Dallin's Birthday!

Well, Dallin turned the big 0-1! (Happy Birthday to Dave too!) For those who don't know, Dallin shares a birthday with his uncle. We decided to celebrate with a few friends. We reserved a room in our community center because our apartment is much too small even to have a couple of people come. I made soup, bread and cake. We invited our neighbors the Lees and the Halversons. We had fun. Dallin liked his cake. He really liked having so many people to play with.

Mary Poppins

Last night, in an effort to get Sadie excited about cleaning her room, I suggested that we pretend we were cleaning her room by magic like in Mary Poppins. One minute she was grumpy and refusing to do anything, the next she was a perfectly behaved and willing participant. We proceeded to snap our fingers and "magically" clean her room. She was Jane; I was Mary Poppins; Dallin was Micheal; Steve was Bert. Steve thought we were nutty as I sang "Spoonful of Sugar" and tried to stay in character. Sadie loved it. We had the room clean in about 5 minutes, but she stayed in character the rest of the night. Anytime we called her Sadie she quickly corrected us with, "No, I'm Jane." It was really cute until 5 am I was awakened with a poke on the head . . . "Mary Poppins, I can't sleep."

Jane eventually went to sleep and now she is back to being Sadie. I am just amazed at how well a little play works to achieve some quick work.

Who is who?

There are some clues that can tell you which child is which, but you can definitely tell that they are related! When people ask me who Dallin looks like, I tell them, "His sister!" I know that's not what they are looking for, but it's the truth. I guess that Steve and I just have a good mix of genes.

Puppy Dog!

We did it.
We broke the rules.
We got a puppy, and he is cute.

Dallin has discovered the easiest way to carry things around. He uses his mouth. He carries just about anything this new way. But this is his favorite. He makes us laugh every single day.
We will have to get some videos of his new tricks, but just so you know, he loves to do "Patty-cake" and "Open Shut Them". He also knows how to shake his head "no" (he does it a lot when he is tired).

Halloween on the 30th?

As you may know, we live in Penn State's family housing. And, apparently, they decide when Halloween is. For some strange reason, housing decided to celebrate Halloween today, the 30th, and not tomorrow. I emailed some staff members about it and they told me it was to avoid schedule conflicts for some of the staff members and to allow residents to participate in other local events tomorrow on Halloween. Weird. Anyway, there was a little parade around family housing for the kiddies, some games and food at the community center, and trick-or-treating. Below are some pictures.

Carrie made Sadie's dress. It's absolutely beautiful. Carrie did an awesome job. Sadie loves the dress. Dallin wore the Tigger costume that Sadie wore when she was younger. Cute.

Yes, I'm wearing a kilt! Isn't it awesome? I've been reading a lot about kilts and traditional Scottish dress. It's really interesting. Apparently, the pattern on my kilt is not a real tartan. Tartans are official patterns that represent families, regions, organizations, and so on. There are even tartans for U.S. states and branches of our military. Most tartans have some combination of red, green, and blue. Not all, but most. So mine is neither an official tartan nor a particularly traditional color scheme. The closest thing I could find is the Fort William District Tartan. I don't know why I'm so into this stuff. I love traditional Scottish music, and, of course, the bagpipes. I will always have a special place in my heart for Mexican music, food, and culture because of my dad. It's important to me and will be part of my life. But maybe because I'm adopted I feel like I have the ability to choose a bit of my own culture and traditions. And for me I think it's Scotland.

Renaissance Faire 2

This last weekend I took Sadie to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire again. A while back I talked about our first trip to the Faire. We planned to go as a family but Dallin was sick so I just took Sadie and Carrie stayed home with the sickie. I tried to sell our remaining ticket but had no luck, so we had another go at it. Interestingly, Dallin was sick again, so there was no chance of taking them again. Plus, next weekend is the last weekend and I didn't want to miss the Penn State-Ohio State game.

If you're wondering about the fairness of Carrie staying home both times while I took Sadie, you'd certainly have a valid point. Part of it must be that Carrie is about 10 times better than me at taking care of sick babies, and the other part would probably be that I am a much bigger fan of Renaissance festivals in general than Carrie is. I went often as a kid and they definitely have a special place in my heart.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. Sadie was very excited to see the same comedy-acrobat act we saw last time. Their name is Barely Balanced. Sadie was particularly fond of the woman in the act. We saw her a while after their show and had the chance to talk to her and take a picture with her.

All Sadie wanted to do was go on rides, but they were all really short and cost extra money, so it was a constant battle. I let her go on a few, but that wasn't enough for her. I did her to go to a couple shows aimed at kids, which she really did enjoy. We saw a music-comedy group called the Tartan Terrors. It's a Celtic music/comedy act from Canada. They were incredible. I bought a CD.

But the most exciting thing about the day was my purchase of a kilt. Yes, a kilt. I don't expect anyone to understand. It's just how it is. I have wanted a kilt for several years. I'm a lover of all things Scottish (or Irish for that matter). I've made a sacred promise to myself that I will learn to play the bagpipe at some point, and that we will visit Scotland. I thought a kilt would make an awesome Halloween costume, Renaissance festival costume, and something incredibly awesome to have. I promise to get pictures up on our blog of me in the kilt. Just promise to respect the kilt. That's all the inner Scotsman in me asks.

We did think of momma, though, in case you were wondering. We brought her home some wonderful-smelling hand-made soaps. She thought that was cool. Here are a couple pictures from the day.

We've been busy!

I thought Julie would like this picture. It's the Red Cross Headquarters in Washington DC. Dallin and I took Jessica (my best friend) to DC for her conference. She flew into Harrisburg a few days early so that we could spend a few days together. We didn't do a whole lot in State College, but it was nice to have her here. There's always something good about having someone who has stuck with you through everything. It was almost like having another member of the family. She was great with my kids (Aunt Jess). She even pitched in with bedtime and when we had to babysit. She helped me with dinner and with the dishes. I wonder if she will ever come back because I really put her to work. Thanks for everything Jess!

This is me and Dallin. We didn't get any good pictures of the whole group, but we met up with Jon and Lauren Funk. They took us all out to lunch. I can't remember where it was. But it was really nice if somewhat slow. We visited a bunch of memorials. There was A LOT of walking. We were all tired by the end of the day. I can't believe I did all that when I was 8 months pregnant. (We spend 2 days in DC last October). Dallin was great the entire day. I think he only cried when I changed his diaper. He never really took a nap but he was still a very happy baby. It was nice to have 3 other people take care of him for the day.

Like the title says, we have been busy. Here is a picture of us at the Apple Festival. The cool thing about this picture is that we are standing by my own booth! There is a local fruit farm (Way Fruit Farm) that has a little festival every year. I decided about three months ago that I could try to sell some of the stuff that I make. The first week I was in DC and not much of my stuff sold. But the second week I sold a lot of stuff. It was a lot of fun. I broke even on all my supplies and paying for the booth, but it was still worth it because I had fun making the stuff and being there. Here are some close ups of my favorites:


I also made hats and scarves, baby blankets, washclothes, snowflake ornaments. If anyone wants to commission some of this stuff . . .I'm willing and able.

Now, Dallin is sick and demanding attention. Steve took Sadie to the Renaissance Festival this last weekend but he wants to blog about that.