Jared's home, and Scottish visitors

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10/13:  I finally cooked some of the spaghetti squash from our garden. The girls loved it.

Avery eating a frozen grape. She didn't want to hold it in her fingers 'cause it was to cold:

The twins are each sleeping in the other's bed, which is hilarious because, just a couple of months ago, they would FREAK OUT if we even started putting them in the wrong bed.

10/14:  I shot these videos on my phone of the girls telling stories.  In the first one, Makenna got mad because she wanted to be able to see herself in the phone, like she can when we Skype Jared.  So I had to switch the video mode to self-portrait and start another video of her, ha ha.  Little stinker.  You won't be able to understand most of what Avery says but it is ultra-cute!  She gets really excited and just kind of chatters when she tells stories.


10/15: Makenna just told me I need to clean the kitchen HA HA!

I just stepped weird or something and said, "Ouch, that hurt my ankle!" and Avery said, "Just relax, Mommy, and I'll rub your tummy." So funny and sweet. [Can you tell I rub her tummy a lot because she has tummy issues?] 

10/16:  Jared got home from a trip late last night. The girls got to wear their Halloween costumes this morning to the Halloween Mommy & Me story time at the library; they loved dressing up. Then we went to Petco, where they loved seeing all the fish, rodents, and reptiles, after which we all enjoyed lunch at Culver's. Yum! To top off a great day, I got my weekly massage and now I'm scrapbooking while Jared tends to the girls. Now if only I could get him to take care of dinner, too, ha ha!

[I don't want to post the pics I took of them in their costumes yet because I still want to tweak them a bit and the orange tights for Makenna's costume just arrived in the mail yesterday--it will look MUCH better with the tights.  So you'll have to wait until after Halloween to see their costumes.  :) ]

10/18:  Driving to see a cousin today. She's so funny with her blankie on her head, mittens on (it's not cold), and holding a bearded dragon toy.

We stopped by Jared's co. corporate office in SLC, stopped to eat lunch at Chick-fil-A, then headed to my SIL's house to visit our 5yo niece, who just had surgery on her leg again.  We brought her a card and some treats and played a game of cards with her.

Eating ice cream at Chick-fil-A:

 I got this video of Avery "sucking her tongue" in the car, which is what she does when she is tired and/or relaxing.  How cute is that??

That night, I went to the church for my ward Relief Society craft weekend.  I made a "BOO" banner, a Halloween decorative plate, and a Christmas decorative plate.

10/19:  I went to the church at 9am for the rest of the RS craft weekend.  I made a Halloween wreath.  I'll take pics of everything later and post them next week.  I think it all came out really cute.  And it was fun to craft with other ladies.  I went straight from the church to the grocery store to get stuff to make jambalaya for a couple from Jason's mission in Scotland.  They are here visiting their son, who lives here in Lehi.  They came over for dinner that evening.  I had to concentrate really hard to understand what they said, ha ha.  It was a really nice evening and my MIL brought Jared's favorite dessert, Black Magic, which we will brag about to Jason.  :D

 

 

 

 

As soon as they left, I watched the last couple of minutes of the LSU game.  They lost to Ole Miss (unranked, we were #6) by a field goal in the last 6 seconds!!  SO heart-breaking!!!  I still love my Tigers, though.  We went down to #13 so now I'm just hoping to beat Bama in a couple of weeks and at least climb back into the top 10 again.

It was nice to have regular church again.  We had General Conference, then Stake Conference the week after that, so it's been three weeks since we've met as just a ward.  I missed my nursery kids (most of them, anyway, ha ha!).  I'm not sure what wore the girls out today but Avery told us she wanted to go to bed at 7:40 and Makenna just went right along with it.  It is usually at least 8:30 or later before we actually get them into bed.  I just hope they don't wake up earlier than normal in the morning!

Well, that's last week in a nutshell.  Hopefully, we'll be able to make it to the pumpkin patch and the indoor swimming pool this week and Jared won't have to leave until next week.  Have a great week, y'all!

October Sunday #2

10/8:

*The twins have started this new thing in the morning where they leave their room and come into my room quietly and whisper for a while if I am still in bed. I wish they would be that quiet at church! This morning, they climbed into my cedar chest, after taking all the pillows out.

*I'm still laughing over something Avery did the other day. She and Makenna were running around the house eating apples and playing together but Makenna started aggravating her. She ran from the living room, with apple in hand, into the kitchen, yelling, "That's not FUNNYYYYYYYYY!!!!!" with the most hilarious angry expression on her face. Ashleigh and I were laughing to the point of tears. I SO wish I could have gotten that on video!

10/9:
*I actually broke out some mallets and played my marimba for a few minutes while the girls finished eating dinner. Makenna then had to try playing with four mallets like mommy does. :)

*Avery just colored a picture and I asked her if she wanted me to hang it on the fridge. She said, "It's not for you, it's for Kiki!" OK, then! 

10/10:
* Avery climbed into my bed this morning and started singing at the top of her lungs--an original song (my little singer/songwriter). No matter how tired I am, that's a good way to wake up. 

*"It's a dinosaur bat, Mommy!" [Pterodactyl]

*I made the mistake of telling the girls yesterday when we were at Hobby Lobby that we were shopping for stuff to make their Halloween costumes. Makenna has asked for her costume about 100 times since then.

*Makenna just came in my scrapbook room to see me working on one of the costumes. She ran a gave me a really tight hug.  

10/11:
*The girls and I went with Kiki, Carma, and Wy-wy to Jump On It.  It's an indoor trampoline park.  There are a couple of inflatable bounce houses/slides that Makenna loved and tons of trampolines that Avery preferred (of course, they couldn't like the same thing, ha ha!).  They loved it and especially loved playing with cousins.  Avery was so excited at one point that Carma was going to jump with her that she just gave her a big, sudden hug.  It was so cute and sweet!  The girls were already telling Jared on the phone they they want to go with him when he gets home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 On our way out, the girls wanted to ride the little carousel:

 

 

 

10/12:
*Came back into the living room after putting the girls down for a nap and find that the Tigers scored another touchdown. Geaux Tigers!!! BTW, before the nap, Makenna was saying, "Score a down!" Ha ha!

*Avery kept taking her socks off and putting them on her hands so I finally went and got their mittens; now they're sitting here on the couch wearing them and playing together. Funny girls.

*While eating dinner--the girls still can't wink, although Avery tried to close just one eye using her finger, ha ha:

Makenna "winking" and Avery photo-bombing, ha ha

So that's our week.  LSU beat #17 Florida yesterday and went from #10 up to #6--#5 Stanford lost to Utah and #6 Georgia lost to #25 Missouri.  It was a crazy game day!  I love football season!  The Saints lost by 3 points today, though.  :(  Jared will get home either Tues. night or Wed. morning, so we are looking forward to doing some fun family things before he has to leave again.  Also, I am pretty much done with the girls' costumes and can't wait for them to wear them to a little story time Halloween party at the library on Wed.  They ask about the costumes constantly and were SO excited to see what I have done so far today.  It's gonna be so fun to see them dressed up!

2-week update

I didn't post last Sunday because I felt TERRIBLE after church.  My back, stomach, and head were hurting really badly.  So here is an update of our last 2 weeks.

Sept. 23-27: We didn't really do much that week that Jared was home.  We mostly just hung out together at home.  Jared's dad came over on Thursday and spent the night and his mom came the next evening and stayed until after the girls went to bed.

Sat., Sept. 28: Tim came over that afternoon to watch the LSU football game with me.  They barely lost to Georgia--it was close all game and came down to who had the time advantage at the end.  Both teams played really well and it was a great game.  We went down to #10.  The twins' birthmom and her mom came over for a visit that evening.  We played outside for a bit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 9/29: Enjoying a little craft project:

 

 9/30: Jared left for a business trip.  I got to actually watch a Saints game, which they won, yay!  We don't get to see many Saints games here.  :(  As of today, they are 5-0!  I gave the girls a little treat (suckers) after dinner to keep them occupied while I watched the game. Avery had a pair of Jared's long black socks on, ha ha!

10/1:

The twins are "helped" me decorate for Halloween.

P.S. Makenna LOVES that ghost and has played with it all week.  The head has been mostly torn off and all of the stuff from the head has come out.  Avery also played with a few decorations for a few days that I didn't care to actually put out as decoration.

10/2: We went to story time at the library, then to the post office to mail something, then came home to babysit the baby next door.  The girls were so sweet with him.  I put him in their little rocker chair and they kept bringing toys to him and piling them on him.  I had to keep a careful eye on what they were bringing him, ha ha.  It was so cute, though.

 

That night, I took the girls with me to an Aloette (make-up and face care co.) party at a neighbor's house.  They were pretty good and ate snacks and colored the whole time.  They loved the Halloween decorations she had and were thrilled when the consultant gave them each a little bottle of hand lotion to take home because they had been so good during the party.

10/4: We went and picked up one of my former Young Women from Louisiana, Ashleigh, who just started attending BYU.  Grandma came over that night and watched the girls while Ashleigh and I went out for Girls Night Karaoke with Kiki and some of our friends.  We had so much fun.  I have a video of Kiki singing "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with this hilarious guy but she'd kill me if I posted it. I am so tempted, though, ha ha!  Grandma spent the night and left the next morning.  Ashleigh also spent the night.

10/5:   Ashleigh and I watched both sessions of General Conference.  The girls mostly just played.  We watched the LSU game that night and they beat Miss. St.  Yay!  LSU remained #10.  I brought Ashleigh home after the game because she had plans to attend conference the next morning.  It was fun to hang out with her.  I hope she will come over often.

Today, 10/6: I watched the first session of conference, then Timmy came over just in time for lunch.  We ate the left-over chili and choc. chip zucchini bread I had made yesterday.  We basically just watched football all day and he left right before the girls went to bed.  I recorded the second session of conference and will watch it tomorrow.

So someone posted this funny on FB the other day and I thought it was hilarious and re-posted it; Jared made the comment, "For some reason the roles are reversed in our home. :)" on it and I replied, "Yeah right, Jared!!!"  I thought it was pretty funny, though.

Another week in the Crittenden household

9/17--FB post: What happens when little girls get up too early in the morning. Asleep on the couch before lunch. There goes Mommy time, I mean naptime.

Avery woke Makenna up not long after this pic was taken, ha ha

Makenna's "cat baby" that she dressed up and pushed around in a stroller earlier today. She was talking to it and everything--"You hungry, baby?" That girl cracks me up.

 

 

Homemade Moon Sand (flour and baby oil). Yes, it made a mess; yes, they loved it.

 

 

One more funny thought from that day: You know it's bad when Avery tells me, "You need to go get a tissue and wipe her nose!" [talking about Makenna] Ha ha!

9/18--FB post: Storytime at the library, then grocery shopping, and now I'm fixin' to get a massage. Something for the girls, something productive, and now something for me! 

The massage was great BUT...

FB post:
Jared, look what your daughters did while I was getting a massage downstairs and they were supposed to be napping. They took all of the baby products they could reach and put them in the sink and threw every single towel onto the floor. Looks like they used their potties as step stools to be able to reach higher. Little stinkers. And now they're just now going to sleep [~4:30pm] so they completely messed up their naptime. Fun stuff. Oh well, at least they stayed upstairs so I could get a full massage!

 That evening after dinner, we went out on the deck and blew bubbles using a bubble machine at dusk.  The moon was full and kind of hazy behind thin clouds.  The girls thought it was really cool.

9/19--I asked Avery to pick up something off the floor and go throw it away. She was holding her blankie, which she lovingly placed on the floor, then said, "Just a minute, blankie." So cute and sweet.

I played Bunco that night. Kiki watched the girls at her house and they had so much fun playing with their cousins.  It was a fun night for me, too!  :)

9/20--Chloe's new favorite place downstairs is in the girls' train tent.  I'm sure she likes it because she can hide out in there. 

9/21--Jared got home at 2:30am, after driving all night home from his latest 2-week trip.  The girls were so happy to have him home.  He took them on the 4-wheeler that afternoon and later that evening.  I watched a lot of football, ha ha, including my Tigers, who beat Auburn 35-21.  We remained #6 in the polls.  GEAUX TIGERS!

After church today, we ate lunch and packed up and drove to Grandpa Ted's house.  Jared was relaxing on the couch before we left.  This is what Makenna likes to do when Daddy is sleeping on the couch.  She always brings him toys and stuff and just piles it up on him:

 Some kisses for Grandpa:

 

 We made a quick stop on the way home from Grandpa's to enjoy the scenery at Jordanelle Reservoir:

Makenna was scared to walk down the hill, so Avery was concerned and tried to help her

We then stopped at Bridal Veil Falls to have a quick picnic and feed (and touch) the fish:

It was a great family day today.  :)