15 months old

Landon was 15 months old on Friday. I took him to the doctor this morning and he got 4 shots. It took 3 people to hold him down because he's so strong. He was not happy.
28 lbs. 8 oz. (98th percentile)
34 1/2 inches (99.95 percentile)

Loves to read book with his brothers and sisters
Puts anything and everything on his head, including his food
Likes cars, blocks, and balls...but especially those that taste good
LOVES ducks and will say "qak qak qak"
Doesn't really say any other words, but talks non-stop all day long in his own language
Teases Connor whenever possible because he gets such a good reaction out of him
Takes 2 naps a day and sleeps well all night long
Loves to go outside and will knock on the front door when he wants to go out
"Reads" books to himself in his own language
Getting better about eating more foods...his favorites are yogurt, ritz crackers, string cheese, grapes, and anything that Daddy is eating
Will absolutely NOT sleep at church, which means only one nap on Sundays
Gets comments on his cute, fluffy, orange hair every time we go anywhere
Sits really well in the stroller, but if you get him out there is absolutely NO getting back in
Can now reach the kitchen counter tops and pull things out of the kitchen drawers
Loves to climb on anything and everything
Can find any open door in the house and make as much trouble as possible, very quietly
Gets really mad if anybody leaves the house without him...he'll yell "go go go go!!!"
Loves Baby Einstein movies
Hates to be restricted in any way
Favorite thing in the world is to go "boom" with Daddy and throws a huge fit when it's time to be done - here's a video as an example

Crazy Hair Day

Savannah and I tried rag curlers in her hair a few weeks ago and she was NOT happy with how puffy and big it was. She made me wash her hair and slick it down within 2 minutes of taking the rags our. So I was very surprised when she asked me yesterday to do the rags for crazy hair day at school. She assured me that was what she wanted and it would be great. But halfway through she was crying about how much it hurt and basically just being whiny.This morning I took it out and of course, her hair was a total puffball. She took one look at it, started crying, and begged me to wash her hair. But we had to leave for school. We compromised by putting it in pigtails, which I think looks totally cute. She eventually stopped crying and her teacher told me how many compliments she got on it.

Quack quacks

Landon loves looking at ducks in books. He doesn't say hardly anything, but I can usually get a "qack qack" out of him. We had some leftover rolls that weren't getting eaten, so we walked down to the lake by the kids' school. The ducks saw us coming from far off and literally came running in one giant pack right up to us. They were hungry and had no fear. I'm sure they would have eaten it right out of my hand if I had tried. Landon was so amazed to see real, live "quack quacks." We'll definitely be making more trips to the lake this fall.There were also a couple of cranes, but the darker one flew off just before I took this picture.

EQ Triathlon

Dallin participated in an Elder's Quorum Triathlon on Saturday. That is basically just a bunch of guys from church, but they made it pretty official. There was even a ladies' heat, but I am not in any kind of shape to participate in something like that right now. The neighborhood pools are all closed for the season, even though it's still hot enough to go swimming. But they got this one opened up especially for the triathlon. Dallin's group had 5 guys in it I think. Dallin is in the far right lane.

Soon after he started swimming Dallin had his own personal cheering section along that side of the pool.

...and at each end of the pool

Connor ran back and forth shouting "Go Daddy! Swim faster Daddy!"

Next was biking, which is a little more difficult here than in AZ because of the hills.

Last was running. He did a great job and it was fun for our family to come and cheer him on!

On a side note, it would have been miserable for me if Landon had insisted on being out of his stroller. But he sat pretty nicely for the entire 2 1/2 hours we were there, just eating snacks, chewing on a water bottle, and watching all the people. There was a playground next to the pool so the other kids had lots of fun. It was a fun time!

Pack Meeting

Last night was cub scout pack meeting. Both of the boys have been working hard the last few months. Zach earned his Wolf Badge, a gold arrow point, and 2 silver arrow points. He got to put a wolf pin on Mom.Jacob earned 5 Webelo activity badges!

Two of the webelos received their Arrow of Light, so the scouts all lined up to shake their hands before they crossed over to boy scouts.

We have great scout leaders!

Chalk Walk

On Friday and Saturday Round Rock had its 2nd Annual Chalk Walk downtown. Our bishop was in charge of it this year. I had seen pictures from last year and wanted to take the kids, so we went on Saturday afternoon. Most of the chalk artists were almost done, so we got to see mostly finished products. Savannah's favorites were both done by 12-year-old girls.There were lots of booths and vendors also. It was the kick-off to a new plaza they just finished downtown too. We stopped to pet a donkey.

This one was done by a girl named Savannah (who was also 12).

After seeing all of the drawings we watched the donkey try to paint a picture. But he wasn't really in the mood.

As we were about to leave we found our friends and watched a few minutes of The Biscuit Brothers. They have a PBS show here in Austin about a musical farm.

Zach hates live music. Loud stuff really bothers him.

So my friend told me where her husband (the bishop) had done his drawing and we went to find it. It was awesome! Too bad he couldn't finish it. He had to leave and go coach his daughter's soccer game. What a nice dad.

It started to rain not too long after we left. We were very happy for the rain, but I felt bad for the chalk artists! The city is on an outdoor watering ban for a couple of weeks. A pump broke and we are not allowed to water anything outside...at all. So the pouring rain on Saturday night cleaned up the drawings for the city. Otherwise we would have been driving over them!

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.