Mr Tatohead

Delphia loves her Mr Tatohead and it kept her entertained while I made bread this morning. I happened to just watch her for a second as she was trying intently to give it two pairs of eyes and get the hat to stay on. I was suggesting all kinds of things to do while I made bread but she decided on her Mr Tatohead.

This picture cracks me up! I think shne looks like the Potatohead that she created!

Freeman Halloween Party

Grandma Freeman hosted the annual Halloween Party this last Sunday and Delphia had a ball! We weren't sure that she would even wear her costume though for a month she has been telling us she wanted to be a kitty. We couldn't figure out why, but it finally clicked that on Dora's Halloween Dora is a kitty. When we got her ready before the party at home she was actually really willing to put it on and kept it on till after pictures when the other kids were taking theirs off.

This is her at home before her cat face had been put on!

Kaylea as a mermaid....

Trevan as a ninja....

Brisa as a vampire....

Ryan as Batman...

and Delphia as a kitty. The dogs weren't quite sure what to think of her and neither were the cats when we were coming up the front stairs.She just leaned over and pet the kitty and said, "Hi kitty!"

From back left: Haley, Annie, Anita, Amanda and Lucy.

From front left: Delphia, Ryan, Brisa, Trevan and Kaylea

After dinner the played bingo and Grandma had fun prizes for them. Delphia's favorite was the pumpkin lantern. She didn't want anything to do with the fake pink plastic teeth. The other kids thought they were really cool but Delphia said they scared her.

Glowsticks....

My mom hosted a Halloween party last Friday but it kinda turned into a flop because 7 people that were supposed to be coming got sick. Mark and Riley came down with Swine Flu and Ruby had a runny nose and was coughing. We still had fun and the girls had fun monster bowling andplaying memory. I think the highlight of the night however was when they were given glowsticks as a prize. They had a ball running around in their pajamas in the dark and spinning them around. Todd nd Phillip evn tried to see how fast they could rotate their arms around while holding the glowsticks. All in all it was a fun night, just more casual than originally planned!

Glasses Grandpa?

Delphia was taught at a very early age that it is not okay to play with glasses or pull them off peoples face. After telling her no when she was younger it hasn't been an issue. Well Grandpa ook always takes his glasses off and leaves them places. Last week she was standing by my mom in her room and said, "Grandma" and when my mom looked at her she had Grandpas glasses on her face. All the be caeful teaching with glasses paid off because they were in one piece and she was careful with them. When we showed grandpa he didn't even remember where he had left them.

Don't Break the Ice!

I have decided that Delphia is my little game/puzzle bug. She loves to do puzzles at grandma's house even though they are hard for her. I tell her to look for a certain piece and help her find where it goes. Pretty soon she will e able to do them herself. She also loves games be it Duck, Duck Goose, Red Light, Green Light, Ring Around the Rosie, Hide and Seek, Kerplunk or in last Thursdays case Don't Break the Ice. We pulled it out at Grandma's and she helped from putting the ice cubes in the tray to setting the skater on top. She even did pretty good attaking turns with her Daddy! It was funny because she would start to hit one ice cube out and then change her mind and it another one out. She wanted to play again and again and cried when it had to be put away!

Following the Leader

Delphia learned the song Following the Leader from somewhere and she loves to lines thing up and sing that song. It doesn't matter if it is farm animals her 3 little pigs or books. Apparently anything can follow a leader. When she lines her animals up they all take turns following each other and it can entertain hr for a long time. The other day she had her farm in my craft room with all the animals and later on we couldn't find the animals. We finally found them shut in my closet all lined up in a line. Tonight she had her Winnie-the-Pooh books lined up and was walking across the top and telling Shane to follow her!


I asked if I could take a picture and she started to whine and cry. The only way I got a happy picture was to take it while she was walking across the books!

Making Pumpkin Spice and Chocolate Caramel Corn

I ran across this recipe this morning on Picky Palate and decided that Delphia and I would make it together this afternoon.

Pumpkin Spice and Chocolate Caramel Corn

Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn
1 3.3oz bag Kettle Corn popcorn, popped and all un-popped kernels removed
1 Cup dry roasted peanuts

2 Cups unwrapped pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses (I find them at Target), (If you cannot find the kisses, substitute 1 Cup of butterscotch chips)

6 Tablespoons butter

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar

1/3 Cup corn syrup

¼ teaspoon salt
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place popped popcorn and peanuts onto a large rimmed baking sheet that has been sprayed lightly with non stick cooking spray.
2. Place kisses, butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture comes to a light boil. Remove from heat and pour evenly over popcorn and nuts. Gently stir to coat mixture over popcorn. Bake in oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
3. Remove from oven and pour onto parchment paper to cool. Break into pieces and serve. Enjoy!

Chocolate Caramel Corn
1 3.3oz bag Kettle Corn popcorn, popped and all un-popped kernels removed

1 Cup dry roasted peanuts

1 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips

6 Tablespoons butter

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar

1/3 Cup corn syrup

¼ teaspoon salt
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place popped popcorn and peanuts onto a large rimmed baking sheet that has been sprayed lightly with non stick cooking spray.
2. Place chocolate chips, butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture comes to a light boil. Remove from heat and pour evenly over popcorn and nuts. Gently stir to coat mixture over popcorn. Bake in oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
3. Remove from oven and pour onto parchment paper to cool. Break into pieces and serve. Enjoy!

First we popped the popcorn, after telling Delphia not to eat the hard kernels! She kept singing, "popcorn, popcorn" the whole time the popcorn was popping.

She helped unwrap the hershey kisses. I am betting she opened 10 and ate about 7 or 8. She loves the pumpkin spice hershey kisses! She helped me dump the corn syrup and the brown sugar and watched me cook it on the stove.

Then we had to bake it in the oven and this is the finished product. While we were making it Phia wanted to take some to Pat and Kayla so we walked some over to their houses. She was so excited to give it to them at the door and kinda tell them she made it. When they said thank you she even said, "you welcome!" It was wonderful seeing her happy to share and give to others!

Muffin Helper

Delphia is my kitchen helper. She always tells me that she is going to push a chair over. The problem is she doesn't just want to watch, she wants to help. Sometimes it is hard for me to let her help because it is messier and takes longer, but she gets so much enjoyment out of it that it's hard to tell her no. She loves to put muffin liners in the muffin pan so when we made muffins Tuesday bight that it what she helped me with.

Coal?

Delphia loves stuffed animals and she chooses them herself. She has tons of stuffed animals but only a few really mean something to her. I have postd about her teddy bear and how he was sitting on her dresser and when she was about 6 months old she wanted him and has loved him ever since. Mind you it's not the teddy bar in this picture. The real teddy bear had to be retired and replaced with a new one (from the stash downstairs), but she loves him just as much.

The monkey was given to her by Todd, Meg and Chloe after her leg/hip surgery in March. She didn't really care a lot about him at first but after a few month he was added to the animal list of favorites.

Next came kitty who she got from Barbara Crebs, my parents next door neighbor. My dad took her over to visit one afternoon (about a month or so ago) and they gave her some toys to play with. When she left she wanted to take a stuffed animal with her but they told her she couldn't take the one she wanted because it was their granddaughters, so they told her she could take kitty home.

On Saturday we added a new member to our animal buddies. She was playing downstairs and found Coal in the cupboard. She dragged him around off and on through the day, napped with him and when it was time to go home wanted him. I had gathered up all her animals but she wanted to make sure I had them all. When she went into the room and saw Coal she couldn't believe we didn't grab him. Cole came home with us that night for a sleepover. On Monday in the car she was holding him and her other 3 stuffed animals and kept rubbing her face against him and saying,"I love you. I love you Coal. I so happy to see you." She had become attatched. Shane hid him from her at Grandmas on Monday hoping she would forget. However come naptime she asked, "Where Coal? He sleep here." I had to call Shane to ask where he had hidden him. She was having a fit until we got Coal. He came home with us Monday and Shane kept asking if se had all her animals at bedtime and she kept saying no but she couldn't name who was missing. All the way home she had kept elling us to go back to Grandmas. The only thing I could figure was that she thought we had lost Coal. Shane brought him in and gave him to her and she hugged him and sain, "I'm so happy to see you Coal.

Witch Lift Skirt

Yesterday aftenoon we decided to take Delphia over to Gardner Historic Village to see the witches that they put out for Halloween every year. Phia was excited from the time we got her in the car. She was talking all about the witches and feeding the ducks! Grandma had brought tbread to feed the ducks (one of Phia's favorite things.) We saw lots of pumpkins and I thought they looked so cute on the hay bales.

You will have to ignore the sucker in the pictures. I bought it for her on Tuesday and then stuck it in a cup in Grandmas car when we went to lunch. When Grandma went to put the carseat in on Saturday Delphia saw it and wanted to eat it.

We saw a witch using the potty.....

Witches making waffles (according to Phia)....

A beautiful witch......

And an ugly witch....

Phia and Grandma posing by a witch....

Phia's favorite witch by far was this witch....

When we were walking to the car I asked her which witch was her favorite and she said some words with witch that I didn't quite understand. Grandma and I were trying to guess which one when she decided to show us by lifting her shirt and saying lift dress. All of the sudden we understood what she was telling us, she liked the witch lifting her skirt. We asked her what was under the skirt and she said a kitty. When we got to the car we asked what the kitty was chasing under the witches skirt. She told us the eensy-bintsy spider. We corrected her and told her it was a mouse. Later that night when I was telling Shane what she had said and she said, "No mama, it a mouse!" She cracks me up!

In other funny Phia tidbits is a new word that she learned. I had been talking to Shane and he was telling me that it was stupid because he as selling holiday stamps at Costco and they weren't even forever stamps. I got off the phone and was telling my mom and Phia said, "Stupid." I told her that it's not a nice word and we don't say that word. Grandma was laughing and so Phia continued on saying, "Mama stupid." My mom was really laughing by this point and Phia was saying, "I funny," while I was trying to convince her that stupid was not a nice word. I told my mom that sometimes I don't realize how closely she listens. She was sitting on the chair doing a puzzle and looked over at us and said, "I listen." What a girl!

Fall Crafty!

My mom and I saw this made up at Pebbles on Tuesday so we decided to make it when we all got together on Thursday. They had it in a kit but we made our own kit and chose our own papers! I can't wait to put it up this November! Phia tells me they are building blocks, but I told her that I better not catch her building with them!

Sugar Cookie Fun!

If you know me you should know that I love suagr cookies! They are really my favorite sugary thing! I found some cute halloween cutters at Geegee's on Tuesday along with some cute sprinkles. I decided that we were going to make sugar cookies on Wednesday since it was Shanes day off. Howevere, I woke up and decided I needed a haircut and had to go to the library for an idea and by the time that was all done it was around 5 that night. Delphia was exhausted and falling asleep in her tracks at the dinner table. I however wated to make cookies and the dough was all ready in the fridge. I had been telling Phiaall day that she could help so I didn't feel like I could cancel the whole thing. We got her in her pj's and went for it and she was very happy the whole time and not acting at all tired. I really think she enjoyed doing this activity with Shane and I.

First we showed her how to cut with the cookie cutters which she loved. She got a little excited a couple times and cut a cookie out of the middle of the dough before Shane or I could get it placed where it needed to be.

Then she saw how we poked itout of the cookie cutter onto our hand and she had to be a part of this. I was just going todo it, but after 6 or so cookies she took over and would hold it on her hand and give it to Shane to put on the cookie sheet.

She then wanted to work on her rolling technique so she rolled the last couple cookies out towards the end. She helped flour the pastry mat at clapped her hands to get the flour off.

It was then time to bake and decorate and eat. She loved the decorating part! I frosted the cookies and she then chose the sprinkles she wanted and shook them onto the cookie. She loved the big sprinkles and kept picking them off and saying, "yum!"

She had a ball and was such a good helper we will probably do it a couple more times this year! She was funny though because she wouldn't eat the cookie dough out of the bowl but one time there was a piece from a cookie being cut out and she shoved the whole thing into her mouth. If you ask her how to make cookies she will show you how to roll and shake sprinkles!

We decorated six for Ashley and her family and when Ashley left our house with them Phia was very upset saying that Ashley took her cookies and was crying. We had to show her the cookies in the freezer so that she would calm down and see that we had more cookies. When she saw the other cookies she stopped crying and just said, "Oh."

Pumpkins Finally!

About the middle of September I saw a paper plate covered in torn red constuction paper with a leaf and a stem. It was a cute little apple and I kept thinking how much fun Phia would have making one. Well, it never got done and pretty soon it was October so I decided we would make a pumpkin in the same manner. It has gotten put off a couple times but Delphia knew right where it was last night when I told her we were going to make it. She got right on the couch and up the the barrish area and got herself the pipe cleaners and was ready to go!

She tore the paper after I tore it into strips, she drizzled glue onto the plate, stuck almost all the orange squares on, helped e glue the stem on and lent me a finger to curl her vine. She was very proud of it so we hung it on the fridge!

Dora Snacks?

Delphia loves Dora fruit snacks. We bought her a box when we had run out of the kind we get from Costco. She lovd them! So, since I want to get her potty trained I bought 4 boxes and told her she could have 1 each time she used her potty. She has given it a few attempts but has yet to do more than sit there for 5-10 minutes. She tells us she wants to go potty for a Dora snack. Yesterday Shane was vaccuming the stairs and she said, "Mom monkey needs snack." I asked her what kind of snacks a monkey eats and she told me, "Dora snack!" I told her that monkeys didn't eat Dora snacks and monkeys don't use the potty. She went and grabbed monkey and took him out of the room and came back to get me a minutes later telling me that monkey had gone potty so he got a Dora snack. I walked into the kitchen to find this......



I couldn't help but laugh at her trying to get monkey a Dora snack, thinking he would share with her I am sure. W had to explain to her that she has to use the potty for a Dora snack and when she uses the potty she can share her snack with monkey, bear and kitty.

Little Helper

Delphia loves to help unload the dishwasher and she is really pretty good at it. I never would have thought she was old enough to sort the silverware but Shane stood her on a chair and let her have at it. She sometimes gets the big forks with the small forks and the big spoons with the small spoons. Sometimes if we are watching her she teases us and put them in the wrong place on purpose and then says, "No" and moves it.

New Dress for Fall

Shane and I went to Material Girls the other night and saw this darling dress. I decided I wanted to make it for Delphia but they didn't have the pattern. I already have the pattern at home I just didn't know how much fabric to buy. The pattern goes from 6 months to 6 or 7T. Shane stopped Monday night and got the fabric, but when I went to sew it on Saturday I didn't have enough. The pattern said I needed 1/4 yd but there was no way that was enough! We ran to Salt Lake and got another 1/4 yd of fabric. I think it looks darling on her! I need to hem the bottom still. I am planning on doing that today some time.

She was having fun getting it off and kept telling me she wanted to do it herself. She got it like this over her head and just smiled at me and laughed! What a girl I have!

Rock With the Animals

Yeserday after Conference I heard Phia in her room telling Monkey no and something about falling off. I went into her room to find her trying to fit monkey, bear and kitty on her rocking giraffe and then trying to fit herself on there as well. I helped her but she ended up sitting on kitty and monkey was falling off. Shane came to the rescue though and managed to get all 4 of them on the rocking giraffe. She then wanted him to sit and watch her rock with her animals.