Halloween

Happy Halloween from Snow White and the Lloyds:

Meanwhile, her dad is having way too much fun playing with dry ice:

Wait, Does Snow White even have a father?

Stuff White People Like

#122 - Moleskine notebooks

In my defense, my Moleskine is a weekly planner so technically, I'm not a yuppie.

Also, #5, #34, #35, #38, #39, #44, #48, #64, #94, #109, #112, & #119. I think it's safe to say that Tori and I are pretty white.

Dutailier Glider/Recliner

Tori just wanted me to post these pictures for her, She'll be back later to post about why this chair is possibly the single greatest thing that she's ever owned:

This is part of the reason:

Wheeler Historic Farm

This pretty much sums up what Rachel though of yesterday's visit to Wheeler Farm:

Lately....

....this little grape-sized person has taken complete control of our lives:

Aside from the usual quirks of pregnancy, we've both been quite busy with work and school and internships, and Tori has hyperemesis, which has made her almost constantly sick since she became pregnant. She had the same thing with Rachel and had been hoping that it wouldn't be as bad this time around, but after a week of not keeping any food down, losing 8 pounds and a fighting a small battle with our insurance company, she had IV treatments yesterday and is doing much better now. With Rachel, it got signifigantly more manageable after the first trimester, so here's hoping that we only have a few more weeks of this to live through. We're all doing a lot better now and Rachel is staying with her cousins this week while things get back to normal.

Anyway, it was Rachel's birthday last week, so we tried to make the best of a crumby situation and had a little party for her on Sunday afternoon.

Rachel wanted a pinata, and she picked out this "kitty" herself (in the halloween section):

Melinda made her a Snow White cake to match her dress:
Despite daddy's best efforts over the past 3 years, I think we can officially say that Disney has won:

Neither of the kids was any good at breaking the pinata open:


So that's it. Things have been busy and stressful but we've had a lot of help and are doing fine.

Discount Shopping

I think that Tori posted a while ago about the NPS Store in Salt Lake where we occasionally shop. It's sort of like a cross between Costco, the dollar store and a thrift store where they sell slightly damaged and expired groceries. Anyway, I'm not sure if it was funny or sad when I saw this on The Middle last night:

She's growing

Rachel turns 3 years old this Thursday. She is such a beautiful little girl. We do , however, worry about her hair. She had one trim to even out her hair a few months ago, but at three years old, her hair is only ear length. Apparently, this comes from Tyler's side of the family. In my family, we have plenty of hair thanks to our German and African American heritage. She doesn't seem to mind. However, she loves going to the Salon for hair cuts, but there will be few of those in her near future.

Home Storage

It's the time of year again when Tori gets another batch of hand-me-down clothes for Rachel, goes through her closet, gets out stuff for the new season, takes out what no longer fits and I get to find somewhere to put it all, which today meant I was sent to the store for more Space Bags.

Do you have any idea how much crap you can pack away in a Space Bag?

.... a lot of crap.

Here's hoping the next baby is another girl so that I don't have to find a place to store an equivalent supply of boy's clothes.

When we first moved into our current place from our 1 bedroom apartment we thought that there was more space than we could ever fill. Now, less than three years later, every square inch of space in each cupboard, closet, shelf, and under all of the beds is packed with junk.

My next task: find a Space Bag large enough to do something about the 9-foot Christmas tree that lives in our bedroom closet 11 months of the year.