I Think Robert Frost Said it Best...

"Nothing gold can stay..."

We knew the most beautiful 70 degree weather wouldn't last. We knew fall, and subsequently winter, was coming. For weeks now, there's been a slight chill in the air. We spent as much time as we could outside in the pleasant weather. And today it finally hit. The wind, the blowing rain, the just plain cold. Maybe it's just a joke? Maybe mother nature will squeak out a few more good weather days this year. If not, I have this lovely sun kissed picture to remind me of our gold!

No Longer a Teenager

Happy birthday to my baby sister Dory. I was nine years old when she was born, and remember the day she was born more than any of my other siblings. My Grandma and Grandpa Cook came to stay with us and I remember riding to the high school in my grandpa's truck to find my dad {remember, no cell phones!}. I think my mom was in labor, and my dad was coaching football...Needless to say he missed the Emery High homecoming game that year. Not to worry, he had a small radio to listen to the broadcast at the hospital. And thus Dory's love of football was born! {Funny, she's wearing an Emery High football hoodie in the above picture...oh, the irony}

She was almost nine years old when I moved away to go to college. When people ask me how old my siblings are, I often have to stop and remember that Dory isn't nine or ten. She's 20! And I hope she has the best day ever!

Observations

This morning Carter asked if he could ride his scooter to the rec center instead of riding in the car. It's only a few blocks away, and we are limited in our number of non-frigid days per year, so I agreed. Walking to the rec before a work-out...pretty pleasant. The walking home after working out...not as pleasant. But we made it! And if we hadn't done it I may never have heard this observation.

Carter: Mom, look at all the beautiful trees in this world.
Me: Carter, who do you think made all these trees?
Carter: Jesus and Heavenly Father. They worked so hard on this world...I bet they had to wear their work clothes.

When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

Green Apples
A Ton of Sticky Carmel
Chocolate Chips
A Little Bit of Patience
Lots of Finger Licking
The Best Fall Treat

First Grade Vocabulary Lesson

Fluzies: "My teacher told us that we can't hold hands on our way to P.E., because it's fluzies."{Flu Season}

Sembly: "We got to go to the sembly today in the gym." {Assembly}

Fomix: "Today I had to take another fomix test, it was all about the short "i" sound and at the end there was a picture of a fish." {Phonics}

Happy Birthday Brandt

My tiny little sweet baby brother turns 23 today. Ok, he's not tiny, little, or even that sweet anymore, but we love him like an old cat. Here's a picture of us early in the morning before we climbed Wheeler Peak together in July 2008. We had such a great time pushing each other to the top. We've had a million wild adventures together, and would be the best Amazing Race contestants. We plan on trying out someday!

Christian has also grown to love Brandt over the last ten years. And by love, I mean, punch and fight...but, I guess in guy language that's as good as it gets! Happy Birthday Brandt!

Week 34

With only six weeks left until the big D Day, last week came and went without a single picture being taken....I know, hard to believe. It's not that we were doing nothing, it's just that somewhere between being tired and busy I simply forgot.

Monday: Carter started his second week of preschool...Which he LOVES! I couldn't ask for a better experience thus far. He loves Miss Emily, and all of his little friends. He can write an "M" and an "S" and he knows what sounds they make. He loves school and cries that he can't go everyday. Monday was also my brother in-law Tyler's birthday. Happy burtday to Ty!

Tuesday: I don't even remember Tuesday. I will say that I was very grateful my friend Starla offered to teach my body bar class. My teaching skills are just ridiculous at this point, so I was very grateful for the break.

Wednesday: I went to a Relief Society activity where we made some cute wood letter block things. I guess it wouldn't kill me to take a picture of them...they turned out pretty well. I had to take a dessert, so Carter helped me make Better-Than-You-Know-What-Cake. When I only brought a 1/4 of the cake home, Carter said: "Mom, why did you let those ladies eat up all of my cake?" He promptly ate the remaining 1/4 and saved Cali a tiny sliver...Which he tried to scam her out of the next day by saying, "Cali, can I please have a tiny one bite of your cake {batting eye lashes....}" And she totally fell for it!

Thursday: Was our last day of swimming lessons for this session. It's also called "Fun Day" which means the kids can show off their tricks for their parents. Through much persuading and guilting, Cali and Carter talked me into getting into the water with them. Parents are invited to participate in "Fun Day", and since I didn't last session {and my children made it very clear that I didn't last time} I gave in. So, thanks to a very modest one piece and some very long size 40 waist board shorts {Thank you Christian}, I made it! My kids were so happy, it was nearly worth it! Hopefully there are NO pictures of this...anywhere!

To make Thursday even better, we arrived home after fun day, to find that Christian and Carson had moved the kid's bedrooms downstairs to their new rooms. They also took down the extra TV, entertainment center, and set up the crib. Hurray! I could not have been happier. The kids are doing great in their new rooms, and we just have some boxes in the garage left to move in and organize. I think this project will keep my nesting instinct busy for the next few weeks.

Friday: The kids didn't have school Friday so we spent some time working on organizing and arranging their bedrooms. I went to a step class at the rec center on Friday morning, and then worked at organizing rooms the rest of the day. Had I actually realized how many times I would have to go up and down the stairs, I think I would've skipped the step class. I did enough steps!

Saturday: We finished up in the basement and Christian went to SLC with some friends to the Utah game. We went to the park and then to our friend Becca's house to watch the RS broadcast.

Sunday: So here we are, ready for a new week. I might also mention that I finished a comforter for Carter's bed and am nearly done with a crib quilt for the new baby. Both projects deserve their own post and I hope to have some pictures in the very near future.

All Business

It's been about a week since Christian returned from his business trip to Florida. He and his co-workers {pictured above} were able to accomplish a lot in their four day trip. They were also able to do a few fun things while they were there too. Like, hang out on beautiful white sandy beaches, go to a professional baseball game, and let's not forget the deep sea fishing. We missed him terribly while he was gone, and we were so glad that he finally made it home!

Apparently there's not much to this fishing thing. Just cast your line over, enjoy the ride, and wait for a bite.

Christian was the only person on the boat who didn't catch anything. Not to worry, they took their catch to a local restaurant and had it cooked up and eaten before lunch!

Making the Most of I-80

We are getting to be pretty proficient at driving from Rock Springs to SLC. We have our regular stopping places, landmarks, and things to look for along the way. On our way home Saturday afternoon we stopped at the Bear River State Park in Evanston. We plopped down at a picnic table with some Capri Sun's and chocolate covered graham crackers and sat just feet away from these Buffalo. Or, as they are more correctly called, American Bison. Either way, the kids were very excited. As you may recall, one of Carter's first words was Buffalo...actually, "Buff-uff-alo". On this day he kept saying, "Mom, he's looking at me with that buffalo face!"

We also made a stop in Mountain View at the BEST fabric shop this side of SLC. No kidding, it's worth the drive and they even have a playroom for kids. Thus, allowing me to browse their insane fabric selection at my leisure. All Rock Springs sewers, if you haven't been there, we MUST plan a trip. It's only about 50 minutes outside of RS, and well worth it!

And finally, one last stop at Little America for their 50 cent cone. Not quite as good as the Kong Kone at Macey's {Tatum!}, but out here on the prairie...we're not too picky!

Mormon Tourists

Our main reason for going to SLC this weekend was for my doctor's appointment. These appointments are getting more frequent, which means the end is in sight. It also means that I get to see friends and family more often too...Which is a huge bonus. On Saturday Bethany and I took the kids around Temple Square for some good old fashioned Mormon tourism!

Here we are at the Conference Center. I thought it would be cool to show the kids where President Monson speaks. They were only mildly impressed. A kindly gentleman offered to take our picture, I almost declined, but then thought...what the heck! That's 33.5 wks pregnant people, don't be jealous!

We also hung around the Conference Center long enough to check out a very beautiful art display. I don't know how long it will be there, but you SLCer's should get down there and take a look. It's worth it. This lovely quilt caught my eye. I've been putting together some quilts lately {more on that later} and was amazed at the detail. I'm NO WHERE NEAR this level...yet!

Carter really liked looking out the window through the water. And I think it made a very nice picture as well.

No trip to Temple Square would be complete with a picture next to the Christus. Carter wouldn't look over at me with camera. He was more more interested in looking up at Christ. I should look that direction more often myself. Carter is a great example!

Taffy Town

I have yet to find anything better in this world than salt water taffy. We try to hit up Taffy Town in downtown SLC as often as possible. This past Friday, we did just that! The kids love being able to mix all their favorite flavors...Oh, who am I kidding...I love all the flavors and encourage stuffing the bag as full as possible. Bethany is a lot of help too, we're not picky...just selective!

She Officially Has a Lisp

Last night Cali took the liberty of loosening her last front tooth. When I came back from teaching a class at the Rec Center I noticed that her tooth was just hanging by a slimy thread. In fact, she could shut her whole mouth...but still have her tooth hanging out. Pretty funny and pretty gross. After dinner, bath time, story time and all the other night-time rituals I took the liberty of yanking it out of her mouth. And by "yank" I mean, gently pulling on it for about 1/2 a second...it came right out. She now thinks it's utterly hilarious that her "S's" Thound Tho funny when she says them. She practiced her lisp all morning...."mom, can I pleathe have thome more thyrup".

She refused to put the tooth under her pillow last night, because she wanted to write the tooth fairy a fairly lengthy discourse on the events of the night. Including, but not limited to, how she decided to pull on her tooth, what she was feeling when she was wiggling the tooth, the stages of looseness that progressed throughout the night all culminating with her mother yanking it out of her head. Frankly, by 9:00p.m. I just didn't have the energy or stamina to indulge her in such a writing project. I guess we'll see how tonight goes!

Ready for School

School mornings are so much more interesting than summer mornings. Summer mornings are chill. You can throw on some shorts a T-shirt and flip flops, and you're ready for the day. School mornings, on the other hand, require more preparation and thought. Cali has been laying her clothes out the night before, in an attempt to avoid a melt down in the morning, and for the sake of ease and speed. She has to be on the bus at 8:20 a.m. so we have to make the most of our morning routine...Easier said than done.

I usually don't get on Cali's case about her clothes...There are some battles that I just HAVE to choose. However, today, I had to put my foot down and forbid her from leaving the house dressed in this creation. Last night she set out a cute outfit with a Tinkerbell shirt and matching gray leggings, but this morning the leggings were way too big. They are easily fixable with some time, a needle, and thread, but I didn't have any of the three. So, I told her that she was going to have to pick something else for today, and I would fix her pants so she could wear them soon.

This is what she came up with...The attitude, well, she already had that!

I Just Overheard...

Carter playing in his room by himself...
"Autobots, Ecepticons {Decepticons}, roll out and please come over here so I can kill you."

He's still in there playing Transformers, and the conversation between the Autobots and the Ecepticons is still going on. Mostly with words like "boom" "kill" and the never ending barrage of sound effects that this boy was born with. However, I've also heard several other words like "please" and "thank you". So, I guess if he is going to play fighting games...at least he's trying to be polite. Small victories. Small victories.

First Day of Preschool

Today was Carter's first day of preschool! He woke up early, got dressed in his new school clothes, walked Cali to the bus stop, and then had to wait around for 35 agonizing minutes until it was time for him to go.

In the meantime, we took a few photos outside on the deck. As you can see, he gave me his best back-to-school face. Would you be worried to send your child to their VERY FIRST day of preschool in this kind of mood? Not to worry...

after a short car ride, he turned sweet. Or at least tried to show me his sweetest smile. It is pretty sweet, don't you think?

And then to top it off I tried to take a cute little mommy and son photo before he got out of the car. I had to help him carry his supplies from his supply list because they wouldn't fit in his back pack. About halfway up the driveway he turned to me and said, "Are you going to stay with me at school?" I told him that he was going to be staying by himself with his teacher and new friends. To which he replied, "Then, will you please quit following me?"

Ok, I know that following Cali around on her first day of school with my camera was considered, "Not Cool". However, I was not prepared to be uncool to a three year old. Is there anything I can do to up my coolness? Or am I just screwed? I really don't want to be the "dorky mom" but I think I've achieved that status!

While Cali's Away...

The first day of school may have been the LONGEST day in Carter's young life. He asked me all day, "when will Cali be home.?..can we go pick up Cali.?..can we find her bus?..." Luckily he had a few things to keep him entertained...temporarily.

First, he had to go to the dentist for his first official teeth cleaning. I'm not going to lie...I was worried. Sitting still and obeying isn't really his "thing". However, he really surprised me and sat patiently for the entire check-up. Melba and Dr. Brian were very nice to him, and he's ready to go back as soon as possible. He had no cavities, and was thrilled to pick out a Cars toothbrush and bouncy ball at the end of his visit.

Carter's Cali withdrawals carried over in the afternoon. The house was just a little too quiet and when I found him he was playing in Cali's room. He climbed her closet and retrieved her tub-o-Barbies {pulling most of the toys off the shelf in the process}.

He then set to organizing the accessories {he may have seen this done once or twice a day} and setting up the Barbie's so that Cali could play with him when she got home. There wasn't much time for playing when she got home because they were both scheduled for swimming lessons. Carter decided to pinch a girl in his class and call his teacher a "liar". Which resulted in him having to sit on the side of the pool for the rest of the lesson...followed up by another time-out at home and a talk from dad....crying, bath, story, sleep...And that's how Carter ended his first day of first grade!

More First Day of School Fun

Just a few more pictures from our first day of school fun. Carter HAD to put on his new school clothes and backpack and roam around the school grounds as if he were going to stay. Several people asked me if he was in kindergarten, or if he was looking for his teacher. We walked Cali to her classroom and then went to the office to find the correct bus number and pay our lunch money. On the way out of the school Carter got preoccupied looking into each and every classroom and ran into a door...hard. It was sad and he screamed and cried and disrupted an entire hall of classrooms, so we promptly left.

We were glad to meet up with Apryl and Abby on the playground. The kids even indulged me and smiled for this photo. However, this is about the time Cali decided that she was DONE with the photograph session. She needed to get her first day of school face on and get away from her crazy mother.

Oh, but I managed this last one of us. Standing in line waiting to go into the school. Last one...I promise....

First Day of First Grade

Here's just a couple of the pictures I took of Cali before her first day of school yesterday. She was a good sport and posed for me on the deck for a few minutes before we left. She was less enthused by me taking pictures of her at the school. That's just {apparently} not cool. In my defense...I was NOT the only mother there with a camera.

{In the Words of My Texan Friends} Happy Fall Y'all

I am not southern {or sexy enough} to get away with saying "y'all". However, fall is my favorite time of year and since it rhymes with "y'all" I'm going to try to get away with it just this once.

I bought a case of peaches from my friend Becca and spent most of Monday afternoon preparing them for their trip to the freezer. Carter had the very important job of catching the peaches {or "fish" as they came to be known} out of the cold water and handing them to me with the slotted spoon {or fishing pole}. We had a good afternoon, and now have about 10 quarts...give or take the quart I ate as I peeled them...of freezer peaches.

What a great way to start the fall...y'all!

Too Cold to Splash

You know summer may be coming to an end when you can't splash at the splash park without pulling this strange shiver face. Well, it was fun while it lasted!

Heavy

There really are NO words to describe my hairstylist, Jay. He is an event. He's been doing my hair for almost five years, and he does great work. However, it doesn't come without a price. As in, being exposed to his level of intensity. I have left his salon with a headache, and a whole new vocabulary, not to mention a healthy education on the gay community of SLC.

I had an appointment with him on Friday afternoon, and besides being VERY behind {he can't talk, sing, dance, entertain and cut hair at the same time...not a multi-tasker} he was also very hyper. He wanted to demonstrate for me how much make up he wears when he goes out...Heavy...yes...Terrifying...yes...Hilarious...pretty much.

He poured half a bottle of foundation onto a brush and began. He told me that any makeup worth doing was worth doing "heavy". If you are going to put on foundation....put it on heavy. If you are going to put your eyeshadow on...use at least five colors and apply heavily. You get the picture. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of his antics.