Halloween Fun!

Sam and I had the chance the other day to go to Gardner Village and meet Brent's mom and two siblings for some Halloween fun. The village was all decked out for Halloween. They have witch-themed displays all around. One of my favorites was the witches playing baseball. Another fun thing was they had face painting. I look forward to when Sammi is old enough to wait in the line for that! The faces I saw looked great, very professional work. Sam had fun trotting around the sidewalks and looking in some of the shops. She and Grandma had a very cute interaction over some Christmas tree bird ornaments! But, her favorite part of the day was chasing the ducks. Maren helped her be safe around the water. Sammi loved the ducks and wanted to get right close to them. If they came up out of the water she would hurry over to where they were and end up chasing them back into the water. I don't know if the ducks thought it was as great a game as Sammi did, but she sure enjoyed it.

First Haircut!

Well, Sammi reached a milestone yesterday--her first haircut! First, we needed some "pre" photos which come from her bath that morning. I especially love the crazy-wild hair because you can see how long it is.


I was worried about how she'd respond to Amy touching her hair and cutting it. Sammi pulls away and shakes her head like crazy whenever I touch her hair!

But, as luck would have it, she was a perfect angel.

As you can tell from the pictures, she quite enjoyed it...and was able to catch up on her magazine reading!

Daylight Saving(s) Time

So, I've been very curious about when on earth we change the clocks this year. I've looked at the month of October on every calendar I own and haven't been able to locate the date. So, at long last, I had the brilliant idea today to look it up online. I came across a very cool site listing the dates and why they are different this year from the past.

To recap:
The dates for 2007 are as follows

• March 11
• November 4

Unless you are in the EU and then it's

• March 25
• October 28

The reason it's different this year is the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which, apparently, changed the dates for this year and the Department of Energy will report the impact on energy usage and then a decision will be made whether to maintain the current system (2nd Sunday in March, 1st Sunday in November) or revert to the 2005 schedule (1st Sunday in April, last Sunday in October). We'll have to see what happens next year. Although given the speed at which research is completed and reported, it'll probably be several years before we know the impact and a final decision is made!

The real reason why I found this site so interesting was the section on "Spelling and grammar" related to the custom. I have always said Daylight Savings Time and am shocked to learn it is actually Daylight Saving Time (minus the "s" on Saving). The argument for this is quite reasonable and I suggest taking a look at it.

Graham Crakcer Crust

I just learned the coolest trick yesterday about graham cracker crusts. If you bake them, they don't fall apart! I was surprised that it worked so well. I tried a new recipe, too and it was delicious. So, for all you who love pies with graham cracker crusts, here goes!

11 whole graham crackers (I only used 10-a whole package)
5 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
3 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Turn graham crackers into crumbs (food processor or rolling pin.) Combine crumbs, butter, oats, brown sugar, vanilla and salt and stir until crumbs are moistened. Press mixture into evenly across 9-in pie plate. Bake in oven at 350 until crisp, about 7 minutes. Let cool completely before filling. Crust may also be wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen up to one month.

We had a banana cream pie and I wish I had a picture. It was a very pretty pie! It was pretty delicious, too. I really like the oats in the crust.

Motherhood (After hours)

So, I'm sure you are all wondering just what it is that I do after Sammi has gone to bed. As many of you know, Brent and I stay up quite late. So the question is just what do we spend our time doing? This last week and some it's been a puzzle. We were inspired by the puzzle Brent's family did during conference and thought we'd give it a go. We bought a puzzle depicting Philadelphia with 1000 pieces. We spent most nights this last week working on it. I'm quite pleased that we finished it so quickly.

As we started the puzzle it was so hard for me to make heads or tails of any of the pieces. We started by pulling out the edges and putting that together first. The more we looked at the picture to match up the pieces for the edge, the more familiar my eyes became with the shapes and colors of the puzzle. Then we moved to putting together the most prominent and distinct buildings and then finally moved to the smaller pieces. At the beginning I didn't think I'd ever see where the pieces fit for all the little houses and trees and boats, but by the time we got to that part of the puzzle, I was ready to see them and could easily place the pieces.

I feel like this puzzle was a great exercise in creativity for me. It opened my mind to patterns and colors that moved beyond the shapes of individual buildings. I think we may have to get our hands on some more puzzles...

Pigtails

Well, today marks a milestone in hairstyles. Sammi had her first true pigtails! From the front she doesn't appear to have any hair at all! But from the side, she's just cute as a button. Sammi is enjoying spending church in the nursery. She is playing well with the other children and learning the songs. I wish I could be there, but Brent says it's fun--more fun than trying to keep her quiet and happy in the "grown up" classes. Next week is the Primary program so Brent will have to negotiate Sam for all three hours! I hope it's not too bad. Since she loves kids and kids' voices so much, I'm hoping sacrament meeting will be much more entertaining for her.

Halloween Costume Possibilities

We've been planning Sam's costume for Halloween (not that I know where she'll where it!) but the other day it took a dramatic twist! She has discovered this adorable tutu that came from lilyannaforgirls.com (a company owned by our friend's sister) and has fallen in love with wearing it. On this particular day she was gracefully moving through the house in her tutu when she discovered the hat to her clown costume. Since she loves hats, she immediately wanted to wear it: a new costume was born!

Originally Sam was going to be a rodeo clown and I think she will still be. But this little concoction of an outfit, I think, is just adorable.

15 Months!

Sam is 15 months old now! She has 14 teeth and a scrape on her forehead. She has entered a new phase where her solution to everything is to cry. This is quite a bit more trying on my patience. The upside of this is that when she is happy, she is so animatedly happy. She seems to have fun playing with the kids she already knows, but is having a harder time getting used to new kids. I hope that doesn't last long. There are so many nice and cute kids at the library's story time but today she wasn't that happy about any of them sitting by her or wanting the book next to her! Fortunately kids have short memories and everything is okay in the end.

In other Sammi news, she has a bazillion words and uses them all to communicate her thoughts and wants. It's fun to finally get a glimpse into what she thinks about. She loves to be outside and frequently requests it by name. She also loves the bubble (especially since outside is a part of the bubble experience) and asks for "bubble." She's starting to differentiate between mom and grandma with "mommy" and "'nma" thanks to her wonderful grandmas. She still loves to play ball--especially basketball when Brent picks her up and she gets to make a basket. She never misses!

I can't believe how much she has grown, changed and learned over the last few months and especially since she was born. I can see why these are called the formative years because they form so much of their understanding of the world and how it works! It's a joy to be a mom and to have Sam as my daughter!