Bathroom Confessions

Katelyn came to me the other day very excited saying, "Wanna go Pinciss Potty!" and I thought excellent! So of course I led her to the bathroom, grabbed the Princess themed potty insert and sat her down. I had heard success stories about Potty Training in a day with a movie and juice and just basically having a party all day in the bathroom-I thought cool let's go for it. I knew Nate had just stocked up on a box of Capri Suns too. I grabbed the Dancing Princess movie(Barbie's Nutcracker DVD), the player, and plenty of juices. So we shimmied and sang and Katelyn was loving life. After the 8th juice box I thought hmmm...maybe I should just let nature take it's course. Well 2 hours and one movie later Katelyn told me her toes were hurting...apparantly I forgot to take her circulation into consideration. So I said farewell to my foiled plans and took Katelyn off the potty just in time for a flood...I really couldn't help but laugh.

Sarah's Crawling!!!

Here are some of Sarah's antics now that she's on the move at 8 1/2 months...


Concert Pianist (or Peanuts Comic Impersonater)

Avid Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Viewer (now that she can peer around Katelyn and see the screen)

Reclaim Toys

Dreaming of Greener Toy Pastures

Achieving Goals

And every once in a while getting caught up in nasty traffic jams (this was Katelyn's first time as a photographer)

Woodland Park Halloween Party

Getting Ready for the PartyA sneak peak at the carnival room and ballroom behindNate makes a great butler...

Nate and I were recently called to be on the activities committee and we were quite blown away by the party the rest of the committee had planned for the Halloween Celebration. It was a Haunted House theme that was really cool. The main entrance was an 8 foot inflatable archway that led into the church. Upon entering one was assigned a rotation group (witch, monsters, pumpkin, or spiders) and introduced to their group leader (Nate was ours). Each theme room was alloted 20 minutes to entertain and then the spooky organ music signaled the next rotation. We started in the haunted ballroom for some thriller dance lessons by our young women (one half of the gym was lined with mirrors, spooky dancing skeletons, and dry ice rootbeer brewed in a cauldron. Next was a halloween carnival room with pumpkin carving, toad shaped fish pond, pumpkin bean bag toss, witch hat ring toss, and professional family photos. Next we went through the haunted cemetary into the ghoulish dining hall. This room was complete with life sized skeleton pirates eating a dinner of bones and the entire meal was halloween themed (Werewolf legs-BBQ Chicken drumsticks, Frankenstein Head-cheeseball decorated as such, etc). Lastly there were two separate scary story readings in the libraries. One was really cute with haunted fireplaces and big chairs where two people read children's stories. The other room was set up rather with creatures all over the walls and the stories were really scary geared to entertain teenagers and adults. In between all the rotations people handed out halloween candy. Can you believe it was for a ward party? The bar has been set high but Nate and I had a really fun time.

Check out more of Chris' work at www.pqphotography.com
(entrance and my lovely poster)Angel, Tooth Fairy, Tinkerbell, "the Butler"Group Assignments by Dracula...(carnival room/ballroom)

Tinkbell and the Tooth Fairy

Katelyn has been part of a really fun playgroup. We rotate different parks in the area to go to and play with our little friends from the ward and community. This week we had a fun Halloween craft and cookie decorating activity. Katelyn was super excited to dress up. She was "Tink-bell" and Sarah was well... she never quite put on her Tooth Fairy costume. Nonetheless it was darling. Thanks Heather and Holly for your hard work.

Distractions to let me do her hair...

"Tink bell"

Ballerina Katelyn

Crafty Friends

Mmmm...Candy Corn!

Really fun photos of our little Tooth Fairy Sarah!

Everyday Life

Katelyn discovered using soap to wash her face...I think we need to establish some ground rules, don't you?



Angst emotions...notice this picture and the next are about 30 seconds apart.

Sweet Katelyn...I can almost hear the soft whispered request "Juice? Okay, juice."

Nate always has tumbling and chasing energy ready when he gets home and they LOVE it.

They also love to cuddle and watch movies with him. Speaking of movies...we repurchased The Chipmunk Grand Adventure because our previous copy was misplaced. This was Katelyn's reaction when she figured out what was playing on the tv. Priceless!

A few days ago it was like 40 degrees at night so here is Sarah all bundled (did I mention it is super HOT today?

Donations

Nate and I found this interesting site one night. Mormonsfor8.com has a list of all the lds contributors that donated to Yes on Prop 8. I think it is important to note that when the news states that the lds church has donated such and such amount it's not coming from church tithe or welfare funds. This is all non-tax deductible contributions from individual members wanting to specifically support an effort that coincides with the church teachings about the family unit. Those donations were used to finance media coverage and yard signs. Isn't it a pity that those yard signs weren't available until this week when the other sides have been up since August. Why is that? Well we found out that "No" used a large portion of their funding to bribe the manufacturing contacts. The excuse was that the signs had never arrived when in reality they were sitting in a garage. I am not angry just disappointed in the other side's lack of integrity.

The Best Gift

I thought this was really beautiful. If you have a moment please take a minute to watch. Nate and I have moved to California right in the midst of a very important moral battle. Prop 8 will be an amendment to the state constitution that says, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It is the same wording as in Prop 22 in 2000 that was passed by 61% of the people. This was, however, overturned by a 4-3 vote of the California Supreme Court and that's why it's back on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. A Yes vote on Prop 8 re-establishes traditional marriage as the law, and a No vote allows the legalization of same-sex marriage. Massachussets has already legalized same-sex marriages and now the elementary schools there are teaching that as part of the family unit. Parents do not have any say in the public school system regarding this. I know some really neat people that struggle with same gender attraction. However, I do look on this as a temptation to be overcome just as others are predisposed to anger, alcohol, tobacco, elicit images and so forth. If you or any of your friends or family members live in California I would ask you to share this message with them.

Face Painting Fun!

Sami is one of Katelyn's really good friends out here. Sami just turned 5 and had a Fairytopia Birthday party. Her awesome mom, Tamra included me in the festivities and I had my first face painting booth. We had a really great time with face painting, bracelet making, fairy scavenger hunt, costuming, pinata, and of course food. I am impressed with all the mom's I have seen throw great parties, Angela's monster truck course suddenly comes to mind...
Painting BoothSamiSarah's Ready to Party Listening to clues for the Scavenger Hunt
Thanks Tam for letting the girl's come even though our kids seem to be the half life of eachother.

Smaller World than We Think

My favorite church meeting of the year is the Relief Society Broadcast in the fall. I love to go and feel a part of something bigger than my to do list and I always leave feeling inspired. At this year's meeting Sister Beck talked how she was nervous because her mom was moving far away and she asked what will I do without my mom here. Her mom told her to immerse herself with the Relief Society and even if she were really gone that the sisters would fill that mother void. Next Elder Uchtdorf encouraged us to magnify our creative abilities and compassion. So after the meeting there was a chocolate fountain dipping bar. While the sisters in our stake were munching I ran into none other than Miriam Stay, Elizabeth MacDonald's sister (a dear friend from Baltimore). Small world, huh? As we talked, I told her about the portrait I did of their mom, Mary shortly after she passed away. I was able to get her a print of the piece and I just felt so enriched for being a part of this wonderful organization. I didn't really give these speakers credit for their messages but you can access them at lds.org in a couple weeks. Anyway here is a sampling of that piece:

Thank you Miriam for the lovely bouquet of Starlight Lillies!

Dinosaur Park

Our last day in Utah was a busy one.
As you can see Katelyn had no desire to leave whatsoever.We had a lovely tea party with McKell and Lexie at Natalie's.Then met up with both sides of the family at Dinosaur Park. It was full of life sized roaring dinos and geological findings. We had a picnic of KFC and danced around with the cousins. What a fun adventure park and final outing before the plane.
Ropelato CousinsT-RexKatelyn or Ivy's future wedding ring...Sarah finally warmed up to Grandma Starley!Sarah with Great-Grandpa Ropelato (this outing was all his idea-isn't he great!)Brushing the sand for Dinosaur bonesSo Big!Exploring at the playgroundGirls clammering over Grandpa RopelatoKatelyn was climbing all over the place, I was taking a shot of her standing and all of a sudden I had to run to catch her before she fell...
The best part of the whole trip was coming home to see Nate! Katelyn was begging for "Rolling Machine" at the airport so it was nice we were headed home. Nate does this rolling thing where he pretends to squish the girls and they squeal with delight and yell "squishy squishy." Pretty cute stuff.