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.