Happy Halloween!

Here's our daughter happy...

Here's our baby girl SAD (if not mad)...

She did NOT want me to put her in any Halloween costume to save her life! Finally this Tuesday night Pace and I went to Kids R Us and found the LAST (it seemed) appropriately fitting girl's costume (on sale half off, thank you) that I thought she might let me have her wear. No such luck... As soon as I tried to put it on her she began squirming, pulling at the costume, shrieking, "Get 'off! Get 'off!"
Funny now, frustrating then.

I decided to pull out the camera to film the tantrum to keep from getting upset myself... gotta laugh somehow. Well, she immediately stopped crying and reached for her favorite "no, you can't touch this" device. Fine, you hold it - yeah! She now could care less about the dress she was wearing, and was far more amiable (as you'll see in a minute). I love technology... :)

I uploaded this video as really an audio only. It just caught her talking to herself and to me, some of her jibber-jabber (some things understandable, others not so much).
I like it, maybe you'll get a kick out of it too...

*Disclaimer - Please ignore the messy room! It's the one place I can let her make a mess, scatter toys, and that I clean up once a day before she goes to bed (otherwise I'd go mad)...

She obviously did end up getting used to the costume, wore it happily... Soon she was running around with friends at our ward's Trunk or Treat and had a great time! (Ate lots of chocolate!)

Will I ever catch up?

Make that, will I ever catch my breath again?

Chasing my darling , yet often extremely stubborn 2 1/2 year old wears me out now and then. Carrying this (-25) day old baby boy keeps me fatigued pretty much daily. = Life is exhausting right now, let me tell you.

Here's a synopsis:

1. I love my husband. He keeps me sane. Saturday was our first date night since we moved here. (Go ahead, cry for/with me) All we could do was eat a light meal and sit there at Jason's Deli and TALK for an hour and a half, so wonderful. Uninterrupted... we talked like we hadn't really visited in months. Probably because between school, fatigue, and Syd we have our hands full... Thank heavens our friend could babysit! Best conversation in a long time... :) Love him.

2. My daughter is a tyrant. But I love her too... we're putting on the discipline more thick these days. She needs it, we need it. Pray for us...

3. Our good friends, the Johnsons - the first people we met here in Lubbock, that helped us so much and are still so wonderful to us - just learned of their son's death in Iraq. What a tragedy. He has a young family... We are mourning with them...

Sounds as if we aren't enjoying ourselves here at all, which isn't entirely true... Although Pace is revving up for mid-terms and finals, we do manage to get out as a family every now and then...
Here's proof:

We made it to the fair! A fun night. Syd rode in the stroller, content to watch the mobs of people walking all over. It was almost like a date :)



Here things took a slight turn for the worst... I let Syd down for a minute to be free to see the rabbits, and... well, she didn't want to get back in her stroller. An enormous tantrum later, a kind elderly woman walked over to try and coax Syd into calming down. She sympathetically asked me, "Oh, is she ADD?" Ha! I still laugh to this day. I just smiled and said, "No, she's just 2." My friend Ashley made me laugh even more. When I told her she said, "No... And may you have several just like her." Gotta love it. :)



I left for 2 hours (RS Broadcast - wonderful) and came home to Syd and Daddy "swimming" in the playpool in the back yard. Sweet Daddy-daughter time... but what's wrong with her suit, honey?

Another law student's wife, Missy, and I - she has a cute son named Kayden, plays a lot with Sydney. She and I hang out, helps keep each other sane :) Anyway, she asked us to go with her and her kids to the Apple Butter Festival last month. Too cute and fun! Sydney loved the live music and the petting zoo. I dug on the apple turnovers and ice cream - leave the pregnant women to our vices! :) Here are some pics of that outing as well:







Lastly, we enjoyed Conference immensely, watched it on the laptop in the privacy and comfort of our living room. Fantastic Saturday sessions, Sunday of course was excellent too. In between we made dinner for some sweet Elders and Pace's hometeaching partner and his family, the Buchners. Made for a great weekend.



I'll keep posting, however frequently I can... It is getting crazier, but that's the way life goes! :)