Around the house

Just a few pictures from time at home the past month.

Amelie practicing sitting.  And look, we managed to give her a toy (albeit with dead batteries so I don't think the music worked).  We were recently at dinner with 2 first babies and their mom's pulled out about 10 toys each. I made a mental note to go dig out some baby toys for Amelie.

Potty training.  Not going well.  I was hoping daycare would do this for me, but Logan is not making it easy.  We have about 6 months to get this worked out before preschool starts in August.

Cuddling with Auntie Kenny

Amelie- 7 months

At 7 months, Amelie can sit for long periods before falling over.  She has no teeth yet, but seems to be working on some.  She wants to gnaw on everything, including my face. She likes to cup my face in her hands, which is very sweet, until she tries to bite my nose. We're trying to work on tummy time so that she'll crawl some day, but every time I put her on her tummy she rolls over. At least she's mastered rolling.  She likes the jumperoo more these days, but not really for jumping, just for looking at the toys. She's easy going and happy most of the time. She's starting to get into Logan toys a bit, much to his alarm.  She's very easily distracted when feeding and likes to look back upside down at Daddy and Logan. She's starting to eat food a bit more, when we remember to try it. (She's a second child.)

Amelie and her big bro

Amelie in her sweater made by Aunt Maria

Amelie's about the same size as my Cabbage Patch dolls, recently rescued from Kendall's crawl space. Diana Rae, Lani Emily, Amelie Karen, Gussy Bobby, Suzanne Emmy, and I can't remember that lavendar baby's name.  Poor Lani Emily still has those braces she got about 28 years ago when Aunt Maria got braces. Surely her teeth are straight by now.

Logan- 3 years

At 3 years old, Logan is Mark's mini-me.  He's stubborn and bossy and sweet and loving.  He's fearless when it comes to riding his bike down a big hill or jumping off a tall rock, but kind of terrified of a room of new people. He is shy, and often uses this as an excuse for why he won't say hi to a new person.  "I'm kind of shy, mom."  It takes him a while to warm up. He goes to bed at 8 but stays up until 10, with many requests for water, blankies, books, hugs and kisses, and any other excuse he can think up. He enjoys taking the pull knobs off all our drawers, washing the windows, and making sand/snow castles.  He likes to make lines out of things, whether its the pots and pans across the kitchen floor or toys lined up in borders around his bed. He loves puzzles, trains, legos, and his bike.  His favorite shows are Paw Patrol, Lazy Town, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  He still likes to "do his moves," which means imitating Sporticus, though less often than he used to. He says lots of funny things... many probably learned from TV shows, which he watches more than I care to admit, and many learned from us. He calls things "blasted"-- I think this might be a pirate term-- like "I don't want any more of that blasted shampoo!"  He is quick to place blame when a lego tower is accidentally knocked over or a crayon tip broken.  He stands with his hands on his hips and says in a deep voice, "Mom, look what you did!" Its funny to hear the things I say repeated back to me in a 3 year old's voice, and not just the words but the tone too. As we were driving on a bumpy dirt road to get to some climbing, we heard "Dad, I've told you 3 times!  Its not nice to drive on rocks!  You're waking up my sister!"  He is very sweet to his sister.  When she cries, he says "Its okay sweet pea, I'm right here".  When she gets anywhere near the iPad, grabs the occasional lego, or otherwise treads on his turf, he is not so sweet. Today I explained to him that Amelie would start playing with toys soon, and he would need to learn to share.  His answer was, "Mom, I'm not sure that's a good idea."  He is very possessive of her at day care.  If his friend Devon gets anywhere near her, he says "Dev, that's MY sister!"  He is a master negotiator. "Okay, mom.  I'll eat one carrot, and then I get to have dessert.  Sound like a good plan, mom?"  At some point in the last 2 months he stopped calling my Mommy, and I will now forever be Mom.

Logan's 3rd birthday

Logan is 3! For his birthday, he requested the same cake he had on his first birthday, white with sprinkles.  We had a family birthday dinner at home, and then a party with the other kids that share a January birthday.  We are down to 4 this year, since the 5th, Riley, moved away.  I don't know how much longer the tradition will last, as they start to make their own friends in different places, but its been fun to celebrate together for the past few years.

Blowing out the candles

Getting ready to dive in

Logan got a pedal bike for his birthday

We had the party in the gymnastics room at the Rec Center. Logan really liked jumping in the foam pit.

Swinging on the rings

This was Logan's favorite-- the barrel rolls over the drop off and down the ramp

Trampoline with Arbor

The whole crew.  Quin, Logan, Amelie, Alayna, Jac, Lucas, Hannah, Kir, Lucian, Jack, Teddy, Levi, Ayla

After gymnastics, we had Thomas-themed cupcakes, and the birthday kids got to wear train conductor outfits.  Logan, Ayla, Quin, and Jac.

Blowing out the candles

This is Levi and Amelie, who were born 8 days apart.  Levi's always been a bit bigger:).

And, for historical documentation:

The 1 year olds

The 2 year olds

The 3 year olds

Happy birthday Logan!

St. George

We spent the week after Christmas in sunny St. George Utah. It was a pretty successful trip, as far as climbing trips with kids go. We were able to find nice sunny warm spots for me to climb, windy shady freezing spots for Mark, and we had nice weather and lots of new places to explore on our rest days. The kids did well at the crag-- Amelie was (mostly) happy to sit and watch us climb, and Logan puttered around digging in the sand and playing on the iPad.  And, perhaps most importantly, there was an In n Out.  I'm not sure when this became a key criteria for a vacation destination... I think perhaps when Mark started starving himself and dreaming of the food he couldn't eat.

By the time I get around to posting these things, I never remember the details, so here's the quick recap in pictures. 

The much-anticipated In & Out dinner.  We went twice. 

On the drive out to Utah, we stopped for a hike at Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.  Mark & Logan.

Kate & Amelie near Independence Monument.  This was Amelie's 6 month birthday!  (Thanks for the cozy sleeper that kept her warm, Christina!)

We rented a condo in St. George that was just big enough. The refrigerator door could not open all the way because it hit the cabinets, the bedroom door could not open all the way because it hit the bed... Still, it was great for 1 week.

Amelie loves everything Logan loves lately-- here she's trying to get in on Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the iPad. 

We took a day trip out to Zion on our first rest day. Logan at the Virgin River, near the Narrows.

We hiked up Angel's Landing and found some fun caves along the way

Angel's Landing

Family photo.  We'll have to photo shop that other lady out.

After we got down the dangerous part, we let Logan out of the backpack and he ran the rest of the way down

I made everyone take these cheesy photos in the same spot our wedding photos were taken.  This is the first time we'd been back since our wedding. They had built a new hotel in the background, but otherwise it looked the same.

Here are a few pictures from the crag-- Logan & Mark below Mark's project at Black and Tan

Miss Amelie at Turtle Cliff

Logan making sand castles... he was always disappointed when they didn't stick together.

Amelie and Logan warming up for Gorilla Cliff

Cozied up under Mark's route at Gorilla Cliff.  Logan gave her his favorite puppy to cuddle with.

Logan at Gorilla Cliff.  The wind was howling and it was freezing!  The kids were troopers.

Besides what's shown in the pictures, we did lots of hiking/bike riding to explore other cliffs,  watched a redbox movie almost every night (oh, the joys of the big city where the redbox is only a few minutes away), read a few books, and watched a Strawberry Shortcake DVD they had in the condo about 100 times.  I can sing the theme song in my sleep.  It was a fun winter destination-- we even missed some snow at home (I love when that happens).  I bet we'll be going back again soon.