The night shift

Last week Mike got his first taste of working nights. And he didn't like it. As it turns out, it's really hard to sleep during the day, every day, because of your bodies' natural rhythms. Consequently, Mike did not get a lot of sleep. The rotation was also stressful because of an unusually high number of patients. It was a vreally long week.

Bailey however, had a totally different perspective. Here is the conversation we had one night:

Bailey: "Is Dad working nights again?"
Me: "Not this week."
Bailey: "Does Calvin's daddy work nights?"
Me: "No, Calvin's daddy isn't a doctor. He's an engineer. He never has to work nights."
Bailey: "I'm so glad my daddy's not an engineer!"
Me: "Why?"
Bailey: "Because then Dad would never work nights!"

I think Bailey loved the night shift because at least Mike was at home. Even if he was just sleeping, I think she liked having him close by.

Avery's Spike

With my recent running class, I've been sporting a lot of pony tails lately. (It's hard to fit in a run every day). This had led Bailey to wearing a lot of pony tails too. Poor Avery didn't want to be left out. One morning, she came up to me with a brush and a hair band, and asked for a pony tail. Well, at two, she still doesn't have a lot of hair, so this is what we came up with:

I absolutely love it! And Avery does too. She calls it her "spikey pony tail." She has gotten a lot compliments on her spike, and I think it's here to stay.

Trunk or Treat

This year, the "big" night of Halloween was the ward Trick of Trunk. Our little Pocohantas' (?) had a blast. Here are a few of my favorite moments from the night:

Avery playing the donut eating game! I think this is too hilarious. Bailey would not even try- she did take a donut off a string to eat, but wasn't up to eating it without hands. Avery didn't even end up eating it after we took it off for her, but it was too funny to see her try. (I tried to convince Mike to join in, but he would only do it if I would do it. I just wanted to laugh at him, not be laughed at, so I declined. Oh well.)

Bailey and Avery both loved the face painting. Can't you see that it her smile?? I am realized surprised that Avery even went for it, being the shy girl that she is. By the end of the night, both girl had butterflies on their faces, and Avery even went back for a bat.

Here is my beautiful family! And here is Avery's new past time:

I love October, and all the fun fall and Halloween activities it brings. I'm sad to see it go!

Carving Pumpkins

One of our favorite traditions is carving our Halloween pumpkins for family home evening. This year was no exception, except that a squirrel or skunk got to our pumpkins before we did.

We didn't let that stop us, and the girls had a great time digging out the pumpkin seeds. Bailey wanted to save a few for her to plant. 

Unfortunately, Bailey remembered that she got to take her shirt off during pumpkin carving last year, so there aren't really that many appropriate pumpkin carving pictures of her. That's a tradition that needs to end... (:

 

The girls picked out what kind of faces they wanted, and for some reason, I got to be the mouth designer. They wanted scary, but I'm not quite sure that's how they turned out. 

However, my favorite, and scariest, moment of the night was when Avery was reaching for a little knife we had on the table (little relative to another knife we had out). Mike immediately jumped on it, and told Avery that knifes were dangerous, and were for mommy and daddy only. Ever the comedian, Avery replied, "But Daddy, that is a baby knife." Oh, the perspective of a two year old. 

In the end, the wildlife won, and the pumpkins ended up a smashed mess, but they were cute while they lasted. Even bitten and smashed, the girls were sad when we put them in the trash. Good thing we'll do it again next year.

Dress Rehearsal

I figured it was finally time to update the blog... so here goes. 

This year, since we decided not to go trick or treating on Sunday, I tried to cram as much Halloween into October as we could. Here are some pictures of my twin Pocahontas princesses at the Disney Store Halloween dress rehearsal:

They were too enthralled with the pile of stuffed animals to actually turn around and let me take a picture.

Avery, once again, wouldn't actually look at the camera... It's amazing we walked out the store without actually buying anything.

And this is Bailey doing the wave so graciously taught her by the Disney Store employee who was leading the parade. She looks just like a princess. (:

Pumpkin Patch

It wouldn't be fall if we didn't go to a pumpkin patch. This year, we went with Bailey's joy school class on a field trip. As with all things school related, Bailey took this very seriously. She asked me if we were going to ride a bus, and why everyone didn't leave at the same time as us. They girls had a great time climbing on pumpkins, playing in a corn box (a sand box full of corn), getting lost in a maze, using a porty potty without me (I don't do porty potties!), and of course, picking out a pumpkin. 

 

 Surprisingly, Avery did get in the corn box, but only for a few minutes.

I wanted to get a cute picture of the girls in front of this beautiful sunflower patch. However, Bailey was off running around with a friend, and Avery would only give me grouchy faces.

 

Our first Waters family attempted campout

On Friday night, we decided to go camping. Bailey has been wanting to go camping forever, so with Mike's last few days off, we found a campsite, got ready and headed out. Online, I had found a site that was by one of the fingerlakes. We were excited for a beautiful view.

But when we got there, this is what we saw:

Our campsite was right next to the lake. A stone's throw away. And I wasn't happy about it. I was really nervous that Bailey or Avery might be get a little too adventurous, or maybe just a little too close. Needless to say, I was extremely diligent about knowing where they were every second. It was a very pretty view, but it was scary, and not the wooded campground we were expecting.

It was, luckily, a very warm September day. However, it was also very windy. Poor Avery was terrified. She could not stand to be in the tent when the wind was blowing. In fact, she was screaming. A lot.

The campsite was also right next to a playground. While we were playing there, we made a terrible discovery on Avery's head. Mike pulled tiny black bug after bug after bug out of  her hair. Yes, we found lice.

It's not exactly what you want to find out when you're planning to sleep all together in a tent where everything will have to treated. But, we decided there was not much we could do about that night, and that we would try to have a fun campout anyway.

When it started to get dark, we made a campfire. We had a great time roasting hot dogs, and marshmallows. It looked like our campout was going to be salvaged.

But then it was bedtime.

Bailey and Avery would not go to sleep. Every time one of them was almost asleep, the other one would wake them up. I threatened ("If you guys don't go to sleep we're going home!" "Nooooooooooo!"). I cajoled ("It's so much fun to sleep in a tent!" "I want to go home!"). And finally, after two and a half hours of this, we packed up and went home.

Unfortunately, I was planning on taking all of our camping pictures in the morning because the sun was in such a terrible place.

These are the only pictures I have of our failed campout. Mike and I decided we would only talk about the fun things we did while we camped, instead of the bad. Maybe next time (if there is a next time) it will be better.

And now we have to deal with lice!!!