A good reminder

A thought for the day

"A fascinating thing about joy and love, with which you are surely familiar, is that when we enlarge our capacity to love, other people become real individuals, not merely functions. Gospel duties cease to be mere routine and become, instead, doors to delight. Every doctrine of the gospel is a door to delight that, when opened, exposes us to a vista of things we have not yet fully comprehended."

-Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Jan 1996.

Cora's Christmas Concert

Cora had her first school concert! She was so excited to be singing Christmas songs and performing. She was also so excited to have Kissie and Pata come to watch. It sounds like her music teacher really talked up how they could invite anyone they wanted to come. All the students must have really taken that to heart, it was extremely crowded with all sorts of relatives! Lucky for us, we were warned ahead of time, so Kevin went early to get us seats and we were comfortable. Moreso than all of the parents sitting on the floor or standing for the concert! (They did change things around and I heard it was much better for the 3-5 grade concert the next night). We were also there early enough to only park halfway between our house and the school (it was about 15 degrees that night or we would have walked!).

Anyway, the kindergartners sang Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and The Teddy Bear Twist. Super cute! 

Here's Cora before the concert. The kids were supposed to wear a red or green shirt. Lesson learned, have your kid wear green, most kids were in a red uniform shirt and it was way easier to spot Cora in a crowd.

This is the kindergarten section of the bleachers. Cora is in a green shirt in the middle of the back row. 

The kids were all so thrilled to be in a new place (it was held at the junior high) and up on the bleachers, there is a ton of background noise. But you can get the idea of how everything sounded. 

Cora was so excited to have such a special night! 

Grandparent letters

Every month or so I send my grandparents and Kevin's grandparents letters on what we are up to. I used to handwrite them all, but decided to start typing them to be faster and have a record for myself. I figured they would be good to include in the blog too. It really only takes less than a half hour each month, and I know they really appreciate it. Most of them aren't able to look at the blog, and I've been way behind anyway. I'm a firm believer that what goes around comes around, and I want to be close to my grandchildren and know what they are doing even when they are grown-up too! 

Dear Grandma,

   How are you doing? I hope you are having a lovely fall! We have had 2 snowfalls here now, it definitely feels as though we are hovering on winter!

   We had a great Halloween, with a ward party, preschool and kindergarten parties, and trick-or-treating. The kids got good use of their costumes! Cora was a fairy, Violet a ladybug, and Luke a giraffe.  Even Luke caught on to the candy concept quite quickly and loved going door-to-door.

   Cora finished her fall season of soccer. She had a lot of fun and always wanted to play, even if she wasn’t always paying attention J! She is reading short stories now and enjoying school. Violet went to her first friend birthday party and had a great time. She loves to play games and do puzzles. Luke is speaking more words every day! He is our little daredevil always finding a new spot to jump off from! He drags the potty stool around the house to better reach lightswitches—he thinks it is so funny to turn the lights off in the closets and bathrooms!

   We took a family trip to see The Little Mermaid at the Tuacahn theater in St. George. It was spectacular! We’re hoping to go to the production of Aladdin next year too. So much fun!

   The kids also enjoy their playdates with friends. Even Luke gets to go sometimes when we trade babysitting so I can volunteer at Cora’s school or when Kevin and I go to the temple. It’s great to have lots of neighbors with kids the same ages as ours!

   Kevin spent 4 days in Chicago on a work conference. He said it was interesting, but there wasn’t a lot of time for sightseeing. The kids and I were grateful to have him back home again!

   Things are going well with the pregnancy. We’ll have our ultrasound the day before Thanksgiving. Hopefully we’ll find out if we’re having a girl or a boy! The due date is April 24^th.

   We had our family pictures done recently and included some of the results. I also included one of Cora’s school pictures. Good thing we got some individual shots at family picture time too!

   We love you lots and miss you! Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The kids begged to put the Christmas tree up starting a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. We didn't get around to it quite that early, but we did finish it up a few days before. They were so delighted! The rest of the Christmas decorating will stretch out a bit, but it's fun to have the main tree up at least! 

We all were looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with Kissie and Pata and eating at a fancy restaurant! The girls had been primed about using their best princess manners, and to my relief, they did a superb job. Dinner at Grand America was a real treat-- tons of yummy food, lots of new food to try, kid-friendly food, and a beautiful setting, with no dishes afterward. Many thanks to my mom and dad for treating us! 

Kevin and I don't eat out very often at all with the kids, it is usually more stress than it is worth. But with an improved adult to kid ratio, it becomes very doable :). Kissie and Pata were very helpful to help keep kids busy and take trips to the buffet line. Which made it possible for Kevin and I to taste and enjoy our food, rather than scarf it down while trying to prevent possible kid-related disasters. Luke especially liked the chocolate fountain... well who doesn't? Kissie was kind enough to let him dip his own, which was probably the biggest treat of all! 

Too bad it is a bit fuzzy! But here's a picture of family members who were there-- we missed you Keyton, Liz, and kiddos!

Some fun out in the courtyard after lunch

We had a pretty early lunch to accommodate my brother's schedule, but luckily Kevin still had enough time to play football with the ward and get ready before we needed to go. One benefit of an early lunch was that we had the rest of the afternoon to play! For the first time in a long time, Kevin and I got to play games with my mom and dad while the kids all had quiet time. We also played a special game of Thanksgiving bingo and decorated gingerbread houses all together.  

Many things are better left unsaid, and I try to only blog about happy memories, because honestly, that's all I want to remember. I do have to say though, that this Thanksgiving afternoon was the messiest ever, and that kids shouldn't go swimming after a huge meal and should have more responsible parents who don't let them eat too much candy! 

Evelyn

Meet little Evelyn Anderson, due April 24, 2011! She was dancing during the whole appointment, so we didn't end up any super clear pictures. She must have been glad I was finally laying still after cleaning all morning! Evelyn was however kind enough to enlighten us on her gender, which I am so grateful for. And so are the kids, they've been dying to know if the new sibling will be a boy or a girl. Of course, that's Cora and Violet. They both ask nearly every day how baby Evelyn is doing. Luke still doesn't have a clue what is happening, but since he makes excited squawks whenever he sees a baby or an infant car seat, I'm guessing he's excited too. 

The pregnancy is going well, I've just been out of sorts with one thing or another for the last 3 weeks (a week of severe headaches, a 24 hour stomach bug, and a 2 week cough). Which leads to some mild regrets that I can't take anything very helpful. Hopefully the lingering cough will linger off soon. In the meantime, it's fun to feel Evelyn kick around while I read at night, and I'm grateful no heartburn or hip pain has made its way into my life... yet. 

Now we just need a middle name! 18 weeks down, 22 (or more likely 21) weeks left to figure (duke) it out.

Thanksgiving at Preschool

Violet's cute little preschool class had a great Thanksgiving celebration. They sang songs for the parents and then made turkey soup for snack and did some other activities. Unfortunately, I was sick and couldn't go, but Kevin got too, so that was great. 

Our cute pilgrim Violet

I think it's adorable to see these 3 and 4 year olds doing all the actions and singing the songs! 

Light up the night

We went to Light up the Night Christmas tree lighting at the Gateway mall. We actually invited ourselves along to my parents outing, lucky us! It was fun!  John Schmidt did a mini 30 minute concert and then they flipped the switch to turn on the Christmas lights on the BIGGEST Christmas tree in the Northwest.

Cora loved it all and did some great dancing during the concert. Violet did well until it hit about her bedtime, and then gave us lots of frowny faces for pictures (see above). Fortunately she perked up when Kissie and Pata offered to treat us to dessert at JB's on the way home. Luke isn't up for sitting for concerts yet, he required frequent walks during the concert. The train table inside Barnes and Noble was a big hit, and for some reason he really wanted to wander through the nearby clothes store. The kids did do remarkably well for it being cold and late! 

IS this a perfect picture or what?

Kevin and Luke on the “train”(trax) ride back to my parents' condo. I don't know if Luke likes riding the train or walking next to the trax route and seeing lots of  trains better... wait I take that back, it's definitively riding the train! You can barely hear the the train from my parents' condo, but Luke's train sensitive ears perk up whenever he thinks he hears one and he runs to the balcony window to see if he can spot it. 

Such a fun night!

Playdates

Life is full of playdates nowadays, which the kids have loved! Besides regular friend spur of the moment playtime, Violet and Luke get to play with Annabelle and Gavin at least a few times a month while I or their mom volunteers at the school. Luke has done really well with these playdates, which is so nice to not have to worry about him. Violet has a standing playdate with a friend-- Monday mornings they trade off going to each other's house to play. Cora has a standing playdate with another friend (in fact we've been doing it for almost 2 years now!) one afternoon a week. We switch off with a family in our ward to watch each other's kids while we take turns going to the temple. I love having neighbors whose kids are easy to watch-- often the hardest thing about the playdate is just arranging timing (the big benefit of standing playdates). It's nice for the kids to have variety for their days and it gives me some time to do tasks which are better done when they are occupied. And nice to have nice people to help out and be helped out with doctor's appointments and such. We are lucky to live in an area with lots of kiddos and willing moms! 

These six kids had a blast playing together one afternoon this week. They spent over a hour posing each other and taking pictures with Cora's kiddie camera and saying cheese... I had to get a picture myself! 

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

 Kevin's parents came to visit for 5 days. The kids were so excited to see them and play. And lots of playing they did! They saw Puss in Boots, went swimming, played at a bounce house, played in the snow, and played lots of games at home. AND while they were doing all this I got to blog, start and finish Christmas presents, and run kidless errands. It was great! 

 The kids love to swim, and they always ask to swim at the rec center, but it's a little pricey for a visit, and it's a little tricky for me to keep an eye on all of them by myself. So they were thrilled with the chance to go with Grandma and Grandpa. 

I wasn't sure if Cora could really do this big slide-- it is pretty big, and if you ride you can't use a flotation device or a parent, and you have to swim to the edge by yourself. But Cora did it! After that she didn't want to do anything else! 

We got a fun little snowstorm and Kevin, Dawn, and the kids were able to make a snowman before it melted. Luke hated his snowsuit and didn't even make it out the door for more than a minute. Violet had a lot of fun, but came in fairly early too. Cora had the most fun of all! 

I thought their snowman was so cute! We used limes for eyes, fennel tops for hair (from our bountiful baskets pick-up that morning-- I didn't know what else I'd be doing with that fennel!), licorice for a mouth, and a sucker for a nose. Well, we had a sucker for a nose until the neighbor boy swiped it and ate it. Oh well. 

If only this worked!

Luke at 1 year 9 months

Luke vocabulary is growing! We can understand what he wants most of the time, although probably other people can't. Some new words and phrases-- upstairs, downstairs, oatmeal, book, snack, there it is, I don't know, cheese. He mimics our words more often and copies our inflections.

Luke likes having his picture taken, well when he's in the mood for it. I was taking pictures of the girls and their artwork, and he made sure he got his picture taken too.

Luke loves to look at books and be read to. He likes car, truck, and train books the most. When we go to the library he'll clean out the Thomas books and take them to a table and demand to be read to. There is also a learning to read truck series that is a favorite of his.

Luke can now climb off and on the bouncy horse himself. He surprised me one day by just doing it instead of standing by it and whining for me to lift him. What a big boy he's getting to be!

Luke knows how to push his sisters' buttons and does it whenever he's frustrated with them... or maybe when he's bored too! He's not great at sharing right now at all, which causes some problems since you can't really reason with him at this stage either, but we're working on it!

Luke loves the added height and reaching potential the little potty stools give him. He will drag them to the light switches to turn off the lights while I'm doing the girls' hair or getting them dressed. He also loves it when someone leaves the spray bottle within his reach and will make sure he, the mirror, and everyone else gets a good spritzing.

Luke is intrigued by the toilet and will flush often and is always curious about the girls when they use the bathroom. Luckily they've started closing the door (finally!) and he just gets frustrated about being left out and cries injustice in the hallway.

Luke still doesn't have much attention span for television, but occasionally he'll put his beanbag in front of the tv, hand me the remote, point to the tv, and yell "bob! bob!". He is a fan of Bob the Builder, but mostly just the opening song I guess. He never stays there for very long!

Luke likes the song "Popcorn Popping" and will sing along "bop, bop" and make some of the hand motions.

Luke still likes playing with the dollies and will pull out some of his diapers to put on them too.

He likes to go places, and gets so excited and echo when I call out "shoe time!". He hates being left out and not being able to go if someone is leaving.

Luke will put a tissue up to his nose and make a blowing noise with his mouth. I'm pretty sure he thinks he's doing what the rest of us do when we blow our noses!

Luke still likes to cuddle when he gets up in the morning or from a nap or after a bonk. He's a little sweetheart, and it's so fun to watch him learn and grow!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures done at Fotofly again this year. Although I'm not as perfectly happy with the outcomes as I was last year, I think it was still a successful shoot, especially considering Luke refused to smile for 30 minutes of the 45 minute session and it was a busy kind of stressful day. The kids pictures are in their individual posts, here are my favorite family pictures.

I think this one is my favorite!

Violet at 3 years and 7 months

Violet has been in preschool for two months now, and she loves it! She recognizes most of her letters and is working on writing them and matching sounds to letters. She wants to be just like Cora (in some things, in others she'll wait to hear what Cora says so she can say the opposite) and work on reading. So we've started her slowly in the big yellow reading book too, and she's doing great. She loves to work on alphabet workbooks too-- her 'homework' while Cora does her own homework

Violet's favorite treat is oreos and anything mint. Mint icecream and mint chocolates are always a hit!

Miss Kara started a new 3 year old gymnastics class this year, and Violet is excited to have her own gymnastic tricks to perform. She is working on her handstands and cartwheels.

Violet now goes to the bathroom by herself at night (hurray!) but she still doesn't like wiping her stinkies on her potty trips. I think she is afraid to get her hands dirty. Every time before she goes to the bathroom, she'll find me and say "Mommy, I'm going to go potty. After I wipe my stinkies will you come wipe me too?". Every time! I can't wait until she is more confident about this!

Violet (and Cora too, but especially Violet) love the movie Enchanted. They especially love--as they call it-- the How Do You Know song. By now they know most of the words, but if they forget, they'll just sing 'how do you know that he loves you' over and over and over.

Violet is coloring more and more, but her loves are still games and puzzles. She likes to play Zingo and memory the most. 

Violet is learning and doing more each day. She has a great ability to verbalize and picks up on things quickly. She also still has her things that she wants to be a baby girl about and not do herself even if she can. She is fun and loving and it's so interesting to watch her personality develop! 

Cora at 5 years and 4 months

I've been trying to do updates on the kids quarterly. I think they will be fun to have for later, but they are easy to procrastinate too!

Cora loves school! I went to her first parent teacher conference last night, and she is doing so well. She is making friends in class and learning a lot. 

Cora and I also work on her reading at home -- we are over halfway done with this amazing book. She is reading short stories like this one. "A dog was in the fog. A cat was in the fog. A goat was in the fog. The dog and the cat and the goat came to a log. The cat and the dog sat on the log. The dog and the cat said, "We are on the log." The goat said, "I am not on the log. I am in the log. Hee hee." We also check out BOB books from the library for her to read too. She is doing really well and it's so much fun to see her learn. 

Cora loves to draw and craft. Our coloring bench display wall is always full of her drawings. She is getting better and better at depicting images the way she would like them to look. 

Cora's picture of herself in her Halloween costume 

 Cora's mermaid 

Cora is doing gymnastics again this year and is working hard. She is working on handstand to backbend to stand-up and a handstand to backbend to kickover right now. She has the greatest teacher-- Miss Kara knows how to motivate these little kids and is friendly and persistent with their learning too. 

Cora has lost her two front bottom teeth now. She is sure she has at least 4 more loose ones! I think it will be a little while though before she loses more. 

Cora is interested in ghosts now and has a pet one that she can summon with a crook of her finger. She was a little scared about Halloween this year-- she gets caught up in her classmates' talk of vampires and zombies and it's more real to her than before, even with reminders from me that it's all pretend. 

Cora asks me almost every day how the baby is doing. She is so excited for our new little one to come! 

Cora is at such a fun age now. She has such a pleasant temperament and is so fun to be around. She rarely throws fits and tantrums, she is a great helper, she eats and goes to bed without fussing. She can play fun games with us and is excited to be involved and learn more about all the world around her. 

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween started on Saturday with the ward trunk-or-treat. It was a huge success! We actually had about twice as many people as could fit in the cultural hall for a chili dinner afterward. It was crowded and delicious!

 The kids had a blast with the trunk-or-treat. Luke wasn't thrilled about his costume, but once he figured out the trick-or-treating, he was focused on candy-- a man on a mission! He was determined to not miss any candy opportunities and wasn't hesitant at all. He loved it when he could pick out his own candy and tuck it into his bag. So cute! He got lots of attention for his cute costume, especially his well-padded giraffe tummy and bum. Cora was excited to be a fairy and Violet has long been looking forward to wearing a ladybug costume.

 Sunday afternoon we carved pumpkins. Cora chose an Ariel template and Violet chose a Snow White template... Kevin did a scary face to round things out. Cora was a great helper with scooping out the seeds and sorting them to roast, and Violet did quite a bit of scooping too... with a shorter attention span. 

 Monday was a busy day! Cora got to wear her Halloween costume to school. They all paraded from the elementary school down to the junior high and then had a class party afterward. At their class party they split pumpkins open to count seeds and feel the goop, weighed and measured different sized pumpkins, frosted pumpkin cookies, bowled with pumpkins, and made pumpkin spiders. I've been so impressed with the fun things they do that still incorporate learning opportunities.

Violet, Luke, and I got to go to Violet's Halloween preschool party. Violet loved singing songs, reading Halloween stories, eating a Halloween snack, trick-or-treating to a few neighbors, and making witches brew (root beer... although she did ask me why Miss Amanda didn't add spider webs and moldy bread to the brew like the song says :) !)

Then it was time for the big night! Kissie came over to spend Halloween with us (Pata was on a plane home). Dinner was french dip sandwiches and pumpkin soup, but mostly we were in a hurry to get out and maximize out trick-or-treating time! 

 Luke came in after two streets, he was still having fun but was slowing down. Violet said she'd just come in for a drink, but decided to stay home and hand out candy with Kissie. Cora stayed out the longest--about an hour and a half. Soon after coming in we had a few inevitable candy meltdowns... the kids were so tired! Violet even fell asleep in her bed waiting for a bedtime story while Kevin was helping Cora brush her teeth (truly a first--falling asleep fast, not the teeth-brushing!).

 This picture turned out fuzzy, but it was too cute not to include. What a great Halloween weekend! This holiday gets more fun every year with kids!