Family Pumpkin Party

Our annual family pumpkin carving party was tonight -- so now we are officially ready for Halloween! ...Except that I totally wigged out my back yesterday and am walking all hunched over. You should have heard the compliments I got this evening as I hobbled about - apparently I look like an old lady :) Well, at least I never got around to making a lovely costume for myself - maybe I can go as the hunchback of Notre Dame, or myself as an old lady! My desk chair is one of the most comfortable places to sit at the moment which is why I am up blogging. Can't wait to go to the chiropractor! - but unfortunately it will probably have to wait until after this weekend. Oh well, pain aside I still managed to have fun tonight, and I'm determined not to ruin Lily's Halloween fun tomorrow!

It's a tradition in my family to put babies in jack-o-lanterns at Halloween so our new niece Aujinay was introduced to that form of fun/torture this year! Just teasing - there are definitely some pictures of unhappy babies in pumpkins from some years... but Aujinay is a pretty happy little girl even if it was nearing her bedtime. Here are some photos of the carvers and just fun family pics from the evening.

The best one I could get of all the grandkids.

 Love the expressions in this one!

 

 Evie looks like she's still not sure what to think of her new sister -- we all think they're adorable!

 Darling Miss Audrey!

 Pumpkin carving!

 Evie and Lily doodling pumpkin faces on paper plates - Lily adores her big cousin! At one time during the evening when Lily was crying/whining over being told she couldn't have cake until she ate some dinner... Evie tried to chase and tease her - which Lily usually loves. Lily cried, "Evie, No get me!" And Evie laughed - fingers wiggling, "I love to tickle little crybaby girls!"

However smiley Lily looks in this photo: Know - she did not enjoy touching slimy pumpkin guts! "Yuck!" 

When Lily first got her little tool to start digging out her pumpkin guts Evie came over and offered to help. I think Evie helped almost everyone scoop out the insides of their pumpkins. She is not squeamish about getting down and slimy! At first Lily said: "No! I want to do it!" but a few minutes later she piped up, "Evie, I need help!" As she started scooping out the pumpkin Evie said, "Oh, that's why - this one is all full of roots!" (it was pretty stringy inside). Lily casually responded: "That happens all the time..."

 Rebecca and her cute pumpkin we thought kind of matched her shirt :)

 Rebecca with Aujinay - the newest little member of our family!

Sisters! Can you tell? :)

 And my lovely mom.

 Lily's little jack-o-lantern.

 Our pumpkins 2010

And of course, my darling daughter with her little pumpkin...

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 (This is the face Lily made when I asked her for one last good smile.)

Monkeying Around

So yesterday since Mike had no job lined up we decided to make a day of it at the zoo. We got there in the afternoon and just took it easy - the major perk to having an annual pass. We had such a good time. First we rode the Skyfari - Lily's first time and one of my favorite things about the zoo!

Then we spent some time in the Children's Zoo and climbed all over everything Lily wanted to climb on. Mike even went up in the playground equipment with her so she could slide down the slide because she would never have gotten through that mob of kids on her own!

It was such a nice day not too hot with the loveliest breezes. I love San Diego weather!

The main thing we came to see was the monkeys! Lily wanted to see the monkeys -- and they are Mike's favorite too. This orangutan was so fun to watch. When we first got there he was drinking water from a leaf he kept dipping into a pool in a rock, but later he came out and came right along the glass wall saying hi to everyone. He was a real crowd pleaser. He even threw a twig out of the enclosure to us which a little boy quickly grabbed and tossed back over the high wall.

Mike thinks the monkeys are smarter than we give them credit for and was pondering how nice it would be to just live out in nature swinging in trees rather than trying to build houses and always be striving to 'get ahead.' Maybe, but I still think I'd rather be me than a monkey.

Confessions of a Blog Stalker

So, I've been meaning to write this post for a long time. It's kind of embarrassing. It's kind of hard to know where to begin, but I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd give it a try.

Sometimes I wonder if blogging is a blessing or a curse. It's fun and I love to do it, but I don't want to spend so much time at it that it takes away from time spent with my family - nor do I typically want to be up blogging in the middle of the night! I guess it's just like a lot of new technologies: in some ways they make life better, in some ways they make life more complicated, but they sure are fun :)

Looking back I am kind of surprised that I even got into blogging. I've never been much of a journal keeper. My entries were few and far between and usually started out with: "I was cleaning my room and came across this journal and... boring boring boring." It wasn't that my life was completely boring - I just wasn't sure how to write about it. The idea that my kids might one day read it was kind of a hindrance to finding my voice. I was always at a loss of what to include or not include. And honestly a lot of the times I felt like writing over the years were because of stressful negative things that were happening that I needed to work through - so the whole tone of my (5 page) journal was not exactly uplifting = not exactly an accurate representation of who I am = not exactly what I wanted my kids to read/remember me by.

So when I actually had my own kid, when I finally became a mom - a moment I'd looked forward to since I was still a little kid - the one thing in my life I always had ambition to become - it hit me much harder than I'd ever anticipated. Maybe it was normal sleep deprivation from caring for a young infant, maybe it was because I was older? we were set in our ways? maybe it had to do with my thyroid condition? - definitely coming to terms with that new development didn't help.Whatever the reason... I was not feeling like my usual chipper self and not sure what to do or how to talk about it. I had help from family and friends from church at first, but everyone else is so busy with their lives and I am a pretty private person who does not ask for or accept help very readily so I was kind of just dealing with it. I felt ashamed to feel down because having a kid was supposed to be one of the happiest times in a person's life. A sweet old friend of mine from high school brought by some baby clothes and some time in there also e-mailed me the address to her blog. That was the beginning. 

I became a blog stalker :) From my friend's blog I found blogs of other people I used to know. I started bookmarking old friends blogs I discovered and checking them sometimes daily. I even started bookmarking blogs I found interesting that belonged to people I didn't even know. I just had this need to reach out. I felt sort of stupid - like I was spying on their lives. (It wasn't until later that I realized everybody does it, I mean, duh - people actually make blogs for other people to look at!) I didn't comment. I've always been super careful and hesitant about entering personal information on the internet and hadn't even joined facebook so I had no plans to start my own blog, and I thought people would be weirded out if I just started commenting on their blogs when I hadn't been in touch with them for years, or in a some cases ever!  But I kept reading. Some of the things people shared were really funny or inspirational. It really helped me get through those early days adjusting to being a mom. It was the perfect diversion for a mom with just a few minutes to spare - taking care of a baby with short and infrequent naps - not enough time to really start a project or get real rest myself. Some of the people whose blogs I loved most don't even post regularly any more, but I'm so grateful they shared what they did at that time. They don't even know they helped me, but they did! Thank you blogging ladies!

Sometimes I really wanted to comment. I debated over starting a blog of my own. Finally one day I decided to take the plunge. I knew that if I really wanted to become a part of this (online) community I was looking in on I needed to start my own blog. At least then if people thought I was weird for making a comment they could head over to my blog to see what I had to share and how weird I really am! It was a relief to come out of 'blog stalking' and become a blogger! It actually saved me time because I could create my own blog list and bypass checking bookmarked blogs people hadn't updated.

My favorite thing about blogging is that I am finally keeping a journal! Somehow knowing that people can look at what I write now makes it easier for me to express myself in a way I don't mind my children reading at some distant date in the future. I love how easy it is to post pictures along with my thoughts. I love to get comments, but I love to blog either way! I love that my Grandmother across the country can see her cute great granddaughter and get to know me a little bit better even though we live so far away. What I don't totally love is that sometimes I think in blog posts, and sometimes that makes it hard to get back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night. I could never keep up with all the ideas I have to blog about, but it's so fun to look back and see how much I've recorded that would most likely be lost if I'd never been introduced to blogging! 

So there - my secret is out: I was a new-mom-blog-stalker! Maybe someone out there can relate, or maybe you do just think I'm weird. :) My personal philosophy is: If your intentions are good - don't worry about it! or in other words - don't fear to do good.

Halloween Horsey

Pumpkin Picking

We went to our local Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago. It's always fun for us to get out and do something fun just the three of us. It seems like we don't do that kind of thing enough. We had so much fun going to Bates Nut Farm last year - I couldn't resist looking back at some photos to see how much Lily has grown. I had to throw in a couple flashback photos in the mix. What a difference a year makes! Lily is so much more willing to smile now - she was not a very smiley baby... I totally had to tease them out of her :) 

So this year - I dressed Lily up in the Halloween skirt I'd made and we headed out. We ate lunch at out favorite little deli in Escondido and then drove out to the farm. Last year we plopped Lily down in the middle of piles of pumpkins after she'd just woken up from a nap in the car - she totally reacted like she was dropped on some alien planet! --Definitely out of her comfort zone. This year she was much more at ease! She climbed all over the big pumpkins and just had a blast checking out everything and especially looking at all the animals. But her favorite, favorite part was definitely her first taste of candy corn! I promised her we'd get some before we left and she threw her arms in the air shouting 'candy corn' in joyful anticipation! Lily's a candy lover just like her mama, but we don't usually have it around. She cannot wait until Halloween! We played trick or treat one day recently and I put some little toys from her toy box in her bag each time she knocked on the door, and then gave her a lollipop I'd saved for her at the very end. - She just wants to play trick or treat all the time now! I keep telling her she'll get more candy at Halloween and she's so ready for it! I think if she had it her way it would be Christmas, Halloween, or her birthday every day of the year. I'm sure she talks about birthdays at least once every day. I'm just surprised she still remembers Christmas, but her life is still short - I guess she probably remembers almost everything.

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch 2010:

 

 Waiting for dad in the front yard.

 My baby waiting to go last year - I think that was my first attempt at pig tails!

 I love this picture from last year! It was like the one semi-smiley picture I got!

 Much more playful this year! :)

 At the farm..

 Pumpkin climbing in the real patch

 

 Check out the chubby cheeks and tiny flying pigtails!

 No pictures, please!

 Definitely more confident this year!

 

 Is that a jack-o-lantern-like smile!?

 Checking out farm animals with dad.

 Daddy-daughter love!

 Lily and her dad chillin' in the shade last year. Lily's not the only one who sometimes needs teasing to smile. :)

 Last year's farmer

 Farmer Lily 2010

 Lily happily waiting with our pumpkins for her dad to pick us up. 

It was a fun day. Now we just need to carve our pumpkins and we'll be all ready for Halloween!