Labor Day Weekend

We got some new next door neighbors! A flock of geese moved into the corn field right next to our house for the weekend. Apparently, our house lies directly under their migration path, so we'll be seeing a lot of them in years to come. I love this picture. How many people get to walk outside and see this next door every day? I hope they never sell the corn field and that we always get to have this beautiful view.

Labor Day weekend turned out a little differently than we expected. We had planned on heading down to St. George to be there for Aaron's sister Stacey's twins' baby blessings. But some of Stacey's kids got strep throat, and some of Lisa's kids got colds, and we felt like it was just a little too risky. So we stayed home. And it turned out to be a really good thing. We got A LOT of things accomplished that we've been wanting to do all summer, but haven't bothered to say home long enough to do.

Aaron installed a peep hole in our front door! Yay! I'm sorry, but I'm one of those people that if I don't know who it is at the door, I won't open it. So a peep hole will be very handy. He also installed a more secure lock on our sliding glass door, and a slide lock on our front and garage door to keep the kids in, and to prevent them from opening the door for anyone when I'm in the shower or putting another child down for a nap. (We have a lot of random people ringing our doorbell, and a lot of construction workers in the area at the moment, can you tell I'm a little paranoid?) And we got window locks, so the kids can't open the windows and fall out of them. So I am feeling very safe and secure this weekend. All we have left to get is the alarm system and the mean dog. :)

We also bought Adelia a twin sized mattress. That's been on our list of things to do forever. Since we moved her into her big bed ages ago, she's been sleeping in the big girl bed, but still with only the crib mattress. I feel much better about her sleeping arrangement now. Adelia has learned to open doors this last week, which is swell, except for at nap time. So we got one of those plastic, child-proof doorknob things. It made her super mad. Today she figured out how to pop it off. Smart little stinker. She also has a new habit of stripping herself down completely naked during the time when she is supposed to be sleeping, and then yelling at the top of her lungs, "I took my diaper off, I peed on my bed!" But, on a more positive note, she told Aaron she needed to poop in the potty tonight, and she did it. Maybe we should be concentrating our efforts on potty-training her instead of Ivan...he seems to be a lost cause at the moment as far as the bathroom is concerned.

While I was taking a little break on Saturday, Adelia decided to make up for being a nap-time terror, and offered to style my hair for me. "Hold still Mommy. I almost done." Gee, I wonder where she's heard that before. :) (Aaron came in and helped her put the pony-tail in, and then took the picture.)

Sunday after dinner, we decided to take a little drive up Payson Canyon. It's beautiful up there at any time of year. We got out at Payson Canyon Park and walked around for a little bit. Here are some pictures I took.

Cheesers: Ivan, Lincoln, and Aaron

Adelia wanted to get up in the tree like the boys so badly, but she was so nervous the whole time, and when I got her down she said, "That scary Mommy."

What are we pointing at?

Beautiful girl

Lincoln was very determined to climb a tree.

Ivan was mostly content to destroy spider webs with a stick.

Aaron and I were happy to sit back and watch the kids run around. This picture is courtesy of Lincoln, hence the blur.

"Daddy, I want a turn. I take a picture!"

Today was Monday. Aaron was home. We didn't really have a whole lot planned, so we did school. It was really nice to have Aaron's help with school. It took us just as long as normal, but the kids did better work and got more individualized attention. Ivan did the best handwriting page I've ever seen him do. For our preschool activity we made letter A apples, and read Johnny Appleseed. But I'll wait until the end of the week and do a big post on all the apple stuff at once. 

Coincidentally, we got to go pick apples today as well. Not part of our preschool plan, but it worked out nicely with the schedule. Our friends the Armstrongs from our Provo ward, have several large apple trees in their backyard that they don't use all the apples off of, so they let us and our other friends the Parks come and pick apples. Suzy texted me Saturday to say they were ready, and so today we loaded up the ladder and our red wagon, and went and picked bags and bags and bags of apples. I don't know what I've gotten myself into! But it was fun to talk to Suzy and her family. We've missed them since we left Provo. We still see them frequently, just not as often as we used to. I meant to take a picture of the apple pickin' but I got too caught up in chatting and forgot. :) But, it looks like we'll be putting up apple sauce during our apple themed week. How appropriate, eh?