My former post...

I don't know what happened with those pictures in my last WNO post-I swear I uploaded other ones three times and then doubles were in the final product! It was one of THOSE posts, you know-where sometimes it just takes a zillion years between videos, ordering photos, messing up html... Anyway, here are the missing photos belonging to the party portion of WNO.

Radcliffe Halloween Family Home Evening

The Halloween Festivities Continue!
My parents decided they wanted to do a big Halloween FHE to really get into the spirit. We went and had a blast! We carved a pumpkin, watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas," had pigs in a blanket and caramel corn (awesome!,) made candy and played games (cake/candy walk, hot/cold candy search.) The kids had a great time, and I can't wait to do some trick or treating this weekend!
Lisie blowing spit bubbles!


The candy we made. (I can't exaggerate how difficult it was to get this picture...)

The cake/candy walk.

Witches Night Out x2

It's time for the annual Halloween festivities to begin! This is a big holiday for my in-laws, and recently, my family uses any excuse to get together, so we've already had lots of Halloween festivities with more to come!

Here's the first-Witches Night Out, the party thrown by my mother-in-law. There's always TONS of food, a craft and lots of picture spots. We had a great time this year! (Amie was super jealous when we all left my house looking like witches. So cute!)









Then, there's Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. This is again instigated by my in-laws, but my mom and Mallory came with this year. We were afraid the rain would put the kibosh on our outdoor shenanigans, but it worked out perfectly! Our huge group of 50ish went to eat at Mimi's this year-one of my favorite places, but NOT equipped for a large group. Dinner took us well over 2 hours (though mine was AMAZing,) and by the time we got to GV, we had missed all the raffles and stuff. We had about 45 minutes of dance time. Amelie was scared at first (she wanted everyone to take their hats and make up off) but eventually got into it, and then she was a sweet dancing machine! She was SO cute, everyone that walked by thought she was the most adorable thing they ever saw, and our crew took lots of pictures of her. She lights up my life. :)




All the matching witches!


Adoring adults.

Sleepy witchy.



They were NOT cooperating!



Yes, that pumpkin fell right after this shot.

Amelie's 2nd birthday!

Sometime just a few weeks before Amelie's birthday, the idea of birthdays was introduced to her (I don't know where!) and so it was really fun to throw her party, since she would go around saying Happy Birthday! all 2 weeks, or even singing the song. I wanted Amelie's birthday party to be original, but fun for all different ages (and just something besides princesses before she starts asking for it.) We went with a POP! theme for her party this year, and I think it was pretty successful. We had POPcorn, chocolate POPcorn, soda POP, mini POPsicles, and of course, a cake (and cupcakes.) All the invitations had a big bubble wrap bubble on them, just waiting to be POPped. For activities, we had probably a hundred square sheets of bubble wrap for the POPping, POPpers, a bubble machine, and a kiddie pool filled with balloons for POPping, cause they were full of lolliPOPs. Favors were a little soda POP shaped bottle of bubbles.






The kids seemed to have lots of fun popping everything in sight, and I know Amie had a blast. She got some great presents-she loves EVERY one of them! Thanks everyone! We had a good showing of family and a few friends.














I made her cake, of course. It wasn't too adventuresome, but it fit the theme well and I was very happy with it. And it tasted great! (we went with dots of cupcakes cause I knew the cake wouldn't be enough. Good thing, too-we only had a few left over!)




Grandma made her a Barbie cake at Sunday dinner-she was incredibly sad and mad when we tried to cut her!! Finally she consented if SHE could do the massacring... and a massacre it was.



Since her party was a few days early, we ended up spending a kid day out on Monday, her actual birthday. She requested McDonald's for lunch (with LOTS of time on the playplace.) Aunt Mal came and played with her too (she was getting my mom's keys we accidentally took-too bad she didn't bring my camera I left there-I have NO pictures of this day!) After lunch, we went to Discovery Gateway and Amie had a blast! Lisie even loved it (until it got to be well past naptime.) We also got a parking ticket there-we parked on the curb where our car was partially past the parking/no parking boundary. How lame is that? No, Jeff does not have any influence on making tickets go away...

The next day was her doctor check up. She grew 3 inches since her last visit! She's now right around the middle/low middle for height and weight, and they no longer measure (her giant) head. She's trucking right along, and our doc said she's ahead in speech. She's a dancing superstar!!

Now, here's the obligatory parental statement. It astounds me that I have a two year old! It has flown by, and I think that I will finally get used to the idea of being a parent right about the time I am gonna be a grandparent. My little lovie has brought so much joy and color into my life, I couldn't ask for a better little girl!

General Conference

General Conference is totally my very favorite. I've always watched as many sessions as I possibly could, (a fewyears ago I had to work, I even snuck into the office and listened by internet broadcast to hear who the new apostle was...) When I lived with Mal, we would do something different for every session-attend one, watch at the building, with friends, at home, and our favorite-on a blanket at the park with a stereo and lunch. Anyway, it's been difficult for me lately to really get to focus on Conference, because of my beautiful, short-attention-spanned, energetic, demanding little girls. I was very lucky this weekend to be able to be with lots of family who helped spread the load and got to really listen to most of it. (Thanks SO much families-I always appreciate the help you give loving my little girlies!) Here are just a few of the messages that really stuck out for me and my family unit.

-Slow Down! Simplify! Jeff and I had some very specific questions that were neatly and strongly answered with this idea.
-How to bring the Spirit into the home more. I have had a very difficult time setting any kind of schedule for scriptures, prayers, even FHE sometimes, with the schedules of babies, graveyard shift dad, and completely erratic shift mom. There were lots of suggestions.
-Finally, follow the prophet. Did you not hear this in almost every single talk? Jeff and I debated about whether something tough may be coming soon, or if just too little people actually put their trust in the prophet. Anyway, I firmly vow to listen to all he has to say. (Sidenote: I adore President Monson!)

That is all. Carry on. :)