Junior Toppers

Friday night we went to the high school green and gold basektball scrimmage/game.  They invited the Junior Toppers to come and show their skills at the end of the game.  Jack and Kate have been going to a basketball skills clinic every Saturday morning from 8 to 9 for the last month or two.  The high school basketball players teach them skills, good sportsmanship and life skills too (integrity, etc.).  Both kids love it, but Jack is especially serious about it. 

These pictures are awful.  I was too far away and tried a few different settings since the kids were all moving.  But this first one shows Jack's interest in basketball...I tried to draw an arrow pointing to him, but I guess it didn't show up.  He's way down below his name.

The kids are in their "triple threat" position.  The coaches blow the whistle two times periodically during practice and the kids are supposed to get into this trip threat position and yell "TRIPLE THREAT!"  Check out how low Jack is squatting.  He's very serious about basketball and pretty good too.

  

 Jack checking his feet position.  Kate listening as always.

 Giant GO TOPPERS cheer at the end!

The Gilman Tunnels

Veteran's Day was a great holiday at our house this week.  Kate didn't have school and Dave didn't have work.  We went on a drive in the Jemez Mountains by our house with our friends, the Nye's.

We drove about an hour and then stopped and had a picnic lunch.  It was pretty cold.  I thought it was funny that the kids were freezing while they ate and then after a few minutes of running around they were throwing their coats off. 

After we ate we drove to the Gillman Tunnels which were pretty close.  The Gilman Tunnels were blasted out of rock in the 1920's to allow logging train access along the rushing Guadalupe River gorge.  (I just learned that from googling "tunnel near Jemez Springs, NM". 

I took this picture as we were driving towards the tunnels.  You can see both tunnels.

The Guadalupe River Gorge right by the tunnels.  Our friends said that people kayak down this sometimes (crazy people, I think).

Can you hear us yelling STOP to Jack and Craig?  

While we were driving toward the tunnels Dave spotted this huge, nasty spider crossing the road.  He wanted to put it in our cooler to show to our friends, but I convinced him that we should just take a picture of it. 

Gotta love New Mexico!

Baby Talk

This morning Ty was playing (a.k.a. pulling them all out) with some baby dolls and said another word...

"Dadie!" (I don't know if that's how you spell it -- sounds like baby except with d's instead of b's)

Then later this morning Jack and I (and Ty) were cleaning up some toys at the church after playgroup.  We needed to take the teeter totter back downstairs to the nursery. 

Jack decided to carry the teeter totter by himself.  In his tough guy voice he said, "I'll carry it.  You have a baby."  (on my hip, not in my tummy) 

Maybe Jack has heard me say that before... "I can't help you right now, I'm holding a baby."



New Word

Tonight Ty said a new word...

 COOKIE!

 These silly monkeys like cookies too!

Kate's Perler Bead Pizza Party

Today Kate hosted a Perler Bead Pizza Party for eleven of her closest friends.  We applied to host a perler bead party through Houseparty.com and were accepted.  They sent us a party pack full of projects for the girls, boards, beads, key rings, idea books, and a really cool prize.  Kate has been looking forward to this party since the end of September. 

The girls spent two hours making two different perler bead projects (a monkey and a lizard).  They got to eat pizza and cake and drink lemon-lime slush.  One of my friends helped me with the ironing and serving the girls.  Dave watched Jack and his friend and Ty. 

The girls were all very independent and sweet -- very different than the four year old boy playdates we've been having lately.  I don't think I'll ever have 12 boys at my house at one time, but I can handle 12 girls (at this age at least). 

Happy Halloweekend

Halloweekend at our house was a little crazy this year.

FRIDAY --

Kate had a party at school that I helped with.  (Jack had a preschool party on Thursday.)

Right after school on Friday we headed downtown to trick-or-treat.  We went to the hospital first.  I love going there since it's not cold and not too crowded and mostly just little kids trick-or-treating.  This picture sums up how the experience was:

 Kate -- very happy with the whole trick-or-treating experience

Jack -- not so sure (he was pretty shy at first and gradually warmed up)

Ty -- just wanted to touch the giant blow-up spider down the hall

Trick or Treating downtown

 We came home, had dinner and then made doughnuts.  Then we watched "How to Train Your Dragon."

SATURDAY --
Saturday was pretty busy too with lots going on -- basketball practice at 8 am, Dave helping someone in the ward until noon, baptism to go to, chili to make for the trunk-or-treat, tying strings on lots of doughnuts, cookies to make for the primary kids at church today, laundry, baths, cleaning up the super messy house, etc., etc.

Here are a few pictures from the ward trunk-or-treat

Kate bobbing for a doughnut

 Jack trying to get that doughnut to hold still

 Ty loved the trunk part of trunk-or-treat

 

 Jack and his buddy Craig, I mean, Woody

 I don't have any pictures of Kate trunk-or-treating since she was off with her friends.  I had a hard time keeping track of her.

SUNDAY --

Today we celebrated Halloween by going to church and doing our Primary Program presentation (and I had to play the organ).  Kate's part was Mosiah 2:17 and she did a great job.  Jack struggled a little holding still and not being distracted by the other not-so-reverent boys in his class.

Since Dave wasn't eating lunch with us (he had to do tithing), I made the kids hot dog mummies.

Then tonight we finally had a minute to carve our pumpkins.  Jack wasn't as grossed out by the pumpkin guts as Kate was.

 The kids drew faces on their pumpkin and Dave and I cut them out.

 Happy Halloweekend!  (I'm glad that we don't have Halloween on a Sunday again for seven more years.)

Ty @ 15 Months

I took Ty to the doctor today for his 15 month appointment.  Here's how he measures up:

Height:  30.75" (39.84%)
Weight: 20.62 lbs (5.59%)

At 15 months he can:

• walk everywhere
• stand in front of the door yelling "dad" multiple times a day and cry if he doesn't get to go outside and wave goodbye to Dave in the morning
• say yah, no, apple, and other words that I can't remember
• copy Jack and dribble the basketball (hit it on the ground), kick the football, and love playing catch
• put up with being tackled multiple times a day by a football-playing brother
• cry if you try to hold him and you're not a member of immediate family
• get his shoes and try to put them on (and he loves to walk in Kate's shoes)
• stand in front of the freezer and play with the ice in the ice drawer
• give the best kisses ever
• mimick brushing teeth and spitting in the sink
• enjoy "driving" the car
• write in piano books and pretend to teach piano lessons
• dream that someone will give him his own KITCHENAID for Christmas (he loves to touch other people's kitchenaids when we are visiting their kitchens)

Cousins and Roller Skating

Geoff and Annelisa and their kids came to visit us this weekend.

Dave and Geoff took the older kids to Bandelier this afternoon, while Annelisa and I watched the babies. Dave didn't take the camera, so no pictures. But everyone made it home safely and no one fell off a ladder.

We went roller skating at the United Church tonight. Kate went with a friend for the first time last week, but the rest of us had never been skating there. It was pretty entertaining watching the kids struggle to stand up on their skates. After a while most of them gave roller blades a try too. They were good sports and didn't mind that they fell down a lot.

After a while, the kids got the hang of standing without falling.  Haley did pretty well. 

The kids got to push around these little carts some of the time.  Most of the time they were holding onto parent's hands.

Sweet babies (and sweet Annelisa too)

Ty watching the kids skate and fall.

Ty loves to play with Emily and Cameron.  He liked to try to pick them up.  And he enjoyed sharing his food with them.  Cute babies!

Kate, Callie, and Haley spent hours perler beading.  Check out Kate's perler bead blog to see their posts (here for Callie, and here for Haley).

 Kate got a really cool bruise on her chin from a roller-skating spill.

 Jack and Katelyn played a little bit of dollhouse.

 And, Ty was really sweet in this pictures, so I had to post it. 

Kid Faces During Dinner

I snapped a few pictures of the kids last night while we were eating dinner.  They all have different "faces."

Jack's little black eye face

 

Ty's "Why did you just wipe all the yogurt off of my face, Mom?" Face

 

And Kate's scary pumpkin head face

 

Walking and Football

Ty is officially walking now.  He's been taking steps for a while, but around his 15 month b-day (October 9th) he started walking all the time, both inside and outside.  Every once in a while he'll scoot a little bit, but I think walking is his thing now.  Hooray!

 Now that Ty has mastered his walking skills, he's working on his football skills...

Jack has been playing a lot of basketball and football these days.  His new thing is to get his football ready for him to punt it in his "holder" made up of a duct tape roll and a toilet paper roll.  Then he kicks it (towards the door, not the tv). 

 We gave Ty his own tape roll to use too, since he likes to kick his football.  And he's learned how to cheese it for the camera.