Family Movie Night

We had our first family movie night in....ever. I realized last night that we have never sat down and watched a movie all together! Yesterday was a never-ending, endurance-testing day, so on our way home at night I stopped by Redbox and got a movie (we were in separate cars). Lamoni was pretty disappointed to see I got Cinderella. And even more disappointed to see that Benjamin was totally into it. "Where did Underella (Cinderella) go? Where did her blue dress go? Where is the prince? Underella has a pink dress! Look!" Haha. Anyway, we cuddled up on the couch, plugged a speaker into our laptop, ate grapefruit and pomegranates and let Benjamin stay up way past his bedtime. We thought he would fall asleep, but he sat there like the puppy on 101 Dalmatians who sits right in front of the TV the whole time. It was a fun evening. 

Midnight Post

I've been up since 2:30 and it's now 5:30. I'm not able to sleep so I decided to be productive. It's too bad we have 1 o'clock church then choir from 1-5 because I think I will be a zombie by then!! I fantasize sometimes about being that person who stays home from church because they're not feeling well, or are morning sick, or didn't sleep but that has never happened and I doubt it ever will. Besides playing organ in sacrament meeting, conducting in primary, and accompanying the choir, I think even if I stayed home I'd feel so bad about it I wouldn't be able to rest anyway! At least that's what I keep telling myself.

I'm 11 weeks pregnant and so far this pregnancy has been sooo much better than Benjamin's. Charity insists that means I'm having a girl. I was reading in my journal (that has been very neglected) from when I was this far along with Benjamin and I saw a "list of complaints". It was seriously about 20 things long. I remember how miserable I was, but I don't think I fully appreciated how hard it was because I had nothing to compare it to. My only "complaint" this time is nausea, which I would take any day over the former 20. I think my symptoms are directly related to how much sleep I get.  I think the reason I couldn't sleep tonight is because Saturday was ridiculously busy and I didn't have any chance to rest. I was born for naps. With Benjamin I rarely had time to sleep as I was teaching at 5 schools, had my private school and our business. With this baby I was more prepared and rearranged my teaching schedule so Benjamin can sleep in til 8 every morning (I had been teaching at 6:45 or 7 every morning up til August!) and he naps from 1-3, which means I can nap too. He thrives on a strict sleep schedule. So do I. He must take after me. The only problem with sleeping when Benjamin does is I don't get anything done since I teach 6 mornings and afternoons a week. I am really looking forward to cutting back my studio to 10 students in the Spring. However, I love teaching every single one of my 30 students, so it will also be heart-breaking. I've never had a studio before where I didn't dread teaching at least 1 student, so I've really enjoyed this.

Well, my pictures are uploaded, so I will share the good stuff now.

He loves hats and will turn anything into one.

Grandma and Grandpa Sam wanted to try out making his cake. I really hope Lamoni has other pictures of his birthday on his phone because this is all I have! We had both sides of the family over (even Mariah and Dentin were able to make it!) and Yoshi and Tiffani, who have so sadly moved to Las Cruces. :'-(   (I don't know if we can survive that.)

He likes to build temples with legos. On the right hand side of the structure there is the entrance, going to the steeple there is a staircase and in the left picture he is pointing to angel Moroni on top.

I think he's tired!

The train set he got for his birthday from me and Lamoni. He plays with it all the time. When he gets frustrated with a piece, or any toy actually, he yells in tears "stop it train! stop it!"

At Galloping Grace pumpkin patch in Rio Rancho.

He surprisingly liked this slide and after a few times with Lamoni he would go down on his own.

When Lamoni left his last internship a co-worker gave him a gift card for a new movie theater here (off of Central and Tramway). I don't think we'll ever be able to go to another movie theater again! Fully reclining seats, sooo much space between chairs, free refills on all sizes of popcorn and drinks... It's the real thing. We watched The Line (I think that's what it was called).

Asleep on Papa during choir. This is what I'll look like during choir today.

Visiting teaching with Michelle Reyes. She is the most enthusiastic companion I've ever had! (I'm sure I think that about each of my companions)

Look at these adorable faces! The top ones are his "thinking face". He uses it a lot. When you ask him a question like "do you need to go potty?" He puts on his thinking face and says "ummm, Nope!"

I'm bummed I didn't get pictures of the final product! I hope Lamoni has some of those on his phone too. They carved a mickey mouse, batman, and one of my students carved a regular jack-o-lantern face while her sister was having her lesson. Lamoni is very good at carving! He has it down to a science.

This is our new obsession. When people come to dinner at our house this is usually what we make them - taco salad pizza - inspired by California Pizza Kitchen (I think it's on their secret menu now).

He's big into building towers with whatever he can stack.

The face I get when I ask him to smile.

I left him on the toilet and came back to this! He is now fully potty trained - including nights! I'm not going to tell you how good he is about it, because any time I brag about him he inevitably has an accident that day. I'll just say it's nice saving money on diapers. ;-) 

Halloween

The primary presidency was in charge of putting on our fall festival. We decided to have a carnival instead of a trunk-or-treat and it was sure a success! I don't have any pictures unfortunately of the actual festival, but it was a blast. There were about 150 people there, and about 12 booths at the carnival. This is the side room where the judging of the chili and pies took place. I oversaw the judging and it was sure fun. There were 24 chili entries. 

The poor judges had a really hard time deciding the winners for the different categories because everything was so good.

Benjamin had fun at all the booths. They had ones for all age ranges - including babies! The teenagers ran it.

On Halloween we had dinner with some friends (the Bean family, her neighbors and Charity and Jarrett) and then went trick-or-treating with them.

Benjamin was the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. I had no idea who that is, but Lamoni has Benjamin infatuated with a 2 minute clip of the Swedish chef trying to carve pumpkins so Benjamin was all into it.

Treat-or-treating in style.

This is the only candy he got. Actually, he had a couple pieces the next day, but on Monday morning when he woke up early from the time change and was in a non-stop tantrum from 7-9 a.m. because he wanted his candy we hid it and he hasn't had a piece since. He asked for it that whole day but he hasn't asked since. I have no problem with it (I have no idea where Lamoni hid it, or I'd probably just throw it out). No post-Halloween cold for us! However, on the sickness note, Lamoni and I got the stomach bug a few weeks ago. It was awful. There is nothing worse than being morning sick with a stomach bug. I had it 3 times in a 2 week period I think. It's hard to tell what's morning sickness and what's a bug, but since I usually don't throw up I counted it as a bug. We almost took Lamoni to the ER one night because he was in so much pain and couldn't stop throwing up. It was a very painful sickness. Not even water would stay down. Luckily Benjamin escaped it. 

7 years later

I passed on my kitchen-floor sitting, frozen-food eating, pajama-wearing snack times to my son I guess!

Caught in the act. By the way, we consumed half of that sheet of berries before we were finished!