a star wars halloween

it was so fun having gramma ellen here to help with halloween. ;) we skipped out on the actual door to door stuff, and went to our ward halloween party. there were enough sweet treats there. ;) isaiah's costume was a christmas present from his uncles. and i made makayah's princess leia's costume. samiyah's costume was super easy...a hand-me down baby bear suit that isaiah had gotten at his baby shower. sure came in handy tonight! all i had to do was make a little "ewok" head cover and paint her nose brown with cocoa powder. ;) love my little star wars munchkins.

a long visit with grandma crowfoot

having ellen here was a blast. seriously. it was one long week of partying! grandma ellen was so helpful and took the kids to school and picked them up, which allowed me to sleep in and keep the house nice and tidy. ;) she was an amazing help keeping makayah and isaiah entertained. there were lots of pente game playing, crafts, knitting, and cuddling. 

while ellen was here, we also had a week long office marathon. we could not stop laughing. it was the first time she had watched most episodes, and at times we were in tears laughing so hard. we ordered pizza from glass nickel and watched movies. we knitted hats and scarves and talked until midnight...well, that's when i finally went to bed, but sam and ellen stayed up much later chitchatting. ;) ellen and i also watched a movie called, "the stoning of sorayah m." heartbreaking film. and after watching that, i was so incredibly thankful for my two beautiful daughters. they are extremely precious. we cried our eyes out watching while sam was out playing basketball. it really was quite disturbing how people treat other people. 

then we started up the office marathon again, because we needed to laugh. and we did. a lot. 

since isaiah didn't have school on thursday, we decided to take a trip out to new glarus. this was ellen's first trip out to madison and we wanted to show her around. the drive was beautiful and the little swiss town was so fun. we went from shop to shop, taste testing this goodie and that one. we bought treats from the bakery for the drive home. and we stopped and ate dinner at the pizzeria. dinner was delicious!

the painted cow picture. there are actually tons of these cows in switzerland. they would have them inside the malls, on the streets downtown, in town squares....all over! so, it was fun to see that new glarus had them too. 

lovely grandma and the lovely bell tower. that day when the chimes would go off, it was quite eerie. i don't know if they did it especially for halloween coming up, but, it was spooky to listen to. 

mother and son. eating at the pizzeria. super duper yummy food.

mama and baby mims. she is such a good sport about everything! :)

grandma and grandpa crowfoot

what can we say? we LOVED having grandma and grandpa here! the kids were in heaven. on friday evening, we went to costco, of course. we shopped for this and that, and once we were finished, we headed over to state street to eat at one of the indian restaurants there. super duper yummy. isaiah and makayah weren't too keen on the curry, but they did like the rice and naan bread.  

on saturday, ellen and strater were courageous enough to take the kids swimming at their hotel. isaiah worked on his cannon balls and makayah relaxed in the hot tub with grandma. ;) after that, we all went to watch "despicable me" at the movie theater. we all had such a great time, and samiyah slept through the entire movie. needless to say, isaiah and makayah were tuckered out by the end of the day. 

sunday was grandpa's last day in madison. we got to church on time, wow, i know. it was a miracle. it also happened to be the primary program. makayah was having issues with her hair. and decided during her part in the program not to say anything because her hair was "ugly." it really wasn't. it just wasn't up in a pony tail the way she wanted it. so she stood at the podium, silently shaking her head. little miss diva. and then she sat down. isaiah spoke his part, and when he was done and heading up to his seat, makayah gave him a high five. it was super cute. anyway, they did sing loudly and they were simply adorable during the program. i'm so happy that ellen and strater could be here for it. after church, we all said our goodbyes to grandpa, but isaiah was especially sad to see him leave. he kept asking when grandpa was going to come back and when he was going to move to madison. thankfully, grandma was staying with us for a week and that cheered isaiah up. 

Pumpkins, Doctors, and Grandma & Grandpa

I'm trying to keep up with my journaling. and unfortunately, for this post i don't have any pictures. however, i did want to remember this day, so i'll write as much as i can remember. :)

october 21, 2010
i signed up to be a chaperone for makayah's pumpkin farm field trip. i had chaperoned isaiah's field trips last year, and i really wanted to share this experience with makayah (and tag-along samiyah). yeah, i might've been crazy...who signs up to chaperone a preschool field trip two weeks after giving birth?! me, that's who.

i brought my baby sling along. and we drove up to the farm with mrs. t and another girl from makayah's class. when we got there, there was a huge playground with a gigantic slide...i'm not kidding, it was almost 12 feet high. huge! i followed makayah and her classmate around while carrying little mims, covered, in her baby sling. makayah loved the outside play area, and we had so much fun on the gigantic slide, running around the fort, and having a rubber ducky splash race. it was a pretty sweet place. after playtime and snack, we all gathered around for the tour around the farm. we saw the rabbits, the pigs, the donkey, the chickens, and fed the goats at the end. while the kids were running around and touring the barn, i slipped into a quiet corner and fed samiyah. then it was off to our hay ride. at the end of our fun and bumpy ride, we picked out pumpkins and went on our way home. i'm so glad i was able to chaperone, and especially happy that samiyah allowed me to without any fuss. she really is the sweetest babe so far. ;)

next up, samiyah's 2wk doctor's appointment. i was so afraid she'd be getting some needles that day, and i was about to have sam take her instead. but, in the end, i figured it was best for me to take her and be able to comfort her afterwards. so, we went. no shots. just weighing, heartbeats, measuring, and lots of smiles. whew! thank goodness. the doc said we could wait to start any immunizations until 2 months. i love my pediatrician. she is amazing.

anyway, besides, the busy morning and afternoon, i think everything else went fairly smoothly. the rest of the day was dedicated to getting ready for grandma and grandpa crowfoot to arrive. the kids were so excited to see them, and so were sam and i. they couldn't come until late that night, after isaiah and makayah were asleep. however, when the did come, they tiptoed into their bedroom and gave them goodnight kisses. :) and since samiyah was still awake, they got to hold her before going to their hotel for the night.

yay! grandma and grandpa are here!!

7 year anniversary

sam and i decided to celebrate our anniversary early. we were able to get tickets to see "wicked." it was super duper cool. we saw it before the baby came. it was so fun just to be together. laughing, talking, sneaking food inside. ;) i had a great time with my best friend. i can't believe how much time has gone by so quickly. and at the same time, it seems like, 7 years? that's it?? because for some strange reason, it seems we've known each other forever. i love you sam. thank you for being my best friend, my wonderful husband, and the greatest daddy ever. it has been one "WICKED" ride. :)

baby mims' first photo shoot

samiyah was five days old when i decided to play around with the camera. we had a fun time and i even got peed on. ;)