Cheese!

Snow!

It snowed! The first time this year and Anna kept telling me, "I just really want to make snow angels--they are so beautiful!" So when she woke up from her nap and Max was still sleeping (we need to buy him snow clothes before the next storm) we headed out to the back yard. It was joyful. Anna ran all around and made footprints and snow angels and threw snowballs. I was not very pleased about the snow until I watched her, and remembered how exciting snow can be!

Fall Festivities

Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago--the Friday before Uncle Taylor left to go on his mission, he joined our little family at Cornbelly's--a giant corn maze and fall festival-type place by our house. (We replaced our Red Barn Pumpkin Patch tradition with this this year due to the fact that we had a sizable pumpkin patch of our very own in our back yard--who knew that each little seed could make so many pumpkins!)

The rubber duck races were our favorite. Max took every pink duck he could find and gave them all to Anna. I guess he figures everything pink belongs to her--at our house it does.



The Taylors were becoming very competitive, and scaring all the little kids away, so I tried to pretend I didn't know them while snapping a couple pictures.

We made it through the corn maze and trampled over no corn in order to find our way out, that exceeded my expecations. Anna and Max rode the whole time in the wagon with the drippiest suckers they have ever eaten. Max lost his sucker towards the end and I assumed he had tossed it overboard, but later we found it tagging along on the seat of Anna's pants as she ran to the trampolines. Max was sad that he could not have it back.

Here are two good buddies watching the pig races, I believe.

Jumping and Jumping.

It was a very, very fun day. And in regards to the last post, we have put our weekend of the stomach flu behind us and are all sneaking snacks and jumping on beds again. Whew!

A Low Point

The news here is all kind of unfortunate. I missed the weekend trip to St. George with the girls because these two kids just had their first experience with the stomach flu and all that goes with it. They were both quite horrified and disgusted by it all--and I would have to agree that it is up there on the list of unpleasant life experiences, especially when you've only lived a few years. It seems like my kids always save the major illnesses such as RSV and stomach flu for when Taylor is out of town, which is inconvenient for me. He is in Pittsburgh right now but has promised me lots of things when he gets home, including a bubble bath, a nap, and an iPod touch. Perhaps I made everything sound a lot worse than it was last night in the midst of all the Lysol, Gaterade, and loads of laundry (one of which included Dog, Max's best nighttime buddy--there were tears about that). It was a pretty long night. I will definitely take Taylor up on the nap and the bubble bath.

Early Birthday Present

We decided to give Max his birthday present early since it is a nice-weather present and he doesn't know about months yet. We told him we had a surprise for him and he was ready for it. He waited with Anna on the driveway while Taylor put up the garage door to reveal. . .

A new car!!

Anna was such a nice big sister and pushed him all around in it.
We love you Max!

Conference Weekend

We went up to Logan a week ago for conference weekend and had such a good time. In keeping with tradition, there were lots of homemade doughnuts made and eaten. The Davis family timed our arrival so that we got there just in time to help eat, but missed all the making. We were very thankful for the hard work everyone else put in.
We also played games and laughed a lot and even took this lovely family picture.
Anna and Max spent a lot of time working hard on puzzles and being very good kids. Their Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, and uncles spent a lot of time entertaining them and being so sweet. And Max cracked me up by starting to call Grandpa Bob just "Bob".

My brother Taylor leaves in just a couple days for the MTC, so we were really glad to be all together for a weekend!

Criss Cross Apple Sauce

1) That's the way that they sit on the rug at Anna's preschool. You should ask her to do it sometime. I'm thinking she's supposed to cross her legs in what I would have called (in my less politically correct school days) "Indian Style". What ends up happening with Anna's legs, however, is criss-crossed for sure, but otherwise looks very uncomfortable. I wonder if her teacher really lets her sit for twenty whole minutes in that position while they read stories--we think it's hilarious during scriptures every night, but that's only two minutes long, if we're lucky.

2) It's also what I devoted my whole day to-applesauce, I mean. I am pretty proud of my efforts which is why I am reporting them here so that you all can be proud of me too, or at least I know my mom will be. The final count is 14 jars of applesauce and 14 jars of just plain sliced apples that I, myself, canned. I liked applesauce before I started this morning at 7:00, but after wiping it off the cupboard, stove, walls, myself, my shoes, and my children, I didn't want to eat it for dinner. Still, I am proud. Happy Fall!