Happy Happenings.

Well it wasn't my intention to neglect my bloggity blog for two whole months.  Not that I post all that often, usually just once a month.  It really is hard to blog more often with "red tornado", she would insist on helping which means blog posts would read as follows: aklsdjflaksjdgkhjaskgjalkdfjgklkdfja.  I guess that would be more interesting/entertaining then some of my posts.  Maybe I'll have to have her type one for you all.  So lets play catch up, shall we.  We shall.  October was awesome, it is my favorite month therefore it is awesome simply for being October.  Nathan was able to join us for our Halloween fun, if you all remember, last year he missed out due to a business trip. Halloween festivities started off with going to 'Thriller' at Tuacahn.  Nathan's sister Suzanne and her family came down and went with us. It was my nieces first time going and we all had a blast.  Love that show. 

 I took Amelia to the library Halloween carnival, trick or treating around the mall, and trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Her favorite treat this year was suckers and smarties.  Mostly just suckers.  Of course she refused to say "trick or treat"due to her shyness but she would say "thank you", so I deem the evening a success.  She dressed up as a garden gnome, and loved it.  She would have worn her costume for a week if I let her.  Halloween has turned into our mommy daughter fun day. We usually go out for lunch, get a cupcake from the Sweet Tooth Fairy and go to halloween activities around town.  Then we join up with Nathan after he gets home from work for more fun.  I love it.  Its one of my most favorite days.

 I also painted a huge (7'x7') Halloween backdrop for a couples Halloween party we went to.  I love any excuse to paint.  Nathan and I went as Prince Ronald and the Paper Bag Princess. We had to tell everyone who we were, obviously reading books about princesses who save themselves aren't common here.  We probably would have had a better time at the party but right before we arrived I smacked the side of my car into the garage.  Total buzz kill.  I was trying so hard not to hit our new car that I smacked the side of the garage, awesome.  Did you catch that slip?  Thats right, we got a new (well used but new to us) car!  We are super excited.  Nathan's car needed to be replace bad, its turned into such a lemon since we've moved south.  So after much research and debate, we have replaced our Nissan with a 2010 Subaru Forester. Nathan picked it out and everything.  It's blue.  We call him "Foster Forester" or "Subie Foster"or as Amelia calls it "blue car".  Thats right, we name our vehicles.  Its just something we do.  Amelia is really attached to "blue car", we have temper tantrums over not going in "blue car" when Nathan is at work.  I think she might need a Subaru addicts support group. PS my car is all shiny again after a trip to the body shop. 

November was kinda a blur month for me, I'm working on not being sad the entire month.  Its a work in progress.  I tried to surround myself with pumpkin baked goods and candy corn, which seemed to help.  I'm proud to say Nathan and I did our civic duty and voted.  Its nice to see that even with different political views we seem to stay respectful.  Amelia was proud to get a "I voted" sticker even though she didn't vote.  Her vote would have went for Curious George, if she was allowed.  Thanksgiving came and we hosted dinner for the second year in a row, my dad and sister were able to join us.  We decided not to join in on the mass family gathering that was to occur with both sides of our families up north.  It was nice to be able to give my sister the option of a quiet/mellow Thanksgiving.  I also did a little Black Friday shopping with some friends.  Of course I would join in on Black Friday madness, sometimes you just need a little crazy in your life.  The good kind of crazy, the kind that lasts for a few hours and you can go back to the non crazy stuff.  I rounded off the end of November with celebrating my mom's birthday with daisies and Diet Coke.  I think she would have chuckled that the only daisies I could find were weird multicolored spray painted ones.

December is on us and I'm excited to go visit family, we will be up North for a week and I can hardly wait.  I'm so excited to take Amelia to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork, one of my family traditions.  Amelia loves Christmas lights right now, she calls them "light lights".  She had a blast putting up the tree and decorating.  Although it was quite the power struggle between the two of us, her putting everything on the tree in one spot and me taking it off to have her put it on elsewhere.  Nathan just stood by and laughed.  Incase you were wondering where he was during the ordeal.  We have already made gingerbread trees and hearts instead of gingerbread men.  Amelia wanted to use the tree and heart cookie cutter, who was I to limit her creativity? Amelia really loves to help these days.  She will gladly help you with cooking, singing, painting, wrapping presents, working out.  And many more tasks.  Somedays its frustrating, but then I remember how lucky I am to have her in my world.

She is really into Spiderman and superheroes right now, we couldn't be more thrilled.  Spiderman is her favorite, proving she is more and more a mini-Nathan.  She loves to count to ten and skip the number four and sing 'twinkle twinkle little star'.  She loves to read stories and she will take 6-9 books to bed with her during nap time and fall asleep looking at them.  'The Lorax' is her favorite this week.  She is really into building caves (instead of forts) and hiding.  Mostly she is a spunky and sassy 2 1/2 year old who is now potty trained. I actually lucked out and Amelia potty trained very easily.  And the angels rejoiced. When she is 16 I'm going to tell her how I shared with the internet her potty training success. As every proud mother should.

 Half of my halloween backdrop. 

 My little gnome.

 Thanksgiving down south.

Welcome to our family "Foster Forester".

Paper Bag Princess style.

Amelia painting pumpkins. Notice her brush strokes- we've been practicing. 

Zombie stole my seat. That'll happen at 'Thriller'.