Eleven Months

Leah is ELEVEN months old!

 October was just filled with clapping, crawling, and teething!

 You had five teeth come in this month, for a grand total of eight.  That made for some moody, needy days and nights, but we got through it.

Every day is filled with being busy.  You are constantly tugging on our legs to pull yourself up, following us to wherever the action seems to be, and showing your curiosity in one year old ways.

You especially want to be wherever Noah and Luke are, particularly if it involves being outside.  Get those little legs walking, and we'll make it happen!

 You giggled with pride when you figured out how to unroll ALL of the toilet paper.

Pulling all of the sandwich bags out of the box was fun to try and kept you busy while I tried to make dinner.  A win for us both (except I had to clean it up).

You've gotten yourself into some pretty precarious positions all in the name of exploring and trying things out.

 

Thankfully, your brothers are especially watchful, and we all come to the rescue when you're hollering for help.

You borrowed my clothes again and looked just darling in this little pinafore dress.

 

And you were the cutest pumpkin in the patch for Halloween and the Trunk or Treat party at church.

 You continue to love people, and will go to anyone who asks to hold you: moms on Noah's soccer team, friends at church, just about anyone.  You love absolutely love hugs, both giving and receiving.  I think getting you out of your crib first thing in the morning has got to be one of my favorites right now because it's always followed up by a handful of sweet big, armed hugs from you.

But new for this month, and completely unrelated, is that you are crazy in the bathtub!  You put your face in the water, slip and slide everywhere while we try to keep a firm grip, and squeal when the faucet is running and you put your head under it.  Seriously, you are a hazard in the tub!  It's part hilarious and part a whole lot of work when it comes to bath time!

 Oh, I love this age!  You are starting to sleep better (FINALLY! HURRAY!), and it seems like every day we get a new glimpse into your personality and who you will really be in the coming months and years.  And, boy do we sure love who you're becoming.  You are just sunshine, so full of love and happiness, and we could not ask for more!

Kindergarten and Joy School Fun

The week before Halloween was a busy one! On Monday we went to Bishops, Tuesday I started my two week turn of teaching Joy School with a field trip to Zittle's Pumpkin Patch, and on Friday I volunteered in Noah's class for Scarecrow Day.  It was exhausting and so much fun!

Sweet Luke.  He sure loved that we left Leah with a friend, and it was just the two of us for a while.

 This group of three year olds is a treat to teach!  They are buckets of fun, and so much easier to teach than my first go with Joy School two years ago. 

I invited another Joy School group to join us so there was no shortage of friends on that rainy, perfect pumpkin patch weather morning.

 

 Luke field tripped with Noah's class the past two years, but I didn't know he actually remembered it. He knew a lot of the answers that were asked, and loved sharing what he knows.

 Noah and I were both excited beyond words for Scarecrow Day.  His teacher's scheduled time for parent volunteers doesn't line up with my mom life/schedule for now, so I haven't been in the classroom at all.  Finally, I was getting a chance to see how things run and get a feel for the climate in Noah's classroom.  

I loved being there! And I'm pretty sure Noah loved that I was there too.  Along with thanking me at least a dozen times, he was not shy about telling all kinds of kids that "MY mom is the one over there doing the face painting."

I was not too thrilled to be assigned face painting by Mrs. Chan, but I fulfilled my responsibility.  Face painting is definitely not my talent, but it passed the judgement of five and six year olds just fine.

I caught a picture of Noah and Everett during a quick break from face painting.

And Noah jumped into a picture with his buddy Peyton.

What a great week though! Field trip and teaching with one and spending the morning with another in his classroom.  This is literally the stuff my mama dreams are made of!

100 Days, so to Bishop's We Go!

Back in June we had a Family Home Evening lesson about scripture reading.  That night we set a goal to read the Book of Mormon for 100 days without missing a day.  It just seemed too easy to skip a day sometimes: getting home too late, being too tired, or just forgetting.  I wanted something to change, and that change needed to be permanent.  So I printed a hundreds chart, and we started marking it off one day at at time.  That chart went to Tahoe with us three times, on a camping trip with the boys in the family, and just became a part of our every day routine.  And that's exactly what we were aiming for when it comes to scripture reading.  We talked of a reward for all of us when we reached 100 days.  A family council was held, ideas for celebration were shared, and a vote was taken: Bishop's Pumpkin Farm was the winner, which is what Nate and I had kind of planned on all along.  It didn't take any convincing on our part.

 So on Monday we all picked Noah up from kindergarten, and headed straight to Wheatland.   None of us have been to Bishop's before, but the boys had looked at pictures and a map of the place online, so they had an agenda of must do's for the day.

One of those was Coyote Mountain.

Between panning for marbles and going down the long, fast slides, this was a great spot to play.

Noah and Luke were all smiles for the carousel too.

 

And so was Leah while she watched all of the fun.  But this girl is all smiles all the time if she's with Dad.

We stopped at the 'How Tall This Fall?' sign.

 

And we also took a train ride.

 

Actually we took the train twice, because on a celebration day you say 'YES!' to everything, including a plea to ride the train a second time.

 The petting farm was filled with cute baby pigs, a giant hog, sheep and these hungry goats, among other animals.  Noah and I laughed as this goat scarfed down the food we bought for him, while Luke whined saying, "I'm allergic to this farm smell!" over and over.

Love this boy, and I loved that he shared his apple with me.

There are lots of fun places to take pictures at Bishops.  Between the weather starting to turn cold, Leah just barely waking up from a nap, and Luke suffering from eating too many cookies, we didn't capture quite what I would have liked to.  But we'll be back, and what we got was good enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 It wasn't until long after this picture was taken that I realized the position we had put Leah in.  Oops!

It also wasn't until after this picture was taken by a stranger that I saw Leah had leaned over to hug Noah.  Oh, that girl.  She's just a lover. 

And I loved this day of celebration.  Nate had just finished a month of working late and on Saturdays.  Being together, celebrating together, and experiencing something new to all of us was the perfect kind of fun for this family.

September Bits

 We spent Labor Day weekend in Tahoe.  

I love that our kids already have dozens of fun memories of this special place.  

Heavenly Village was busy, so the boys tried out the overpriced trampolines while we waited for a table to be ready for dinner.

We only got shadowy pictures, but those little jumpers sure had fun.  Nate and I were both proud of them for trying a new thing that seemed fun and a bit scary to both of them at first.

They took out the Arctic Cat one afternoon.

And both Noah and Luke loved playing a few rounds of Headbanz after church on Sunday with Nate.

I can't get enough pictures of my kids in the bath together.  It's just cuteness overload!

 

 I had some leftover pizza dough so Luke and I turned it into a few tiny cinnamon rolls one morning.

 This boy loves to be in the kitchen to create and eat!

He also loves to clean toilets, which I definitely don't mind having a helper for.

 

Leah loves our friend Elise, and, oh my, Elise sure loves her right back.  Any time we're with Elise she asks to hold Leah.  

 

And sometimes she even sneaks away from her mom in sacrament meeting to come give our girl some snuggles.

We invited a bunch of friends to come and join us for the homecoming parade.

 

 We're finally settled into the schedule and routine of kindergarten.  Noah, especially, is loving it.

He's reading, writing, and just so happy to be in school.  

 We attended our first Gators on the Green night at Gallardo.  There was food, face painting, and lots of activities for the kids to do.

But the highlight of the night was seeing Clifford.  Those smiles tell it all.