Summertime Fun at Grammy's

I took the boys to visit my Mom for almost a week in August. It was a lot of fun. Some of the things we did together-- shopping, hot dog roast, visit the Discovery Center (free Friday!), swim in Teresa's pool, swing in the kiddie swing, Sunday walk along the canal, watch Monk 'til late, hot fudge sundaes, and more.

With lots of encouragement from Grammy, James started calling out for Grandpa. Mom would say "Grandpa" and James would say "Da-dah" in the same sing-song voice as her. Very cute. Then he started using "Da-dah" as a way to call for other people, including Grammy and myself. James has been slow to talk and hasn't said many words before, so this was an exciting thing for us and him. He would also say "Dah, dah" while waving goodbye.


Noah had fun with his cousins. We didn't see them for the first couple days of our trip, and he asked me once, "Where's my kids?" Noah is used to them always being at Grammy's house. Noah was glad to finally have them over for a hot dog roast one evening.



Ethan, the little mechanic-mind, talked to me about sprinklers and water pumps and how a toilet works. He knows WAY more about that sort of thing as a 6-year-old than I'll ever care to know. Emerson did a great job playing some fiddle pieces.

I went running one morning along the canal, which was really nice. I surprised myself by the pace I was able to keep. I have been needing to get back into running, but I just haven't done it. Here's a picture of a our Sunday walk along the canal.


I really enjoyed swimming in Teresa and Haven's pool. It was so nice! Before getting into it, I thought it looked nice but wasn't all that excited about it. Then I got in and WOW, I realized how great it was! It is a salt water pool, so there's no chlorine smell. This makes it seem like it's not a pool, but something more natural, like a lake. The pool is surrounded by lots of large rocks, some of which you can jump off of into the deep end. And the surrounding view from the pool is sage brush hills and big sky unimpeded by trees. So it really felt like I was swimming out in the "wild". I loved it!


Noah and Clarissa giving hugs. They are quite the happy little pair, always running and laughing and getting into mischief together.


Noah had some fun rolling down the hill in Grammy's backyard one afternoon. He also played throw and catch ball with Grammy and Grandpa. Noah really has a strong, accurate throw. He can also hit the ball with a bat. He'll be a natural at baseball someday.

Here's the little guy tuckered out one night on the couch. He played hard!



Thanks Mom for asking us to come for a visit. We had a great time!

I wanted to take some nice pictures of my boys today. As usual, it was a pretty frustrating experience and I thought I didn't get any "good" ones. I was wrong-- pretty cute, huh?

Home

Here's a picture of the place where we're renting. I'll have to take some inside pictures soon and post those. We really like it here.

Halloween

So it's pretty late to be posting Halloween pics now, but I thought, better late than never.

With the move and all, I didn't do much prep for Halloween this year and I wasn't sure what the boys would dress up as. I had some default ideas in case I didn't find alternatives I was willing to pay for at the store, and I ended up using the defaults. But my boys were cute anyways.

Noah was a construction worker. The key piece of his costume was a yellow hard hat that I found a couple months ago at a 25 cent sale. (I need to make a post about 25 cent sales-- they were bargain heaven for me in Boise and I am going to miss them.!) The rest of Noah's costume was just clothes that he already had and a belt of mine. Unfortunately Noah doesn't have any toy tools, but I gave him a measuring tape for his belt. So that was easy. Noah kept taking off his hat, and I had to tell him to put it back on a dozen times, so that people would know what he was. Here he is:

James was a little pumpkin. This was Noah's costume when he was a year old. It was a little big on James, and the hood kept on falling down over his eyes, but it worked. Isn't he a cutie?

The kids got dressed up twice- Wed. night for the Ward 'Trunk or Treat' and Sat. night for Trick or Treating. James fell asleep and didn't end up going Wed. night and I'm glad-- it was SOOO COLD! The ward had some games and treats in the cultural hall first, and then everyone was bundled up to go outside for the trunk or treat. It was maybe 30 degrees with a good breeze, and we were quickly made into popsicles! We hurried through the two lines of cars as quickly as we could and then made a bee-line for the car and home.

Saturday night was completely different. The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Very mild. No wind. No need for coats! I pushed the kids around the neighborhood in the double stroller and just relished our luck, after a full week of breezy and cold weather.

Holidays are becoming more meaningful for Noah now. I just want to mention that Noah got a kick out of some of the spooky decorations and costumes that he saw at the Trunk or Treat. He really liked this candy bowl that had a skull in it with glowing green eyes and that made scary sounds. Another bowl had a skeleton hand that came down on Noah's hand when he reached in for candy. Noah was scared a bit by a boy with vampire teeth and painted face who looked at Noah and bared his teeth right in front of him. Not sure why that kid did it, but I assured Noah that he was "just playing." So I think Noah took it all right. Noah did refer to that kid many times later, saying "That kid with teeth-- he was just playing, huh." Yeah.

Halloween was good this year-- easy, low stress, just about right.

We've Moved!

Dallin got a new job as Deputy Prosecutor for Cassia County, which means our new home is in Burley, Idaho. Burley was never more to me than a pit stop on the way to Utah, but now it's home sweet home!

Dallin started work on Oct. 13th and we moved all our stuff on Oct. 24th. We are renting a really nice 3 bedroom house, with tons more room than our old 2 bedroom apartment. It is so nice and I love it!

Burley is a small town with a lot of wind. (Cold wind this time of year!) We heard good things about the friendly people here before we came. And it's true so far-- a lot of people from our new ward came and helped us unload the moving truck. I also met several nice people at a ward Halloween activity last night. The ward has a lot of young families and tons of kids, so it should be a good fit for our little family.

Dallin is really enjoying his job so far, and I am gradually getting the house in order after the move. There are still a lot of boxes to deal with! It'll happen.

This weekend we're going back to Caldwell for Emerson's baptism. We'll also be there for Halloween, which should be fun with all the kiddos. And, last but certainly not least, we get to meet our newest little niece Elise Marie Baker, just born on Monday the 26th! I can't wait to meet her.

Growing Up

Just a quickie-- We had dinner at my mom's house tonight. It was nice to spend time with Teresa's family as well. Here's a picture of my little James who sits up so well on his own now. He also got his first tooth this week. Noah is getting older and a bit better behaved. He's still a two-year-old with some regular two-year-old stubborness, but I think I see my sweet boy coming back to me!

P.S. I'm not quite sure why all my pictures lately look poor quality when I go to post them on Blogger. Anyone know? I'll have to figure it out.

Birthday Smush

I had my 28th birthday on Aug. 21st. Dallin's parents were in town and were so kind to watch our boys while Dallin and I took a rare date alone.

Right as we were about to leave on our date, we discovered that our car wouldn't start. We thought it was an alternator or battery problem. Good thing we live just down the street from Big-O Tires! This is the second time it's come in handy. Dallin and his dad pushed our car over there (in 100 degree temp.) and Big-O looked at it the next morning. It was a dead battery and they replaced it for us for a grand total of $120.oo! That's gotta be some battery, don't you think? It'll probably outlive our '98 Corolla.

We took Dallin's parents' car and had dinner at Five Guys Burgers-- our first time. It was really tasty. Then we went to a family game park to ride go-carts and play laser tag. I think I was the slowest car on the race track. Ha-ha, I felt a little bit stupid about that. I just couldn't bring myself to accelerate on the curves like I guess everyone else was. Either that or my go-cart was just extra slow. Anyway, we had a fun time.

After the date we had cake and ice cream with Dallin's parents. It was so nice to have them there, and for them to watch the boys. I guess both of the boys did really well while Dallin and I were gone, and James didn't cry until just five minutes before we got home. Noah was really polite and cooperative, Dallin's mom told me. He does a good job of saying please and thank you.

The men lighting the candles.

After Dallin's parents left, I was feeding James in the recliner and Dallin was in another room. I heard Noah in the kitchen where I thought he was eating the rest of his cake. He was humming and sounding pretty happy in there. Then I heard what sounded like a bunch of Reese's pieces hitting the carpet. (There were Reese's pieces on the cake.) This is what I saw in the kitchen when I came around the corner:

It was more than just Reese's pieces hitting the floor! Cake was all over the counter, kitchen floor, and the carpet. Thankfully the worst of it was on the counter. I think Noah was using the can opener as a digging tool. Noah has never done anything quite like this with food before. All I can figure is that he must have seen pictures or video of a child's first birthday, where the kid got to smash and play with the cake.

Here's Noah showing me his hands. They were completely coated with icing and crumbs. I think he must have been smushing the cake through his fingers.

And here's Dallin eating cake off the floor. He never lets any food go to waste!

Dallin wouldn't let me clean up. Well, actually he picked up all the pieces of cake on the carpet. But then he made me sit down and watch our movie (The Soloist) and leave the mess there all night! He did clean it up for me in the morning.

Summer Catchup

We've done a lot this summer. Here's a quickie on some of our biggest activities:

CRESWELL FAMILY REUNION
June 25-28 was the Creswell Family Reunion at the Idaho cabin. All of Dallin's family attended except for Emilie, who had to work in California. It was really a lot of fun. We floated cucumbers down the ditch, saw some fast draw shooters in Idaho City, went to Raging Waters park, played 'Over-the-line' (a baseball-type game), had canoe races, did sealings at the temple, and just had a lot of fun together. Here's a pic of the grandkids all together (minus the babies, James and Shadrach).

And here's the cute, chubby babies-- James with Makinley and Shadrach during first bath in the cabin sink.

I had a lot of help with Noah and James, especially from the kids. Thanks to everyone who helped me while Dallin was at work during the day (and other times too)!

FOURTH OF JULY
We spent the 4th down in Utah for the traditional Pinegar Family Reunion. Dallin was able to attend for the first time in a few years. I ran the fun run with my mom and Mark early on the 4th, and then we had family lunch together in a church cultural hall. That night we skipped the Stadium of Fire, but went to Karen's and saw some neighborhood fireworks. Noah wanted to watch them from the inside of the car-- I guess he felt safer in there. He insisted that I stay with him, so we watched together out the back window of my mom's car. It wasn't a bad view, and not quite so loud. We drove towards the stadium towards the end of the fireworks show and saw a few fireworks that way, then hurried on our way to beat the insane traffic. Sunday we attended church in Spanish Fork and had lunch in the 'Outback' with everyone. We shared missionary and inspirational experiences, and there were a lot of neat stories.

On the fun run-- my mom got 2nd place in her age group and Mark got 5th, or something like that. There were really a lot of people running in this thing. Way to go!!

Here's Grandma and Grandpa Pinegar. What great examples they are to our family and everyone around them.

Two of my cousins also had babies shortly after I did. Here's Kyle, Saffron, and James all together. I think they were all born within a month of each other.

HOT DOG ROAST
I stayed at my mom's for a few days with the boys, July 9-11. My mom helped me go to Walmart and get Noah a much-needed haircut. Noah had fun playing in the pool on the back porch. We had a hot dog roast in the back yard. Dallin joined us for that one, after his interview at the Canyon County Prosecutors.

G'PA MORRILL'S 80TH BIRTHDAY
I took a trip out to Eastern Utah with my mom and the boys to visit my Morrill grandparents in Neola. Grandpa turned 80 years old on July 21 and we had a surprise party for him that Sunday before. It was so fun to go and see them. We took a trip up Uintah Canyon one day to picnic and just enjoy the pines and the mountain air. While at my grandparents' house we enjoyed their new swing on the back porch and watched the hummingbirds. Noah had fun playing with Grandma's collection of toy trucks and going in and out of the house non-stop. We also did some walks together. The car rides to and from Utah with my mom were REALLY hot (over 100 degrees) and really long for little James. We had some melt-downs, in more than one way, but we finally made it home again. I'm really glad I could go and spend that time with my mom and grandparents.

Look at that dirty face!!

DAD PIN'S BIRTHDAY
We celebrated my dad's birthday on July 24th. The O'Bannon's came over and we had the traditional pumpkin pie-- my dad's favorite. Noah had fun playing with Mei Li, as always. He loves that sweet girl!

The next morning we were awakened by what sounded like an incoming missile! It was really a crop duster come to spray the field across the street. Dallin and Noah had fun watching it fly past several times.

CABIN
Dallin's parents came for a week at the cabin. We spent some time with them there August 6-8. The weather was unseasonably cold and very WET. There was so much rain! We had a good time together though. And we were fed very well: buttermilk pancakes each morning, steaks, grilled hamburgers, and a dinner at Trudy's in Idaho City. We played games-- Sequence and Ace Deuce (sp.?). Noah had fun playing the Operation: Brain Surgery game with Grandma. He also was constantly going in and out of doors. He doesn't have that kind of freedom at home, so he loves it when we go places where he can do that. Noah had some fun splashing in puddles, too. We had a family walk together (the four of us) when the weather cleared awhile on Saturday. That was very nice.

Here's Noah showing Dee-dee the outside. Noah does everything for Dee-dee, like putting him to sleep, feeding him, doing his hair, giving him baths, and explaining things to him. It is very cute.

MORE CABIN
Dallin spent last week up at the cabin. The boys and I spent some time with him, too. It wasn't warm enough to swim in the lake (weird August weather!), but we had a nice family walk and spent some time outside watching Noah play. That kid loves playing outside at the cabin! And James really likes to get out, too. We've used the Baby Bjorn carrier and he really enjoys that. Noah and Dallin played some video games together while we were there. Dallin has this car game that Noah can sort of manage-- not really, but it's fun for Noah to try anyway. Noah also enjoyed running through the curtains upstairs, as he usually does each time we go to the cabin.

ZOO
My sister just moved here from Boston with her family. We are so excited! On Saturday we went to the zoo together and had a picnic afterwards. It was fun. Here's Dad with cute Clarissa...

...and Noah looking at the lions in the new African exhibit.

THE END, and now I'm going to bed!!!