Frightmares.

It is not fall, nor is it Halloween unless we take our annual trip to Lagoon for Frightmares. Unfortunately the rest of the State of Utah had the same idea as us. The two week-ends prior to when we went had been cold and rainy. It was finally a nice weekend with moderate temperatures, and as a result Lagoon was more crowded than I have ever seen it, even in the summer. Lines were long, Katie's patience wore thin, but the kids had a good time, and that was why we went in the first place.

Katie waiting in line for "spook-a-boo"
Mark getting a "lift"
Lauren in the pirate room.

Mama, I'm a big girl now.

As part of transitioning away from the bottle, Katie has now decided to eat cereal in the morning for breakfast. Her hand/eye coordination are remarkable. She is able to successfully feed herself with very little mess. In fact she is actually better, and neater at feeding herself than Mark, who believes all food is finger food, including cereal with milk.

Legend, I am

Do I need to say anything else?

This is why we have aunt's

Aunt Ciarran and Uncle Colin came to visit us, or rather see my children....Lauren, Mark and Katie subjected them to endless games of hide and seek, and then Ciarran suggested getting out the dress up clothes, an activity she and Lauren have historically done together.

Note Ciarran's black feather boa, along with a number of necklaces. When the picture was taken I had not located Ciarran's favorite dress up item which is the bridal veil.

Of course Katie had to be in on the action. She is eating a rice crispy treat, which resulted in sticky hands, and you should know feathers and sticky hands are a BAD combination. I am still finding feathers that those sticky little hands managed to pull out.

One more grown up step...

Its been a week now and Katie has not had a bottle. She had been gradually having fewer and fewer bottles and was down to three a day, morning, afternoon and night. A little over a week ago she told us in no uncertain terms, other words she said "umn, unh" and communicated she was strictly a sippy cup girl. Only down side, like her sister Lauren, she refuses to drink milk from a sippy cup, she wants only water or flavored water in her sippy cup. Solution, a couple of Tums, and her calcium requirement is fulfilled. (I am serious its what Lauren's pediatrician told me to do.)

Matt's on mission.

October 15, 2008 was Matt's date with destiny, or rather the Missionary Training Center. Rick, the kids and I accompanied Jeff, Linda, Courtney and Brian to bid him farewell. It was both happy and sad, happy that he made the choice to go on a mission, and sad to see him go for two years. Lots of tears, and a whole LOT of Kleenex.

Here are the current missionary and the future missionary. When Mark learned we were going to the MTC he insisted on wearing his jacket, which I purchased for him in March and he has been refusing to wear, since it came home with me from NYC. I asked if he would wear it for the Primary program in two weeks and was told "No." Good thing I got a picture, it may never grace his body again.

After seeing Matt off at the MTC, Lauren has now decided she wants to be a missionary.

Linda had to un-pick the sticking in Matt's pocket so he could slide his tag in, and really be official.

Matt and Lauren

The Brothers

Now the entire time, ok well maybe not the entire time, but a good portion of the time that Matt and Courtney lived with us, I really believed his leaving on a mission would be a day of rejoicing for Courtney, after all it would put and end to the manipulation by her older brother, the bossing around by her older brother, and her chance to get her hands on his cool stuff. Well apparently there is less animosity there than I thought, because Courtney was really broken up at Matt's leaving. There is not a sister who loves her brother more.

Of course mom and dad shed lots of tears too, and by the end Matt was crying really hard, I guess he does like us after all. We will see you in two years, when the kids will be older, we will have more grey hair, and for sure more wrinkles, but also have had the opportunity to read two years worth of letters and see the growth and change that Matt will experience.

Sassy Pants

Earlier last week my friend, Sue Jackson brought over some princess/girly ribbon she had purchased for Lauren. Lauren used it in some card making endeavors. Last Sunday after Relief Society was over I was talking to Sue when Lauren and Mark came up. Lauren politely thanked Sue for the ribbon. Mark then said:

"Sister Jackson I need some ribbon too, I want Halloween ribbon."

"Mark I do have some Halloween ribbon, I will bring it over to you."

Mark pointed his finger at Sue and gave her the following instruction:

"The Halloween ribbon needs to have pumpkins and bats on it."

Sue brought the ribbon over and sure enough her ribbon had pumpkins and bats on it. Mark was thrilled. Later in the afternoon was I explaining to Ciarran, who was visiting for the week-end, why it was Mark was carrying around Halloween ribbon. After I related the story Ciarran said to Mark:

"Your such a little sassy pants."

Mark replied:

"I don't want to talk about this."

Student Pilot

Santa left this airplane for Mark last Christmas, however Katie believes possession is 9/10th of the law, and has assumed control. She pushes the airplane around, and has recently learned how to climb in and out of it. She really likes sitting on the wing of the airplane. I am scared for the future.

" Now all I need is to color coordinate my outfit with my airplane. "

-Katie

Broken

On Saturday as Mark was preparing to go out and play in the rain, he grabbed his spider man umbrella and attempted to put it up. You can see the result. His comment:



"Mommy, my umbrella went all Mary Poppins on me."

Rainy Days and Saturdays...

On Saturday we had a down pouring of rain. Lauren and Mark decided after having a bath in the morning that they needed a shower in the afternoon.

Pretty soon the umbrellas disappeared and their shower really began.
Although everything is still pretty green, they managed to find a few fall leaves, that were wet of course, and put them in Ziploc baggies. Now the question is, how long does it take wet leaves in a zip lock bag to ferment?

Not to be outdone....

Lauren, not to be outdone by her younger brother, had to have cookie making time with mommy too. Her cookie of choice, the classic oatmeal chocolate chip.

Yes she licks the beater too.
A new tradition, a scoopful of cookie dough on a paper plate and a spoon. Again making cookies is ALL about the dough, not the cookies.
A small amount of the dough managed to find its way to the oven and turn into yummy cookies.

The Letter "E"

Last Friday when I picked Mark up from pre-school the first thing he wanted to show me were two peanuts Miss Mangum had given him. He kept saying "Mommy I got peanuts!" He immediately wanted to go home, crack open his peanuts and eat them. (I can't for the life of me figure out why Miss Mangum did not want the mess of freshly cracked peanuts at school, with 12 three and four years olds????)

The letter for the week was "E" so Mark proceeded to inform me that elephants eat peanuts and which is why Miss Mangum gave them peanuts.

Mark decided to honor the elephants by eating his freshly cracked peanuts like an elephant.