Anson at 5 Months

Here's our boy at 5 months.  Handsome.  Happy.  and ONE TOOTH!

update 11/10/10: TWO TEETH!

Halloween 2010

Where to start on the topic...  And be prepared for some boasting.  I've been busy!

Having Amanda living here she asked early on if she could come trick-or-treating with us.  We decided we should do a theme for all of our costumes.  Claire wanted to be a princess so we slotted Anson to be a dragon, Amanda the knight (or dragon slayer/tamer), and Blake and I as King and Queen. 

I always try to spend as little $$ as possible on costumes and I really don't like those expensive & flimsy packaged ones so the hunt was on.  I found Anson's costume first for $12 and decided I couldn't make it for less than that and it was reasonable.  That first purchase was the most expensive part.  Claire had a fancy Easter dress I figured we could use, and I still have some old prom dresses - which I still fit into!  So we'd just have to add on to those dresses to make them look royal.  I started asking around for costume pieces from Blake's and my mom.  My mom had Renaissance costumes from her step-sons in the attic which we used for Blake's costume AND she had REAL CHAIN MAIL that Amanda was excited to wear.  That stuff was HEAVY!!!  She didn't have any royal capes, but did have leftover fabric. 

Now, I'm not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination.  I barely can sew a straight line.  But I figured capes for all three of us couldn't be too bad.  I looked online for some examples and was encouraged.  Each would be one piece of fabric with straight lines.  Thanks to some (ok, lots of) help & encouragement from my mother-in-law and her sewing machine & supplies I was able to make our capes.  My mantra was, "It's only a costume.  It's fine."  Decorating them was fun.  Claire loved putting the glitter on her and my capes and did a great job.  Amanda's knight cover took a little more doing but this amateur still got hers done and didn't have to buy a thing.

And then when we found out Christy would be here for Halloween we decided she needed to join the group costume.  She was a court jester and was able to make her costume out of things she already owned.  Wohoo!

Of all 6 costumes we only bought Anson's costume, gold clasps for the capes, jewel stickers, gold decorative ribbon, and crowns.

Here's our group photos:

And AFTER Halloween night I spent the next few days baking the pumpkin seeds and turning our jack-o-lanterns into pumpkin puree to bake with.  Baked pumpkin seeds were first.  I found the pumpkin seed recipe last year and we loved them just as much again.  Click HERE for the recipe.

Puree was next.  We had so much pumpkin that I had to do the puree in three batches.  And with lots of little interruptions it took quite a while.  But know we have at least 20 cups of puree.  It's a good thing we like pumpkin!  So far I've made pumpkin pancakes, froze cubes for baby food, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  Pumpkin pie is next.  YUM!

Auntie Time

My sister came to visit us for a good long trip.  (Thanks to her hubby & family for making that happen!)  It's been nothing short of wonderful to have her here.  We've been doing a lot of the ordinary but having her here has made it feel like special time.  Anson and Auntie got to meet for the first time, and after crying the first time she babysat has really bonded and loves her.  Claire has had lots of play time and attention.  I'm sure we'll all feel the void once she goes back home to Virginia.  But in the meantime we're loving her!

Scripture Recital

For family scripture time every night we've been reading the Book of Mormon as a family (in addition to individually).  But with a 3-yr-old we'd all read 1 verse each so it was taking a while.  We were in 2nd Nephi and some nights were better than others getting Claire to actually repeat what we read.  And, quite frankly, those verses of Isaiah quoted only 3 verses at a time the topic and context are hard to follow.  It was starting to be less than the glowing experience it started out as.

I decided it was more important that we have positive experiences with scripture reading at this point and that I wanted Claire to easily understand the words she was saying so that she could start to internalize the messages.  I took pictures from the Friend Magazine that had scriptures quoted on them and put them in a binder.  We work on a scripture until she has it down and then she gets to pick the next one to work on.  We started with half of a verse and she's surprised me with how fast she memorized it. 

It's been fun so far.  The first few nights of a new verse we read it to her and she repeats.  The next few nights she gets to play "teacher" and tells us the words to repeat.  And we get to talk about what it means.

The other night we told her she could recite all her scriptures so far for the camera.  Here's a peek at what she's learned.

Car Story #3

We were driving home the other night with happy kids in the backseat.  At a stop light Blake leaned over and we kissed. 

From the backseat we heard, "AWWWW!"  We smiled at each other and looked back but Claire was looking out the window. 

"How nice," she said, still looking out the window.

Not sure if she was talking about us or something she was watching outside Blake asked what was so nice.

"Daddy, you gave your Mama a kiss!" 
(Note: I heard "Mama."  Blake heard "Mom.")

Intro to Claire & Anson and Okonomiyaki

I found a website recently with foods Japanese kids like to eat and found Okonomiyaki. (okonomiyakiboy)  I vaguely remember eating it, but not often so I was excited to try it.  You know me.  I love trying new recipes, and I love Japanese food.  And... SUCCESS.  It's easy and we all liked it.  It's a dinner version of a pancake with veggies in it, but the fun part is the faces.  I used a hard boiled egg for the eyes instead of cheese and added slices of clementines for ears.

Claire thought her boy looked like her (I tried to make the hair longer...)  When she was eating she kept saying, "Mmm!  I'm yummy!  Claire is yummy!" 

In other news, Claire & Anson are starting to play together already.  So far they don't play long together and I can't leave them alone together quite yet, but I'm so pleased they like to hang out together. 

This is just so typical of both of them.  Anson is pretty happy to chew on his hands all day long.  And Claire loves to pretend to sleep and makes beds for herself all over the place.  Earlier I had to remind her not to jump on her bed so she found a solution - she made one on the floor.  That was fine with me.  And Anson thought it was hilarious.  This went on for quite a while that afternoon.  Claire and I watched these clips when I imported them and we both were laughing together at them.

Car Stories #1 and #2

Now that Claire is becoming more skilled in verbal expression talking to her during car rides is more interesting.  I'm going to start numbering the car stories and keeping track on this blog.

Car Story #1: 

Claire said, "Mommy!  Mommy!  Look, I drew a picture!"


Knowing that she didn't have anything to draw on or draw with I turned around to figure out what she managed to get her hands on.  She was pointing to the window.  She has drawn on the window before with slobber from sucking on a finger and she just watched a cartoon where a kid breathed on the window and drew on the moisture so I started reminding her that we don't draw on the windows, please. 

And then I saw them.  Chunks. Of boogers.  Then I changed my lecture to how boogers go into tissues and nothing else. We especially don't draw with them.

Car Story #2:

The McDonalds around the corner from us got torn down and rebuilt.  Even though we don't eat at McDonalds it's been fun to watch the progress of the tearing down and building.  Now the Golden Arches are hung on the building so there's no denying what it is.

So Tuesday as we were driving past again Claire says, "Excuse me, Mommy.  I have a question to ask you." (Yes, we've been working on the excuse me lately so I was very pleased.)

"Yes, Claire?"

"Mommy, will McDonalds help us find the way to Jesus?"

After Blake and shared a silent laugh I explained that McDonalds probably doesn't help us, but we can read our scriptures, and pray, and have family home evening, and go to church, and those are the ways we learn about how to get back to Jesus.

Then Claire started rambling about "The Plates".  I was thinking she might be talking about the golden plates of the Book of Mormon but Blake thought she was talking about real dinner plates.  He was right.  Claire told us we all have plates and that Jesus will help us take them to Heavenly Father's house so we can all eat together.

I'm not sure THAT story is in the scriptures, but I'm glad that the way back to God is a matter of interest for her in any case.  :)