Catching Up: Halloween, Sadie's 1st Birthday, Redwoods, and More!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. Life's been busy, and this past week Jake and the girls have been sick. I'm also ten weeks pregnant, so tired and nauseous, too. (Not too bad with the morning sickness, though. I've only been ill once from it so far.)

We had a fun Halloween. The girls each picked out a pumpkin, and then Jake and I carved them for a Family Home Evening. I thought they would love helping to pull out the pumpkin innards, but neither girl was interested in touching the squishy stuff. We did learn that we should probably not carve our pumpkins so early in the future, because they began to rot and had to be thrown out before we actually reached Halloween.

The girls dressed up as Little Bo Peep and her sheep. I think they turned out adorably--I had the sheep costume that I had made for Lizzie for her first Halloween. Even though Sadie was four months older than Lizzie had been, it actually fit her better than Lizzie. The body was made roomy, and because Lizzie's head was so large, the head with the ears that barely squeezed onto Lizzie fit Sadie very well. Also, because she was with Little Bo Peep, there were far fewer people guessing that she was supposed to be a dog, bunny, or snow beast instead of recognizing her as a lamb. I found the pattern for Lizzie's costume for a dollar about a year and a half ago, when I was pregnant with Sadie, so I saved it to make when Sadie could be the lamb. Our girls make out like little bandits on Halloween, since we keep both the tradition of dressing up and trick-or-treating from my family, and the tradition of the Great Pumpkin visit from Jake's family.

We had a fun little family party for Sadie's first birthday. Jon and Tina came to visit. Sadie was very excited about the yellow balloons and streamers, and she really enjoyed her birthday presents. I made a carrot cake, thinking that our little veggie-lover would really enjoy it, but she just wasn't very interested once the candle went out. I tried putting her finger in it, hoping she would then taste it and get excited, but really she just wanted to see the balloons up close. Even when we put her in her high chair with just a slice of cake, she only tasted a few bites. Oh, well.

A few weeks ago, we drove down past Crescent City to see the redwoods. We had a lot of fun just wandering around in them, walking on fallen tree trunks, and going inside of the hollow trunks or under a giant tree growing out over a little hollow in the ground. Next time we go down, we want to find out where the really giant ones are. The trees we saw were very impressive, but most were not like what we have seen pictures of.

You still can't really see even this far out, but we are actually directly underneath a huge tree growing right above our heads.

Sadie riding a tree root.

Lizzie is still greatly enjoying her gymnastics, but they put up signs saying no pictures allowed. Last week she learned to do a dive roll from the trampoline (just a forward roll like a somersault, but jumping into it) and how to kick up into a supported handstand on her own (meaning a handstand against the wall).

Some other recent pictures:

Growing girl's new car seat.

Sensory Box: Playing with some sand and seashells we brought home from the beach.

Lizzie and I painted whales one day after I showed her that clip from Fantasia 2000 with the flying whales. I tried to explain that the movie was just silly, that they really just swim in the ocean, but she remained fixated on whales that fly through the air like birds and China. (Who she seems to think is a person that flies, too. That one's on Jake, though.)

The girls going sailing last night.

Playing dress-up with the shoe closet this morning.

Yesterday morning at 5:30 am, Lizzie decided that she is a big girl like Ellie from her Big Sister book and her friend Hannah, and therefore she needs to go potty in the toilet. She stayed dry all day (except for nap time) and today she is wearing fancy purple underwear with pretty flowers on it, like Ellie wears in the book. She is doing great--let's hope this sticks!