happenings

Kate, face-planting it onto Colin's bed. She loves to snuggle with pillows and blankets.

She was playing on the bed while Dad and Colin wrestled. I don't have a non-blurry picture of the boys.

Kate in all her fat-faced glory.

Colin and Mary playing one day. Mary is in 7th grade this year, so she went to school a day before the 8th and 9th graders and then had the official 1st day of school off. Since no one else was at her house, she came over to our house to play. Yes, Colin is wearing a bandana like a loincloth/apron.

One of Colin's new favorite games is cooking. He will pull out the dishes he is allowed to play with and make food for me. He usually prepares ice cream, brownies, lasagna ("basanya"), cookies.

All foods, including ice cream, have to go in the oven to cook. He will slide the door open, put the dishes inside, close the door, turn the knob on the receiver to "set the timer," and then check on the food. He always says, "Nope. Few more minutes," when he checks the first time. Then he will get the food out and bring it to me to sample. I have to eat bites, and sometimes I have to feed him bites too.

I made a bow holder for all of Kate's hair accessories. (Bald accessories?) It was cheap and easy, just like your mom. (BAZINGA!)

So cute. I am crafty.

One evening Nate brought home work so I took the kids to the park to play for an hour. Colin loves the bridge.

He's such a cheeser.

This was a fast slide. He was not prepared.

This is the playground at an elementary school. It's pretty awesome. It is also a lot different than it was when I went to school there.

The children did not want to cooperate for a picture.

In fact, Kate didn't want to look at me at all.

I just love her.

This is a Classic Kate Face. Oh the joys of getting new teeth.

Her furrowed brow cracks me up.

We went to the county fair again this year. It wasn't as big of a disappointment since we knew what to expect. It was hot though.

Colin talking to the sheeps.

Awww.

Papa liked showing the animals to Colin. Or Colin to the animals. I'm not sure which.

Hey! He looked at me for a picture!

Granny and Papa and the kids looking at the big pigs (who were having good dreams, according to Colin).

There was a Plink-O game for something. I don't remember. We all won an Otter Pop though.

Kate got her first taste of the delicious treat.

Colin watching some baby goats and their mom in the children's area.

There were also some cute little piglets in that area. One piglet camped out in the water container. I think his brother was jealous. And probably thirsty.

Kate and Papa chilling out max and relaxing all cool.

Okay, I know I might be biased, but I'm pretty sure these are the cutest baby-in-tub pictures ever. EVER.

Ouch! Colin strikes again. I don't know what to do to stop him from biting her.

After our walk one morning Kate was looking a little cold, so she got all bundled up in brown and pink. I got a little carried away. And I forgot a skirt.

Who dressed this kid?

He is cute. He was covering himself up with his blanket, but he was also trying to lay it out on the floor too. Silly boy.

Today while I was blogging. Look at those legs! Hubba-hubba.

I was taking pictures of Kate, and naturally someone felt like he couldn't be left out. Cheese!

And this is why I was taking pictures of Kate. Her hair cracks me up.

She stands! She's pretty good at standing, and she can take a few steps before she topples over, but usually she just wants to get back down and crawl. Also, does anyone else think her shadow looks super creepy in this picture?

I love my kids. The end.

please bless...

Colin is getting very good at saying his prayers at night. He will (usually) kneel down and try to be reverent, and he repeats what we prompt him to say. He's starting to interject his own words into his prayers at random times. He's prayed several times for Savannah, a little girl in our ward. Maybe he has a crush on her. Tonight he said to please bless the Nelsons (Mary's other family), Teresa (Larsen I assume, whom he has met twice), Uncle Seth and Uncle Grant (we were trying to get him to pray for Uncle Ethan the missionary), and the zombies. Yep, zombies. "Please bless the zombies..." Before you think that he's completely off his rocker, know that he has watched my brothers play a game called Plants Vs. Zombies. He has asked a few times to go downstairs and see the zombies. But tonight is the first time he has prayed for them. I wish I could see what goes on in that kid's brain sometimes...

the platypus shirt

Behold the awesomeness that is the platypus shirt.

happy anniversary!

Nate and I snuck away from the kids (and paid a real live baby-sitter to watch the little ones since grandmas were unavailable) for a few hours this afternoon. We ate lunch, went bowling, and did a little shopping for the kids. We wanted to go to the shooting range, but that didn't work out. We had so much fun just hanging out together, acting like a couple of goofs. Nate wore his new Platypus shirt. I did not wear my new BYU football jersey, but I did think of it fondly. The only regret I have is that we didn't bring the camera to get pictures of ourselves bowling. I had to buy socks and they went halfway up my shins. It was awesome. Also, Wii bowling is way better than regular bowling—it's not expensive and not heavy and not embarrassing. Happy anniversary dear one! Love you!

sleep and beans and stuff

I do not enjoy getting behind on my blog. It doesn't feel like we've been up to much, or that I have taken many pictures, but I still have tons of pictures on my camera to unload. The highlight of this week is that Kate is finally sleeping through the night, and she's in another room! We haven't gotten her in with Colin yet, but at least she's no longer in my bedroom. Getting her to sleep through the night was really just a matter of getting her in another room I think. She's done great so far. It took a little tough love the first 2 or 3 nights, but since then she's gone right to bed and stayed asleep. Nate's good with the tough love part. I'm not. If it weren't for him I would be in there giving her snuggles every time she made a noise. I can't help it. Nate makes me stay in my room and watch a show turned up loud enough that I am distracted from the weeping and wailing. It's a good thing we get to be parents together.

My sister, Heather, came home from South Africa this week. This was also exciting, but not as exciting as Kate sleeping. She's been doing a field study thing through BYU in East London, South Africa. (Apparently they are very directional down there.) She came home all fancy with her African beads and her tongue clicking and her world-traveler, hipster attitude. Just kidding, she's great. And it's nice to have her home, especially since she is willing to baby-sit my kids.

We have been canning green beans from the garden for what feels like decades. I think we're about finished with that finally. We're still getting green beans, just not in quantities that we can can. Can can. We were canning 10-15 quarts of beans twice a week. It was tedious, to say the least. Colin loved it. His grandparents and cousins came over, he got to play in the garden, and he got to snap the beans into pieces.

Diana and Sarah came over to play one day, but I didn't take any pictures. We were supposed to swim in the pool, but instead it rained and we played inside.

Tomorrow is my anniversary. Nate and I have been married for 6 years! Woohoo! I have a feeling we'll be married for even longer, but that it will take a while.

Here are some pictures from the end of July when we were working on green beans. Bry is my special helper.

The girls were really helpful—they were even kind to Colin as he learned how to snap the beans.

A few beans.

A blurry picture I don't feel like deleting.

A beautiful fuzzy baby.

Colin with his friend Spencer.

Everyone thinks it is so cute when their toddlers dress up in their shoes and push their strollers around the house. It's still okay when it's a boy toddler, right?

It was "cold" one day, so the kids got to wear long pants. They loved looking out the window and watching the storm.

They were also adorable as they chased each other around on Kate's blanket.

Watching out the window again.

Another bean-picking day. This time we set Colin up with his own little station by Papa.

I just loved how he was posed during his nap. It would be cuter if I turned the picture, but I won't.

Kate likes to try taking her shirt off. It gets annoying at meal times, but at other times it is cute. (Colin thought it looked like fun too.)

Kate is good at balancing. She can stand on her own for a few seconds at a time, too.

I have several pictures of Colin smiling and sitting exactly like this.