September 2015 - Cookies and Cabin

Sept 10

One day when the kids were at school, Melody had gone downstairs and was very quiet. So 

I went to investigate and found that she had written all over herself with brown marker! 

She was quite proud of herself and said "Legs, legs" and pointed to her legs. When I 

got out a wet wipe to start to clean her, she grabbed it from me and helped too. 

Sept 11

Jaina had been asking me for a few days if we could make cookies, but she 

wanted snicker-doodles, which take longer to prepare. So finally we made the dough 

while Melody was napping and we were able to make up the cookies after dinner. 

 She is a really good helper and loves to put the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar.

Pat bought a set of Golden Books that retell the stories of all 6 Star Wars movies. So he 

has been reading one to Jaina every night. She loves books and being read to.

Sept 12

The kids love to make 'houses' out of the couch cushions for Melody to play in. Sadly in this picture, she was 

crying because Xander told her it wasn't ready yet. She is really starting to get sad when she's told 'no'.

Sept 13

After church the girls wanted to watch Netflix. They usually go into Mara's 

room to watch, but this day they decided to camp out in the front room. 

We went to Mana's for dinner. After eating, Melody sat with Karri so she could watch cat videos on 

YouTube. She was laughing so hard at one of a cat jumping into a paper sack. It was so cute.

Sept 14

It had been a long time since I got a hair cut and it was driving me crazy because I don't usually keep it that 

long. So I was able to pamper myself and get a nice cut and style. It makes me feel so happy to have cute hair.

Sept 15

Once again, Karri came to the house to watch the kids so we could go to ward temple night. 

When she was watching the kids she brought her Jessie doll for Melody, since she loves Toy 

Story right now. Sadly, there was a little bit of fighting over it between Jaina and Melody.

Sept 16

She loves the Jessie doll and wouldn't put her down.

Sept 18

We needed to go to the cabin and close it up, so we decided to stay over 

Friday night. In preparation, I made zucchini muffins for breakfast on Saturday. 

They were super yummy and the kids have been asking for more.

We had stopped off at McDonald's to have dinner before we left, so when we got to Fairview we got ice cream 

at Tee-Cee's. We had asked for a small cup of ice cream for Melody and this is what they gave us!!

When Pat was walking around the deck, he spied the shoe cleaner that looks like a small bear, so he came 

into the cabin and told us that there was an animal on the deck. So I grabbed the camera and ran out there. 

He was laughing because he tricked us, but Melody was cute and walked by and waved to it and said "Hi".

When we got ready for bed Melody grabbed Jaina's Minnie Mouse, put it in the bed, and snuggled up with it. 

Then we had a selfie session, as we usually do when she see's me taking a picture with my phone.

Jaina loves to play on Mana's iPad and they were so cute snuggled together on the couch.

Saturday morning, we took a little walk and as always had 

to take the nets with us to see if we could catch bugs.

Melody found the shoe cleaner again, but this time she was trying to feed it leaves.

The girls played 'lightsabers' in the Yellowstone area.

Then Xander and Melody had to come see what was going on.

This was just a little bit staged, but I love it and this beautiful place.

And she's off! All she wanted to do was walk up the road and play.

On the driveway, looking out to the road.

I sure love this place.

Sept 20

Jaina made Melody this awesome house and she was so happy to 

play in it. Xander was impressed because it had four 'rooms'.

September 2015 - Labor Day Weekend

Melody's hair has been driving me crazy, because it was all uneven, so I finally sat her down with a treat 

and trimmed her hair. I was worried that what little curl she had would go away, but it didn't.

It was Labor Day Weekend which meant that it was time for Swiss Days!!!!  I 

love being able to get away for a day and be with my mom and sister. After 

looking at all the booths, we needed dinner. I love their Swiss Chicken Sandwich, 

so so so good. Karri and I split a scone, which was huge and delicious.

We were there with Terry, Lindsay, Merrilee, Catherine, Laurie & McKenzie 

and needed to take a group selfie and mom was ready by standing on a light post.

We tried a group selfie, but realized that we needed a selfie stick to really make it work.

Luckily someone noticed what we were doing and offered to take a group picture for us.

We also tried a circle selfie

After the shopping we headed to our hotel in Park City, got settled in and played 

our most favorite game: Yahtzee!!!!  I did the best I've done in a very long time!

Terry even had an amazing roll and the dice stacked when they landed!!

The next day we shopped at the outlets and had lunch at Zupas. It's 

always nice to get away for a bit, but I always miss my littles.

When I got home these girls were so excited to see me. We went in the 

backyard to enjoy the nice weather and play on the swing set.

In the mornings we like to snuggle on the couch, watch a movie while Melody drinks her milk. She was 

so focused on the movie that I thought it was cute. She's really liking the Toy Story movies right now.

It's rare to get pictures of this boy these days. He is growing up too fast and he's almost as tall as me!!

A sweet moment of Melody being swung by Mana and Finley.

Sept 7th:  Labor Day

We wanted to do something fun as a family and decided to take advantage of the 

LAST day of swimming for the season. So we headed over to the Spanish Fork Pool with 

Mana in tow. Melody loves to swim now, but was very solemn when taking selfies.

We played around for awhile in the 4 foot area while Pat, Jaina and Mara went down the water slide. 

Mana got out to check if Karri was going to be able to join us for dinner, and when she came back to 

the side of the pool, Melody wanted to get out to be with her. But she ended up just running around 

the splash area (which I've never seen work). Sadly, she fell down a few times and scraped her knees, 

but was pretty much done in the water. That was nice for me because it meant that I could actually 

swim a bit. All summer long I've had Melody with me, so it was nice when she was with Mana. 

Jaina even got out to play for a few minutes too. 

We had found a ball and played catch with it for a bit, and Xander & I raced a few 

times and played around a bunch. Even though the air was cold, this was probably 

the most fun I had swimming all summer because I could play around with my big kids!

When we were done, we picked up some pizza and headed home. Karri got off work and came 

to eat with us. We always love when we have company over and the kids adore Mana & Karri.

The next morning, I was holding Melody when I opened the freezer and she saw 

the popsicles and asked for one. She just loves these things. Also, when the kids 

were putting on their jackets to go to school she felt the need to wear hers too. 

I had to run an errand before picking up Jaina from school. I had extra time and didn't want to go 

home, take Melody out and then struggle to get her back in the car to go to the school. So I decided to 

drive down Main Street into Salem, then turn around and come back. It was a nice little drive, but I 

didn't expect her to fall asleep. She even had a sucker from the bank that couldn't keep her awake. 

She only slept for 15 minutes, but it made me worried that she wouldn't nap later.

She was so nice and took a good nap for me that afternoon. When she woke up we went 

outside and she found some dandelions and was playing with them, so I ran inside and grabbed 

my Canon. It's hard to see, but she was pointing at all the little fluffs that fell off the stem. 

We found another one and she just loved to carry it around with her.

Then she would pull them all off.

I love that she will hang on any and all swing sets.

She even decided to try the ladder alone. I only had to help her a little bit.

Jaina has learned to pump this summer and it's been great!

We even headed around the corner and Melody was talking to the fake birds in the neighbors yard.

By the end of the day she was quite cranky, so I put her in the tub to cheer her up, 

but she asked for milk too. So this is what happens to make your baby happy.