avery likes to talk

At 18 months old, Drake loved to talk.

At 18 months old, Graham did not love to talk.

At 18 months old, Avery is definitely a talker.

She loves to talk, even if we can't understand her all of the time. I love listening to her talk.

She often mimics what we say, but she does have several phrases that she uses on her own, and in the right context. So I sat her down one day to see if she would repeat some of her phrases for me on camera. She didn't talk as much as she usually does, but this will give you an idea anyway...

We love our little chatterbox.

two peas in a pod

One night (well, there are lots of nights, but this story is about just one of those), Graham was having a hard time. We got up with him a couple times before midnight, then he slept through the night after that.

In the morning, we discovered why he had slept through the night. He had climbed the ladder and slept the rest of the night in Drake's bed.

The second night, he didn't wake up once. Shad and I were excited, and went into their room the next morning to find a similar situation. The only difference was that this time, Drake had left his own bed, and joined Graham in his.

For the next week or more, Drake would happily allow Graham to climb into bed with him after they said their prayers, and they would fall asleep together.

Graham has slept through the night every night since (with the exception of just a few times he got out of bed early in the night to get a drink of water).

I think it is so sweet that they are able to sleep in the same bed, especially because they both move around quite a bit throughout the night.

I figured that Drake wouldn't always allow Graham to sleep in his bed, but I was glad as long as he was willing.

Graham sleeps much better when he knows someone is right there with him.

The night finally came when we were helping Graham up to Drake's bed, and Drake decided he wanted to sleep by himself.

Graham was surprisingly okay with that, for that night. But the very next night, Graham had a hard time going to bed. Drake immediately volunteered to sleep in Graham's bed with him. Problem solved.

To this day, Drake still climbs into bed with Graham, every single night.

I know it won't last forever, but I'll enjoy it while I can.

It just makes me happy.

Miracles for Tegan

A little while back, Shad's sister e-mailed us to let us know that one of her friends who lives in our town has a little girl named Tegan that was diagnosed with cancer. That week they were doing an ice cream social to help raise money for Tegan. If you know me, I'm not one to usually pass up on ice cream, especially when it's for a good cause. But when the night arrived, my two youngest were already very tired and fussy. They were not in the right mood for me to take them somewhere public and expect them to behave nice and quiet, and Shad was at a meeting so I didn't have back-up. So we didn't go.

Well this morning there was a craft show fundraiser for Tegan. Shad was out of town, but it was in the morning, so I knew my kids would most likely be in good moods.

It was held at our local Mystique Theater.

The kids were very cooperative, and had a good time looking at all the stuff.

And I was happy to contribute a little to helping out Tegan and her family.

If you're interested in reading about or helping Tegan and her family, you can go to their website here: http://miraclefortegan.blogspot.com/

And just below the main picture on that page is a link to Tegan's own blog where they give updates and info on what and/or how she's doing.

It was neat to see my kids interested in helping Tegan out. I think they're still upset I didn't buy more stuff. :)

bread and butter

Graham wanted a piece of bread with butter. I told him to help himself because I was in the middle of something.

So he did.

And yes, with the help of Drake and Avery, it was eaten all gone.

october in review

My kids really do get along well. But just like any other kids, little things that don't go just the way they want them to, can become a really big deal.

Here's just one example: the boys were playing ball in the backyard.

Something not to Graham's liking happened. I don't remember what it was.

Shad comforted him.

But life is still hard sometimes.

Avery trying on her new dollar store attire for the winter.

We did finally have our first snow.

Sanding our entertainment center that we bought for cheap.

The kids "helped" a lot.

A line of school buses... and horses.

The canal is now empty for the winter.

I just really liked the clouds on this day.

Favorite pasttime.

Drake still runs to me every time he gets off the bus.

Fishing... when it's too cold to fish outside.

Enjoying a warm October day.

Buds.

Since we moved into this home, our bedroom door has always been really hard to close and open. It was just too tight.

So Shad decided one day he was going to fix that, using a good old-fashioned hand planer. Our door works like a breeze now.

Drake's light show: The picture didn't really turn out, but you can still hear his amazing sound effects.

I love this bunch.

Goodbye October...

halloween

For halloween this year, I thought it would be fun (sometimes I wonder about my thoughts) to make our costumes.

With the help of Shad and Matt (watching the kids) I was able to sew my Wendy Darling dress and Graham's Peter Pan costume. Drake was one of Captain Hook's pirates (NOT Captain Hook, which he made clear to everybody that asked) and Avery was Tinkerbell. Shad didn't get a costume...

We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat earlier in the week.

We walked around the parking lot (some went around several times) and got candy from people we know.

Or at least people that we thought we knew.

After braving the cold for some candy, everyone headed inside for soup and rolls and socializing. These are my friend's kiddos that I watch from time to time.

Our little Tink.

A spider.

Just plain cute. There were a lot of really cute little kids there.

Enjoying the soup.

Avery still isn't sure about letting other people hold her, but plenty of people try to break her of her uncertainty.

Here's a closer look at our munchkins.

If you tell Avery she is pretty, she will touch her hair and say "Pretty".

Halloween night was perfect for trick-or-treating. The weather was just right and the sky was very Halloween-ish.

I tried to take some video to give you an idea of how much the sky added to the Halloween effect... the clouds were going so fast though. As soon as the moon would come out into an opening between the clouds, it would go right back behind some more clouds before I could get the video going.

We only went to a few houses along our own street and finished up after Drake was scared (nearly to death) at one house that had the bowl of candy sitting on what looked like a fake, stuffed person. Drake found out the wrong way that the guy was not a fake. Graham just laughed. Avery only scored two pieces of candy at homes that insisted she needed candy too.

Drake and Graham on the other hand finished the night with a decent load.

I'm glad we didn't do any more trick-or-treating than we did.

Happy Halloween.

graham is 3

Time sure flies. Our once silent, little boy now loves to talk and has developed his own opinions. The other day, we were having cookies for a treat, and I offered one to Graham. He just looked at me and said, "No. I don't like cookies." Since when does a kid not like cookies?

Avery has a little pink dress that she wears occasionally on Sundays. Without fail, Graham will always watch her for a minute after she has her dress on, smile, and say, "Look Mom. Avery is a princess."

I love our Graham boy. He is very energetic...


... when he's awake.


And he has lost his stone-faced expression...

... for the most part.

Graham is such a funny kid.

He has his own way of doing things...

...which includes opening his birthday presents before his birthday.

Needless to say, he was a little excited to be turning 3.

He got to talk to relatives on the phone.

Well, maybe not talk so much as listen.

He (and Drake) loved opening up his presents and cards.

Both boys enjoyed Graham's birthday very much.

Did I mention Graham just does his own thing sometimes? This pair of pants that he was wearing is too big in the waist, and he has to constantly pull them up throughout the day. So finally, by late afternoon, he got tired of trying to keep them up, and just walked around like this for a while. Much easier.

He wanted a race car cake, so this was my quick let's-hope-this-meets-his-approval attempt because it was already getting close to bedtime.

Drake had to help him blow out all the candles.

We all enjoyed cake and ice cream and sharing our thoughts about Graham.

This is still one of my favorite pictures of Graham. It just captures his cute personality.

I'm so grateful to have this boy in my life. We are lucky to have such a loving son. He has a big heart and is quick to share and help out. He adores his sister and wants to be just like his brother. Thanks Graham, for helping to make our lives complete. Happy birthday. We love you.

autumn leaves

Autumn is my favorite season.

I like the fall colors.

Drake took it upon himself one day to go out and rake the leaves because I wasn't getting around to it fast enough.

After a while, I went out to help and got carried away with taking pictures, which rarely happens... really...

I raked up a pile of leaves, then just held down the camera button, resulting in a whole lot of pictures. These boys never tired of running back to the fence only to run to the pile of leaves again. I'll stop typing now so you can scroll through these pictures as fast (or as slow) as you want, if you even want to.

Shad and Matt showed up while we were still at it.

Good times.

swore farms

I read about this place called Swore Farms that had fun halloween-related activites for kids, and I'm up for trying something new, so we went.

The kids got to go fishing (for candy).

They also tossed gourds. It was one point if you made it in the swimming pool, two points, if you made it in a bucket, and four points if you made it into the green bucket in the back.

The kid in charge let Avery have a chance.

She walked right up and tossed it into the green bucket. She got four points (which translates to four pieces of candy).

We could feed corn to their horse...

and their turkey.

There was also bowling, with gourds.

The prize was a piece of candy.

Different schools competed in a pumpkin decorating contest, and we had to walk around and pick one entry to vote for. The winner would receive $100 for their school.

These are just a few of the entries, to give you an idea.

"Knights at the Pumpkin Table"

"Horton Hears a Who"

"Hatchet"

"Zombie Land"

There was a big pumpkin patch (hard to see the pumpkins from this picture) that we could pick out a pumpkin and pay to take it home. We figured we had plenty of pumpkins.

We finished off by going through their corn maze.

At each fork in the maze, there was a quiz. The correct answer pointed us in the right direction to get through the maze. Often there was candy as a prize.

But if we didn't know the answer, Shad would just look out over the maze and make a good guess. We had to ditch out about halfway through the maze to be somewhere else, and one of the girls in charge got pretty upset that we didn't finish. Even after Shad explained that we had to leave, she didn't seem too happy. I think the kids had a good time anyway.

Thanks Swore Farms.

We needed more candy.

sweets and treats

These are just some random pictures of food...

Graham brought me a hot dog for a snack one day but said I couldn't eat it. I often get fed plastic food. My kids are nice to share.

We had pie for Shad's birthday (back in April), and I made this cake the next day, just because.

No one seemed to mind that there was another dessert to eat.

Graham loves "lickies".

He also loves cheese.

I think they were eating popsicles here, in the morning, in their pajamas.

We were about 45 minute from home, and decided to get our kids some kiddie cones to eat for part of the drive home, because they had been very good at whatever we had dragged them to.

This may have been the first time we just gave Avery her own cone and let her go at it.

Let's just say that she finished her cone first.

This was chalk...

Graham gave Avery a whole apple one day, and she ate it--all of it.

Pastel de choclo: a Chilean dish we fixed when we had the missionaries over for dinner one night.

Drake brings a snack to school once a month. For October, we made "witch broomsticks"...

and witch hats. I like to encourage healthy snacks.

With the abundance of apples we picked in Rexburg, the kids have been loving their "slinky apples", as they call them.

The kids helped me dry a bunch one day.

They were happy to help with the coring and peeling.

I told them to arrange the apple slices right next to each other all around the tray until they couldn't fit anymore. It was fun to see how precise they were about it.

I didn't help them arrange apples at all. They were proud.

Now that pomegranates are cheaper, we've been enjoying those too.

Speaking of sweet...