How do you do?

BOW WOW,

and... what do ladybugs say?

It was no big surprise that Annabelle wanted to be a Princess for Halloween this year, Sleeping Beauty to be exact. Princesses are her whole world as a 5 yr. old. She felt beautiful all dressed up and had a splendid time Trick-or-Treating.
Emmy chose to be a Puppy Dog. She found the costume in the toddler boy section, but she really wanted it. I added red ribbons and ruby sleepers for a girly touch. She looked just adorable. When I asked if she was going to say "wuff, wuff" instead of "Trick-or-Treat" she replied, "no, I don't want to scare people."

We couldn't find a costume for Molly at the same time that we got the other girl's. She's just so tiny and the ones we found that were 0-6 months were just too big. About a week later, (while shopping for other things) we came across a rack of Carter's brand and other baby-size costumes. Annabelle walked over and picked one out for Molly that was a little princess and Emmy walked over and grabbed a little puppy dog. "Girls, those are the things you picked for yourselves. Molly needs to be her own thing," Earl and I told them. We found a little Ladybug and all agreed it was perfect.

We had an exciting night that started with going to Trunk-or-Treat. I walked around with the girls and Earl manned our trunk. He gave away all 250 pieces from our candy bowl. Annabelle has perfected her "Trick or Treat" but I couldn't get Emily to say a word. (no real surprises there) She must have been just too cute for it to matter because everyone gave her candy anyway. We followed Trunk-or-Treat with a drive over to this really nice neighborhood with giant houses and really nice people--that we don't know. We somehow ended up at this neighborhood last Halloween when we wanted to give the girls a real tradtional trick-or-treat experience. We went again this year and it was my favorite part of the night. There were well over 100 people walking the streets; families and kids with wagons and dogs. It felt like the good ole days.

For more pictures of our cute little princess, puppy dog and ladybug, click here.

Round Two

So after running to work a couple of months ago I realized three things: one, I am not a runner; two, three miles might as well be twenty; and three, man invented the wheel for a reason.

A couple of weeks ago I got a free bike from a co-worker. Well, we all know nothing is free; I had to put some money into it to get it rideable but it was still cheaper than a new bike. After I had it all together, and got a helmet and lights I was ready. The day had arived and disaster struck, I woke up to the sound of roaring rain. I did plan on riding in the rain with my rear fender and a rain coat, but I was expecting Seattle rain not Pheonix rain. Besides, I was all ready unsure of the ride, I didn't need to fight the rain. The next day was the day to shoot for. I awoke to a dry morning, darn that means I have to go through with it. So my travel begins again with the hill, the dreaded hill that claims cars in the winter and skateboarders in the summer. I was bound and determined to make it up the hill without walking. Good thing I had an 18speed, cuz I made it. My legs were all ready on fire and I was winded. I had only a short break before another hill that was much longer but not as steep. I thought about the missionary days and how it seemed much easier, then I realized the there were no hills in the Arizonan desert. I would gladly take +100 degrees over hills. Luckily at the end of my second hill I hit a red light, the only red light the whole trip (someone was watching out for me). I had time to rest. I realized how much more energy it took to stop and restart especially downhill. The rest of the ride was mostly down hill, a fact I would dreadfully learn on the way back home. When I made it to work my shirt was wet from sweat and my legs had that jello wraped in barbed wire feeling, I had to walk around for a few minutes to recover. Durring which I was paged into the parts department because they purchased doughnuts, I never have been repulsed by a raspberry filled powdered ring of goodness before, and when I turned them down everyone's mouths dropped to the floor. One of the guys in parts called the receptionist and announced to her the news, after about 5 minutes everyone in the dealership knew that Earl Bennett had refused a doughnut, I think they almost closed the dealership down just in case the world was truly gonna end. So here it is my first 3 mile trip in 5.5 minutes on video, brought to you by the EARL CAM. (camera affixed to the handle bars with packaging tape).

Can I just say what a sight it was to see Earl on this bicycle! He rides up in his bright red helmet, dripped in sweat, twigs stuck in parts of his make-shift bicycle and please, please take note of the chip clips around the ankle of his pants! I'm just sorry that I missed seeing our nice Kodak camera taped to the handlebars. -Lisa

Still Tall, Still Skinny

Molly had her 4-month checkup on September 8 where it was confirmed, yet again, that Molly just wants to be tall and skinny! She doesn't want to conform and be like the rest of us. We think that's ok, but the doctor would still like her to put on a few extra pounds. She was 9lbs. 15oz. and 24 1/2 inches putting her in the -3% for weight and 55% for height. She went back today for a weight check and she had gained 14 oz. She's still in the -3% soooo, we got to add something new and tasty to her diet. Alright, you might not think it's tasty, but what does she have to compare it to?

She did an excellent job eating her Rice Cereal. She got the hang of it quickly. She's been eyeing our food more and more lately and I think she was pretty excited to see that the spoon was actually coming her direction. We hope this will give her a little extra weight (maybe even her pants will stop falling off). The Doc said that babies with reflux tend to do well with cereal. We'll see.

We think she liked it, what do you think?