September 26th

Bethany loses her first top tooth.














Liberty girls! To see more pictures of our Liberty Girls club go to www.libertygirlsriverton.blogspot.com











Today we went up Little Cottonwood Canyon to see the changing leaves. It was beautiful. Clark was particularly anxious to "just get out there hiking around".
We climbed down to the stream and explored a bit. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed a little picnic.












Abe and Clark. Clark is never so happy as when he is in the great outdoors.












Cannon is never so happy as when he is in his little pouch.












Abe samples the mountain stream.













Faith collected berries! (don't worry she didn't eat them). On a side note, Faith is doing well with her potty training. We are going to attempt church tomorrow in panties!

GRRRRAAAAGGGGHHHHH!

GRRRRAAAAGGGGHHHHH! Okay, so the great thing about this blogging thing is your can brag about how wonderful your family is and all the great things you do and you feel like someone is listening to you. Or your can complain and be a big whiner and feel like someone is listening to you. Hmm, I wonder what kind of post this one will be. Yes, I am a big, fat whiner today. Faith is potty training. This is good news and bad news. Good news because, duh?- everyone should learn to use the potty at some point and I don't want to buy diapers for two babies. Bad news because, duh? have you ever potty trained a two year old before? Well, I haven't really. I've always waited until they are almost three and then it is pretty smooth sailing. However, Faith- yes the same Faith, who waited until her first birthday to crawl- Faith who did not walk until (I kid you not) she was 19 months old and Faith, who is not even close to speaking in sentences yet has decided she wants to be potty trained! I shouldn't complain, this is good, but just because someone can't talk doesn't mean they aren't thinking. For example, why is it that she always must go potty right after I have put a diaper on her for a nap or bedtime? And not just once, but several times-- "more potty!" Oh yeah, she's thinking. I've tried telling her-- "just go in your diaper". Apparently this is very offensive to her.
Bethany takes dance class twice a week. There is a "very strict" dress code for dance-- a leotard and tights. This does not seem unreasonable to me. I don't see that it is open for much interpretation, but we have had to resort to calling the owner of the studio to settle our dispute of what "leotard and tights" mean (does not mean dance pants, no tights and a shirt). If I recall, and I believe my siblings will concur, I developed quite an evil eye in my youth that I would shoot at my parents when things did not go my way. Well, let's just what goes around comes around because YIKES-- her evil eye is WICKED! I'm sorry Mom and Dad. This does not bode well.
This post will be news to Abe when he read it, but you would think you are being wise and frugal by utilizing the public library. And you would be-- if you didn't lose any books, returned your borrowed items on time, and kept all books on tape away from Faith. We haven't done any of those things so we'll either need to pay our fines (somewhat extensive) or avoid the library like the plague. How much in fines before they send the collectors after you? Sorry, about all my confessions.
Cannon has not been a happy chappy today. Why? I DON"T KNOW!!!!(to be read with a Pee Wee Herman voice)
Oh, we've had a little problem with the girls cleaning up their room in the morning. Meaning, they won't clean up their room. Well, if I banish them to their room and forbid them to come out then two hours later they might do it. Or there is always the threat of bodily harm (don't really like to go there, but I will) So I said, "ENOUGH!" You may have your bed, blanket, sheet, pillow, and dresser full of clothes- but everything else GOES!!!!!!!!!! At this point Bethany falls on the floor, "What we have to get rid of everything?????" I say,"Yes, you have to put everything in these two clothes baskets, but only for a few days. This will be good because your won't have to clean your room anymore!!!!!!"
The girls cheer at this point-- no more room cleaning!!!!!!!!!!
I stopped at Costco briefly this evening while Bethany was at dance. Do you ever walk around quite mentally exhausted and think that other people looking at you are thinking, "Wow she looks like she is about to crack" That is how I was at Costco today.
Well, enough of my boo hooing ramblings. I feel much better now. But hey, these blogs would be beyond obnoxious is we only shared the great things. And now that I am feeling so much better, I think that these kind of days are what make the good ones so good. Thanks for listening.

It is finished!

I have finally finished reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I started it about two months before Cannon was born--that was 6 months ago! The baby seriously slowed my progress. 729 pages later it is DONE!!!! I loved the book. The first 150 pages or so were so depressing I wondered why I ever wanted to read the book at all. It just got better and better. It was well worth the read.

Bake the Chicken Pie

Abe and the the kids went over to clean the church this morning at 8:00 am. Abe gave them a score of about 6.5 out of 10 for helpfulness and overall pleasantness. I don't know what he expected, but his favorite line was from Bethany as she was grudgingly checking under all the hymnals in the chapel for trash, "But Dad, you don't know how boring lifting up hymn books is!"
They came home and Abe and I were organizing our bedroom a little bit while the kids were playing/wrestling downstairs with blankets and pillows (one of their most favorite activities). For a little while it seemed they were having great fun. I said to Abe, "I give them about another three minutes before someone is crying". Sure enough Elinor comes upstairs crying:
Me: What's wrong?
Elinor: Clark and Bethany are being mean to me (Lots of crying)
Me: Why?
Elinor: They were making me be a chicken pie! (A LOT of crying)
Me: What? How were they making you be a chicken pie?
Elinor: We were playing "Bake the chicken pie" (crying)
Me: Oh, I'm sorry. That sounds like a pretty dangerous game
Abe: It sounds like it might be a bit like "peanut butter sandwich". Food games can be very dangerous.
Elinor: NOOO-- I would like to be in a peanut butter sandwich, but not the chicken pie. (more crying)
This is not pick on Elinor day, but this is Clark's playdough sculpture of Elinor. He had her pose for it and everything. We all praised how wonderful it was and nobody seemed upset by it so that is good.
Here is Faith with her favorite cousin Takara (Brig and Dev's daughter). We got to babysit Takara for a few hours on Monday. The funniest part of the morning was Takara dropping her bottle on the kitchen floor and and laughing hysterically while Elinor picked it up--50 times (at least!). The kids got such a kick out it. I'm sure Brig will really appreciate us encouraging that trick!
Faith and Cannon. She LOVES Cannon and wants to hold him a lot. Cannon is usually a good sport for about 30 seconds. He has on his bib here because he is serious drooler!!










Knights of Freedom was on Wednesday. Clark really likes having it at our house. I do to. Somehow it seems easier to have 13 boys come over to my house for 3 hours that to gather my people and go somewhere else. This was one of the boys activities where they boys had balloons tied to their legs and they ran around trying to pop each other's balloons. I thought it looked like an achilles tendon accident waiting to happen, but no one got hurt and they had a blast. Go to knightsoffreedomriverton.blogspot.com for more pictures and info.
Friday is Spanish Class with Grandpa Cannon! My dad has so kindly agreed to come on Fridays for our Spanish lessons. The kids had a great time. Grandpa was a very good teacher. We went through the alphabet and colors and some insects. He showed us some good websites where we can go to practice. We have an assignment for this week. We're going to memorize the alphabet and the colors. Clark and Bethany were very good pupils trying to write down lots of the words we talked about.


Abe and I went on a date last night. We got some dinner and then did the very most romantic activity I could think of. We went grocery shopping. I'm not kidding that is a VERY romantic activity. Going to the grocery store with Abe. Talking as we putter through the aisles, no one asking for anything (unless you count Abe and the sugar cereals). The funny thing is, years ago when I was a freshman in college my roommate Katie and I offered to watch my Aunt and Uncle's kids while they went on a date. They went grocery shopping and I couldn't understand then, why they didn't go do something really fun-- they just went grocery shopping! They seemed very satisfied with the evening's activity of grocery shopping. Now I see.

Weekend of play

We have had a very fun filled weekend. Bethany had a violin recital Friday night for which I got the location mixed up . Fortunately we were very early to the wrong location so we still had time to get to the right location. Oops. She played Mussette by Bach and Bourree(sp?) by Handel. She played very well. All the performers had a few little bumbles as the violin teacher recently had a baby and they'd only had three lesson since she came back from maternity time off.

Much to the delight of Abe and Clark they went to the BYU football game on Saturday where the Cougars annihalated UCLA. Brig and Dev had two extra tickets they gave to us. This was particulary good for Abe because he had been racking his brain all week trying to figure out how he was going to see the game. You can only see BYU football games if you have cable to get "The Mountain" channel. Dumb. But anyway, we don't have very many friends or family with cable, so he was quite distraught. We were very grateful for the tickets--thanks Brig and Dev! I took the girls and Cannon to see the American Girl Movie, Kit Kittridge. The girls really enjoyed it.
So here are my children acting like DOGS! Sunday afternoon can be used for so many good things. We chose to have a dog show. I'd like to introduce you to Bolt (Clark)- the Husky/fox breed, Goldy(Bethany)- the poodle/fox, Cocoa(Elinor)-the Terrier/fox, and Pookie(Faith)- the chihuahua/fox breed. They competed in trotting, fetching, and posing. Abe was the judge and he gave little bits of cookie for every performance in each event. Elinor was the grand champion. I quite enjoyed watching the show. However, Bolt, upon losing proceeded to attack Goldy and Cocoa. He was foaming at the mouth. It wasn't pretty, but it was pretty funny. (don't worry he wasn't really upset, it was all in good fun).













Faith has moved into her "Big girl bed". She was very excited and cheering for Abe has he took her crib apart and moved the toddler bed into the girls' room. But, then came the time to actually take a nap in her new big girl bed and then it wasn't so exciting. She came out of her back at least 15 times before she accepted that it really was time for a nap. I felt like I was in an episode of Super Nanny..."It's time for your nap" in my very calm but firm voice.

Cannon is NOT sleeping good. For about two months he was practically sleeping through the night. I thought, wow! I must be doing something right. Well, if I was doing something right then, then I am definitely doing something WRONG now, because he is waking up and nursing a TON!!!! Most of you know how well I do without good sleep(ha ha ha). So I am praying for a better night tonight.
We had a very fun evening with our friends, the Johansens playing games and eating way too many cookies and yummy cake. The kids played great together.

Bye bye summer

So summer is pretty much over and it has gone so quickly. We are back to all our activities and clubs and school schedule. Cannon is a big three month old and continues to grow quickly and delight us all. Abe is back to classes at the University of Utah two nights a week. Here are a few pictures of our end of summer adventures.
So I think I must be getting older or something, because this was our camping experience this summer. Abe and Clark pitched the tent in the backyard and we set up Abe's little instant gas campfire and we had a lovely, clean campout. Abe was even so sweet as to bring Clark's mattress out for me to sleep on. There was no dirt and there were flushing toilets easily accessible. Lazy lazy lazy, but very fun. I don't know if I can go back to the woods!











The kids enjoyed themselves at Abe's summer work party for Feature Films for Families- face painting, cotton candy, snow-cones, games, rides, and slides.
Bethany designed these cute little hats for the girls using coffee filters and red and green strips of paper. I thought they were pretty cute!













We went to Lagoon and this is a picture Abe took of him and Clark just before the upside down roller coaster ride! Clark was a little nervous (obviously!) but he said it wasn't so bad and he sort of liked it. All of the kids were were so brave going on rides. Okay, well Faith wasn't very brave even on the the super little kiddie rides. She was pretty much horrified by everything except the baby boats.














This is a picture of Abe, Clark and Faith on the big ferris wheel and believe it or not, Abe is the one being really brave here. He doesn't do so well with heights and needles, so it was a challenge for him to move enough to get the camera out of his pocket. We were all so proud of him!
We started our Knights of Freedom club at our house. See the blog I set up for our chapter at knightsoffreedomriverton.blogspot.com to see more pictures of our club meeting and the fun two day Summit activity. Clark was a Knight and Abe was one of the villians in the huge final battle. They had a marvelous time.