September

So, we’re all busy with school—Isaac, Becca & Aiden. *sniff sniff* However, we’re enjoying the fact that Isaac is usually home evenings and weekends for the first time in our marriage.

Over Labor Day weekend, we took the kids mini golfing, and the boys camped in the backyard.

The third weekend we enjoyed dollar night at the Newark Days fair and the Saturday morning parade.

We went to a 50th Anniversary Beautification Day at a local elementary, run by Danielle.

 

Isaac and I planned a multi-ward youth Fear Factor Night. The Drinks of Doom were foul, but I think the kids secretly loved it.

Aiden is liking first grade and gearing up for this year’s Walk-A-Thon, which is one of his very favorite school events. He thinks it’s hilarious that if he does more laps, I pay more money to the PTA. His goal is 25 laps this year (each lap is .1 mile; he did 22 last year). He drew this picture of our family (Charlotte is crawling).

Landon is quite the little talker and regularly says things that make us laugh. He is very opinionated. We’re looking forward to his third birthday in about five weeks!

Charlotte has figured out walking over the past few weeks, but mostly she would still rather crawl. She is making some sounds approximating words. She has seven teeth now! She loves to eat and remains a smiley baby.

She’s ONE!

At one year old, Charlotte is starting to get into trouble! She stands on her own pretty solidly, and although she won’t really take steps yet, she loves to reach for anything she can get her hands on while standing and pull it to the ground, tear it apart, or figure out how it works… She is also learning how to stand up in her highchair and bathtub, so she requires extra supervision lately.

She loves to watch and follow her brothers, playing alongside them whenever she can. Both of them dote on her for the most part and are usually great helpers.

She’s generally smiley and likes to play peek-a-boo, “dance,” and crawl around on hands and feet.

She is a little petite for her age, wearing size 9 month clothes and size two shoes for the most part. She weighs about 18 pounds. She has just five teeth so far, but the fact that she has just one on top doesn’t stop her from eating whatever we’ll let her have. She and Landon could have eating contests someday if she continues at the rate she’s going.

She says “Mama,” “Dada,” and sometimes “up” or “done,” but she’s not much of a talker yet. She signs “please” sometimes.

She was a BIG cupcake fan, digging right in and chowing down faster than either of her brothers.

She got pretty gross, actually.

Charlotte makes everyone in our family feel extra loved with her smiles and attention, and we couldn’t imagine life without our little sweetheart. Happy first birthday!

Southern CA Adventure!

We were able to enjoy a wonderful vacation with the Andersons and Binghams before school starts up again this week. Many thanks to Mom & Dad for the lodging and food, to the Binghams for flying all the way from Seattle, to the guys who took off work, and to the kids for being pretty stinkin’ adorable!

I was a little shutter happy, but I will try not to post all 700+ pictures...

We were so happy just to have the family together! We saw the LA temple, attended church in Burbank, and saw various sights of LA.

We went to Universal Studios and particularly enjoyed THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. It is much like the one in Orlando, but it wasn’t as crowded or humid, so it was a win to California for me.

Landon liked Curious George a lot more than the raptor…

Aiden used a wand to try magic around Hogsmeade, and after reading the first Harry Potter book together this summer, he was very excited about being a wizard.

After a few days in Burbank, we headed down to Anaheim and spent time at Disneyland. Mom found a house for all of us with a putting green, games in the garage, a pool, and (most importantly) beds for us to fall into after long days on our feet. We logged at least 28 miles walking to/from/at Disney.

The kids were (mostly) such troopers! They went on rides, napped in strollers, snacked a lot, and stayed out ten to twelve hours a day with few troubles. We were able to do everything we’d hoped at least once!

In Minnie’s house, Aiden said “Ow! This couch is HARD!” and Charlotte agreed.

Landon was tall enough to go on his first roller coaster, Gadget’s Go Coaster, and he was brave and had lots of fun.

Who can resist this baby and her Minnie Mouse ears?

The boys were good about doing a few character visits. Charlotte wasn’t too sure about anyone and batted at them with her tiny hands when they were close and petted them when they looked away. The meeting with KyloRen had Landon pretty sheepish though…

Mom & I collaborated to get Mandy to the Blue Bayou for a special birthday dinner. She was completely surprised, and the food was DELICIOUS.

The first time we went to see the Frozen show, it was cancelled about ten minutes in, as was the next showing (we were not at the second one)… which was a disappointing and strange experience, but when we finally got to see the whole show, we were not disappointed in the least! It was awesome; go see it!

The boys got badges, and they were pretty excited about them.

Mandy got a birthday hat at Rainforest Café on her birthday. I think she loved it. Maybe not as much as the Disney birthday button that Mom procured for her, but it was a close second. The boys loved seeing the Lego creations at Downtown Disney.

Now that I have sufficiently bogged everyone down with pictures, I will go to sleep because I have to go back to work this week, and Disney got me on a pretty good sleep schedule… so I should not default back to my happy summer sleeping in schedule, right? I guess.