Happy Halloween! (take 1.. pre-Halloween)

Saturday before Halloween we went to a trunk or treat at a local park with the Jenkins.
There were a lot of kids there, and they ran out of candy, but it was fun to see the kids all dressed up and pre-trick or treating.


After that we all went to dinner :)
Here's Ains playing outside while we waited.


And here is the Jenkins pretending Ains is theirs.


The Wednesday before Halloween my ward had a play group with all the kids in costume.
Here's Ains playing 'Ghost, Ghost, Goblin' (duck, duck, goose the rest of the year)



Decorated cookies



It was a day for treats, later that afternoon at my playdate group with some friends, she decorated cupcakes. :)


Quentin, Brooklyn, Ethan, Ains, Cole and Hallee

Stay Tuned for more actual Halloween day activities :)

My First Craftiness, and cute cousins in costume.

Ok, I did it. I made something! Anyone who knows me.. knows that I am far from crafty.. luckily, I know crafty people :) And two of them (Tatum and Janell, probably the two most crafty of my friends) convinced me that I could do this. And it was remarkably easy! I feel so cool and domestic and homey! I made my daughters Halloween costume! :)

(Thanks to Anna for the fab picture)

Ella had a sweet birthday costume party, and we were lucky enough to be in town for it. It was a blast and so fun to see all the cute kids in their costumes.

She really enjoyed the trampoline :)


A Rare Sight.. all the cousins together
Ainsley, Ella, Jake & Adam


Ella was kind enough to let Ains try on her rad raggedy anne wig. Now we can all imagine what she would be like with hair :)

Embarrassing myself online

ok, fine.. here it is... Karaoke Me

please don't judge the singing too harshly.. it was late, we had been singing along with songs for hours at the top of our lungs.. and well.. ok, i don't have the best voice, but here i am posting videos online.. so i guess think whatever you want, lol.

the file was too big so i broke it into a couple pieces.. so here's the first part Kirty recorded.. "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend"


and the grand finish, lol...

Cruisin'

(Finally got it up... sorry it's so long)

First night out, excited to start our vacation.


I got my first towel animal :) A penguin! We also got a crab and an elephant.


Horse back riding in Cabo San Lucas




Instead of doing a shore excursion at Mazatlan, 2nd port, we let Tom be our guide. This was Tom's favorite part of the cruise, he felt like he was back in Venezuela on his mission. He got us a taxi and chatted him up while the rest of us squished in the back of the little car. He took us around to see all the sights, a great local restaurant for lunch and a sweet beach. (sorry, we refused to take any pictures of us in beach wear)

Mazatlan Buddies.






One of the prettiest scenic lookouts we went to was called The Heart of Mazatlan. If you look closely in the picture below you can see why.


Puerto Vallarta


The most fun we had on our cruise was in Puerto Vallarta going 4 wheeling through a village and the surrounding countryside.
Here we are, pumped up and ready to go!


We rode through the most gorgeous country side.


Back on the boat, it was Formal night.. so we had a little fun taking some pictures in our 'finery'.


Hot Mamas


Cool Cookies






It was really fun having friends on the cruise, I definitely recommend cruising with friends, it was great to get away with just me and Tom, but also great to have someone for us to get together with, meet up with late and eat ice cream and cookies. :)


We spent some of our free time playing cards..


This time i was cold, and not really caring what i looked like... so here's me.. lookin' silly




I had a blast at our one Karaoke night. (Though I was bummed, I was promised more Karaoke!)
(I do have a video that was taken without my knowledge.. that I may be willing to post.. if requested.. maybe)


the boys trying to get out of shakin' their booties

My Favorite Thing

Pedicures are one of life's sweetest pleasure,.. at least in my life. There's something so fabulous about sitting in a massage chair, your feet in warm swishing water in between the foot rubs.. and you end up with soft feet and pretty toes. :)

Yay for a world that includes pedicures.

Another BooBoo

CHILDREN!! You look away for one second!

Sigh.. I hope this doesn't make me a bad mom but Tuesday, while giving Ains a bath, I wasn't paying strict attention for a moment, I look back and she has a hold of my razor (which I had thought was high enough to be out of her reach!) in her right hand and her left hand quickly turning red! I quickly saw she'd her thumb up, and after realizing it was more than just a little a scratch and a bit of toilet paper wasn't going to fix it. I remember that I have no idea where any bandaids are. (I guess here, I should admit that Ainsley and I were taking a bath together, and so are both wet, naked and crying at this moment.) I wrack my brain, and come up with a vague thought that maybe I had a first aid kit in the glove box of my car. So I wrap a towel around us both and trying to hold her bleeding hand away from the rest of her, and hold both her and the towel, we head downstairs and to the garage.. no first aid kit.

Then, as I'm walking past the basement door it occurs to me that it is highly likely that the 72hr kits the christensen fam put together for us contain a first aid kit! So then we tromp down into the basement, wet, naked, bleeding.. ainsley screaming her head of.. and open my bag.. no first aid kit.. then grab Tom's bag from under the pile it was at the bottom of.. and YES! A sweet, large, very nice first aid kit! So we head back upstairs, (so i can stop worrying about the towel and the huge windows and the neighbors outside them), grabbing a pack of fruit snacks to bribe Ains with to get her to stop crying, and settle ourselves on the bathroom floor.

After failing more than once to get a bandaid to stick to her wet, bloody hand, I went for the gauze and the tape.. feel free to laugh at my attempt below.


After calling a few people that didn't answer and Lavinia, who did, and consulting Tom online.. I decided that since I couldn't tell how bad it was, and it seemed to be bleeding pretty badly, I would go ahead and make our first trip to the Urgent Care clinic.

Everyone at the clinic thought Ains was adorable. She'd happied up a lot, and was walking around and talking to herself. They numbed up her thumb and taped her hand together while it took affect.




Ains was a brave little girl and didn't cry at all after they'd laid her down on the table, cleaned out her cut, glued her finger together, and then bandaged it up. She got a sucker and was so happy you'd never imagine the wet miserable girl she'd been less than an hour ago.

Turns out it wasn't very deep, though she lost a big chunk of skin from her thumb. It was really hardly anything, but seeing her tiny body on that big exam table was kind of scary.. made me very grateful that we weren't there for anything more serious.. and sympathetic for those parents out there who have had the horrible misfortune of having a truly sick or hurt child, and wanting to send prayers out to all of them.

Well, I leave you with a cute pic of Ains from this morning, out and about.. taking the world on, no matter what it has in store for her. :)

More Fun Videos

Dancing Queens


Some Face Time with Ainsley
(I was trying to get a video of the way she sings along with me.. she starts almost immediately anytime you sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star")

Movie Love

As in.. A Movie I Love.. not A Love in the Movies..

I love the movie, A Lot Like Love. I was watching it again tonight. If you haven't seen it.. I recommend it! I'm not usually a huge Ashton fan.. but he's really cute in it, and I adore Amanda Peet. A great film about how plans don't always work out the way you thought.. and that it can be a good thing. :)

My favorite quote is 'if you aren't willing to look stupid you don't deserve to be in love.'
Oh, and I love the music from it too.. it's got to be a killer Soundtrack.
Anyway.. wanted to shout it out.. Great Movie :)
Have you seen it?

Girlies and Tutu's

Candice, Ainsley and Roxanne... my little sisters and my little girl. :) So weird to me that Candice is about to be a mom too! Just about a month until her due date. Ains is so excited to have a cousin that lives close by! We were all hanging out together a few days ago, and I snapped a photo. Aren't all three of them beautiful??
Psst.. the one on the right is single if anyone knows any nice eligible men out there ;)


Okay, everyone.. be prepared.. below is proof of me stepping out of my comfort zone.. i, yes, I have attempted to be.. CRAFTY!!! Ahh!! I know, I know.. take a deep breath and sit down for a minute before proceeding.

Okay, I made a tutu. :) It's not completely done. I'm going to trim up the bottom so it's not too long, and In this picture I had only added one shoulder strap, and tried it on to check the fit. She was so cute with it on, I had to take some pictures. This tutu is to be part of her halloween costume, she's to be a fairy! The rest I am planning is a white dance leotard, wings and a flowery head band. I may try adding some flowers throughout the tutu.. we shall see.