Who invented two-year olds, anyway?

Maggie has never had an easy time going to nursery class at church. It's only been within the last couple of months that she'll even stay at all without me, and she bawls her eyes out from the minute sacrament meeting gets over until several minutes after I drop her off at class.

This morning, she started crying when I tried to get her dressed for church. "Uh-uh church. Uh-uh toys. Uh-uh class."

She cried for at least half an hour, until her face was blotchy red and her eyes and nose were running all over the place. Brian tried to console her and tell her that she didn't have to go to class if she didn't want to. I put a stop to that. She had two important lessons to learn from this I told Brian: 1) she can't get her way every time she cries and 2) she can be apart from Mom for a little while and it'll be ok.

So we went to church and she sat very quietly all through sacrament meeting because she was worn out from crying all morning. As soon as they said the closing prayer, she started up again, "Uh-uh class."

"But Maggie," I said, "You like class."

"Oh," she said. And that was it.

By the time we got down the hallway to her class, she was excited and even getting antsy to play with the toys and sing songs in her class. When I dropped her off, she waved, "Bye Mom," and she sat down to play with the other kids.

!!!

So, what was that fit about this morning...?

Adventures in Red Rock

Thanks to a sales promotion at Office Depot and Brian's hard work (or good luck, depending on your perspective) he and I got to spend the weekend down in Moab. The kids went to Grandma's and we escaped for two free nights at the Red Cliff's Lodge!

The accommodations were great but the scenery was incredible!

We drove down with Brian's co-worker and good friend Kyle Brown and his wife Maveny. Since we were already in the neighborhood, we decided to take a peek in Arches National Park. Wow. Brian and I were kicking ourselves for not bringing our fancy camera on the trip. Neither of us had actually been in the area before and didn't realize how absolutely gorgeous it would be. These pictures were all taken on Kyle and Maveny's camera--we're grateful they remembered!

I probably could have recolored these photos because they don't capture the brilliant red of the rocks very well, but it was too much work to upload them all into blogger so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Brian and I posing in front of the famous Delicate Arch.
Since Maveny and I are both pregnant, we decided not to take the arduous 3 mile hike right up to the Delicate Arch and took the easy route instead. It was still amazing seen across a deep canyon.

We also took a short hike to the Double Arches. They reminded me of a cathedral, in both size and beauty. Notice the tiny people climbing on the rocks below.

This is Kyle and Maveny Brown, good friends and great traveling companions (as well as dinner guests!)

Brian and Kyle climbed up to stand under the farthest arch while us pregnant girls sat on the rocks below and took pictures.

The next day, Saturday, we all climbed in a Hummer and took a four-wheel-drive tour on the slickrock guided by a retired local sheriff. The scenery was beautiful, the commentary great, but most amazing to me was the feats of the Hummer. Who knew a vehicle could do that?

We should have guessed what we were in for by the name of the place...

Looking back down the entrance to Hell's Revenge trail. Notice the steep drop on both sides, and how small the cars are in the distance. You can't see the grade from this angle. Going up it felt exactly like when you're going higher and higher on a roller coaster, anticipating that sinking drop any moment... Have I ever mentioned how much I don't actually like roller coasters all that much for exactly that going up part?

This is a better view of the trail. Yes, we drove up that. Backwards, incidentally. See the tire marks?

Behind Brian and to his right you can see the infamous Lion's Back which, because of the history of injuries and deaths, is now closed. The new owner doesn't want the liability. Oh, I was so disappointed...

Our sweet ride.

We tried to get a photo of the four of us together in front of Echo Canyon. I don't like canyons--especially the edges of canyons. Brian was trying to get me to step back closer to him...and the edge.

A mountain unicyclist. This guy hopped down that rock (and the tall hill behind) balancing on his unicycle. There were mountain bicyclists all over the place who I thought were all pretty crazy, but I think this guy is probably certifiably insane. We asked him if it hurt. He replied, "Yeah, it's not as much fun after the first two or three miles..."

This particular rock is called The Wall. See those scratch marks? Yes we drove up and back down the wall--several times. Our guide enjoys his job.

Ready.

Get set.

Go!

Beauty and the Beast

October Family Fun

Monday, October 21

After a trip to the pumpkin patch with Grandma Swings (and a trip to Wal-Mart) we had eight pumpkins sitting on our front porch. We carved four of them.

The kids weren't too thrilled about the gooey stuff.

So Mom ended up cleaning out most of them.

Thursday, October 25

Nathan's eighth birthday was on Friday, October 26. Since Brian and I were going out of town, we held Nathan's birthday party on Thursday. Everyone came dressed in their Halloween costumes and we played Halloween games like "Zombie Tag" and served up pizza, a veggie skeleton cat, and "witch's brew" which was the biggest hit of all. (You can see part of the spider webs we wrapped around the house for party decor.) Even though only five out of eight kids showed up, it was still total chaos. I think we're going to have to re-think this birthday party thing for Nathan next year...

Halloween! Wednesday, October 31
The boys spent the day in their costumes at school. After a costume parade and Halloween parties in their classrooms, they still managed to get pretty excited for trick-or-treating. Maggie dressed as a sparkly princess, Matthew was a knight, and Nathan was Bobba Fett from Star Wars. Maggie got the hang of trick-or-treating right away. Even after she came home, every time the doorbell would ring she'd drop everything, yell "Trick-or-treat!" and run full speed to the door. Since Maggie lives for candy, I'm guessing Halloween is one of her top holidays.

Pretty Princess

Homecoming

We've been living in our new home a little over a month now and we love it! Now if only I could get these boxes unpacked and actually get moved in...wouldn't that be nice.

In the meantime, we're just enjoying living in our own house as our own little (but growing) family. In case you haven't heard already, I'm expecting baby number four in March.

Here are a few stories about the kids:

Nathan
Our new house is about a block from a temple currently under construction. On the way home from school the other day, Nathan was telling Matthew how awful it's going to be when the temple is finished, "...because people will be getting married and then they'll be kissing on the lips outside the temple all the time. It'll be sooo disgusting!" Matthew didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but Nathan assured him that there will be people kissing all the time and it was really going to be horrible.

Matthew
Yesterday, Brian brought home the old foosball table that had been at his sister's house for the past few years. As soon as he got it set up, Matthew started going around the house looking for someone to play "fuzzball" with. I'm afraid the name is going to stick.

Maggie
Out of the blue, Maggie put her hands over her eyes yesterday and started counting, "One, two, free, fife, six, seffen, eighck, nine, ten..." she went past ten but I'm not sure if she was still counting because all she said was "...yahyah, yahyah..." Who knew at 26 months old she could count to ten? Even if she did skip number four.

Maggie loves to sing. Her nursery teachers were amazed on Sunday at her ability to learn new songs so quickly. Even though you can't understand every word, she gets most of them. The other day she was coloring at her new "baby table" and I heard her break out into, "Twinkle, twinkle little star...lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way..." She went seamlessly from the beginning of one song to the middle of the next, correct tunes and all. And she sang at the top of her lungs. Oh, it does a musical mother's heart good...

Maggish 1.3

Maggie has added to her vocabulary list. A few of my favorites are:

"Whyyy." It's not a question, it's a complaint. Whenever you tell her she can't do something, she imediately responds with a very whiny, "Whyyy." I'm guessing she picked this up from her brothers, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't quite get the meaning. For example:

Maggie says, "Gum!"

Mom says, "You can't have any gum, you ate it all."

Maggie says, "Whyyy..."

And Mom doesn't know what to say to that.

"Maa-Maa." Did I write this one, yet? Yes, Matthew finally has a name. It's "Maa-Maa"--it goes well with "Nay-Nay".

"Ma." Grandma got shortened to "Ma". At first she called Grandpa "Ma", but now he gets:

"Paba." Grandpa finally got his own two syllables.

"Wa-wa-wee." Maggie was singing along to 'Puff, the Magic Dragon". You know, "...frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee..." She just repeats the honah lee part.

"Dode." This means road, but translates roughly into: "I want to walk in the road." For some reason, she really loves to walk in the middle of the road. Probably expressly because it's forbidden. Oh, what a child.

Moving: Lame

Moving Tip #1: When using PODS to move your stuff, think carefully about the size of the POD and the size of the moving truck that was completely full when you moved into the house. And then think about all the stuff you've bought since then. Hmm. Maybe you need two or three PODS instead of one.

Moving Tip #2: Are we having fun, yet? (That's Brian's version of a morale booster.)

Moving Tip #3: Friends and family are wonderful, wonderful people and we love them for pitching in because we'd probably still be trying to move out if they didn't.

Moving Tip #4: Why are we doing this?

Moving Tip #5: Trying to set aside what you need for the next couple of months while packing up the rest of the house doesn't work very well. Move out. Now throw everything else in boxes.

I don't even want to list any more moving tips, it's depressing just to think about last week. Let's just say it was long and miserable and we're so glad we survived.

While I miss my home and my friends in Tooele, I have to admit I woke up Friday morning feeling so liberated. Even though I never had to make that drive around the mountain every day, just the thought that Brian didn't have to anymore was so, well, liberating. Freedom from long, horrid drives! Hooray!