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Lizzy likes to watch Avatar. Just like she likes to watch Shrek or Snow White. So it was funny when we had this conversation:

Me: Lizzy, do you want to watch Avatar?
Lizzy: No. It's scary.

Lizzy watches out for Jordan. Yesterday she saw Jordan holding out his spoon and she told me:
"Jordan wants more peanut butter in his mouth."

Jordan's high chair

Jordan doesn't really like his high chair. He only tolerates it for a little while and then wants to get out. So he climbs over the edge and hangs on for dear life until somebody notices him. Sometimes he'll whine too. 

Jordan's words:
1. uh-oh
2. dat! (that)
3. nana (banana)
4. hi! (as he holds a phone, or something that looks like a phone, to his ear)
5. no

Funny thing is that he talks the most with Lizzy. He'll say uh-oh if she says it. =)

Ba"nana"

Lizzy and Jordan have been playing together more lately. They follow each other around. Lizzy gets excited when he wakes up from his nap. 

I pulled out a banana and Jordan saw it. He said, "nana!" That would be word #3. Exciting. I tried to get him to say it again but he wouldn't do it. At this moment that I am writing this post Jordan is running around the playroom with a box on his head. Too cute.

When I say, "let's change your diaper," Jordan goes to the bed in Lizzy's room and lays down in the diaper-changing position.

Yesterday I said, "Do you want to take a nap?" He got down from my lap and went up stairs to his room.

Brushing Teeth

Today Lizzy was playing a game on sesamestreet.org about the order of events when you brush your teeth. She was suppose to put the events in order. The events were "put toothpaste on the brush," "brush your teeth," "rinse your mouth," etc. After playing the game for a few minutes she came to me and said that she wanted to brush her teeth.

Good thing that we have a brush-your-teeth system down. I got Lizzy and Jordan tooth brushes at Walmart the other day, and unlike the last time I bought them toothbrushes, these brushes have a HOME. They live in the cup on the sink. And now the kids can REACH the sink. 

I've been spending months looking for a step stool that I liked. I don't want to buy something unless I love it. I bought one a while ago that I didn't love and I found out it wasn't even tall enough. Wasted purchase. Finally I looked online and found the perfect easy-to-clean white step stool, which you can see just a little bit in this picture. Until now the kids have been dependent on us to hold them up to a sink so that they could wash their hands. This way is SO much better. 

Lizzy is well trained now in washing her hands and brushing her teeth. She knows the order of events.

1. Move the stool to the sink.

2. Stand on the stool. 

3. I turn on the water. She's not strong enough. This is probably a good thing.

4. Wet the toothbrush.

5. Brush teeth.

6. Drink a little water and swish it

7. Spit. She can't really do this yet. It's so funny. 

8. Put the toothbrush back in the cup. This is such an important part!

9. Dry hands

10. Move the stool away from the door

11. Turn off the light

12. Close the door.

Since I've enumerated all those steps this all seems so much more complicated. Lizzy is a smart kid. =) We will introduce toothpaste later. One step at a time! I still hate toothpaste. Yet I need it. If I ever try to get away with brushing without toothpaste it simply doesn't work. The minty freshness is a necessity. Have you ever met anyone that doesn't rinse their mouth after using toothpaste? I have. I COULD go into a lot more detail but I won't. 

Jordan is up there, too, with Lizzy. He likes to mimic. He will even kneel and fold his arms while we pray! I wish I could let him play with my cell phone but the lock is too easily breached. He wants to be like me and talk on the phone.

Christmas Tree

Our tree is spending another year with a bare bottom half. The kids have so much fun playing with the ornaments that I don't mind. At the bottom right of the tree there is our little tiny tree that we've had a few years as a Christmas decoration. This year Lizzy was excited about the little "Lizzy Tree." She wanted to have it next to the "Mommy Tree."


This is Jordan coming up the stairs. =)

Jordan has a new word. This makes 2. He picks up Morgan's phone and says, "hi!" His first word was "uh-oh."

He's 29 pounds and 35 inches. He is 18 months and about 9 months ahead of the normal sized kids in those measurements. 

The whisk and the spatula

Lizzy: I want peanut butter in my mouth.

Guess what that means =}

Lizzy: I want you cook a sandwich.

Me: You want me to cook what?

Lizzy: Brownies. Cook Brownies.

Jordan, like any other kid, I imagine, likes to play with the kitchen utensils. Today he pulled out a whisk and started eating it. It was so cute I pulled out the camera and took a picture. Then Lizzy wanted to be picture-worthy, too, so she found something and started eating that. The blue silicon scraper, actually, would be my choice, too.

The kids then put their utensils away.

My Organized Binder

I had a brilliant idea the other day. I could get rid of my pile of papers in my desk drawer by putting them in a binder! And of course, I know the best place to get binders:

bananabunch.etsy.com

I was so excited about this that I made a whole trip all the way to Walmart just to get these dividers. Everything fits in there now, and I have no loose papers in my drawer. It is wonderful! And I love the pink elastic because it keeps Jordan out of my binder. I haven't found a way to keep him out of my drawer, though. But now that things are kept safely in this binder then I don't mind if he goes in the drawer.

My tabs are:

Etsy (for receipts)

Do later

Hold

Bed Bath and Beyond coupons

Coupons (that I'll actually use)

Wish list (things I find in magazines)

Where oh where are my children?

I noticed my laundry hamper was gone when I tried to toss in a dirty baby sock. So I went to look for it. By the way, where are my children?

Hm. The room looks pretty clean, doesn't it?

Oh, how looks can deceive. There is a secret cracker eating party behind the chair. The room is NOT clean. =)

Lizzy does a good job of sharing with Jordan - when she has two of something. Today she wanted some more milk after her pink sippy cup ran out. So I told her to go get Jordan's sippy cup since it was the only milk we had left. So she went and got Jordan's sippy cup. What a good girl, I thought, until I realized that she had gone into Jordan's room and woke him up to give it to him!

Lizzy has some great phrases down now.

"There's snow out there, you know!"

"You fix my bed. It's broken." (She says this when she wants us to tuck her in again.)

Her prayers are especially cute:

"Thank you for rainbows, friends, church. Mommy Daddy Sissy Jordan. Princess bed. Jesus Christ Amen!"

Here's our play room: We moved the couch downstairs. I LOVE it! In fact, I am now on the couch downstairs while the kids are playing with trains and balls.

Jordan has been saying, "DAH!" a lot lately. He's too cute.

Thanksgiving by Eva

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. We had Zeke over on Thursday and Julie spent the weekend with us. There were only four of us eating (plus the kids, but they don't count as far as volume of food consumed. They hardly eat anything. I'm amazed that they even grow.)

I LOVED playing games and enjoying our small family group. We stayed up really late. Ahh! I don't remember the last time we did that.

I was a bit nervous about all the cooking. Some friends of mine suggested using a turkey oven bag for cooking the turkey. It turned out FABULOUS! Oh my goodness. It was so flavorful and super yummy. I seriously am going to make turkey again soon. Turkey is no longer a once-a-year occasion in this house. =) I even made gravy with the drippings. There was room for improvement with the gravy…

Here I am making deviled eggs. We LOVE deviled eggs and egg salad. Morgan and Julie peeled the eggs, which I appreciated. I don't enjoy peeling eggs. The deviled eggs were the ONLY dish to be finished off on Thursday. We had leftovers of everything else!

The ladies:

The gentlemen:

So here's a quiz for you: Are these the "before" pictures or the "after" pictures?

Here's a closer look:

Those are actually "after" pictures! Haha. Our fridge is still full. We are working on it, though. =)

Do you see those yams? Oooh yum. I've adapted a recipe from the internet and added PECANS! They were super yummy. It turns out that I do have experience making many of these Thanksgiving dishes… stuffing, deviled eggs, yams, jello salad (Teresa's), and mashed potatoes. I've struggled with mashed potatoes, as you may have read on my blog before =), but I finally feel like I have a grip on them. *phew*

Having Thanksgiving at my house wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Because we were well prepared and had planned everything we had a nice non-stressful weekend.

My Sewing Room

Here are the long awaited pictures. I actually took some time to clean the room before taking pictures… =) So it looks as nice as it ever has for these pictures. =)

This is my new swivel chair. My old one was one that the missionaries left it behind. I understand why - it was SO annoying. It was very squeaky. This room happens to be right below Jordan's room, so whenever I'd move I was sure he could hear it. This was a problem because the only time that I can sew during the day is when Jordan is sleeping. So I bought a new chair at Walmart for $20. Twenty tiny dollars. This quiet little chair cost less than one of my Etsy binders. Incredible.

My piles of fabric were quickly becoming un-navigatable. I even had several pieces of the same fabric in different piles. Yikes. I needed a way to organize my fabric. I went to Shopko and bought shelves. $15 each. Shesh - can't beat that price! And I bought maybe 15 poster boards and cut out mini bolts about 10 inches tall and 4 inches wide. I wrapped each piece of fabric around a bolt, and the result it what you see below:

I have a "guest chair" in my sewing room. Lizzy sits there and plays with her dolls while I sew during the day. Sometimes Morgan accompanies me with his Security Now podcasts. I like having somebody in the room with me.

By the way, this is the room that Morgan and I painted and the missionaries used to study in.

How to Play in the Pantry

Lizzy: Okay Jordan, today we are going to learn how to play in the pantry. We've already opened the child proof doors, so the hard part is done.

Lizzy: First you stick out your arm and grab a can.

Jordan: Like this?

Lizzy: Yes, very good.

Food Network

My doctor's office has the Food Network on all the time. It has been inspiring, to say the least. So at home I've started watching clips online from the Food Network. It helps me be a bit more excited about cooking. And it really does keep my attention because I will use these recipes and tips in my real life! It also keeps my kid's attention, I don't know why. One thing that I really wish I did better at was cooking. I wish I WANTED to cook. Lately I've been hating it.

This is Baked French Toast. YUM! We usually buy wheat bread, but I've decided that I like white bread better for french toast. This recipe, actually, calls for French bread! Go figure.

I made myself a placemat to keep my planner! It is so cute. I was thrilled to have a reason to buy some of the ADORABLE fall fabric that they have at JoAnns. Now my desk looks significantly neater because it looks like my planner, cell phone, camera, pen, and grocery list actually belong on the desk.

Looks less cluttered. Got to love that!

Lizzy is 3

Lizzy had a little birthday party in September. She's 3 now. She was a bit worried that we were telling her that she has to answer "3" instead of "2" when someone asks her how old she is. Zeke, being playful, said "How old are you? Five?" So Lizzy started answering "5" for a while.

A couple of Lizzy's friends came over and they had cupcakes. Actually, we are in November now and Lizzy STILL talks about her birthday cupcakes. She talked to my parents on the phone last week and told them about her birthday and her cupcakes.

Lizzy had a spotlight at preschool. So I was given a school assignment. That felt rather strange having been out of school for a few years. Using cardboard, fabric and pins, I made a poster of a bunch of things she likes. She loves dolls, snow white, Shrek, apple juice, and brownies. Actually since the cupcake birthday, she hasn't been asking for brownies anymore, come to think of it. She also likes the "Popcorn Popping" song, thus the picture of popping pop corn on the right.

Earlier today she said, "Wait a minute. I have an idea! I want more apple juice."

She had picture day, too. Here she is all dressed up and her hair done really cute:

Jordan is starting to enjoy books. And by the way he is walking now. He just decided to. Today we had our first snow. Morgan put him down in the yard, Jordan took a step and fell into the snow, then crawled back to the house as fast as he could, crying. Getting the kids ready to play in the snow takes longer than it does for the kids to actually play in the snow. Especially if they run back in crying.

Halloween 2011

Jordan wore the monkey costume that Lizzy wore last year.

I LOVE the tail in the back. It's just so perfect trailing out and wagging behind him.

Lizzy was a LADYBUG! I saw this cute costume on Etsy months ago and ordered it. It's been sitting in our closet since then.

It's going to take a couple of pictures to show you everything on her costume.

The Etsy costume came with the headband (in the first picture), the red tutu with black dots glued on, and the wings. I bought a red turtleneck and black pants that she can wear for the rest of the season.

Lizzy liked trick or treating, except for the dogs. So many people have dogs. So every time we knocked at a door I had to hold her up in case there was a dog. She got lots of candy. The best was a full normal sized package of peanut M&M's. YUM. Oh, and Lizzy got a little bite-sized BUTTERFINGER! She gave me a bite and it was soooo yummy. And we went the extra mile this year and got chocolate for our trick or treaters! It's significantly more money. A good $20 instead of $8. I personally think that the chocolate candies are soo much better than the sugar ones like lollypops or jolly ranchers. I was glad, too, that we had extra Kit Kats. I haven't had any of these candies in a long time. I never buy them. It feels like a sin to buy them. I think I'd like to list my favorite candies now:

1. Butterfinger

2. Reeses

3. Kit Kat

4. Peanut M&M's

5. Snickers

I can't think of any more. I probably won't be able to think of any other ones until I see them at the store or the next Halloween comes around. I really don't ever buy candy! Or go down the candy aisle. Nevertheless, the above candies are my favorites.

Pop Kins

Can you guess what "pop kins" means? If you peak ahead to the rest of the pictures then you'll figure it out. =)

We went to a nearby pumpkin patch! Lizzy picked out a small pumpkin and we got one for Jordan, too.

Aimee gave us some baby boy clothes and one of the items was a pumpkin-orange footsie pajama! Oh it is so cute. And you can tell by the above picture that it matched the pumpkins just perfectly.

In Utah there are lots of corn mazes. This was a free corn maze that was more like a walk. So we walked through the corn maze with the kids. It felt like Bermejo - except it was corn stalks instead of sugar cane.

Then the time came to decorate the pumpkins. Jordan had some car stickers and Lizzy had some cupcake stickers to put on their pumpkins.

Lizzy and Jordan played and played with the stickers, but as you may have guessed, by the end of decorating the pumpkins, the pumpkins had no stickers on them.

Julie came by and she got to decorate a squash. =) I LOVE having Julie nearby.