Spoooooky

Halloween Festivities are in full swing... here we are carving our pumpkin.

We started the trick-or-treating festivities on Wednesday. Bridgewater College opens up their dorms and the college kids decorate and pass out TONS of candy. They also do a little carnival. Kaci was scared out of her mind, until she saw a little baby dressed up like a duck. Here is Kaci's FIRST costume... a haunted homemaker aka a witch.


Her loot. She could have had double this but she would always only take one piece of candy when the they told her to take 3 or 4. One time a guy was about to give her like 10 snickers, but she took just ONE again. Bummer, I'm still sad about that.

On Thursday we went to the mall for their Monster Mash. The advertisement said there would be trick-or-treating, costume judging, and a dance party. Boy was there ever a Dance Party. I didn't bring my camera which is the greatest let down of the century because the Dance Party was solely kids ages 18 months to 6 shakin' it with the Dukettes (a dance team from JMU). It was AMAZING.
Kaci wanted to be Rela (Cinderella) this time after seeing other kids dressed up like Cinderella. She's obsessed with Cinderella right now, she trys to sing like her which is so cute! And she's always uber excited when it's time for Cinderella to dance with her prince. She runs around the house yelling "rela DANCE prince!!" My mom had sewn her some dress up clothes which I decided to turn into a Cinderella costume. Kaci loved it!


Yes! It was only Thursday and she already had tons of candy. Little did she know that today, the day of Halloween, she'll go trick-or-treating THREE more times.

The funny part about all this madness is that I don't really like all the candy, Kaci licks it and throws most of it away, and Brad eats all the peanut butter stuff, but that's it. Honestly, I just figure that it's something to do for free and I am all about that! Trick-or-treating HERE WE COME!!

time is ticking

Some memories with true friends are so real that on a dreary day in Virginia...

I wish I had two dollars in change and a couple hours to stand at a bus stop.
I long to wade out and flail around in the water like a seal, dolphin, whale. Relish in the joys of emerging and splashing in the water.
I can almost taste Acai, feel the rocks from the Island Shack under my feet, smell the salty Hawaiian air, and see her reading "Free Surf" with more intensity than an Olympic weightlifter.
I can hear her singing "HIKI MAI E NA PUA I KA LA’IE" over the waves and taste the salty water as it splashes on our faces paddling on our surfboards.
I can feel the wind blowing in our faces and the sweat glistening on our foreheads and we pedal to campus.
I can hear the pounding of our feet on the pavement as we run around Laie and feel the shortness of breath from laughing and talking as we run.

As the day of birthing draws nearer... I'm thinking about you, praying for you, and longing to be there to hold that precious little girl who gets to call YOU her mother. I'm hoping she's an exact replica of you, the world needs more people just like you.

1st Ward Groupie 5K

Okay, so there are two wards in the Burg. Basically, they are "separate but equal." I'm the 1st Ward groupie (I'm the in the 2nd Ward). I crash a lot of their stuff because ALL the young moms are in that ward (seriously, there are like 10 moms with kids Kaci's age). Honestly I get the best of both wards because my ward has all the moms with 5 kids who basically have it all figured out, know all the trips and tricks, and I crash the other ward to hang out with Moms my own age who are still experimenting like I am.

On Saturday, some of the 1st ward people were running a 5K. I got an honorary invite to join them. So I did. I haven't run more than 2 miles since I've been in VA for a lot of reasons: 1) There are hills EVERYWHERE 2) I have to push Kaci UP said hills if I want to go running and keep up with the stroller as we zoom DOWN them 3) Kaci has a limited attention span 4) In Hawaii I ran 8 miles once and that pretty much cured me of any desire to run long distances.

I feel like a 10 minute mile is do-able for an average joe like me who is active enough to claim that I "work out regularly". Since learning to run more than a sprint I've been able to hack a 10 minute mile... on flat ground in Arizona, on sand in Hawaii... my results for a not-so-flat ground in Virginia... drum roll please....

Kerri Call 33:21.0 10:45/Mile

close, oh so close...

it's official

After hours and hours of researching anguish and a very insightful email from Cass

I booked our hotel

for the night before the parade, just 5 miles from the parade route. It's official, we're really going to go. I'm SO excited!!

Seriously, anyone going to come? Once in a lifetime for sure, well, for me at least... unless it is so mind blowing amazing (like it's going to be) and I do this every year for the rest of my life... fundraisers here I come... joking... kinda

Just about a zillion other things to plan in the next few weeks, like more fundraisers, what else can I possibly sell?

QUESTION: anyone use those heat warmers that are disposable, ya know they start heating up once they are out of their air tight package and last for hours? would they keep Kaci warm if I pinned a couple hundred of them to the inside of her coat?

takin' a break

I'm taking a break from my Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade planning (by the way, does anybody want to come with us?) to tell you about this amazing trail mix I made. I bet a lot of Mom's already do this, but I recently discovered it for myself. I made a trail mix with different cereals and stuff that we like. I made a big tin of it and Kaci loves it (so do my seminary kids). She never gets bored with it, it's an awesome snack, and it is mostly "good for you" stuff.

I combined:
cashews (soft nut Kaci can eat, and they are yummy)
pumpkin seeds
honey nut chex
kix
gold fish pretzels
marshmallows (these got old and dried out fast, but I like 'em better that way)
raisins (won't do these again, they don't vacuum well and I scrumpa* them anyway)
teddy grahams (chocolate kind)

We are lovin' it! It's fun to make too. We've had it for two weeks, stored in a tin and everything is still fresh. Way cool. If you have any yummy combos you've been holding out on, please share. Our tin is almost gone!

*home-made word for when you don't dislike something, but you don't necessarily like it either.

It begins...

Yesterday, when Kaci said her prayer (we started a few months ago with something really simple... it normally goes something like this "Dear God, thank you for mommy, daddy, kaci, food, friends... in Jesus name-Amen... one syllable words) yesterday she added Christ to it. I didn't catch it at first because she didn't pair it with Jesus, she just said Christ amongst the other things she gives thanks for.

Later that day I was doing laundry and Kaci was running around with the hamper on her head. I was busy and not really listening to her mumbo jumbo as she ran around until I heard her say "Kaci- Jesus Christ!" She kept saying it over and over and over all day.

During the FHE lesson, Kaci picked a picture of Christ (like she always does) (thanks again Lynda for that book of gospel art, we love it). She then told me about what she learned in Nursery... she said "Kaci, church, friends, two boys, one girl, girl lap. Kaci, pray, Jesus Christ." Translation: At church with my friends, two boys and one girl, I sat on my teacher's lap and she taught me to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. So, she learned something at church this week, she learned that Jesus is Christ and that we pray in His name. She may have even learned that we are suppose to be like Him. I wonder if her teacher knows that Kaci was listening and learning during that 5 minute lesson she so faithfully does with those toddlers each week. I'll be sure to tell her.

Just another testimony that teaching a child the ways of the Lord can and should start at a very young age... no one is too little or not smart enough to learn of Him. Everyone is capable of coming to Christ... everyone.

October-fest

This October has been pretty much identical to last October...

I made dinner in a pumpkin! again and it was so good. I will always be grateful that Liam&Jessie shared this tradition with us. It's so fun to make and to eat!

Kaci got in on the jack-o-lantern this year. She drew that face all by herself. We were very impressed. She said she was drawing eyes, a nose, and a happy face, but we didn't expect it to look like a face when she was done, boy were we wrong.

Very imnpressive. Last year we tried to carve the face of the pumpkin to look like Kaci. Kaci says her face is a "daddy face".

And I painted our window. Our window is HUGE which is fun. Kaci is obsessed with drawing houses right now. I tried to paint a haunted house. She loves it! Kaci painted next to me with some white (just in case she missed the window) and then asked for some brown to finish her "horse". We have a horse and a house, very creative don't ya think?!?

dah-yur

Cho you are missed! Kaci asks where you are and wonders if "Cho work?" or "Cho sleep" or "Cho Happy?". She also keeps asking for a "dah-yur" translation dollar. We hope you are happy and that you have lots of "dah-yurs" (dollars!)!

(the sign says: 1 million dollars in 10 dollar notes. pix taken by me at the National Bureau of Engraving and Printing aka National Bureau of Blah Blah- if you ever visit DC don't waste your time on the tour at this place... talk about dull and boring! this pix was the best part!)

We miss you Garrett!!

p.s. remember the number 8... 3,4,8!!

A good time was had by all!

Last Saturday was so intense. We woke up and went to Dayton Days to buy an apple dumpling from the scouts. Then we came home to watch Conference. Brad recently taught Kaci how to slow dance to quiet-er music, so when the MoTab started singing, Kaci jumped up, found her baby, and started slow dancing. By the end of Conference she had convinced Brad to slow dance with me too. I wish I would have recorded her, it was so cute. She calls it a "hug dance". After that session we jetted over to the "Mile Challenge" where Brad joined the bike race against the mayor driving a car. They had bicycle churned ice cream for everyone afterwards. We joined the cause for walking or biking within a mile of our house. Then we went to Hillandale for the Time Trial. A group of people were doing a time trial to ride all the mountain biking trails. Brad was so excited to participate. He bikes there all the time. We stayed to cheer him on. He completed it in 19 minutes. He wrecked a couple times, a little black and blue the next day but loved it. He also got a free membership to the rec center which I cashed in on so I can lift weights again! After the time trial we rushed home to watch another session of conference.
The next day we went to the church to watch conference since our internet connection was being slow. Good thing we did too, the Walton's were there (they have a little boy Kaci's age and they are BFF) and they invited us to stay for fondue between sessions. I had no idea fondue was so amazing. It was so yummy and Kaci got to play all day with her best bud. We watched the last session, came home, ate chocolate cake for dinner with the Hendricks and called it good. I believe this action packed weekend deserves the ending: "a good time was had by all"

Disc Golfers Unite

Westover Park has Disc Golf. A friend of ours taught us how to play a while back and we liked it, but didn't have discs. Then Brad found out that the rec center loans discs out for free with an ID. So we go all the time now. We taught Garret how to play. It's a lot of fun.

Kaci likes it too. She can run around in the woods and play with all the sticks she wants. She's even picked up on how to throw the disc and the general idea of the game-keep throwing the disc until you make it in the basket! She tries really hard to throw the disc and when it falls a foot in front of her she'll say "oh-miss!" So funny.

Sometimes Kaci gets tired (there are 18 holes and the course is lots of hills) so she gets a ride from one of us. Brad is the best at throwing discs, so Garret and I were hoping that Kaci would handicap him... Brad did better with Kaci on his shoulders... go figure. I guess keeping your shoulders square and motionless is what you are suppose to do. So I tried it too and it made my discs go way further and I had more accuracy. Who knew?!?

International Festival

We really talk up what we're going to do on the weekends. Two weeks ago it rained all day long. So our Saturday excitement was a little cold and rainy.

Didn't stop us! We still went to the International Festival held at Hillandale park. We were excited to go because we could get free helmets. Basically a $90 value. They had one for Kaci which is fabulous and it will grow with her for the next year or two. We are excited!


Kaci also got a really cool light to put on her stroller. The booth that gives away all this cool stuff promotes pedestrian and cyclist safety in the 'Burg.

Kaci combining her cool new helmet with one of her favorite past-times... reading with Daddy.

Christmas?

For the past two mornings I have woken up with the very real feeling that it's Christmas. The first morning, I nearly ran into the front room to see the Christmas tree all lit up. Sadly I was disappointed to find a dark room with no festive decorations. This morning I remembered last morning, but I still had to see the dark room to fully believe that it really wasn't Christmas. I don't know why I keep thinking it's Christmas, maybe it's the chill in the air or the fact that I'm sick. As much as I have disliked being sick on Christmas the past few years... I feel like Christmas helped me not feel so bad when I was sick, ya know?

I guess I should finish the Christmas presents for my nieces and nephews I've been working on all year so they'll be ready when it really is Christmas... (yes all year, I have 7 nieces and nephews and two of my sisters had babies this year adding two more to the list... though the two new ones are probably just out of luck this year, they'll appreciate it more next year anyway)