Days Pass

It's now November, and we have been "OH SO BUSY!" For starters, I am FINALLY back to my regularly scheduled ER program. It is a relief to be done "waiting", but I do miss the extra time at home. With Steve busy with scouts and school, it's a rare night home all together!

Jackson   has  been enjoying preschool once a week. He is learning the alphabet like a champ! Now he gets so excited when he identifies a letter he knows.  He's also spending a lot of time with his "kids", diggy and pao pao, since  their mom watches Jackson and Katie when I'm sleeping after work.  Here is a trip to the park:

Don't be fooled. Jackson wanted the BIG CARROT, but he  only took one tiny little bite off the top and decided that carrots are not for him.  I'm kind of getting desperate here- no amount of trickery will get him to eat his veggies!

Katie Bug is 6 months now! Here is  picture of her on November 9th. She was already for bed when I realized, HEY KATIE IS 6 MONTHS TODAY! I MUST TAKE A PICTURE! So I did make the effort to put a bow on her head, but I did not make the effort to put her back in her cute clothes. Oh well, she is cute and happy as ever a  little bug could be.

 What is Katie into at six months of life? Well, she likes paper. LOVES paper to be more specific. And she tries to eat it. Here she is in a rare moment of indulgence. For a photo's sake.

Here she is trying to eat a note for Nana. Jackson, being the awesome big brother that he is, trying to keep her at bay.

Katie is also sitting up for a few minutes at a time and eating baby food like a champ. No teeth yet!

On one rare night that we were actually all together, we indulged daddy in his love for   *cough* disgusting   Chinese food  buffets and went to the SUPER PANDA .  Steve LOVED IT! 

And we loved watching Daddy.  Jackson thought all the seafood was pretty cool. 

Katie sucked on a  cucumber and I  actually tried a little clam. I think I'll stick to things that walk. On land.

OCTOBER FESTIVITIES

What Jackson was NOT for Halloween:

We found this awesome costume during our first trip to the LA DI. Yep, found a lot of things we didn't really need. 

We made a trip to Idaho for the ELK HUNT the last week of October. Here we are with Jackson's pumpkin. I wielded the knife but I drew little shapes for Jackson to choose from. I like his happy choices :).

Here's Katie's awesome Octopus costume. (Thank you Pintrest).

We had a family Halloween Party at Judy's house Sat night before we left town. Here is Jackson after rolling around on the floor trying to pick up Candy with duct tape.

Jackson and Katie in their costumes. Jackson wanted to be Batman, although I don't think he really knows who Batman is. Thanks for the motivation, Liz, to make the holidays more fuN :).

Steve got his elk on Day 1 of ELK CAMP. Good Job Husband! And good photography Jay, what pretty fall colors!

(Vegitarian=code for "lousy hunter".)

While we were in Idaho, we were able to go pick apples with the family, it was a perfect afternoon! The apples were DELICIOUS! (And we had lots of apples for apple sauce, juice, pie filling...etc).

Earlier in the MONTH:

I had the brilliant idea to take not One, not Two, but THREE little kiddos on a 5 mile hike... called Echo Mountain Trail. It ends at an old hotel on the top of a mountain. Really cool, but WAY TOO LONG. We had Brooklyn with us that day since her mom was in the hospital w preterm labor. Everyone we passed said, "Wow, you kids are so inspiring" or "You are the most athletic kids we've ever seen"... NO, we are the most stupid parents you have ever passed...!

But it is beautiful and really cool at the top. And everyone was in good spirits :) Here are the stairs going nowhere.

Here is Jackson riding around on his sweet new bike, and Katie riding around around on her sweet... thing.

Jackson started Preschool :) We do a preschool swap, each week focusing on a letter. Here they are telling you that A says "AH!"

I think I've already mentioned that Jackson is in a very awkward in between phase- he won't take naps (at home at a regular time anyway) so every so often he falls asleep at random times and in random places...

Happy Halloween and bring on the Holidays!

where did september go?

Well, I should start off by saying, thanks to everyone who participated in a special fast for our family, Steve and I were cleared for work today. Jackson contracted Ecoli on our trip to Idaho in August. THANKFULLY it never became serious, and he has been asymptomatic, but we have all been giving stool samples every week since then, and because we were all positive, I have been unable to work and Steve unable to see patients. But today we were cleared, yay! And hopefully we can get rid of the bug for good.  So since we have all this mandatory free time, what have we been up to?!

Well, Jackson has been practicing his "mad face". Lately he likes to give everyone his mad face especially strangers and the camera.

Unfortunately, we are also transitioning him out of nap time and he has major meltdowns almost every night at bedtime, during which he gives us a real mad face. We are just going to have to buckle down and put him to bed earlier... no more party life for Jackson!

Katie is cute and sweet as ever, she is starting to grab for things and play with toys.  Had to include the wipes here because I remember Jackson doing the same thing!

Jackson's horse is pretty cool too. Speaking of which, we lost Maximus!! Where are you Maximus?!

We also caught Katie sucking her thumb recently!

We did take a pretty little hike last week together. Here's Jackson with his little friend Brooklyn (her mom is on bed rest with twins!!).

Cousin Alex has been in town getting some dental work done to prepare for his mission. It's been fun to have him! The kids went with Steve to the school while Alex was getting his wisdom teeth out. 

( and here's Jackson giving the camera his mad face!)

Again, thanks to everyone who has been praying and fasting for us. We have felt strengthened and blessed. Here come the holidays!

Katie's First Campout

Friday night was the Daddy-Daughter Stake Campout. Steve wanted to take little Katie, so away she went. Steve won the award for youngest daughter. She was the littlest bug there.

And here are just a few cute ones:

She rolled over about a month ago several times, but hasn't rolled over again since. She is a happy little thing. We like her a lot.