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.

to the fair

a few weeks ago, we finished reading charlotte's web to the ladies (and caleb, of course, though i'm not sure he was paying much attention). since then, summer and afton have been *so excited* to visit a real live county fair. summer's personal goals were threefold: to see the pigs (check!), to eat cotton candy (stuffed-her-face check!), and to ride the ferris wheel (barely-tall-enough check!)

so massive crowds notwithstanding, i think we can claim our day at the puyallup fair as a success.

deep fried butter.

farm animals.

cotton candy.

more farm animals.

the ferris wheel.

and smiles.

the grass is always greener

take me to the river

well, summer was over.

then we decided that (courtesy of this great weather we've been having) one more water play day was a must.

the kids had a great time exploring the rocks, splashing in the water, and eating the wild blackberries growing nearby.

however, this particular late summer excursion turned out to be more than just fun and games.

near the end of the afternoon, two of the kiddos in our group were swept downstream by the current. their mother heroically came to their rescue, and all three made it back to shore, though not without some serious stress, very cold water, and exhaustion from the difficulty crossing through said river current to safety.

we are so glad no one was seriously injured or worse, and this experience prompted more thorough research on my part concerning water safety.

here are a few tips specific to wild swimming:

first of all, one can never overuse the life jacket (what about bob?, anyone?)

also, explore the water before allowing children to swim. you need to know how slippery the rocks are and how strong the current may be or if there are any deep drops. after testing the water, mark off the area where it is safest for them to swim and play. i am a notorious water-hater (basking in the sun on the shore is much more my thang), but i will now make it a point to do some brief water-safety recon and then bask in the sun on the shore.

if a child (or adult, for that matter) gets caught in a river current, they need to float on their backs with the current, feet down stream, and try to grab on to something to stop. more experienced swimmers can try to swim out of the current by swimming perpendicular to it, but do NOT swim against the current, you will become exhausted and gulp down way too much water.

instruct, model, and practice what to do with your children before allowing them to enter the water.

more basic safety guidelines here.

now, who's ready for fall?!

little lady lauper

80s hairdo fashion flashback brought to you by summer, 

courtesy of rolling around in the grass before dinner:

and is it just me, or is she totally pulling it off?

five alive

hey, you.

yeah, you.

what's shakin' in your little baby five-a-month life?

well first off, i'm pretty sure we've touched on the fact that caleb is huge. sometimes bryan and i forget how huge he is. then we see other babies, and we're like, "oh yeah, our baby *is* huge." i mean, if i wasn't there for the birth (and here's proof that i was there), i would swear he was at least seven months old.

also, caleb is certain that he and i are an item. he likes his daddy and everything, but when bryan's home, you can see baby caleb looking at him, trying to puzzle through what exactly his role is here. he's all, "yo, dad, why are you hanging around so much, bro? like, get out of my bed, and stay away from my woman already." really, it's rather sweet that so many men in this house adore me.

and when he's not busy doting on mom or defending my honor, caleb loves to be wrestled and tickled and bobbed and jiggled and smooched and tossed and flown and flopped and just about anything else that gets his heart rate up and his blood pumping and his voice squealing.

caleb is a very physical baby. he's just itching to sit up and crawl and bust free of this trap of a baby body he's in. whenever we stand him up on our laps or the ground or wherever, he vigorously bounces up and down on one leg like he's a race horse taking his mark and kicking up dirt at the starting line.

just a-raring to take off and go!

at the dentist

the wheeler girls finally made their trek to le dentiste (including momma, for whom it's been two years since her last visit. dental school friends: feel free to shudder).

the little ladies both did great. 

summer, for whatever reason, is a big fan of being poked and prodded and going to various check ups, so for her, visiting the dentist was a real treat. afton, on the other hand, was predictably more cautious. she maintained a death grip on her chair the whole time, refused to let them turn on the bright light, and whenever the dental assistant got out a new instrument or tried to put something in her mouth, afton would say, "you're going to hurt me!" but, sort of to my surprise, she let them clean and check and polish her teeth anyway.

and the good news is: no cavities here!