ABC Book

I had a free photobook offer that was about to expire, so Jon and I decided to make an ABC book for the kids for Christmas using pictures we had. Here's how it turned out. I can't wait to see it in book form!

I think the cover is my favorite page!

When the mess is already made...

you might as well let them enjoy it!

Halloween Fun

I'm finally getting around to posting our Halloween pictures, and I'm a month behind on all our other pictures. Hopefully I can get those up soon.

Halloween Take One: Ward Halloween Party
We had a really simple plan for costumes this year. Matthew has the cutest Batman pajamas, complete with a cape, so he was going to be Batman. Emma was going to be a cat, wearing all black clothes and cat ears that we already had. I bought some black material and sewed her a tail. They looked adorable...especially considering that we only spent a couple dollars and a few minutes getting the costumes ready.

Emma and her friend Kayla at the ward party

This one makes me smile

Getting ready for the costume parade

Totally happy with his lollipop

The kids also wore these costumes for a little Halloween party at Jon's work.

Halloween Take 2: Trick or treating
The day before Halloween I ran to Old Navy because all their costumes were $2. I grabbed 4, and the kids wore 2 of them for trick or treating.

I LOVE this skeleton!

She's roaring in this picture

Jenny made him a bowtie to wear (the green thing)

This makes me smile too. She insisted on getting her picture with the headstone.

We spent the afternoon with Jon's family and went trick or treating with them. Emma was so excited. Matthew was just tired, so we put him in the stroller and headed out. After about 20 minutes Emma was done so we went back to Grandma's house and visited a little longer before heading home.

Get Paid to Search the Internet

I know many of you have heard of Swagbucks, but for those of you who haven't KEEP READING! This is an awesome opportunity to earn money, gift cards, or other prizes just for searching the internet. You just use the Swagbucks search engine instead of Google or whichever one you currently use. Each time you search you have a chance of winning between 1 and 5 swagbucks, which you can then redeem for prizes.

I signed up for Swagbucks several months ago but didn't bother doing anything with it because I wasn't really sure what it was and if it was really legitimate. A couple months ago my sister got me to start using it and I'm so glad I did. In the last 2 months I have earned enough Swagbucks for $15 worth of Amazon gift cards and I almost have enough for $15 cash. I know it doesn't seem like much, but really I got it for doing something I do anyway...so it's a win win.

One way you can increase your earnings is to refer other people...hence this post! When your referrals win, you win. My sister has referred several people and just in the last few months has earned over $125 in Amazon gift cards!

This is SO easy and a great way to earn a little extra for birthdays, Christmas, or just for fun.

Click here to sign up through my referral link. I really appreciate it! Also, you get 3 swagbucks just for signing up! After you sign up you can download the toolbar which makes searching even easier. I even use it to go to my email, facebook, etc.

Please let me know if you have any questions. HAPPY SEARCHING!!!

So Many Thoughts

I have had so many thoughts lately weighing on my mind. I haven't had any motivation to blog because we haven't done anything blogworthy and I can't seem to sort out my thoughts enough to write them down.

We have found ourselves trying to think ahead, trying to figure out the future. I guess just trying to figure out what our next move is. We know we will be here until Emma is in school, so we need to think about schools. I know we still have 2 years, but we want to move sometime soon and we don't want to move again. We found a charter school that we would love for her to go to and it's in a city that we want to live in, but it seems impossible to find a place that meets our requirements and is in our price range. And then comes the question of when to move. Do we move in December/January, as soon as the car is paid off or do we wait until we absolutely have to move? We want to move now so Jon doesn't have to spend 2 hours a day commuting on top of a 10-11 hour workday, but we also want to hold off as long as possible so that we can use that extra money to pay off our student loans. We've lived here for over a year and a half, so I know we could keep doing it, but we would also like to see Jon more, and I'd REALLY like a real backyard and a 3rd bedroom so the kids can sleep decently. And then when I think of it all it's kind of frustrating because if we lived almost anywhere else we could have our student loans paid off and we could buy a house.

I know this is all out of our control. I know that we will know when the right time and place come along. But a huge part of me just can't stand all the unknowns and that gets really frustrating sometimes. Although, writing this all down has really helped. :)

So, other than that, not much is going on...which is good sometimes. Emma is LOVING her little preschool group. It has been a really great experience. I teach again next week...guess I should start thinking about what I'm going to do!

Matthew surprises us every day with new words and abilities. He and Emma play a lot better together now. She can really get him laughing. He is a climber and refuses to sit in chairs, especially at the table. He would much rather be on the table or standing on a chair. He has started giving closed mouth kisses, which is really sweet. He is also very active, so we are excited that he has less than 1 month until nursery at church! He and Emma both love playing in water and doing anything outside.

Today we went and had lunch with Jon at work. It was a great visit. We took our time eating and then went and played foosball and played outside for awhile (and got a Costco card!). The kids were both so happy and it was so fun. One of those moments where you think life just can't get any better. I love those moments. After lunch we stopped at a park on the way home. And I'm really glad we did. We were all just in a good, happy mood. Instead of just sitting and watching, I played with the kids. We played tag and I showed Emma how to roll down a hill. There was lots of running and squealing and laughing and it was great. It's been a good day.

Life is good and I know that despite all of the uncertainties we will be taken care of. We really do have so much to be thankful for.

And now a few random pictures...

Emma is quite the little artist...she definitely takes after Jon. These are her snails and some letters underneath.

I love this one of Fij and Emma...I just wish the waterfall wasn't right in the front of the picture.

Emma's halloween costume. Doesn't she make a cute cat? Matthew is going to be Batman...so we'll have Batman and Catwoman. :)

Smokin' some Grass

So yesterday Emma and Matthew were playing in the side yard. Emma picked up the bicycle pump, which usually is in the basement, and said "Mom I'm smokin grass!" After some good laughs we tried to figure out what her reasoning was for saying that. (Is the close proximity to San Francisco rubbing off in bad ways?) So here is what we realized. She thinks the bike pump is a fogger (like the ones used to spray pesticide). She got the idea from the movie "The Ant Bully" which we watched several weeks ago. In the film there is an exterminator that sprays black smoke (bug spray) on the grass to kill the ants. You have to pump the fogger to build up pressure to spray it. Hence the 3 year old logic of smoking some grass.