a new hope

headed out to trunk or treat tonight.

may the force be with us.

a hoot

summer girl's birthday party is in one week!

she's so excited for her first non-sleepover sleepover. pizza! movies! popcorn! pillows! pajamas! and a very specific "vanilla and turquoise with a pink frosted heart" cake.

i have a couple cute ideas for games and crafts and favors, but we'll see how much i'm actually able to pull off after crumbling under the pressure of star wars costumes (r2! why must your intricacies torture me so?!) 

no matter what, though, i can definitely promise pizza :)

invitation inspiration found here and here.

the verdict

caleb's assessment of yogurtland:

another clue

so i went to bed kinda high off sharpies last night, and i know my freehand drawing/interpretation is far from perfect, but i hope folks will still be able to recognize afton as the droid they're looking for come halloween night.

now any guesses who summer and caleb are going to be??

we've been booed

i love the halloween neighborhood tradition of booing.

i also love absolutely everything amberlee of the giverslog does.

so this year, i put the two together:

my new go-to boo includes crisp fall apples, crunchy homemade granola, and sticky-sweet homemade caramel dipping sauce.

and a bag of m&ms thrown in for good measure ('cause it's sort of impossible to not make something better by throwing in a bag of m&ms).

printables and fall care package idea from giverslog here.

525,600 minutes

remember what baby caleb and i looked like last year at the pumpkin patch?

to the pumpkin patch we go

coming along

here is the very beginning stage of afton baby's halloween costume 

(eek! only one week left to pull it together!):

any guesses who she's going to be?

psst -- she got to choose all by herself this year!

and then matto had a blog

baby brother matto (or "matt" as he is known professionally) is taking a persuasive writing class this semester at BYU. for the class, he has to start a food blog (kids these days...)

he's actually a pretty dynamite chef and an entertaining writer, both of which most likely thanks to me (older sister much?) 

check him out: http://monstermoviechef.blogspot.com/

half way

time for baby caleb's six-a-month review.

clothing size: 12-18 months. i've stopped buying him more than a handful of outfits in any given size because who the heck knows how long he's going to be wearing them.

mobility: limited. he rolls and uses his hands to move in circles, and sometimes he kicks hard enough that he lunges forward a bit, but it looks like crawling might still be a month or so off. caleb can get up on his knees (in fact, that's how he likes to sleep), but he just hasn't figured out how to use those knees (in sync with his hands, of course) to move his little baby body around.

diet: still liquid. his foray into the wide world of solid food has been pretty sparse so far. sometimes i mix him up a bowl of rice cereal to eat during dinnertime ('cause i'm a glutton for punishment who wants to feed, clean up after, and bathe three young children), and he seems to enjoy that okay.

sleep habits: decent. caleb is a fairly good night sleeper, generally only waking up around 4:30am (or later!) to be groggily scooped up by mommy and brought to bed with her whilst daddy gets up to go to work. his day sleeping could use a little more effort, though. i mean, two forty minute naps a day should really not be enough for a six-month old. it is certainly not enough for his mother.

hobbies: varied. he likes to travel. he wants desperately to eat some paper. he loves the bath (and splashing most of all). he enjoys playing with and chewing on various kitchen utensils. and he considers himself a connoisseur of both fine literature and fine jewelry.

all up, we're really diggin our blonde-haired blue-eyed boy.

contract renewed.

i'm the map

ah, the joys of home ownership:

in which we can spend our weekends wallpapering a 16' x 8' map of the world to the playroom wall.

summer's first order of business after the map was up?

"show me disneyland."

welcome to the doll house

thursdays are our don't-go-anywhere days.

no preschool, no gymnastics, no soccer, no errands.

just us. just playing.

all day.

dem bones

a little spooky surprise for my kidsies this morning:

let the halloween countdown begin!

scenes from conference weekend

we love the general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

we love sitting with our children and listening to the prophet and apostles bear witness of our Savior, Jesus Christ and of the great love our Heavenly Father has for all His sons and daughters. we love learning through scriptures and modern-day counsel what it is we can be doing to be a little bit better than we were before.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk, The First Great Commandment, was my favorite:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2WMaRkvZPg

and here is a glimpse into how the wheelers roll, general conference style:

more peas please

dear emily,

is it true that baby caleb is roughly the size of the average one year old?

yes, it's true.

fight like a girl

afton loves to sing.

sometimes she sings actual songs (you know, like ones we've all heard before), but mostly she just loves to narrate her life in song.

this morning, her jolly ditty went a little something like this (ellipses indicate twirling, stomping, and sound effect interludes):

"i am princess strawberry shortcake....

....i will fly into the woods....

....and kill all the bad guys....

....like mulan...."

(here the ellipses extend indefinitely as she stomps and twirls and fights le bad guys whilst still humming her jaunty tune).

afton baby: resident bad-guy-killing flying berry princess.

step off.

tough mudder

this past saturday, bryan completed tough mudder seattle. i asked him to pen a few words about his experience, but he just smiled and said we should let these pics do the talking. 

here's his team, the brothers of duvall:

(not pictured are the two tough "mudders" (of four and six) who also competed with these gents.)

post race (but pre i'm-so-sore-i-can-barely-get-out-of-bed):

congrats to all the tough mudders out there!

ps - bryan asked me if i would join in with him next year (ha!), so i referred him to a list plastered on the fridge for convenience of "things emily no longer feels compelled to do just because all her friends are doing it and/or because her brother will make fun of her if she doesn't": (1) ride roller-coasters (2) watch scary movies (3) complete obstacle courses.

sorry, dude. perhaps i'll join you for a nice sit on the beach sometime, though.