October 2013

October was a fun and busy month. General Conference for church was the first weekend, which is when the Prophet, Apostles, and other general leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints address us during 4 or 5 2-hour sessions. Soccer was still going on on the weekends. Jared had two 3-day trips out of town for work. I had my glucose test and a separate progress appointment with the OB-Gyn. I had Activity Days two nights, and I watched a friend's kids one day. Then on top of everything else, we had a bunch of Halloween celebrations. We'll cover the Halloween celebrations in another post. Though the whole month was pretty fun, overall, we were somewhat glad to have a less eventful November.

I love General Conference weekend. Listening to the different talks from the leaders of the church is refreshing to the soul. We stay home at watch it on tv through the internet. It is much easier with the kids. The kids watch some of it, but we don't expect them to watch all of it. The weekend can be hard on them due to being in the house for so long. But they were pretty good at entertaining themselves as Mom and Dad were listening to the talks.

Allie as Super Statue of Liberty

The Girls Directing Music

We made a few purchases in October in preparation for baby. It would have been nice to spread out the two purchases, but they were both on sale, and we had an expiring coupon for one. The first was a new glider. Our previous one was purchased when I was pregnant with Allie. It was a cheap one from Walmart. It was pretty good for awhile, but it got squeakier with age and beat up with our moves. In addition to being beat up in moves, the girls played with it a lot. They'd lay it down so that they could have a fort under it, and then they would also climb on it. It broke in a few places. All in all, we decided that it would probably be best to get another one. And the new one came with an ottoman, too. The other item was a new car seat. We basically got the cheapest travel system we could when pregnant with Allie. The seat hadn't technically expired, yet, but we felt we should get a newer, safer car seat. We ended up going with the Chicco KeyFit 30. Obviously we haven't put baby in it, yet, but it seems a lot better and safer for baby. And we got a good deal on it. We didn't get the travel system this time, though.

This is a super cute video of Rachel laughing, and it lets you hear how horrible the squeaking was on the old glider. Rachel had just woken up from nap. She had been grumpy, but then pushed on the glider and started busing up at the horrible sound.

Allie and Rachel enjoying the new Glider

I don't have a picture of the new car seat, but here's a video of the girls enjoying some of the cardboard that was included in the packaging. Or perhaps this is cardboard from the packaging for the glider. Either way, it is fun.

A new park opened in Springdale. It is a handicap-accessible park, so everything is made so that children in wheelchairs or with disabilities can participate. There are ramps so that they can get to any of the slides. A friend of ours went to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She said that the man who designed the park was disabled. He spoke about how he would design army worlds when he was a kid. They were perfect, but he couldn't play in them. He was honored to be able to make this park so that all kids could play on it. And truly, all kids enjoy it, whether handicapped or not.

Rachel on a Fun Swing

Allie on a Fun Swing

The Merry-go-Round is probably one of the Favorites

Allie enjoys pushing it and riding on it.

Rachel will ride on it a little, but she mostly likes to push it.

There are some ladders, still. Rachel likes to climb anything she can.

Isn't she looking so grown up?

Allie told me that she was going to make new friends at the park. After being at the park for a few minutes, she told me again that she was going to make new friends. She then went up to a girl and asked if she wanted to be her friend. The girl said yes and they started playing together. The girl was probably two or three years older than Allie, but they played well together. At one point, they started racing up a slide. It was a wide slide with really fat rails on the side. The girls had taken off their shoes and socks and were each climbing up a side rail. It seemed that they were both having fun and winning evenly. Then Allie started to lose. Her feet would slip, and she'd say, "I think we should start over." The other girl would keep going up and cheer when she won. Allie got sad and came over to me. I started telling her it was okay and that she should just keep practicing. I mentioned that the other girl was older, but that if she worked hard, she could still win sometimes. Then the girl came over and said something that I found very interesting. It completely went along with the articles that have been shared on Facebook about how kids aren't learning about the reality of life; we're teaching them that everyone can be winners. She said, "Allie, it's okay. It's like a pattern. Allie wins, I win, Allie wins, I win... and it's okay, because every kid will get a trophy." It sort of surprised me to hear her say this, because 1) I didn't expect her to bring trophies into it, and 2) It was almost exactly what the articles say, "We're teaching the kids that everyone gets a trophy in the end." I just tried to encourage Allie to keep trying. She did, and she won a few more times. All in all, she had fun with her friend.

In addition to the purchases mentioned above, we had a few other things come up financially. With looking ahead to our large deductible and the 20% we'll be covering after the deductible is met, we realized that we really need to save where we can and earn where we can. I have a few car seat canopies left over from craft shows. I listed them on craigslist. A lady contacted me and wondered if I could make a custom car seat canopy for her. She wanted a mustache one. I found some mustache fabric at Hobby Lobby, so I decided to do it. She was extremely happy with it, we made a little money on it, and we still have the others that can sell.

The Mustache Car Seat Canopy

I must say that I've wondered about the whole mustache phenomenon, but I thought it turned out pretty cute. The girls had some fun with the mustache theme, too.

Though I didn't make it for profit, I made another car seat canopy for a dear friend who had a baby boy a few months ago.

Rachel has become quite the little individual. She is definitely two. She can be so sweet at times and then completely frustratingly stubborn and ornery at others. But we love her dearly.

Here is a cute picture of her in an outfit she picked out and put on by herself.

Jared will occasionally hide from Buddy. It is usually behind the island or in the pantry, but it gets Buddy worked up. He will bound through the living room, going back and forth as he tries to find Jared. The video below shows a glimpse of his bounding. He normally bounds more, but when I took this video, he had already been bounding for quite a bit and was tired. It is still pretty funny to watch. Yes, the living room is a disaster. That's not uncommon these days.