I didn't forget Cole....

I hadn't posted any pictures of Cole in his costume because they were on a different camera. Here are some pictures of my Winnie the Pooh.

In true Pooh fashion he is licking something off of his face.

Playing with his sis.
"Think, think, think, think...."
And here is a picture I threw in of some pumpkin cupcakes I just finished making for Cole's school Halloween party tomorrow.

Double Dare flashback

If you remember that great 80's game show, Double Dare, this will hopefully transport you back in time. Here are Charles and I getting reading root through a giant slime filled nose, wade through a giant vat of oatmeal, and transfer various gunk to the lovely cups on top of our helmets. Yes, we are proud children of the 80's!

Cheerleader Juliet

Here are a couple of pictures of Juliet in her cheerleader outfit before the ward Halloween party.

Like mother, like daughter....

Here are pictures of Juliet and I taken around the same age in the same dress. The dress was purchased in a market stall in Panama when we lived in Central America while my Dad was in the Army. My Mom has kept it these years and we had fun putting it on Juliet . We really don't look too much alike! But I promise, she is my daughter.

I Scared a little bit....

Juliet has decided to be scared of things now. Not scary Halloween things like skeletons and such, which don't really seem to phase her, but every day terrors like the vacuum cleaner and small neighborhood dogs.

The other day Juliet was fooling around with the vacuum cleaner, which was still plugged in to the wall. She accidentally turned the vacuum on and the look and shriek of absolute terror that came out of that child would put any B-movie actress to shame. After the vacuum cleaner was turned off she still kept crying and saying "I scared of the vacuum," and "I scared myyyselllfff..."

Juliet is very fascinated by animals, but if they make a move toward her she gets quite frightened. Before she could say that she was scared, I remember being at a picnic where some dogs were running around. She kept pointing at one and excitedly saying, doggie, doggie! Then the dog started to come toward her and she threw herself frantically into my arms shouting, "Uh oh, doggie, uh, oh, doggie." That was several months ago. Today the neighbors at my Mom's house had their very small, very friendly, very non-threatening dog out and it came toward Juliet who bolted around the other side of the car crying and saying, "I scared of the doggie, I scared of the doggie." After I had picked her up, she deigned to pet the dog and then very cheerfully waved good bye to it as we walked into the house, "Bye, bye, doggie!"

Family Home Evening

I forgot to mention that we did have a FHE on Wednesday. We did a lesson about how Jesus is the light of the world. We lit candles in the darkness to show how he gives us light when things are dark. That basically turned into an activity of lighting and blowing out candles, which is so fun. We sang lots of songs, Teach Me to Walk in the Light, and There is Sunshine in My Soul. Charles got out the guitar and the kids had fun dancing while he played. After we were done we went to the craft store to get some things for Halloween and on the way we saw the most spectacular sunset. The whole sky was lit with yellow, oranges, and pinks.

A few random pictures from the last couple of days

Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of days.

Here is a picture of Cole i n a corn maze. He liked the corn maze, but I really had to keep up with him. It's easy enough to lose Cole in say, our house, without bringing a maze situation into it.

Here we are preparing for a Sunday afternoon walk. Both children cannot leave the home without various toys in their hands. Here Cole is holding tight to a ball, and Juliet is toting a plastic purse with several dolls in it. Juliet is also pointing out that Mommy is in fact holding a camera. Thanks baby, next step is when you figure out how to pose for the camera.



Here Juliet is helping do laundry by taking several items of my clothing and wearing them in various fashions. Here she has fit one of the sleeves of my pink shirt over her head, is wearing another shirt of mine as a hat and is wearing my bra as a necklace. Cutie!

Family Home Evening

Well, we managed to have Family Home Evening again tonight. We did a lesson about how God made animals and then Daddy and Mommy took turn pretending to be animals so the kids could guess what we were. It worked out well. Simple and good. Eventually I'll be able to add snack as well, but I haven't gotten my timing down on that one yet.

Highbanks Park

Family Home Evening

Well, I decided to take a page out of Kensie's book and start recording our Family Home Evenings. I also decided to start doing family home evening, which we hadn't been doing previously. I want to start now when my kids still like spending time with me and think I'm cool. We had a simple family home evening tonight about being a child of God. It went smoothly with happy children throughout! We sang, learned a scripture, colored a picture, etc... Very short and simple for the short attention spans of my little ones! We are having it on Wednesday, because Mon, Tues, Thurs., and Fri Charles works until 8 pm.

A couple of hard days for Cole

Well, Cole has had a rough couple of days. On Sunday he got a couple of bug bites on his face. I noticed that he was having a lot of swelling around the bites Monday and took him to the Doctor on Tuesday morning. She gave him some Allegra to help with the local inflammation and he was doing pretty well. I think he reacted oddly to the medicine and he had a really hard time sleeping last night. Today his face looked much better, but they called from school to say that he was running a 102 F temperature. Something is going around his school, so I don't think it is related to the bite. Anyway, he's been pretty funky this afternoon, but we haven't been able to get him to sleep. Finally, around 7:30, he walked upstairs from the basement, wrapped a blanket around himself, and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Here he is snoozing away, I'm going to get Charles to carry him upstairs.

More Leed's Farm Pictures

Leeds Farm

Well, a couple of Saturdays ago Cole, Juliet, Jessica, Grandpa Jim, and Grandma Kathryn went to the Leeds Farm which has to be coolest pumpkin patch of all time. They have everything there. The basic pumpkins, hayride, petting zoo, and play barn and then much more. Some of the fun things the kids loved were the giant play box full of dry corn (think huge sandbox, only corn), the big burlap sack slide going down a hill, and the mini banana train hayride. For bigger kids they also had a pretty decent zip line, corn mazes, a big plastic tubes you can get in and make move by running (think giant hamster wheel/ball), and pedal driven go-carts. It is the coolest place for farm fun in the Fall (how is that for alliteration). I also like that although there is all this STUFF, they have tried to use farm type materials to build it and so it looks authentic and not too commercial. It was also nice that we got to go for a special Autism event so everything was free for us. VERY generous of Leeds farm, and there were a lot of families there. Charles loves everything Fall and was sad because he had work that day. We are going back this Saturday so he can play too, I don't think the kids will mind.

Where did everybody go?

One of Juliet's favorite topics of conversation is asking where people went.

A conversation goes something like....

"Where did Daddy go?"

"I don't know, where did Daddy go?"

"Work"

One second later.

"Where did Grandma go?"

"I don't know, where did Grandma go?"

Juliet says, "Work, too."

She really likes to talk about her cousins Lyna and Noah who have gone to Oklaholma (said O'homa). When her Grandma Kathryn had gone to Missouri for a trip she asked, "Where did Grandma go?" and when I told her Missouri she said, "I do that too." and went and stood by the door.

Juliet is content to have long conversations talking about where everyone has gone. Sometimes she asks where Mommy has gone and then laughs and says "Right here!"