Baby Elizabeth comes to town!

We've been lucky enough to have Baby Elizabeth visiting for over a month (along with her parents, too, of course). She is so darling and petite and full of personality! We all love her, especially Charlie! He's working on giving her soft loves. :)

Charlie- 18 months

I can't believe that Charlie is 18 months old! It seems like such a grown up and tiny age simultaneously.

Here's some notes and photos about Charlie at 18 months (Sept. 25th).

Charlie loves this little bus (he actually has two). He likes to put all of his other small trucks in it and push it around. One day I found him using as a little seat, too. Smart little problem solver.

Getting Charlie to show us his "muscles" (a trick we learned from cousin James)

Helping Grandma Bev water the flowers

Charlie loves to drive his trucks on the couch, on my legs, and on other people's heads (unfortunately, poor Elizabeth was the recipient of that one day)

Mama's little helper

Sharing a caramel apple

Watching Barney on my laptop with Lily

Charlie was dying to share my soda from Top Stop, but I knew what he was really after was the cup and straw so I refilled it with water and let him go for it!

He's becoming the master of impossible situations- he usually will yell for help and I'll find something like this

We pulled out a few of the baby things for baby Elizabeth while she's been in town and Charlie thinks that they're really fun to sit in.

Chelsea found this little table and chairs set and graciously gave it to Charlie. He LOVES it. Even though he's still a little too short for the chair, he'll still sit there happily. He especially loves sitting there with Sam or Lily or James.

He's talking so much more every day. He's much more willing to try to repeat words when I ask him to as well as just surprising me by saying a word perfectly (to this mother's ears) and in context. He's been saying Grandma or Grandpa when we start driving down John's parents' street towards their house. He understands simple instructions and will mostly do carry them out. He'll get his shoes and my shoes when it's time to go outside. He'll put toys away in the box when I ask him to. If a door is shut, he knows to knock on it to get someone to open it.

The other day I we were trying to get out the door but I couldn't find my keys. I was talking to myself and Charlie and said, "As soon as I find the keys then we can go bye bye. Charlie, where are the keys?" To my utter amazement, he said, "There they are!" (in his baby speak but with just the right inflection) and pointed to the stairs where he had thrown the keys over the baby gate!

He's even busted out a few two-word sentences, my favorites of which is "Bye, Dad!" every morning as we drop John off at work and "Nigh-nigh, Moon" every night before bed. (He loves to look for the moon- even during the day!)

Saying goodnight to the moon with Daddy



He's signing more and more, with some of his signs surprising me! He's added thank you, please, hat, help, and milk.

He loves to tell me what each animal says and for now, we haven't run out of animals that have easily identifiable sounds. (Cat, dog, monkey, fish, horse, elephant, cow, sheep, bunny, pig, bird, (What will I do when he asks me what a giraffe says? Or a hedgehog? Google help me.)

He gets so excited to see Sam, Lily or James (his favorite playmates and cousins) that he runs up to them and squeezes them hard and gives head butt "hugs". Sam and Lily can usually handle this rough affection but poor James is just Charlie's height and he usually gets a "hug" right to the face. We'll have to work on showing our love softly!

We love our "little man"!

Happy Halloween!

We knew Charlie was going to be a little dragon and last minute we decided to be Arwen and Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings (yes, welcome to 9 years ago). A special thanks to Steve and Kerry because all 3 costumes were hand-me-downs. :)

We went trick-or-treating for the first time with Charlie and Sam and Lily on Grandma Sue's street. Kristen, Kerry, Steve and Grandma Barbara joined in, too. We also met up with Breea and McKenzie and Emily for some houses. We were the first trick-or-treaters of the night for a lot of people- it was a little light on the kids because the weather was cold and rainy. At the first door he picked out a sucker, wanted it unwrapped, and he was good for the rest of the night. He went up to a few more doors but was still so interested in his sucker that we went and got the stroller and he stayed in it for the rest of the street. So great.

The two superheroes- Spider-Woman and Catwoman

(Steve would like you to know that they are from rival comic franchises).

Steve's cute family- Kerry the witch, Steve the Jazz team doctor,

Sam the "army guy" and Lily the Spider-Woman

The trick-or-treaters

Captain Jack Sparrow (aka Dave) and his apprentice pirate (Emily) and the '80's girl they kidnapped for ransom (McKenzie)

Wendy, Peter Pan and John

Charlie at his Kindermusik class- all the kids dressed up for class for Halloween

The Four Progeny

We've had so much fun with Catherine, Richard and especially Baby Elizabeth while they've been in town visiting. Unfortunately, Richard had to leave to return to work in the UAE and we already miss him a lot. My dad will be here soon for a short visit. So this picture (the first of all the grandkids together!) is the shout out to Daddy/Uncle Richard and Grandpa Mark who are surely missing their babies. Believe it or not, this was the best picture we got. My favorite part is that Lily was in charge trying to "hold" Charlie- which is quite the feat, considering she only weighs 10 lbs more than he does.

Andrea's wedding!

We spent a lovely day with Andrea and Ken as they got married- we were lucky enough to be included in the ceremony in the morning, the wedding luncheon at Tucanos (delicious), and then the dreamy reception at Cactus and Tropicals.

It was so special to be in the temple with my friends. It was especially fun to spend time with Amy who lives so far away (currently in Maine). She brought her absolutely decadent baby, Kate, and I just had to love on her as much as possible.

John spent some time with Kate, too.

Amy and her little sweetie- what a cute pair they are!

Andrea's girlfriends at the temple- photo by Joanna Hudson.

Charlie was an honorary ring bearer and looked dapper in his little dress shoes, suit pants, white shirt and tiny tie.

My two handsome guys at the reception. John spent most of his time chasing Charlie around and keeping him from taking headers into the water features at Cactus and Tropicals.

Our little family- love those two

Alyce and Brent- Alyce and her big sister Evelyn were the little flower girls

The gorgeous cake

The bridesmaids- photo by Joanna Hudson

Our traditional high school friends wedding picture (photo by Joanna Hudson). I made everyone hang around so we could get this shot and now I have a complete set!

New Inspiration Blog

I've started a Tumblr blog to keep track of all the lovely, inspiring, funny or helpful things I see on the internet. I'm still learning the new platform (oh, trusty Blogger, I know ye well) so bear with my growing pains. I'd love it if you wanted to check it out!

http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/getupandplay

Portraits by Jeanette Soffe

I have so much to catch up on this little blog, but I just had to post these previews that my friend, Jeanette Soffe, posted on her blog of our family photo session. We're so lucky to have her take our portraits and doubly so, considering she is is 9 months pregnant and we were her last shoot before she went on maternity leave!! Thanks, Jeanette, we love them and are excited to see the rest!

Wellies

Every fall and spring I wish for a pair of wellies but then those short Utah seasons fade away too quickly into our long summer and winter. I'm still dreaming about buying some this year, even I only get to wear them for two weeks. Which ones do you like the best?

Target



Nordstrom



Land's End

Fun Carnival Fundraiser this Saturday!

I hope you'll come support this great cause- a Carnival to benefit the Coleman family. My friend, Lindsey Coleman, has two children with SMA (spinal muscular atrophy). SMA Type I is a terminal genetic disease that results in loss of nerves in the spinal cord and weakness of the muscles connected with those nerves. Needless to say, it's a very debilitating and expensive disease.

THIS SATURDAY at OLYMPUS HIGH SCHOOL

Here's the flier for more information!