Let's Get Physical!

So ok, ok, reference to a song that we all thought was about exercising and it isn't...but she IS dressed like ONJ in her video. Tats was dressed up for my aerobics class as a ballerina but I noticed with all her new crawling that her knees are getting all red and scuffed so I busted out some baby knee pads that I had from Chloe and never used. I don't know if they made any difference whatsoever but she just looked so stinking cute I couldn't resist adding the headband. Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

Here's a video of her crawling. Why don't they ever perform for the camera like they're supposed to?

HSM-3

Tonight Chloe and I went on a Mommy/Daughter date to see High School Musical 3. Here are some pics of us before we left (don't mind my "bangs").


It was so fun! She was so excited all day and picked out her HSM t-shirt that she also decided to sleep in it.

I was worried that she'd fall asleep because the movie started at 7 and her bedtime is usually 7 so I made her take a nap this afternoon whilst I ate ice cream in 2 children taking a nap heaven. Anyway, I digress. Here were some highlights and low lights.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• When Troy and Gabriela kiss (gasp is that a spoiler?), she leans over to me and says, "Mom, they're getting married huh?"
• About 1/2 way through the movie she asked me if she could sit on my lap.
• When Gabriela and Troy are dancing on the roof (gasp, another spoiler?!), she's smiling and eyes all lit up. Then she leans over and says, "Mom, I LOVE THIS movie! Do you think we can come again?!"
• About 3/4 of the way through she says, "I miss Daddy and Tati. Next time we watch this movie, let's bring them."
• We shared a Kit Kat and some Rollos.
  
• She brought her little stuffed animal turkey, "Lurkey" for all the "scary parts" and afterward told me how much Lurkey LOVED the movie. She also mentioned how she should always watch movies with Lurkey so she won't be scared.
• Gabriela and Troy's waltz on the roof-- it was like every girl's dream sequence.
  
• It's like a Disney version of Grease and who didn't/doesn't love Grease? It was even complete with hooplah ending. Loved it!
  

LOWLIGHTS:

• Is it me or was Gabriela like wearing nighties the whole movie? Every time she was dancing in her mini-dresses I was like, "Oh please have like biker shorts on or something." And speaking of low, how low could her v-neck go? Luckily Chloe didn't seem to notice. Not so Disney--then again with Britney's sister getting pregnant and Miley bearing it all, that definition is sure changing.
  
• Troy's dad's hair. Trying way too hard.
• The rocket kid. Was he annoying or what?
• Sharpay in her white leotard. Something about it made me feel uncomfortable. Was it just me?

We had a fantastic time. Her favorite parts were "When Troy and Gabriela were having a little date in the tree house and when Troy and his friend were playing pretend at the gas station." Today all the pretending Chloe has done has been with Troy and Gabriela. Gabriela was a mermaid stuffed animal and Troy was Lurkey of course and they went dancing, to prom, etc. It is really cute. The dialogue is classic too. She is such a girly girl and we love her so much! Oh, and we bought our tickets on line and because we did that (with no service charge), we got a coupon to download two songs from the movie for free. Might want to check it out if you haven't gone already. Chloe picked, "The Boys are Back", and "High School Musical" (of course).

Halloween Service

I had to teach Sharing Time today and made these ghosts for the kids to take home. If any of you are looking for a fun FHE idea. I read this story and made a little activity to go with it. Here's the story: Mysterious Visitors
And above is the picture I used.

Oh and here's the little saying I put with the ghosty. (Thanks Melis)

Making others happy is so much fun. The Service Phantom is on the run. He stopped here to say “Boo”! Now it’s your turn to do it too.

Love, The Service Phantom

Here are the pumpkin cakes we made.
We've started a new tradition to use these cute little bundts as baby pumpkins. I got this rad baking tin from Goodwill of all places (brand new!). It is Wilton brand.
The frosting we used this year was homemade and way too warm so they ended up a little drippy. The store bought kind is the best and if you can chill them for a bit and then get a toothpick and emphasize the bundt lines, it really does look like a pumpkin. Honestly though, if somebody dropped these at my house I would definitely NOT eat them, but we all had fun and it was a good lesson on service.



P.S. Love these baby bundts. 1/3 c. of batter in each pumpkin. One pkg. of cake mix makes 12 pumpkins. Love, Julie

My No Style

Am I the only adult who doesn't have a style? I'm looking around at all my friends houses and decore and thinking, "How do they do it?" I remember a conversation with my sister about her house when she was showing me all these changes she was making and I told her (for lack of a better way to describe it and hoping I wouldn't offend her) that I thought her house kind of looked like an Italian restaurant. The funny thing was that she told me that that was exactly what she was going for: Tuscan something. It is a great house and a really pretty house. Just not really my style. I'm never going to have a rooster in my house, fake ivy, or a fluer de lis (let's save those for the Boy Scouts). But knowing what I'll exclude doesn't mean I know what to include. My apartment is a painful mix of thrift store items mixed with hand-me-downs, mixed with homemade attempts to add color or art. A few pictures strewn around (all with different and non-coordinating frames), some plants, a few books and maybe a rock or two for Greg and a shell or two for me. But I long for a house makeover. Call it an unhealthy addiction to HGTV or too many visits to the local IKEA. But here's the problem: my brain just does not work like that. I can't just walk into a room and imagine what it would look like differently. Sure I can visualize a different room arrangement but I can't ever get my mind around different furniture in that arrangement. I am completely decorator deficient. Here's what I've tried. -My friend Amanda told me I should order a bunch of free catalogs and just ideas from there. That was fun but I've moved twice since then and I can't remember all the names and some of them don't deliver to Canada. The problem is that I will see something I like and either just turn the page and forget about it or see the price and dismiss it thinking I could never do it myself. -I started a decore scrapbook (also Amanda's idea) where you keeps bits and pieces of catalogs or fabric swatches or whatever stuff you like so later you can use all these as a reference. This was a cool idea but if Chloe's scrapbook still says she is 3 months old and she's 4, it wasn't really going to happen. My sister recently told me about Amy Butler and told me it was totally my style. How did she know that? I don't even know my style. But when I checked her out, she was right. I love bright prints or bright colors in general.

My Coo-koo Kids

What is the deal with these girls? Tati has been putting stuff in her mouth and just multi-tasking her life away just crawling, hanging out, etc. It reminds of another girl we used to know: her big sis!

Here's Chloe:



Here's Tati:




Funny thing is they are the same age here. Do they look as similar to each other as they do to us? You know how when they hold something in their mouth forever, drool starts to come down the side. So nasty.

Germaphobe

I hate germs!

You guys are not shocked by those words. You know I don't like germs but I've been trying to let go. How do normal mothers react when their babies are eating a park swing? My instinct is to scream and grab her out of the swing but I let her stay AND I took a picture of it. I'm evolving. My mind was going over the benefits of her licking those germs and building her immune system believe it or not. I think I lasted one minute. Then what happened you ask? I quickly took her out of the swing and wiped her mouth off. I said I'm evolving not that I'm an idiot! My house: Let me say for the record, my house is pretty clean but it isn't coo-koo clean. While Tati is crawling around, she is still liable to find some contraband on the floor or even heaven forbid some random food remnant which has migrated from the dining room. In fact just this week there was found (by me) a mystery spot of food gunk on our new area rug. Of course after all my interviewing I have determined that either Tati did it or I live with good liars. Sure I clean a lot but doesn't every stay at home mom with 2 kids--especially when one of them just started crawling? Plus I'm renting, so the thought of what things are here without my knowledge definitely motivates me to deep clean regularly. But I'm feeling consumed with cleaning. I'm wondering if I'm going overboard. So I'm trying to change. What sparked this change? Well a few things but mostly my interaction with Chloe's friend has caused me to change. We'll call her Larea. First a little background on me. I remember growing up and going to my friends house and their mom literally giving me chores to do. Ok, in all fairness it wasn't like my name was on the chore list or anything but if I was over there and everyone was cleaning I was welcome to join in or if I wanted to play with my friends then they HAD to finish their chores first so if I wanted to expedite the process I could just join in. At the time I was just like "whatever". I mean I knew this lady liked to clean but I was a kid so it never occurred to me that it was weird or extreme. Years later though I thought that I'd never make my kids' friends clean. 1. Well the other day when Larea was over, I asked the girls in this super excited voice if they wanted to dust? They were like, "Ooooh yeah!" Larea says, "What's dusting?" So I gave them each a dampened rag and we went around the whole house. I was congratulating myself on how slick I was and how "fun" I made cleaning. The next week Larea came over again said, "I don't want to dust this time." Those were the first words to me when she arrived. Her mom was like, "Huh?" and I just laughed like 4 year olds are so silly. It hit me then that I was Sister Reed. The realization made me freak out and laugh at the same time. 2. Larea was over and she and Chloe were playing. Chloe told me they were bored and wanted to do something fun. I asked if they wanted to help me make some cranberry muffins. What I've learned is: 1) This is not an overnight fix. 2) What's so bad about being a germaphobe? Also, if your child comes over to my house and you leave, there are two things you'll notice. Your child will leave with a hair-do and oh by the way, I'll probably trim their nails.

Peek-A-Boo!

This was a very triumphant moment because it was the first time we were able to catch this fool on tape. I know I'm biased but come on! SHE'S SO CUTE!