prima ballerina

i know you all can hardly wait for the so-cute-it's-painful recital in may 2011.

until then, keep practicing those pirouettes.

thankful for

i had bryan whip up this chalkboard for me out of an old frame from the goodwill for our family harvest party this year (and i use the term "party" very loosely here.  we just add butterscotch cookies and hot cider to a five minute devotional and call it a party because it makes us feel awesomer than we are).

see if you can match the wheeler with what they're grateful for.

(hint: baby afton also participated, and no, she did not mention "sunrises").

R.I.P.

so our uber-stalker readers may have noticed that the pumpkin we carved yesterday was in fact NOT the pumpkin we picked out at jubilee farms back in october.  unfortunately, that pumpkin only survived about a week before we came home to the worst stench of all time, and it went the way of all the earth.  which was sad, but it gave bryan a good excuse to wield his giant shovel.

the pumpkin returns

what? you didn't know?

all the cool kids carve their pumpkins on november 13th.  it's a thing.

 when we were done carving, summer exclaimed: "it looks just like summer!"

aye, 'tis a fair likeness.

The Eagle has landed

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to Nick. This isn't the first time Nick has graced the blog; check out the post on the Pacific Crest Trail and see if you can spot him. Four and a half years ago, I was Nick's primary teacher. Two and a half years ago, I was Nick's varsity scout coach. Tonight, I watched him receive his Eagle rank.

three years old

let's talk about our newly minted three year old.

my sweet summer is a tenderhearted creature. she is compassionate and concerned for the well-being of all living creatures. if you are feeling ill, she will tuck you in bed, turn out the light, and softly stroke your back. "feel better?" she'll ask. if you have sustained an injury, she will hold you tight, give you a kiss, and ask if you need a band-aid. if she sees a slug on the ground, she will become very involved in its safety until we point out a mommy, after which she will urge, "go home to your mommy, slug!"

summer is very orderly and routine. she knows exactly how our days should go and plans accordingly. on occasion, when we have to be somewhere early and need to get dressed before breakfast (as we usually get dressed after breakfast), i have to budget in an extra fifteen minutes for the fit she will throw because it's not *time* to get dressed yet. she also spends a considerable amount of play time lining up all her toys and organizing them by color and category. (still a girl after her mother's heart.)

summer loves dresses and bows and shoes. and princesses and pink and castles and cupcakes. she is energetic and optimistic -- leaping out of bed every day with a rousing "good morning!" she blows kisses, gives hugs, tells stories, and cries every time she gets in trouble because she hates being in trouble.

summer just loves her family, and it's obvious we think she's the bees knees, too.

so happy birthday, summer girl. at 9:55pm on november 6, 2007, the world became brighter and better to have you here.

pinkalicious

pink.  pink.  pink.  summer loves pink.

so it was no surprise when it came down to selecting a 

theme for her third birthday party it was:  PINK.

(for those who are keeping track, her actual birthday is tomorrow, november 6th.)

homemade strawberry cupcakes with 

strawberry swiss meringue buttercream frosting.

with a name like that, of course the frosting took forty minutes to make.

good thing is, it definitely tasted like forty minute frosting.  more props to martha.

thanks to all of summer's friends for making 

her very pink birthday very, very special!

Decision 2010, decided

No, you're not reading the byline incorrectly. This post is Bryan's, and I have indeed returned (momentarily) to the blog. So where have I been the last 10 weeks? Well, here and there, but mostly gearing up for the mid-term elections on http://elections.msnbc.msn.com.

In fact, I was so focused on getting things buttoned down that I neglected to celebrate my 3 year anniversary at msnbc.com. Happy employment to me.

Anyway, the preparations paid off, and Nov 2nd turned out to be an uneventful night for the development team (though an intense evening for politics overall).

Inside the newsroom: the action was far more interesting for our editorial staff

The elections development team (Friday TIE day is just the beginning).

tomorrow is election day

let's rock the vote, people!

the halloween witch

most of you are probably aware that while candy is tasty and sweet, it is not the best of ideas for children (or any of us, for that matter) to consume large quantities of it all at once. so in thinking about our family traditions around halloween, we decided it would be fun to merge "brownie" folklore from bryan's youth with an idea from our friend kathryn known as "the halloween witch."

its basic concept is that the children select a given number of their favorite confections from trick or treating (summer got seven this year; afton chose three) and then put the rest out on the doorstep for the (good) halloween witch, who comes in the night to exchange their candy for an awesome, inedible surprise.

really, this turned out to be a thinly veiled way for mom and dad to steal all the kiddies' candies (in the future, when there is more candy to be had, we have fully honorable intentions of dropping it off at a local dentist's office to send to the troops overseas). but hey, summer and afton thought it was great fun and still got 10 pieces of yummy candy between them -- PLUS a new set of pink mega blocks.

everybody wins!

off with her head

sometimes i've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

through the looking glass

you couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands.

through the looking glass

but it's no use going back to yesterday because i was a different person then.

alice's adventures in wonderland

it's a poor sort of memory that only works backward.

through the looking glass

we're all mad here.

alice's adventures in wonderland

everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.

alice's adventures in wonderland

trick or treat

here's some emily trivia for you:

favorite dessert? ice cream (duh!)

second favorite dessert? cheesecake (shout out to eve good for baking up a sensational pumpkin cheesecake for book club last night. mad props.)

third favorite dessert? oreos (whenever i open a bag, an hour later i'm like, "who ate all my oreos?" yup, it was me.)

anyway, remember these babies?

well, if you're looking for an awesome chunk of festive deliciousness, look no further:

pumpkin faces playdate

so in case you haven't noticed, halloween is my favorite holiday. it used to be valentine's day, but recently, halloween has staged a coup and taken over the coveted number one spot.

anyway, to kick off this week's festivities, we hosted a pumpkin faces playdate where the kiddos did some cookie "decorating."  of course, her mother wasn't watching her very closely, so summer consumed by far the largest amount of sugar.  she placed about six m&ms in her mouth for every one on the cookie. hooray for halloween!

another match up

the fifteen months and one week shot:

this is a fun genetics game for me to play.  and while it's difficult to create exact matches in photos (esp. with regards to facial expressions), i like to give it a whirl every once in awhile to get a fair look-alike comparison of the girls.

i'm gonna say that without the smile (and besides the cheeks), the most noticeable discrepancy here is their hair type:  stick straight on afton and a slight curl in summer's.

love at home

pumpkin patching plus

our playgroup planned a fun excursion to 

fall city farms for more autumnal adventures.

candy corn bark

so i'm one of those people: a candy corn hater. hate, hate, HATE it.

and yet...it's just so darn festive that i can't keep myself from buying a bag every time halloween rolls around.  but what to do with the stuff?  this year, i finally found the answer.

invite oreos and pretzels over to play, drown everybody in melted white chocolate, decorate with sprinkles, break apart and FINALLY enjoy yourself some candy corn.

breakfast is served

i'm pretty sure the girls get more vitamins 

and minerals when they eat off the floor.

nursery is for gangstas

today, summer sustained a block to the head injury.

the perp was punished with a wicked tongue lashing from officer emily wheeler.

hell hath no fury like an injured child's mother.

pumpkin patching

okay, peeps, it's that time of the year again: time for everyone to break out their annual pumpkin patch photos.  this year, we ended our three year engagement with craven farms and went to jubilee in carnation -- we loved it!  

of course, being fall in the pacific northwest, it started to rain (see photo three) as we were searching out our perfect pumpkin, so we ended up not taking as many pics as we usually do (i know, the horror!)

however, being true washingtonians now (with our daughters born and bred), we stayed out in the patch, found our pumpkin, and enjoyed our morning despite the rain.  

bohemian rhapsody

two fun facts about summer:

1) she recently learned that bryan goes to work to make money.  now, when he comes home, she asks for "the monies," and bryan gives her a dollar.  it starts young, daddies dearest.  it starts young.

2) she has very specific taste in music.  her favorite songs must meet the following criteria: have a female vocalist, be fast and loud, and allow her to express her inner bootyliciousness.  if a song is lacking in any of these areas, she will ask you to turn it off and put on single ladies.

af-a-laf-a-lu-la

two fun facts about afton:

1) when she sneezes, she purposely coughs afterwards trying to replicate the sneeze.

2) when she is finished eating, and i go to take her tray off her highchair, she compulsively grabs another handful of food and stuffs it in her mouth.

conference crepes

thanks to a suggestion from our erstwhile home teacher, rock, 

bryan loves to celebrate general conference weekend by 

treating us girls to his homemade crepes for breakfast.

but that's not the only thing we look forward to.  

favorite talks from this october conference included:

president thomas monson, elders larry lawrence, jeffrey holland, 

henry eyring, and d. todd christofferson.

indeed, we have been greatly fed.

curiouser and curiouser

halloween costumes -- done.

any guesses on what our two lovelies 

will be dressing as this year?

boo for you

october 1st.  

it's official:  

halloween is almost here.