what's new with us

This is the time of year I love to be in St. Louis. Now and October. It was so warm this week. We were outside all the time. And when we were inside, the bike and trike were stashed in the entryway, waiting to be taken outside again. We've enjoyed playing with friends, going to the playground, digging in sand, etc.

James let our friend borrow his trike for a moment

Isaac is really good at riding his bike. He goes so fast he scares me sometimes. He balances really well and hardly ever falls. He will coast down hills and put his feet up on the little foot rest he has. I definitely recommend balance bikes--he loves it and has learned so fast.

I have never written this, mostly because it's depressing, partly because it's embarrassing. Isaac never really has been potty trained. I would have to tell him every 2 hours to go to the potty. If I didn't, he would pee his pants. Well, it has finally started to click. Nine months later, now that he's almost four. When I was out of town, he for the first time went to the potty all by himself. Now he pees his pants a lot less and he (sometimes) actually tells us when he has to go and sometimes he even goes to the potty and poops all without even telling us! It's not perfect, sometimes I still have to remind him, but he's doing so much better. Maybe my coming clean about this will help someone who actually reads this blog.

Isaac has got the big brother thing down. He is a huge tease and constantly goes to James and hugs him way too tight. He is pretty good at sharing but he needs to work on a gentle touch. He will squeeze James and then James will swat at him and Isaac will cry that James hit him. Oh please...

Somehow he has gotten into the concept of bad guys and always plays with his friends that he is going to get the bad guys. I made him a cape with a Mr. Incredible "I" on it (also "I" for Isaac) and he called himself Mr. Incredible Scary Guy. He also LOVES legos. I don't build cool enough things for him--he likes best to play with Daddy. Grandma just sent him a box of Blake's old legos which doubled his supply. Even James points to the legos and likes to find a car that Daddy's made and play "voom...". Of course, James pretty much just wants to do whatever Isaac does.

James still loves balls. If he only had one toy and it was a ball he would be perfectly happy. Actually, he likes variety in his balls. He will pick one up, throw it, then have to find another one. It's exciting to throw a bigger ball and then get a little bouncy ball and then a hackey sack. He likes to get on the stairs and throw the ball into the family room through the railings. Then I am supposed to get it and hand it to him. He likes throwing so much this has extended to everything else. Including legos, and mostly food. Whenever he's done, or even if he isn't, you can hear him saying "Boom!" and know he's throwing all the contents of his tray on the floor. Not just dropping them, throwing them with a pretty good projectile. Like landing in my lap several feet away. The poor carpet in my kitchen is hashed.

He keeps saying new words all the time. The latest are blueberry, done, car. This week he looked down the stairs and said "down". Of course his favorite words are still momom, dada, boom (which can mean throwing something or balloon), and ball. He also is quite fascinated by his animal books and likes to make the animal sounds. He is best at "neigh". almost any animal says it. Isaac never was very interested in animals so this is new to us.

So James has had a hard time this week sleeping at night, probably because he all of a sudden this week decided to switch to one nap. It is definitely about time, he's almost 17 months, but it was a quick switch. Last night he finally slept all night and I was SO MAD when Isaac woke up and cried at 3 AM: "I want to wake up...I want to wake up..."

Blake's been growing his hair out. How long can you go?

Somebody's getting married

Actually, somebody got married. My brother Chris married the beautiful Brittney. Blake didn't feel like he could ask for time off since he is a lowly intern so he got his mom to fly out here to babysit the kids so I could go by myself. It was such a nice thing for Karen to do--I wasn't worried at all (mostly) while I was gone for the weekend. I had mixed feelings about leaving my kids for three days but it went fine and when I came home they both still loved me. When I got James the first time the morning after I came home he just put his head down on my shoulder for like 10 minutes. I thought something like this was going through his head: "I don't know if I can trust her but she's back and I'm glad." I think I've earned his trust back already, though.

The day of the wedding we first took pictures at the Capitol.

All of the grandkids except Isaac and James. sad.

Then we attended the sealing in the Salt Lake Temple and gathered outside for some quick photos because it was pretty cold.

These next two are my favorites. They were really happy, even with a few mishaps during the day.

A donut stop before dinner. LOVE Banbury Cross.

At the wedding dinner we just had to do some goofy musical numbers. It's become a tradition. I think Brittney's family were pretty awed at our stage presence (aka not caring what anybody thought of our off-tune music accompanied with cheesy dance moves). Chris started if off right with a song dedicated to Brittney, Pops sang a love song, and then we took over with "A Pirate's Wife for me", "Those Bachelor Days (we used to know)", and "How does she know" from Enchanted. I guess you had to be there, but I had a great time.

As you can tell, I had way too much fun taking pictures of everything. I didn't have any kids or husband in tow, what else was I going to do? Congrats Chris and Britt, we're way excited for you!