Mmmewwwwwwww!

Before I had kids, my favorite season was summer. Now that I have my babies, I love this time of year. Fall. To be even more exact, I love the time from the first of September until Christmas. I'm so excited to have Sloane around this year. I'm also excited to see how Holynd responds to Thanksgiving and Santa. (Too keep the list going, I'm really excited to NOT be pregnant during the holidays... I need a break from getting sick after Thanksgiving. I'd also like to do my Christmas shopping without 100 potty breaks per hour!)

I had a blast shopping for Halloween costumes. It was fun to be able to buy from the infant costumes and toddler costumes. Partyland has been my favorite costume store so far. (Maybe I shouldn't have told!)

I couldn't decide if I wanted Sloane and Holynd to be dressed alike, or be dressed completely different. Holynd kept telling me that she wanted to be something "scare-ney!", but I figured I would use my mom-power one more year and dress her the way I wanted her to dress. ;)

Sloane was our little lamb.




Holynd was our moo-cow. She loved walking around the house saying, "MMMMmmmeeeewww!" If the truth be told, I've had to hide the costume because it was being worn almost everyday.

Now I am busy trying to decide what the girls will get for Christmas this year. I know a lot of people love to have their shopping done early, (which is awesome!!) but I'm a sucker for the Christmas shopping experience. Yes, I love the crowds; I love the long lines; I love the Christmas music.... the list goes on. So, in the Peterson household, Christmas shopping does not start until after Thanksgiving. However, I have tried in previous years to put my Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving and Matt always stops me. Matt loves Thanksgiving and hates that Christmas is taking over the month of November. :) (I'm also debating as to whether or not I want new Christmas decor.... I think I've been pretty good about not spending money on Christmas decorations for the last two years, I may deserve some new Christmas decorations. I'm thinking purple and silver....)

I'll hold off putting up the Christmas decorations just for my husband. I'm pretty sure he's worth a few extra days of waiting.

(Husband, new Christmas decorations... Hint Hint!)

Speaking. By Holynd

Holynd is getting better and better at talking all the time. She's forming sentences and it seems like everyday she says something new. She makes an attempt at saying any new word that she hears. It's pretty entertaining, especially with Halloween right around the corner. She hears a lot of new Halloween words each day.

Some of the most memorable phrases:

"Sloanie, air are you???? Oh! Found you!"

"Mommy! Bunny is lost!"

"Let's go on walk."

"It's ok Sloane... Need to go a night-night."

"Say prayers. Haley Favor, Amen!"

"Com'on Sloanie. Time to go!"

"Oh mommy! Punkin so cute!"

"Mommy! See the scare-ney!"

***And my ultimate favorite!****

(After getting up from her nap.)

"Daddy! Air are you!? Daddy? DDDDaaaaddddddyyyy?! Oh mommy, daddy still at work!"

Itches!!!

First things first, did you hear about this?!? Matt got me this gift for our anniversary. It's our blog, in book-form. Pretty snazzy! I was really surprised, especially since I've picked out most of my anniversary gifts myself. ;) Thank you husband!

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It just wouldn't be Halloween without a trip to Gardner's Village. I love the shoppes and Matt loves fudge, so it all works out. Holynd kept calling out "Itches!" and pointing to the witch on her shirt. It's a lot of fun to have her get excited for Halloween.

We went on a hayride to the witches' house! It was a lot of fun, but Holynd mostly loved the goats. The fact that women were walking around completely decked-out in witch-attire had no affect on my little Holynd. Go figure.

(Goats are way more interesting then witches.)

Sloane remained completely unamused by the entire trip, but it was fun to have an excuse to have the girls wear fun Halloween shirts.

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We've had a hard time deciding what to do about Holynd and her birthday. Since it's three shorts days after Christmas, we feel bad that she only get gifts once-a-year. We're thinking about having a half-birthday celebration when she gets a little older, but for now, we've just decided that a random gift here-or-there can't hurt her. ;)

She loves her new kitchen.

Survival of the Fittest!

We went to Arizona over the weekend for Aunt-T's wedding open house! It was a quick trip, drive down Friday, stay over Saturday and drive home Sunday. It was difficult, but not nearly as hard as we thought it would be. The girls were actually pretty awesome through the whole thing. We did have one carsick-incident, in which our rental car got covered in vomit, but after re-grouping in Page, AZ, we were back on our way!

Sloanie has become an avid thumb-sucker. I have a love-hate relationship with this habit of hers. It was especially nice on our trip because she could suck her thumb when she would get upset during the car ride. However, her thumb is getting really red and even has a blister... Not sure what to do about it. :)

Anyone a fan of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives???? WE ARE!!!! We had to visit one of Guy's picks and so with a handy "Guy Ate Here" app on our phones, we were able to find somewhere Guy Fieri had visited! We chose Joe's Farm Grill! It was amazing!

I got the Grilled Vegetable Pizza, which was one of the best things on the planet!

Matt got an Ahi Tuna Burger with Garlic French Fries! Oh my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

This picture captures one of the miracles that occurred during our trip! The girls slept through our little Joe Farm Grill visit! Pretty sure it's the first time something like this has happened in the history of double-strollers!

We did visit the Mesa Temple while we were there! It's very pretty and seems to have a lot of history. We went to the Distribution Center nearby and bought Holynd her first CTR ring. It lasted about five minutes and hasn't been seen or heard from since. :)

There were Orange Trees all over the temple grounds! That would be so cool to be able to pick yourself an orange after attending a session.

Holynd kept putting blankets over her head to block out the sun during the long car rides.

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The following videos are just somethings I captured around our house. Holynd loves to help me clean and I tried all morning long to get a video of her "mopping" and singing the "Clean-Up!" song. This was all I got.

Then after I gave up trying to capture the cleaning, she ran to the window because she thought she saw Matt pull up. Whenever she sees him, she wants me to open the deck door for her, so she can run out and greet him. So this video is of her begging to see her dad. Oh, by the way, she is now calling Matt by his first name. Matt hates it, so no one is aloud to call him "Matt" in Holynd's presence. He must be called "dad" at all times! :)

Lastly, today is Matt and I's 3rd wedding anniversary... Three years of marriage, two kids and way too many blessings to count! I love you husband!

Two Weeks of Learning

I'd like to record a few things that I've learned the past few weeks. My babies are only 17 months apart, but when Sloane was born, I felt totally overwhelmed and confused all over again. I had forgotten what a newborn baby was like in a short amount of time. Hopefully if I record these experiences, I will remember them better for future reference.

*Babies will always looks very angelic on their blessing day.

*Some kids will go through a phase where they think their stuffed animals need to wear diapers.

*Iggy's gives a sundae with their Chicken Strips kids' meal. Holynd is now a huge fan of Iggy's, much to her dad's liking.



*Children learn, very early in life, how to take pictures of themselves with your camera-phone.

*Wood chips eaten at the playground will partially digest and cause much pain and crying about 12 hours later.

*Stuffed animals, which are completely submerged in the tub, can be saved by being immediately put in a spin cycle and then dried. (Thank goodness for my fancy Bounce Dryer Bar! "Bunny" came out of the dryer very soft and smelling amazing.)

*4 month olds, who are somehow fed raisins, will not be able to digest them. They will make terrible grunting sounds about 12 hours later.

*Wood chips will also cause terrible diaper rash, which will lead to children vacating their diapers and peeing all over the hallway.

*The people at Poison Control are very nice. They do not call and tattle on you to Family Services for accidentally letting your child eat your stick of deodorant.

*When children eat deodorant, they may get terrible stomach aches, until they are taken to Iggy's and given their free Sundae.

*Children who are not used to riding an escalator, may tumble down the escalator unless watched closely. (In our defense, Holynd insisted on getting on the escalator by herself.)

*4 month olds, will demand to be in their older siblings presence at all times. Older siblings are hilarious to babies.