Better than Christmas

It's a day for the history books.

We're official. We went before the judge and he gave us his much needed and long awaited autograph. There were no fireworks, not even a slamming of the gavel. Just a sign here and a congratulations, but you'd have thought I lost fifty pounds. The weight literally lifted off my shoulders. She's ours now. Halle-fricken-llujah!

We have a self portrait in front of the courthouse, but it is even worse than these beauties taken just chillin' on the floor.


I was going to tell another part of our story, but I'm tired. It'll come. I promise. We still have twenty days left in the month.

I've stayed up all week either working on the blasted sweater or for wedding festivities. I literally sewed on the buttons in the parking lot in time for our photo shoot.


Mrs. Darcy Sweater- Ravelry
Cast on October 31. Finished November 10.
Knit with Berroco Ultra Alpaca color 6297 on size 10 circulars.
Buttons came from stash.

It was a good day for family pictures- seeing as we all have the same last name now.

It is time for a nap. Someone tell Scrunch. Ready, set, go-to-sleep. Damn. It didn't work. But I'm still too tired to tell stories.

Wedding pictures will come soon. I promise those, too.

One of these things is not like the other...

That's the problem.

No wonder I hate the snow. If I actually had to use these for something, I'd be up a creek. How do you lose every mate of every pair of gloves you own? Ridiculous. I do not have time for this.


We searched the laundry.

Ah! They aren't here.


Here! Take my sock instead.


They're no help. Good for nothin' hound dogs. Shouldn't they be able to smell mildewy gloves?


In other news... if you haven't already, you're doing it the hard way, but you should get out and vote.

Me and My Big Ideas

I often leave the following message. "Hey, it's me! I have an idea. Call me."

My sisters. Mom. Friends. Husband. (Dad, have I ever left you that message? I think I have.)

Anyone could this message from me. And you never really know what it's going to be about. Sometimes they are good ideas, sometimes great, and sometimes not so great.

These are some of my ideas lately. Not listed in order of brilliance.

• I thought we'd do our civic duty and hand out 'Yes on 8' door hangers. I should have known it would start pouring. I don't think there's been this much rain around here since The Flood.

• I thought I'd plan out our weekly menus beforehand except that I only wrote down a page number. I know that Roasted Potato and Tuna Salad is on page 35. But no idea which book I got it out of. Yes, I have more than one cookbook. Don't fall off your chair.

• I thought I'd grow my hair out. Uh, no. I have an appt. to hack it back on Thursday.

• I thought I'd make our birthmom a necklace for National Adoption Day. (Nov. 15) Which was a good idea, but I only made it so far as to make mine. Likey?

• I thought I'd do my Christmas shopping the day after Halloween. I'd rather pay extra than go anywhere the day after Thanksgiving. Good plan, except when I got home I realized no one on my list was crossed off. Well, one person. The same person whose Christmas shopping I did last month. Spoiled? My child? Bite me. I did however discover the most comfortable shoes EVER!
  

• I thought I'd knit myself a sweater for family pictures. And I've frogged the stupid thing three times! In nine days this HAS to look like a sweater. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.

• In a moment of brilliance I taught my daughter how to stick her tongue out. Way to go Mom! Yeah. How long do you suppose this is going to be cute?

Tomorrow I am going to play with making fondant flowers for cupcakes. It's an OCH (Official Church Holiday). I decided that Stake Conference with a nine month old who has discovered both standing and wagging her tongue at everyone and anything in the same week is cruel and unusual punishment.


You all need to start answering your phones. Maybe I'd have more great ideas than not so great ones if I could run them by someone first.

E.F.G.

Especially. For. Grami.

We love boxes like this around here- boxes filled with goodies.

The 'goods' will be perfect for staying in and drinking Rootbeer floats and reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Halloween. We'll be nice and cozy in our new Holiday jammies. How did Grami know it would rain today and we'd decide to stay in?

Grami's just know stuff like that.

Happy Halloween!

and thank you Grami.

What did I say?

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. This kid L.O.V.E.S. the bathtub.

Get out the vote and an update on my kid.

Tonight for FHE we are filling out our absentee ballots. That is sad, but hey I think since the Church is so involved in this year's election, I can count voting as FHE. Two birds with one stone. Perfect.

I think you should vote, too. But I don't care if you fill out your ballot tonight (just do it by Nov. 4 and it has to be stamped and received to count). What I want is for you to tell me which planter picture holder I should go with. #1 or #2. Because cute party favors are what really matters right now. If you vote I'll let you count reading my blog as FHE. Hey, it's better than nothing which is what usually happens.

Number One

Number Two

And by the way, Scrunch turned nine months old yesterday, making her three quarters of year old. If we were to pick her rapper name yesterday it would be 75 Cent.

Nine Things about being Nine Months old.

1. Her hair is starting to curl but when mom styles it curly then Papa comes along and brushes it straight.
2. She knows the sign for dog. Which is just panting but she does it to her Stitch, and the bat hanging from some one's car at Trunk or Treat. She has absolutely no fear of beasts with large teeth.
3. She thinks it is funny when Ani and Jedi bark.
4. She will spend up a good forty-five minutes in the bathtub. She absolutely loves it. So we take two baths a day around here.
5. She STILL wakes up with a smile. Weird kid. But it does make six thirty a little brighter.
6. Her favorite song is "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" and she will hold her hand up when we sing it trying to make the right numbers.
7. Saturday she shared a Subway sandwich with mom and ate everything including pepperchinis (sp?) and the bell pepper. Olives are tasty too. There is very little this child wont eat. In fact, I can't think of anything right now. She hates the texture of pureed food so it's a good thing she has all eight teeth so she can chew.
8. Her mom is one of those weirdos who believes in spacing (but still giving) immunizations so we don't go the doc all the time so we have no idea how long she is or how much she weighs. I can tell you however that she is wearing 18 mos. clothes and a few of those are getting a little short.
9. Mom still likes to make booties.


Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday that I "I am my kid's mom" and that I "would swim through shark infested waters to bring her a lemonade."

A family tradition.

Anyone who knew us when we were little knows us as the little girls who dressed alike. Most of the time my mom made our clothes. Much more elaborate than the dress I made for Scrunch this week. She had to have something to match her Halloween bow. John says dressing Scrunch is my hobby. Like that's a bad thing. How did my mother make FOUR dresses and get FOUR little kids UNDER four to church? How? By the time she was my age my mom had her fourth child. When I think about that, I have to sit down. It just makes me tired. I told John this morning we should seriously think boy for the next one. (Because we actually DO get to choose if we wanted.) I just don't think I have it in me to sew for multiples every time we need matching dresses with the bows. He said I could do it- I would just need to start on Saturday. So maybe getting up early on Sunday morning to make her Sunday clothes is carrying it a little far. It makes everyone tired on Sunday afternoon.

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it!

'...I know. I know. I want-choo...'

I am so excited it looks like I've been doing the pee-pee dance for two days.

We go our court date AND our sealing date. Scrunch is going to be legally mine. All mine. Well... Ours.


Sing with me now....'I'm so excited'... 'and I just can't hide it'....

Does she crawl?

Yeah. And then some.


My friends call me Scrunch.

Score!

I am the reigning queen of bargain shopping and unique finds- just in case you were wondering. I started at a young age- paying only twelve dollars for my Ninth Grade Dance dress. The one and only formal dance I have ever been to. No Homecoming. No Prom. No Girls Choice. And I turned okay. I think. Anyway...not the point.

Point is- look at the stuff I scored this week!!!! Not to brag (OK totally to brag), but how cool is some of this stuff.

Score #1. My sister is getting married and our dresses are oh soo hot pretty. But what was Little Miss going to wear? Eighty-four dollars was more than I wanted to cough up on a dress she will smear wedding cake on. I walked into Costco, on the phone with my mom and had to hang up. "I'll call you back. I think I just found the dress." This beauty- $18 bucks. Sweet.


Score #2. I actually did my visiting teaching and found out one of the chicks I visit has a bow making business. She found out I knit, so we're swapping. I came home with 42 hair bows in every possible color! Yes, I counted. Awesome.


Score #3. I had to go to DI (Deseret Industries). No, I really didn't have any choice in the matter, but I'm so happy with my DI finds that I will spare you the rant. I am a little wary of used items for children's items. It kind of creeps me out to think of all the possibly MRSA infected people who may have touched it. But I figure if it still has the tags on it's no different than the department store, right? And does anyone have anything against Macy's? No. So there's no difference.

Brand new books. Brand, brand new. Every parent should have this book. It is an entire book of alternate lyrics to commonly known songs. My favorite is 'Go, Go, Go to Bed' sung to the tune of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat'.


A perfect condition, hardback, complete with pretty purple binding, copy of 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' to start a new family tradition.

I've been wanting to make a flannel board for Little Miss for her birthday and I found a book of patterns. It's for foam but the patterns will totally work for felt.

And last but not least these cute clothes. Brand new! The pants, the skirt and shirt, and a cute denim skirt. I was so excited when I got home I dug out matching flowers from her new and improved collection of hair accessorizes and matched them up. Hello animal print!


Beat that!?!?!

Oh, and just because I've noticed I get more comments when there are pics of Little Miss around- I took these at the park last week.

She's not totally sure of the swings. She's thinking about it and will get back to you.

Pumpkin Heads

Two of them.

Maybe four if you count the mommies.
These kids will hate us for this picture when they are older. We'll display it at their wedding.
They have so much in common they don't even know about yet. They won't understand it until they are much, much older but I'm so glad they'll be buddies. For now we'll make them wear matching hats for pictures that will ensure their loathing of both their mommies when they are fourteen or fifteen.



The mommy club is getting good. Even if we froze our butts off. Yeah, the wind was blowing. I'm not going to be Alfalfa for Halloween.

Sharing

"Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

-M.F.K. Fisher

But most importantly don't let Mom see you.


This duo has all angles covered. That's Ani at the end of her outstretched hand.

The Ham and her hamburger.

My favorite animal is steak.

Setting a World Record

I left my blow dryer at my mom's last month. Since it is not the first time I have done that, I'm refusing to buy another one. They'll be here in a couple of weeks and I think I can hold out until then. In the mean time we are setting the world record for Consecutive Crappy Hair Days and resorting to last ditch efforts to seem somewhat presentable.


Little Miss is helping by making sure we at least have gleaming whites. She has this thing about teeth. She's constantly having me open my mouth so she can look at them. I don't get it. Now when she sees me brushing she wants to brush too. Maybe she'll be a dentist. That would be cool -someone to support me in my old age. Can't you just see it? It's not hard to imagine what with the curlers and all.

What I'm Knitting

You don't care? Well, I'm doing laundry and washing diapers today so unless you'd like a visual of those activities you're stuck with what I'm knitting.

I was doing so well on Christmas projects. I have it figured out that if I complete one project a week I'll be done the first week of December. But I was side tracked by a little trip up the hill to a great little yarn shop. I was on a mission for sock yarn and came back with yarn for bell bottoms for Little Miss. Personally, I think every child should own a pair of hand knit bell bottoms. They are a necessity. Right Husband?


He says, "Yes Dear. Anything to keep you and my Little Miss happy." Now that she is saying "Papapapapapapa" when he gets home- he's toast. I'm going to start getting her to ask for things. Little Miss can you say Knit Picks, Lantern Moon, or how about handspun?

Could you say no to this? Pleeeeeease!?!

Soon we will work on "What does an alpaca say? What does a Merino say? and what does an Angora say?"

Ok. I'm about ready to admit I have a problem. A big yarn problem.