HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

We had a great Halloween today!
Yesterday Joe's sister and niece flew in to spend Halloween with us.
We went trick-or-treating with Padilla's in their neighborhood and got a TON of candy!
All and all we had a great time.

Happy Birthday(s)!

It is Joe and Julianne's birthday today. Julianne turned 7 and Joe is 29!! (I know, my husband is sooo old!:) We have a pretty big weekend planned. First, the little kids and I get to take cupcakes into J.J.'s classroom this afternoon. Then this evening is our Ward "Trunk-or-Treat." J.J. was not about to miss the opportunity to dress up and get a TON of candy so we pushed she and her dad's party to Sat. instead.
Sat. morning is "Savior of the World" rehearsal. (For those of you who may not know...our family is participating in our stake production "Savior of the World" this December.) Then we are meeting up with our realtor to walk through some homes in the area. (Yes, we are officially house hunting!) Then straight to Chuck E Cheese for Julianne and Joe' s birthday celebration! And home to eat cake and open presents! Whew!
Happy Happy Birthday to two of my favorite people in the world!

9 months old!

My baby boy is quickly growing up. Dallin is 9 mo. old today.
He is now 20lbs. 5oz. and 29 1/2 in. long which puts him in the 90% for height and 80% for weight.
He has been crawling for a while and just in the last few weeks has started pulling himself up and cruising around the furniture. He has seven teeth but I think he's going cut his eighth tooth in a day or so. He says "ma ma ma" when he wants me. And he's started saying "da da" but I'm not sure if he is referring to Joe or not. He loves playing with Emmy. They are quickly becoming best friends. He loves his other sisters too. He gets so excited when they come home from school.
He is definitly ALL BOY. He has big hands and feet and a deep gruff voice (except when he cries.)
Sometimes people refer to his big hands as "piano playing hands." I think his dad prefers "basketball hands." I say why not both!?

HE PASSED!!!!!!!

Hail! The conquering hero!
Yes, it's true! Joe found out today that he passed the Virginia bar exam! We are both thrilled! (However, I am not surprised.)
For Joe this relief has been a long time coming. After he graduated he really didn't feel like he was done with school because he just went straight into studying for the bar, and even after taking the test he didn't feel like he could relax until he got the results.
Well, the "fat lady" has officially sung! Law School is over!
Way to go Sweetie!

When things are a little too quiet...Part II

Ok, so Emily and Dallin are quickly becoming "partners in crime". Today I left them alone in the front room together for just a few minutes. BIG MISTAKE! While I was gone Emily got into the pantry and opened several bags of fudge stripe cookies and dumped them all over the floor. Dallin crawled over and tried to eat them. Well...anyone who has a baby knows that when a baby tries to eat anything it just becomes a sticky mess. So to make a long story short...I'll just let you see the pictures.

Who knew someone so cute could make such a big mess?

Cute even when covered in chocolate.
Yes, that is chocolate ground into my carpet.

Emily has discovered how to use scissors and loves to sneak into the pantry and cut open bags of crackers, cookies, pasta, you name it she's made a mess with it.

They say that growing up is hard to do...

It has been a big weekend here at our house for Emily and Dallin.

For some reason I have never had children who are willing to sleep through the night during their first year. Dallin has not been any different. Meaning-- even though Dallin is almost 9 mo. old, as of a few days ago he was still waking up 3-4 times a night. Well this weekend I was bound to change this crazy night time schedule. So we moved Dallin out of our room and into a full sized crib. And began the process of teaching him to sleep through the night. Our game plan was: evey time Dallin woke up Joe would go in and (without picking him up) rub Dallin's back and sooth him back to sleep. (I was afraid if I went in it would just make things worse.) Joe was Awsome! (Although I had to laugh every time he would say some thing like, "I'm so tired today." I wanted to say, "Try getting up 4 times a night for 9 months!:) Anyway, so far so good. Dallin only woke up once last night and when Joe went in to check on him Dallin went right back to sleep. I hope getting a full nights sleep will help us all be a little happier! Way to go Dallin!

As for Emily--Since Dallin took over her crib we moved her into a "big girl" bed and while we were at it we took away her "wow-wow".
For those of you who don't know what a wow-wow is let me explain. When Emily was first learning to talk, if she couldn't pronounce a certain word she would just make up a word that she could say. So the name for pacifier became "wow-wow". The name stuck and now at our house all pacifiers are called "wow-wow's".
I've been meaning to take her pacifier away for a while and there always seemed like an excuse to put it off. Anyway she's two now and well, it's time.
She has actually done pretty well too. She asks for it a few times a day. Especially when she is sad. But she is trying hard to be a big girl now and I have to say I am very proud of her.

Emily and Dallin on Emily's new "big girl bed".