I love Baby Blues

Tiny Tim

Violet learned this super cute song in nursery and has been singing it all around since.

Ogden Dinosaur Park

I tried to keep us pretty busy last week, as Kevin was gone Tuesday-Friday for a work conference in Chicago. I'm pretty lucky he only goes away for work once a year, but it still made me a bit nervous, especially since the kiddos were on and off sick before and while he was gone (they took turns, isn't that great?? :S ). Luckily we finished off the week all healthy.

We did storytime at the library, went to a Primary pizza party and Primary program practice, played with friends, worked on preschool homework, went on a preschool field trip, went to Cornbelly's, and had one lovely day all at home just reading and relaxing. A kind friend had us over for a yummy dinner and it was so nice to have a little break. We did minimal housework and errands, ate easy meals, and just enjoyed being together. Probably something we should do more often, even if Kevin is in town! It was a great week, and if the kids wouldn't have had issues sleeping at night, it would have been easy-peasy.

I had a bunch of activities on papers in a hat to draw out and do. I was amazed at how much this increased the excitement factor for the girls! I guess it's another thing we should continue. We also made birdseed cupcakes (after reading Riki's Birdhouse, from one of my favorite kids' book series).
We also used a free pass to visit the Ogden Dinosaur Park. I hadn't ever been, and it was a little pricey, so it was good to have a pass. It was also great to have a beautiful sunny day to be out walking. It was such a pleasant afternoon. The only thing I would have changed would be to not go during October-- their Halloween decorations were quite graphic, lots of bloody appendages hanging all over the place and even a bloody mannequin trapped in the hood of a car. They must be going for a teen scene for the evenings or something. Luckily whenever the girls asked what those creepy things were, I was able to gloss over it and redirect their attention. We're so close to a great dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point that I'm not sure we'll go here again anytime soon, but it was great to go once and see what it is all about.

The girls had fun at the dinosaur themed playground.

Cora on the pterodactyl slide.

Luke doesn't get to swing often, so he was thrilled! He was giving us the loudest giggles!

The park is 9 acres of dinosaurs to explore and a playground. Inside there's a small museum and a robotic dinosaur display of a T rex and a mama triceratops with her two babies. Cora and Violet were totally freaked out, but they did want to stay and watch for a long long time. Just as far away from the display as they could get! Luke was the only one who would get close enough for a picture.
Cora wanted to go back inside later and after watching the dinosaurs for another long while, proclaimed she wasn't scared anymore. It was a fun afternoon.

We had a great, although pictureless weekend to follow, with Kevin home again. BYU won, our Herriman library is finally open and had a great opening celebration complete with Curious George, a princess, a clown, and crafts, Kevin took the girls to Toy Story 3 in the dollar theater, Kissie and Pata spent the night Saturday to see Cora int he Primary Program, Cora did a terrific job singing and saying her part, and we had a yummy family dinner at Shad and Jen's Sunday night. This week we are busy doing Halloween stuff-- it's coming so soon! The girls are so excited to be Belle (Cora) and Snow White (Violet). Now we just have to cross our fingers that it won't rain!

Cornbelly's

I caught a great deal last month buying half-off season passes to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. I was pretty excited about it, considering Cora had a 2 1/2 week preschool break and Kevin had an out-of-town conference in October too. We've been twice so far (all we needed to go to make it worth it) and I hope to go once more this week when the weather turns sunny again. I hadn't been before, but it was so much fun with so much to do.

Violet didn't care for the jumping pillows, but she loved this guy!

You can see Cora sliding down the pillow in the middle of the picture. She loved it!

These water pumps also kept the kids' attention for a long time. Those ducks got a workout going back and forth over and over and over.

The girls LOVED these singing chickens. On the first day, with Jaxon and Amber, we sat here for about 45 minutes at the end of our visit just relaxing and watching the chickens sing and tell chicken jokes. I got to feed Luke, Amber and I visited instead of just chasing kids together, and the kids were fascinated. Maybe I do foresee a trip to Chuck E. Cheese in our future!

Pumpkinland

Cora's preschool had a field trip last week to Pumpkinland in Orem. It's so nice that the preschool is so family-friendly-- I was able to take Luke and Violet, and I didn't have to pay entry fees for any of us. The kids all had a lot of fun looking at the huge gardens, playing on the Halloween-themed playsets and having a special witches brew snack. We picked out some tomatoes, butternut squash, and mini pumpkins to take home.

My three pumpkins!

Luke -- mid month 9

Luke has been loving an increased variety in his diet. He likes yogurt, string cheese, deli meat, and pretty much anything we are eating too!

Just about the only good thing about the continual construction on our street is the Luke loves the view. He can sit here and watch the trucks go in and out for quite a span of time.
It's like a little boy's best dream!
Luke went to the doctor today for his 9 month checkup. We did a few weeks later so he could get his second flu shot. He is now 16.87 pounds, and 27.76 inches long. Still such a little guy! He's down to 2% for weight and 23% for height. The doctor said we could come in for a weight check if we are worried, but since he eats really well and just started crawling, and has chubby cheeks and thighs, she isn't worried and thinks he's normal for him. So we'll just continue offering him more high protein and good fat food and see how it goes!

Luke pulled up to standing for the first time yesterday, and climbed his first stair today. Yikes! We need to figure out how to Luke-proof our stairs!

Catching Up

Cora has been loving her preschool this year. She has done lots of fun things already and is learning lots. I've been very impressed with it too! And I LOVE being able to carpool. It's not very far away at all, maybe a 3 minute drive, but to only have to buckle everyone up to pick up instead of picking up and dropping off, is great! At the end of September, Violet and Luke and I joined the preschool field trip to the Herriman fire station. The firemen showed us around their digs and the kids got to see a fireman in all his gear and the fire truck. I thought it was great that they talked about stop, drop, and roll, and showed the kids what the firemen would be wearing so the kids wouldn't hide or be scared of them if they were in a fire. Two of the kids in the preschool actually have dads who are firefighters, but not for this station.
Conference weekend we were lucky to be able to see lots of family members! Aunt Jen, from North Carolina, finally got to meet little Luke! Kevin's parents also were in town for four days. On Friday we took the Welfare Square tour and went to Silver Lake in the afternoon. I've never been there in the fall before, it was beautiful!
The rest of our days were spent playing in the backyard, taking a last swim in the neighborhood pool, taking walks, visiting with more family members, and watching General Conference. Conference was a good experience! We actually got to watch a lot of it, compared to other past sessions. The kids either played quietly doing puzzles or crafts by us, were napping, or watching Veggie Tales in the other room. I loved the General Conference talks and am interested in spending more time reading them and digesting them more.

On Thursday Kissie came out to watch Luke so Violet and I could go to preschool with Cora. I have been wanting to go help and see what it is all about, since I know I don't always get the whole story from Cora! I loved being able to see what she does there and understand more how the school operates. Violet was a little tired by the end missing her naptime, but absolutely loved it and got to join right in with most of the activities. I'm curious if she'll be sad not going to preschool with Cora from now on! She'll just have to wait until next year!

We rounded out the last of the week with a visit to the Humanitarian Center with friends. It was a neat tour and a good reminder why we need to do some fall sorting to donate more items. It is amazing to see how much the Church does to help people all around the world. Although I think a lot of it was over the girls' heads, I think it is great to start exposing them to the fact that not all kids have toys, food, blankets, or clean water, and that we can help with that.

The girls have been really interesting in snoring and snorting lately. Great, huh? At least they are little enough that it's still cute... at least to me! While I was reading Violet books the other night, she did this by accident, and was so pleased with herself, she did it over and over. She's really enjoying her new skill.



Cora learned this poem for Grandparents Day at preschool a few weeks ago. She loves it, especially the ending!



Here are the words:

Here are Grandma's glasses,
Here is Grandma's hat,
Grandma claspes her hands and
rests them in her lap.

Here are Grandpa's glasses,
Here is Grandpa's hat,
Grandpa folds his arms
and takes a little nap.

Luke at Nine Months

This little cutie pie turned nine months old on Thursday!
And even though most of our pictures of Luke look like this nowadays....
I managed to capture a few more than that the last few days. Luke is always on the move. He is still doing the caterpillar crawl, but is also doing some all-fours crawling as well. Now that he's wearing long pants, I think he might just start realizing that all fours is a faster mode of travel.

Of course, the problem with crawling is that your hands can't carry anything. Got teeth? Problem solved!

Luke now has four teeth-- two on bottom and two on top (that finally came through-- they are huge and must have hurt!). The better to carry balls with!

Luke has surprised me a few times after naptime by being up on his knees... time to lower the crib!
Luke is chewing on everything he can possibly get his hands on. He especially loves these finger puppet people from a soft Little Red Riding Hood book.
He also loves the little wood food disks that decorate Cora and Violet's pizza and birthday cakes in their play kitchen. He'll pop those right in, and do just about anything to get them from where I've hidden them!
Luke will practically jump out of his high chair with excitement when he sees the Cheerio box come out. He also likes bits of bagel and pretty much whatever we're having in addition to his baby food. Sometimes if he's feeling especially playful he'll blow veggie bubbles out at us. What a mess! Luke's preferred method of telling me he is done nursing is to bite... so we're working on that. He nurses best when he is super sleepy at night or first thing in the morning, when he's too tired to be distracted.
Luke has discovered the fun of pushing stools around, opening drawers, and the pleasing sound that banging a drawer shut makes. It must be a great sound, because he also loves to bang toys on the wood floor or wherever else he can make a big loud sound.
Luke loves the musical instrument toys and knows right where they are kept-- under the chair in the family room. He'll head right for the chair, pull the box out, and start playing away. The cymbals and clapper toys are the favorites. He also makes a beeline for anything with wheels... the doll strollers, cars, Cinderella's carriage... it doesn't matter what size, he just loves wheels!
Luke loves attention from all his family members and will usually put up with us playing with him pretty well too.

Luke started saying 'na-na' last week. The girls said it's his first word-- 'No!'. It's fun to hear him experiment with his consonants more. Today we also heard him say 'ma-ma' for the first time too. I'll be waiting to the first purposeful Mama coming in the next few months!

We are so blessed to have Luke in our family!

Something to aspire to

I was reading an article on the passing of Sister Barbara B. Smith, former Relief Society general president. I really liked how her son described her:

"She was a shining example-- no one doubted that she had an absolute sureness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and knew that by following the precepts and teaching of the gospel, we would receive eternal joy and happiness. She taught that to her children.

She was the same in her private life as she was in her public life.... She associated with kings and queens and leaders throughout the world, and she treated her family just the same as she treated them."

Our Week

Monday we went up to Snowbird and used a free tram pass I was given to see the fall colors. It was a pretty drive, and the girls had fun riding the aerial tram. The top was super windy, so they saw a few views and afterward just wanted to eat snacks in the warming shed until the next tram went down. Sigh. Oh well, at least it was free!
We hit the Farmer's Market on Tuesday. I love getting the fresh produce, and I love that there are markets not too far from us almost every day of the week!

I saw Hamlet on Thursday-- I'm volunteer ushering again this year at Pioneer Theatre. Hamlet was my least anticipated play of the season. Good, but long. The end was a surprise since I haven't revisited the play since sophomore History and Lit class at BYU. Yes, just about everyone dies in the end.

Friday we did a nice fall visit to Wheeler Farm, where the main attraction was sitting on the old farm equipment, not the animals who were all hiding due to the high temperatures.

Saturday was another fun day outside. We all headed to the SoJo races. I ran the 5K, Cora ran the kids race, and Kissie ran the marathon.

Here I am! The race was actually pretty easy for me since it was flat and I'm used to running the hills around here. No, it did not take me an hour and a half, the time clock is for the half marathoners who started coming in a bit after me. I ran it in 29.5 minutes, and maybe could have run faster had I not forgotten my running watch at home and had an inkling of my pace and distance! It was a lot of fun.
Cora has been asking to run in a race for months-- I think inspired by us watching Kissie run her marathons. Cora was so excited! She insisted on wearing these tall pink socks.
Here she is at the back of the group at the starting line. She was the smallest one by far!
Kevin ran with her for a little way to keep her company. Here she is going into the finish-- I loved that they let the little kids use the same finish line as the grown-up racers!
There she is at the finish. It was a half mile run. Later that afternoon she asked if she could run another race next week! We'll have to go do more running at our park. I think the end of race treats helped her enjoy it even more though. They had a ton of stuff-- icecream, fruit, chicken sandwiches, muffins, cookies. It was stocked!
Then we hung out at the park and waited for the marathoners to come along. Luke was a great sport and did so well in the stroller pretty much the whole time.
I don't have any pictures of Kissie finishing, but she did a great job too! It was SO HOT that day, and she finished a little after noon, really late in the day to be finishing a marathon. I think they had them start later because of possibly cooler fall weather. In Utah you just never know!

Today we went for a drive on the Alpine Loop after church. Yup, us and just about everyone else in Northern Utah. It was so crowded, we had to wait quite a while at the entrance and there was a lot of traffic on the road. But we saw some pretty scenery! We stopped at Cascade Springs, which I've only been to once (and that was 7 years ago when I was touring wildfires for my job-- so this was much more scenic). It was a fun place, and I'd love to go there again sometime-- with fewer crowds. Violet was tired and reclined in the stroller the whole time, Luke enjoyed people-watching from the Snugli, and Cora was a trooper walking a bunch in the heat-- no cooler mountain temps today! (Yes, Cora insisted on this outfit this afternoon. I only got to steer her a little bit, this is better than it could have been! I might have insisted more had I realized just how many people we would be seeing. Yes, I realize I should let go of wanting to decide what she wears when.)
We'll definitely have to visit again, maybe in June during the day midweek!