Fall photos

I was working on a blog post for Max's hunting trip but I haven't been able to get the photos from his phone yet so that has delayed my blogging a bit, but I'm just going to skip that for now and work on some other posts. Just know, Max got a delicious deer in record time and was only gone for a short weekend. 

Moving on, we have been enjoying the fall at our house, and these gorgeous stumps that make the most excellent chairs.!

Then we had to go inside because Charlie accidentally hit Miles in the face with a baseball bat (plastic, I guess that's an important detail, but it still was pretty bad) Miles got a pretty intense bloody nose and we had to go inside. 

So we tried again on another day. This time it would have been hilarious to videotape the 3 minutes that transpired as I was just trying to get a decent photo of them on this brick wall. They were not cooperating. Oh well! I like the photos we ended up with since it is their true personalities. 

I don't know why Charlie was being so grumpy...but he just was.

And then it was Miles' turn to be grumpy. He was mad that Charlie had taken a rock he was eyeing. Max and I both keep looking at this picture and it makes us happy and sad. And we keep laughing. I don't even know. It's just so MILES!

So, last week, we got to go do a photo shoot for a fun family. They found this beautiful location called Fort Vancouver. When we were done with photos, the kids just ran around this excellent little garden. There was even a tiny little pumpkin patch and a little corn patch, it made me think we may not need to do a pumpkin patch this year.

So there are some Fall photos of my kids...mostly Miles, since he can't run away as fast. Don't you worry though, we have plenty more Fall photos coming soon to the blog. We've been enjoying some puddle stomping and a sunset at the pumpkin patch!

18 Months

It's been over a week since Miles has turned 18 months, and I've written this blog post in my head so maybe I'll remember about 10% of it to write down, and then add a bunch more. 

Miles is seriously an amazing child. It's so weird that before he has born, it was hard to imagine loving another person the way I love Max or Charlie. From the moment I first held this little boy, I absolutely loved him. He is a happy and calm child. He can be quite timid and takes him a bit to warm up from people. But I seriously love his little bit of clingy-ness. I kind of missed this with Charlie. He didn't care at all if we left him with a babysitter. which definitely had some benefits. Miles cuddles into me and acts all bashful and cute whenever he meets someone new or not-so-familiar. 

He is a little ham! He has perfected his "cheese' smile and poses quite often for me. The dimples kill me!

Miles loves doing whatever his big brother is doing. Even Especially if it's naughty. He's picked up a couple bad habits this way which include spitting, screaming, and hitting. Charlie isn't really a hitter but Miles has found it to be a useful tactic when he is mad at Charlie. (and stealing his glasses, also a very useful tactic.)

But this kid's vocabulary is blowing me away, I swear he has learned a couple new words every day for months. Charlie definitely took his time to talk but is now as chatty as a three year old can be and I think Miles used this to his advantage and has learned to talk from Charlie. Just recently he has started stringing 2 words together which include "did it" "more please" "there I am" "peek a boo" and "let go." He is using adjectives such as heavy, hot, cold, dirty, yucky, stinky, soft. He can say many of his body parts, pieces of clothing, foods, animals and animal sounds, and a couple different toys. He knows the difference between boots and shoes, and cars and trucks. He says, mama, dada, and Charlie, but when he sees himself in the mirror or in photos he will say baby! He also says Lacey. I hear him singing songs that we often sing, they are mostly mumbles but then he spits out words like hallelujah or bumble bee. I hear him mumbling segments of the ABC song or short strings of numbers. Among his list of words he says on his own, he will repeat tons of words we say to him. There are still many words that are not very clear and I only understand them from context. 

Here is a video from summer with him singing Hallelujah with Max. 

Miles is a great sleeper, since he's turned one there have been very few times when I've had to go help him in the night. It's not rare for him to cry out but he always puts himself back to sleep very quickly. I know we will have the challenges of switching him to a toddler bed in the not-so-distant future so I'm savoring this as much as a can. 

Miles loves to be outside, granted I haven't met many little boys that don't love to be outside. He usually isn't happy when you make him come inside. 

He is somewhat of a picky eater. I have a hard time getting him to eat meat or vegetables but he is all about the crackers, breads, cheese, and fruit. 

He is still quite bald! I kind of love it, but I'm also curious what his hair will be like as it grows in. He is still on the smaller end of the spectrum and I think this is wonderful, He is a cuddly little mama's boy and I'll take it all while I can. 

 It is so fun and exhausting to have our Miles big enough to do most everything Charlie does. Now I have two little tornadoes pulling everything off of the kitchen shelves, but they can also, run and climb and play together.  They often fight over toys, and Miles even hits Charlie over the head with toys but it is still nice that some of the time they interact nicely . Both boys are at such a fun age and I'm trying to savor every little bit of it because it does go so fast!

Birthday continues

My birthday always lingers into General Conference weekend...so, here are a couple photos from that. The Saturday after my birthday, we spent the day at home watching General Conference, which was enjoyable to have my family all home and in our pajamas! In the afternoon we went to eat an early dinner with my Red grandma. She was taking us all out to celebrate our birthdays. We enjoyed some Mexican food and Miles downed the food like I've never seen before. We then spent the rest of the evening at home. On Sunday we got to watch more conference, and then in the afternoon, we all gathered at Red Grandma's house to celebrate all the September and October birthdays and have a BBQ. And James and Elizabeth and family had come down from Tacoma!
Playing with cousins is the best. They were playing "school" here.

And then Elizabeth asked if I could take some impromptu family photos of their family. I'm glad they let me experiment on them!

So, then, somehow, Max was talking with Josh (my new step-brother) who is 16 years old. I think Josh had called Max old (all in good fun of course, Josh is a good guy :) so Max challenged Josh to some sort of competition. They agreed on a race. Apparently, to 16 year olds, anyone out of their teens is in their 50s. Somehow, eveyone heard about it so we all decided to walk to the football field at the high school. Don was invited to join as part of the actual 50 year old category. It ended up being a big deal as Austin, Dan, and Charlie joined in. This may be a good tradition after we eat too much at our family get togethers.

Austin must have thought we were doing a somersault race...

And the winner was.....my super speedy and attractive and athletic Husband!!  Josh came in second. They did at least two races and Max won them both. Once James and Elizabeth arrived there were more races with my brothers and Charlie and his cousins and the kids loved playing in the big open field...which we did until the sun set!

Stretches

Charlie was so happy to race Gwenevere!

we eventually went back and said our goodbyes to cousins and Grandma and Grandpa and great grandma. It is always fun to celebrate with family.