Starting October

Claire

Our wild girl usually has crazy morning hair because mommy doesn't always get around to combing it every morning yet, but she doesn't seem to care. Most days she is able to sleep in a little since we bring Shay out of the room before she wakes Claire up and can be happy and excited about the day. She has a natural talent and love of music already and has practice with a ukulele, recorders, and now has made her own drum set out of her lawn chair. She also makes up her own lyrics to popular tunes like her famous "No, no, no" song to the tune of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' during conference today. I had a genius plan to keep her distracted during most of conference and downloaded a fun learning app for the iPad which did the trick all Saturday and the part of Sunday that Shay was asleep. 

Shay

Our savage girl is very demanding and will throw huge ball-up-on-the-floor-and-cry-but-peek-to-make-sure-they-see-me tantrums when she doesn't get certain things. Mostly it happens when she wants to be picked up and cuddled with, but we have to cuddle just right when she woke up too tired or she revolts and cries anyway. She is mostly really helpful and does a better job than Claire and cleaning up toys at the end of the day, or throwing away the dirty diapers so we clap for her. We were cleaning up the yard to mow and she wanted to take a ride on the lawn mower which would probably have been fine if we don't already have to push this electric one. She is an early riser and gets to enjoy time to cuddle with daddy when I'm working out in the morning, and she likes to switch to cuddling with me when I'm done. Then during the day she brings out her blanket and pillow and still makes me tuck her in.

Biking

Besides Chris starting another quarter for school this past week, we've been boring and just enjoyed the cooler weather. For the past few weeks of Chris not having as much school work, I've got into biking more was an extra way to relax and have some peaceful time to myself. I didn't think I was going to be so excited to go every evening, but when I missed two days in a row because Chris was busy with starting school up again I felt deprived. This happened to me when I was starting to roller skate and run when I was in college and truly fell in love with outdoor exercise. Along with being really proud that I can already do a solid 20 mile bike ride in about an hour and half when I've only started a month ago, I'm loving the connection I feel with the community. I pass a lot of people more than once on my round trip up and down a road we live close to, and many people are out around the same time day after day that I can smile and wave to.

P.S. Our one tomato that is supposed to be a cherry tomato but is way bigger has finally ripened and we made omelets! We've had many green peppers convinced that Lowe's just labeled the plant wrong because they weren't turning yellow but maybe we just weren't waiting long enough.