.a little.

I realized I haven't really given some personal antidotes about Finn and Meg in quite some time.  Most days I catch myself laughing at something those two have done, and I think, "I should write that down so I don't forget."  But as it can clearly be seen, I quickly move on to the tasks at hand and forget.

Finn is my 100% boy who has always loved tractors, trains, and dirt.  As he has grown, that love has only intensified.  For the first year, he actually was excited about Santa and the idea of sitting on his lap.  At our ward Christmas party he excitedly jumped on his lap and listed off about a dozen items...including a cement truck, a grater, and a loader.  Christmas is going to be absolutely magical with him this year.
Most of the time he is a sweet little dude, who loves to give hugs and kisses, and tells me often that he loves me, but like most children he has a destructive and mischievous side.  He often facilitates large messes with Meg if he's is not being supervised.  Like the time a few weeks ago when I was making dinner, he took advantage of my work upstairs to come down and open a bottle of Elmer's glue and proceeded to pour it out all over the brand new carpet in the basement, and provided a marker for Meg to go draw on the couch.  I was livid!  It took me several hours to clean it all up, and I'm still finding hard patches of dried glue in the carpet.  But, like my sister Holly pointed out, it's not sharpie...there is no coming back from sharpie.  It's the little things with kids, right???
He is loving all things preschool, and has also started a tumbling class with our neighbor.  At first I thought if nothing else, it will just give him an hour to burn off some extra energy, but it turns out he actually is listening and learning some skills.

In one of his many mischievous moments, he got the camera down and proceeded to take about 30 pictures of him, Meg, and the office.  I love his incriminating shot!

He is growing up though, and becoming somewhat of a help.  He insists on helping with little chores (which I know won't last for long), and has even started brushing his own teeth- I'm control freak over making sure his teeth are ALL brushed.  He is actually pretty good at it!  He also makes his bed and puts away all of his clothes after they are washed.  They aren't always in the right places, but he's learning.  His latest thing that is driving me crazy is he blows raspberries ALL THE TIME...Roy thinks it's funny...it's not.  But he's so stink'n cute, I deal with it.

Miss Meg is my 100% girl.  She loves bows in her hair, lotion on her hands, and shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes.  The first word out of her mouth every morning is shoes.  The only time she doesn't have shoes on is when she is sleeping, and even then she fights me on it.  Her and Finn are like water and oil, and rarely play well.  Meg doesn't understand personal space, and to an independent 3 year old, that just doesn't sit well.  Every once in awhile when the stars are aligned I will find them quietly in Finn's room where Finn is building and Meg is reading.  That is pure heaven I tell you!  I think Meg's favorite word besides shoes is "NO!"  I don't think she quite grasps its full meaning as she is often asked if she wants something she likes and answers "No".  She is spunky and unrelenting in so many ways that Finn is not.  I can already tell she is going to be a handful.

Meg also tries to help out.  This usually involves pushing a dirty dish cloth across the table mimicking me washing the counters.  She loves to sweep, and put away her clothes as well.  Even though she's not very affective at either, she is watching and learning, and that is a good thing.

My very favorite thing about miss Meg is that she loves the dance.  She is my car dancing buddy, and it makes me incredibly happy!  One of her favorite tunes right now is Feliz Navidad.  It gets an instant response from her seat as she shakes back and forth with her hands in the air.  She tries to snap her fingers with me by moving her little fingers, and it melts my heart!

On of the MANY pictures taken by the pilfered camera.  Finn took a pretty good picture of this sweet one!

Meg is a crazy little ball of energy, and can also be the sweetest and snuggliest of all my kids.  I can't wait to see what the coming year of two year old hood will bring.

.8.

Happy 8 months little Eisley,
It's been the start of another crazy month.  You will be celebrating you first Christmas at the end of the month, and even though you won't remember a thing, it will be magical to have you here with us!
This past month you have really put on some weight.  You are up to 15 pounds, and you feel every ounce of it.  I've taken to just taking you out of the car seat when we go inside anywhere since it has become to heavy too take you in the seat.
You have figured out that sitting up is a pretty neat trick, and allows you to see all the craziness that is happening with your brother and sister.  I still don't dare leave you unattended on the floor as that is a prime location for sister to sit and play on you (I can't get her to stop that).  Despite Meg's aggressive playing, she is your favorite, and will regularly get you to laugh and smile.  I think she's pretty enamored by you!

Hello world!!

You still haven't popped any teeth out, which is not unusual for us.  Both of your older siblings didn't get their first teeth until they were closer to 1.  Not having teeth doesn't slow you down when it comes to eating.  You take a great interest in eating anything off my plate that you can.  I think you've discovered there is a whole world of taste outside of mashed vegetables and fruit, and want all you can get.
You stopped nursing all together last month, after fighting me for several weeks, so now your a bottle only kind of girl.  In some ways it's been nice, but I must admit, I miss our little moments of just us.

We look forward to all the memories we are going to make with you as you continue to grow.  You are beyond special in our world, and you make everything better by just being you!

pure happiness!

.seven.

Eisley,
You are now our little seventh month old.  It's coming up on the holidays and it's going to be so fun having you here for all of it.  You LOVE watching all of us busily taking on our day, and seem to catch everything.  You love playing with any toy that makes a noise or has a mirror for you to watch yourself.  But your favorite toys of all are your brother and sister.  Mom and dad try everything to get you to giggle or smile, and we can usually only muster a smirk, but as soon as Meg and Finn start talking to you, your grin grows to a face encompassing smile.

 You are still such a patient and sweet baby who loves real food better then baby food.  If you could, you would eat gravy for every meal.  You have a preference for orange food, which is evident by your slowly growing orange nose.
Mamma's favorite thing you do right now is grabbing and playing with any ones face that is in reach.   You have REALLY strong fingers for such a little thing!
We are still working on sitting stability, but you're not quite to the point where I can trust you to be on your own, but you are so close.






You make our family so happy and complete little one, and we know you are a special addition that increases the joy we feel in our home.  Thank you for a wonderful 7 months Miss Eisley!!!

.festivities, candy, and long walks.

Fall is drawing to it's close, but we have thoroughly enjoyed the last golden weeks of autumn.  October was packed from beginning to end with get togethers, party's, and of course costumes and candy.  My family always throws a Halloween party for all the siblings and the kids.  Finn could talk about nothing else, but the party for days leading up to it.  He was seriously so stoked!  Meg loved her fluffy dress, but was terribly unhappy about the other costumes...especially some of the scary boy cousins.  She was content just to sit on grandma's lap and snuggle.  Finn ran through the spook alley and had his witches brew.  There were LOTS of treats and of course some great dancing.  Then we finished it all of with an outside viewing of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  It was such a fun night watching Finn just loving all of it.

 Eisley was my prop this year

 Don't let Finn's face fool you...he loved every second of the party.  Meg on the other hand pretty much had the stink eye on the whole night.

Meg finally let her guard down to dance.  Here she is shaking it up with Uncle Bruce.

The month continued on with a preschool party, a scary movie night with old friends, and of course pumpkin carving.  I must confess, I was a bit nervous about doing it with three littles, but it went pretty smooth.  Finn had some great ideas for his pumpkin, and meg just colored contentedly on hers.

 That is one VERY HAPPY boy showing off the pumpkin family.

Finally the awaited day arrived...Halloween.  We opted for an early start in order to get the kids home and put to bed at a decent hour.  Finn made the rounds around the block shouting out trick-or-treat.  The only issue I had with the kid is that he kept telling the neighbors, "I don't like chocolate" if they gave him any.  We told him to just take it and say thank you and just take what was given you.  Here's hoping those manners stick for next year.

 With all the craziness of all the festivities.  Meg just couldn't make it to nap time one day.

She's is very much my handful right now, but she is super cure...especially sleeping.
The Sunday after Halloween also happen to coincide with Daylight savings.  Which I think only makes sense if you don't have young children or electricity.  I had high hopes with that added hour of prep time before church, but it all came crashing down as we sat down in the chapel. Finn and Meg were both in fine form, screaming and crying about such things like banana stickers, and not getting the right sacrament cup.  I came to a quick realization that it just wasn't going to work for us that day.  So I marched the kids home directly after.  My emotions were flashing between wanting to punch something  and crying.  It was just a morning where I felt like I couldn't do it anymore.  ALL three of the kids slept for 4 hours...what?!?!? And then we tried again with better success.  I decided that we needed to get out of the house and reconnect and run off some sugar.  We headed up to the Bonneville Shoreline for a long walk.  Being in the mountains always seems to help me center myself.  It turned out to be just what we needed.

 I always feel like Eisley gets left out of family adventure photos because she's always attached to the photographer.  So I made sure to capture her.  I like how's she's giving me a suspicious look.

 Crossing over the little bridge on the trail...Finn is waving hi.

Seriously...so beautiful!  Fall is so magical in the mountains.

.fall.

I say it every year, but this really is my absolute favorite time of year.  Not being pregnant this year, has really opened up a whole new world of possibilities.  Not that one can't do festive things when you're pregnant, it just makes it that much harder especially with two young ones in tow.  We took the kids up to the canyon to go for a small fall hike to see the leaves.  We did the easy Temple Quarry hike so that Meg and Finn could both walk it.  They loved picking up the leaves and climbing all over the giant granite boulders.

After our short walk, I wanted to take in more of the canyon so we decided to head up to the tram at snowbird.  For future reference they do Octoberfest from the end of September until November so it was packed.  We parked a mile away and walked through the hordes of people with steins of alcoholic beverages to make our way up to the tram.  The tram ride was awesome...Finn loved it all and was especially thrilled to find dump trucks and a crane at the top of Peruvian Gulch (they are constructing a new ski shop at the top).

When we returned to the base, Finn was in thrilled and happy.  That all went down hill however, as soon as Finn took notice of all the people with their drinks.  I can't recall the exact conversation but it went something to the extent of:
Finn saying he was thirsty
me saying that I had water in the car
Finn demanding apple juice (because that's what beer looks like to a three year old)
me telling him that those drinks weren't juice
Finn asking what those drinks were
me telling him that those were beers
Finn demanding a beer
me saying no we have water in the car and that we don't drink beer...blah blah blah blah (I'm sure that's all he heard anyways)
Finn's demands for beer began escalating into a full on tantrum where he is kicking and screaming about wanting a beer.
Even though Finn was screaming for beer, and refusing to walk another step until he got one, Roy and I had a good laugh.  Eventually we made it to the car and Finn promptly fell asleep and forgot the whole matter.  All's well that ends well!

We made sure to get out and pick up pumpkins early this year.  We had to find a new patch to pick at since we moved.  We found a cute little one in South Jordan that had GIANT pumpkins.  Finn was so stoked to pick just the right pumpkin, and Meg was just happy to ride in the wagon and get a free cookie and cider.

Daddy and Finn with the selected winner

Waiting for the hay ride

the Mr. and I

hay ride time

It was a perfect fall evening with sweaters, warm filtered sun light, and my family...just magical.

.half.

Miss Eisley,

You are officially a half a year old...that's just plain crazy to me.  Being born a whole month early, I kind of still look at you as a 5 month old.  You're small, not as steady at sitting, and you just mastered your roll from stomach to back, but the fact of the matter is you are still 6 months old.  Grandma Tiede is 100% certain you are the sweetest most perfect baby she's ever seen. That might be because she's around your crazy brother and sister all day as well, but really you are a sweet little piece of heaven.

A couple of weeks ago you started waking up around 5:30 for your morning feeding.  That has been a bit hard on me, but just these past few days you started sleeping back in until 7.  I'm completely ok with that if you want to keep it up.

You've really taken to eating solid foods.  At first you would suck on the spoon like a bottle to swallow the food, but have taken off since then.  It's been fun watching you discover the new world of flavor!

In the past two weeks as well you dethroned as the youngest grandchild/niece.  You have two brand new girl cousins which we couldn't be more thrilled about.  It makes me happy for you to have cousins that will be close in age.

Besides eating solids and rolling over, the big thing that happened this month was your trip up to Primary Children's Hospital.  When you were born you had a few signs that you possibly could Cystic Fibrosis.  They did the Newborn screening, and that came back fine, but the only way they can really eliminate the suspicion is by doing a chloride sweat test at 6 months.  So they wrapped you up like a baked potato and let you sweat it out for a half an hour.

You barely made a peep the entire time we were up there, and were so patient with the nurses as they splinted your arms and wrapped you.  We haven't heard back on the test results, but I figure no news is good news.

Eisley, you continue to bring joy beyond measure to our family.  I hope you know and feel all the love that is had for you!

.reveal.

We have been in the new place now for about three months, and have done a lot in that amount of time.  The house was nice when we moved in, but we have definately added our own touch to it, and it feels like OUR home now.

We didn't do much to the front yet (maybe in the spring), but we put in some sod on a patch, and planted some flowers.  Eventually we would like to take care of that pine tree, and plant some nicer trees.

 The backyard was nice, but had lots of pine trees and TONS of rock.  We knew we wanted to take out the pine trees because they were killing the existing grass, and we took out some flower beds.  I would rather mow then weed.  This is after we took out 4 big pine trees, and the flower beds, but before the sod.

 The pile of rock that we removed from the back yard.  They had lined all the flower beds and the perimeter of the yard with all of this stone.

The after shot with the new sod in place.  There is still a lot that we would like to do, but for now we are loving the new grass and no pine tree back yard.

Finn loves eating his popsicles up in the playhouse. 

The front room with new paint and carpet.  This room feels lighter with the new color.  As much as I try to keep this room toy free, it's one of the kids favorite rooms to play.

 Looking back towards the door from the front room.

The kitchen has been a labor of love too.  I love having the new floor in, and appreciate all the work Roy and others have done to help make it happen.

 We've since added the base board trim, and caulked everything.  It looks amazing!

Finn's room was the only room we left the brown color.  It seemed like a good color for a boys room.  I may still paint it, but for now it will stay.  Finn loves having a place he can go without Meg in his business.

 The master is smaller then our condo, especially with our huge bed, but it has it's own bathroom and that pretty much makes up for that.

The girls room

Our basement has taken a lot of work too with ripping out nasty carpet, and sealing the concrete, but it's nice to have all the extra space.  This is the storage/laundry room (notice all those lovely peaches).  It's still not really organized, but it will come a long as I get to it.

The undecorated bathroom in the basement

 The spare bedroom where my grandma is staying while she's here.

The playroom/office is the other room that is finished in the basement.  It's obviously the other room the kids like to play.  I love having a separate space for the kids toys.

The family room in the basement is still unfinished.  That will be a big project that we will have to get around to in the years to come, but we sure do love our little place.  We've put a lot of work into making it our own and appreciate all of my family who have helped with all of our projects.  We couldn't have done it without you!

.odds and ends of the summer.

Since these past few weeks have been completely busy with still more projects in the house, I have been behind on all the last of the summer happenings (and even some of the middle of summer adventures).  SO, I'm doing another catch up post and hope that I can stay on top of this blog now that we have somewhat of a routine going.

Earlier in the summer, right after we moved, Roy had the opportunity to hike the Subway with an old friend from Florida.  He had fun, and says he would love to hike it with me some day.   It may be awhile before we could go together, but someday.

Roy and I had a rare date with just the two of us.  It gets harder and harder to get out with just us with three young kids...especially a new baby.  It was nice to go to the Temple and we love to go to The Chocolate after.  They have the best Cazookies.

 My cousin Rebecaa was married, and we had a wonderful time at the reception catching up with family.  Cousin Zeke and Finn look like they could be brothers.

 Meg continues to be as busy as she can be.  On the rare occasion when she gets my undivided attention, she is in heaven.  It's the curse of the middle child I guess.

 We made our annual visit out to Payson to pick raspberries.  I went with two of my sisters and all three of my littles.  Finn and Meg ate about a pound between the two of them.  Eisley didn't make a peep the whole two hours we were there, even with Meg trying to force raspberries into her mouth.  She is amazing!  I picked 5 lbs which are packed into my freezer for winter smoothies.  Not bad with the little dudes in tow and no help.

Great Grandma Tiede is here to stay for two months, and she has been such an added help.  She is constantly reading to Meg, playing with Finn, holding Eisley, or doing dishes.  I hope she knows how much I and the kids love having her here!

Roy and Finn had a back yard camp out (can I tell you how much I love that we can do that).  Between moving and doing project after project, we haven't had a chance to go camping this summer.  Finn has been wanting to sleep out in his sleeping bag and roast something over a fire for so long, I finally made it happen.  Roy was a trooper and slept out and made a fire for Finn to enjoy.  Finn kept saying, "this is the best night ever!"

 Lawn maintenance is a joy when you're three apparently.  Finn gets his mower out every week and helps Roy keep the lawn looking nice.  I especially loved his muscle shirt and cut off jeans attire.  I told Roy he looked like he belonged in the trailer park.

 Labor day, we actually had a day off from all of our projects around the house.  So we enjoyed it with family and took Finn to Airborn for the first time.  He absolutely loved it and did not want to leave.  Meg on the other hand wanted nothing to do with it.  I figure we will give her a few years.  Finn would have been the same way even a year ago, he just needed to mature a bit.

 Finn started his first year of Preshool.  He was super stoked to go the first couple of days and couldn't be contained, but today he had a rough morning of not wanting to go.  Of course when I came to pick him up, he was super happy and said it was so fun.  I'm hoping he continues to be excited!

Roy turned 31.  He has been stressed lately with work, and so he wasn't super anxious to do anything, but I dragged him out to play miniature golf while grandma watched the kids (have I told you how wonderful my grandma is...she is heaven sent).  He ended up having a nice quite birthday, just the way he likes.

 The Last of the big projects for the year was to get the sod laid.  Though a series of events we ended up with just about the perfect amount, and we couldn't have done it without the help from my family.  My mom, dad, sister Kay and her boys we invaluable in getting it all laid.  Especially since we had to move a mountain of rock in order to get it all down.   Thanks a million times over guys!  We doubled the size of our yard, and the kids will have a lot more grass to play on, and I will have less flower beds to weed.  A win win situation.  Next year we will get to the trees and more of the landscaping back by the sandbox.  It seriously looks so different from when we moved in.

 

The days are slowly getting shorter, and we have started bringing out jackets and socks, so we know our summer is coming to a close, but we will enjoy the last of the warm days as much as we can.