Halloweekend

Bryan and I showed our age this weekend.  We went to our ward Trunk or Treat on Friday night, Apple Hill with our friends Saturday morning, a Halloween party Saturday night, then a family Halloween dinner on Sunday.  Little Jilly was a trooper and wore approximately 15 costumes/outfits over the weekend.  When we got the party invitation it said the party went until midnight.  I found it astonishing  that people were still awake, let alone partying at midnight.  We only made it until 10pm, but were very impressed that our party animal daughter was happy and delightful 2 hours after her usual bedtime.  On our way home from Bryan's parents on Sunday night Bryan said, "Thank goodness tomorrow is Halloween and we can finally sit and relax at home."  Despite the fact that our weekend totally wore us out we had a great time.

Jilly walking with Miranda and Emily 

The gang at Apple Hill- can you tell why everyone thinks we're sisters? 

"It's a Small World" Bryan is Mexican, I'm Japanese, Jilly is Indian - all our costumes are authentic (except for the mustache...)  We downloaded "It's a Small World" and Bryan kept it playing on his ipod all night long- no doubt everyone appreciated having the song stuck in their head.

My little ladybug 

Halloween Jammies- I love sneaking into Jilly's room at night to see my little glow in the dark skeleton lying in her crib

Happy Halloween!

Jack O Lanterns

Guess which pumpkin is mine:

The one on the left!  I have carved lousy pumpkins for the past few years so this year I did some google research to find one that looked pretty easy that I could copy and voila!  I'm not really a scary Halloween kind of person (shocking, I know) but it's kind of fun to have a scary pumpkin this year.

And, isn't Bryan's pumpkin so great?!  I love the face on the little baby pumpkin.

Witchy

A few months ago Bryan and I watched Practical Magic on netflix.  We thought it was fun that Nicole Kidman plays a witch named Jillian.  This week I finished reading A Discovery of Witches (which was quite excellent by the way) and one of the witches was named Jillian.  Which leads me to wonder- is Jillian a common witch name, or do witch powers come with the name?  We're hoping for the latter and eagerly awaiting a Hogwarts letter on Jilly's 11th birthday.

It also makes me wonder if maybe we didn't choose the right Halloween costume for our Jillian.

Made using this tutorial from Prudent Baby

On ovens

Our home was a foreclosure which means 2 things:  1. The previous owners basically just packed their stuff and left.  No cleaning whatsoever.  So we've been busy making this place sparkle and shine.  2. We're assuming they weren't exactly full of warm fuzzies when they left thus leading them to pilfer a few things from the house.  One of the rather unfortunate items they took was the oven racks.  What they will do with oven racks sans an oven is beyond me.

For a while we debated whether to buy new racks (which are extremely overpriced) or just get a new oven (the oven is just 2 years younger than me, so it's basically ancient.)  But I kept hearing my dad say, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."  Turns out it's Bryan's favorite saying as well.  Darn.  So, new oven racks are on their way.

Meanwhile, we've been without an oven for 3 weeks now.  We grill a lot and use our crock pot and the stove.  Eventually our need for cookies became desperate.  So, we pulled out the toaster oven that we got for our wedding but have hardly used.  Turns out it's a pretty good replacement oven.  We've made cookies, biscuits, roasted veggies, and caramel apples in it.  And, it's completing all of our childhood dreams - we have our very own easy bake oven.

On the move

It's official.  My baby is a walker.

Pumpkin Patch

Checking out the prize-winning pumpkins

Closed-eyes smile 

 Watching the big kids run through the hay maze

No pumpkin patch trip is complete without hay sticking to your bum

Stripes!

One of the very best things about owning our own place is being able to paint.  Bryan and his dad painted our whole downstairs a couple weekends ago and consequently are now my heroes.  But we had a big blank wall in our eating area that was begging for some excitement.  And so I added stripes.

I had never painted before so I pretty much had no clue what I was doing.  I tried to tape straight lines and they turned out not straight at all.  But, Bryan saved me and taped the most beautiful lines I've ever seen.  I then used the technique for painting perfect stripes in this blog post.  Bless the internet.  My stripes turned out perfectly and I am giddy about them.

I was so excited about my stripes that I neglected to clean up my painting supplies or iron my Halloween table runner.  You win some, you lose some.

She thinks they're pretty great too

Failed attempt at a picture of her teeth, but you gotta love that face and her Asian happy eyes

11 months

Eleven months is dangerously close to one year.  Oh, what am I to do?!?!

At 11 months Jillian
- can say mama, dada, and baby
- gives lots of hugs and big slobbery kisses
- prefers crawling, but can walk- her record is 8 steps in a row
- has learned how to arch her back when she doesn't want to do something like get in her car seat or be held when she wants to crawl.
- looooooves her kitty cat book.  We don't go anywhere without it.

- gets into everything- a house full of boxes is her greatest dream come true
- has 2 little (but sharp!) teeth on the bottom
- waves bye bye

Did you know

that babies are part puppy?

 my parents' dog Luna when she was a sweet little puppy 

 my sweet baby Jilly

She also chews everything, growls, eats off the floor, and plays with toilet water.  Should I get her a collar?

Chaos

We are officially moved in and thus officially living in chaos.  Every time I reach into the top drawer for a spoon, I come up empty handed and then remember that silverware is now in the second drawer.  I'm quite positive that I have a black and white polka dot skirt but it has yet to show up in all my unpacking.  Our bed is constantly covered with nicknacks that need to find a home.  Each night we throw everything on the floor and hope that it will magically be gone by morning (it never is.)  Jilly loves the stairs in our new house, she could go up and down them all day long.  But, she is somehow under the impression that we don't sleep in this house.  It's been quite a struggle.

Last year when we moved I blogged about my moving survival mechanisms.  Yet again, magic erasers saved the day.  I seriously love those things.  Also, this post from my friend Kara came right at the perfect time.  I just filled an old spray bottle with water then added about a quarter cup of vinegar.  I love this because A. it's cheap, B. it works on almost everything, C. it makes my house smell like salt and vinegar chips.  Lastly, I didn't have Kate, Jack, and Sawyer to keep me company this year but I did have Dr. McDreamy and he fills the void very well.

This weekend we were able to enjoy peace amidst the chaos in General Conference.  On Saturday we listened while we painted our house then on Sunday we watched while eating delicious smoothies and cinnamon rolls.  I loved this sweet talk by Sister Elaine Dalton and of course this one by President Uchtdorf from the Relief Society meeting.