choices.

Does anyone else have THE. HARDEST. TIME making decisions on things that should not be that difficult? Please say I'm not the only one. I must have looked at about every single costume website at least 100 times each before I bought this costume from Gymboree.

Cute, right? Absolutely adorable.......but then I got to thinking. and thinking is never a good thing for me to do. I just know with how girly Nora is that she's going to want to be something frilly and cute for the rest of her life. I wanted to shove her into a big puffy costume. So I went to Pottery Barn Kids to check out the costumes they had on sale. I must have been in that store for at least an hour. ay yi yi. I seriously drive myself nuts. I was trying to decide between the pony one that fit, and a cute monster costume that was too big. After trying each one on about 12 times, I put the pony costume on her for the last time and asked her what a horse says. "NEIGH!" And it sealed the deal for me.

Excited for the fun things we have planned for this weekend.

Hope everyone has a spooky and FUN Halloween!

Now I've got to plan her birthday party. Oy, I think I've already spent hours looking at things online.

how.

how does your baby magically grow up in the blink of an eye?

she's grown up so much since we went to the pumpkin patch last year. she's such a little girl now.

i love fall. warm drinks, yummy treats, cooler days. it's definitely my favorite time of year. i love experiencing it all with nora.

she loves spooky ghosts and monsters (as long as they aren't too scary) and she already has trick-or-treat down.

love getting pictures of the 3 of us together since we rarely do.

excited for halloween and the rest of the holidays coming up!

popcorns.

On Conference Sunday we decided to take a drive up Butterfield Canyon during the last couple talks. When they were over, we found a place to pull over and took a little hike.

 We just walked along the dirt path looking for some Fall branches we could take home. I noticed an acorn on the ground and picked it up to give to Nora.

She was so excited about her "popcorns". No matter how many times I would tell her it was an acorn, she just kept saying "more popcorns!".

It was nice to get out into the Fall air and search for flowers, sticks and leaves.

I was talking with a close friend about how I'm a little bit nervous for winter to come. It's hard to be inside all the time and find enough activities to keep them occupied. The alternative is turning on the TV. We all know how easy it is to pop in a movie or turn on Sprout. I'm sure Nora is an average TV watcher but I still feel guilty on a daily basis. This is where my close friend brought me some perspective.

Nora is extremely smart, she loves to be outside and she can play independantly most days. As much as she loves watching a princess movie, she also adores playing with dollies and reading books and coloring.

Why stress about something so small? Why do we, as mothers, constantly burden ourselves with guilt over how we are raising our children?

As long as we're doing our best, teaching our children daily, and being loving and kind, I really don't think an hour or two (or five, somedays) of TV is going to suddenly stunt their brain growth.

It sounds silly, but I feel grateful to have found Pinterest. I have come across so many wonderful (and cheap) ideas for Nora that she has absolutely loved. I'll have to do a post exclusively on Pinterest things I've found to give others plenty of ideas for the winter.

 I wasn't planning on going off on such a tangent, but hey, that's how I roll here on the old blog. At least I finally posted, right?

LA LA LA

It's been a really really messed up week.

Seven days of torture, seven days of bitter.

Nora's got the hand, foot, mouth disease.

She's usually sweet but this week I want to quit her.

LA LA LA, oh well, LA LA LA, it doesn't matter.

In all seriousness though this has probably been close to one of the worse weeks of my life. Nora started out with a fever on Monday which I attributed to teething because she was getting another molar. But the next morning I noticed a pretty large sore on her tongue, and it's been nothing but tears and tantrums since then.

I wouldn't pray this on my worst enemy. My sweet girl is so miserable. She cries for 5-6 hours out of the day. It's gotten to the point where I just sit down with her and cry too. One morning I started bawling, and she stopped crying, looked at me, then started screaming Mommy, Mom, Mama. As if to say, "Don't cry Mommy." It was heartbreaking.

She won't eat or drink much of anything because it hurts her too bad. It gets you worried about dehydration and the sweet girl sure doesn't have the weight to lose, that's for sure. It's been emotionally and physically exhausting. I've been frustrated because I haven't been able to get anything done. After I put her to bed one night I took my August issue of Ensign into a bubble bath to relax for a bit. The first presidency message could not have come at a better time. President Monson says,

Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.

Just rewriting this brings tears to my eyes. Nora wants comfort but gets so upset that she starts hitting me and throwing all out tantrums. In a huff of pure frustration I put her down and leave the room to try and get something done. She's my sweet child, she's in pain and she's upset and yet I find it more important to get those dishes done or that laundry folded rather than sticking by her side and letting her know I'm there for her.

The Love at Home message is such a great reminder of how I should be treating my family members. I'm so grateful for the gospel. That Nora will be able to grow up in a loving home, something that seems to be lacking more and more these days. I pray that this sickness can leave our home soon so that I might be able to play with my happy girl again.

I was sitting with her on the couch the other day and I started singing I Am A Child of God to her. She completely surprised me and started singing the song with me almost word for word. It was such a special moment in a week of mostly frustration and tears. She is a beautiful special child of God and I'm thankful for her, even if she's slapping and screaming at me.

new favorite snack

Watermelon Feta Basil Salad

Mmmmm such a delicious refreshing snack for the summer.

I could eat a whole watermelon in one sitting and used to do so often when I was a kid. I wasn't sure about the combination in this recipe but thought I'd give it a try. The sweetness of the watermelon, the saltiness of the feta, and the basil, mmm the basil just makes it taste so fresh and summery. Pure bliss. Ate it yesterday, ate it today, and will probably eat it at least 100 more times before watermelons go out of season.

*Picture via http://www.justanothermomday.blogspot.com/