Jackson, WY

This weekend we went to Jackson to spend time with Nana, Bompa and Courtney. It was a successful trip overall, although I'm reminded that Jackson is more of a town for adults than kids.....they just don't seem to care about beautiful paintings, chunks of topaz that cost $18,000 or stuffed true-to-size elk!

Amelia and Cooper at the condo, ready to go downtown.


Amelia at the antler arches in the town square. Cooper didn't "wike" them, so he wouldn't sit near them.


The candy store, however, was a different story. From now on, the phrase "kid-in-a-candy-store" will not provoke images of wide-eyed children wandering through the store, unable to make a decision. No, I will see crazy-eyed, hyped-up children running from barrel to barrel, grabbing whatever they see (whether or not they notice a lollipop has a cricket in the middle) and general pandemonium. And that was all BEFORE ingesting any sugar. Good times, good times.



Here are a few pictures AFTER the sugar-high kicked in:

Cooper with my boots on.


Amelia attempted climbing a chair to escape Cooper.


When the chair failed, she tried Nana.


In the end, she couldn't escape the awesomeness of Cooper. (As well as the only 7 pound difference!)

Ahhhh, kids!

I asked Amelia to read to Cooper while I was folding a mountain of laundry. She was reading to him and she fumbled over a word. Cooper corrected her (he has the book memorized) and Amelia said, "Oh." I think she was bothered by her little brother correcting her. Cooper patted her knee and said, "It's okay, Mia. It was an honest mistake."

Autumn Sugar Cookies

In celebration of the FABULOUS autumn weather we've been having, (I took out the air conditioner yesterday!) my sous chef Cooper and I baked some sugar cookies topped with orange frosting Monday. They are delicious and waaaaay too tempting. I'll be giving them all away this weekend! Here's some pictures:

Cooper putting on some chocolate chips.




In other news, Cooper has started his "house school". A few ladies in my ward started up a preschool for 9 of the pre-schoolers in our neighborhood. I explained to Cooper it wasn't his old school at BYUI, and he said, "It's my house school. I go to houses." Yes, yes it is! His first day was last Thursday:



What about Amelia? Well, she's learning a lot in school and loves it so far. She brought this home the other day:



It's the moon's cycles made with Oreos! Ingenious! (I'm writing all this down so when I teach everyone will think I'm brilliant---and only my faithful readers will know I'm a fake.)

Amelia's New Endeavor

As you all know, Amelia reached a point in her gymnastics that she either needed to be on the team, or needed to be on the team. After having her on the team for a year we decided it was just too much time and money at this point in our lives. So I gave her a few choices:

1. Stay in gymnastics, but just a tumbling class.
2. Take ballet classes.
3. Take clogging classes. (This is the one I voted for!)

Amelia chose #2. She began ballet today. She was a little nervous, but after her class she's ready to go back next week. Here's my little ballerina:





It's nice that I can help her with her feet positions and some of the moves. I knew nothing about gymnastics so she was on her own.....of course, she did just fine!

Eastern Idaho State Fair

It's fair time! I LOVE this time of year! There are many reasons, including: the food, the people-watching, the fun the kids have and of course---it's the unofficial kickoff of the FALL SEASON!!! We went last weekend and had a great time. Here's some pictures:

Learning to milk a cow.


Watching the 4-H horse competition. Amelia was in love.


In a cattle chute. I finally found a way to contain them!


The kiddieland rides bored Amelia, so we took her further back to the REAL thrill rides. I was worried she'd be scared and cry. She LOVED them.

My little thrill-seeker on the BIG swings:




Amelia with David and Courtney on the Tilt-A-Whirl.


Cooper was fine on the slower, louder rides:


All of us on the ferris wheel.


Later that night we babysat Lynnli and Matthew. Courtney helped.


Matthew loves his squash.


Andy. There isn't much more to say.

My Dentist Can See The Future...

Last Monday Amelia had her six month dentist appointment to clean her teeth. She didn't have any cavities (Yea!) but he re-affirmed the need for braces. Possibly two pair. Sigh. As we were leaving he said smiling, "I don't condone child abuse, but if you could roughhouse with Amelia and try to knock those top two teeth out, it would help." We laughed and went on our merry way.

Tuesday was a regular day and I went to work as always. About 5:15, I got a phone call from my babysitter. Right away I knew it wasn't good because of the SCREAMING in the background. While out playing, Amelia had a run-in with Cooper's extremely hard (figuratively AND literally) head and one of her front teeth was hanging by a thread. She wouldn't let the babysitter near her and had been screaming for the last fifteen minutes. I also heard Cooper crying, and when I asked what his problem was my sitter said, "He's fine, he just didn't want to come inside."

Since I wanted my sitter to come back, I quickly called someone to cover my shift and ran home. Cooper had calmed down and was eating dinner. Amelia was sitting on the couch with a washcloth against her mouth. I lowered the cloth and saw a lopsided tooth and a fat lip. I put Cooper to bed and ate a quick dinner, (I have my priorities!) then Amelia and I began wiggling, tugging and yanking her tooth.

It took an hour and fifteen minutes for that bugger to come out.



Three days later she looked much better, and her fat lip is almost gone.


Now we just need the other one out.