Halloween

This year Mayah decided to be the princess on the movie "Ever After". If you haven't seen it, here is Drew Barrymore in the movie:



My mom was in town for Mayah's baptism, so she helped me think through what the dress would look like and she ended up doing a lot of the work on sewing it as well. I did most of the finishing touches and added some jewels/decorum, and gathered up her accessories. Clint got some industrial wire and engineered the wings. Together we added the material and decoration to make the wings pretty.

Here is Mayah's outfit as it turned out...


Here she is walking into the gym...




...she got a lot of compliments, but most importantly she felt great about it. There was a parade at her school for all the kids to show off their costumes. They came out by grade level and classroom. When Mayah's class came out, all the other kids had entered the gym before this extended pause, and then Mayah made this grand entrance as the last kid in her class, sporting the biggest ear to ear grin, and the sharpest bounce in her step ever. You could tell she thought it was awesome as well. She had to go through all the doors sideways, because of the size of those wings.

Ava was lucky enough to get two costumes this year...a Geisha for Friday's festivities and a Genie for Trick or Treating. We determined the Genie was easier because it required less make-up (and sitting still).





Ava has started to make a number of cute little friends her age. Tonight she got to go trick or treating with two of them (Dhevan and Dillon). It was so fun to watch how excited they got. After the first few doors they just tore through our neighborhood knocking doors and taking names later. You'd be amazed by how much candy each of them ended up with.




In all, it was a pretty fun Halloween. Considering we are in Omaha, we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was clear skies, fairly warm and just a perfect environment for Halloween fun.

Mayah's Baptism

Yesterday was Mayah's baptism! It was really fun to see how excited she was. When we woke up, there was snow outside and Ava was all excited for the day and for Mayah's baptism. Grandma Darcy and Grandpa Mike came to visit from St. George so they could attend the baptism, and so did Clint's parents, Rudy and Brenda. Uncle Justin and Aunt Andrea came up from Whitman Air Force Base outside of KC as well.

We weren't sure if some of Mayah's friends were going to be able to make it because they had soccer games. But thanks to the snow, everyone's game was cancelled and Mayah had a bunch of friends come to support her. After the baptism a few people came over to the house to hang out and eat a little bit... It was good having all our friends and family together.

We're proud of Mayah for making this decision and hope she remembers it for the rest of her life.

Boating...

Today we skipped church and went boating with some friends that work with Clint. Mayah has never really had a day of boating and tubing and all that fun stuff, and Ava was too little last time to really enjoy it... so they were excited all morning leading up to it.

It was a little chilly out today (around 70), but other than that it was a great time. Here are some pictures to sum our time up. As you can see, even Ava got to ride behind the boat...

Jonas Brothers/Jordin Sparks Concert

Tonight, was a night for Mayah to remember. One of her last birthday presents that Clint and I got her were primo tickets to the Jonas Brothers and Jordin Sparks concert. We went out and got her a cute outfit to wear at Justice For Girls, and got me a new one at Urban Outfitters. We were set for the big show. When we got there the crowds were crazy. We saw the Jonas Brothers tour bus and bought a Jordin Sparks t-shirt for Mayah on the way in. She was all fired up for the fun to begin.

Our tickets turned out to be pretty great. As you can see from the pics of Joe Jonas, he was standing right in front of us. We had no idea but all the girls were the most crazy for Nick Jonas, who is kind of the soft nerdy young one. They just screamed like crazy whenever he did anything, and I must admit he was the most talented of the three. It was hard to recognize Jordin when she came out because her hair was up in this crazy bob hairdo, but she did most of her big hits on the radio. We just had a blast dancing and singing next to each other the whole night. It was so hot in there, and we were close enough to get drenched with the bubble machine and some of the water effects...but that's the price you pay for a great time.

Mayah went home with the hugest smile and said it was a night she will never forget. I'm glad we got to go together on this "coming of age" experience for Mayah.

Ava's Birthday Bedroom Makeover!

When we did Mayah's bedroom for her Birthday we debated on switching the girls bedrooms to make it feel completly new. We ended up not doing it because I was worried that Ava would have a hard time with the change. I thought this because when we moved into this house Ava was feeling really insecure and struggling with the changes. When we were all done with Mayah's room, though, Ava walked in and said with such pleasure and excitement, "This my room Daddy, you make this bed for me daddy...?" It broke my heart to explain to her that it was for Mayah. So we decided that we would take the stuff from Mayah's old room that was still good and use it to redecorate Ava's room like a "big girl's" room for her birthday too. The bedspread that Mayah had was a country flower design, so I thought it would be really cute to have her bed frame made out of a picket fence and continue the garden theme throughout her room. I am lucky that my husband is pretty handy, because all the picket fence bed frames I looked at online were running anywhere from $700 to $1200. We had been planning to do it, but didn't actually get around to putting the fence together and painting it until about midnight the night before her birthday. As you would know if you've ever done construction, there are always problems! We finally got done with everything around 4:00 am, the morning of Ava's birthday. Despite the hurdles (not enough paint, screws were too long, mis-sized wood) I think the room turned out great and Clint did an awesome job on the picket fence! I know that he wasn't too excited about staying up all night to do Ava's room when we had to be up the next day by 7:30, but he did it willingly because he knew it was really important to me and would make Ava happy. Thanks Babe.

Here are some pictures of Ava's new big girl room, and some of Ava when she woke up to find her entirely new bedroom.

Tuck Lovebug Ramos Carlos aka the tiniest turtle

So the other day, Mayah went to her friend Ashley Johnson's house to play. Her mom had found a tiny little painted turtle out by Lake Zorinsky on the outskirts of Omaha and brought it home to show her kids and maybe keep it as a pet. It was literally the size of a quarter. We can tell she really got into it, because she was telling us all about the type of habitat it needs, the appropriate water level, how to avoid chlorinated H2O in the tank, what it feeds on and how to tell it is a boy (because the underbelly is concave). The Johnsons make an annual trek to Utah each summer to see family and they stay for nearly a month. They are leaving soon and didn't know what to do with the turtle.

After Mayah went to their house, she kept hounding Amie to go to the pet store and find a small turtle she could bring home. In "typical Carlos fashion", we were tough and held out. Then, the tides turned with a single phone call from Ashley's mom, Pat. She called us tonight to say they had reached a crossroad and needed to decide what to do with the turtle. They would either let it go in the wild, or turn it over to Mayah for ownership, since they couldn't take care of it while they were on their trip and couldn't commit to ownership after they returned. Mayah was ecstatic. In "typical Carlos fashion", we were soft and caved in to Mayah's request. So we now have a tiny pet turtle. He kicks some serious butt. We fed him a worm today and although it was about 6 times as long as he is, he absolutely devoured that thing. There were worm gut floaties drifting around in the water afterward. Now he's safe at his new home in a plastic bowl with some rocks, some turtle vitamins and a piece of lettuce. After a dismal search for an aquarium at Wal-Mart (it was the only place open when we got home), we'll resume a search for the proper habitat tomorrow. Petsmart here we come.

We had to go through quite the debate as we chose a name. Mayah had already settled on Mr. Lovebug (with Grandma Brenda's help), before we really started the conversation about a name. Ava happens to love watching WonderPets! so of course we wanted to name him Tuck (it's the funniest thing, if you ask Ava what works, she always says TEAMWORK in a loud energetic voice)... After a 3-1 vote, Mayah lost, but continued to pout. So we gave in. I told her Lovebug could be the last name if Tuck could be the first name. Then she said, well its last name is Ramos (which is Mayah's father's last name). So again we compromised and settled on Tuck Lovebug Ramos Carlos...the tiniest turtle in the world. He's pretty cool looking and Mayah's stoked to have a pet.

Mayah's swim/sleep over 8th b-day party

This year Mayah decided that she wanted to have a slumber party for her birthday. Clint and I thought it would be fun to take the girls to LifeTime Fitness to swim for a few hours before heading back to our house for the craziness. I think the party turned out great and I am pretty sure all of the girls had a really great time. Mayah said this was her best birthday party to date!

We had all the parents drop the girls off at our house around 4:30. The girls decorated flip flops as they waited for everyone to show up. As you can see from the pictures, the girls had fun giggling as they showed their artistic side through their decorating.


Next we loaded up in two cars and drove to the pool around 5:30, where we played in the water (the girls mostly tortured Clint in the water), went down the slides and played what the girls called "toilet tag" in the grass. Once you get tagged you have to sit with your hand out like a little lever or something and wait for another person to come and "flush you." Once you have been flushed, you can continue to play. At the pool, we ate sandwiches from Mr. Goodcents and just had a good time.





We headed home around 8:00 for Birthday cake (which we hired my friend Jessica to make). It was delicious and adorable... Thanks Jessica!!) While we were eating, Mayah opened all of her presents. After that we did a chocolate fountain and had sparkling cider in fancy little plastic champagne glasses. This was the highlight of the party. When we asked them, each of the girls said the chocolate fountain was their favorite part of the night. Originally, when we had checked the forecast for the day of the party it was predicting thunderstorms and Clint informed me that under no circumstances would we do the chocolate fountain indoors, because when we did this at Christmas time in Cancun with cousin Mia it was a complete mess. I told Clint these were all very mature 8 year old girls and would be able to do this in a clean manor! Luckily for us the weather turned out great and we were able to do the chocolate fountain out on the deck. Clint was right, though, because that chocolate was everywhere! We had to check each of the girls thoroughly for chocolate splatter before entering the house!!!





When we went in the house, we played a game where the girls had to go around the house and find little glow in the dark critters. Whoever collected the most bugs got a little prize. It was fun to watch the girls hunt for bugs around the house in the dark with their flashlights which I had put in party bags for each of them. They would scream with excitement each time they found one. They never did find them all, because we are still finding random critters around the house. Mayah's friend Josie won that game with 31 bugs. Then we had a potato sack race (in sleeping bags) which was pretty entertaining to watch. It was too close to call in the end, with the last two girls racing so close that we had to settle the winner by doing a long jump contest. In the end it was Kyleigh who won that game. Next the girls went down to play a few games of Twister (another present from Gma Brenda).




Finally around 12:00 it was time to wind down with a movie. Mayah, Josie and Kara all fell asleep around 12:40, but there were two girls Halle and Kyleigh who stayed awake until nearly 2:00 am! I was so tired and sooo ready for those girls to pass out. In the morning the girls didn't even let me sleep in on the one night without Ava. On my one chance to sleep in, the girls woke up at 6:00 am!!! We had breakfast at 9:00--pancakes with strawberry's and bananas, eggs, sausage and bacon. Finally the party came to an end at 10:30. It was fun and I know Mayah loved it, but I was so glad it was over! I fell asleep the next night at 7:45 and slept until 9:30 the following morning. I just can't handle late nights like that, like I used to!