Gypsy Girl

Isn't she beautiful?

Fall in November

I love to decorate and it is so cool how just changing a couple of things in the house can change the entire feel of the seasons. It is fun to explain to Zoey all about the different holidays and what they mean and to watch her get excited as the days go by.

New York Giants!

Being form New York, Brians family are HUGE New York Giants fans, so to show our team spirit...

Go Giants!

The Terrible Twos!

Zoey is such a typical 'terrible two' year old! Let me tell you all a little about her new antics. When she is mad at me, my new name is "Mommy booty butt". If she doesn't like something, she says "Its poop poo and pee pe". When she doesn't like what Bri and I are telling her when she is in trouble, she screams, "Shut your mouth hole!" as she is slaming the door shut on us. Her other retort is to call us both "buttheads". She also tells me that she "hates" things, that I am "stupid" and loves to say, "What the heck in the world?". Now, I know she is getting "what the heck is that/" from me but, all the rest I believe that she is learning from the other kids at babysitting and maybe from kids at the park because Brian and I never say those other words. In fact, we are even careful never to say the word "hate" in our home. It is so frustrating to work hard to do everything right at home and then, know your kids are going to pick up bad habits and sayings from other people. When she is mad in church and wants to run away or climb under the pew, she screams "You're bad Mommy!" and smacks my glasses off my face and then, proceeds to attack me with octopus arms and legs flying everywhere, struggling to get free. She also throws her crayons, toys and sippie cup over the two rows in front of us, which luckly, are empty because we sit right behind where the sacrament boys sit. When its time to get ready in the morning, she refuses to coroperate, hiding from me under the bed, undressing herself or messing her hair up and my nicely made bed by hiding under the covers. She still goes "poopy" in her pants on purpose and then, tells me I need to change her "right now!" She orders me around telling me what she wants and how she wants it and growls at me if I don't comply. She opens up the fridge herself and tries climbing up the shelves. From her highchair, she throws her food on the floor and if I dont clean up her tray up fast enough, she dumps her milk out right as I am reaching for it with an impy little grin on her face. She makes messes with toys and books all over the floor and then, refuses to help me clean it up. She throws toys over the railing of the stairs or rolls them down the staircase. She uses her chair to climb up onto counters and trys to brush her teeth and get herself bandaids for her 'boo boos', making big water and toothpaste messes and leaving bandaid wrappers all over the counter. When it is bath time, she plays 'tea party' and dumps cup fulls of water over the side of the tub and onto the floor before I can catch her or runs, wet and naked, through the house getting all the carpet wet. When it is time to get in the car, she tries running and hiding behind the air conditioning unit in the back yard where I freak out looking for her and have even run all the way to the park up the street the first time because I didn't know where she had run off to. Once I get her back to the car, she hops over her car seat and hides on the other side of the car where I can't reach her. When we are driving, she throws things at me and takes her arms out of her seat belt straps. By the time I drop her off at the babysitters or her Grandparents, I am so exausted and relieved to be 'getting away' by going to work or school that I could jump for joy! Yet, I still love that little stinkerpot and since she is turning three this month, I expect to see perfect obedient behavior beggining to emerge. That happens, Right Mom?

Halloween Night

On Halloween day, Brian and I attended our good friends Halloween Wedding. It was so cool! I will post photos if I can get any. So, we were pretty pressed for time when we got back home to make it to our Ward's Annual Trunk or Treat. Good thing Zoey and I played with costumes ideas early this month...

First, Zoey had to decide what she was wanted to be for Halloween...a witch?

A ballerina?

Or a Fairy Princess!
I put her costume together myself, finding the skirt at the dollar store, the wings for $5 dollars-I had to add the elastic straps and wrap them with pink felt ribbon, we got the flower tiara and wand from the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Oregon and I just dressed her in pink pajamas and tennieshoes. Too cute and simple! Although, it was a struggle to keep her in her costume!
Here is Zoey peeking inside the church door.

Here is Zoey doing some funny voodoo with her majic wand!
The church had a great turn out this year with about 20 different chilis to try, a cupcake table, fun carnival type games and even a fun, spooky haunted house maze for the kids to crawl through.
Here is Zoey with her Mama. I dressed up like a gypsy girl. (Notice Zoey's wings missing? She stripped herself the minute we got there!)

Pretty Gyspy Mama.

Here is Brian all decked out as the Country Music Superstar in all black, Trace Atkins.

"Okay guys, I'm ready to go trick or trunking!"

"Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!"

Here is Bishop Creer and his Family, we totally love them!
Ahh, a cute little baby ballerina.
They also had a trunk decorating contest.

This is my favorite one...so cute.

Here is my friend Tiffany from UNLV, her fiance, Hugo and thier cute little dog that was dressed up as a butterfly. I wish I would have remembered to snap more photos of them. Tiff has become a really great friend of mine so, I guess I should have plenty more chances!

Here is a happy Mama with her little fairy child. Zoey had so much fun and even had her Daddy take her for a second round of trick or treating after he dumped out the first load in the trunk of our car!

I wish I would have gotten more shots of everyones costumes but, like I have heard Erica say before, "Sometimes you have to just live in the moment and put the camera to the side."

It was so cute and fun and Brian and I are definately making this a family Halloween tradition each year. It is a safe and fun way to take your kids trick or treating and boy, do they get candy quick!

Happy...
Happy...

Halloween!

When we got home, I snapped a photo of our neighbors house. So cute! I had Bri snap a photo of my full costume before I changed. What is really funny is that this is actually how I really dress, maybe minus the extra scarf around the waist.
Just look at all that loot! I think it is safe to say that we are stocked for the next year!

Ahhh, So cute...look who feel asleep first. Zoey stayed up late watching her new Tinkerbell movie.

And here I am, alwyas the last one up! Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween night! Love you all!

The Fright Dome

Brian's Mom was the 3rd caller on the weather channel and won 2 tickets to go to the Fright Dome at Circus Circus for Halloween week. It was soooo much fun and I figured out two things. 1. I love rollercoasters and I am a dare devil at facing physical fears, while Brian absolutely refused to ride one with me but, 2. I am deathly afraid of Haunted houses and Brian is absolutely enthralled by them! He is mentally fearless! I hid behind him the entire way and this scary guy followed us from room to room growling right behind me, I could feel his breath on my neck...I almost wet my pants I was so freaked out. They make those haunted houses so real. Corpses and screaming victims, electrocution, people with real chainsaws running up and down the isles, people dropping from the ceiling on bungy cords, scary masks, clothes and makeup, strobe lights and fog...the entire dome was pitch black! That also meant that the entire rollercoaster ride was a blind curve, wahoo! All in all, we had a blast. It was fun to cut loose and get out for a change and do something crazy together. Spooky, Spooky!!

A Halloween Wedding

On Halloween Day, my really good friends from highschool, Amber and Haakon, got married. I forgot to bring my camera, though, when Amber posts some photos on her My space page, I will borrow them to show how fun and crazy it was. Almost every one wore costumes or put on masqurade type masks and it turned out so fun, ending in a really crazy dance fest. I got to see a lot of old friends from highschool, met thier husbands and hear about thier kids and lives. Weddings are so fun, we had a blast and the cake was divine! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Ankenbauer!

Cheyenne Ridge Ward Young Womens

I am having so much fun in my Young Womens calling. This next week, we will be having the Young Women in Excellence Showcase, (I thought of that name), where the girls will get to display something that they have worked on or created through thier personal progress books. They get to invite thier parents and we have been practicing for the last 3 weeks for the set of songs we will be singing. I love singing and have actually officially joined the church ward choir as well. Here are the gorgeous invitations that I made. I am so crafty.

Also, the week after, we are having the annual pinewood derby at church for all the young men and women, leaders included. So, I decided to make my little square hunk of wood into a Volkswagon Lady Bug! So cute. We had help shaping the cars from a master wood worker in our ward. Then, I used acrylics to paint the rest.

Please check out our Young Women's blog page periodically to see what fun new things we are up to. Its at cheyenneridgewardyw.blogspot.com

Fun with Zoey

Zoey loves to play in the bath for hours and of course, I love to turn out the lights and throw in glow sticks for her to chase around. Here is a cute clip of her playing.

Little green goblin.

She also wakes up full of it in the morning and it takes me a half hour to catch up with her. She wakes me up in the morning and says, "Mommy, come on, wake up. Its morning time, morning time. See, its bright outside (as she opens my blinds letting in a flood of piercing sunlight). Come on Mama, I got poopy in my pants and my tummy's hungry. You need to change me and I wanna eat food. I want hot cereal! Get up, I know you can do it!" Here is the little puppy in my bed to wake me up and play.

Such a smart little Puppy Dog. Good girl, "Woof!"

Vote for Change

So, Brian and I decided that we are going to vote for Obama. We both agree that both the canidates this year have some really great strengths, as well as, weaknesses. However, we are more impressed by Obama and his knowledge on a vast number of subjects. Anyhow, UNLV has been a complete buzz will the whole campaign thing and I am ready to strangle the next the person who walks up to me to ask me if I am registered to vote, when I plan to vote, who I am voting for or to smack one more Obama sticker on my shirt! Jeepers Creepers! However, they did do something really cool and had a special free performance on campus by...Hoobstank! Yeah, that right! I got to see them live in between classes with my new school friend, Tiffany. Here are some cute 15 second video clips of the concert and some extraordinary hacky sack players from england or somewhere. I mean, they take hacky sack to a whole'nother level. I recently realized that 'whole'nother' is not a real word, yet, I say it all the time. Weird.

Hoobstank.



Insane hacky sack.