Just hop on in, little buddy

Funny story from last night.  At either 3:00 or 4:00 (my mind was in a fog, so I don't remember when), I woke up and thought something was weird because I was sleeping on the edge of the bed... and I was awake.  I started scooting over, and realized a little person was right next to me - it was Jacob, and he was fast asleep, on top of our comforter, right next to my pillow!  He'd climbed up onto our bed (and maybe right over me!), and fell asleep between us.  

So, I picked him up and put him back into his bed (having to 'cuddle' and turn on the fan because he woke up just enough that he could request those necessities).

Around 5:30, I heard Dani telling Jacob to go back to his bed - he was apparently back on his way up into our bed!  The funny thing is that we've never even let him or Claire sleep in our bed, even when they were really little!  How does he think of these things?

Big Kid Beds update

Jacob and Claire have been sleeping in their big-kid beds for a month or so now, so we figured it's time for an update.  First, here's a picture that we think is hilarious that didn't make it into the first post - this is Claire showing us how she was going to sleep on her big-kid bed.  Look at that face!

Here's Jacob in his big-kid bed.  He still loves to sleep sideways in his bed.  He's fallen out of bed twice, though it's been a few weeks since the last time he's fallen.  Since the wall his bed is next to is our bedroom's wall, we often hear his feet, hands, and head hitting the wall as he rolls over in his sleep.  Normally, he'll hit the wall pretty consistently for 2-3 minutes, then it'll all stop.

Claire is our adventurous sleeper - she's fallen out at least 4 times.   At least twice, she didn't wake up from the crash.  She often is sleeping this way when we check on her, and even after moving her close to the wall, she falls out.  She also often sleeps on top of her covers with her head at the foot of the bed.  We couldn't figure out why, until we discovered that the top-bunk warning sticker that says 'do not remove this sticker!' was being slowly removed by little fingers.

We recently experimented with putting some books on the bookshelf in their room for the first time.  One night a week and half later, I went in to check on the kids after I heard a little crash upstairs around 10:00, thinking it was a child.  It turned out it was a book Claire was reading, and Jacob was caught red-handed sitting on top of his bed with a book!  I took their books and put them away, and Jacob immediately ducked under his covers, pulling them all the way over his eyes.  He knew he was in trouble, I didn't really even need to say anything.  Claire, on the other hand, was not happy I had put her books away.

Last night, we returned from a Nacho Libre party at our friends' house.  Our babysitter told us she'd had to negotiate with our kids to keep them in bed, as they thought of any way possible to stay out of bed.  When we got upstairs to check on kiddos, Claire's bed was empty!  She had gotten out and gone to 'Jacob's napping bed,' or the pack-and-play in the guest room.  Overnight, she discovered she'd been moved and got out, crying, until she was helped back into the pack-and-play.

Last story - Claire sometimes gets out of her bed at night and comes into our room.  One night, after she'd fought sleep from 2-4 am, she ended up in our room again, on Dani's side of the bed.  We just ignored her and, eventually, she fell asleep on the floor, and Dani put her back in her bed.

Imaginary fights and fall pics.

So, I thought I should share this lovely story for journaling purposes.  No, the fight itself was not imaginary, it was oh so real.  A few weeks ago I was shopping in HomeGoods (one of my favorite stores) with my children who after finishing their goldfish snack imagined up a cookie. I love that they imagine, but there is a little problem with their imaginations.  This cookie they had both imagined was only one cookie and they started to fight over this cookie, then the fight turned into a full force screaming and hitting brawl, Jacob would rip the imaginary cookie out of Claire's fingers and scream "my cookie" which would lead Claire to a full fledged fit and Jacob would take the i.c. straight to his mouth.  At this point Claire shoved her fat little fingers into Jacob's mouth to retrieve the i.c. and loudly declared "NO, my cookie!"  This exchange went back and forth and pushing, hitting, pulling, and screaming got involved.  I quickly tried to separate them and settle the whole thing, but the screaming was out of control, I was able to control the screaming long enough to create an i.c. for each of them so they had 2 instead of one and no longer needed to fight and I evacuated the store as quickly as possible.  On the sidewalk outside of HomeGoods they both got a good talking to and neither one would look up at me because they knew they were in really big trouble.  After that I went in and quickly made my purchases.  Anyhow, the imaginary food fight continue to pop up, today at lunch they were pretending to take food off of each others' plates from across the table and eat it which created a huge fit and a snowball of more problems.  Like I said, I love that they imagine, I just wish they could learn to imagine an extra cookie. 

   These are pictures from our trip to Shaw Farms over a month ago, it is where we bought our pumpkins that are sitting on our front porch uncarved.

Shaw farms has a lot of cheesy fairtale/cartoon related kids play stuff with their pumpkins. This llama picture is for Amber because Jared thought that she would think the llama was funny!?!?!???
This is the pirate ship and all the pirates, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy, and my screaming son.
Claire was pretty good at posing for me.
Jacob peaking through the window on the pirate ship.
I dared Jared to get a picture of both of them with the pumpkins looking at the camera, he took the dare even though I told him it was impossible.  This is the best he got, not too bad actually, they are both looking up, there are pumpkins, and they are saying cheese.

Come What May and Love It

I am referring to this great talk by Elder Wirthlin that I read yesterday....great timing for it since today we have a new president and it obviously was not the man I was hoping for.

Today I am not thrilled about this, but I can't say I am surprised or that I am devastated.  I am trying not to be afraid and to be faithful and hopeful instead, last week at church someone mentioned in their testimony "there is no room for fear in faith" which I believe is true so I am trying to leave behind fears that I have of Obama being our next president.  I am going to try to trust in our Father in Heaven, remember to laugh, and also remember that these next four years are going to be such a small moment of time in the eternal perspective.  I am also going to try to dwell on the positive, so here is the positive:

-Barack Obama is the first black president, that is historical and inspiring

-Barack Obama is a great speaker, he is motivating and convincing

-The majority of the USA is happy about this president and looking forward to this time

-Proposition 8 passed in California.....REALLY GREAT NEWS!

-Proposition 6 (casino for Ohio) failed in Ohio

I am sure there are more, but I am still working on the positive thing....so, with that said, please pray for our country, please pray for our new president and remember to Love what is coming, because it is coming!

Meet the Flinstones

Claire and Jacob really got the trick-or-treating thing this year and LOVED it.  These pictures showed up in the reverse order of what I wanted them to, but I am not redoing it so we will start from the end.  They went to town on the candy and at as much as they could as fast as they could.

Claire would not let anybody touch her bag or help her with it in any way....so, she walked around from driveway to driveway (in our neighborhood everyone sits in their driveway handing out candy...SOOO many kids) like this all night...really!
The whole family.
Pebbles and BamBam at the beginning of their trick-or-treating.
A very excited Pebbles and BamBam.  They would walk until they spotted a candy bowl at which point they would run and yell "I'm coming, I'm coming, Trick-or-Treat, I'm Coming."  It was really funny to watch and sometimes they would linger at each candy bowl after the giving of the candy and the "thank-you" and then they would repeat "trick-or-treat."  Jacob also decided that since he was BamBam he needed to hit everything with his club.  He started pounding on the sidewalk and then later he declared "Bubba hit car" and he whacked some car on the side of the road...luckily his club is a hollow plastic bat.