Andikins

I LOVE this little girl of mine. She is such her own little person with so much personality, spunk, and quite a bit of SASS. Andi is speaking more clearly every day. As of late she has been combining multiple words into single words so that she has to say less to say more. For example "I want" is "mawnt." There are a number of times that she does this. "No mawnchoo" is "I don't want to." "I bink yours" is "I want a drink of yours." Of course I always say it back clearly to her, but she kind of likes her own little lingo.

*I love how she says Taytum. She can say it clear as a bell if you stop her and make her repeat "TayTum" back to you, but otherwise it's "Baby Taywah." It kind of sounds Indian or something.

*Andi is really good at her colors, finally. Everything is no longer pink, but she does love that color. Hence her pinkalicious picture. She is always requesting her pink fork and pink bowl and pink cup at mealtime.

*She always notices when things match or don't match. If you are wearing the same colored shirt as her she'll point out that you match. Or if you aren't matching she'll say "You don't match Andi."

*Both Carter and Andi say prayers whenever one is required, so we are saying twice the amount of required prayers, which should mean we should have twice the number of blessings coming our way, right?! Mealtime, bedtime, any time one says a prayer, the other always has to have their say too. I love it.

*Andi makes a really good "ooo" shape with her lips and uses it when it is not necessarily necessary, like in "church." She puckers her lips in the middle so it's like "chooorch." And her lips are so kissable when she does that. She also does it with the word "food."

*I will have to get video of Andi saying yes and no. Also another one of my favorites. They both end in an "m" for her. So it's like "yem" and "nome."

*She is still Miss Independent. She will stay outside by herself after Carter comes in and play for a good 15-20 minutes by herself, totally content. Her purse is still her constant companion. Her princess purse is her favorite, but she did find a soft pumpkin bucket when we were decorating that is also a good option. She lovingly calls it her pumpkin purse.

*She LOVES anything princess and points out everything princess that we see. All girl this girl is.

*This girl still has great dance moves. She dances with or without music all day long.

Anyways, I love this little lady. Just thought I would share some of my reasons why.

Sam + Nikki

A few more pics of Sam and Nikki's visit here to the M town.

We had a lot of fun while they were here. We did a lot of relaxing and eating of course. Andi followed Nikki around whenever she was getting ready and she loved sitting on Uncle Sam's lap in the mornings.

Sam got his first adjustment while he was here... ever.

And of course they got to meet their newest niece Taytum for the first time.

Thanks for coming Sam and Nikki!

And Tay

Tay didn't make it into any of the Fall Festival pictures so I thought I would share how stinkin' adorable she is. She is smiling a lot more these days and talking a little. She loves watching Carter and Andi play around her. She still doesn't love being held and if she gets fussy while she's being held, nine times out of ten, putting her on the ground will make her instantly happy. Her siblings love her to death and so do I!

Testimony

This past Sunday was our fast and testimony meeting. It was absolutely adorable, Carter kept begging to go up saying, "It's my turn!" "I want to go up there!" "It's Carter's turn." Finally Jefferson gave in and took Carter up there. I was mortified!!! I am pretty sure the church frowns upon kids going up and having their parents feed them words, as do I. I thought I was going to die when I saw that Jefferson's final destination with Carter in arms was the pulpit! Having said that, however, it was one of the most tender moments and proudest moments I have had... my first born bearing his testimony. He said it so nice and loud and clear as a bell in the microphone. Then he stood there waving at me while Jefferson bore his testimony. It was really cute. (and perhaps slightly embarrassing.)

Fall Festival

We went to the Farmstead Festival today, which is just down the road from us. I do love that we have managed to find a town that is part of a city, but still has access to nature/farms/not city. Anyways, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite the frigid cold weather, which, by the way, I was not expecting. The trip was made even more enjoyable because my brother Sam and his cute pregnant wife Nikki came to town to visit.

The price was a little steep to get in, initially, I thought, until I discovered that all my kids got in free and that everything was included in the price, hayrides, corn maze, jump pillow, cow train, "race car" course, corn box, pony rides... The jump pillow was definitely a favorite. I was wearing Tay in the Bjorn, which left Jefferson to bounce the two toddlers by his lonesome. We enjoyed watching and taking pictures from the sideline. Carter was super sad when we had to move on, but got over that real quick when we pointed out the cow train.

We managed to avoid any crowds by arriving a bit earlier, and the fact that it was only 40 degrees might have had something to do with that too. Anyways, my two munchkins were the only ones on the cow train. They thought they were pretty cool and Andi waved the whole time like she was in a parade. Not sure where she learned that one, but it was pretty cute.

Of course there were animals to look at and they even had some saddles set up that you could sit on and attempt to lasso the hay steer.

The corn maze was a blast for the kids. Us adults were so cold that we just wanted to get in and out, but Carter and Andi loved running in front leading the way.

Finally a chair big enough for my brother! He's 6'7". (His wife Nikki, not so much) :)

The hayride was a bit bumpy. And by "a bit" I mean, we all practically had whip lash and needed and got adjustments from the doctor after the day was done. Nikki and I giggled pretty good because of it.

Oh yes, and then there was the pig race to finish the day. They crack me up. Carter was pretty upset that he wasn't chosen to be a "squeal leader" and we left the festival dragging Carter while screaming that he wanted a pig nose too. (if your pig won as a squeal leader, you got a pig nose). All in all it was a very fun day and worth the price of admission and withstanding the cool temperatures.

Many of the pictures were courtesy of Sam & Nikki

(Your Vantage Photography)

Thanks!

Tay

DANGER

Having one of these less than a mile away is dangerous

Especially between the hours of 2-4 (happy hour).

We got out our Halloween decorations this past weekend and I had these two Halloween tins that I didn't know what to do with. I saw some cute "halloween sticks" in BHG and so I thought I would try my hand at my own. Cost: free! I just used all my paper, stamping supplies, and embellishments to make my own.

Loving Life

We are truly enjoying our life right now. Our house is simply great. (I mean, it's not hard to beat the "Star Apartments") We have a huge backyard that Andi and Carter love. On the warm days they can be found doing this:

Jefferson and I find ourselves here a lot just watching our happy little kids enjoy their backyard:

We have all had a few of these along the way:

But for the most part have enjoyed having Jefferson home while we wait for his license and business number and whatnot to arrive. Because it's Jefferson, our kids have enjoyed a little bit of this:

We hit up the "Kids Safety Fair" at Lowe's where the kids got aprons and goggles, and enjoyed popcorn and cotton candy:

And we really enjoyed conference weekend in our sweats:

And Tay:

Having all this room to play has been good for all of us. We are almost all settled in and we see a little bit more of our garage floor every day as more and more boxes are unpacked. A few of our favorite things about where we are at:

*A BIG yard!

*A garage (how did we live without one?)

*Our clothes dry so fast!

*Our clothes actually maintain that yummy laundry smell (between our stinky apartment, literally, and the moisture of Portland, our clothes never had that fresh laundered smell)

*Walks in our neighborhood without the fear of our kids running out into one of the busiest streets in Gresham

*A walking path right behind our house that Carter can ride his bike on

*Nice neighbors

*No cigarette smoke drifting into our open windows

*What seems to be an amazing ward

*A gas fireplace that we enjoy sitting next to on these cool fall days

*Did I mention a nice big backyard?!

*Endless counter space!

*An ice machine in our freezer

*Our freezer in the garage filled with food

We do miss Portland (and so does our skin- it is dry here!) and all our friends there, but we are really happy here and can't wait to see what the future has in store!