The Artist

 So, as I have shown in the past, my kids, mostly Tali likes to draw.  She had recently drawn this picture below for Jairus of Pluto and Goofy.  She was kind enough to do that for him because he was getting excited for our vacation to Disneyland.

The first picture is of Pluto, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse.  The second is just of Goofy's face.  She really is a good big sister.  I don't give her enough credit a lot of the time.  

This is another picture she had drawn of one of our neighbors Jonas Gubler with his little sister, Ivy"in their church clothes."  Jonas is in kindergarten also and goes to her elementary school

General Conference-Saturday

So this year I wanted to do something special for the kids to get them excited for General Conference. I looked on Pinterest.com for some ideas and found this idea where the family slept in tents in their front room (or wherever the tv was) and watched conference from the tent.  They told about how in the Book of Mormon people would listen to King Benjamin from their tents to hear the word of God.  So Friday night I made these frito bag chili dinners (that we usually have when we camp) and went and got some licorice and stuff for root beer floats.

Well the morning session of conference didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped.  Jairus kept going potty in his pants (which is odd because he was completely potty trained months ago), the kids wouldn't stay put, wouldn't listen, and kept messing with Zach.  It was very aggravating.  For the second session of conference, we went over to my parent's house and had lunch (their ward always does a fundraiser making hoagie sandwich lunches for conference).  I had made some conference packets and church coloring packets for them while we watched conference.  That worked and lasted for the duration of about one talk.  I then tried to help Tali with her homework and reading, but she got so mad at me because she didn't want to do it and then told me she wished I was dead.  What five year old talks like that?  We certainly don't talk like that at our house and no program that they watch says anything like that!  

I was glad I was able to hear some of the talks though and was able to get some spiritual nourishment.  One talk that really hit me was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about mental illness/wellness.  There were a few others in the morning session that were pretty good, but it seems like Elder Holland always has something poignant to say that I can relate to.

As the time came to leave my parent's house, I got Jairus in his clean pants which we had to wash due to his accident and not even five minutes later did he soil them with pee because he didn't want to go to the bathroom.  I had even asked him if he needed to go potty and he said no and the second he said it, is when I smelled the pee.  I was so incredibly frustrated!  I am really looking forward to when Brian can be home and not have to go to school or work crazy hours.  It's just something we have to do right now and learn from.  On the upside, I was able to get a picture of Zach, Tali and myself (Jairus didn't want to be in the picture, but I got one of just him and me later) during the morning conference and Jairus we learned can count to 30 and he's only three years old!

Happy Harvest!

Today Brian and I decided to check out our garden and to our surprise found a lot of stuff ready to harvest!  Jairus and I were able to pick all of the carrots which were many.  The funniest part of picking them with Jairus was every time we found more carrots he would say so exuberantly "Come to papa!"

Do you remember the pumpkin growing in the windowsill?  

 It's finally ripe!

 Time for some pickin'!

I'm so glad he was able to fit in that small space.  I think I'd be too afraid of the spiders.  Yes, I am a whimp!

 Can you tell we're pretty excited?

 My hunny, the pumpkin and one of his little pumpkin heads.

 Oh yeah!  I'm totally loving this!

 More little pumpkins!

 Tali has her pumpkin picked out!

 Here comes another one!

 Jairus has his pumpkin picked out!

We have our little pumpkins picked out and they are the BEST little pumpkins ever!

 I love how much they love each other!

 Aren't they they CUTEST?!?

 Haha!  I love Jairus's squinty grin!

 Our little family of pumpkins!  Ironically, there is just enough pumpkins for everyone in our family!  That turned out just perfectly!

 Happy Harvest!

 Some wee little potatoes.  Oh well.  Tali l kooks adorable holding the baby potatoes.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this time of year?

Two Months!

Well time sure does fly!  Our little baby Zacharias is now two moths old.  At his doctor appointment he weighed in at 9 lbs. 13 oz.  He measured 22 inches long.  He is a growing boy!  He has learned to roll over from his front to his back...which he's only done it a few times.  He is also pretty dang good at holding his head up.  He's starting to coo and smile.  I LOVE this stage of "babyhood."  Here are some photos I was able to snap of this precious and adorable little man.

  He wasn't too happy after getting his immunizations.  Poor little guy.

 The poor little guy was so tired...

 But still so darn CUTE!

 I got him smiling!

 I cannot express how much we adore this little guy along with his older brother and sister.

 I LOVE his little face!

 Our little cutie pie!

New Do

A few days ago, I had cut some bangs for Tali for her friend's birthday party so she would look more like Cinderella.  Since then I had wanted a change in my hairstyle as well.  Since the weather is starting to get cooler I didn't want to chop off my hair.  I also didn't want to color it because I'm too cheap to have to keep dying it once my roots started to show.  This morning I had the thought "why not just cut bangs myself?"  So, I did what any spontaneous person would do.  I got the scissors and snipped them.  I have to say, I don't think they look too bad.

Princess Party

Today Tali went to her best friend's birthday party.  They were supposed to dress up in their favorite princess dress.  The only dress Tali had was a Merida dress from the movie Brave, but she has always loved Cinderella.  So, today while I was at Walmart getting a gift for her friend, I saw a Cinderella dress for about $13 so I went ahead and got it for her.  I was able to snap some ADORABLE pictures of her before she left for the party and a few when she got there.

 She loves posing!  I know I'm a little biased, but she's so flippin' adorable!

 Tali with my handsome princes.

 This is my FAVORITE picture of her!  Haha!  She looks like she's waiting for her Prince Charming to show up!

 She loves her little baby brother.  She's such a good big sister!

 Tali with her best friend and another girl from our ward.

 More friends.  I'm so glad she has a lot of friends her age here!

 

The girls were making Sophia the First amulets.  Such an adorable idea!  It was such a cute party!  Thanks Danielle and Sophia for the invite!

Sunday Sillies

The kids and I were taking some silly pictures this morning and I thought I'd share them with the few people who actually read this blog.  I had to laugh at some of the faces the kids were making.  They are so silly!

This is the good life!

Proud Parents!

On Friday (09/20/13), Brian and I attended parent/teacher conference for Tali.  Our awesome friends/neighbors, Leora & Bob Silver came over and watched Tali and Jairus while we went over to the school to meet with her teacher.  

Her teacher, Mrs. Jones, had nothing but good to say about Tali.  I was so proud! On a test Tali had taken before school began, she had received the score of 19/20!  Her teacher said very few kids scored that high.  She also said that she was doing so well that she could just "soar through kindergarten."  She also said that Tali was such an advanced reader that they will have her finish the reading books that she's currently in and then she'll get to go to the tutor lab to pick her own books to read and pass off at school.  Tali has been bringing home chapter books from school and her teacher lets her because one day she saw Tali sitting on the carpet looking at the book very intently.  She loves me reading them to her too.  At first when I tell her we need to do her reading she's a little reluctant, but after we start reading then she doesn't want to stop.  There have been days where we would be reading for 30-45 minutes!  We are so proud of her!  I took a photo of the form her teacher filled out on how well she was doing.

About the only thing Tali really needs to work on is her numbers and writing them.  Other than that, she is just soaring through kindergarten.  We were all really worried about her at the testing and on the first day of school because she was not being cooperative at all!  She has improved a great deal!  We are so glad that she is succeeding and loving school!  We find it funny that she will try to make play dates with other random kids as we are walking her home from school.  We have such a smart, funny, and amazing little girl!  We are so proud to have her as our daughter!

Reading Hickie

Yesterday while I was reading to Tali for her 20+ minutes, I wasn't really paying attention to the fact that she had been sucking on her arm and giving herself this awesome little hickie.

My baby girl can be so silly sometimes.

Subtle Smile

Yesterday (09/21/13) I was able to snap a picture of Zach sort of smiling.  It's more of a subtle smile.  He's still so darn cute!

I will definitely post more pics when he really smiles.  We all just adore this little guy!

Photo Fun

The kids really like having their picture taken...well most of the time, anyway.  The other day, the kids and I were playing around taking "selfies."  Here is a sample of our fun photos.

I just love my kids!  They are so fun!  I am so grateful that I get to be their mom!  They are the best!