Shangri-la Chinese Acrobats

Last weekend Jordan and I went to a show for this group - the Shangri-la Chinese Acrobats. Nathan had gotten tickets but then couldn't go at the last minute so he offered to watch Landon while we had a fun date night. These guys were amazing! It was a combination of ballet, gymnastics, martial arts, juggling, balancing, and just some really cool tricks! :) Some of the contortionist stuff was kind of hard to watch -- peoples bodies just aren't made to bend in those ways! But overall it was a really fun show and amazing to see how much work had gone into developing their talents.

Nathan, in the meantime was completing his own major feat -- putting Landon to bed. We got home about 9:45 and Landon had finally gone to sleep about 15 minutes before (after an hour and a half of creative efforts...) "Thanks for coming in quietly" Nathan said. :) Lucky Landon convinced Uncle Nathan that he'd go to bed if he could just have his duckies -- 

For the Grandmas and Grandpas

Here's some of our latest Landon videos. :)

Playing the Piano

Hello Spider - Nice to Meet You

Running!

And lots of other Happy Things

Fixing up our downstairs bathroom, General Conference weekend, teaching piano lessons (just 4 students now which is a lot easier to manage!), a quick visit from April, the beautiful Fall weather these past several weeks, bike rides and walks and trips to the park, getting things more organized around the house, Landon talking up a storm -- suddenly he is just talking in sentences and telling us all about his world! :), going back to water aerobics, having Jordan home during the days - it's great to have him around, and it also gives me some more free time while Landon is napping to get those tiny errands done that are so much easier alone!, feeling this little baby girl now just moving all around, my latest project of clearing out all of my junk drawers... 

I guess that's all for now. :)

Catch up Time! :)

I've been putting off posting anything because I was getting behind in my list of things I wanted to write about... but finally decided today I've just got to do it! :)

Our week in New York turned out to be just great. We stayed in a great little apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey - right on the water across from Manhatten. It was the perfect spot for me and Landon - there was a walking trail along the water right behind the apartment and lots of close-by parks that were always busy with other moms and toddlers. It really was such a fun week of Mommy and Landon time -- hanging out in the apartment playing with toys or just exploring, going for lots of walks to see the water or go shopping or just to walk around, playing at the park every day, going to the library... just such fun time! In the evenings after Jordan's work and on the weekend we all got to play together too and see some of the fun New York sites and such. We visited the Apple store (guess who that stop was for! :), had dinner at the Little Italy festival going on right by Jordan's work, went to the big toy store in Times Square and visited Central Park.  Jordan had a lot of fun getting to meet everybody at work and was sad to leave after the week was up (although, he was grateful to be done with subways!)The view from our balcony
Central Park -- this was one of my favorite places that we visited last time we came to New York - such an amazing little (well, not so little!) oasis in the middle of this big bustling city!
The Central Park Zoo -- lots of kid friendly things to climb in and play on that Landon just loved. 

One of our many trips to the park

Back to Work!

It looks like our lives are finally going to be settling down a bit -- Hooray! :) Jordan started work yesterday for Animoto.com. We had a bit of a hard time making the decision, but it's obvious that this is pretty much Jordan's dream job. He gets to work at home, program in his favorite language (Ruby, Jordan's second love), and work with some great guys on some super fun new things. He got to start working yesterday afternoon and this morning, he woke up at 4:30 because he was just so excited to get back to it!

The company is based in New York City, so we are going out there for a week or two near the end of the month so Jordan can get to know everyone face-to-face and such. I'm excited that they are paying for Landon and me to go out with Jordan, because I would miss him terribly, but I'm a bit anxious about being on my own in New York with a rambunctious toddler while Jordan is working! But, it should be a great and memorable adventure. :)

Here's what Animoto does -- you upload pictures and music to their site and then they have a program that tries to match up the beat and tempo of the music w/ your pictures to make a cool little movie like this one:

Try it out sometime when you have a minute - it's pretty fun. :)

"Somebody's Woofing!"

Lately, whenever Landon hears an unexpected noise, it's "Uh-oh, Somebody's knocking!" It doesn't matter what it is -someone knocking on the door, the phone ringing, a loud car driving by... Yesterday though, we were going for a walk and some dogs in a yard up ahead started barking pretty loud and Landon said, "Uh-oh! Somebody's woofing!" :)

Teach Ye Diligently

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how to teach Landon all the things I want to teach him -- how to help him be calm when he gets all worked up and not to go crazy when he is frustrated... and just how to be a good boy... one night I was feeling like it was such an overwhelming job and how could I possibly do it well? I looked up 'teaching' scriptures that night and found this one - 

"Teach ye diligently, and my grace shall attend you..."

This was such a sweet reminder for me. As long as I'm doing my best in teaching my precious son, the Lord will help me and strengthen me and mostly - make up for the things that I miss.