Thanksgiving

Some things we are thankful for (in no particular order)...
Family, mountains, animals, water, job, bed, scriptures, temple ordinances, trees, warm home.

Ashlie gave a family home evening before Thanksgiving and invited us all to list some things for which we are thankful. We have a lot to be thankful for and I'm glad we have a holiday to give us time to reflect on our many blessings.

We spent Thanksgiving day and a few days before and after with Aaron's parents and two of his sisters and their families.
We made rolls and pies for the big feast. I had some great helpers for the pies...

Alia working the apple-peeler-corer-slicer.

We love eating the apple peel "spaghetti"

Matthew has learned to climb up on the table and used this skill to "help" me with the pie crust...

At least he helped clean up afterwards.
It was a wonderful time and we hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving as well.

Group hug!!!

Alia

Alia's favorite pastime is reading. She reads really fast and has amazing reading comprehension. One of Alia's first reading experiences when she was almost 5 years old. In church the primary children had been challenged to read from the Book of Mormon during the summer. Alia took this challenge to heart and wanted to read with me. So we started that evening after Madelyn and Ashlie were in bed. She read all the words she could and I helped her with the harder ones. I thought she would spend maybe 10 minutes and read a few verses with me. When I asked her if she wanted to stop she said "no" and that she wanted to finish the chapter. So we read for about an hour and that continued for much of the summer. She has loved reading ever since. Her first other big book she read was The Secret Garden. I think she has probably read that over 50 times by now.

Alia recently has been very interested in how she looks. She make sure her clothes and accessories match with precision and repaints her nails every other day to make sure they coordinate. One day I discovered that she woke up early and was painting her nails at 5:30 AM!
Alia loves life with her whole body. She is very much a tactile learner. She loves anything she can squish, taste, smell, poke or pick up.

Alia is also very creative. She creates things out of plants or string or cloth. She once made a life size Candyland game in our living room for the kids to play. (There was a lot cardboard and coloring with that project!) She loves making things for others. She has made and given away tons of bead pets and friendship bracelets.
I love you Alia! I love how you make almost any situation fun. And how you help us all get involved with hands on learning. Especially your sisters and brother.
I love your determination when you want to do something. I love the energy you have. You were listening to music the other day and said "I just have to dance to this!" and started twirling in the kitchen.
You are an amazingly hard worker. I remember the time you were out in the rain with me weeding and doing yard work and were not going inside until the job was done and I went inside too.

I love your incredible vocabulary. You say the most interesting and sometimes funny things. The other day I was telling you that a book you got from the library about a flood had taken place in Washington. You hadn't been too interested in that book up to that point but when I shared this point you said "hmmm...well that adds one more strike to the flint of my curiosity". You make up analogies about tons of things. You are often saying "mom, don't you think that is kind of like..."

I am so glad to have a daughter just like you. You are a fantastic, beautiful, and awesome daughter!

Madelyn

Madelyn was born with a sweet and calm disposition. She has always been a good sleeper since she was a tiny baby. Sometimes, when she got older, and was transitioning from taking a nap during the day to not taking a nap she would fall asleep at the dinner table. She is usually the first person asleep and loves to wake up early in the morning and get going.

Madelyn loves skirts, sweet scented lotion and anything girly. She is very feminine in her likes and fashion. She is a trend watcher and always knows what the latest in electronic devices, clothing and hairstyles are. She is one of the funnest people to go shopping with. She especially loves shoes. Sometimes I have to talk her out of wearing her platform sandles on walks to the park - you know tennis shoes just aren't as pretty. Just now as I was looking through pictures of her and clicking through them she said "wait mom, go back, what shoes was I wearing in that picture?" When I showed her..."oh, those were so cute, why did we have to give them away?" Me: "we threw them away because they fell apart." Madelyn: "oh *sigh* they were so cute." She loves growing up and looks forward to doing anything grown up. She asks me all the time "how old do I need to be to wear makeup? get high heels?" and so on.

(Getting the skirt that Grandma T. made for Madelyn for her Birthday)

Madelyn loves to be in the kitchen baking or helping with dinner. She is the tortilla queen in our house. Awhile back I needed to feed Matthew right in the middle of cooking tortillas. I asked Madelyn to flip over the ones on the griddle and then take them off when they were done. I told her she could turn off the griddle after that and I would come finish the rest when I was done. When I came back I found that she had finished rolling out and cooking the rest of the dough. They were cooked to perfection and tasted delicious.

(Madelyn's yummy apple tart)

Madelyn is a very social person. She is usually the first one to ask me if her and her sisters can go play with their friends. Lately she has been calling her cousin Mallory on the phone a lot. They sometimes play "sounds" from things around their own houses and then ask the other person to guess what it was. They also like to each look at their world globe and find out if a certain country is the same color on both. Madelyn has always loved doing things with her sisters and brother. She hardly ever wants to play by herself.
I love you Madelyn! You have such a tender heart and feel empathy for anyone who may be sad. You are very protective of your younger sister and brother. A few weeks ago Dad jokingly put a post-it note on the back of Matt with "kick me" written on it. While Mom and Dad laughed about it you were appalled and quickly made up some notes with "kiss me" "hug me" "feed me" "love me" "never kick me" and posted them in a long line down Matt's back.
I love hearing your devotionals you prepare each week in school. A lot of your thoughts are spoken from your heart and bring a good spirit into our home. You have a lot of wisdom that you share.

You are a very responsible person. You like to have your things organized and kept in purses, bags or boxes. Anytime you are given an assignment in Activity Days you complete it quickly and remember to bring it back. You love getting jobs done quickly so you can get on to the playing.

You are a darling, beautiful, intelligent girl and I'm so glad you are my daughter!

Ashlie

Ashlie is taking swimming lessons again. She is so close to swimming on her own. It's exciting. She wasn't too sure about her swim teacher being a boy, but she has decided that it's okay.
Ashlie loves to draw. I remember when she was little and just learning how to color, she would spend time coloring every square inch of the paper with crayons. She still spends a lot of time detailing her pictures now that she is older. She often draws pictures with patterns that require a lot of drawing time, like spots on a horse - not just big patches of color but teeny tiny spots - or sometimes she draws a road leading to a castle or something that is made out of tiny little pebbles that she draws individually circle after circle. Sometimes she gets tired halfway through and asks me to help her finish, but most of the time she does it all on her own. Her favorite thing to draw is birds.

Ashlie has a great sense of humor and a laugh that is very contagious. Sometimes she laughs so hard that her face turns red and she is hardly breathing.

Ashlie has an incredible imagination. She loves to pretend she is a horse or a dog. The other day she came out of the bathroom and guess what she was? No, not a Tuareg like I guessed, but a Ninja.
Ashlie is a great big sister to Matthew. She loves taking care of him. One of her favorite things to do is to set up a "Baby Paradise" with blankets, pillows and toys. She even stayed with Matthew while he took a nap in "Baby Paradise".
I love you Ashlie! I love how you make me smile with your jokes and observations of things you think are funny. I love it when you tell me all about the interesting things you read. You love reading about animals. You recently got an animal encyclopedia from the library that you will come and show me different animals that you found interesting. You even like showing me the creepy bug pictures. You and Madelyn will sit and test your bravery by turning a page over to show a tarantula or some creepy looking bug and then scream and turn the page. Then do it again and again. Sometimes you go and get mittens on so you don't have to "touch" the page.
You are someone that loves the outdoors and picking flowers. Every year when the lavender is in bloom in our backyard you frequently pick a bouquet and smell it with deep refreshing breaths. You gather bouquets of flowers all summer long and love to come and tell me when you've spotted a new flower has bloomed in the spring.
I think it is so cool that you sprouted your own apple tree that is growing so well.
You are someone who likes to play with other people, but you value your alone time too. You don't want anybody else but mom when you get hurt. If you get hurt you cry from the depths of your soul and most of the time I don't know if you have a tiny scrape or a broken leg until I see it.
I love getting your frequent notes or drawings with an "I love you Mom" on them. You love to give kisses.

You are such an intelligent, beautiful, amazing daughter! I'm so glad you came to our family.

Welcoming Fall

Fall has arrived!!

Sooooo...we don't celebrate Halloween, but we do celebrate FALL. I decided I wanted my girls to get to carve some pumpkins this year and just use it as a way to welcome in fall. I figured if I did it at the first of the month they would be gone by Halloween and then it wouldn't be related. When I told Aaron this idea he asked me if I was going to just randomly dress up the next week and go ask my neighbors for some candy. Hmmm...anyway.

In the Pumpkin Patch
The perfect pumpkins...

Loving the carving experience
The finished product.
(See just fall leaves. Not even a jack-o-lantern)

And we started this new tradition...
Homemade doughnuts and cider.
Mmmmm...welcome fall!!!

Matthew

Matthew loves hearing Dad's motorcycle. He knows it means Dad is home. I always go outside with him as soon as we hear Aaron driving up. Matthew kicks his legs and smiles and waves as soon as he sees his daddy. Matthew can now say Da Da and will when he sees Aaron.

Matthew loves brushing his teeth. He knows that when I get my toothbrush out he gets to brush his as well and he gets so excited.

Matthew knows what the tiger says **growl** and will tell you when you ask him. Anytime he hears a dog or sees his stuffed dog he says "doh" "oof oof". My favorite phrase of his is "wuhisit" (what is it?) He says this as he points to things. But the word I love hearing the most is Ma Ma. I'm his favorite person and I think that's just wonderful.

I love you Matthew. I love how you are so curious about life. Whenever the dishwasher is open you crawl over to it as fast as you can and try to help me unload it. You also try to climb up on the door using the top rack as a hand hold. You love to hang from the oven door handle. You discovered the ladder in Madelyn and Ashlie's room and love climbing up to the top (good thing I'm always right by you in case your footing goes awry). You have mastered the skill of turning around on your tummy before you go down the stairs. Sometimes you anticipate the stairs too early and turn around before you really need to, then after sliding backwards aways you look back with an confused expression that looks like you're thinking "where are those stairs anyway?!?" The other day I gave you a metal spoon and let you whack it on a upside down metal bowl. When it made the distinctive "dong" your eyes got so big and you laughed, then did it over and over again laughing each time. You absolutely LOVE the box of markers we have and love dumping them all over the floor. You also got to color with them for the first time last week and loved that too. Crayons are fun as well.
Speaking of dumping things out...

You have now had this right of passage and emptied the entire tupperware drawer.

You are so strong and energetic and are always on the go. You do not like to lie still when you get your diaper changed so I am always coming up with distractions for you that will keep you still like singing songs, letting you hold a c.d. or asking you where your tongue or nose is. You'll stick out your tongue or crinkle your nose and start sniffing.

Going outside is another favorite activity and you will starting saying "buh buh" and wave your hand for "bye bye" when you realize we are going somewhere.
I love being your mom and enjoying all these moments with you!

Summer's end

We ended our Summer last week with a quick camping trip to Ensign Ranch. We met up with some friends and stayed overnight. Ensign Ranch is a beautiful property owned by our church. The activities to do there are numerous and lots and lots of fun.

Cooling off in the crystal clear water of the river.

Matt loved sorting through all the rocks.

After the river, we went canoeing in the lake. My friend and I tried paddling a canoe together. Even with all of our husband's tips and coaching we ended up going in circles or turning into the branches and plants on the side of the lake. It was pretty funny.
She and her family went canoeing the next day and afterwards she sent me the message "I found out paddling with one person is a lot easier than with two."

We all enjoyed ourselves though.

The big activity my girls were soooo excited about was the horse rides they have at Ensign Ranch. Alia and Madelyn went on a trail ride in the morning Then all the girls went on "led" horse rides in the field. I got to lead a horse for the first time. It was kind of stubborn and wanted to go it's own way sometimes, but we made it around the arena pretty well. I got better the second time around. I am always impressed with people who own and train these big animals. (like my little sister and her hubby)

Good horsey.

And that's all folks...til next time at the ranch.