There was a time that I was always updating my blog, and it was interesting. What has happened??
So, I will give a quick update. We just got back from our 4, 626 mile road trip church history and visiting Tawnya trip. We went to Palmyra sites and Peter Whitmer's home, Kirtland, Nauvoo and Carthage. The kids did great. It was a great trip.
Abbie is learning so many words so quickly. I think she is going to be so smart. If she wants something, she says, "Mine." That is the word we hear all day. The kids have gerbils and at the Sacred Grove she saw a squirrel and said, "gerbil!" She likes to dance. She'll try and lift her legs and fling her arms around like Katherine. She has the biggest smile and she is a very happy girl and laughs all the time. She still sucks her thumb constantly. She is the only one who ever sucked her thumb. Katherine had a pacifier, and the boys didn't want anything. She takes one nap during the day and sleeps 11-12 hours at night. She's 16 months old. To say drink she says, "dink." When we say, "Abbie, do big eyes," she opens her eyes and mouth really wide. She likes to put on necklaces and carry dollies or stuffed animals.
Katherine is doing ballet now at the Classical Ballet Academy in Provo. She misses her old dance studio, but she really likes the ballet, so I thought that this would fit her better. At first I wanted her to go to both, but there's only so much time and money! She wants to be doing everything the boys do. She likes to sing- real songs and made up songs. Right now she's in her underwear, with two different shoes on, eating a piece of bread, singing and rolling around on the couch. And feeding some of her bread to Manzo dog. She is stinkin adorable right now, which is good when she has one of her screaming tantrums. Like the rest of my kids, she has a set of lungs and a high pitch scream. I should get all my kids into opera singing. She says the funniest things. I should be writing them down. She loves giving me hugs and kisses. She is so sweet with Abbie and calls her "my dear, sweetheart," etc. She just cut her own hair for the first time. It's not extremely noticeable, thank goodness. She cut the top layer of bangs really short. She really loves horses and we're taking horse riding lessons as a family. She got pink cowgirl boots and a pink cowgirl hat. She loves riding horses and she's not scared at all. She was so excited to get on the horse yesterday for our lesson. She stopped taking naps when she turned two, but last month I started doing quiet time for her when Abbie is taking her nap. She has to stay in my bed for an hour, and I give her a lot of books and toys and puzzles she can do, or she can go to sleep. If she stays in the bed, she gets a little candy. That way I can do school with the boys during that time. Then I just give the boys assignments they can work on by themselves when the girls are awake. I'm going to do preschool with her, and we did a project where she cut something out, and she did it! I only helped a little. She knows her colors, and mostly her shapes, and how to count to 10 and mostly to 20. She can sing the ABC song, and can identify "K for Katherine" and the number 3 and 2. That is all stuff she just picked up, I didn't teach her except her colors. She still loves Signing Time and knows lots of signs. On our 4, 626 mile trip, we pretty much watched Signing Time that whole time. Here's what Katherine says:
What do you like? Bingaroo. (a word she made up. She makes up all sorts of stuff. she's very creative.) I like happy, not sad, just happy. (singing Baby Signing Time now).
do you like nursery? no. i just like scra' meeting. (she really does like nursery, unlike the boys at that age.)
Do you want to tell a story? I want a story about a nutcracker.
Tell me the nutcracker story: no, you say the nutcracker story.
What do you like? the gerbils, Manzo, pretty dancing, Abbie, riding my bike, going down the slide
I wanna say good-bye. k, good-bye.
The boys are really in to Halloween this year, like every year. When we got back from our trip, it was a lot cooler, and so the boys decided it was Halloween time! They went up and made black and orange count down chains and other things. We've been listening to the "Wee Sing for Halloween" songs. I got the cd when the boys were little and we love it and listen to it every year. Alex has been playing some of the songs on the piano because it comes with a song book. Alex loves piano. He's always loved music. He's been growing a lot lately. This last year I think he's gotten a lot bigger (and moodier, too). Right now Nathan is doing his boom boom game with a purple light saber. He's running back and forth across the living room making explosion noises and pretending to fight monsters and bad guys. All the toys my boys need are swords and legos. Alex got a snap circuit set and played with it non stop- he loved it. He loves building things. They just started their Friday school, and they're taking art, sewing and cooking, making things work, nature studies, social dance and lego robotics. They loved all their classes except sewing, because everyone needed help and so they spent most of the class waiting for the teacher to help them. Then at lunch they didn't have my boys' names down (a mix up) and they called me crying that they didn't have a lunch. I went over there and got it all worked out and they ate their lunch late.
We are hoping for a warm fall! We planted our garden late, and we have tons of green tomatoes and green pumpkins and we've never, in all our time here, actually had a good tomato harvest or a pumpkin! I think I've planted them most years, too. It's a wonder I love to garden so much when I'm really not that good at it. I just figure I'll learn and I always say NEXT year will be great!
We had our family horse riding lesson yesterday and it was so much fun. I am so sore today though. My shoulders, back and legs are so sore! People make riding a horse look easy! It's hard! We did galloping last month, and yesterday Todd and I did cantering or lop. All I've got to say is that saddles need seatbelts!
right now Todd is making Nathan's special day dinner, which is mummy dogs, homemade macaroni and cheese and apple pie.
An update to the update: I went outside and found some ripe tomatoes! Yay!! Today from our yard I picked: lots of little white pumpkins, strawberries, blackberries, spinach, basil and tomatoes!! I found a little zucchini on our plant- hopefully it can grow maybe one before frost. Our pumpkin plant has about 10 pumpkins, but I'm doubtful they'll make it to be orange. We also have 5 cantelope on our plant, so I'm hoping it stays warm! so far this has been the best year for a food garden. Also this year our white nectarine tree gave us lots of good fruit...so good we call it forbidden fruit.
