Guess David's costume and win a prize!

Ok, sorry, I don't have a prize for you. But on a serious note, tell me what you think David is here in his costume.

I purchased this costume at Wal-Mart, and the packaging said it was a "plush horse", complete with a picture that didn't appear very horse-like. After pulling the costume out and trying it on David, I thought he looked adorable in it, but not like a horse. We went to the ward play group yesterday and everybody kept telling me what an adorable cow he was. Seriously, though, those spots weren't looking very horse-ish to the other moms either.
So just curious what you in Blog-land think.
Here's cute little David modeling. Sorry, these pictures are the best I have so far, they were taken on my cell phone.

And a side profile

And from the back. Now tell me really, does that look like a horse's bushy tail? And no mane?

And a birds' eye view.


Dan and I are thinking that the folks in some far distant country who probably made this really don't know their farm animals, at least in English, because it would seem that something got lost in the translation.
We're going with a cow when people ask about his costume. I even found a cute red cowbell to tie around his neck to seal the deal.

Happy Halloween to you and your ghosts, ghouls, goblins, princesses, fairies, wizards, etc!

To My Daughter

To: Miss Anna Boo (i.e. Little Miss Destruct-o)

From: The Management

Date: 10/30/2009

Re: Play Dough

Your orange (or any color, for that matter) play dough is not a ball you can hurl across the room at your baby brother's head. Nor is it an appropriate cover for the flat screen tv even though it sticks to it quite nicely when you press it on there. Play dough, although somewhat tasty and salty, is not to be fed to David, nor to yourself. Under absolutely no circumstances should play dough be dropped on the floor and then danced on, stepped on, run across, or in any other way ground into the carpet. And it most assuredly is not to be squished into the electrical cord input into the laptop computer. Let's just say that Daddy was not too pleased cleaning that last one up when he tried to charge the laptop tonight.

Consider this your cease-and-desist-improper-play-dough-activities-immediately notice. Any repeat performances are hereby subject to appropriate consequences, including but not limited to time-outs, being sent to room, cleaning up the mess, play dough disposal, and loss of bedtime stories. Please see attached list of approved play dough uses for your benefit and hopefully positive inspiration.

Thank you,

The Management (Mom)

Enclosure




Play Dough Uses
Approved by The Management
All of the following are only to be completed while sitting down at the kitchen table

* Rolling into snakes
* Roll small spherical orbs for a snowman
* Stack prior-mentioned orbs while singing "Once there was a Snowman", and then smashing them as the snowman melts "small, small, small".
* Flatten dough into pancakes
* Pinch or mold dough to create shapes
* Squeeze large mound of dough in your hands and through your fingers
* Make play food for your doll
* Any other approved activity you may come up with, while sitting at the table. With Mom or Dad present. After asking permission first and waiting for Mom or Dad to get the play dough for you.

Choir

I have sung in choirs for most of my life. I sang in a children's primary choir in our ward back in Kansas when I was really young. I sang in the ward choir with my family all growing up in Utah. In high school I sang with the A cappella choir. And at BYU I sang in the Women's Chorus for a few years. I've had so many wonderfully enriching experiences singing, going on tours in high school, singing in concerts, devotionals, and even General Conference in college.

When we moved to Texas, I promised myself that I would find some music group to join. Well, 2 years later, after a great experience serving in the deaf branch in our stake, I still hadn't found a group to sing with. And while I loved the people we served with and really enjoyed our time there, I did miss the regular music at church too.

So this fall I was thrilled when I found the Texas Master Chorale! Even better, they practice very near our home, so it's only a short drive away to get to rehearsals. After missing the audition night while playing phone tag about audition times, they told me to just come to the first rehearsal back in August and they'd find a time to let me audition that night. So I sat in the seats with the first altos and had the time of my life sight-reading a bunch of Christmas music with the wonderful singers and musicians from around the area in this group. Many of the members of the choir are current or former high school choir directors, or private music teachers. By the end of the evening, the director told me to go ahead and come back next week and they'd listen to me then. I was happy because it gave me at least one more week to come sing with them. They were testing the range of everyone in the alto section that night and just let me slip in with them without an official audition.

So one night a week I get to go and sing again! We have a couple Christmas concerts in December, if anyone feels so inclined to come and visit. We're also recording a cd for Christmas. And we're singing really fun big Mack Wilberg arrangements that the Tabernacle Choir sings. I'm going to love singing again for the Christmas season this year.

Climbing

I think I'm in trouble. He got up there all by himself. Then Anna followed him up, of course, because in the true spirit of sibling-hood she can't let David do anything alone that looks like fun (read: gets lots of attention from Mom).

What a proud little guy!

Excuse the mess, this is in the extra bedroom that is still a mish-mash of pictures that haven't made their way onto walls yet and boxes that haven't fully been unpacked yet. Hey, we haven't even been homeowners for 6 months! I refuse to feel guilty that I'm not fully unpacked yet. Now after 6 months, you can judge me. Shoot, only a month--I'd better get on top of it. If only I didn't have such cute little distractions as these 2 kiddos... Oh, and the climbing aspect. David is getting pretty fearless around the stairs lately too. Gotta keep on my toes to make sure the gate at the top of the stairs is closed at all times lest he gets any crazy maniacal urge to hurl himself down head first. I'm not sure how I feel about this free-spirit-exploring nature in my 11-month-old. Anna sure spoiled me by leaving a lot of these waters untapped until she was older. Dan definitely looks at his son's curiosity with much pleasure of a proud papa. Probably because he doesn't have to chase him around for more than an hour or two after he gets home at the end of the day...

Would you like to swing on a star?

Carry moonbeams home in a jar

And be better off than you are

You could be swingin' on a star

Love my Techie Husband

Since we moved into our house a few months ago, we didn't want to sign up for another expensive cable or satellite package. We spent the summer realizing that we really didn't miss the 100+ channels from our old Dish Network too much, but we especially didn't miss the bill that came with it. I did, however, miss having Sesame Street, Clifford, and some of the other PBS shows that Anna was distracted, I mean entertained by.

So after a little research, Dan built us this with a few cut up wire hangers, a board, and a $10 receiver from RadioShack.

Now we get all the regular local channels coming in on our homemade antenna! Dan is my hero. And now this awesome addition has a home in a nice little corner upstairs out of the way, while being very appreciated by the family downstairs in the family room. It's nice to have a few minutes to myself here or there during Elmo's World on Sesame Street. Some days I actually get to take a shower before lunchtime!

I do miss having BYU TV that came with Dish. And no, the many local Christian televangelist channels here in the South don't make up for it. Although this singing muppet had us laughing one night.

I guess I just have a hard time taking sermons and scriptures seriously when they're being sung in a wave-the-lighter/candle/flame-back-and-forth-cheesey kind of way by a pink muppet. I think we'll stick with watching BYU TV online and ignore the singing muppets until we need a little giggle.