A little of this and a little of that...

I tend to put off blogging, not because I'm all that busy, but because I keep thinking something more exciting is going to happen. It never does. I have a feeling this is going to be another long, rambling chronicle of every detail of our last two weeks. Brace yourselves.


Devan had a day off week before last and we took a walk. I go on walks with the kids in the stroller a few times a week, but it's different when Devan's there. I'm more willing to go slow and enjoy the scenery.

We stopped on a little bridge where people always feed the ducks. As soon as we walked up they all gathered under the bridge, but we didn't have any food for them. Then a couple arrived to feed the ducks and they gave Hannah some bread. It was so much fun!

The guy dumped a couple half-full bags of chips into the water and the ducks went crazy. I don't really understand the concept of stale chips though. If a bag of chips enters my house it's gone in 24 hours, tops.

This was one of our last nice fall days. Last week it was so cold. Hannah asked to go to the park every single day. We tried twice and it was a failure both times. Too cold and wet and no fun for any of us. I have a feeling it's going to be a long, long winter.

Hannah pretending to be her dad. He's scary.

One night we put Hannah down in her bed and Ben was sleeping in our bed. We thought she'd fallen asleep right away, but when we went to bed, this is what we found. She'd snuck in, cuddled up to Ben and fallen asleep without waking Ben or alerting us that she was out of bed.

This was another night when Ben was supposed to be sleeping, but he was being very smiley and elf-like.

He was so cute that rather than be bothered I decided to get up and eat ice cream and give up on sleep.

One day Devan brought the chalk board out to teach some things to those of us who didn't take calculus. Hannah took the board over with her circles. I didn't know she could draw such good circles. You'll also notice the long Devan-shirt. She's been wearing them a lot lately. Last Sunday she had one on and it was a battle before church.

Mom: "Put on this dress!"

Hannah: "I'm already wearing a dress!!!"

This is the first day I know for sure Ben rolled over. I think it was last Thursday which means Ben was about 3 and a half months (15 weeks) old. I didn't see it, but I left him on his back and next thing I know he's on his stomach. There have been several times this weekend that I've walked in and he's gone stomach to back. No one has ever seen these roll-overs though. He's either very, very sneaky or very, very neglected.

On Friday we went to Hannah's friend Josh's birthday party at the aquarium. Devan was working and I realized I don't take these kids very many places by myself anymore. I was a little overwhelmed. We'll go to the park or the grocery store or the gym (you know, the necessities), but we tend to avoid crowded, confined spaces. The point is, we had a blast, but I didn't get many good pictures.

Hannah's favorite part was the sting ray you could touch.

We saw penguins. They weren't as big as this one, but probably the one to the left. They were awesome.

Benj is getting better at controlling his hands.

Last night Uncle Jordan and the cousins came over and the girl cousins decided to spend the night. They didn't have dresses with them for church so I couldn't resist doing some matching skirts.

I need to get myself some more little girls. So fun!

Tonight is Sunday and as usual I'm renewed and have big plans for next week. My biggest plan is to exercise more next week. I haven't lost a single pound since Ben was 6 weeks old. This is getting a little ridiculous.

An Evening with Dinosaurs

A week ago the Museum of Natural History on University of Utah campus was having their free day so we went for our family home evening. We had so much fun! It's free every first Monday of the month, but I've put off going because I was worried it would be insanely busy like the museums in Tacoma and Seattle are on their free days, but it was quite nice. I think I'll be brave enough to take the kids by myself next month if Devan can't make it.

This dinosaur talks to you if you put coins in his mouth. Hannah talked about the talking dinosaur for days.

This tipi has nothing on the Karshner Museum's tipi. Of course, not having to wait and wait for 3rd grade to go in does have its upside.

Gem stones. This was my favorite part of the mineralogy wing. I was only mildly interested in anything in that section.

Devan LOVED it though! He said it was his favorite part of the whole museum. I think he was a little offended when Hannah lost interest. I had to remind him that she's 2 (and that I'd lost interest long before she did). It makes me love him so much seeing him get excited over something as dull as rocks.

Hannah and Dad did a little mining.

And found this fine specimen.

One of my favorite parts was the bug area.

I don't remember what these things are called, but they're crazy. They have little legs and they scurry around on the bottom of the tank, but they also swim like fish. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.

And this was a Giant African Millipede. Millipede!

This was our puppet show:

"I'm a bug!"

"No, I'm a bug!"

"No, I'm a bug!"

"I thought I was a bug..."

"No, I'm a bug"

Instant classic

Dad: "What do we do with Deer?"

Hannah: "We eat them!"

Click

Bleh!

This room was about Range Creek Canyon which had something to do with ranchers or something. I didn't get to read much because for some reason this is when Hannah went crazy. She was running all over the place and trying to get me to run with her. That's when I had to break it to Devan that when we go to museums we usually just find the fun kid stuff and leave the rest.

We found the best part very last when we were all worn out. I don't remember ever seeing real dinosaur fossils before and I was so excited when we stumbled upon them. We walked in the room and I gasped and said, "I've been waiting for this my whole life!" a little too loudly. I got some looks.

We could have spent more time, but here Hannah is on her second poop (in a cloth diaper) of the evening so we called it a night.

The Babies

Here's another video especially for the grandparents...





Sorry I'm incapable of holding my camera the correct direction.

Halloween Weekend

Friday morning Ashley helped out in her friend's kindergarten classroom and brought Hannah along just like last year.  

There she is at the end of the table. Doesn't she look like she belongs in school. Such a big girl!

Ashley said the kids kept putting these letters back and then she'd run back over and mess them up.

 After school Ashley took her out to lunch and to a store and Hannah got a new ball. I had a great day at home with Ben and was able to get some projects done. Hannah and I are so lucky to have a friend like Ashley!

That night Devan didn't get home from work until 9 and the kids had been super whiney all afternoon, so as soon as he got home we went out to dinner. Hannah was especially hungry and had a hard time understanding that she had to wait for her dinner. The waiter took our order and then every time he walked past after that she yelled, "Hey! Where's my food?!"

Saturday morning we went to Hannah's new friend Madison's 3rd birthday party.

Hannah loves the trampoline over there.

And she loved this dollhouse. We'd be inside doing games or eating and she kept sneaking outside to play.



We spent Saturday afternoon running around doing all the errands and chores and cooking we needed to do for the weekend. Saturday evening was our ward's trunk or treat. It was raining so we moved inside. It made it really quick and easy for the kids to get lots of candy. We were in and out in a half hour and Hannah had plenty of candy for us to steal. 

Hannah's cousins and friend Xay came and they looked AWSOME!

We went home to get some much-needed real food in the kids. We had a yummy dinner of pumpkin chili and Devan's wheat bread.

Sunday evening we had 4 families from church over for dinner. I'd found a recipe for soup baked in a pumpkin so I decided I needed to have people over to make it. I didn't give myself enough time and it didn't cook fully in the pumpkin so I had to throw in on the stove at the last minute. I threw in some pumpkin puree I'd made the day before and called it good. We also had spit pea soup, bread and fruit and someone brought a yummy vegetarian pasta salad. It wasn't super halloweenie, but I thought it was nice. Our sweet neighbors downstairs don't eat sugar so they brought a delicous sugar-free apple crisp. Hannah had a great time having some of her friends over. Being in nursery, we hardly ever see anyone else at church, so it was so great to get to make some new friends and get to know our old friends better.

And Hannah got a new Halloween skirt. I made it long and big so that hopefully she can wear it next year. 

I think this was our best Halloween yet!

Pumpkin Carving

My computer had a freak out a couple months ago and we still haven't been able to get some of our pictures back, so that's why I now have the compulsive need to blog about every little thing we do (I know, I could just back up my files occasionally, blah, blah, blah). So...these were our Halloween activities last Sunday (Not yesterday. I'm nowhere near that organized.)

We went to Chad and Ashley's for our 4th annual pumpkin carving extravaganza.

Ashley planned a craft for the kids again.

They enjoyed it.

One of my old roommates, Misty, with the Benj.

We tried really hard to get a cute picture of all the kids in their costumes. This is the best we got.