Pre-Halloween Fun

 Grace has been asking more and more to take pictures with the camera. Paul likes this one because it shows how he looks through her eyes.

 Cute Grace on the day of the primary program last Sunday. That evening, we tried on Halloween costumes, and Paul and I filled out our mail-in ballots.

 On Monday, it rained a lot. The girls were cute on the bus ride home, with Grace's head on Alice's lap the whole way, and Alice stroking her hair. Grace taught FHE out of the Friend that evening, then we went on a short family walk. Here are the girls by the sculpture near our complex.

 On Tuesday, I turned on some Halloween music so I could get some work done. Pretty soon, I went to check on Alice, and I saw that she had set herself up on the couch with all the Halloween buckets. She loves all the Halloween decorations, and is so excited for Halloween! I took her to story time at the library that morning, then home for lunch and a nap. Paul came home from school, and Grace was at a play date, so we got to have a romantic lunch alone together! So fun!

 Grace got home from her playdate around 3:30. We hadn't seen her all day. It doesn't seem right, and makes me glad she only has half-day kindergarten this year. It makes me sad to think that starting next year, she'll be gone much more of the day, and miss out on fun with Alice and Charlie. Grace read Alice some new library books, then we went to the doctor for Alice. It was a painful experience, and we didn't get home until 6:30. Paul had dinner ready, and the girls ate and went to bed. Poor Grace was gone all day!

On Wednesday, it rained again. Alice helped me with the laundry and the dishes. Alice never fell asleep at naptime, so I finally got her up and let her dance to the ballet DVD Grace was watching. They look like zombie ballerinas in this picture!

 Grace loves ballet!

 Cute Alice, a little flushed from lack of sleep. A neighbor friend came over to visit, then Paul came home early! Alice was a basketcase all evening from tiredness.

 We finally finished decorating for Halloween.

 The headless horsegirl. Paul and I looked through our new Food Network magazine that night.

 Thursday was busy. Alice and I took Grace to school, then we went to 2 meetings in a row. Alice was grouchy by the end. Grace came home grouchy from school because she didn't get to do her show-and-tell. The girls watched a movie and played together that afternoon while Paul did homework, and I went to turn in paperwork and put gas in the van. Gas here is so expensive!

 That evening, we went to Grace's school for spooky story night. We surprised the girls by not telling them until the last second that Paul was one of the volunteer readers! They were pretty excited.

 Paul got assigned to read in an out-of-the-way room, so we didn't get much of a crowd, but he did a great job with voices and interaction, and the girls loved it!

 On Friday, Paul and Alice did computer work together. Paul spent a lot of the day doing phone interviews for articles, including one to a famous chef! I took Alice with me to my doctor's appointment in the morning, then Grace came with me to go shopping in the afternoon. It was tiring. That evening, we had pizza and watched Halloween cartoons. Paul and I watched "Monsters Inside Me" after the girls were in bed. It's a TV show about parasites and viruses.

 On Saturday, Alice woke us all up at 6:30. So disappointing! Paul and I got cute for our date, and Grace took a picture of us.

 Then we walked the girls to our friends' house to be babysat. We saw a scary graveyard on the way!

 Paul and I went downtown for a yummy brunch (courtesy of a gift card from last summer's internship), then walked around and looked in shops. We stopped in a pawn shop with an ET statue.

 Paul was very interested in this banjo for $250! We looked around a fun toy store, a bookstore, and even happened to see a zombie dance! Then we got ice cream, and picked up the girls in time for Alice's nap. Fun date!

 In the evening, we got all dressed up for the ward trunk or treat. The three Red Riding Hoods.

 Grace was Little Red Riding Hood last year, but this time she is wearing the dress/apron Mom made for Norah, and the cape I made last year.

 Paul the cowboy.

 I look GIGANTIC in that dress! 39 weeks, baby!

 Alice was darling wearing the cape Mom made Norah.

 Another picture of Paul, now that he added the neckerchief.

 The trunk or treat was really good, and well-attended. It was 2 wards, with games, and every family brought a pizza to share. Alice loved the toddler corral!

 Grace was so excited that one of her kindergarten friends accepted her invitation to the party! She and Alan are so funny together!

 Alice liked digging for pirate treasure.

 Paul said Alice was so cute going around to the trunks and holding up her pumpkin basket for candy. What a sweetie!

 I manned the trunk, and ran out of candy. There were LOTS of people there!

The girls were tired when it was all over, but they had so much fun. Alice LOVED having a bucket full of candy, and wanted to hold it all the way home. When we got home, she placed it back in its spot in the living room, and walked up to her bed. What fun kids we have! Happy Halloween!

Beach, Baby Shower, and Temple

 

We went to the beach on Wednesday after Paul got home from work. It's so close and totally free, so even though we only stayed an hour, it was worth it. It was fun to watch the sailboats, big sea birds, and surfers. Grace LOVES going to the beach!

 It was really hot this week, so I was happy to cool down, though it got really cold when the sun went down!

 Alice didn't even mind eating peanut butter sandwiches for dinner.

 The sand was really wet, and the water was FREEZING!

 Grace loved collecting shells with Paul.

 The sand castles were a bust since the sand was so wet, but we still had fun.

 Alice loved playing in the wet sand puddles, and threw wet sand all over me! It was a fun family activity.

 On Thursday night, I had a combined baby shower with another girl in the ward who is due the same day I am. It was a "two little pumpkins" theme, with great food and visiting, a big house with a great view, and lots of gifts.

 I got so many gifts from people I hardly know, and some from people that weren't even there! So nice of everyone, and now I feel a lot more ready for the baby.

Grace with a cake batter beard on Friday.

 We went to the Oakland temple on Saturday. It is quite a drive, almost an hour and a half. The girls liked the terrace garden. There is something to be said for the weather around here - they still had tons of roses in bloom!

 Best sisters forever!

 This is Alice's guilty face. She was really bad while we were waiting for Paul to get out of the temple. She likes to run in parking lots, and it's pretty hard to catch her when you're as pregnant as I am.

 It was super foggy in Oakland.

 The girls had fun playing outside. Alice hogged all the snacks.

 We found a Super Wal-Mart on our way home. The McDonald's inside appeased a tired, hungry Alice. It was such a relief to be at Wal-Mart, where I know all the brands, and everything is cheap. We had a big list of random things we'd been saving to get on this Wal-Mart trip, and we got almost everything. We also bought tiny diapers, bottles, bibs, pacifiers, and a few little outfits for Charlie. I think we're finally ready for him to come.

Since we have late church, we let the girls lay around on the air mattress this morning and watch the Nightmare Before Christmas. They loved it, though the air mattress no longer holds air. We'd better get another one before Mom comes for the baby. Two weeks and counting!

Videos of the Girls

Alice sings "I am a Child of God".

Alice sings her ABCs. (She does the alternate ending: "Now I never will forget, how to sing my alphabet".)

Alice sings Ladybug Picnic.

Grace made up a commercial in the bathtub.

Alice's 2nd birthday!

One of the other parents took this at Grace's class teddy bear picnic last week. Grace eating lunch in the sand with her friends Letty and Catalina.

Sunday was our "fry day". After General Conference, I made delicious fried chicken that everyone gobbled up.

 Then Paul fried the donuts we'd started the night before.

 They were delicious! But we soon realized we had A LOT of donuts to eat. After the girls went to bed that night, we put up Alice's birthday decorations.

 Monday was Alice's second birthday. We woke her up singing Happy Birthday, and she was SO excited to realize it was HER birthday! She kept saying "It's my birthday!" all day long! She liked the streamers upstairs, and the traditional static balloons on the ceiling downstairs.

 Alice was pretty bleary-eyed, but donuts and pears for breakfast perked her right up. She loved the birthday hat and plate too! (I had planned something different for breakfast, but we had so many donuts to use up!)

 We dressed Alice all cute, then Paul went to work, and Alice and I took Grace to school on the bus. Poor Alice thought she was old enough to stay in kindergarten. All the kids wished her a happy birthday as I dragged her out the door.

 I babysat Maria that morning, which Alice LOVES, so that was a fun birthday activity.

 When Maria left, Alice was a little sad, so I let her open one present: 3 cute board books from Mom/Dad Gabe. We read them together, and she loved them!

 I fed Alice a normal lunch, then we picked Grace up on the bus. Alice was talking a mile a minute. She was so excited all day.

 During Alice's nap, Grace had fun with the balloons. I guess I should be flattered? When Alice woke up, the girls watched a Dora birthday DVD while I made dinner.

 Paul got home around 5, and we sat down to eat. This is what Alice looks like during the blessing on the food.

 She loved the meal I made for her: pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, apple sauce, and milk.

 She also enjoyed the scintillating dinner table conversation. "Tell me more about the diet of the vampire squid, Daddy."

 Then we had her donut cake. Again, I had planned a different cake, but what was I supposed to do with all those donuts?

 She wasn't complaining!

 Then Alice opened gifts. First she showed Paul and Grace the gift she opened while they were gone. Look at that little garden gnome!

 Grace bought Alice wings from the dollar store. (Grace may have had ulterior motives, and wore the wings a lot herself this week.)

 You getting sick of watching Alice open gifts, Grace?

 The party theme was Dora, so Alice got a Dora flashlight/pop-up book, a Dora microphone, and a Dora mermaid from Grandma Flake.

 She got plenty of gifts from us and her grandparents, but far and away the most played-with gift has been these foam shapes from Mom/Dad Gabe. The girls play with them multiple times a day.

 They LOVE them. (Get it?)

 Oh, who doesn't want a piece of her heart?

 We dressed Alice in her new Dora pajamas, called/skyped the grandparents, and the birthday was over. Alice was so happy with it all. She is such a sweet kid!

 On Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat. I'm afraid the little girl I babysit had a very runny nose this week, and Alice and I both got sick. Paul and I drank cocoa together before waking up the girls. Alice wore her adorable new outfit from Grandma Flake!

Paul went to class, and Alice and I took Grace to school. Cute sisters! Then Alice and I went to the library for story time. It was really good, with tons of toys to play with afterward. We had the missionaries over for dinner that evening. We are still so impressed with them.

On Wednesday, it was cold. It rained in the night. We had cocoa and oatmeal for breakfast. I watched Maria again that day, even though I was pretty bad off with a cold by then. 

Alice wore her new "I'm cute like my mommy" shirt. She also stole an apple from Paul at lunch the day before, and she ate off it for the next couple of days. She is Grandpa Flake's granddaughter! Yuck! Paul made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for a cold-day dinner, and we had a mid-week FHE on individual worth. 

On Thursday, I was sick with a cold all day. Grace's class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Another parent took some pictures. Here she is with her pumpkin.

Catalina (our Chilean neighbor) and Grace.

Grace eating a snack with the people she rode with.

Class photo at the farm after a fun morning of picking pumpkins, going on a hayride, and feeding animals. That evening, Paul had to go to an event in San Francisco for class. It's about 2 hours away. Since we have the biggest car, he volunteered to drive the carpool, but he said it was pretty scary. He didn't get home until 11:30.

 We got a package from Grandma Lu on Thursday for Alice's birthday. Both girls got sweatsuits, and Alice also got a reversible puffy vest (which she can't get enough of!). So on Friday, the girls wore their sweatsuits, but Grace's pants were too big for her waist, and Alice's pants got wet and dirty in the rain puddles, so they each ended up with different pants on. Alice is also obsessed with wearing a tiara and dress-up shoes most days. Pretty cute! I watched Maria that morning, and Paul got to work from home all day.

 It was raining when we went to pick Grace up from school. Alice was prepared.

 We all were! That evening, we watched The Princess and the Goblin. I'd never seen it before. I still haven't see it - I fell asleep! We ate caramel apples, and put the girls to bed. Then Paul and I drank cocoa and watched the new Disney Channel original movie: Girl vs Monster. Wow, skip it. We watched a few episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Present afterward to get the bad taste out of our mouths.

 Today, Paul let me sleep in, but the girls woke up early. Paul helped clean the church while I watched the girls and cleaned the house. Then Paul did homework, and the girls messed around on the piano together.

 Cute kids!

 We watched the first and fourth quarters of the BYU game (Paul had to do homework during the rest). Poor Grace was devastated when BYU lost. She cried and cried.

 So we went out back and played. Look at that 37-weeks-pregnant belly!

 Alice was kind of out of it since she didn't actually nap. She sang in bed for almost 3 hours!

 Paul played football with the girls.

 It is SO cute when Alice says, "Hut, hut, hike!"

 Paul taught Grace to catch the ball and tuck it in. She got pretty good at it!

 The girls were pretty good at sharing the ball.

 Alice made a touchdown due to Grace's amazing offensive block!

 Then poor Grace got hit in the face with a football, and the fun ended. Paul helped her calm down, then they ran a few more plays.

 After dinner, we played with the foam shapes.

 Grace as the sun.

 Alice too. Well, Paul is at the evening session of stake conference, the girls are asleep in bed, and my blog is done before Sunday! Have a great week, everyone!