A Mickey and Minnie Mouse Halloween

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum LOVE Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. If we're having a bad day Mickey can turn it around in a heartbeat. During the day I get M2 following me around the house holding out the remote for me to take from her and saying in her cute little voice "bickey. bickey mommom?" Oh my gosh. It's hard to resist but I must because good moms don't just let them watching Mickey all day long. 

So, they were mickey and minnie mouse for halloween. I wasn't sure they understood. On halloween day M1 had therapy. I had a client coming for a set of nails so they went to g-ma and g-pa beams for a few house after therapy. They were dressed up in their costumes. We took M2's skirt and tutu off for a nap and when  she woke up she took them off the bed and gave them to grandma and said "monnie!" (yes, it sounds like money when she says minnie). I spent a good chunk of time making their costumes so I was SO happy to hear that she understood who she was dressing up as!

Cheesy Minnie

Mickey scrounging around under the table.

For our ward halloween party S and I  "dressed up" as Kermit and Miss Piggy. I was planning to borrow a blonde wig from my sister-in-law but didn't get around to it. I threw together the little green thing around S's neck about 5 minutes before the party and my sister did my make up to pigg-ify me. I felt REALLY old at the party thanks in part to all the neighbor kids not know who Kermit and Miss Piggy are. WHAT?!?!?!  What are you people teaching your children? j/k All in all it was a lot of fun. It's fun for that chance once a year to dress up and be silly. 

"Fishing" at the ward halloween party.

Daddy helping M1 "fish". He thought it was so silly.

She's a ROCKER!

Pumpkin Patch Tradition

My parents have 11 grandchildren.  Only 2 of them live closer than 2 hours away. Those two are mine. They used to take my brother's 2 children to the big pumpkin patch every year but they recently moved out of state. So, I was MORE than happy to let them buy pumpkins for my kids. There is a really cute area set up where you can take a picture of your kids on a tractor with hay bails around it. I LOVE Halloween and everything fall and wanted to get some cute picture of the kids. I decided to take the picture on the opposite side that everyone else was taking picture because the light was so bright and would shine right in their face and make them squint. My father (bless his sole, that old hobbly man!) commented that my pictures weren't going to turn out because the sun was shining right at me. Well, I did it anyway. And this post is to show him that they DID turn out after all. Rather cute too I might add. I should say that I took his advice to get way down in the shade so as to avoid the sun and that's probably the main reason they really did turn out well. 

It wasn't a real pleasant process because M#1 wasn't, shall we say, excited to take the picture on prickly hay. But, between 4 adults we got him calmed down enough to take a decent picture. 

 Attempt #1 (not so happy)

 Attempt #2 (not screaming but there IS some left over drool dripping out)

Attempt #3 (M1 is happy but now M2 isn't smiling anymore. Oh well, that's as good as it gets.)

M2's hair WAS done really cute until we got in the car to drive to the pumpkin patch and she must've overheard that I wanted to get cute pictures and she sabotaged it. That stinker-bum!

New things

Micah is rather sensitive about his head which really kind of sucks for me, the mom, because he falls quite often due to his cerebral palsy. When he falls he inevitably hit his head and begins to cry even if it was just a small "bonk". It's hard as a mom not to run over and give him loves but he needs to toughin' up a bit. He also doesn't like to have people touch his head or put anything on his head like a hat or head band. So, when I put this pumpkin head band of his sisters on and he LEFT it on I was so excited I took a picture. It's so exciting to see him do and experience new things. We have tons of therapy appointments and it get difficult for me to run around all week and have people push him to do things he doesn't like to do. This week we had 5 appointments for different kinds of therapy. Ugh! It's makes it feel worth it when I see him do/try  new things. I love my little boy so very much and I'm grateful for the things I am learning because of his challenges. Heavenly Father surely knew that I needed this humbling experience to enjoy all the simple things in life.

 Now, my little spit fire, Mattea. She's always been sassy which was fantastic when she was fighting for her life in the NICU but not so much now that she is almost two. Two years old? Really? How is it that my 2 lb babies are going to be turning two years old? The only answer I have for that is because they are a gift from God. They are a daily reminder that God loves me.

Back to Mattea, she really is a sassy-pants. She's talking up a storm lately. She used to only use sign language to tell us what she wanted. My dad used to say that she was never going to talk. Well, she must of heard him one time because she started copying everything we were saying. Somehow she has associated "no, no" with daddy because when she is telling Micah no, no or repeating back to me that something is no, no she says "No, No Daddy"

She has also started to go outside in the back yard without me knowing. Often times I will catch her playing in the dirt or with the outside broom sweeping up the sidewalk.

I love my baby girl so very much and take many opportunities to tell her so. I have a feeling that God sent her to me to strengthen my patience. That really is an area where I needed work so it's a real challenge some days when I'm on the phone with my mom and trying to tell Mattea, "no, no. the peaches don't go in your hair." or when I come up from the basement and she is throwing the dog food up in the air like it's confetti and scattering all over my freshly mopped, and swept floor.

New Pictures

Dare Devil Babies

Sterling's parents ward doesn't a neighborhood bar-b-que every summer and this year they had blow up toys. Sterling took both M&M down the giant slide and they had a BLAST! Sterling even sent each of them down  by themselves much to my surprise. They loved that too.

Sterling's little sister took her son down the slide and it freaked her out so she screamed... which also meant that Jesse screamed too. Well, we thought maybe if he went down with someone who wasn't afraid he might have fun. No such luck. He's the water baby, where M&M HATE the water and my kids are the dare devils, where Jesse is a little wimpy. That's ok though!

Summer and Cousins

Our swimming trips haven't gone too well this summer. M&M love to take bath's but swimming pools are another subject entirely. So, we head over to Grandma and Grandpa Cluff's house to play in a little wading pool with cousin Jesse.  At first they were still a little leary of it but they've started to enjoy it more and more. 

Swinging is the best things since sliced bread in M&M's mind. They could swing for hours and still cry because they want to swing more. Too bad we don't have a swing set. 

What's a childhood without having the naked cousins picture?!?!

Just some cute ones

There's isn't a specific  reason for posting the following pictures. I just think their cute. Mattea loves to talk on the phone. Every time she picks up the phone or I'm on the phone she yells "DA!". When she actually gets the chance to talk to her dad on the phone she closes up and won't talk. Silly girl. 

Micah is such a funny little boy. One of his favorite things to do is to shove as much food in his mouth and smile at you like he is the smartest/cutest little boy ever. 

Splash from my past

We took the twins to a local pool a while ago and it was a DISASTER! They hated it. Cried the whole time! 45 min straight crying. We finally threw in the towel and went home. I was baffled. They love baths but hated swimming so I decided to try swimming on a smaller scale. They did better. 

 My parents have this little gray tub that I believe they bought back when dinosaurs were still roaming the earth. We used it for everything. It was a dog bath. It was a little kid swimming pool for me when I was younger. It was my hedge hog, Bufford's, home for quite a while too. So, I dug it out, sprayed off the cob webs, filled it with water and threw M&M in there. They were apprehensive at first but then started to splash around and have some fun. 

  

Testing the waters!

 Alright! NOW we're talking!

They were having such a good time that my mom hollered at my dad to come and see how cute they were. That's him hobbling over in the background. 

All in all it was a success. We've done it a few times since as well.

... exciting announcement!

My exciting announcement is that I've been called to be the 1st counselor in my ward Relief Society. We're a brand new presidency. I'm pretty excited about it. However, I haven't been given my list of responsibilities yet either. I feel really blessed to be able to be in this presidency with some really great ladies. I just need to remember that the Lord knows our talents and abilities and I need to rely on him to do his work. 

from left to right

Marcie Moeller-Secretary, Sherrie Brinkerhoff-2nd counselor, Konni Cluff-1st counselor, and Lynnie Wilde- President extraordinaire 

I bet some of you thought I was pregnant huh? ha ha ha ha... I wish.

Gardening

This is our 2nd summer in our house and I've decided that we're having a garden this year. Now, my mother always had a fairly productive garden when I was growing up but I never helped her or learned anything. So... needless to say I'm doing this blind. I also decided to buy the plants was too expensive for us and to save money I just bought little seed packets. The following is the beginning of my gardening 101. 

I decided to start my seeds inside. So, I used an egg shell carton to plants my seeds in and then I'll transfer whenever we get the garden tilled and the weather decided to start taking it's bi-polar medication again. 

 

Their all planted and ready for mr. sun to make an appearance. So, we wait...

and we sew a little dress for easter...

...and we learn some new trick to cause trouble!

Everyone in the house get sick.

We celebrate Daddy's birthday!

and wait,

and wait...

and then BAM! we have little sprouts and the keep getting bigger and bigger. We have quite a few green bean plants, some lettuce, one pumpkin plants, zucchini, and some celery just broke through the soil too.

We're on our way to our very first garden!!!

Announcement...

I have an exciting announcement but it won't be coming out for another few days. As if my life wasn't busy enough. I'm stoked though folks... I'll post in a couple days!

Pillow Pets

It's a pillow! It's a pet! It's a pillow pet!

Sterling's grandma Kite LOVES these kids to death. We decided to have her over a couple Monday's ago for dinner and family home evening. When it came time for bed g-g-ma (which is what she has chosen to be called) sang songs and did the bed time ritual with us. After we got them to bed we talked for a while and she told me she had gotten the twins a present. Sterling took her home and when he came back he brought in the cutest little pillow pets. She had bought Mattea an unicorn (which we named Whitey) and Micah a dolphin (named Dale). They love them. Micah like to grab either Dale, or Eli (the elephant in the top right corner of his crib) and bury his face in them and scream at the top of his lungs (for fun) when we put him to bed. Mattea likes to lay on Whitey when she goes to sleep and when I get her up in the morning she grabs Whitey and one of her favorite blankies so she can carry them around with her.

Projects...

I am notoriously good at starting a project and NEVER finishing it. Our ward does a few different "groups" that I have decided to participate in. I've been having tons of fun! First is card club. It's so much fun to get together with those ladies. I'm learning new things and FINISHING something I started because I have to have it done for card club. Next is quilt club. We meet tonight for quilt club and I didn't do my quilt square right so I'll need to re-do it but it's still so much fun. My mom is planning to come to that group with me now so I am STOKED that I'll be doing that with my mom. I am the YOUNGEST lady that is in that group but I don't mind because they are all such neat ladies that I still have a blast.
I also started sewing an Easter Dress for Mattea! The pattern is super cute, so I'm trying to follow the instruction very carefully so I don't mess it up. Every time I've attempted to sew something my mom always ends up finishing it for me. So, I'm bound and determined to do this on my own. It doesn't help that the very first instruction was to do the pleats in the dress and I had not a clue how to do that. Mom helped with that then stepped away so I could do the rest. So far so good. I'll post pictures to the blog so I'm help accountable for this project. Wish me luck folks!

Our little dooder-bug

I was hoping to do this post right after the post about Mattea but we got a little busy.

Micah is 15 months old now. Oh my, how the time has gone. We've loved every minute of it. Micah was in the hospital for his first birthday because he had his skull reconstructed 2 days before. It was hard for us to watch him in so much pain but we know it was for the best.

Our Micah Man is the happiest baby I've every seen. He smiles half a second after waking up and is always happy.

Most of the time you can see this little face...

or this...

Even the morning of his big surgery he was all grins!

The only time we didn't see him smile was for a while after his surgery and he was still in quite a bit of pain.

Micah LOVES his dad...

and his jumperoo!

He's so happy when he gets his "Daddy time"

and lets be honest... Daddy can't get enough of Micah either

They spend quality time watching the "big game" (BYU vs Utah)

Dooder is so soft and gentle with our new puppy Zeek. You can often find Zeek cuddled up next to him.

His new forward facing car seat was an exciting step for him. He's such a good boy in the car now. He loves to watch the world as we drive around town.

Micah enjoys playing with other kids. He and his little sister have tons of fun playing all day long.

Mattea often leaves him in the middle of the messes that she makes. Good thing we know he's a good boy and wouldn't/couldn't possibly leave this much of a mess in his wake.

This guys loves to eat. He's great at feeding himself crackers, goldfish, puffs, or even oreo cookies like below.

He's also "grandma's Micah Man". He loves his time with this sweet lil' old lady!

I love this little boy so much. He's so sweet, tender, and precious as can be. He's a beautiful baby and perfect in every way.

Lastly, we revel in the milestones that Micah reaches because they are so much harder for him to do. We have constant physical therapy, and occupational therapy going on. His newest trick is getting up on his hands and knee's.

The Lord has sent some very choice spirits to our home and left them in our care. I can understand to some small degree the love the Lord has for us because of the love I have for my children. Watching Micah with his trials and his struggles has built an appreciation for the pain the Lord feels as he watches us in our trials. How happy my loving Heavenly Father must feel as he watches us reach new mile stones and learn new things he's been trying to show us.