Favorite Things Winners 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This year I used the Excel random number generator to find our winners... so if you have a problem you can take it up with =RAND().  Hopefully you can use your items if you won, if not: 'tis the season for re-gifting!  ;-)

Neti Pot

We love the Neti Pot!  Jake and I use it every time we start to get a stuffy nose.  It works the best if you use it while in the shower (just close your eyes and don't watch what comes out of your nose).  It takes a few tries to really get the hang of it.  Jake used to get several sinus infections a year, but I don't think he's had one since we bought our first Neti pot!

Winner: CAROLYN

Dry Erase Crayons 

These crayons are so cool!  You can color on a white board then use a cloth and wipe it off.  For Sacrament Meeting we have used these to color page protectors with coloring pages inside them.  You can use the same coloring pages over and over.  Sometimes we rip the coloring pages from the Friend magazine and put them in page protectors for the girls to use (until they are sick of it!)

Winner: JAMIE B

The Wet Brush

I don't know what it is about this brush but my girls LOVE it.  They went from screaming and crying every night to mostly tolerating the brushing.

Winner: SNORT

Illegal Length Fiber Mascara

I LOVE this mascara.  I use it when I want to feel "fancy".  It contains little fibers that can help your eyelashes look thicker and longer.  Since it's not perfectly even it looks more realistic than false eyelashes.  I usually use my normal mascara first then this one on top, starting in the middleish of the lash - that way the fibers don't poke in my eyeball.

Winner: BERLYN

Fiber Fix 

Jake used this to fix Siena's crib.  It is premade carbon fiber tape that you get wet and wrap around broken things.  When it dries it's super strong!  The best part?  It was created by BYU engineers!

Winner: JIMI LIGHTNING

Everyone else (Kandy, Braxtyn, LL, Hailey, Laura, Christy, Nate B, Mom, Jami, Dad, Ashley, Mom G, Dad G) we love you and thank you for being such awesome Blollowers!  Better luck next year!  ;-)

Also, this year I decided to skip the "top commentor" thing.  Mostly cause I get comments so many different ways now: on the blog, via text, phone calls, and lots of emails.  I just really don't feel like combing through all that data and tallying it up.  But hey, it's my free thing giveaway so I get to make the rules bwahahaha!!!

Here are a few bonus things that we loved in 2015 but decided they would make random/awkward/weird/silly prizes....

Built-in Child Potty Seat

We just bought this two weeks ago and I already love it!  Our toilet seat on our main floor was loose and while we were looking for a replacement Jake came across this.  It's a quality seat and I love the little child seat!!!  It's so sturdy and tucks right inside the lid until you're ready to use it.  And it even has a damper to prevent the lid from slamming down.  Click on the Amazon link and watch the video.

Electric Apple Peeler

My kitchen counter space is precious, but this one earns its place.  It only has one purpose: to peel the skin off apples.  But man, do I love this thing.  When the girls were small, and even sometimes now, the apple peel gets caught in their throats.  This eliminates that problem while making the apple taste sweeter (the skin tastes bitter to me).  We also use this bad boy to peel pears and other fruit.  We've even used it to peel potatoes!

Food: I really like preggie pops, but not the lozenges (they make my mouth feel raw).  They seem to help most on days I'm slightly nauseous.  Sometimes I will use them to hold me over til my Zofran kicks in (dang this morning sickness!  I'm 17 weeks now and it's still lingering around!)  Rainbow Chip Frosting!  It was discontinued, but a FB petition brought it back!  Love those little frosting balls!  Good 2 Grow juice.  The juice isn't anything special, but I love those containers!  We have several characters (I usually cut the plastic label off the bottle).  They are my favorite to use in the diaper bag.  They don't leak and I'm not really worried if we lose one of them.  Plus they are skinny so I can fit many in one pocket.  

E6000.  I do like this glue a lot, but mostly I put this in here for Christy!  ;-)  It really does fix almost anything.  As long as you can wait 3 hours for it to dry, this glue works great - especially on materials/surfaces where super glue fails.  And often I will pick it just so that I have time to work with what I'm gluing instead of having super glue dry before I'm done. 

Random things: Ok to Wake! clock is wonderful.  Scarlett knows she's not allowed to wake me up 'til her clock turns green.  So helpful!  Telestrations is a fun family game.  We've played it with the Seaver clan a few times now and really have enjoyed it!

Google Keep.  It's an app on my phone (sorry iPhone folks) that I can use to make lists, write notes, etc.  The part I love is I can view it on my computer too.  I use it to keep track of random things I need to get at the store, funny things I need to put on the blog, quotes I like, medications I'm taking, ideas for my fave things giveaway, etc.  I love that you can share lists with people via email (even if they don't have the app) and you can both edit a list together.  It's free and really handy!

The girls' fave thing?  Rainbows.  Enough said.

Favorite Things Giveaway 2015!!!

I can't believe it's almost the end of November!  I should have done this post weeks ago, but I am still trying to recover from Halloween (I put together 3 different family costumes this year: Rosie, Skeletons, & Rainbows).  In fact, I just realized that Thanksgiving is THIS week and we still don't have any plans (or food!)

But we still want to thank all of you for being such wonderful Blollowers!  So please leave a comment below if you want to be considered in our annual favorite things giveaway.  

It doesn't matter if you check our blog every morning or if you catch up occasionally, we're just glad you take time to read about our chaotic & sweaty lives!  Everyone is included - so please enter even if you have been blog-stalking us secretly.  ;-)

Please leave a comment on this post if your want to be entered in this year's giveaway.

In case you want to remember our past favorite things... 

• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011

Grammy & Grumple Visit

When my mom first arrived my friend Judy said "you look just like your mom!" then the next Sunday when my dad came with us Judy said "I changed my mind, you look just like your dad!  What an even mix you are between them!"  :-)

This horse only costs one penny to ride!  I only had one penny in my purse but some good Samaritan left a pile next to the machine.

A few weeks before my dad arrived we saw someone drive by in a bright orange shirt and Scarlett yelled "I just saw Grumple!"

After playing outside with the girls my dad told Scarlett "Thanks for riding bikes with me today" to which she replied "my pleasure." haha!

My mom was in the basement playing with the twirls. Siena went upstairs and so my mom told Jaide "we need to go upstairs now." Jaide said "no!" and then a string of "twirlese" that no one but Siena can understand. But my mom gathered that Jaide really didn't want to leave the trampoline. A few seconds later Siena came back down the stairs holding both of their soft puppies ie: "gagas". Apparently they had made plans in their language to jump with their puppies!!!

My parents invented this game in the basement where they called out a color and the girls jumped on the matching color square. They LOVED it! One time I called out "orange" just to see what they would do and Siena ran and jumped into to the orange sled! After that every once in awhile Siena would randomly call out "orange!"

We went to Plymouth Orchards right before they closed one night to get their famous apple cider and cinnamon sugar donuts.  The next day Grammy cut the donuts into pieces for the girls to eat after lunch (or instead of lunch, or for breakfast, she takes that whole "I can spoil them cause I'm the Grammy" thing seriously).  The twirls were not interested, so Scarlett ate them while watching Clifford.  After awhile my mom heard her say to herself, "I've got to take a break from eating donuts."  haha!  At least she's learning self control!

On Sunday....

Siena sat between my parents during the sacrament.  My mom helped her point to the words in the hymn book during the song (while my dad did the same thing with Jaide).  Anyways, later in the meeting she got down and got the hymn book, my mom heard her call it the "singing book" and she climbed back on to the pew, opened the book on her lap and proceeded to sing while she pointed to various notes and words.  At one point her singing was so vigorous that my mom had to ssshhh her!

Scarlett helped my mom pick the twirls up from the nursery.  They walked passed the drinking fountain and Siena walked up to get a drink.  My mom pressed on the handle and water came out, she stood on her toes and said, "Too high." So my mom picked her up and she got a drink.  She's really starting to use her words!!!!  YAY!!!!

The primary took the chapel during 2nd and 3rd hours to practice the primary program.  During YW they brought Scarlett to me - crying.  Because sometimes during primary you get bored so you pretend to be a puppy and you bonk your head and it hurts so you cry and need your mom.

Photo explanations (L-->R)

• The photo on the top left: Scarlett did this a bunch during sacrament meeting - she was like an astronaut lifting off.  At one point she said, "Woo, this is exhausting."
• The next photo shows the twirls watching Lady and the Tramp.  A favorite of mine at that age that Grammy brought.  All 3 girls were entranced by it!  
• Jake and I went on a date to IKEA to get some stuff - we HAD to eat their chocolate cake while we were there!
• Jake took Scarlett on a bike ride, I could hear her crying right before I got a phone call from Jake, Grammy went to rescue her - she was pretty banged up and bleeding.  There was an older kid on some cool hands-free scooter thing that Scarlett was watching as he went past her - instead of looking forward - she lost balance and crashed
• Grammy brought in the tiny table for dinner and a movie
• Snuggles
• Scarlett calls her robe a "thingamadoodle" cause she can never remember what it's called (I think now she just prefers the new name)
• Grammy feeds her puppies
• Siena listens to the baby's heart
• Puppy love
• Looking stylish in her hat

Right before my mom arrived I noticed that Rainbow Dash the fish wasn't eating.  After a few days she just stopped moving.  I could tell she was dying so we talked to Scarlett about the process and that we could get a new fish.  She seemed excited about the idea of picking out a new one - until the actual fish funeral rolled around.  She was pretty upset.  Jake asked if she wanted to say a few words and she said "goodbye Rainbow dash, thank you for being a great fish and for swimming around in your tank and giving me fish kisses." Afterward I told her she was in heaven.  She said "wow! that was fast!  How did she get from the pipes under the house to heaven so fast?  Can she fly now?"

The girls got those sticky hand things you throw against a window.  Well one evening Scarlett accidentally got hers stuck on our vaulted ceiling.  She started crying so the twirls, Grammy, and I came in to see what was wrong.  Jaide immediately started dragging a chair over to aid in her rescue mission, at the same time Siena ran to the top of the stairs and yelled "DAD!"  I love that they both saw Scarlett was in need and immediately went to action.  My dad climbed on top of our dresser and used a hairbrush to get it down - the girls were so ecstatic when he saved the day.

We were all sad when Grammy and Grumple headed back to Utah.  It was so fun to have them here - the girls just adore them!  I think the girls and I had a hard time adjusting to "normal life" there's this mini-depression that happens every time someone goes home.  I think if you live far away from family you experience it more often cause all my friends out here empathize with me.  I miss sleeping in every day and chatting with adults during episodes of Paw Patrol.  The girls miss the constant entertainment and the fun and exciting meals that Grammy made them.  Jake misses my dad taking him out on "manly" errands to Home Depot or Buffalo Wild Wings.  Please come back soon!

HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in July Scarlett told us that she wanted to be a rainbow for Halloween (and she's very particular that it has to have all the proper colors).  I envisioned Jaide and Siena being little leprechauns too.  But as the weeks went by I realized that the twirls LOVE rainbows - probably cause Scarlett does - and they would be disappointed to not get a rainbow costume as well.  I researched and found a rare phenomenon called a "triple rainbow" or "tertiary rainbow" where the light leaving a rainbow enters another raindrop and forms another layer of rainbows.  Each time this occurs the light gets dimmer and the colors reverse order.  A true triple rainbow is actually very rare and often can't be seen until the image goes through post processing.  Cool!  Three rainbows can exist together!  So it was decided: all three girls would be rainbows, I would be a leprechaun and Jake agreed to be the pot of gold.  (side note: we're not trying to be political or make a statement, just supporting our little girls and their love of bright and colorful rainbows!)

I made their costumes out of felt and glue.  I needed a large compass to draw the semi-circles so I tied a string on a marker and used a needle to hold it in place.  See, you really do use math skills in real life! ;-)  I just glued semicircles on top of semicircles instead of cutting out the arcs.  So the fabric gets really thick in the middle, but then you don't have to worry about the colors lining up exactly - much faster!  I made the back semi-circles out of their "name colors" as Scarlett likes to call it (red, yellow & green).  After I made the rainbows I used fabric glitter to coat them in silver sparkles - it also made them stiffer which I liked.  Then I used tulle tied on a ribbon and hand stitched to the bottom to be the cloud.  I knew that the girls would wear them after, so I tried to make everything as robust as I could.  I hand stitched the ribbon for the shoulder straps.  After making these I realized: it might be time to finally buy a sewing machine, haha!

I used Styrofoam, cardboard. glitter fabric, glue and other things to make a tiny leprechaun hat to wear.  I found a green and gold blazer at goodwill for $2.50!  I cut four leaf clovers from glitter paper for the hat and I also taped them onto some earrings I already own.  I love how cute the tiny hat turned out!  Maybe I'll wear it on March 17!  For Jake's costume I found a bag of gold coins at Hob Lob for a few bucks and I hot glued them onto black felt.  Then I glued on a ribbon and it was done!  So easy!  And Jake's favorite costume yet!  He didn't really have to dress up, wear something uncomfortable, or go to any trouble.  Plus his gold coin necklace made him feel like a blinged out rapper!

My parents were here for our ward party on Oct 30.  The YW & YM were in charge of it and since I'm really into Halloween (more than normal, I'm aware) I volunteered and got roped into doing lots for this event.  I drew a diagram to keep track of all our games.  I tried to not do everything myself, but I ended up working on stuff all month . I planned the table centerpieces for the youth to assemble for an activity (something cheap and disposable).  We found lots of fun games on pinterest.  I bought 2 pieces of foam board and painted them for the bean bag toss and the ping pong eye ball bounce.  So much work but so fun!

This is the invitation I made for the event.  I wanted it too look very kid-friendly and upbeat.

We tried to get some nice photos of our family.  Siena would NOT wear her costume so Jake finally just held it in front of her and we got a few photos.  Poor girl gets so nervous/anxious when she's in new situations.  Grammy took Scarlett to the restroom and there were some teenage girls in there waiting.  Scarlett told them "I'm not really a rainbow, I'm just a little girl dressed up as a rainbow."  hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

After dinner we went and played the carnival games.  I think the favorite was the "Treat Trot".  I planned a few toddler games and put them in the nursery room so little kids could have fun but I failed to ask an adult to guard the door and some older kids came in and destroyed my balloon run-through game.  I was so miffed but decided to do as Elsa and "Let it Go."  Then we went outside for the Trunk or Treat.  Jaide and Scarlett climbed in the trunk of Grumple's rental car.  Then we took the girls around to get treats.  Jake and I had to hold the twirls and my arms we killing me!

The next day was actually Halloween.  The girls all love to pretend their scared of ghosts and they ask for Halloween shows all day every day.  But when the actual event came, they were not enjoying it.  Siena wouldn't wear her costume (again) and she made me carry her.  We went next door to our neighbor Don, he said hello to the twirls and used their names - that was too much for Jaide.  She started screaming.  I was NOT feeling well (have I mentioned how my nausea has not gone away?  It's a little better than before but I still have to take Zofran every day).  So I just picked up Jaide and headed back home.  My mom took some great photos that captured their emotion.  It was drizzling outside but Jake and Scarlett did our whole neighborhood.  Luckily she's sweet and didn't mind sharing her candy at all.  Several of my neighbors make little gift bags to give out - like a plastic bag with lots of treats, chips, little stickers, etc.  How kind are they!?  We only got ~20 kids come by that evening.  Too bad most Halloween nights are super cold here.  But luckily we bought candy that we wanted to eat!  So win win!  We sorted through all the candy and put anything with nuts in a bag for Jake to take to work - I named it the "nut sack"  heehee!  For dinner that night Grammy and I made a fruit rainbow to go with our theme!

My parents came adorned in their Bronco gear, but I had a secret accessory for my mom - a Grammy Award tiny hat!  I found the little gramophone at Hob Lob, spray painted a little box, found the sticker letters, and glued on some clips to the bottom.  Bam!  Halloween costume!  I was going to make a tiny hat for my dad, but I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't wear it - no matter how cute it was. ;-)

My mom found this hilarious YouTube video from the Break Womb.  Can you guess what character I relate with the most?  (to see our past Halloween costumes, look here)

Finally, I'm sure you've seen the Peanutize Me characters that people have been posting on FB.  Well one night Jake and I made little versions of our family.  I think Jake's it spot on!

Halloween Anticipation

The girls helped me decorate for Halloween this year.  The twirls had no idea what the figurines were, but by the end of the month they were using these words correctly: Halloween, ghost, pumpkin, scared, mummy, spider, bat, witch, spooked, boo, and yikes.  They LOVED watching the Halloween episodes of Paw Patrol, Blaze, Umi Zoomi, Daniel Tiger, Bubble Guppies, Clifford, Curious George, and others.  They especially all three loved watching Halloween songs on youtube.  I was surprised at how many of the cartoons were gruesome or too scary.  So we mostly watched this Halloween DVD from Super Simple Songs.  I'm glad to see my love for Halloween already transferring to my girls!

I love all my decorations!  I received many as gifts (people know me so well!) and it reminds me of you every time I look at them!  The girls especially loved the window clings.  By the end of the month I was soooo sick of finding them all over the house!  I used orange plastic, translucent file dividers from Target to make little orange covers for our outdoor lights (like I did for Christmas last year).

The girls and I went to Three Cedars Farm and Plymouth Orchard.  One was a ward playgroup and one was a YW Laurel class activity.  The girls loved seeing the animals and playing outside.

Jake and I took the girls to a pumpkin patch one evening.  We carved the big ones for FHE and the girls filled the pumpkins with rocks while I separated the seeds from the yucky mush.  So tedious!  I'm not sure it was worth it but at least they liked them in the end (probably cause they were covered in cinnamon sugar)!

IHOP had a deal where kids eat free and the girls ordered Halloween face pancakes.  They bring out a little bowl with items to decorate the face however you want.  They were in heaven!

During nap time Scarlett made a Halloween art project.  She drew the pumpkins, cut them out, and glued them all on her own.  The only thing I helped her with were the stars.  I was so impressed!  Then twice during October I used orange bell peppers as jack-o-lanters in our dinners.  The stuffed peppers were funny cause the filling spilled out the mouth like they were throwing up!  Pumpkin after my own pregnant heart!

Two and a Half Years Old

Twirls 2.5 Year Checkup

Jaide 

Height: 2 ft 11.25 in (44%)
Weight: 29.0 lbs (54%) 

Siena 

Height: 2 ft 11.25 in (44%)
Weight: 28.8 lbs (51%)

They are doing great.  While Dr. Tosto and I were chatting about the twirls they were crawling around the floor acting like puppies.  They even tried to lick her feet!?!  HAHA!!!  We all had colds that week and Siena developed an ear infection, so she's on an antibiotic for 10 days.

We spoke about the pesky Molluscum that has broke out another round of bumps - I HATE THAT VIRUS!!!!  And now that I'm prego and my immune system is depleted I caught Molluscum from the girls - again!  Ugh!  I will post more about it after we see the dermatologist again.

The other concern is their delayed speech.  Dr. Tosto recommended that we continue working with Early On.  Early On Michigan is a federally funded system of early intervention services for infants and toddlers, birth up to age three, with disabilities and/or delays, and their families.  When Jake and I decided it was time to start trying for child #4 we signed the girls up to be assessed through this program.  We knew they were behind and we were looking for anything to help us catch them up.  At first they sent their assessor lady to work with the girls in our home to see if they are behind.  The assessment was very thorough and comprehensive.  She concluded that they were behind in speech expression, but not reception (they understand us they just can't talk back).  So now she comes to our home once a month til they turn 3 to help us with new goals - she is trained to help us figure out what to work on in what order.  She breaks it down to manageable chunks.  She also works on tips to potty train them and transition to toddler beds.  I told her that I'm not interested in potty training right now, mostly cause it's so much work and I'm still so nauseous.  But we've got lots to work on.  She said it takes 3 months for a change to become permanent before implementing something new.  So we're working now but we want to have things done at least 3 months before the baby comes.  Then the speech therapist comes to our home 3 times during that interval.  She has already come once to help us.  She gave us specific games to play and things to work on.  She also told me that they don't work on speech articulation til after they turn 3 - so I'm trying to focus on just adding vocabulary rather than worrying about if anyone besides me can understand them.  For the first appointment the speech therapist asked me to put together a vocabulary list for the twirls.  I assembled it (organized by our daily routine) and found they know ~50 words.  The therapist laughed and said families with an engineer make the most detailed and best word lists!  haha!

While working with speech we've also been working on adjusting the twirls to nursery.  Previously one of us would stay in there with the twirls.  Mostly cause I just felt bad leaving the leaders with two SCREAMING toddlers.  One time during the closing song of Sacrament meeting Jake told Jaide to clean up so she could go to nursery.  She looked up at him in fear and immediately started screaming!  Poor girls have anxiety about the whole thing.  We finally spoke with the leaders and they told us to just leave them screaming and they would handle it.  Yay!  I was waiting for someone to volunteer.  So for several weeks Jake would put the twirls in Cindy's lap and just leave them screaming in her arms.  But then one day it just stopped.  Within 3 weeks they were running down the hall to the nursery, excited to go play/sing/eat and not worried about us at all!!!

Also, the twirls have been learning new words rapidly.  But more importantly they've started putting together sentences.  Like "Help buckle puppy" and "Dad more water please".  Their quick nursery transition and the rapid speech improvement we feel is a direct blessing to our deciding to have another baby.  Say what you will, but the girls have had such slow progress in these areas until recently.  I feel that it is a tender mercy from Heavenly Father helping us know that we're doing the right thing for our family.

Other Doctor Stuff....

I went to my allergist to check things out with the pregnancy.  Dr. Leo told me "I have no concerns for your asthma right now [looking at all of my girls in his office], I have other concerns for you but they don't have to do with your physical health."  hahah!  He used to work with the LDS church while in med school providing asthma resources in third world countries.  So he likes to tease me about my big Mormon family (but in a respectful way).

I took Scarlett to my latest OBGYN checkup.  They used the heart monitor to listen to the baby (heart rate right on track at ~150).  Dr. Bernardoni then let Scarlett hold the monitor and wiggle it around til she found the baby.  Pretty darn cool!

While at home, Siena used her toy stethoscope on my belly and said "baby" I thought it was totally adorable - and so did Jake, until she went over and did the same thing to his belly!  haha!

Scarlett was playing doctor too.  She took my temperature and told me "You're really hot.  You're going to need to stay in bed all night and not get out to potty.  You're going to need a reeaaalllly big pull up!"  Gee, thanks.

While we were at the Summit for preschool in October I walked passed this wood cabinet full of Canton flyers and advertisements.  I noticed some familiar faces on there - look how little the twirls were:

Random October Fun

Early October we got a large box on our porch. We opened it up and found Jake's telescope that we left behind in Utah (remember the story). We called my parents to thank them for shipping it to us and my dad said "it was cheaper to mail it then to pay for marriage counseling." haha!!! The girls loved the box more than what was in it. At first we had it set up in our living room - like creepy neighbors! A few times when the night's been clear Jake takes it outside so the girls can look at the moon. Scarlett loves outer space!

The girls are usually great at playing together. Jaide can be a little mischievous sometimes and laughs when she causes trouble - like stealing toys. Siena usually likes to snuggle but often gets anxiety when I'm not holding her - even sometimes when we're at home doing nothing. The twirls like to perform new tricks and they will yell "Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY! Moooommmmy!!!" until I give them my undivided attention to watch them perform.

Top Row (L->R): I found the twirls in their room just reading together, I found Jaide playing fireman with a fire hat and saying, "whee whoo!", the girls were supposed to be in their seats when I came outside they were in the front row pretending to be big people, I love these "Forget Princess, I want to be an Engineer" shirts that Aunt Jami found

Middle Row (L->R): Scarlett before a wings b-day pty, Scarlett feeding her baby (and Siena loving it), the girls were loving these boxes - what is it with boxes?, Siena and Jaide are animals on the trampoline now! They love to have their soft puppies aka "gagas" in with them

Bottom Row (L->R): These girls love to snuggle together, the penalty box got transformed into a puppy kennel, just relaxing and acting all cool, Jaide loves to be the first one out of the shower so she can sit alone in our bed and watch the show all by herself

The twirls really look alike.  I know that they are identical, but sometimes it catches me off guard.  Especially when they sound alike - usually I can tell their voices apart but lately they have tricked me more and more.  The most difficult time to tell them apart is when they are running away from you after doing something naughty.  If we can't tell who is running away from us Jake will yell "Siena-Jaide stop that"! (just covering his bases). 

The twirls like to jump in their cribs at bedtime if they're not tired.  One night we heard them yelling something at us - we looked on the camera and could tell something was off.  We went in their room and found Siena's crib had busted!  Jake said he could see old glue like it had been broken before.  Luckily Siena had no problem sleeping in the pack-and-play that night.  Jake found a cool carbon fiber tape to repair it called "Fiber Fix" that was invented by some BYU kids.  It worked great!

I zipped the girls' puppies in their jammies one night and they thought that was the coolest idea ever!

This year I decided not to put Scarlett in the ward preschool group.  The group is mostly 3 year olds and - honestly - I just didn't feel up to teaching while pregnant.  Instead I signed her up for all these little classes at the Summit (our rec center).  First was 2 weeks of a Fairy class, then 2 weeks of Superhero Training, right now it's 3 weeks of STEM.  She will have a science rotation, sport rotation, and I can't remember the others.  She loves it.  My only complaint is that I have to load up the girls, and unload them to drop her off and pick her up for only a 90 min class.  It's not really long enough to do anything at home.  But she's loving it and the ladies are great!  She got "fairy dust" to sprinkle in our lawn to help the fairies come visit.  And in her superhero class she got to do "training" exercises.  They have such cute ideas!  For STEM they did the 3 little pigs and built different structures with different materials.  Then the "big bad wolf" came to test them - it was a hair dryer disguised.

Scarlett was sick so I gave her some meds one night.  She asked "Does it have chemicals that will save the day?"  :-)

Lately I've had trouble sleeping - luckily it's not every night, but often enough to be annoying.  Ah the joys of pregnancy.  Well, you should know that Jake NEVER talks in his sleep.  But one of these sleepless nights I heard him say "Yes mister, popped a wheelie smoke" it was hilarious!  I especially love that he was dreaming about popping a wheelie!  That's my Jakey!!!

Jake is full of fun adventures.  He will play with the girls inside, but he's always looking for ways to get them outdoors.  I found them outside on a bike ride one day when I was driving home.  And Jake sent me this photo of Scarlett on a dirt trail they drove to.  So much fun with dad!

The girls have been wearing their Rosie the Riveter boots to church lately and I just want to eat them up!!  They are so dang cute!!!  Also, I have decided that I am single-handedly going to bring back the Jody dress.  I found my 2 old dresses in my closet and I realized that old lady floral print is back in style, so I've been rocking them.  They are the perfect solution to this awkward "chubby pooch" phase of my pregnancy!

One day in Sacrament Meeting someone read the scripture "though your sins be as scarlet" and Scarlett perked right up "they said my name!"  uh.... well, technically yes... not really what I wish to associate with her name.  But at least we didn't name her Satan or something like that!

My friend Emily is the primary chorister.  Twice she has texted me after church to tell me a story about my girls.  Here are her texts:

"The twirls were absolutely cracking me up today!!! I was passing out our sun sticks for singing Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.  And Jaide got hers and said "pretty!" and then Siena was DYING for one!!! She was yelling PEAS PEAS!!!! Then they led the nursery in a very fun dance-a-thon as we sang.  I was loving life.  They would yell "BEAM" really loud.  You have the cutest kiddos!!!" 

"Today in singing time we practiced our songs for the program.  We also practiced sitting and standing and Scarlett proclaimed "the program is hard!! My legs are tired."  hahaha  And then I told her she could sit down if she wants.  And she says "I just want to sit down and eat a piece of chocolate cake!!!"  hahahaha!!"

Rosie the Riveter Guinness World Record at Willow Run Airport on October 24, 2015

Have you seen that Rosie the Riveter poster from WWII?

"Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military. Rosie the Riveter is commonly used as a symbol of feminism and women's economic power. Use of similar images of women war workers appeared in other countries such as Britain and Australia. Images of women workers were widespread in the media as government posters and commercial advertising was heavily used by the government to encourage women to volunteer for wartime service in factories."

Several weeks ago one of my friends posted that the Willow Run Airport (next to my house) was hosting a Guinness World Record event for the most Rosie the Riveters in one location.  The airport originally held the record with 776 Rosies in 2014, but a group in California beat us with 1,084 Rosies earlier this year.

My mom was flying out for Halloween, so she came a few days earlier so she could join in on the fun!  We spent the weeks leading up to it looking for navy blue clothes, red socks, combat boots, and the official patterned handkerchief.  Jami was an internet rock star and found stuff for my girls!  She was going to come but she decided to have 2 surgeries and several days in the hospital instead - lame!  (j/k Jami please get better soon!  We miss you!!!)

The twirls were NOT enjoying the event.  In fact, several times all 3 of my girls were screaming.  Ugh!  I think that the loud aircraft hangar combine with all the women dressed the same, and not knowing what was going on.  We had to go through 2 outfit checkpoints for the official record.  For the first checkpoint the put a stamp on your arm.  That was just the most offensive thing that they could have ever done to my children.  ALL of my girls started SCREAMING!  I finally had to get permission to use a diaper wipe and remove their stamps.  The next checkpoint they gave us wristbands.  My girls wouldn't wear their headbands and the wrist band was too much to even consider.  The people were so nice and let me just carry their stuff through.

We had almost a two hour wait.  Thankfully Jake brought the red wagon in with all our stuff including lots of snacks.  We put a blanket on the ground outside and ate food.  Siena would scream if I wasn't holding her at all times - and sometimes she screamed even when I was holding her.  It was really exhausting.  My arms hurt for days!  Jaide could be distracted every now and again.  Scarlett was on and off.  She had to go potty and the line was soooo long.  So Jake ran her out to the car and she used one of the twirls' diapers.  Sneaky!

We found a group from church - several of our YW.  Ironically I never found my friend Emily, who was the one who told me about it, but it was soooo crowded!  I love Scarlett got really into posing!

She continued to do her karate moves for several minutes!

Right before the official photo they had the Rosies walk into a roped off area through some turnstyles.  Siena was holding me so tightly!  Thank goodness Jaide let Dede hold her so Grammy could hold Scarlett - otherwise she would have been hidden in the crowd.  We had to be assembled officially for 5 full minutes.  Once they began the timer the organizers had all of us sing the national anthem and a few other patriotic songs.  It was really powerful!  Such a great tribute to the women who stepped up and took care of the nation.  My Grandma Seaver said during that time women still wore dresses everyday but the Rosie the Riveter movement brought female empowerment - and pants - into the mainstream.

The official count was 2,096 women and girls.  And we brought 5 of them!  They had women from 16 states and Canada, including 43 “Original Rosies” from the WWII era.  I found this photo online.  We're on the left, like 5 rows back and maybe 4 people away from the port-a-potty (Scarlett HAD to potty again - I think she has a nervous bladder). 

It takes several weeks for Guinness to release their official photo and publish the record online.  The official photo will be posted here when it is available.  I hope to get a high resolution image so we can zoom in on our group.

Look at these tough ladies!

The event was covered by many news sites:

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/10/rosie_the_riveters_break_world.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/oct/26/two-thousand-rosie-riveters-break-guinness-world-record-willow-run-michigan-video

http://m.clickondetroit.com/news/world-record-for-most-rosie-the-riveters-broken-at-willow-run/36028882#.Viv0mdIjmTU.facebook

http://wincountry.com/news/articles/2015/oct/25/its-a-new-record-for-rosie-the-riveters/