neighbors

Sounds heard recently from our neighbors:
-music with an impressively loud bass beat
-firecrackers, nearly every day at around 3:10 pm, signalling the return of our Jr. high neighbors from school
-lots of shovelling (one family is making their own basement entrance, we thought at first it might be a bomb shelter)
-young roosters trying to learn how to crow ( Eric says they sound like a 13-year-old boy crying)
-a horn honking at 30-45 second intervals for 10 minutes at 4:45 am ( I actually stormed out of the house finally and asked a very surprized man to please stop- seriously, just go up to the door, they're not coming out)
and lastly, the one we enjoy
-Scotland the Brave on the bagpipes! Our backyard neighbor plays, it's very cool.

And we thought Santaquin was so quiet and peaceful! The last couple of weeks have proven us wrong, it's been funny.

future artist

I have to issue a ***brag alert*** on this post! but I think my daughter is a gifted artist at the age of two :) We tried watercolor painting for the first time this weekend and not only did she LOVE it, she created some masterpieces.
She's been attempting to draw people with crayons for a while, but I guess she had more control with the paintbrush and she painted two pictures of our family!
in the one on the left she had asked me to draw dad, so I started with a circle head and then she took the paintbrush back and filled in "eyebrows, cheeks, mouth, ears, eyes" (that all got blended together!) and then legs and arms sprouted out of his head too. I painted head circles for me, her and Whitney on that page, but then the one on the right she did everything herself. I was just so amazed and proud :) And yes you might be able to spot Lightning McQueen in the picture on the left. He is part of our family, and yes, I painted him. But she did the wheels.
In other news Katelyn REALLY wanted to carry Whitney down to the toy room Saturday night. Whitney was a good sport.
And lastly, Katelyn's new favorite word is "chilly" as in "I think I need to put on a jacket, it's a little bit chilly out there." Fall is here, whether we like it or not!

4 months!!!

So our little Whitney will be 4 MONTHS OLD on Thursday, I can't believe it! Does it keep going by faster with each child?? You moms of more than 2 kids will have to let me know, cause I swear Kate's first 4 months were forever, people were like "savor this special time" and was like "yeah right, this is taking forever, I want her to grow up and do the next thing!" But now with Whitney it's flying by.

So here's what you need to know about Whitney. She's SO CUTE and smiley. Even when she's crying if you look at her and talk to her she'll try to smile.
She did her first 360 on her back yesterday, she kept half rolling and scooting until after about 5 minutes she had turned in a full circle!
She's starting to play with toys, she likes to suck on everything and stick out her tongue, and she sleeps great at night.
Oh yeah, and she has partial facial paralysis from when she was born, so the right side of her mouth hangs down a little when she opens it really wide, like in a big smile or when she cries. The doctors say it should go away by itself... so we're not worried about it yet.
The other thing about Whitney is that she LOVES Katelyn. It's the cutest thing ever.

I took all these pictures of them because we didn't feel like going to a professional photographer until Whitney can sit up in a couple of months hopefully.

So there they are. Our girls. We love 'em. Happy four months Whitney! We love you so much!

I Heart....

Here are a few things I have loved this last week. Turns out I didn't miss the Olympics too much after all.
1. I heart the Harveys! Kristi, James and Matt came for a visit! Once Katelyn got over her posessiveness the kids had a great time, and Kristi and I got to talk for hours. Wonderful!

2. I heart our backyard! This is what Eric and Katelyn have been doing every night since LONG before the summer began and it was actually warm enough to be out there:
they race and swing and wrestle and laugh and it's just as fun for me to watch!

3. I heart BYU Football! Okay so we did watch like 4 football games this weekend, and we did pay extra to get the Mountain channel when we didn't think we would have to... but BYU football is the best! Go Cougars! I need to get a video of Katelyn singing the fight song...
4. I heart city celebrations! This weekend was Payson Onion Days. So Saturday we went to Payson City Park to the free kids' fair, they had all these fun activities and games and Kate got to play on the playground and see the fire engines' house and it was great fun. Here she is with her prizes.Then Monday was the parade- it rained all night Sunday but we decided to go since it was "clearing up"... here's Eric and the girls waiting for the parade to start. Once Katelyn could see it coming she kept jumping up and down and saying "oh my goodness gracious!"

Whitney was happy even though it was cold.
Sadly 5 minutes after the parade started it started POURING rain and we retreated to the overhang of the building behind us.
Many parade float riders just piled into their trucks, or huddled under tarps shivering, we saw some poor little girl dancers who looked miserable! But the high school bands and the bagpipers, pictured below, went on playing! It was so fun, they kept going even when it hailed for a minute, everyone was cheering.
Maybe you can't tell, but it was raining REALLY hard!
Anyway it was fun! So that's what we've been up to lately.