We Never Tire

of our visits to the library. My favorite is how attentive Ian is to someone or something other than the storyteller.

Boo

Brooklyn came up with this idea for a Halloween costume next year. Surprisingly, this even trumped a Disney princess one we've already tucked away in the closet for later this year.
Let us demonstrate the versatility of this fabulous costume. If the ghost mask doesn't suit you, there's always the bow-secured vest option. We even gave her dolly a matching one.Thus we see the humble beginnings of an aspiring designing woman...and her first admirer.

More Baby Blues

Here Ian is coloring in conjunction with library story time.
It didn't last very long. Especially since I wouldn't let him color the table.

Baby Blues

New Year's Day

It was so much fun to have 4 whole days of Stephen to start off the New Year! This is one thing we did on New Years.We played at a quiet park near our house and the temple. There's no playground equipment here, just lots of grass and a dirt path with exercise equipment every once in a while. The weather was beautiful. The kids loved reaching for the one dangling red ornament on that tree in the distance. It must have looked cool at night with all the lights on it.I have to remind myself whenever we go places that if it's a ball or a balloon, we need two. Otherwise, the kids might have to practice sharing. Sometimes this is successful, sometimes it's not.
Ian is learning to be quick on his feet.
You-know-who is always either chasing him or doing a drive-by of toy-snatching.
Finally Ian got a few minutes of uncontested ball time with Dad.
What's with the bib being left on the whole time? I don't know either.
Time to pack up and go! Naptime awaits us at home! Yes!

Our Climber

For those of you who are not family, this is probably way too many pictures of the same scene, but I'm trying to show how Ian climbs around these days. He uses any number of things as his step stools. This time, it was a pink plastic barbie chair.
Once he reaches the table top, he points and begs. (Don't you just love the artful smudges that live on our mirrors?)
With a little help, this kid can almost stand as tall as his older sister.
Now he eyes something on the other counter of the kitchen, so here he maneuvers again to the ground.

First he has to pause for a few seconds to smile for the camera... then the mission continues.Brooklyn is being herself in the background. Probably she is hoping to catch some of the camera's attention.
Wait a minute, he thinks, why does my target keep evading me?
His persistence reminds me of someone else I know... and love.
Does anyone else's kid want to enter the contest for length of time that a tongue is held outside of the mouth?
Mom, why is that flash still going?
"Eeeh" translates nicely into either, "I want it," or "Give it to me now."
He has to be quick to either keep up with or escape his big sister.

New Year's Eve

We had a fun time bringing in the new year with a couple of our friends, Jen and Derek. The Scattergories game was hillarious. I was a bit disappointed that I mistook "dessert" for "desert" on one of the rounds. I could have thought of a million desserts that begin with an "l", (anything loaded, right?) but couldn't think of a desert! Argh!

On the menu was an array of appetizers. Did I mention the party included us and ONE other couple? I thought for sure we'd have TONS of left-overs with all the food we prepared. There was stuff left over, but only about 1/4 cup of guacamole lived to see the new year, the shrimp ring was also history and thankfully none of the bruschetta had to be thrown away or refrigerated because it too was eaten. The bruschetta and shrimp ring are not in the picture for some reason. Also not pictured are the party planners, Desirae and Jen.