MAKE YOUR PREDICTIONS

Okay, everybody, I'm down to my last 25 days...and I've been saying all along I don't think I'll go that long, but we'll see.

So, here's your chance--never had the joy of predicting a mission call correctly (I have, HA!)? Your odds are so much better this time. So look over to your right and note the poll that is open until the 20th. VOTE!

Also, feel free to leave a name recommendation (although many of you know I already have names picked out, which I will not include in this post since 1. it seems fun to make it a little bit suspenseful to some of you and 2. I just want you to give suggestions without being influenced). Who knows, maybe you'll dethrone the names I've chosen--even more exciting than guessing a mission call!

Oh, and you can also guess the date of birth, weight, or awesomeness of the baby, if you like. Whoever is closest will receive high honors and great lauds of glory...

By the way, speaking of all of this, a few nights ago I spent the wee hours of the night in what certainly felt like real labor. Not just contractions, but regular ones, with back-ache, crampiness, and a different shaped-uterus than braxton-hicks (but no bleeding, which I've never had before reaching the hospital, anyway). By 5 am they were every 9 minutes and the doctor had instructed me to go to the hospital when they were 10 minutes apart. So I called the doctor, packed my bags, and decided that on the next contraction I would wake up Spencer, call Matt and Mimi (to come stay with the kids), and go to the hospital. And then that last contraction never came! So I went back to bed and finally slept, which was nice.

So, how common is this false labor stuff? Does it just happen more the more pregnancies you've had? Does it mean I'm close to delivery or does it even matter? It's never happened to me before. Since then I've had like a small handful of non-regular painful contractions and almost constant braxton-hicks. I'd like to be told that I'll make it to about 38 weeks and no further, please. Anybody?

Okay, place your bets!

FIRST HAIRCUT...39 1/2 months old!

I've been waiting a long, long, LOOOONG time to be able to post about anybody's first haircuts around here. And the day finally came. I had told Spencer I was going to get Cadence's hair cut after Halloween (so that I could be sure to have enough hair to put in a Tinkerbell bun), and so the morning after Halloween, while he ever-so-kindly was letting me sleep in, but without any regard to my blogging needs, he cut her hair himself.

He's a go-getter.

And he's sick of spending money. (Have you seen my new stroller? It was a hard pill for him to swallow. Oh, and I LOVE it, by the way.)

So, inspite of the fact that I already had to blog about Halloween, and that nobody was around to take before and during pictures, he did it.

So, here's a little picture tour of Cadence's hair:

At one year: still peach fuzz.

I don't have anything around 18 months on this computer, but I can just tell you that it's basically still peach fuzz at that point.

About three weeks after she turned 2:

At about 2 and 3 months (about a year ago): First time wearing it up successfully--a ponytail on top and two little pigtails in the back.

Around 2 1/2: pigtails were sustainable without the ponytail on top.

About a month ago: Not very long but wispy and uneven. Looks terrible unless I pull it up, and she insists on only one hairstyle: one ponytail in the back. And the only "after" shot I have: Spencer did a great job and this is her in the tub immediately after the deed was done. It's hard to see, I guess, but it's just a little shorter and even across the bottom. Campbell loves the camera and makes this face whenever she sees it's ready for her.

Congrats, Cadence! You made it a good long time without a haircut, and now we are in the world of having normal (almost) amounts of hair! Campbell is a little ahead of you (and, by the way brunette with possibly curly--albeit too short to know for sure--hair), but you still got your hair cut first. You win!

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year...

Yes, we love Halloween over here. Were you wondering if we observed the holiday? Here you go:

Campbell as the cutest little candy-hoarding Unicorn (recognize this, Walnut Creekers?):

Cadence as Tinkerbell: And I'll have you know I made this costume entirely by hand. Yes, the wings are hangers. They were actually pretty cute. The pink top is because it was the only turtle neck she has and she refused to wear the costume with a regular top (the ribbon irritated her).Spencer and Mardee as Paulie Bleeker and Juno: Slightly inappropriate? Yeah, I know. But I thought we pulled it off pretty well. I'm just greatful that it was so dang cold so that Spencer was forced to wear something under those short shorts. And yes, I carried the huge thing of Sunny D around the whole time.

The whole fam:This is Spencer holding up the family pumpkin for the Pumpkin Carving Contest at the ward party. Cadence designed the face and he carved it, staying very true to the blue-print. In spite of how very ornate the other pumpkins in the contest were (a VERY well-done Thomas S Monson, a big pumpkin eating another pumpkin, etc), Cadence's took second place in the dual-round cheer-off.

More of the pumpkin. One eye is actually a side-ways heart, which Cadence was really proud of herself for having drawn. Not bad, right?

We had a really full and fun day that started with the "Tot Lot" Halloween Party, which I was in charge of, along with Mimi (thank goodness for her), and then after naptime we had trick-or-treating inside our building, and then we had to get to the parking lot for the trunk-or-treat at the church. Cadence and Campbell both had about a million grams of sugar that day, and so between that and Daylight Savings (i hate you daylight savings), we've had a crazy crazy week so far :)

On the way home from the church that night, Cadence exhibited some interesting behavior. The whole way from the parking lot to the apartment, and then for about 20 more minutes, she was just blurting out random phrases and words and stringing them together with a great deal of tonal changes. She was also doing this weird skip-walk that was quick and sporatic.... hmm, reminds me of when we fed her Jello on her first birthday and she started giggling and moving around in jerking, sporatic movements, puncuated with a happy scream here and there... Anyone know anything about clinical hyperactivity?

Good Ol' Utah!

For some reason, blogger isn't letting me move the pictures to where I want them, so you'll just have to bear with me on this. I can move the text around but I can't change the order of the pictures, which will make this post weird.
As you might have noticed, we had so much fun in Utah that we didn't have time to blog about it!

My parents and fam were so gracious to make room for our travelling circus for an entire month. Everybody sacrificed time to spend with the kids, to give me a nap here and there, let me sleep in, or just make the kids feel special. Since we were without Daddy for most of the time, I didn't have anybody to remind me to take pictures, so I don't have pictures of everything awesome that we did, but here are some great moments.

Above: the quilt my mom is helping me make for "Apple Dumplin'" (baby number three--Cadence named). It now has some really cute green borders/binding.
Below: Uh, I don't really have a caption for it...except this, "does anybody have a trick to get a three-year-old to stop picking her nose?"

Above: My mom was always coming up with creative ways to entertain the kids. One of the most exciting to Cadence was croquet. The evenings were so perfect for getting outside, and Cadence and Campbell both loved all the evenings spent out in the yard with the family.
Below: Cadence has a personal-hygiene moment with Aunt Mikee.

Above: I celebrated my 27th birthday while we were in Utah with my family. My mom helped Cadence make it a very special and exciting day, and this is the play-doh cake that Cadence made, including real candles! She was so proud of this creation.

Below: Campbell totally cracks herself up. There is no shortage of dress ups at my parents' place.

Above: Spencer got to be around for a week. I love that he takes a moment to play guitar for the kids. Campbell does, too.

Mom and dad recently decided to enhance their marriage.

Above: Grandpa actually let Cadence "drive" the "marriage enhancer"!

Below: I actually let Grandpa take Cadence for a ride in the 2-seater "marriage enhancer" (with a car seat, but still...)

How great is it that we got to see Mamaw and Gramps (Spencer's parents), too, and we didn't even have to go to LA? The girls loved spending time at the cabin with them and Uncle John. Above: hiking with Mamaw and Gramps to Stuart Falls.
Below: Cadence, Campbell, and cousin Zavian (about 18 months) after the two younger ones had gone for a ride behind Grandpa's bike.

Above: Grandpa taking Cadence and Campbell for one of many bike rides.
Below: While Pepper normally enjoys the ride, this setup was unacceptable to Campbell and therefore Pepper, too.

And there you have a little taste of our Utah trip. The girls loved it so much (as did I), although we did miss Daddy. It was especially fun to be there for long enough for them to really foster a long-lasting relationship with my parents and some of my siblings.

Again, thank you to my family who sacrificed a lot of space and time and sanity to let us stay for so long. Thank you especially to my mom, who not only sacrificed all of those things but really put a lot of effort into making each day special and being creative with entertaining the kids. It was really an inspiration to me!

The Utah Hiatus

I tried to do some play on words because, at least according the the way I spelled it, "hiatus" and "Utah" have such similarities.... but I got nothin.

Anyway, it's been a month since I've posted and I'm sure you are all dying to know where in the world we've been! But, as all Mormon-Mom-Bloggers know, you are allowed one "Utah Hiatus" from blogging, and that's what card I'm playing now. We've been in Utah for nearly a month and we will be here until Saturday, unless of course our apartment is not available yet, and then we'll be here for an extra week. So it will be another week or two until I really get back into my blogging groove. If you've been holding your breath, dear loyal readers, I would ask you not to. (Oh, and more importantly, that also means I'm behind on everybody else's blogs. and it's not that I don't care. I'll be back in the blogging community soon!)

But here's a little eye-candy for you in case you really do miss the girls:
One day we just happened to be at the mall with a half-hour to spare before a wedding dinner, and so we thought, hey, wouldn't it be great to get family pics done RIGHT NOW!?! So we went to Sears and didn't pay very much for pictures we didn't stress over very much, and it actually turned out a few keepers. I look at it and see that the girls dresses don't match and that my face could use some more serious making-up, but then I remember I didn't stress about it...ahhh, not a bad idea. Try it some time.

Quote of the Day

Cadence, upon finding herself enjoying her crayons and coloring books a great deal, exclaims:

"Whoa, I am just having a field day with my coloring!"

Where she got this, I know not.

Your Daily Dose of Cadence-isms

You know how you think you'll never forget some of the funny things they say... but then by the time your husband gets home from work you've forgotten? These may not be as funny to you, so deal with it :)

1. "Apparently". Another vocab word she has adopted. One day she used it in almost every sentence. "Uh, Mom, apparently I want a drink." or on the "phone": "Uh, hello, is this the apparently mail carrier .... blah blah".

2. She spends a lot of time pretending to be on the phone and when she is on the phone her conversations reveal so much about what I must sound like to her. It goes something like this: "Uh, hello, Robyn? (or Mamaw, or Audrey's Mom) Uh, hi. Yeah, I uh...you know...it's like the richenshtacken parablonen when I go der with my car cause...uh, yeeeaaah......well, I don't know but--oh! I gotta go!" I especially love it when she stops and listens for a minute and then says, "Oh my gosh--that's bad! That is hilarious! hahaha...." That's usually when she is "talking" to Robyn. But yeah, she totally makes words up and her sentences are constructed in the most random manner you could imagine. I can't even get myself to make up sentences as random as hers are.One day a couple of weeks ago she brought this to me. It's Cadence and Campbell, she said. This was the first time I had seen an attempt at human forms and I was REALLY impressed! I mean, it has been squiggles before this.

3. "But mom, I'm in charge." She loves to say that. Sometimes she'll say it about the books, or lunch, or anything small. She just has a need to be in charge of something. And believe you me, when she thinks she's in charge--move outta the way.

4. "Varely" and "Furger". Varely is her way of saying barely. Whenever she is upset she says, "But m0-0-0-0m, I just VARELY wanted that toy and you took it away!!!" She says it as if it means "really really really really". "Furger" is to say figure. "Mom, I'm just trying to furger out a way to get to the playground."

5. Today I gave her a very firm lecture on not using the strangle-hold to lift her sister from the ground and her response was, "okay mom, I won't ever do that again-never, probably, sometimes." And then a sure nod of her head to seal the deal.

She has recently made a rather welcome switch from constant harrassing of Cam to constant interest in entertaining her. We were at a restaurant and she wanted to sit in a high chair so she could be next to Campbell. We were so shocked at how well they got along that we had to get photo documentation.

6. She watches way too much tv but I love to watch her watch Dora and Diego. She gets really into yelling "backpack!!! BACKPACK!!" and repeating the Spanish words. At the end Dora always asks, "what was your favorite part?" And Cadence always stops and thinks about it and then by the time she answers, Dora cuts her off with, "I liked that, too." But, she has learned to count to 10 in Spanish and out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago she said to Spencer and I, "buenos dias!" She has also learned to play more affectionately with her sister from watching Max and Ruby (adorable) and repeats a lot of the things she learns on Yo Gabba Gabba (weird, but you've got to love when Jack Black makes an appearance), which are often messages about sharing or taking turns or how awesome dancing and music are.

7. She's a pretty good little swimmer. She has absolutely no problem putting her head under water, even without goggles sometimes. As long as she is wearing some sort of floaties or swimvest she can pretty much do whatever she wants and go wherever she wants. We go swimming usually about 3 times a week here in TX.

Well, speaking of, she's up from her nap now, so we're going to go get our suits on and hit Sarah's pool!