Sweet & Sassy!

I don't think I knew stubborn until this little girl came along. 

I thought Luke was stubborn,

I thought Luke was determined.....

This little girl is far more stubborn and determined.

All she says to me is "NO" all day long.

She is full of attitude and wants to do things her way

and her way only...

I am not looking forward to teenage years!

Like Me??

I think its hard to see yourself in your own children.

There are some characteristics in both of my children I can see came from Gilbert.

There are others, I think came from me.

It's always interesting to look at photos of yourself at the same ages of your children, and compare.

Many people have said that Clara looks just like me.

Above are some pics of Clara, and some of me.

There is one photo, where I think Clara is the spitting image of me.

I wish I could find that photo...

so these ones will have to do.

Unfortunately, I think both of our kids take more after me as a whole, 

rather than Gilbert.

Both of them have Gilbert's cowlick.

Both of our kids have blue eyes,

but both Gilbert and I have blue eyes.

If you compare Luke and Clara's face shape,

one has Gilbert's and one has mine.

I won't tell you who....

 Lately, Clara is all kinds of sass!

She has learned how to say "no" and she uses it properly.

If you ask her anything, or tell her to do something,

she will almost immediately just say "no"

and she says it with some serious sass!

 Clara is also understanding more and more every day.

It always amazes me, she seems so little,

yet she understands so much.

Whether or not she chooses to follow is a different story.

You can give her simple commands,

and she understands some key words.

She understands:

bath

diaper

outside

drink

sucker

Luke is loving preschool.

We talk about days of the week and what we do on those different days.

We do preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

He asks if its Tuesday or Thursday, so we can go to school.

He loves to watch the neighborhood kids get home from school off the bus.

When the bus lets every body off, 

we often get a flood of kids walking by our house.

If we are outside,

Luke will say "oh Hi guys!"

to all the kids walking by.

Clara has been a true girly girl showing off her over dramatic style.

She has started covering her mouth when she cries,

as if it is just too much to bear.

I think its absolutely hilarious!

Literally

Luke made me laugh the other day.

2 year-olds take everything so literally.

I have some cans of diet Dr. Pepper in the refrigerator.

Luke would LOVE to drink them for me.

I had several in the door, all lined up, just to tempt him with.

He brought me a can of Dr. Pepper and said,

"mommy, I want this one, please"

I responded,

"no, that's mommies"

So he said "ok"

and like a good little boy, went and put it back in the fridge.

Only to grab the next Dr. Pepper in line,

he brought me that one and said,

"mommy, I want this one, please"

I just started laughing to myself.

Of course I didn't say- they are ALL mommies,

I just said "that one" is mommies.

He understood me perfectly!

Too cute!!

 I've been busy,

on a canning crusade.

I canned Apple Pie filling

and raspberry jam.

Next week I'll be canning pie cherries.

Next year- I want to try canning salsa,

with produce from my own garden.

Hopefully we can make that happen!

Preschool DAY 2

Today was day 2 of preschool.

I know Luke is a little young,

but I thought he was so ready.

Today, I walked away as the teacher pulled Luke away from me.

I could still hear his cries when I was outside.

I wondered to myself if I was doing the right thing,

maybe its too early.

The teacher told me on his first day,

about half way through,

Luke was asking where his mommy was.

Today, when I picked Luke up,

all my worries disappeared.

This does not look like a sad little boy.

He was so excited to show me what he had learned!

PaRtY!

 After we returned home from our weekend at Bear Lake, 

it was time to celebrate and PaRtY some more!

It was Bella's third birthday,

so the party continued first at Boondocks!

 Luke was ALL about Boondocks, especially the tokens.

Luke knew exactly what to do with them, 

and asked for more tokens every second!

He would go put them in a game, and start playing immediately.

Then he started collecting his tickets, 

to turn them in for prizes.

Luke seemed addicted!!!

Then we took it to the mini-golf!

I always love mini-golf,

and Luke loved that too!

He really was pretty good at putting the golf ball around.

I think everyone had a great time!

 The mini-golf course was great,

and very kid friendly!

The next day, we continued our partying at Thanksgiving Point.

The farm is always a fun place to go for little kids.

Luke wasn't shy about touching the animals either!

 

 You know how you have those moments, where kids just say the darndest things...

Well we experienced one of those moments while visiting the farm.

There were lots of large horses to look at, along with little ponies.

There was one horse, who was very large and dark brown.

He was a male horse, which was very obvious by his male parts.

Bella walked right up to this horse, squatted down to take a look at his exposed male parts.

After a few seconds or examining, she said:

"look mommy, he's got chocolate hanging from his bum!"

Oh man...... that's just hilarious!

 Luke loved riding the pony so much,

he rode the pony 3 times!

Pony rides never get old!

These two kiddos are two peas in a pod.

They just love being with each other!

On the next day, we continued our partying at the Dinosaur museum.

They spent more of their time in the sand pit.

It was a fabulous visit from cousin Bella!

BEAR LAKE family reunion

 We spent our holiday weekend at Bear Lake for a family reunion.

It's a little less than 3 hours drive,

but we packed into our car for a fun filled ride.

 In our group we had just over 40 people, with more than half being under the age of 11.

The cabin was fabulous, nearly 10,000 sq. feet

and a basement play area that was out of the world.

It had an indoor basketball court, play set, and trampoline.

 There were slides between levels, so if you didn't want to take the stairs down,

you could just slide you way down to the bottom.

It was a fun filled weekend with games, play, and lots of laughter.

 We spent one afternoon at the beach,

and I was in charge of the family olympics.

This was a blast, and everyone got to participate.

Unfortunately, because I was in charge, I didn't get any pics or the madness.

We were all laughing like we had never laughed before.

 By far, one of the best highlights of the weekend was the relay skis of the olympics.

Props to my dad, who build the best relay skis ever!

Our family was all in green, and we competed in families.

I nearly peed my pants when I was laughing so hard to watch the 4 grown men 

in my family all fall over on top of each other at the end. 

It was one of the best family reunions I have ever participated in!