Sophie loves to help me unload the dishwasher.  Her job is to hand me all the utensils.  Individually.  As I grab each one I say "thank you" and she repeats me: "nk you".  It's really fun.  Even if it takes me half an hour to unload the dishwasher!

So the other day Kara wanted to get in on the helping, and since I was loading the dishwasher, she wanted to do it too.  All by herself.

Not the best picture, but apparently I'm out of storage space and I'm too cheap to actually purchase more, so this is the only picture it would let me upload.  So she stacked 2 pans and the plates all on top of each other.  On the top shelf all the dishes were stacked on the right side.  Pretty good job!  Soon enough she'll be rinsing, scrubbing, loading, starting, and unloading the dishes!  Right???

The other day we were all driving in the car and Kara was having a bit of a I'm-almost-4-and-I-know-more-than-you attitude (I can hear my parents laughing in an evil manner now).  So I said to her, "Kara, why don't you talk nice?"  Her response?
"Oh no.  I don't think so sweetie.  I can't talk nice because I'm supposed to be mad."
How do you respond to that when you are laughing uncontrollably?
***********************************************************************************
I was "flying" Kara in my arms yesterday and I told her I had to stop because my arms were tired.  She said, "well just wake them up". 

Love this girl of mine.

That's all.  :)

Evens enjoyed a rare moment of cuddling with both girls.  Sophie has always been a daddy’s-girl, while Kara usually prefers me.  But the other night they both wanted to sit with Dad, and he soaked up every second of it he could. 

When Kara was a youngster and at that age where you discover you can get into things and make messes, well, she didn’t.  She really could’ve cared less about those kinds of things.  If a door was closed, then it was closed for a reason and she didn’t feel the need to open it.  She never got into kitchen cupboards and pulled things out just for the heck of it.  I never had to baby-proof the house (even though we did) because she didn’t mess with things that she knew she shouldn’t.  She didn’t try to grab precious centuries-old antiques (of which I have none), or try to put her finger/a fork/anything into electrical outlets.  If I said “no” to anything she was doing or about to do, she stopped and never tried it again.  Not out of fear of punishment, just because mom or dad said no.  I won’t get into how she is now, but back then, she was literally a perfect child.  By comparison, Sophie is the most stubborn and curious child—the complete OPPOSITE of what Kara was at the same age.  The last time we were in Texas, my mom had to baby-proof.  She never had to do that with Kara.  Any my mom has some expensive, precious, and beautiful treasures.  Kara never bothered to touch them.  Look at, yes.  But never touch.  Not even when no one was looking.  Sophie, on the other hand… ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s like a game to her.  Well, not even a game.  I don’t know what it is, because I don’t have any past experiences to compare her to.  She gets into EVERYTHING, pulls everything out, puts her finger/forks/anything into the sockets, pushes every button she can (including her sister’s), pushes me past the limits I never had to set for Kara, and drives us crazy!!!!  The second I stop her from doing one thing she runs off to play with something else she’s not supposed to. If the bathroom door is open, she shoots in there and opens the toilet lid and plays in the water.  Kara told me once that she caught Sophie drinking the toilet water.  Still don’t want to believe that’s true…  The scariest thing is that when we tell her firmly, “NO!” and flick her fingers (usually when she’s pushing buttons on the surround sound), she laughs at us and runs away.  None of our kitchen cupboards/drawers have latches on them, but believe me, as soon as I can get Evens to do it those latches are going on.  I can’t stand the stupid things, but I will deal with trying to pry my fingers into that little space to unhook the latch than put towels/dishes/pans/garbage bags/food away for the 100th time that day.  And you can forget about having a clean play room for the next 3+ years!  Every toy comes out of its basket whether it’s going to be used or not!  I gave up cleaning that daily months ago, and now it only gets cleaned for special occasions, like having a houseguest!  I understand that this is typical toddler fashion, and that most everyone with kids will probably think I’m complaining.  I suppose I am, but once again, remember that Kara was seriously the PERFECT toddler.  I asked Evens a few weeks ago how 2 children could be so different from each other when they have the exact same genes.  They might as well have been created from different people!  I love my girls, more than I ever thought my heart was capable of loving, but boy do they test my limits!

Here are some pictures to give you an example of how different my girls are:

This is how Evens set up these particular fall decorations. 

Everyday for about a week we would mysteriously find these guys moved around.  Evens thought for sure I was doing it just to tease him, and for some reason I thought he was switching them around… even though I couldn’t come up with a reason as to why he would do it. 

One night I switched them back and Kara was in the room and noticed me putting them back the…right… way.  She ran up to me and said “mom, put them back”.  Then the lightbulb turned on.  I asked Kara if she had been moving them and she said “yes”.  I asked her why and her response?  “Because they have to be right.  See, the girl has to be by the boy” she says as she points to them.  So Kara was the culprit all along!  My little OCD-decorator-in-training!

Meanwhile, while Kara is changing my decorations around and putting things where she feels they should be, Sophie is doing this:

Yup, she brought the game controller and her blanket with her, opened the pantry, plopped down, pulled everything out, opened the box of raisins, and ate them.

Evens is my best friend.  I am lucky in my life to have a few best friends, one being my cousin, 2 being my high-school friends, and the other being my mother.  But Evens is my best friend.  I knew it the moment we shared our deepest, truest secrets to each other while lying on a blanket in a field.  We hadn't known each other very long, but on that night, while watching the beautiful stars, we felt so peaceful and knew that we could tell each other anything and it wouldn't change a thing.  So I did.  I unloaded my life history on him.  And while it was a huge relief for me, some small part of me waited for him to say "ok, this is way too much.  You've got a lot of baggage that I don't have the energy to deal with.  I'm out of here."  But he didn't.  He didn't even blink.  He let me unload, cry, unload some more, and then held me.  I knew in that moment that I would love him forever, and 6 years later I still feel the same way.  He has always worked so hard.  When we first met he was working 2 jobs at almost 80 hours a week.  And he really hasn't slowed down since.  A 60-hour work week is normal to him, and he never complains.  Ever.  With all the demands on him at work, he comes home and does everything here required of him, and more often not required of him, without ever complaining.  I have often wished that I could trade him places; sometimes I feel that he'd make a better stay-at-home parent than I do.  But the truth?  The truth is that I don't envy him in the least.  He gets up hours before I do, heads to work in the dark and 8 months of the year in the freezing cold, works hard all day long, gets crap piled and piled and piled on him, then comes home (6 months of the year he leaves and comes home from work in the dark) and cleans, or helps me with dinner, or works on one of his thousands of projects, and spends some time with the girls before they are off to bed.  He's lucky if he gets 6 hours of sleep.  I don't envy him in the least.  I used to, but not anymore.  I get to spend all day with my beautiful daughters.  Sure, my life sucks sometimes, but it's not even close to how difficult Evens's is.  So babe, thank you.  Thank you for working so, so hard to make sure your family is secure.  So that we can have everything we need.  So that I can stay home with our beautiful daughters.  I love you, and I always will.  You truly are my best friend.  BILY

At Sophie's last doctor appointment, her 16 month appointment to be exact, her stats were:

Weight: 18 lbs 5 oz.:  5th percentile
Length: 28 1/2": 5th percentile

My daughter is a shrimp.  Of the smallest kind.  Which is actually incredibly strange considering the amount of food my sweet little porker consumes on a daily basis.  Literally, from the time she wakes up until the time she closes her eyes and heads off to that sweet Land of Nod, she is never without something in her mouth, and something in both hands waiting, or sometimes not waiting, to be stuffed into that mouth.  For example: for breakfast she usually has a waffle.  And a full glass of almond milk.  Snacks at half-hour increments later (immediately after breakfast) include anything from fruit snacks, pretzels, whole wheat pita chips, cookies, grapes, and rice cakes.  Lunch can be anything from a pb & j to mac-n-cheese to ramen, but no matter what it is, it's a full-size adult serving and she eats it.  Somewhere in there is a nap where she must burn more calories than the average human, because she's up and at it again!  More snacks.  Lots of snacks.  Lots of milk.  Until dinner, which is a full size Sophie serving, which fills her up, until before-bed snack time.  And it's not like she's starving.  She's honestly not.  She just eats.  And eats.  Funny thing is, she's always been a terrific eater.  She just loves food!  So much that her mouth is usually completely stuffed.  When she first began eating solids I really didn't have to start with the completely strained foods.  Just because she had no teeth seemed to not be a big enough reason to not "eat" food.  She's been eating meat ever since she got her two front teeth in.  I still don't know how she did it.  And fruit snacks has always scared anyone who's watched her eat them.  Er, should I say stuff-as-many-in-her-mouth-as-possible-and-gum/chew/suck-the-life-out-of-them-until-I've-got-enough-room-to-swallow-one-so-I-can-swallow-the-rest.  It's pretty impressive. 
It is my hope that her metabolism will continue to serve her this well for the rest of her life.  Otherwise, she's in some big trouble. 
I love you my little porker! 

Conversation while in the car:
 Kara: "Dad, I'm starving."
 Evens: "Ok, what do you want?"
 K: "Chicken nuggets and a big sprite.  With a straw.  And a lid."
 E: "Ok, what about a cup?  Do you want it in a cup?"
 K: "Yes, a big cup."
 E: "Ok."
 K: (said in that bossy 3 year-old voice) "Dad, you're not getting it."
 E: "Where am I supposed to go?   There's nothing here."
 K: "I don't know.  It's... it's..." (Now exasperated with her father's lack of knowledge) "I don't know how to tell you." E: "Ok, well, as soon as I find a place we'll get you something.  What does Sophie want to eat?  Chicken nuggets or french fries?"
 K: (turning to Sophie and asking in that baby-talk voice) "Sophie, do you want to eat?  What do you want?  Do you want french fries?"  (Pause.  No answer from Sophie.)  "No?  Dad, she doesn't like french fries.  She doesn't want to eat.  But I'm starving and I want sprite in a big cup."
 E: "Ok."
 K: "So hey mom?  Do you want a large Dr. Pepper?"
Oh dear.  My child is only 3?  What?  You mean she's almost 4?  Right.  Crap.
 

I feel like this was the busiest halloween ever.  We had a few different events to go to, and the girls dressed up differently for each one.  I was kind of exhausted by the time Halloween ended last night.  And we didn't even do anything yesterday except go to church! 

The festivities started on Thursday.  My work had a Halloween party, and they were doing a best witch costume contest.  Since I don't have a witch costume (well, none that I can wear out in public anyway ;) I dressed Kara up in her costume from last year.  Sad that she still fit in it.

Event #2 was Thursday night.  The girls went to a kid's party at our neighbor's house across the street.  Sophie lasted about 20 minutes before she decided she had had enough of all the scary costumes.  So I took her home and Kara stayed another hour or so.





















Event #3 was on Friday afternoon.  We went trick-or-treating at my Uncle's work.  Every year his office hosts trick-or-treating in their building, and since their are a ton of employees, it's a great place to score lots of candy.  The girls had a blast, it was warm and safe, and the employees were all so nice.  It was really fun and I hope I get invited to go with them next year.  Hint, hint!  ;)
























Since it was raining pretty bad on Saturday afternoon/night, Evens and I decided to take the girls trick-or-treating at the mall.  Which turned out to be a mistake because everyone else in the Davis county area had the same idea.  It was packed, packed, packed, and we were all so miserable and hot that we left.  Evens brought Sophie home to hand out candy to the brave kids that were trick-or-treating in the miserable, wet cold, and I ran Kara over to my aunt and uncles to do some trick-or-treating at a few houses in the good neighborhood!  After that I went to work.  The girls had a lot of fun, Sophie loved trying to say "trick or treat", and I ate lots and lots of candy last night!  Now back to life, which includes taking down all of the halloween decorations and putting up the fall ones!  I love this time of year!!!

…in order to catch myself (and anyone out there in my little “blog” world) up on the last month-ish.

I spent the first 2 weeks of October in Texas.  Evens, myself, and the girls flew down to attend my brother’s wedding, and Evens stayed a week and the rest of us girlies stayed another week.  Here are a bunch of pictures of everything we did!

My parents bought the girls Kara a trampoline.  Why is it that we lived in that house our whole teenage lives and never got a trampoline, and yet my girls come to visit for 2 weeks and my dad buys them a trampoline?  Funny how that works, isn’t it?  Anyway, we spent the first full day there putting it together. 

*********************************************************************************
The night before the wedding we (my cousin Emily, my sis-in-law Shelby and me) decided to take Ozma out for a bachelorette party.  Which we knew would be tricky because no one in my family speaks Spanish, and Ozma doesn’t speak any English… so I called a few of my friends (some who grew up speaking Spanish and so they were fluent… convenient) and Tyler called some of his lady friends and all-in-all there turned out to be quite a crowd!  We had no idea what we should do for her party, and were going to take Ozma to a club (for some good, clean dancing), but then we decided maybe a real American pastime would be more fitting.  So what did we do?  Dinner at Texas Roadhouse (for some good ‘ol steak, which Ozma really wanted… turns out that girl loves meat!) and bowling (which Ozma had never done before, and she ended up really having fun.  Or so we hope.)

*********************************************************************************

We also got to hang out with my friend Michelle and her kids.  This adorable one is Aydia, who is a year older than Kara. 

*********************************************************************************

My parents and I took the girls up to a really cool place called Landa Park.  The swimming part of it was closed for the season, which was a bummer because they have the coolest little kids water park.  But we did get to go on the train, which was super cool.  It’s seriously gotta be the longest little kids train I’ve ever been on (and I have been on tons!).  On our way to the train depot Kara stopped to play at one of the many playgrounds and met a girl named Kallie.  She invited Kallie to come on the train with us, and much to my surprise her mom said “yes”!  Only in Texas could that happen.  Seriously.  It’s not like the train was right next to the playground.  It was quite a walk to get there, and then the train goes across 5 acres, so it’s not a quick trip.  But her mom just gave her some cash and said “have fun!”.  Ha ha ha!  I guess we looked trustworthy or something, what with Sophie in her stroller and my 12 diaper bags.  I figure she didn’t think we’d have much of a head start if we decided to run.  Anyway, it was fun to have Kallie come with us on the train, and I learned a lot about her school, and her junior stars dance team (or something like that).  She had the cutest little sassy-texas-girl accent thing goin’ on, and I loved listening to her talk!  

Yeah, her feet are dirty, I know.  I just thought this was a cool pic.


This is the little friend Sophie made at the park.  He kind of followed her everywhere.  She kept getting annoyed with him and trying to ditch him, but just like a boy, he didn’t get the hint!

This is the other friend Kara made.  I can’t remember his name, but he sure thought Kara was the stuff, cuz he wouldn’t leave her alone!

*********************************************************************************
My dad and I decided to give my mom a break one day and took the girls to the Quadrangle, which is the place that Geronimo was held. 

The army has turned it into a pretty cool little park… thingy… and they have a bunch of ducks, geese, peacocks, deer, squirrels, and other little furry animals that live there.  Although there was a large sign that said not to feed the ducks, what do we care about rules?  We fed them anyway.  Although maybe we should have followed the rules, because seconds after I shot this picture Kara got bit by a duck and wouldn’t have anything to do with them after that. 

Something I’ve never seen before?  A baby peacock.  Not much to it though…  Kara had quite a cute conversation with the baby peacock.  It went something like this:


While this is a beautiful shot of Kara (holding her peacock feather):


This was the best I could get of Sophie.  She’s really into her nose lately.

Kara decided to run as fast as she could and scare all those birds.  By the time she got there (she got a little sidetracked a couple of times)  they were totally on to her and took off before she could “scare” them. 


Don’t be sad little girl.  It was cute to watch.

*********************************************************************************
Sophie’s latest creepy face:

Kara and Ozma.  She really adores Ozma and thinks she is pretty much the coolest girl ever!

*********************************************************************************

And finally, how about some wedding pics?

It was a beautiful wedding, and despite the craziness of the trip to the temple (traffic jam, car accident, another traffic jam, more than an hour late!!!!! and that’s just the bride and groom, and Evens and me!!!!) it turned out to be a beautiful, wonderful wedding!  We love Ozma and are excited to have her join our crazy family.