Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has a happy halloween!

Can't wait to see all your kids' cute costumes

Rachel got to wear her costume to school today. She was grinning from ear to ear when she walked into her class in her bride dress holding her flowers. I think the costume turned out really cute. I couldn't find a bride costume anywhere so I thought I was going to have to start from scratch. The last time we were at my parent's house Rachel found this dance costume to play dress up in --(it is the top half of her costume--has the top part of the skirt attached but looked more like a tutu than a bride dress). I used that and then just made a long skirt to wear underneath it. Rachel wasn't very happy that I made her wear pants underneath it, but other than that she is very excited!

The second picture is of a very girly Rachel. She definitely has her days where she can hang with the boys and is a daddy's little girl (the other day at the park she insisted on joining in with the boys who were having a light saber fight--she was shocked when they tried to tell her what it was and just rolled her eyes and said "i know what a light saber is-and starting fighting." lol). But yesterday she showed her girly side and refused to put her hand in the pumpkin and touch all of the slimey insides.

Friday night Football

At the high school football game that is. And apparently everyone in the whole town goes to these games so I tried to take a picture of the stands so you could see everyone-but being the only white person there I didn't feel like I could go stand in front of the bleachers and turn my back to the game and snap a picture of the crowd-go figure. So this is all I got. It was fun to be out of the house...but we weren't all that into it and we left at half time.

Halloween Carnival

Rachel's school had a harvest festival and she got to play fun games, and of course win fun little prizes! Here she is doing a ring toss at her teacher's booth.

I was especially proud of her skills on this one. She had some impressive moves, and one really funny one where she managed to laso herself. I had some cute videos of the night but they are all too big to post. (a negative side to having a new digital camera--does anyone know if there are easy wayws to resize videos for the web like how you can just resize photos??)

Our little creative storyteller

Rach sure has a talent for making stories up on the spot. She is always telling people about her "brother" or her "sister" and even when people know her and try to call her out, she comes up with convincing stories with elaborate details to stand as evidence. Sunday I was watching a movie on tv and there was a short clip where a little girl finds a cat and loves playing with it and says she wants to take it home. Minutes later the phone rang and it was grandpa Lennie. Rachel ran to get the phone and since I wanted to watch my movie I let her just chat away. (i overheard her chatting and later got his side of the converstation) . She starts telling grandpa that we just bought a new kitty!
How much was it? he asked
"one dollar, it was going to be $20 but they didn't want to take all of our money, so it was one one dollar."
at random times she would giggle, and say "oh, the kitty just jumped on my lap!" Oh, she is good!
He asks if he can hear the kitty meow
"you want to hear the kitty meow? Okay." I watch her set the phone down on the floor and then she knelt on all fours and made a short little meow herself."
The conversation went on for quite some time...and then I got on the phone."
'Hi dad'
(rachel glares at me and says "don't tell him")
'Well, tell me about this new kitty. Was someone giving it away? or did you buy one?'
after laughing "Dad...there is no kitty."
(rach is not happy)
"so, You don't have a kitty?"
I wish I had the entire conversation recorded--it really was entertaining.
I don't like to think about it as lying, but so I will stick with creative storyteller.

Rachel's new apron

After seeing some cute pictures of a mom who had sewn cute little aprons for her kids I was inspired to make one for Rach. So we bought some cute fabric while we were in town last time. She picked out this fabric, and I told her that we couldn't buy it because it wasn't "apron" fabric. It is flannel like you would use for kids pajamas. And she just looked at me and said "why not?" and then I realized she was right. Sometimes I need the help of a 5 year old to think outside the box. we had a lot of fun -I will definitely have to think of some more saturday projects like this because there isn't anything else to do here :-)

Speaking of things to do here, I was thinking that maybe we should ease up on our trips back to Phoenix because if we keep going home most weekends we won't ever really experience the fun stuff up here. But in talking to a few natives, and quizzing them on what they do over the weekends...i realized that they leave on the weekends too, especially after pay day. So in going home every other weekend-we are in fact getting the true reservation experience. YAY--when is the next 3 day weekend?? Veteran's Day--Sweet and only a couple weeks away! Plus another reason to celebrate with a road trip--the gas prices are dropping like crazy! They have been dropping about 10 cents every couple of days and today it is down to $2.85. If that doesn't justify a road trip I don't know what does.

PS-sewing tips for an apron. I would definitely suggest using ribbon as the ties instead of sewing a fabric strip like the pattern said--SO MUCH EASIER!! and As I was starting to sew the D-rings on the neck strap I had Rachel try them out to see if she would be able to fasten them herself, and her brilliant suggestion was "mom, why don't we just sew it together and not use these, then I can just put it over my head myself. " She really is brilliant. We also made the ribbon on the sides long enough so that she can wrap it around to the front where she is able to tie it in a bow herself.

Wedding outfit

Here is the dress that i decided to wear, I loved the purple color, the only bummer was that the sleeves were wierd so I had to wear something with it. And as for the cute zebra print, I would have totally bought that one-animal print and all--except that it was one that was too short. But I did forget to mention tat I did find a cute cheetah print cropped jacket which is adorable! After shopping for 4 days straight I am no longer in the mood to play dress up, so maybe I will just post pictures of the new outfits as I wear them each sunday. I am sooo excited to actually have some options, usually I would just rotate between 2 different outfits. :-)

As for sewing...I have decided that yes buying is easier...but I would like to better master the 'altering' of clothing. I am no pro or anything, so I can't do a whole lot, but I did buy a cute brown skirt on clearance even though it was about 4 sizes too big and was able to take it apart and resize it. And I would like to get better at adding a sash sized strip of fabric to the bottom of the dresses that are just barely too short...stuff like that. Going to the fabric store is daunting! The fabric and the design of the dresses in the stores don't look too complicated, until you are looking for a pattern in the fabric store, and then browsing through the boring collection of fabrics.

Who's got the cutest kid??

My friend Megan posted this and I think it looks like fun so I thought I would share it too. there is a category for babies up to age 4 and under and little kids ages 5 to 10. I know some pretty cute kids--wouldn't it be fun if it was someone you knew on the gap signs at the mall? Results will be narrowed down to 20 finalist and the public will vote on those in december. Details for the call are posted right on the homepage http://www.gap.com/ Find those cute photos!

BRRRRRR!!

We got back home to some FREEZING weather! When I took Rach to school this morning it was 22 DEGREES!!!

I couldn't help but think that it is just like living in Boston, except without all of the pretty fall leaves.

Back from our trip

The highlight of the trip!

For those who need a little explanation--this was taken at the gas station in Cedar City, UT--We filled up at my parent's house and this was the first place we stopped for gas, at our destination. AWEOMSE! My mom and I became the first in the family to make it on one tank of gas-only because we were the first ones daring enough to try. ;-) Despite our pride at this achievement we knew my dad may not view it as the same exciting venture, we decided maybe we should keep it to ourselves. Unfortunately, we were caught off guard when one of the first questions he asked us was "So how was the drive? Where did you stop for gas?" Uh.....uh..... So we spilt the beans, and he couldn't believe it, as he has his two or three favorite gas stations picked out and we stop at each one on every trip. For the record, according to our expert calculations we had another 2 gallons left in the tank, so no only were we in no danger of running out, we could have easily gone another 40 miles...hmmmm something to try for next time :-)

We stayed one night at my grandparent's house and were there at the perfect time for some apple picking. Grandpa insisted that Rachel and I weren't picking nearly enough so he insisted on getting on the roof to pick more himself. Mom was a little worried, but as you can see he is an expert and he had it all under control. Thanks grandpa the apples and tomatoes are DELICIOUS!


As for those of you wondering how the shopping for a dress went, here are a few dresses that I liked, I don't have one of the dresses I actually bought-guess I will post those later. Kind of wierd but the places we found the best selection at was Kohl's,Ross and Marshalls. Kirsten--I thought of you when I found this zebra print one-I knew you would be proud, but all of these one piece dresses that were in style were all just a tad bit short, technically long enough, but couldn't be trusted when moving around/sitting down. I like the loose fitting one on the top left, but that style was often too short as well, I love all the graphic prints, but they seemed a bit busy for church on the rez, and since I am the new Young Women's president I will have to look decent. (That's right! Wish me luck!)

What would you do if you were stuck in Dam traffic for an HOUR?

Taking Pictures of the scenery only lasted about 2 minutes.. Here's what we did to keep busy-for the rest of the wait--easily the best hour of the drive!


Singing to the top of our lungs, and practicing our dance moves

Singing while sticking my head out the sun roof! I had the people behind me waving and clapping! LOL! It has been a long time since I felt that spontaneous and fun-glad I still have it in me!

Had to get one of Jamie and Rach. They definitely bonded during the 2 months that they shared a room. Jamie gets so excited when Rach comes and follows her around laughing and shrieking "Ray! Ray!" all day long.

Suggestions Please!

I need a new dress--if you have any suggestions on any stores to look at I would love to hear them. Especially if you have seen any cute dresses recently somewhere.

PS--I am back in town for a couple of days, I am at my parent's house though so not sure if I will make it to the east valley.