson had been a champ the whole trip, but it is now 2 am in his time clock and he has been put in a carseat so he loses it after a few minutes in the car. Luckily, I remember Ben commenting about how he would always calm down when he put his cheek on his cheek. So I bend into the carseat and put our cheeks together while shushing him. It works and we just spend the rest of the drive with our sweaty little cheeks together haha. Near the end of the drive (I guess because now the option of small talk is only about 3 minutes) the driver to start to chat with me in Spanish a bit. Trying to earn that tip haha. 

Well all efforts of sneaking in are dashed when Nelson erupts into screams the moment I open the door. I'm trying to get him calmed down and ready for bed in my room when I hear the parent's door open. I know that is mom shuffling into the kitchen taking advantage of being woken up to say hi to Britt. At least no one had to toss and turn wondering if we made it there safe. 

The next morning we went to work! Or at least I went to work! Obviously, I should've had a talk about the priorities of this trip with my sister's because Britt didn't take off work so she was working a full day before she could help, Mel was quitting and starting a job and working on letters and contracts surrounding that, and Ana still had three children to mother. Yes, I had brought a baby with me, but I was the most carefree! So Mom and I got started on our own. We were determined that this trip not be a burden on Mom, she had just travelled home from a long trip, and didn't want to overwhelm her so we tried to make her job be simply making choices of what she'd like to keep or not keep. We started in the kitchen. Emptying out a majority of the cabinets and having mom vote keep, toss, or DI. We conquered the kitchen quickly and went on to clean out the game closet, bunk bed room closet, most of the boxes that were stored in the garage, the cabinet of tablecloths, the storage room, and the biggest accomplishment of all Britt's bedroom! Sure there is still work to do in Britt's room and with the photo books, but I was pretty proud of the three car-fulls of boxes we took to DI and the trash boxes that filled the back of Matt's truck. That's not to mention the things that escaped in our suitcases or into Ana's house. 

A house clean out may sound like a lame vacation, but being home and with family is always an enjoyable time. Also, getting rid of that much stuff had me feeling good! Cleaning out stuff makes me feel so accomplished. 

We had a lot of hug and release moments. Had take a moment to appreciate the joy these Josh Groban pins brought to my teenage girl life. 

Oh the treasures you find in Britt's room...

A sister workout is a must whenever we get together. The format ended up just being lunging back and forth across the gym. Mel was little miss teachers pet or trying to challenge her authority and take over the class. Whichever way you want to look at it. Haha she was right on the teacher's heals the whole class. Funny side note. When Ana was telling us about coming to the gym she said she had one guest pass, but the other person would have to pay and she said, "I think it's like $5." Mel laughs and said I was expecting it to be $20 or something, please we can pay $5 dollars! We all laughed at Ana making paying for a pass seem like it'd be a big deal. Then as we are arriving at the gym I show them the pass and Mel says she needs to buy a day pass. The lady says, "Great, that'll be $6 dollars." Mel and I look at each other and say without missing a beat.  "Ana owes you/me a dollar." 😆

Nelson got to have some quality time with Uncle Matt :) 

This little boy had it a bit rough this trip. Changing to MST really rocked him and it didn't help that he started off the trip with a very interrupted night's sleep. 

He was really hanging on by a thread the whole trip. 

Why does Ana look so much tanner than me in this picture? 

Our classic attempt at a model shot. 

We got one last family surprise at the end of November. Mel came to DC to meet some of her new coworkers and we were so happy that meant a little 48 visit for us. When we were discussing her arrival I was feeling very charitable and offered to pick her up. Then she reminds me she's flying into Dulles instead of DCA...ugh! My charity instantly vanished, but I'd already said I'd do it! I was dreading the drive in crazy traffic, but then a crazy freak accident ended up helping me out! A plane had crashed into some wires and power was down in a bunch of places. That meant many people stayed home instead of going to work or school so we didn't have to fight any traffic to the airport or back! Although the airport itself was a mess. They need a heck of a lot more traffic controllers. People were just acting like the pickup location was a parking lot! Luckily, Mel was waiting way at the end of the pick up and we were able to drive by the craziest of it. 

It was a real quick trip, especially because Mel was working for most of it, but we did get to have a fun night out going to dinner with Britt. We went to a Thai place up where Britt lives. The restaurant was playing some fun music and at one point Mel saw one of the waiters dancing. We asked her to show us how he was dancing and she said she had to wait until he wasn't looking because she "didn't want him to think I was dancing with him." 😂 I did end up getting a ticket during this dinner, but I was able to fight it and they got rid of it so it was still an enjoyable night for everyone. 

Yep, getting together with family is the best. We thoroughly enjoyed our fall with family. We can't wait for spring when we get to come visit family again!