Grateful #2: Friends

I feel so blessed to be in a ward with so many friends! I have made friends with the women not just my own age but with the women of all ages, and I have my callings to thank for that (Which I might do as a later post.) But I am really especially grateful for the friends I have made through playgroups. These women have kept me sane on the long days when Nolan is at work. Sometimes those days feel like they will never end. But then the thought of going to go play with my friends, and the kids get to go play with their friends, makes my day a lot easier. We talk on facebook, and vent if we've had a hard time, or give each other tips about kids. I've never met a more accepting group of women. And as more young mothers/ women come into the ward they just join right into the group. I love it! It's like a group of ready made friends.

Thank you friends!

Grateful #1: Nolan

So my unoriginal self is going to copy countless others and do a gratitude post for the month of Thanksgiving. I don't know if I will actually do one for each day of the month, but I'll try!

I'm pretty much grateful for my husband everyday. But if I posted about him everyday that would probably get pretty boring (but trust me I could find 30 things about him to be grateful for!).

Here are just a few:

-He is the best father ever! (I think he is a better father than I am mother)

-He works super hard at a job that he doesn't love.

-He lets me be a stay at home mom even though he would love to be a stay at home dad.

-He is an incredible husband.

-He tells me I'm beautiful all the time, and lets me know just how desirable he finds me.

-He tells me I should spend more money.

-He tells me I should take more "me" time.

-When I've had a bad day he always makes it better.

-He puts me first.

-He can always make me laugh.

-I love to talk to him, and hear what he has to say.

Ok, so maybe that is more than a few. But seriously, if you think you have a better husband, you would be wrong. He is my best friend, and he tells me that I am his all the time. I don't know what I would do without him.

Halloween: Pumpkin Patch and Fairy Tale Town

We went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm on Saturday! We have been going to this place seriously since I was a little girl. It has changed so much since then however. When I was little they only had a few slides and a hay ride to the pumpkins. Now there is so much to do there. But it still holds a place in my heart as the place to go get pumpkins. We have started a new tradition where we take pictures of our children on top of the giant pumpkins that they grow there. Here's Iliana in her pumpkin clothes.

Iliana's playing with grandma's pumpkin earrings. They are so cute together.

Oliver and Sam love to play together. Mostly they love to argue over whose item is whose. (The "mine!" game) But when they sat on pumpkins together, it was just too cute to pass up. By the end of the day we had ridden the train, petted some goats, watched them make cider, bought said cider, bought fudge, picked out pumpkins, went for a hay ride, went down the slide a million times, and fell asleep.

Later that night, Nolan and I took the kids to Fairy Tale Town to their safe Halloween event. Earlier, I had asked Oliver what costume he wanted for Halloween. He had said, "candy." So here's his costume, a Trick or Treat bag. He has a pocket in the front for his candy. Everyone loved his costume! Once he realized he could put candy in his pocket he was more than willing to wear his costume.

This is the castle. I forgot to mention that the theme was Harry Potter! Which is the only reason why we went. Look at the spooky dementors surrounding the castle!

This is Oliver in the room of Requirement.

These horse are always at Fairy Tale Town. He was disappointed that they didn't move.

Iliana was asleep for most of the time. She finally woke up! Here she is in her costume. Our theme this year is the 50's. Grandma Debbie made her little skirt. The event included trick or treating and everyone handing out candy was dressed like hogwarts students. It wasn't all that spectacular, but it was fun to do together as a family, and it wasn't too crowded for the first hour and we found parking really close. We did make it to Divination class and Nolan read my tea leaves. He only predicted bad things in my future. Boo! Oliver just wanted to pour out water out of the tea pot. Potions class always had too long of a line to go to it. So for the most part we really just went around and got candy and let Oliver play.

Some Funny stories

Oliver climbed into the high chair the other day. I kept asking him if he wanted me to take him out and he said no, so I kept washing the dishes. Eventually it was quiet over where he was so I looked at him and there he was asleep.

Iliana thought it was hillarious for me to put glasses on her.

Oliver is learning his ABC's. This is the best video we've gotten of him. Unfortunately it shows him pushing his sister over so she will stop playing with the toy.

Nolan and I have decided that our children are survivors. Today gave me more proof of that. While I was in my room getting dressed, my children were up to their usual mischief. When I came out, the fridge door was open and Iliana was sitting on the floor with a tupperware container of leftovers, the lid off and she was happily eating. Unfortunately I did not get a picture.

The other day, Nolan was singing to Oliver as he was changing his diaper. Oliver told him, "daddy, no singing." We had a really good laugh about that one.

San Francisco Zoo and Beach trip

We went to the San Francisco zoo for Oliver's 2nd birthday. I know this was back in May, but I promised myself I would get around to writing about it. Oliver loves animals so we decided that his gift would be to go to the San Francisco zoo since they have a lot more animals than our zoo here. And you can't go to San Francisco without going to the beach! We invited my family to come with us and so we had a very large group with us. The first animals we saw were giraffes and the kids loved it! One of the best parts of the day was when Oliver walked by the gift shop, saw the stuffed animals, grabbed one, then walked out and said "thank you!" Dad got to see 2 American Bald Eagles and that just about made his day. They also had a train for the kids to ride and they loved it! Oliver just about jumped out of Mom's arms in order to get on. As we went through the tunnel bubbles came out. One of the really cool animals was the rhino. We got to see him play with a ball, and it showed what a really powerful animal a rhino is.

After the zoo we went to the beach. It was so cold! Whoever decided that California had warm sunny beaches was clearly wrong. But as least we got our feet wet, which for me is a requirement if you ever visit a beach. Oliver did like the ocean, but Iliana stayed in the car with Nolan.

Iliana: 1 year old

Iliana is now 1 year old. Here's her stats from her doctor appointment:

Weight: 22lb 11.3 oz. (73.89%)

Height: 2' 6.5" (87.43%)

Head circumference: 18.27" (83.44%)

She can say:

bottle

dog

mom

duck

bye

She's walking more than crawling now, but still falls a lot. She loves bath time, and won't sit still for anything except to eat. She loves to be held, but only if the person holding her is standing up. She is great at throwing tantrums, and climbing on everything.

Date with Oliver

Yesterday I went on a Mother/Son date with Oliver. He is a member of the Caboose club with the California Railroad museum and so once a year he gets an invitation to their ice cream social which was yesterday. Luckily Nolan's schedule just changed to where he gets Saturdays off so he could stay home with Iliana. So we left and drove to Old sac. We managed to find a car that pulling out of a metered parking spot (which wind up being cheaper than a garage) that was really close to where the train ride was, which also happened to be right in front of a peruvian shop. As I looked over at the shop I saw a sign that said that they sold Inca Kola there, which is something that Nolan loved from his mission. I got really excited, and decided to get him some while we were there. So we wondered over to the tent, got our train tickets and stickers. While we wandered we saw people dressed up in olde timie costumes and they were totally in character. Some were marchers of the women's suffrage movement, some were anti-slavery speach makers, there was actually a guy wearing a barrel with suspenders. We got our ice creams, and walked around some more while we waited for our train. We stopped to listen to some singers which Oliver really liked, bought the Inca Kolas, and then when Oliver saw the car, he got really sad because he thought we were going to go home. I told him we weren't going home yet, and we made our way to the line for the train. Since we had a lot of time and no one else was in line yet, we walked over to the Delta King and looked at the river, and then went back over to the train. While we waited I called Nolan to tell him that I bought him a surprise because I couldn't stand to wait, but I didn't tell him what it was. I was so excited. The train came and as always Oliver was so excited to go on the choochoo. We got to go on the outside car, so Oliver got to stand up and walk around. By the time we got to the end of the line, he was done. They switched the engine to the other end, and he was so tired, so he just curled up on my lap.