happy halloween!

today is halloween, and we are kind of already trick-or-treated out! 2 weekends ago we did boo at the zoo, and yesterday was trick-or-treat at the hospital. The girls had a blast, but i'm not so sure they are up for wearing around the blue wigs again, much less in 20 degree weather! So i think we will all just pass out candy today, and enjoy looking at all the costumes.

Here you can see the girls are thoroughly enjoying their own (and eachothers!) trick or treat candy!
I think i mentioned that JBug's new favorite candy is Smarties. She has been doing this hilarious thing where she says in the most serious voice "Mom, I love smarties". i let them sprinkle some smarties in their pudding, and the loved it!

The following sequence of photos is Juneau pretending to give birth to Baby Shrek

We carved pumpkins this week. After a few minutes with a sharp knife, my craftsman lovin' husband decided to bust out his favorite powertool, and went to town on his pumpkin with the cordless drill

the finished product!

And it lit up beautifully!

Dr. Death....and, my daughter loves meat.

Today is my first day as Dr. Death. This means i am the "walk-in Doc" in the OB/GYN clinic, which means i see all the 1st trimester pregnant patients that are having some sort of issue, which is usually bleeding. You may or may not be aware that up to 25-30% of pregnancies end in a 1st trimester loss, which basically means i am pretty busy with this job. I do not mean to be unsensitive when i say that I'm Dr. Death, it is sincerely a downer of a job. We all hate it. Many of the patients i will see this week will be having miscarriages, and for many of them it is their 2nd or third miscarriage, and becomes quite depressing after a while. Of course much more depressing for the patient than for me, but pretty much a downer for all involved. Fortunately this morning I have had 2 little ladies with happy healthy baby's, and one that is too early to tell, so i am crossing my fingers for a good, happy week.

In Nova News, I just have to mention what a carnivore she is....did i give birth to this child?? When Cris and I met i was a vegeterian (commonly called a Vegemite in my family). It became difficult to make meals for both Cris and I, as he is a pretty traditional eater, so i incorporated Chicken into my diet. I still prefer veggie meals, and am not really a big meat eater. My daughter, however, can put away some serious meat! To the point that she has been giving herself some serious bowel issues, as her preferred diet would be eggs for breakfast, hamburger (plain with no bun or veggies) for lunch, and Meatballs for dinner. We are trying hard to incorporate some leafy stuff into that diet, much to her dismay. The only meat we have discovered she doesn't like is Ham. Cris was trying to get her to eat ham, and she didn't want to, and she actually gagged herself to the point of vomiting when it touched her tongue...oh, the drama!

In 1 week I will be headed here with 2 little girls in tow:
Cris will be headed here (he has some University of Hawaii business to attend to):

And we will all be glad to get away from the 18 degree weather here:

also, an update on the Magic Bracelets - They are STILL WORKING! I can't believe that a silly little glow bracelet was the solution to the sleeping issue! I was seriously questioning my ability to be a parent after weeks of the nighttime screaming, and all it took was a 6 cent glow bracelet? I am in no way ashamed to announce that we are now the owners of 300 glow bracelets.

Nova & Juneau's Favorite Joke

Subtitle for this post: "Proof of our bad parenting"

Due to our love of "The Office", it is often the case that our TV is on TBS in the evenings when they show reruns of our favorite show and on Tuesday nights multiple episodes in a row. As it turns out, TBS has also incorporated a certain clip from Family Guy into their commercial line-up and play it over and over and over. Needless to say, Nova and Juneau think it is hilarious not only to watch but to repeat over and over and over. They really don't let the TV playing Office reruns in the background interfere with their playing until this commercial comes on at which point they immediately stop and direct their attention toward the TV and either laugh or more commonly, begin repeating it over and over.

So, here is the original version followed by Nova's rendition...and don't judge us :)

the magic bracelets

Three nights in a row juneau has gone to sleep without a single peep. It is unbelievable!
In our desperation with her sleeping issues we turned to the ever trusty Dr. Google, where Cris found a site where someone said they used those little glow bracelets you get at amusement parks to help their kid who had a fear of the dark.

Fortunately for our family, i am an impulse buyer, and i had randomly purchased a packet of 15 glow bracelets for a dollar the other day on a whim.

That very night we busted out the magic glow bracelet, and Jbug and Nova were both enthralled! We told Juneau she could hold her own special little light as long as she didn't cry (meanwhile we scoffed at how silly we must be to think it would actually work), and guess who fell asleep without a peep! the next night, same thing, and again tonight, Juneau asked for a Yellow bracelet for her and one for Sissy, and then went straight to sleep with her bracelet on!

so you better bet we are headed back to Michaels for another Fifty tubes of glow bracelets! i am not risking running out of those things!

Ok, i do realize that this next photo is probably somewhat innappropriate for a public blog, but it's just so typical and hilarious that i can't stop myself! Please don't judge me. :) To say the girl's are obsessed with the potty is an understatement. We read the potty book multiple times daily. We talk about the potty. They sit on the potty all day long. The say 'poop' about 5 million times a day. Nova is actually a bit ahead of Juneau in the potty department. she consistently goes every morning when she wakes up, and usually 1 or 2 more times during the day. Anyway, this picture demonstrates a bit of their obsession with the potty. They are both anxiously watching to see if Pee-pee is going to come out, and if nova will get the ultra-desireably Chocolate Bean.

Funny thing Juneau has been doing lately: She is obsessed with You Tube! I'm not kidding. If you posted a video of your pet rabbit eating a banana - we've seen it. Your dog popping 150 balloons in 90 seconds - seen it. Your nephew blowing up plastic bottles with baking soda and vinegar - seen it. Your husky howling along with a favorite CD - seen it.
Every time we get on the computer she instantly wants to watch you tube videos. It's very strange, but she gets so much enjoyment out of these random videos that we let her indulge every once in a while.
It's been a rough weekend. this is my weekend to work 12 hours Fri/Sat/Sun, and it has been no fun at all. I have seen the girls for a cumulative hour over the last 2 days. Today was the absolute worst. It was slow all day, and Cris and the girls came over at 6:45 to eat dinner, my shift was supposed to end at 7:30, and of course at 7:15 i get called up to do a c/section. So then cris is stranded with the girls for an hour while i do the section, then we don't get out of there til 8:45.

I need a whole post dedicated to how much i hate working this much, and missing out on being with the girls more. I know i say it all the time, but i am eternally grateful that although i am not with them as much as i would like, Cris is able to spend basically 24/7 with them, and that makes it so much easier to be away. I am very anxiously looking forward to the end of my Army obligation so i have a little more freedom with my schedule.

And finally, in closing, here is our little goofball with her special rendition of Baa Baa blacksheep featuring "all the men" and "all the ladies"

The Pumpkin Patch

Today we ventured out into the wide open countryside surrounding Colorado Springs to a family farm that transforms in the fall into a sort of pumpkin patch/rural amusement park. It got well into the 70's today so we enjoyed a fantastic day outside after the frigid 20 degrees with freezing rain weekend we suffered through last weekend - we are being told by the locals that this was a totally freak occurrence - we'll see...

We were about 15 minutes into our tour when the unthinkable happened...the camera battery died! This has never happened to me since owning my wonderful Nikon. I don't know exactly what happened, but I guess we used up a lot of battery at the zoo last night with all of the flash requirements and such.

So, since we are the great parents that we are, some of our children's beautiful childhood memories are relegated to the fuzzy 1 megapixel images we could capture with Cris' cellphone.

Yes, they let me ride on the kids train since the girls were too small to ride by themselves. The "train" was really just a dressed up riding lawnmower with plastic 50 gallon drums being drug along behind.

Do I look out of place?

The girls LOOOOVED the farm animals which included sheep, pigs, donkeys, horses, goats, rabbits and even a CAMEL!!

Insert Camera Battery Dying - The Clear Decrease in Photo Quality From This Point on Signals the Beginning of Cell Phone Photography

We found these awesome skeleton shirts for the girls that Cris wants to believe are anatomy shirts and NOT Halloween skeleton shirts.

Nova LOOOOVES seeing chickens and everytime she walked up to one she started singing one of her favorite songs "I know a chicken..." by Laurie Berkner Band

Though we didn't get any pictures of the Hay Pyramid (Cris was less than impressed) they did have this cool "hay slide". Nova and Juneau both shocked the onlookers when they begged to go down 'by self' and then headed straight down the giant slide all by their tiny little selves --- and LOVED it! They immediately asked to go again but the line was super long so we headed off to the pumpkin patch.

Nova was actually even more adventurous than Juneau (who went down on her stomach) - Nova slid right down on her little rear and smiled the whole way but unfortunately the picture didn't come out - maybe if we had an iPhone.

The girls had a great time walking around the "pumpkin patch". For those of you who are loyal followers of our humble blog, you know EXACTLY what Nova is preparing to do in this picture:

That's right...Nova was CONVINCED she could lift the pumpkins

The girls finally settled on a couple pumpkins that looked good for carving. (Yes, Nova is still trying to pick up the heavy pumpkins)

We are still trying out a couple of different churches in the area. We have been to one tiny little church in a renovated apartment building and one giant megachurch that has made national news on several occasions in the last few years. Neither were quite the right fit for us. Today we went to a church that is held in "Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center." It's like a giant and ridiculously elaborate Chuck E Cheese. The upside is it would be pretty sweet to go to church where you can ride the go-carts if you get to church early.

I have a busy week ahead. I am working all week and also all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I really hate working all weekend long.

Some other quick mini-updates:

*We should be closing on our house in the next couple weeks. Happy to be done but very sad to lose a lot of money due to the nasty real estate market right now.

*I am taking advantage of FREE Disney tickets offered to active duty military until the end of the year. I am taking the girls to Disney next month while Cris is in Hawaii for a business trip. My sister lives in Florida and she and her kids are joining us. It is going to be ridiculously awesome.

*I have some delicious apple crisp baking in teh oven right this second and it smells so wonderful.

Boo at the Zoo

We have had a great weekend so far, and we still have Sunday left! We slept in until 6:30, which is a real treat for us lately given Juneau's sleeping issues, and then we played around the house all morning. After morning nap we headed out to get some lunch, and I pulled this outfit out of the closet for Juneau. I didn't really think anything of it until I looked at Juneau when she was dressed and she suddenly looked like she could head out to kindergarten! What happened to our baby!
Below you will see Juneau showing off her crazy personality. She thought she looked so cute and was dancing all over the place while i was trying to get her to hold still for a picture! I love this girl!

And speaking of growing up, look who wore pigtails today! Her pigtails were about the diameter of a sewing needle, but they were still so cute. 2 little grandma's were eating next to us at Chipotle, and they were gushing all over Nova, and how cute her little pigtails were. :)

So, we headed home and decided to get ready for Boo at the Zoo!. This busy mama decided it was reasonable to bust out last year's costumes since they were such little babies last year, and surely won't remember a repeat appearance. Plus i LOVE them in these bright blue wigs. I thought they might be able to wear last years onesies, but believe it or night 3-6 months is not really a workable size for Nova. It did fit, but it had that "poured in" look that no girl really wants to go for, so i made them new shirts that actually fit.

They were such great sports about their wigs (especially with a little bribing in the candy department). Juneau has a new favorite candy, which she is holding out for your viewing pleasure - Smarties!

A little hug for sissy

Nova had decided that she wasn't really interested in taking an afternoon nap, so by the time we arrived at the zoo at 5:45 she was wiped out. she slept in the wagon for a little while while we waited to get our tickets.

One of the girls favorite parts was looking at all the other kids costumes. They thought Elmo was dressed up just for them, and Juneau immediately wantaed to go over and talk to Elmo. Nova loved the little boy dressed as Pooh.

and Cris loved Darth Vader and the Storm troopers...

The girls costumes were a HUGE hit, and everyone went crazy about them, as you can see from one of the candy passer-outers

Nova just finished her 3rd "pop-pop" of the evening, and Juneau was working on her third one in this picture

Halloween 2009!

Hopefully next year i will come up with a new costume for Halloween!

On tomorrow's agenda - church, the pumpkin patch, Cici's pizza and Costco!

another 3 day weekend

I haven't had much to write about in the last few days. i figured no one would be too interested in reading about how we spent the weekend huddled around the fireplace watching Malcom in the Middle reruns.

Thankfully the sun was back out today, and we decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful 55 degree weather!

We were all ready to get out of the house!

So, after morning nap, we loaded up and headed out to enjoy the sunshine. First stop was a Vietnamese restaurant. I'd been in the mood for some Vietnamese food, so i found a nearby restaurant and we tried it out. We were underwhelmed by the food, and the service was....well, it was actually terrible, so i don't think we will be back. also nova had a slight choking episode on a piece of shrimp and caused a bit of a ruckus.

The day got better from there, however. We dropped Cris off to get a haircut, and then the girls and I headed down to Old Colorado City to explore some of the little shops there. Nova has been particularly insistent about walking everywhere these days. I let them roam free along the sidewalks while we window shopped, and they LOVED it. They collected handfulls of leaves and rocks, and really enjoyed being out and about like "big girls".

After we picked Cris up we made a last minute decision to make a quick afternoon trip to the zoo. We have never been to the zoo in the afternoon, and i have to say, it was by far the most amazing trip to the zoo EVER! There was literally no one at the zoo. there were probably a total of about 5 families in the entire zoo. It was also very near feeding time for all the animals, so they were all out of their normal hiding places and pacing around making a big show. The giraffes were HILARIOUS! usually there are so many people feeding them crackers that they could care less if they get any more crackers. this time Juneau was the only one feeding them, and they were going Crazy! She had like 10 giraffes gathered around her, and they all had their huge purple tongues hanging out and licking all over her. She loved it! Nova even actually participated this time.

The Lion was phenomonal. he was right up next to the glass, and kept giving juneau and nova the eyeball. he stared right at us for the longest time.

I can't believe we didn't have a camera for this zoo trip, but here is a little glimpse of the lion taken with Cris' cell.

Then we headed up to the mall to have some chic-fil-a and play in the indoor playground. This always wears the girls out, and they usually fall asleep on the ride home (which is great!)

Here are some pics from our day.

Nova looking cute for a fun day!

Betsy found these Anne Geddes dolls for the girls, and they LOVE them! Juneau out of the blue started calling ladybugs "junebugs", and she loves the lady bug doll. Nova thinks that she can ride the ladybug, and is always sitting on it as seen above!

Nova loves these dolls because they are really heavy. she carries them both around all the time.

Cris has always been the one to clip the girls fingernails. it's so cute because they actually love it, and both think it's so special to get to sit on daddy's lap and get their nails cut. Juneau chews hers down to the skin, so she usually doesn't have much to cut, but still likes the process.

Nova's nails are little daggers. we both have injuries from hers if we don't keep up with them!

Bathtime!

Juneau particularly loves to take a bath, and would stay in the tub indefinately if allowed.

bathtime is the most fun with your sister!

and finally, our snow dogs first experience with snow! a little piece of sherp-dog heaven.

Our big challenge for the last couple of weeks has been sleeping issues with Juneau. Part of the problem is she has developed a deathly fear of the dark. she doesn't even like riding in the van at night. At the first mention of bed she starts screaming bloody murder, and can keep it up for an hour or more on her worst nights (and naps). We have tried a million techniques. First we tried just staying in the room with her, but she refused to actually go to sleep and if we tried to leave she would scream. We tried leaving plenty of lights on, but that didn't work. We tried putting a pack n play in the adjoing room (which does happen to be a bathroom :) and transferring her into the pack n play to try calm herself down. She actually started preferring that, and asking to sleep in the bathroom, so that didn't work. We tried ignoring her, but she can literally scream "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" for up to an hour (which makes it just a little bit hard for Nova - or any of our neighbors for that matter - to fall asleep). I tried making a really fun bedtime routine, with reading books, and singing, and brushing teeth, and saying prayers. all of that worked out great until it came time for us to leave the room. i just don't know what to do about it, and it is starting to wear us thin as she does it at nap and bedtime. She also has a problem when she wakes up - she doesn't just wake up nicely in the morning. she wakes up screaming (which of course wakes nova up - usually at about 5 a.m.). Anyway, i am hoping to have some sort of parental epiphany about how to solve the problem - but so far, no such luck.