Our baking project for this week...

Yesterday was the first time since last Thursday that I felt like doing much of anything, so Brad helped me clean house and then I decided to get some of my baking projects marked off my list when he went to work. Bethany and I rolled out sugar cookie dough and cut out Halloween shapes, decorated them and baked them. Mallory even helped a little. (I'm putting a short video clip of her in this post, so you can hear her little voice. I'll try not to start going overboard with the videos. Sorry.) It is so fun to do this with my daughters! Bethany decided to come up with a pattern for each cookie sheet which is a total kindergarten thing. After the kids went to bed, I decorated the cooled cookies with orange icing around the edges. They are yummy!

(Oh, and after the cookies I went ahead and did my triple batch of banana bread. I was tired by the end of the evening, for sure, but it's done! Yeah!)

First Snow....

On Tuesday we got our first snow. It was very light, but it did lay on the roofs and tree branches. I didn't mind it, though a lot of folks around here complained. It wasn't too super cold yet, and it just made me think of the miracle of seasons. I LOVE seasons! I took the pictures above from Bethany's window which is at the back of our house....they're not great, but they show what I saw and liked. :) (by the way, the next county over got several inches of snow and didn't have school on Wednesday.)

Do you ever....?

Do you ever look at your children and just want to cry because they are so beautiful and amazing? (I'm sure you do, I just need to remember how it felt tonight so I'm posting it.) This evening I sat on the livingroom floor with Bethany and Mallory and our Happy Meals....we were starting to watch the movie Enchanted together for Mommy/Daughter time. Brad was at work, and I've been feeling pretty yucky today....so, I took some DayQuil and decided to just be with my girls and not try to get anything done while we enjoyed ourselves. As I was sitting next to them, I would hear Mallory laugh at a cute part of the movie and hear Bethany sing all of the words to the songs and I found myself watching them watch the movie instead of watching it myself. I was in awe of them. I look at Bethany and see how much she's grown in what seems like such a short time. I can't believe I can hear her picking up the harmony in the songs, and I remember how absolutely incredible every minute was when I was expecting her and then after she was born. I would spend every minute of the day looking at her and kissing her cheeks and loving that I was at home with her. Sometimes I forget what that felt like, but tonight I remembered as I looked at her. I love her so much! I looked at Mallory and thought of how much joy she brings me everyday with her huge-toothy smiles and her bouncy curls as she runs around the house and dances. I seems like I've had her in my life forever, and I love her more than I could have ever imagined. I got out my camera when they started dancing tonight.....here they are.....

More Trees.....the last bits of color.

I'm trying not to get sad that the color is fading and the leaves are falling.

The peak has past.....

On Friday, I took a couple of pictures from Mallory's window of the pretty tree across from our house. I planned on taking pictures all over town, but didn't have the time. By today, most of the leaves have fallen, and I couldn't find very many pretty pictures around town. Just within the last several days, we've gone from peak color season to hardly any color left, except yellow and brown. The reds have faded, as have the oranges. So, now we're focusing on our jack-o-lanterns and such. I'll take pictures and post my front porch sometime this week. The first two pictures above are the tree last week, then the rest are from today.

After-School Activities

I've been trying to come up with activities to do with Bethany after school, so that we get some Mommy-Daughter time and to distract her from watching TV as soon as she arrives. (Taking away TV has become a pretty reliable consequence for her, but it can drive me crazy in the meantime.) So, I finally did something with all of my blackened bananas.....we made Banana Nut Bread. Bethany helped with most steps, and Mallory sat and watched us while she ate her afternoon snack. I think we've got enough bananas to do another double batch tomorrow evening. Below is my first-ever attempt at taking video on my camera, and then posting to my blog. I'll get better at it. :)

Tag!

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others.
1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? relaxing
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? inspiring
5. Your father? provider
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? Huh?
8. Your dream/goal? celestial
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? scary
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? friends'
14. What you're not? motivated
15. One of your wish-list items? thinness
16. Where you grew up? hills
17. The last thing you did? sing
18. What are you wearing? comfy
19. Your TV? lots!
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? blessing
22.Your mood? stressed
23.Missing someone? You!
24. Your car? green
25. Something you're not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? bedbathbeyond
27. Your summer? busy
28. Love someone? yes
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? today
I tag....Bonna, Heather, Shannon, Deana, Erin, Tricia, Rebecca.

Memorable Moments

So, yesterday I gave Mallory all of Bethany's MyLittle Pony's to play with for a while as I cleaned and did other things. She had been awfully quiet for a long time, so I went to peek in on her. She was holding this tiny little pony, probably a McDonalds toy, and rocking back and forth with her cheek against it. It looked exactly like what I do with her. Then she put the pony down carefully and picked up another one, kissed it and started rocking it the same way. My heart melted! Barely two and already mothering!
Another thing happened later on that I want to share, too. We were sitting down to have Family Home Evening, which surprisingly Bethany seemed excited for. Probably because it was her turn to choose the activity. I chose the song for the evening, which was If the Savior Stood Beside Me - probably my new favorite primary song. It's beautiful, and I get chills almost every time the children sing it. We got out the sheet music so Brad could sing along and then the three of us, with the exception of Mallory -who was running from couch to couch repeatedly- started singing. Bethany and I know it pretty well because of primary, and she knew her Daddy didn't know it, so she sang out really well. By about the end of the first line of the song, Mallory ran over and climbed up on Bethany's lap and started singing along. So, the four of us, my entire little family, were sitting together singing this amazing song together and I thought to myself, "this feels like heaven...right now" because we all know how rare it is for little ones to sit down together at all during FHE and for all of us to be singing together was just a miracle. I want to remember that moment forever. No, this didn't last throughout the lesson - in fact Mallory resumed her race around the furniture and Bethany started hanging upside down off the couch and teasing Mallory as she ran by. The moment passed, but at least we got in that song. :)

Mountain State Forest Festival - Elkins, WV

The first weekend of October is always the end of the Mountain State Forest Festival here in Elkins, West Virginia. The leaves are in the middle of changing into autumn colors, the kids are sick from the carnival rides and sweet carnival treats, and the parents are looking forward to another year before it comes back around. Just kidding, we enjoy our candy apples and funnel cakes, too. ;) I do actually enjoy festival time, and this year it has been especially fun because we don't have to find a place to park.....we live right near all of the action. We're about 3 blocks from the carnival and talent show stage, 2 blocks from the parade route, and about 2 1/2 blocks from the City Park displays and the crafts fair at the college. We were able to walk with our kids to all of these events and they loved it! The kids enjoyed the petting zoo in the park where Bethany spent about half an hour feeding a piglet a bottle of milk. Aunt Anita (Brad's sister) was helping Mallory take her turn with the piggy....these animals could be quite aggressive when hungry. I watched the sheep and goats surround children who held cups of grains. (Scary for us non-farm folks.) The air would cool in the evening and we'd wear our sweatshirts and jackets and coming home, to OUR home, would feel especially cozy. One of my favorite things about this weekend was that my brother and his wife and boys stayed at our house for the Festival...our first over-night guests in our home! I had motivation to finish the guest bedroom and office and some other things. Well, except for what is hiding back under the desktop and in the closets of the guest bedroom.....;) I'll get to that stuff soon, too. It was so fun to spend time with people we love in our own home....it's been a while since we could do that. The pretty young lady in the pictures above is our niece, Katie. She is 21 and in pharmacy school at WVU, and was a Forest Festival princess. Our girls love cousin Katie.

My livingroom...

I was just looking at my new blog background this morning as I held my laptop on my lap on the couch....and I noticed that the brown on the page matched my walls. So, I'm posting these random photos of my living room. Can you see the color? I think it's brown with gray in it, sometimes it looks kind of purpley depending on the time of day and lighting, which was not my intention, even though I do love purple.

1st ponytail

I dressed the girls alike yesterday, and after Bethany went to school I fixed Mallory's hair into her first-ever ponytail. I just adored it so much that I had to capture it in a photograph, or two or three. She's reading one of her favorite books as she enjoys Bethany's room without Bethany home to set any boundaries. The ponytail lasted until naptime, and after that I couldn't get her to cooperate with a re-do. Oh, well.

WVU gameday at the Buckwheat Festival

Notice all of the WV shirts and other gear.......we attended the Farm Day parade of the Buckwheat Festival last Saturday and watched the game afterwards. Go 'Eers! The kids LOVED the 4H barns that were full of cows, pigs, goats, and sheep. Mallory kept saying, "Hey! Hey!" and pointing at each cow. She would say "OW!" and "eep". Very cute. We really enjoy attending the festival with my family. There are tons and tons of craft and handmade goods exhibits as well as locally produced honey, jams, salsa, etc. It's just a bit of the neat culture I grew up in......I've only missed a handful of Buckwheat Festivals in my lifetime and now I get to watch my children enjoy it which is very special. I think my parents enjoy it more as grandparents than they did even as parents. ; ) (the adorable little boy is my nephew, and the others included in the pictures are my parents and brother and sister, even a glimpse of my sister-in-law)

They actually cooperated with me.....

I bundled my kiddies up for a night at the carnival with Daddy, and then they let me take pictures of them on the steps....shocking! Yes, they are wearing winter clothes, but it is quite cool this evening at least compared to recent summer temperatures. I get some alone time at home during Daddy/Daughter night which I certainly don't mind. :)

I know these are the first pictures I've taken of our house, too....just know that that porch will be painted and have a new railing all the way around it soon. Just wanted to share a few pics of my sweeties in their excitement. (Mallory's solo shot above is at the end of the session when she was starting to shake and clench her teeth in anticipation....I guess I made her pose for too long and she was ready to go.)