under the big top

We went to the circus this weekend and had a lot of fun. The kids were actually really good. I didn't know how they would do sitting for so long but they made it...they were a little restless during some of the slower (on the boring side) acts but that's when we would re-introduce the bucket of popcorn to try to contain them. Non of my pictures turned out very well but here are a couple that kind of did.
We took the train there and back and the kids loved that.


We got down to the main floor to see the elephant before the show and it was there like 5 seconds before they took it backstage to get ready (we didn't get there early enough). I thought of burning all of our pairs of shoes though after seeing what the elephants did on that floor during the show. As we were heading up to our seats, I saw some buckets of sawdust against the wall and thought, "hmmm, I wonder what that's for." I found out during the elephant act. Yikes!

puppy love and a field trip

Yesterday, Grace got to play with our neighbor's puppy, George. She loves to be chased by anything and she really loves to get the puppies to chase her around the yard.

This little guy is so funny because if she lays down, he jumps on her like they are wrestling. She just laughs and laughs. I, of course, couldn't get a good shot of it but you can kind of see how he's on her legs as she's getting up here.

I love the look of pure joy she has here with George chasing after her.

After all the chasing, she carried him around for a while. Her face is painted because they talked about bunnies at school yesterday and made bunny ears too but they were ripped by the time she got home.

Today was her first preschool field trip to the pet store and she had lots of fun. She is looking at some (very expensive) puppies here.

Luke was expressing his desire to be lifted up to see the rodents above the puppies here. The rodent section (my term, not theirs) had everything from bunnies to rats/mice and even a chinchilla!

I wanted to take this cute little puppy home with us but didn't happen to have $800 on me.

Here is Grace with her cute little class. There are just the 4 of them in her class, but the whole preschool was on this trip.

Oh, Grace.

Does this picture violate some kind of content restriction?? I had to take a picture of this the other morning. Grace has been pulling her diaper open in her jammies lately and then she pees and it all comes running out the open side so, go figure, she's peeing the bed with a diaper on. So I decide that I'm going to fix her and I have started putting her to bed in a blanket sleeper so she can't open her diaper up....joke's on me as is evidenced by this picture here. She had to have been freezing! You can kind of see how the sheets are soaked under where her feet are. She was all huddled up trying to avoid where it was wet (which on this particular day was all over!). She had to have slept like that all night because her diaper, which was on the floor next to her bed, was bone dry. Needless to say, I have started to safety pin her blanket sleeper shut and so far she hasn't figured out a way around that (cross my fingers).

ward camp out

A few brave families headed up to our stake property for our ward camp out last weekend. It was a little bit cold and a little bit rainy but still lots of fun. Thank goodness for enough neighbors to help me keep track of my kids! Buck was at football so I went on my own. It wasn't so bad. We had a few Murphy's moments but I expect that when I'm camping. I didn't sleep very well because I was so worried that my kids had come out of their blankets and were freezing. Luke did great but Grace kept inching up out of her sleeping bag. These aren't the best pictures but it's hard when it's that dark to get a good one...especially when you are blindly aiming the camera in the general direction of your subject. You couldn't see through the lens to see what you were photographing.


This silly pole kept Grace entertained for a good 30 minutes or so with breaks for licorice every few minutes.


This is Rachel , Suzanne, Zella & Trace. Little baby Zella never fussed once. She was an angel!

Here is Cheryl, Susan, Grace, Oaklee, Kevin, Averee, Julie & Hayden.

Oaklee, Me, Lucas.

Susan, Kevin, Averee, Julie, Hayden.

Mmm! Licorice!
There were some other families camping too but they were up underneath the big pavilion. I think we should all camp at the spots up there so we don't have to walk up the big hill to get to it next year. Then we could all eat our dinners under the shelter of the pavilion in case it rains again!! Oh, well. I'm just glad not to be in charge of it so whatever...
The next morning I was scrambling to get my tent down before a big gray cloud came and dumped on us. Ali and Thayn were helping me and after all the poles were out the rain started to come and I said let's just stuff it in the car, I'll fold it up at home! Well, silly me, I forgot that my keys and cell phone were still in the tent and only remembered this fact after it was all jammed in my car and the rain was pouring!! It was quite the chore to find them in the tent, in the car but I did eventually.

little princess

I really have nothing to say. I just wanted to put on these pictures of my kids because I thought Grace looked so cute in her new sparkly dress yesterday. She fought me about wearing it but once she got it on and felt how silky the material is, she loved it. It's a hand-me-down (we have such a great hook-up for them...thanks Ross and J if you're reading this!) and there are adorable gold sandals that match but they are unfortunately too big for her still. I tried having her wear them but her toes kept falling out of where they should be and they would be dangling around her ankle.

a collection...

This is a little collection of the funny places that Grace has fallen asleep. I think most of them you have seen before. I was looking through my pictures and thought how funny it was that there were so many funny spots she has dozed off.

Fall is in the air

I am LOVING the cooler weather we have been having. I love to open all my windows and have the breeze blow through my house! I also love Fall (and Spring) because it is so easy to have a beautiful green lawn. Despite our best efforts this year, we still got some dry spots in our lawn...mostly in the back... but there is something about rain that makes everything so green. It seems like one day of rain makes more of a difference than a week of sprinkler watering. I just try not to think about the fact that fall brings winter....
Fall also has brought allergies to our house. Mine started acting up a couple days ago and so did my kids. I never had allergies as a kid like my kids do. Lucas has been coughing since 5:00 this morning. I guess I need to ask the doctor if he can have a bigger dose of his medicine because I think he could but what do I know?? Grace has them too but not nearly as bad as Luke. Maybe just because he is younger.
Grace's van driver has been coming about 7:45 the last 3 days and today she showed up at 7:30. I was so not ready for her. Grace was sitting on her training potty with no pants or anything. She wakes up dry almost every morning and I am so frustrated that I can't harness this into using the potty regularly. Anyway, I happened to look out the window and see her van outside so I hastily pull her off the potty and get her pants on then run out the door with her shoes and jacket in hand and finish getting her dressed while buckling up in the van. When I came back inside, I realized that there was actually pee in her potty and I didn't check before so I wasn't able to give her any praise for her good work and let her pick out a treat. This is a huge thing for me because pee is what she wasn't doing on the potty. She poops fine (when I catch her doing it...she still doesn't notify me when it's time).
Well, I guess I ought to make today a day to get stuff done as I ended up spending the day reading the "leaked" Midnight Sun chapters on the internet all day yesterday. I stop functioning when I am absorbed in a book-- as is evident by my messy messy house!