When Grandma comes it's always fun!

My mom came for a visit last Thursday, Sept. 29 and left yesterday, Oct. 6. We always love it when Grandma comes for a visit!The day after she got here we got the kids McDonald's and brought it to the school for lunch. There was smiles all around.We were waiting for Zach's class to come when they started putting away all the tables in the cafeteria. We figured out that the 3rd graders were eating in their classrooms because they were setting up for the Career Fair. Zach was worried we wouldn't come and he would get no lunch. But we came through.

Grandpa & Grandma LeSueur have been looking for state quarters for Zach for the last few months. They have been much more faithful at it than me. They had him down to only needing 5 coins. My mom was talking to a lady in her ward and somehow Zach's collection came up. The next day the lady brought my mom the last of the quarters from her own collection to put in Zach's. She said it was worth it, since he was doing his collection for cub scouts. What a neat lady! Zach is thrilled to have it finished. Now he's just figuring out what coins to start collecting next. He has lofty goals (rare and old gold coins) and we're trying to keep them realistic, like Lincoln pennies.

One of Landon's new hobbies is unloading the dishwasher, whether they're clean or not. He usually gets put in the pack'n'play while we do the dishes, because otherwise they end up all over the floor all wet. But the kids always let him help them empty in the morning and he LOVES it.

While Grandma was here there were many, many games of "Roll the Ball."

And many times it turned into "Chase the Ball."

Landon loves to bug Connor because he gets such a good reaction out of him. The other night I was clipping Connor's toenails, so he was confined. Landon found one of Connor's snakes, came and stood just our of his reach, and waved it all around. Connor was MAD, but I thought it was funny enough to have my mom take a picture of.

There was lots of reading. And then keeping the books up so that Landon didn't eat them.

On Sunday we watched General Conference for our church on the computer. We had to be creative to keep it out of Landon's reach.

Grandma's birthday is in a couple of weeks, so we celebrated a little early with brownies.

There were lots of crafts going on this week. Grandma started out supervising making some Halloween decorations out of pipe cleaners. Then she got busy helping with Landon and the kids were left on their own. By the end of the evening there were many things hanging on the tree out front, most of which we have no clue what they are. They are still there since I don't have the heart to let all that hard work go to waste.

Grandma came with us to story time at the library. Connor found a cobra puppet to check out. As my mom put it best "I bet that cobra has never been so loved."

He carries it around all day and sleeps with it at night. I'm a little worried for the day we have to take it back.

Savannah brings home books to read from school every day, so on this visit it was always Savannah reading to Grandma instead of the other way around.

The night before my mom left we were up late talking. Lucy started barking hysterically in the backyard. There was an opposum in the neighbor's yard and then it went up on the top of the fence. I've seen plenty of them as roadkill, but never one alive.

Every time my mom went in to take a shower Landon would stand outside the bathroom door and yell at her to come out (in his own language).

Thanks for coming Grandma! We miss you already!

Pumpkin Patch Preschool

On Tuesday Connor's preschool went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch in Elgin. My mom was here to watch Landon, so Connor and I got to have a special "date" with no other siblings. There were 6 total kids from his preschool class and there was nobody else at the farm that day. We had the whole place to ourselves and it was GREAT!Connor's favorite part was the hay ride. The activities they had there were just right for kids this age. We took things slow to let them play and they all loved it. Connor's friend even wore her Little Bo Peep costume since we were at the farm.Connor wasn't too fond of the animals up close, but he did pose really quick for a picture.

They had a fun maze that actually took the kids a few minutes to get through. It was a little challenge for them, but not too hard.

At the end of the maze we found a snake skin stuck in the fence. You can't see the look on Connor's face, but he was SO excited.

We left a little early, so he didn't get to paint his little pumpkin there. But he was just happy that he's the only kid at home right now to even have a pumpkin.

Happenings

Life has been busy like always. Here are some random pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Landon loves to walk around with things in his mouth. He had a bowl from the "food bucket" in his mouth, covering his eyes while he walked. He tripped and fell flat on his face. He had a bruise in the shape of a circle (from the rim of the bowl) for a few days.Connor got a bunk bed! He's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the last 2 or 3 years. Eventually he'll move to the top and Landon will sleep on the bottom.

For now though Landon is still caged up.

Of course we had to build a fort with the bunk bed boxes. Landon the Destroyer was extremely upset that he was banned from the playroom that day.

Savannah lost her top tooth the night before school pictures. She was really sad and cried about the hole in her mouth. Until I showed her the pictures of me at age 6, after I had cut all my hair off and had a huge black scab from a fat lip that I got from a softball. I had it for my 6th birthday pictures. She felt better.

Jacob was on the morning news at school all of last week. He's had to leave at 7:05am to ride his bike and be there early. But he loved it. I went in one morning to watch. He gets to help with other aspects (camera, reporting, directing, etc.) for the next 3 weeks.

Connor is LOVING preschool and comes home with the cutest stuff. Last week was "D" dinosaur week. They made footprints in homemade play-doh and put dinosaur bones (spaghetti noodles) on their dinosaurs.

Connor had been pretty exhausted by dinnertime lately, since he always comes out when the big kids start getting ready at 6:15am. Yesterday I was making dinner and turned around to find this. He was right in front of the sink and dishwasher.

And Landon has an awesome belly laugh. This is even when he was running out of steam...

14 months old

Landon is 14 months old today.
He is sweet and cuddly and quick to smile.
He can also throw huge tantrums when he's upset. We hope that's just teething.
He has 12 teeth and is working on 4 more.
He wears 24 month & 2T clothes and size 6 shoes.
He is down to two pretty consistent naps the last couple of weeks. Sundays are hard because he won't sleep at church...at all.
He's a huge flirt and loves other women. He will often have a huge tantrum when one of my friends comes to visits and then leaves.
He loves to get into stuff in the bedrooms. He has a sixth sense and always knows when a door is open. He will quietly make a mess. Or bring you something from that room that he knows belongs to you. This picture is of a shoe & pajama mountain he made with stuff by Dallin's side of the bed.
He tries and run and jump, but just falls flat on his face.
He is always covered in bumps and bruises.
He loves his blanket.
He still has very chunky thighs and walks bow-legged.
His favorite food is bread - any kind. Oh, and yogurt.
He also loves anything sweet.
He loves to be outside, but hates the sun. He saw the kids playing the other day and stood by his bedroom door until I opened it. He walked over and tried to get his shoes, so I put them on him. Then he banged on the back door until I took him out. He doesn't say any words consistently, but he can definitely let you know what he wants sometimes.
He has his own language and talks to himself all day long.

Out with the old...

...and in with the new.
We got a new sofa!!! When we got married my grandpa was moving out of his apartment and my dad gave us his sofas. Those hand-me-down sofas lasted us almost 12 years. But we were also starting to outgrow them with 7 people in our family. Our new sofa seats everyone great, plus extra. And hopefully this one will last a good long while. It's hard to tell with the lighting, but they are dark brown leather. The blinds are open and up halfway, to keep out of Landon's reach. Next we need some sort of curtains I guess.The kids' favorite part are the recliners (or "reclimbers" in Connor language). But they're not allowed to use them unless one of us is sitting with them. I could just see them breaking or getting Landon caught under them in less than a week.

And just because he's so cute, here is a picture of Connor helping me make homeade laundry detergent. He loves to play with the soap shavings and be the "mixer."

Hook 'Em

Dallin and the boys went to the UT vs. BYU football game on Saturday. There were tons of visitors that had come from out of town for the game at church on Sunday too. Dallin wasn't planning to go, until I got an email from the cub scout area council with a link for half price tickets. Here are the boys in front of the UT clock tower.After a very long walk from their parking spot they were told that they couldn't have backpacks or drinks. So Dallin threw away his old college backpack (not a huge loss), threw away their gatorade, and emptied their water bottles. Then they walked inside and filled them up again in the drinking fountain.

Zach with the Austin skyline.

Hook 'em Horns!

They ended up leaving at half time because Zach was pretty whiny about the sun and not loving it. That was sad because the second of the game was apparently great and UT came back and won by one point at the very end. Oh well, hopefully the boys will look back on it as fun memories.

Dallin told me this about Jacob after they got home...

Jacob at the game tonight: Why couldn't we get seats over on the other side in the shade? (we were on the east side of the stadium in the direct sun)
Me: Those tickets cost a lot of money.
Jacob: Oh.
(later)
Jacob: Why is everything on the field upside down to us and only right for those on the other side?
Me: Because those on the other side paid lots of money for their tickets.
Jacob: Oh.
(after we left and made the long trek back to our car)
Jacob: Daddy, there were lots of parking places closer to the game, why didn't we park there?
Me: Those are only reserved for the people on the side of the stadium who paid lots of money for their tickets.
Jacob: Oh. That's not fair!
Me: (smile)

Life

Savannah loves reading to her little brothers for her "reading time" every day. It always makes me smile.

This little man figured out how to climb on the sofa and get into the remotes. We're getting a new sofa today (Saturday), so we'll see if he still can by tonight.

Jacob had a little science project due on Friday, and he actually finished it 4 days early on Labor Day. He was supposed to choose a scientist and be creative displaying them. He chose Neil Armstrong. He got this cool book of paper models of space machines for his birthday. He made the moon out of homeade play-doh and put the Eagle Lunar Lander on it. He said "everyone thought it was AWESOME."

This morning (Saturday) at 8:00am all the neighborhood dogs started barking hysterically, Lucy included. These two hot air balloons are frequently flying past our house, but they've never landed this close. The kids loved watching them land and were mad that I wouldn't walk them over to see, but I was still in my pajamas. Landon even said "wow."