Halloween 2014

 This cowboy preferred to feel the breeze.

 I love that Zannah is really into being a witch each year.  I hope it continues.  And I especially love babies/toddlers wearing whatever we have in the Halloween bin.

This Summer

 We sorted.

 We played.

 We grew a garden.

 We walked in high heels.

 We scooted.

 We got breathing treatments.

 We ate a lot of snow cones.

 We played by the pool.

 We dressed up and went to the park.

 We swam.

 We played with family.

 We rafted.

 We kicked back.

We may have eaten at (uggggh) McDonalds a few times.

Summer was good to us.  

Bathing babes

Island Park Family Getaway

We took a little family weekend getaway to Island Park.  We drove through Yellowstone on a fall day when the weather couldn't have been better.  We watched movies, played boardgames, sat in the hot tub, paddled around in the lake.  It was such a great weekend. 

 I may have over did my lecture on not getting too close to the edge and falling to your death.  Look at that scared face on poor Max.

Conference Weekend

Zannah Mae and Great Grandma Ethel Mae reading books together.

My parents and Grandma Firth came to enjoy Conference weekend with us. How awesome is it to have a Great Grandma almost 93 years old, who reads and plays with you.  Grandma Firth is a delight and so positive about life.  We just love her. We had airplane flying contests during the songs and Grandma got right in there and flew with us.  My dad and Marcus somehow missed out on how to make a good airplane.  Yowzers, theirs were pathetic. If I remember right, Marcus ended up wadding his plane into a ball and throwing it across the room.  

Met Met on the phone.

Soccer Season

 Max just finished his first soccer season.  It was a lot of fun.  Mainly because he really wanted to do it, so there was no begging to get dressed and out the door to practice or games.  Although he quickly learned the difference between practice days and game days and was always sorely disappointed when it wasn't game day.  He had just as good of a time doing cartwheels and flips during games as he did scoring goals, he gave everyone some good entertainment.

Bedtime

Bedtime is one of my favorite/most dreaded times.  For obvious reasons, I'm plain tuckered out by 7 o'clock and am literally counting down the seconds for little bodies to hit the hay.  On the other hand, I LOVE freshly bathed little bodies in pajamas and I really enjoy reading to them.  We read lots of easy storybooks.  But lately, Z has been letting me read condensed novels to her and it is a great time! We just finished Anne of Green Gables and then watched the movie together.  Zannah is now determined to change her name to Anne with an E, because it is "much more romantic".  She also really liked Swiss Family Robinson (we had many discussions on how we would survive in a similar situation), The Secret Garden, and The Little Princess.  The latter two had Z convinced it wouldn't be too shabby to be an orphan.  She packed up her things and hit the sidewalk several times during those books.    

Max will fall alseep promptly at 7, if we are done with our routine by then.  This may seem early, but the boy is up at 6:30 and never stops jumping, spinning, rolling, hopping, and cart-wheeling, unless I turn a show on or it is bedtime.   He also is obsessed with dressing up, so usually sleeps with some kind of apparatus on.

Zannah on the other hand doesn't require as much sleep.  She has a really hard time shutting it down. She is in her room at the same time as Max, but doesn't fall asleep till 9:30 or later.  This is her drawing/sewing/creating/imagination time.  The following picture is a common scene, though her creations are never repeated.  She is very busy during that 2 1/2 hours. She also has boycotted her bed for the last few months.

 We have made NO progress in the bed wetting arena. The money bribe didn't do it.  I know I should cut drinks off early, but it just isn't a battle I'm ready to take on yet.  I swear our kids came to us with wills of iron forged in the Mountain of  Mordor.  Max sometimes wets his bed, comes into our room where I help him change and get a fresh pull-up on, and then gets in bed with us and wets our bed in the S-A-M-E night!  Sometimes he is soaking wet and his pull-up is bone dry, sometimes both of their pull-ups are soaking wet having performed their necessary job until morning when the kids pull them off and throw them face down on the carpet, which leads to me scrubbing the carpet and swearing under my breath because washing the sheets and blankets even if it is every other day is easier than carpet scrubbing.  I try not to remember the morning Max was taking his 3 lb pull-up to the garbage swinging it like a nunchuck and somehow the entire thing exploded all over the kitchen floor and walls.  I'm really hoping that last one is funny to me someday.          

Metta Birthday Recap

 We celebrated Metta's birthday with Papa Tom and Grandma Dana first.  Metta immediately touched the flame on the candle and cried.  Oops.  We celebrated in Malad next, in which she really delved into her cake.  Swiss did a photo shoot with Miss Met and it turned out fabulous.  Metta's favorite toys are the stairs and sitting in carseats (unbuckled of course) or any stool/chair.  She loves to get toilet paper and blow her own nose.  She also likes to try to dress herself and undress herself.  One day my dad said to me, "What would you do without Met?"  A wave of gratitude washed over me.  I don't know what I would do.   She is just a perfect little miracle for our family.