I'm FREE!!!

 I gave my presentation this morning!  Wahoo.  It feels good to have that done!  So the girls and I had a fun day.  After I picked them up from Rachels, We went to Lakeshore learning and bought a new toy, we went to Wendy's for lunch (work gave me a gift card) and we went to wheeler farm.  We ended the day with peach cobbler (one of our neighbors left us a whole bunch of peaches on our doorstep!) and with FHE about temples.  We built a temple with our new toy.

 Anna and Julia loved the farm.  I haven't been taking them out like I used to with all the painting and working and traveling we have been doing.  I'm sort of glad summer is over.  Fall is my favorite time of year.

 Julia loved the cosmos in the garden part of the farm.

 Me too.

 At lunch I discovered that Anna does not know what a chicken nugget is.  Or french fries.  We were standing in line and I said, "Anna do you want a hamburger or chicken nuggets?"  Anna said "chicken nuggets."  About 5 minutes later (long line) Anna pointed to a picture of french fries and said "mom, I want those, are those chicken nuggets?"  I chuckled to myself.  We are doing good in the feeding department.  Anna will tell everyone that she loves mango lassi and pesto pizza - but at 4 years old she is unable to tell the difference between a french fry and a chicken nugget.  It was a proud parenting moment.

 oh and we had a breakthrough with julia at dinner on sunday.  she ate arugula by her own free will and choice.  good job baby.

one of my part time jobs

In reviewing our library account today, I noted that we have checked out 988 books since January.  I have only had one .30 fine for a book 3 days overdue.  It's a part time job keeping track of all these books!  But man am I grateful for the library.  What would Anna do without it?  We have a book missing right now, we sing games, games, games.  I think it really is lost......it will probably cost 10$.  That's a pretty good price to pay for 988 books.

9/8

anna had dance, she learned about spirals.  She is always so happy after that.

anna was trying to say colorful.  she has a hard time with R's and that word is difficult.  so after a few tries she gave up and said, "its like a rainbow"  What a cute little thesaurus she is.

Anna likes to tie ropes to the swings and then "control" the swings with the ropes.  She and julia played "control" on the swings for a good while today.

Julia keeps telling me she is a big girl.  We've decided she can't say her l's, r's, y's, j's, t's and well a lot of other consonants, but she is getting better everyday.  i think.

we bought an apple tree.  richard planted it tonight in the corner of the yard.  i hope we stay here long enough to see it's fruit.

Grandma elaine is giving us her baby grand piano.  I get to call and arrange that soon.  hooray for a piano again!

we bought some milk for 99 cents at smiths, they have good deals.

oh and last night a picture fell of the way and scared us to death.  richard went around the house in his undies looking for the robber.  we never found him.  in the morning i saw the culprit.  a picture andy gave me had fallen off the wall.  Funny thing is that it fell off the wall when we were first married and lived in Logan.  The glass is still cracked.  I guess that picture is just a test of richard's bravery.  I think I was a better wife last time, I actually got out of bed and checked things out with him.  Rich was more of a man this time, he didn't carry a gun around with him looking for the creeper.  Man was that logan basement creepy!

Julia and Oliver (Denver)

Temple Open House

Pictures of Anna at the temple.  Then we went and bought an apple tree.  While we were there Anna tied Nicole's dress to her dress.  Who knew a four year old could love to tie knots so much.

the past few days

amy drove down from morgan for the day on friday.  its so wonderful to have a sister and a friend.  We sat down and made cards together while the bigger children played and the babies slept.  Crafting is just in our genes and it makes us happy, we both decided to make more time for it - and for eachother.  Jane came as Evan is now in 1st grade.  She is getting so big, she can even pour her own cup of milk and drink from a non-sippy cup.  The three girls played like crazy - with eachother - outside.

One of our neighbors came by and brought us cookies to welcome us into the neighborhood.  They were really good.  So nice.  We also had one of our neighbor girls come by and give julia an "invitation."  Actually just a piece of paper with scribbles on it.  I feel like we always have people coming to our door to just chat or to just say hi.  We live in a good place.  I'm excited to have Halloween here.

Saturday was a busy day.  We went to the Ogden temple open house.  Anna was quiet and wide eyes the whole time.  She liked the "celestia" room as she called it.  Julia had to be carried because she wouldn't put the booties on her feet.  It was beautiful.  I especially liked some of the pictures in the temple, new ones of Christ and people that I have not seen before.  Julia called it a "pritti caca" of course.

After the temple we stopped by bountiful to pick up the fridge my dad got for us for free.  We will put it in the basement.  I want to rent the basement, rich is not so sure.  Anyways, its really nice and probably newer than the fridge we have upstairs.

My dad requested that we come help him move some stuff at Grandma elaines house on Lynne Lane.  They are getting ready to sell the house and are clearing it out.  I do not like going over there.  It's sad.  I am filled with memories of grandma and grandpa as soon as I start driving on 2300 E by Olympus High.  I think about grandpa shuffling around and when he would so sweetly say "thank you for coming to visit us, come again soon."  I miss Grandpa.

And I need to be better about visiting Grandma.  We haven't been as often as I would like since she moved.  But I also think there is a time and season for everything.  You can't help everyone all at the same time.  Watching spencer twice a week from 7am to 7pm really limits what I can go and do.  But it really helps Rachel.

Anyways, while I was helping my Dad, Anna and Richard went to the State Fair.  We've been reading books about the state fair, so I wanted Anna to experience it.  They report having a good time, riding rides, watching animals, a dog show and seeing a lot of weird people on the train ride home (they rode trax).

After they came home we had dinner and put the kids to bed.  Since the sun is setting earlier I am trying to get the kids to bed at 7pm.  I am much happier when I have a few hours of freetime before I go to bed (vs putting the kids down at 8 or 8:30).

It's sunday and I've just been informed by Anna that julia has a poopy diaper.  yu

Anna loved the witch

Anna thought the faris wheel would be to scary so she chose the carousel

For her treat at the farm she choose an apple over the candy.  

Anna called this the predator museum.  She loves museums.

still really speedy

well, life is still really speedy.  I watch spencer twice a week now and am working as a dietitian a lot.  Other free time is working on the house.  we finally got 75% of the baseboards in and I moved our clothes upstairs.  Anna started music class and totally loves it.  Julia is really into wearing my (only and not that high) pair of heels around and pretending to put on lipstick.  we try to bike to the park.  i haven't been running much.  we went to Denver to see bryan, elizabeth and the girls had so much fun - it was sad to leave.  They blessed baby amelia, who is the best baby ever.  Well I better get back to that presentation.