Halloween 2010!

The girls, with the help of Dad and John Hanke, put together and decorated this haunted ginger bread house. It was quite funny watching the "MEN" get frustrated at the girls getting in the way or not putting things on the right way. I reminded them that this was a project meant for the girls. They just looked at me like my chastisement was not appreciated. Ha!

10-25-10 Our ward has a tradition of having the ward Trunk or Treat Halloween party on Monday before Halloween. It can be a little tedious cause most of the time there is school the next day and the kids have been so wound up with candy and excitement of getting all dressed up. But they have fun either way. Naomi and Heidi are obsessed with getting their faces painted. When ever there is an event with face painting, they will wait in line, no matter how long, to get a butterfly, some sort of animal or design painted on them.

10-28-10 Heidi is a little quirky when it comes to public activities. She is so silly, crazy, annoying sometimes and very naughty at home. But when she is in public, like this costume parade at her school, she clams up. Ryan and I could barely get her to smile at us each time she made it around to where we stood.

10-30-10 Thank you to the City of Monrovia for having their Halloween celebration on Saturday, the day before Halloween. Since we had debated whether to let our girls go trick-or-treat on the Sabbath, it made it easy for us to take them around to the stores on Myrtle on Saturday. The streets are blocked off and the store owners sit out front of the stores and pass out candy. This way they didn't have a need to complain when Sunday rolled around and trick-or-treaters came to our home. They had plenty of candy by then and had more fun seeing all the kids who came to our house.

After walking up and down Myrtle trick-or-treating, we went to Naomi's school for the fall festival. This is where they played games and of course used their tickets to get their faces painted. Heidi is a butterfly and Naomi has a bat across her eyes with a sun and flying bats on her forehead.

I tried to be really creative Saturday evening before Halloween. So for dinner we had ghost shaped Quesidillas, Guacamole, and Enchiladas. If I was really on the ball, I would have had orange Milk and black enchiladas. But this year, cookie cutters were as far as I went.

Oh, and if you scroll back up you'll notice that Heidi wore three different costumes for each event we went to. She couldn't decide; first she wanted to be Snow White, then a witch, then Tinkerbell. So she was able to be all on different days. Naomi just stuck with being a gypsy. Audrey was a ladybug, even though you can't see the back of her costume. She only dressed up for the ward party.

Time Out For Woman 2010, Las Vegas!

The woman in my family had the fortune to attend Time Out For Woman in Las Vegas, NV at the Cashman Center on Las Vegas Blvd on October 22nd and 23rd. It was a few days to get away from life to hear speakers, singers, and be uplifted. All in attendance: my mom Cheryl, Sisters Jana, Michelle, Jennifer, Wendy, Me and Audrey, Jenn's friend from Lancaster Wendy Talbot ( my friend too now,) and our cousin Kristine Christensen. The Christensens graciously opened thier home to us to stay there when not at the Cashman Center. As you can tell from the picture above, we were a happening crowd. We were just happy to veg and not have kids to put to bed.
TOFW is a great way to spend a day and half learning that our role as woman, mothers, wives and sisters in the gospel is a big responsibility, but has great rewards in the eternities. We learn to identify with others who may feel and know what we are going through. We learn to better our understanding of children and spouses. We learn the importance of service, missionary work, teaching the gospel in our homes, and living the gospel to the fullest. This is a time to be reminded why we do all that we do everyday, and that what we do has an eternal outcome, possitive and negative. So we need to know that we are responsible for the safety of our home and family, but not stress and take on too much. As Sister Hinckley put it, "Don't hobble faster than you have strength."

I'm sad our sister Elizabeth wasn't able to come this year, but I feel fortunate to have gone and hopefully learned to better my life and the life of those around me.

Disneyland with the Smiths October 2010

Lance, Wendy, Avery, Thomas and Kate Smith drove down from Utah to be here during UEA, when their kids didn't have school, and it happened to fall on "baby Kate's" 2nd birthday. So naturally we all went to Disneyland. This was the first day there, Wednesday October 7th, 2010.

Thomas, Heidi, Avery and Naomi

Naomi sat and posed herself and asked me to take this of her sitting in front of the Castle!

Kate pooped out after a long Birthday day, as we headed back to our cars on the tram.

Day Two, Friday! Wendy and Lance took thier kids earlier than us since I wanted Naomi to go to School for part of the morning. We met them @ California Adventure and then walked over to Disneyland. One of the first rides we went on was Cacey Jr's Train. The kids always want to go in the "wild animals" cage. Avery, Heidi, Naomi and Thomas

Audrey May Rossiter, 2 months old!

What and amazing face. Kate Smith! I wish I could say she belonged to me, but she is the adorable, yet naughty, daughter of Lance and Wendy. She and Heidi could be twins at some moments, in looks and mischieviousness, but I can't claim her. :(

Avery, Thomas and Kate Smith

P.S. If you know how to flip pictures after you've uploaded them to the blog, or delete them and re-upload, call me and let me know. Most of you know my number. Thanks!

Dr Velkuru with Audrey May

Dr Hyma Velkuru with Audrey @ her two week check-up. Dr Velkuru was my pediatrician when good old Dr Brown (most of you will know who that is) retired. I love her to death. I have this same picture with both Naomi and Heidi. She really hasn't aged.

School Begins for 2010

Naomi's First Day of First Grade @ Mayflower Elementary School. August 30, 2010

Heidi's first Day of Preschool @ First Presbyterian Preschool. September 2nd, 2010

Blessing of Audrey May Rossiter: 10-17-10

A beautiful morning, slightly raining, but a wonderful morning to bless Audrey. This Sunday morning wasn't a traditional fast Sunday on which a baby is blessed. We changed it to the 3rd Sunday of the month (the first was General Conference.) My parents couldn't be here the second Sunday due to my niece being baptized in Utah. So we asked if it would be o.k. to have it on the 17th of October. Our bishop agreed, so we invited a few family members and friends to be a part of our daughters special day.

Ryan invited a few men to be in the blessing circle: Ron Rossiter, his dad, Steve Worsley, my dad, Lance Smith, brother in law, Mike Miller, family friend, Ricky Ingram, cousin, Jason Stringfellow, cousin, and Joel Henriod, friend. We felt privilidged for having the friends and family come support our family and little Audrey. It's not easy to be to a 9 am Sunday Sacrament Meeting, but we appreciate our family and friends who came. A special thanks to my parents, Steve and Cheryl Worsley, who made the drive from Utah. It was a stressful time, but they came anyway. Thank you Dad and Mom.

Ryan gave Audrey a wonderful, sweat blessing of strength, spirit and guidance. I took notes in my journal and my mom jotted a few down on the back of the program. Not sure if we'll be able to make sense of our short hand, but we did our best to get as much of what Ryan said so Audrey can read it some day.

Audrey one month old: September 2010

Even @ 1 month old, Audrey was very alert and very serious. We kept trying to get her to focus on our faces and smile back. However, she really couldn't see full images, or she's looking @ us thinking, "these people are crazy."