Wednesday, September 30, 2009

sweet boy

Jordan was helping Landon go to sleep tonight while I was at craft night (so fun -- more later). Landon wanted Jordan to sit by him in his bedroom while he went to sleep & they had a conversation something like this...

Jordan: "Okay, but you have to keep your eyes closed and go right to sleep. "
Landon said okay and laid down, eyes closed and trying to go to sleep. 5 or 10 minutes later though, he sat up and said,

"Daddy, sometimes little boys sleep with their eyes open."

Not being able to say no to such clear logic, Jordan said okay and sure enough that little Landon fell right to sleep, even without keeping his eyes closed.



Sweet story to come home to. :)

Sunday, September 27, 2009

A new dress for Ellie!

What a pleasure to sew for my sweet little Ellie. Here's a dress I made for her a few weeks ago - my first time sewing w/ a pattern since high school (!) I'm so excited to have a little girl to make pretty things for!

(This little sweetie is a poor sick girl today -- Jordan finally convinced me yesterday that we should take her to the doctor - thankfully so - she has croup, a sore throat and ear infections. Poor thing!)



Friday, September 25, 2009

We're so tough! :)

On Labor Day we went on a super adventure with a trek up to the Purple Turtle in Pleasant Grove. I rode my bike and Jordan ran there/rollerbladed home and pushed Landon and Ellie (and me on the toughest hills too!) Here's the map -- 18 miles total!




It's Autumn Time!


Landon has been so excited to tell us for the last little while, "It's almost Autumn time!" --now it's here and beautifully so. We took a drive yesterday up past Sundance to see the changing leaves -- just gorgeos w/ all the reds and golden yellows... I love it. We're happily harvesting our garden, enjoying our outside adventures (not looking forward to snow, though Landon has already changed his excited exclamation to "It's almost snow time!" :), working on our yard ...





We took a bike ride up the canyon and had a picnic tonight for our date night. (We'd done the same ride a few weeks ago and it just about wiped me out, so I was amazed at how easy it seemed today - hooray!) So fun to be with our little family.

And such beautiful autumn days to enjoy!
More pics from this week's picnic -->




Question Time

This kiddo is just learning and learning. He loves to ask questions -- his favorite being "What will ________ say when _________?" For every new situation he encounters or wonders about, he wants to figure out every angle of what could or should happen. He loves, loves, loves to play pretend and he has certain roles that he plays that are just so sweet I can't resist. When he's Pete (then I get to be his dragon Eliott) he loves to sing "I love you too" and he turns into a little teacher, telling Elliot all of the things about what he's doing and thinking and remembering.

I can't believe what a little boy he is. It just finally occurred to me a few weeks ago that he's not a toddler anymore. (Sure, he's looked like a 4-year-old for the last year or so...) But somehow I'm still just so surprised at how much he's growing and learning.

I sure love this Landon!!!

Crazy Morning


A few days ago, Landon and Jordan were wrestling first thing in the morning and Jordan soon stopped and said something like 'oops -- let's have a calm morning' to which Landon replied, "Let's not have a calm morning. Let's have a crazy morning!"

On mornings/moments like these, Jordan came up w/ a great plan to help Landon work out some extra energy --

Landon has to move these water bottles (one at a time) up to the top of the stairs, or back of the yard, etc. Landon thinks it's great fun, a tough job ( "phewph! This is hard work!") and it gives his busy little body something to do. :)




8 Months Old

I'm so happy to have a daughter. This little Ellie is such a sweetheart - so tender and sweet through and through.
Ellie surprised me by standing up in her crib last week -- so pleased with herself at getting up all by her big self! Since then, she is just loving to climb up to stand by anything she can.

(--Don't you love this little dress?? A friend in the ward made this for her -- I love it!)

She's happy to be crawling all around now too so she can get where she wants to go.

Oh how I love her sweet smiles and happiness!




Catch up Time & So long Sweet Summer

I think it's been a month (at least) since I last posted, so these may be a bit mixed up for a bit as I do some catch up. So for starters, here (in no particular order) are some fun pics from our summer adventures.

Car wash adventures -- a few neighborhood boys were washing/cleaning the car to earn money and Landon was so excited to join in on the fun.

Vacation adventures -- so fun to spend a couple of weeks in California w/ the Brough's.


Playgroup adventures -- I'm so happy to have a good playgroup going in our ward w/ some of Landon's friends (and my friends!) to go and play at the park each week. (Ellie's just learning about the fun of swings, pretty sweet :)
Imaginary Adventures -- this should be the first on the list of our summertime adventures. Jordan asked the other day "What percent of time to you think you spend addressing Landon as himself?" I really can't say, but it seems like so much of the day is spent being Elliot, Bolt, Tigger, Simba's mom, Lightning McQueen... Here's Landon (er, Darby -"I'm not Landon! I'm Darby!") w/ his 'sleuthing cap' and his trusty dog Buster. (Good old Tigger and Pooh)
Birthday adventures -- we had a family party for Landon and then a Jungle Safari backyard party w/ a few of his friends from the ward. They got to follow the animal footprints around the yard to find different activities, and (the most important part of the party...) and elephant birthday cake. :) Landon is now happy to be three, though it took a while to give up being 2 ("I'm not three! I'm two!!!" :)
Learning to crawl adventures (still learning what needs child-proofing -- I've been surprised that I'd need to do this again.) Here's one of Ellie's happy hangouts, under the table.


Garden adventures -- so fun to just walk outside and pick veggies from the garden while I'm making dinner. Here's a garden dinner w/ peaches from our little tree, pizza w/ tomatoes, squash, onions, zucchini, and carrots (in the sauce) all from our garden!

Adventures w/ Landon's new rides...courtesy of a few neighborhood yard sales. Landon is a PRO on his scooter, but is still getting the hang of his new tricycle.
Laundry catch-up adventures (I can't believe this!)


Lots of around the town adventures: biking, rollerblading, running, walking, scootering...



Such a happy, fun summertime we've had just enjoying our little family. :)