Happy Halloween

Halloween is so much fun with little kids...

1. Gardner Village to see the witches

(Porter LOVED witchy-poo!)

a witch sitting in an outhouse reading a newspaper

2. We all loved Cornbelly's

3. Porter and Claire dressed up for their school

(thought the wig would be cute...totally wrong! but once it was on her, she would NOT let me take it off!)

4. Adobe Halloween party!

Thanks Uncle Scott

(I may have lied to Claire and told her that the wig was broken! am I mean?)

5. Halloween night

visiting grandpa

counting candy

Lilly couldn't get enough of grandpa

Happy Halloween!

Ai Vida...

as Irma would say "Ai Vida"

translated from Portuguese "oh Life!"

(Mark baptized Irma in Portugal, we LOVE her dearly!)

Mark and I often use this phrase.

You can take it however you'd like,

but Mark and I see it as LIFE...what a great life!

Sometimes life goes too fast

okay not sometimes...ALL of the time!

Wishing I could freeze time these days.

To answer Porter's five million questions about animals, life, the gospel, days of the week, birthdays, why we do this, why we do that!

To listen to him pray, to remind us to pray, to help Claire pray. For him to pray for each of us by name, for his cousin who just recently broke her femur, for his other cousin who is in the hospital recovering from surgery.

To watch him so full of life, sometimes I think it's impossible to have that much energy.

To watch him draw with so much concentration his tongue is out.

for hugs and kisses each morning and night!

• To hear Claire sing Once Upon a Time from Sleeping Beauty, I am a Child of God, Jesus Wants me for Sunbeam...(I cannot even think of how many more songs she sings!)
• To catch her talking to her stuffed animals as if they were children. "No, I did not call your name, please go back and sit down!" or "That was not nice, now you will go to time out." or "ohhh that is so annoying." (seriously not so cute sometimes, that last one is all my fault!)

• For her to think that "It's not morning yet, because my mommy is not awake!"
• To watch her change from Cinderella, to Sleeping Beauty, to Arial, to Belle, and then back to Cinderella all in a matter of two minutes.
• For her to want to help me with EVERYTHING I'm doing
• to watch her "feed" her baby, the way I feed Lilly

• To wake up at 4 in the morning to feed Lilly
• To have her at my side at all times and to never let her go
• For her to smile through her binky as I'm singing to her while rocking her back to sleep
• To listen to her coo, and desperately try to talk back

• to watch her discover things for the first time, like her hands and feet.
• for her to smile at Porter and Claire because she's now beginning to recognize them.
• At this age, Lilly is a constant reminder of how miraculous life is.

See what I mean?

How do I freeze time?

So grateful, so blessed, so happy

St. George

We went down to St. George this last weekend to...

See Tarzan at the Tuacahn Theatre

A-MAZING

(not so much the 2 hour and 40 minute run time with three small kids!)

The theatre is outdoors and is beautiful up against red rock.

I highly recommend going.

next year they're bringing The Little Mermaid

Anyone want to make a trip of it?? :)

But we mainly went to see

my Sister in Law run like the wind!

I am still amazed (but mostly jealous) with her 3 hour and 26 minute finish time

in the St. George marathon!

Someday I think I'll run again...but probably NEVER that fast.

A great quick get-away!

Congrats, again, Kristy.

Love you so....

Lilly update...

We are off supplementing!

hallelujah

Lilly is only nursing about thirty minutes all together

which leaves me with LOTS of extra time

(is that possible with two other kids?...it's debatable!)

Either way, we're so happy and relieved that the once little bean,

is becoming a medium sized bean!

So if you see us walking on the street please comment

on her double chin. :)

8 pounds 8 ounces

Doesn't she look happy about that?

We are too!

Love her smiles these days

So You Think You Can Dance?

Claire started dance class a couple of weeks ago...

and is LOVING it.

(personally, I'm just loving her in the outfits)

There are so many things I love about these pictures

1- She looks so happy with cousin Emily

2- the pictures are blurry, which means she's moving

3- this is the first day of dance,

before anything Ms. Janet has taught them,

and she's dancing like she knows what she's doing...

and I think she does!

4- her tongue is out because she's concentrating

just like Porter does!

Cannot wait for the recitals!

School is Cool...

For Claire too!

Miss thing walked right in...

didn't even look back.

We struggle with the forced smiles

(who doesn't at this age...very frustrating!)

She's making friends

and learning at the same time,

what could be better?

Such a big girl!

School is Cool...

...For Porter!

He is a big kindergartner now. He loved it, every minute of it.

Love the thumbs up! (and the face!)

We were a little late getting to class today,

(I need to set my clocks ten minutes forward, so that I'm five minutes early to wherever I need to be! Why do three kids take so long to get out the door :))

And Ms. Nelson was already reading a story. Porter threw his backpack on the hook, took his coat off and RAN to the mat.

Which, obviously, I'm happy about but he wasn't even sad to see me go!

I may or may not have cried driving off!

Last night, after Mark gave Porter a father's blessing

(which Porter informed Mark when he was done "I almost fell asleep dad.")

I told Porter that he needed to make two new friends and come home to tell me about them. Porter looked at me and said "no mom, I'll make five new friends!"

Great buddy!

When I picked him up, I asked him who his friends were,

P- "well I only made three friends."

M- "That's great, what are their names?"

P- "Fritz, Marlin, and Skim"

M-"Can't wait to meet them!" :)