Gratitude Tree

As I was lamenting having to take down our Halloween decorations, a friend gave me an idea to keep up our tree. We turned it into a gratitude tree. Now, every night before we read scriptures and say prayers, we each choose one thing that we are thankful for, write them on a leaf and tape them up on the wall. Anna loves this. She reminds us if we forget and likes the put the leaves up (although she may just like to stand on the back of the chair to reach).

We each have our own color leaves and can't repeat what is already up there. It's been really really cute to see what Anna says. She has put up the nature ones like the Earth, shade, trees and wind. She also frequently wants to say friends but we have to keep reminding her that we have that one already. I try to list something to be thankful for that came up that day. It's getting a bit harder as we have so much already up there but it's been a fun way to keep an attitude of gratitude through the Thanksgiving season.

Funky Tree Friday

A little while ago, we went on a hike and found this tree.

I don't remember what the rest of the tree looked like, I think it's a kind of palm. I can only assume these are roots but they kind of look like worms or fingers coming out of the tree. Creepy.

New Appliances

You may remember that my oven was a bit wonky. At Marrisse's suggestion, we looked into getting it re-calibrated but in looking into it, I read that if the oven was more than 35 degrees off, there was more going on than just needing to be re-calibrated. So we talked to our landlord and he got us a new oven! So now, not only does it work but it's better in several ways: there is a window on the oven door with an inside light (Anna loves this part), there are more numbers on the stove knobs and best of all, it's deeper so my cookie sheet fits in it without leaving the door open. Add to all of this the weather cooling off and I can now bake to my heart's content. Now if only there were more of us to eat it all.

Around the same time, I started to look for a washing machine. We have hookups but I've been using the coin machines across the way. With my growing belly, this was getting tricky, especially carrying the wet clothes back up the stairs to hang them out to dry. I found one on craigslist for $35 (woohoo). It's not new and shiny by any stretch of the imagination (the knob is a little broken) but it works and is on our back lanai. It's amazing what a big difference these seemingly little things can make in my life.

This weekend we went to the beach with some friends. There was another pregnant woman (due in December) that I had only met once before and we were chatting. Part of our conversation went like this:

Her: When are you due?

Me: February

Her: Really? I thought you were farther along than that.

Me: (polite smile)

Her: (chuckling) Sorry, I hope I didn't offend you.

Me: (chuckling) I'll try not to be offended. Of course it is my second one, so, you know.

Subject change.

All in all, I think I handled that rather well.

Halloween Fun

As you can tell, she is very excited to be in her costume. It also came with a wand with a flower on the end.

We had a fun filled Halloween weekend. It started on Friday night with our friends' Halloween party. It was the first time I let Anna put on her costume (it was staying in my closet for protection) and she was so excited. That first night, I put make-up on her and did her hair like Rosetta in the Tinkerbell movies (the other nights she didn't want to do all that).

It's a bit blurry but you can see the make up.

She looked great but it was strange seeing her with make up. Then on Saturday we had our church party with games and candy. Anna is getting old enough that she can actually participate it all of the throwing games. Side note: have you noticed how when they have parties where each group has to come up with a game, they are all throwing games? It kind of bugs.

For these two parties I dressed up as the sun. I figured I was already big, round and hot so all I had to do was become yellow. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of myself (sorry) but I wore a blue shirt with a yellow dress over it. Then I glued silver strips all around my belly to look like the sun's rays. It was pretty cute.

Monday, we had some friends over in the morning to play and decorate sugar cookies. We had a lot of fun although the younger kids are still figuring out how to do it. One little girl thought the frosting was finger paint and just put her whole hand in the bowl. It was a good way to use up the day until it was time to trick-or-treat.

Again this one is blurry but that is a face of pure joy to eat that cookie.

That night we went to a neighborhood where they have houses instead of apartments. It was a nice night and we saw lots of other kids going around. Anna is still figuring out how trick-or-treating works. After a few houses she started saying "Happy Halloween" when they opened the door. Also, if they asked what she was or tried to guess, she would specify a garden fairy, not just a fairy or Tinkerbell, and would correct people if they guessed something else. Anna was a trooper and we were out about an hour before we had circled back to our car and it started to rain. A good time to stop.

We got a good amount of candy and have all been enjoying it. Fortunately Anna realizes that her bucket is not just for her but for all of us.

Pumpkins

Last Sunday we carved our pumpkins. After getting the one at the pumpkin patch, I got a bigger one for Jason and myself at WalMart. First Anna and I planned out what she wanted her pumpkin to look like. Just like with choosing the pumpkin, she knew just what she wanted it to look like. Once we had it all planned out on paper, it was time to start cutting. I cut the top out and Anna helped me pull out the guts.

I wasn't sure what she would think of it but she seemed to enjoy it and had no problem helping. Then Jason did the carving for her.

For our pumpkin, we first had to decide what we wanted it to look like. Jason went online to get ideas. We found one that looked cool and like something we could do: a pirate pumpkin, complete with eye patch. I hollowed this one out while Jason was carving Anna's. Side note: he is not a big fan of things that are messy. While he has gotten better, he still has a way to go. Back to pumpkin carving. I actually carved out our pirate pumpkin except for the mouth, which Jason did. It was fun to plan it and carve it. I discovered crayons work well for writing on the pumpkin for planning purposes and a magic eraser takes off any mistakes without difficulty.

Here are how our pumpkins turned out. Sadly, I forgot to get candles so we never actually lit them but they still looked good outside out door.

Anna especially loved them.

Halloween Decor

One great thing about having our own place is complete control over holiday decorating. Here are the things Anna and I did for Halloween this year.

This is on the wall and can been seen when you first walk into our place. I cut out the pumpkins using a cookie cutter for the stencil and Anna put on the letters. For the pumpkin I just colored the face on with a sharpie.

I'm really pleased with how this tree turned out. Jason made it out of black streamer. The smaller branches are where he cut it in half length wise. We were going to make some tissue ghosts to go on the branches but we didn't quite get around to that.

Sorry about the bad picture quality but I had to take this one at night and the lighting wasn't the best. I figure no holiday is complete without an appropriately colored chain. Rather then use it to count down, we used it for the window.

And finally, our spider wall. I have pictures of us making these ones so I'll post those tomorrow. That way you can see the closer up pictures and how to do it yourself. I love the way this one turned out.

As you can see, we've had a lot of fun decorating. It's been fun to bring Halloween into our place (especially since the weather doesn't feel at all like fall) and boy will our place be bare once we take it all down. I'll have to start looking for Thanksgiving decorations. Either that or just put some pictures up on our walls.