Cora's Nursery

Cora has five dollies that she loves to take care of. Today we pulled out the baby blankets I played with when I was little (made by my grandmother and great grandmother) and Cora was delighted to have blankies for her dolls that are just the right size. We made a little makeshift bed out of the tupperware container (Cora is getting a real cradle for Christmas!) and the dolls all took a nap together in Cora's room. The swing was a great find from a second-hand store, that's been a lot of fun too.

Checking on the sleeping baby...

Pround mama...
Nursing the baby (she even covered the baby up with the blanket when she saw I was taking a picture!)
Burping the baby...


One other funny thing... Cora asks about Kevin thoughout the day, usually asks where he is. When I tell her he's at work, she ALWAYS responds 'on the bus'? We've told her Kevin takes the bus to work, but now I think she must think he rides the bus all day long! We need to take a field trip to Kevin's work so she knows he's not a bus driver.

Going to the Dentist

Cora had her first trip to the dentist today. She was so excited to go-- we've been reading "Elmo Goes to the Dentist" for several months now. But, when we got there, she got pretty nervous and I was wondering if my co-pay was a waste of money. Luckily the dental assistants talked her into sitting in the chair and opening her mouth to brush and count her teeth. It didn't hurt that they gave her a bag full of 'presents' too! That was the real turning point. Cora didn't let go of that bag all the rest of the day. No cavities, and hopefully a good prep for the next dental visit.

News

Well, it's a week full of new news for our family.

~Keyton and Liz are moving to England in the Spring! They will be there for 3 years, it's a job transfer with the federal government. We are so excited to save our pennies and visit them once or twice.

~Kissie and Pata are moving to Salt Lake! My dad took a job with the LDS Church that will start in December. They are here in Salt Lake this week looking for a condo/apartment downtown, (they'll be keeping their house in Boise). We are so excited to have them closeby.

~We put our house up for sale... we were going to wait and see how the commute was and wait until Kevin's work location actually changed in the Spring, but there are so many houses on the market now for great prices in the area we are looking, that we thought we should at least give it a try. It's pretty sad, and I have very mixed feelings. I'm just trying not to think about it too much since who knows when it will sell??? But if you know someone who wants to buy a nice rambler with a finished basement 30 minutes west of Salt Lake in a nice quiet community, let me know!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween day with cousins coming over for crafts, going trick-or-treating, and Kurt and Jen coming over for dinner. Cora loved going door to door, and it was fun to see all our neighbors out and about. Cora also loved eating lots of candy Friday night... she was so wound up from candy and guests that she was running and running and finally crashed in bed. She also got a kick out of opening the door and giving out candy.... she only got spooked by scary costumes a couple of times!

Here's our little caterpillar....

and our big giraffe....

Today

Today we.....

~Saw the witches at Gardner Village... (and touched them to see if they were real)
~Went to the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to get a view of Daddy's work (Triad Center) and the temple...
(this is the first picture I took without a flash, but I like the silhouette version too!)
~Ran around the Main Street Plaza and Temple Square in beautiful weather....
~Danced in front of the temple

~Ate yummy rolls with friends (me) and played with spoons and straws (Cora) at the Lion House....

~Went to the top of the Church Office Building to see the view...

~Picked up a nursery manual and some other goodies to add variety to our FHE lessons from the distribution center....

And, just in general had a great full but not too busy day with lovely weather, good parking luck, fun conversations, good little girls, and new activities! I hope you had a great day too.

Halloween Fun

We've done about half of our Halloween activities, and the big day is still 5 days away! Today we did a Halloween lunch party with some neighbors. We made bats and spiders, read stories, ate good food, and the mommies of course loved talking while the kids ran around outside in the beautiful weather. We did attempt a game that sounded like a lot of fun when I saw it on the internet-- mummy races. However, the kiddies did not think it was fun to be all wrapped up in t.p.! Cora kept saying 'I don't want it!' and tearing it off. Oh well. Maybe next year!


Sienna (the oldest kid there) was the best mummy!


Violet tolerated it once she got her arms free.


How many kids can you fit in a playhouse??? The kids sure had a fun time there.

Saturday we went to Boo at the Zoo. The highlight was getting a picture of Cora in her giraffe costume with the giraffes. The lowlights included a 20 minute walk from the car to the zoo, a 10-15 minute wait in line to actually get into the zoo, the long lines to get hard hard candy, and the hoards of people to navigate the double stroller around once we finally got into the zoo. We voted never again for this activity!



Saturday we also had a fun time at a family celebration for my aunt who recently finished her cancer treatments. Her kids did a great job planning a fun party, and it was really nice to see family members I haven't see for quite a while.

Friday our little mommy group met up at the Benson Grist Mill for their Halloween Pumpkin Walk. We looked at the craft booths, decorated cookies, and watched the kids run around. It was a fun, low-crowd small-town flavor event. I think it would be a fun yearly tradition! It was especially cute to see the kids wander around the kiddie hay maze, and Cora really enjoyed the wagon ride and watching the two huge horses pulling us around the field.

Violet at Six Months

I finally got Violet in for her 6 month photos last week. I missed the 3 month photos, but oh well! These were done at Target, and we got several cute ones. I think I ordered some of all of these, so if you family members have a preference, let me know!

Little Friends

Cora had a great time playing with Carter on Friday while Violet and I took Kevin to his doctor's appointment. Cora loves this little slide and play structure! I've been scouting out the classifieds to find one for Christmas that she can play with in our empty basement family room. Thanks so much Brianne for watching her!

Zoo Day

Kevin had time off he had to use up before he starts his new job -- on Monday!! -- so we spent an afternoon this week at the zoo. It was such great weather, and Cora had such a fun time. That morning I told her we were going to the zoo with Daddy. She though for a moment and then said... see elephant? ... see monkey? .... see tiger? and on and on. She has liked going to the zoo in the past, but she enjoyed it and understood what was going on even more this time, it was so fun. We walked around and saw all the animals, played at the playground, and rode the train and carousel. We caught the afternoon elephant show, which was interesting. While we were waiting for it to start, one of the elephants peed. Cora saw it and said... Clean up? Clean up! I guess it was a messy elephant. We also watched some very active monkeys horsing around, and Cora told them... be nice! ... be careful! ... don't bonk your head and go to doctor! (I think this is from singing the 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed song, although she does tell me to be careful whenever I'm on a chair hanging something up or reaching for something over my head!)

It's Fall!

We took a quick trip up the canyon last night to play in the leaves. The colors were a little past their prime, but there were lots of leaves to play in!

Snow, Snow

Our day started off with SNOW! It snowed most of the morning, and even stuck to the grass and bark, but then it got slightly warmer and melted. We're supposed to have more snow tomorrow, so maybe I'll be able to post our first snow pic of the season! Kevin and I were watching the news, and the weatherman mentioned that the last snow in the valleys was March 31st.... Violet's birth day. It made us remember that snowy icy morning driving to the hospital.

We had a fun afternoon watching BYU beat New Mexico in yet another good football game. Cross your fingers they will do well on Thursday against TCU! We did appetizers for snacks/dinner, and it was the way to go. Yummy stuff that stayed hot and fresh in my crockpots (mini ones) all game long. I tried this dip for the first time, and I liked it a lot, it's a keeper! I guess it's a popular one. All it is is a block of cream cheese, a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis (Rotel is a popular brand), and a pound of cooked sausage. Good for you? No. But yummy? Yes! FYI, I think I might double the tomatoes in it next time.

We sang a song with Cora before her bedtime tonight. She likes "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam", but we hadn't showed her the jumping up actions on "-beam" before tonight for some reason. She loved it! After we sang it, she said "one more song?" so we asked her what she wanted to sing, and she said, the bunny hop song. It took us a few minutes to figure out that the sunbeam song is the bunny hop song. We got to sing it a few more times! I love it that she can express herself more and more each day and we get to know her little personality more.

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures taken in Provo in August when we were there for Education Week. I recently got the cd of all the images in the mail and had to share a few of my favorites.

Photo Tag

My friend Lisa had this tag on her blog, and I thought it was such a cute idea, I had to do it too. The tag: Post the 4th photo in my 4th photo album on my computer. Mine is a picture of Cora when she is about 2 weeks old, all snuggled up for a nap.

Anyone else want to share? Consider yourself tagged!

New Stats

Violet had her 6 month check-up on Friday. Six months! It's hard to believe she is already that old! Violet got her shots and Cora and Violet both got flu shots too, so we got updated measurements for both of them.

Cora: 34.75 inches tall, 27.5 pounds
Violet: 27 inches tall (95%), 15 pounds, 12 oz (50%)

The doctor said Violet is doing well, just 3 months ahead of the norm for sitting, crawling, and pulling up. He said she'd probably be walking by 9 months! Now that is crazy to think about.

This weekend we've enjoyed spending time with Kevin's parents visiting from Portland. Friday we hung out, and then went to Salt Lake for dinner with Kevin's aunt and Grandmother, as well as to Kevin's dad's mission reunion. Brad's mission president was Elder Ballard, so it was especially neat to hear him talk about things going on recently in the church. He spent quite a bit of time talking about Proposition 8 and the importance of preserving the sanctity of marriage.

Yesterday Kevin and I attended the afternoon session of conference, and then the girls hung out at Deseret Book and the visitor's centers on Temple Square during Priesthood session. Cora loved wearing her raincoat and splashing in the puddles-- too bad I didn't bring along her rainboots too!

Today is our day to just relax and enjoy conference. I love watching conference and just relaxing throughout the day. It's nice to have a whole low-key day, since we all caught colds being out in the rain!

Cora's latest cute thing.... When I put her down for naps or bedtime, I always say, "Stay in bed! Don't forget, stay in bed!" The last few days she'll say back to me, "Goodnight! I love you! Stay in bed! Stay in bed!". She cracks me up.

More Milestones

We've had a pretty low-key week, trying to make some major decisions and get over some minor health issues. Kevin decided to accept the job offer from the Church, and he will start working there on October 20th. It's a great career move for him and great benefits for our family, but a tricky decision... once the office moves from downtown to Riverton in 6-12 months, it will be an hour commute each way. Hopefully new UTA routes, work-in-transit opportunities, flex time, work-from-home, and van-pooling will work out while we explore our options.

I have been a little out-of-commission with bizarre health stuff. A small cut on the side of my stomach got a bad infection, the antibiotics gave me a huge itchy rash as an allergic reaction. Nothing major, and I'll spare you the icky details, but just an uncomfortable odd thing to happen! The rash should be gone in a week, until then, Benadryl is my good friend.

On to happier topics....

Violet officially crawled last Saturday! She finally figured out how to get those arms moving. Sometimes she moves her legs in a normal crawl too, sometimes she moves them both at the same time in a bunny-hop. It's pretty cute. She is thrilled! She's not super fast yet, but getting faster every day. We need to get a babygate!!


Violet has also started pulling up on objects, so I lowered her crib mattress yesterday too. Wow, she is growing up fast!

Cora's imagination is in full development now. It's so fun to watch her mind work. When she colors now, she'll tell us what the picture is, with all kinds of details. She loves to 'cook' us stuff in her playhouse and bring it to us to eat. She is such a sweet little girl.


Cora has also been staying in her bed at night-- usually all night long until 6 or so. I think it's because we started leaving the lamp on in her room. I'm still looking for a bright, cute night-light so we don't have to have the lamp on. At least it's working! Violet has been sleeping a little better at night too. The other night we slept 6 hours in a row without interruptions! It's been quite a while since that has happened. I forgot how much better I feel when it's 6 hours in a row instead of 2-3 hours spurts.

Cora loves to sing, and this is such a fun song. I remember singing it with her last summer, but she was singing it out of the blue in the car on Sunday, so they must have sung it in nursery??


Here's what she is singing, if you're not used to deciphering her brand of toddler-speak. (And she does the alligator part very softly as the alligator is making his move).

5 little monkeys swinging in a tree
Teasing Mr. Alligator, Can't catch me,
No, you can't catch me!
Along come Mr. Alligator,
quiet as can be....
and he Snatched that monkey right out of the tree!