September

Here are some snapshots of our September this year. 

It's been a lot of fun preparing for the fall season and festivities. 

I LOVE this time of year. 

There's so much excitement in the air as we enter the latter part of the year with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. I love the cool air, changing colors, and endless activity ideas to do with the girls (and nice weather to do it in!)

First of all, this little nugget is such a joy to our family. She is such a happy baby; mild-tempered and easily entertained by her sisters. She is a mama's girl, which I appreciate and continues to say "mama" like it aint no thing and we still have yet to hear "dada." Both Hazel and Charlotte said "dada" lots of times before even attempting my name, so I've fallen for this one.

She crawls all over the house and follows me up the stairs. When I head back down, she cries at the top for me to come get her.

We call her Ello-weese, Elloweezer, or Ms. Weese.

These are frozen raspberries by the way.

This month, we were having a bit of difficulty with speaking kindly and softly to one another, so I instituted the Happiness Jar.

We keep in on our mantle or on our piano and whenever we catch the girls playing well together or saying their magic words, doing things the first time we ask or without being asked at all, they get to add a marble to the jar. Whenever they yell or hit or speak unkindly to one another, they lose a marble. Mom and Dad are included in this family project. It has been a great success so far since the girls LOVE to add a marble. It also helps me to watch for GOOD behavior and give attention to that instead of just the negative.

I think this picture was taken after church one Sunday and I just love it. Aren't they cute?

I've been having "Activity Time" with just Charlotte on Mondays and Wednesdays while Hazel is at Joy School (except the weeks that I teach Joy School, of course!). It's been REALLY fun to pull out my activities for TWO year olds and to sometimes just throw it all out the window and follow her lead. This particular day, we started out with a craft, made our way outside to "ride ponies" and ended up going for a walk. Welcome to the mind of a two year old. Love this wee one.

We took a trip down to my mom's house in Cedar City, just the girls and I. We had a great time playing with the cousins down there and visiting my mom's cows, especially the mentally-handicapped calf named "Wheelchair." The girls really love going to my moms and we all get spoiled to death.

We visited a neighbor and friend who was canning some flour and sugar in their garage and invited my mom to come can some for herself and my family (yeah food storage!). The girls played in the back yard and then got to go on a PONY RIDE. Does it get any better than that?

(I LOVE Ellie's face in this photo. I love that my girls are close in age.)
 

 Love them.

 
They had a tiny carriage and all!

'Tis the season to be baking! I love making fall treats and finding simple treats that I can invite my kids to make with me without losing my temper. These chocolate dipped Oreos sounded DIVINE one day...

David found Charlotte asleep in her bed like this...cute little fairy.

Oh my goodness, let me explain. This little chick-a-dee found a piece of chalk and held it in her mouth like this FOREVER. I was almost peeing my pants (which is easy to do after my third) as I grabbed the camera and took pics. Then she had a grape in her hand which looked just like a lighter. 

I wanted to add a caption to this one that said something like, 

"SO A GUY WALKED INTO A BAR..."

 

 Here's little Lou and I talking about our shadows outside. We traced them with chalk and talked about the sun. Isn't she irresistible in that little sun dress and boots?

We made lots of nature books and collected treasures on our walks.

 I love to see what they pick up and find interesting. I later upgraded this activity into books made out of ziplock bags stapled together since taping each treasure became a long and tedious process on a walk...

And pumpkin whoopies of course! Hello fall season.

I wanted to do a fun mantle for the season so I found this idea on Pinterest. David hung each of those pinecones for me. He did a good job huh?

Oh boy, I almost get goosebumps when I see my house so clean and tidy. A rare treat, but a good one when it comes along.

Happy September!

Labor Day Weekend

On September 1st, we headed out to Denver Colorado once more to visit Chris and Stacy and have a mini family reunion at one of the Boy Scout camps nearby. All the Phipps brothers and their families were there except for Tyson (we missed them!). It was a GREAT trip.

Although it was too cold to swim, we were right next to a lovely lake that the kids played in anyway, despite the cold! 

 

 I'm sorry but how CUTE is this picture?

Is this not the cutest picture ever of these cousins? Hazel loves Kate and follows her around a LOT, but she always seems to migrate back to Sam-bo.

We also had access to the shooting range and archery equipment! The kids loved this and it was fun to see David show our girly girls how to handle a bow.

The boys didn't need as much instruction; I think they're born with an innate ability to point and shoot.   And I had my fifth grade P.E. intro to archery, so I was good to go with my own set of skills...

    We went for lots of walks since there were endless trails and great scenery (plus it really wore out the kids before dinner and bedtime! We all slept on one floor of a cabin that had two bedrooms. It was fun to be piled together and share cooking shifts and watch movies on the floor. The only complaint from everyone was a wretched smell that we think originated from a dead mouse that must have been behind one of the vending machines. Other than that, it was a perfect spot for all of us to gather together.


I love her shoes.

On Sunday we walked over to a cute stone chapel they had and listened to a few lessons prepared by some of the family members. Sue and Dennis (Stacy's parents) talked about how a flock of birds will watch out for each other and take care of one another and how that relates to our family.I love being part of this family!



How cute are these two? Love em.

Tiffany and Collin decided to cook up some Eloise on their dinner shift. These family pics are from one of the walks we took together...
(Collin and Tiffany decided not to take a pic since Danica wasn't with them.)  

There was a random tire swing on top of one of the hills we hiked. What a fun surprise!




The wee ones...

On the last day, we had gorgeous weather and pulled out the boats and kayaks and went out onto the lake. There was a group of old men flying their battery-powered airplanes over the lake which was fun to watch. David pulled out his fly-fishing rod and showed the girls (and me) how to use it.

Hazel wanted to catch something so bad but the fish weren't biting.
  Charlotte tried for a bit and then was happy to find a red vine in my bag.
We had a great time! On our way back home, we stopped in Parker where we met up with my step-dad whom we hadn't seen since Charlotte was born. It was so fun to catch up with him and my girls thought he was pretty great.



What a fantastic Labor Day weekend...lots of memories made.