She's Smart!

My sweet Rebekah started signing back to me this week! I have only been working on 3 signs consistently ( milk, eat, and more) and last night she started signing "more" this morning she was crying and when I looked at her to see what wanted and she started signing "more". So I fed her some cereal and she was SO happy. She kept doing the sign over and over and over. So fun and so cute to see her little brain working!!

It's Autumn Time!!

Fall is my very favorite season. I love the crisp cool air, the smells of fall, the harvest, the anticipation of the holidays, I love where the sun sits in the sky, I could go on and on!! Growing up I never had to rake leaves --we didn't have many big trees, and the Idaho wind always blew so this was one job I never had to do. I confess, I love doing yard work and I think I always had a secret longing to rake the leaves-- don't get me wrong, I was never dumb enough to say this out loud to my parents, and I never wanted to bad enough to go find a place to do it. Well we have a large yard with a lot of big old trees and this weekend the leaves fell. What a mess-- what a wonderful mess!! So I had thought ahead enough to purchase leaf rakes a few weeks ago ( I told you I have been looking forward to this!) and I took the kids out yesterday afternoon and we raked leaves. We only did about 1/4 of the backyard when I had the most overwhelming urge to run and jump in the leaves. So I did. Preston followed suit. Rebekah laughed and laughed. We threw leaves at each other, we rolled in the piles, we tossed leaves into the wind, and enjoyed every minute of it. Before the sun was up this morning, Preston asked Burke if he wanted to go and play in the leaves :) I guess I now have one more reason to love fall!

Happy Halloween!!

We participated in our wards trunk or treat-- It was so fun-- Burke took Preston around to trick or treat while Rebekah and I passed out candy. Preston now thinks everyday should be Halloween!

My Cute little Monkey all ready to go! Rebekah was asleep so no solo picture of her!

All funned out! We were ready to go home when it was over!

Michelle's 27th!

Wow when this birthday rolled around, I really had to think about how old I was turning. I think that makes me officially old. However, I still blew every last candle out in one breath so I felt okay about that! Burke and Preston made me a cake (no pictures-- sorry!) and gave me a beautiful necklace and earrings. I will post a picture of them when I take one :) WOW I felt loved! For my birthday date we cast our mail in ballots. PS-- I have to say I LOVED that method of voting-- it spawned some very interesting discussion between hubby and I and since it was an exceedingly l-o-n-g ballot it made it fun to have someone to joke around with while we were deciphering all of legal jargon. I also got lots of phone calls and cards in the mail too so it was a fun fun birthday! Thanks everybody!

Scavenger Hunt for Rebekah

Cute little socks without an owner . . . Hmmm let's see where this leads!

Next I see a little pair of pants, all alone, the little pockets staring up at the ceiling right where their owner wriggled out of them.

And there she is! One half dressed baby!

She pulls her socks off, and scoots on her belly until she can wriggle out of her pants. She is getting pretty fast at it!
So truthfully they weren't all that far apart, but I had to laugh because this is how I find this kid often. She really hates clothes-- I don't know what I am going to do . . .

Amazing Cinnamon Rolls

Every fall I get the urge to make cinnamon rolls-- the kind that take all day to make --not the kind in a can-- don't get me wrong, I like the ones in the can, but I don't crave them. There is just something so fun to me about mixing the dough and letting it rise and punching it down and rolling it out, filling it with ooey-gooey fillings, rolling it up and cutting it with a string. I have memories of making cinnamon rolls with my mother-- and sprinkling them full of butter, sugar, cinnamon, raisins, chopped apples, and nuts. I admit I don't put all of those things in-- I stop at butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, but I love the whole process. I did it last year with Preston, and this year he was much more involved and loved it. I didn't think to take pictures until we were finished, so you only get those! Just for the record, we kept a small pan of 6 and took the rest to Burke's office. Thankfully, the pan came home empty!!

Oh Calgon . . . Take me Away!!!

I checked the mail today. We have one of those community mail receptacles at the end of the block farthest from my house (not that I am complaining because I like having the mail on my street versus 15 minutes away at the post office!) Usually I stop by while I am driving, but occassionally I will take a little walk with the kids to check out the mailbox.
I peered into my mailbox today to find a large yellow bubble-wrapped envelope with my name on it. I was trying to figure out what I had ordered, or who it was from as the printed labels rendered me clueless as to the sender or contents . . . Well after pushing the stroller with one hand, juggling a stack of mail in the other and feeling my blood pressure rise trying to convince my two year old that he should walk by me on the sidewalk instead of running up and down the street without me, I was most pleasantly surprised when I finally got around to opening the package. Inside I found a cute card from my old roommate Camille and a box of Calgon bath beads. She reminded me that I had introduced her to the wonderful stuff several years ago when we were roommates. One of the great things about Calgon is that when you take a bath you seriously just feel so much better about your life. Problems seem minimized and you can face the world again. Somehow Camille must have known that I had forgotten the magic of Calgon, that I haven't treated myself to this blissful escape in years. So tonight Burke was gone , I put the kiddos to bed and I treated myself to a nice long soak . . . well 10 minutes and then the baby started crying . . . but I could face the world again. So thanks to my sweet friend Camille for thinking of me and reminding me to take care of myself. Ahhhhhh. I feel like a girl again!