All about October

Well it has been a very warm and busy October. The week of Halloween it was 89 and 94 degrees. It is now finally cooling off, and feeling a bit like fall now. Upper 70's in the day and 40's at night. So we do actually put our heat on at night for the girls. I have to look at my calender to remember all that has happened this month. Lets start with Milestones.

Avery:

7th tooth cut Oct 21st.

8th tooth was cut on 31st

started clapping around the 24th

First ear infections (yes both ears at once) on the 22nd.

says "mama" and "dada" very clearly and seems to know what they mean. Also says "duck," I don't think she knows what it means.

Crawls more than 4 steps starting on Nov. 3rd.

Perfected her pincher grasp. Can find specks of crumbs smaller than the naked eye can see, pick them up and put them in her mouth.

So proud of her crawling that she will stop roll over and clap for herself.

She has turned into a happy baby. She sleeps well, eats well, and plays well. She loves her daddy, and sister, who both crack her up. She also loves to get into everything. She is very mobile.

Weight:

17 lbs 9 oz.

Callie:

This month started with Callie being Ariel because of her Halloween costume. But since Halloween night she has renamed herself Mulan. If I ask Callie to do something she says I am not Callie I am Mulan. She has renamed me Anita (this is what she thinks Ariel's mom's name is). We think it is Athena? I am often embarrassed in public when she says "Anita you are being mean." She calls Cameron King Triton and Avery is Seeping Dewy. Callie read her first book Wall.E level 1 reader. She helped to make her seashell crown for Halloween. Callie was in her first primary program. She had her part memorized and I think most of the songs. Though she would not say her part with out prompting, it was very clear. She did not sing a note the whole program but she did look cute. Next time I will make sure she wears a longer skirt. She was in the front row and I think many had a clear shot of her panties. She continues to have a great imagination, and a great ability for negotiation. Both are skill she may use in her future law practice.

Callie Quote:

Callie: "Mom, I have to sit down right? When I go potty."

Me: "Yes you have to sit down."

Callie: "Because I don't have a line."

Me: "A line?"

Callie: "Yeah, like Gage has a string, you know that he holds when he goes potty."

Me: "Oooh! Yeah, you don't have a string, so you have to sit while you go potty."

Addie:
Helped Callie fix her costume to be more like a mermaid named Frankie. Attempted three times to get Callie's hair to curl to the misery of both Callie and me. Won the ward Chili cook off. Oops, I did not know it was a cook off. My recipe will forever be kept secret with the famous makers of Stag (canned chili). I did get a lovely trophy though. Fixed a toilet that had a hose explode in the middle of the night. Called a plumber for the disposal and learned how to fix that the next time it is jammed.

Cameron:

Landed a summer internship with Cohen, Kennedy, Dowd, and Quigley.
Still surviving law school. We don't see him much but, all agree he looks similar to Anthony the Blue Wiggle.

Events:

Octobers general conference marks the 6th year anniversary of Cams and mines first date. We celebrated by watching conference as a family and playing a memory game of the quorum of the twelve, and 1st presidency's names. Callie now recognizes many of them by name. The next weekend our friends the Berry's came down from Phoenix to visit. It was a giant slumber party for the girls. We were glad to have a nice break from the grind and visit with our good friends. As luck would have it we were asked to speak in church that same weekend about general conference. I chose to speak about "lifting where you stand" from President Uchtdorf's talk. This may have been my worst talk ever. I really did not prepare well, so was kind of winging my transitions. I am a little embarrassed. But, it was fall break week for the high school so a lot of people in our ward missed it. The content was good though, my rambling was not. Cameron spoke about relying on our covenants with the Lord. He did a fabulous job. The Monday following the Berry's visit Cameron was offered an internship with Cohen, Kennedy, Dowd, & Quigley, a great law firm in Phoenix. This means we will be spending our summer in Phoenix. Cameron is very excited this was one of his top choices, he is happy for the opportunity. I am also thinking what fun to be up near all our old friends again. Callie started Joy school with a few other girls, Eliza, Kaitlin, and Abby. Callie was in her first primary program. Then the Halloween extravaganza began. I was really worried we were not going to have anything to do this year for Halloween. Boy, was I wrong. Callie kept asking me about parties we went to last year. I think she expected to see the same people and do the same things for Halloween this year. So in my mind I really wanted to live up to her expectations. I think we went a little over board. Monday night we went to the law school Halloween party for the kids. Callie went as a mermaid. We curled her hair, put on makeup, got her all decked with jewelry, and crown. She looked great and ran into her friends Eliza, and Kaitlin. She got lots of candy and treats. We should have stopped there. Gigi came to town on Weds. and we dragged her to Shaylee's princess birthday party. I tried to convince Callie to dress as Belle, because she has a beautiful Belle costume, but she wanted to be a mermaid again. We tried to curl her hair but it did not work. My mom did her makeup. Her crown broke so we made a new one, and went to the party. It was a really fun party, there was a Cinderella, Fairy princess, Sleeping Beauty, Tinkerbell, and a princess. The next night was our ward trunk or treat. Avery was Daisy LaDuke in her flower costume. Callie decided not to be Ariel but to dress as a cheerleader. I think she was sick of us fussing with her hair so she thought her Yale cheerleader out fit would avoid the curling fiasco. So she got pony tails instead. She started the night with fairy wings too. So we called her the cheer leading fairy princess. When we got to the party she took off her wings. When I asked if she still wanted them she said "We can just pretend I have them on." I think this was the best ward party I have ever seen. They had so much going on. Diner, lots of games for the kids, cake walk, and spook alley. The adult costumes were very elaborate too. Callie was very good at this spider toss game getting 7 out of 9 in the bucket. Huge improvement from last year where she would walk to the bucket and place them in. This year she actually tossed them. Callie won the cake walk her first round. I won the chili cook off, with my Stag chili. Cameron even came to the activity, so we all had fun. Then we did the trunk or treat and came home with a bucket of candy. Well, we should have stopped there, but Halloween still had not come. We thought it would be fun to go look at toys to give Gigi an idea for Christmas gifts. Well, little did we know that Toys R Us would be having trick or treating all day in the store. So more candy, and even a paper Mulan mask. That night we decided to go to our old ward's trunk or treat. Callie has a lot of friends in that ward so I thought it would be fun for her. She decided to be a mermaid again, but we could only call her Mulan. The request was fine until we found her friend Shaylee who was dressed as Mulan, "the china princess,"(Callie calls her), and Shaylee says "Hi, I am Mulan!" then Callie replied angrily "No I am Mulan." Well Shaylee was a bit confused so just went her merry way collecting candy. Callie got upset because I guess she expected Shaylee to play with her and talk to her. Shaylee was on a mission, and Callie had a little melt down. It all ended in hugs and a sad goodbye. I think next year we wont celebrate so much Halloween. I think we wore Gigi out too. Gigi helped me run a few errands that are hard with the girls. We got some fabric for pillows, and some things at the hardware store. She was a huge help to have around. We worked on trying to get Avery to crawl. We had a good visit with her, and were sad to see her go. After we dropped her off at the airport Callie whined as we got in the car "we will all miss her very much." Avery started to cry and Callie explained, "Avery is crying because she misses Gigi." The day after she left Avery started really crawling, more than 4 step. This week we went to a children's production of Charlot's web. Callie and Avery were very well behaved, and the play was very cute.

Critters:

The morning Callie went to practice for the primary program, she told her friend, "This morning King Triton had a scorpion in his pants." Yes we found a scorpion in the house. It was on a pile of clothes that were left on the stairs. Cameron almost grabbed it thinking it was a piece of string, but then noticed the string assumed a striking position. Cameron heroically exterminated it. We are now calling the professionals.

For now King Tritan, Annita, Mulan, and Seeping Dewy are all doing well and recovering from a busy October.