Disaster Around Every Corner

Oh what a day was last Thursday. Oh. What. A. Day. It started off so well. We had another great sewing club get together. Afterwards, my good friend Mindi stuck around with her daughter, Jane. Mindi is an exceptionally talented artist and is doing two murals in my house. I am very excited about both of them. More on those later...

While Mindi and I worked upstairs (she will laugh when she reads that, she did absolutely all the work while I sat on my duff and kept her company) the girls played outside. I started to hear the water running, so I went to investigate. I found this.




And I found this.

They had been playing in the dirt, which included filling one of Scarlet's many purses with dirt, then decided to come inside to clean up. There was hand soap everywhere, including a lot in Jane's hair.

The girls were reprimanded, they then cleaned up their mess and were sent back outside. Mindi and I returned to our work. We could hear them from my room but after a few minutes, we realized we couldn't hear them jabbering anymore. I went back downstairs to investigate.

They weren't in Scarlet room.... they weren't anywhere in the downstairs........ they weren't in the backyard........ I flung the front door open and was just about to go dashing down the walk when my neighbors walked up with a two year old on each hand.

Scarlet, Jane, and their 'baby' in the stroller had decided to go for a little walk, Scarlet informed me. They were about four houses down the street when my neighbors spotted them.

More reprimanding, which included big frantic lectures on the danger of going on walks without mom and both girls were sent to individual rooms to think about their behavior.

Mindi and I then headed downstairs to get a glass of water before returning back to work. We chatted for a minute with Cynthia, who had stopped by. Then Mindi remembered she hadn't put her paint away and headed upstairs before it dried out. Very shortly after I hear a very ominous, 'Kacey, you'd better get up here....' Then I heard Scarlet start to bawl.

She also painted on her face like lipstick. When I reached my room, she was hysterically in tears. The two year old realization that she was in serious trouble.

I had no words, no idea as to what to say that hadn't already been said twice in the past hour. So, I just gave her a big hug while her body shook and enormous tears slid down her cheeks. Once she calmed down a bit, she was sent back into her room while I tried to figure out what to do.

Once I calmed a bit and reminded myself many times that she was two and, even though she knows better, she also really doesn't. How can you be too mad at a girl who tries to clean up when she gets dirty? Or pretends she is just like mom and takes her baby on a walk in the stroller just like mom does? Or sees mom and Mindi painting and thinks, I can make this wall pretty too? Don't get me wrong, I was still mad. Just not too mad.

Her final punishment was this. I came into her room with garbage bags and she helped me load them with her toys until her room was clear. When dad got home, they had a serious chat and Scarlet paid dad back for all the extra work he would have to do to fix the wall with all her Halloween candy. She didn't watch any shows this weekend, instead she earned quarters to help her pay back Mindi for the work she ruined.

She has done really well. Whenever she asked to watch a show or get her toys, I reminded her why I had them and she was ok with it and didn't ask again. I am really proud of how well she has handled herself and her punishments since.

Now onto much happier notes.

Rhode is cracking me up. He has finally found something to entertain himself with that does not involve hanging out in my general vicinity. He plays fetch... with himself.

The wind up..

The pitch..


The fetch..

Ta da!

Get him a ball and an empty space and he plays for a very long time, laughing and crawling as fast as he can.

To continue on the good news streak, some friends and I got together to de-crap our homes and had a garage sale. I made $120 and I have room in both storage areas of my house. Now that is satisfying.

Halloween 2009

I intentionally did not eat dinner last night. I knew, whether I ate anything or not, I would be eating my weight in candy later that evening. Why add to the calories? Plus, then instead of feeling like my stomach was going to explode from the amount of candy intake, maybe I would just feel pleasantly, sugarly full.



And it worked!



I am an admitted candy-holic. I have never outgrown my love for sugar in its purest, most refined form. Halloween is a happy, happy time for a girl like me who deprives herself of such luxuries most of the year.



Enough about me, more about the kids. What would October be without a trip to the pumpkin patch! Of course, this is Vegas. Instead of an actual patch of pumpkins, lets try some hay bales and pumpkins thrown in with some carnival style rides all conveniently situated in a casino parking lot. Love this city. Heck, at least they try...





Almost looks like small town USA.

I have almost conceded to the fact that my children will not photograph well together.

These two, on the other hand, are more than camera ready.

Scarlet saves her best smiles for her two friends, Blaze and Bennett. Both boys were out of commission all week with fevers and the like. Scarlet about went crazy with boredom.

And now, onto Halloween. I had a pretty fun idea for the family. I already had a pretty good idea for an 80's girl costume for Scarlet and a 50's costume for Rhode was pulling itself together. So, what better way to create a theme then to have Jon and I take up the two decades in the middle?

"Nope," was the response I received from a certain member of my family. Ok... so then I thought, let's join our children. I will dress 50's with Rhode and Jon would dress 80's with Scarlet. I was really mostly kidding when I suggested Jon shave some lines on the sides of his hair. Note to self, when talking Jon into Halloween costumes, do not joke about mullets.

So, instead of an adorable family theme, I had two adorably dressed children, no theme, no rhyme or reason to their costumes, but adorable nonetheless.

And, without further ado, my 80's girl -

While I was shaping her bangs, she looked in the mirror and said, "Wow, mom, you made my hair a rainbow!" She was very impressed with my skills.

Then after applying several coats of blue eyeshadow, pink blush and hot pink lipstick, she took one last look in the mirror and said, "Mom, I look like you!"

And my 50's greaser -

Rhode spent the entire evening in the stroller with a tootsie roll pop in one hand and his Halloween candy bag in his lap. He was so intent on that sucker he got it clean down to the tootsie roll before he tried to stick it in his sister's hair.

Speaking of hair, I intentionally have not let Jon cut Rhode's hair so I could grease it back for Halloween. It stayed for about an hour, then the rest of the evening it looked like an exceptionally bad comb over.

We hit up the ward trunk or treat then came back to our house to hand out candy to neighbor kids. Of course, when only eight kids show up, it means I have a good 2/3rds of a bucket of candy waiting by my front door. That is the last thing my hips needed. My Sunday school class might be a little sugar overloaded over the next month...

Oh, and heads up for anyone else who might have spaced that today is Daylight Savings. Rhode woke up at 7:30 a.m. and I was excited for the extra half hour of sleep... until I noticed the computer had already updated the time. Remember when you were a kid and daylight savings meant an extra hour of sleep every October? Those were the good old days.