laughing together

so you can only hear them laughing together for one second at the beginning, but this was so cute. Whitney thinks Kate is hilarious. And we LOVE Katelyn's little voice she uses with Whitney, you can hear her right at the end saying "hi sweetie"!

bouncer

whitney loves her jumper. this video's not the greatest because she'd already been in there for a while and was tired. cute still.

A real woman

Saturday I did something I've never done before- I made real bread all by my self! Yes, I know it's lame that I'm 26 years old, have been married for almost 5 years, and have two children, and I have never before completed this ritual of womanhood. I cook and bake constantly, yet I had never experienced the awesomeness of kneading dough, and I LOVED it! It just felt so natural, I felt like I was connected to the generations of women who have gone before me, who spent their days in the service of their families, making delicious basic foods to not only fill their stomachs but warm their souls :) I really was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and how great it made me feel! Not to mention the fact that it was EASY! Next time I'm buying wheat flour and looking for a more flavorful recipe, but this stuff was still delicious fresh out of the oven, it was fun to watch Eric and Katelyn scarf down several pieces! Yay for bread.

Also this weekend I made chocolate chip cookie dough fudge, talk about yummy!

Katelyn kept saying "mmm, I really like it!" as she licked the beater for about 10 minutes.

Then my cousin Kendra, Jeremy and Issac came over to watch the BYU game! Go Cougars!!

Katelyn loved Issac and built him a fortress out of books. So cute.

Playgroup

I started a playgroup with a few friends, and here are a couple of actvities we did when it was my turn this month and last month. (we meet once a week and rotate who hosts and does activities). The kids are all SO cute! You can see Katelyn in the back box, we were playing train.

This day we did taste testing different fruits, crackers, treats, and they got to put up sticky notes with their name on them for the kinds they liked best. Then they cut out fiids they liked out of ads and glued them on a plate, so fun.

We love our playgroup!

Family Pictures

We got family pictures taken! Katelyn pretty much refused to smile- the girl taking them wasn't that great either. But oh well, we still got some cute ones. Enjoy!

Finally, a bread we can agree on!!

For the last almost 5 years, Eric and I have debated the qualities of different breads. He likes white, I like wheat. Then I decided I wanted whole wheat, and we found bread that we both liked, for about $4.50 a loaf! That obviously wasn't going to work. The last year or so we've been through many kinds, and for a while I bought a kind I liked but Eric didn't, it had "a weird aftertaste". Eric liked a certain kind that he and his friend buy to make sandwiches at work, but to me it's too spungy and has no flavor. And FINALLY we found this delight- it's thick like wheat bread but smooth and chewy like white, it's 100% whole wheat, has a total of 9 ingredients, and it's made right in Kaysville Utah!! I admit I was turned off by the bright, weird packaging, but the bread is great and only $2.34 a loaf. Even Katelyn said the other day while she was eating a sandwich "mmm, I like this bread!" Hallelujah!

Happy Murray Day!!!

Last Tuesday, November 4th was Happy Murray Day!! For those of you who don't know, it's our family holiday, modelled after my family's holiday Happy Hansen Day. HHD was March 8th, the anniversary of when my parents got engaged. My mom started it when I was about 6 years old and it is now a beloved family tradition that my sister and I have started in our families.
SO, November 4th is our day, and here are a few traditions we've started so far for our family celebration:
1. special food, of course. Sometimes I want to go out to eat, but that didn't happen this year. I actually make breakfast, we have a picnic lunch, and special treats.
2. a little family gift, like a movie or a game. This year we got Memory, and Katelyn is really good at it if you play with about 10 cards. Fun!
3. The re-telling of me and Eric's dating/engagement story. Katelyn actually loved this- we got out our picture albums and showed her pictures, she loves it when we make up stories to tell her so it was great. Next year I want to take the girls to our actual engagement spot!
4. A family Olympics!! This was our first time trying it and it was so fun!! We just had a couple of ball throwing/kicking games, an obstacle course, and of course races. I kept thinking "this will be fun when it's summer time and we can do it outside" but duh, HMD will always be November 4th! So it will usually always be in indoor olympics. Here's Katelyn on the obstacle course, the only picture I took that day!

5. the last AWESOME thing we do is the Murray Awards! The rule is they have to start with M. ( I grew up getting H awards :)) So Katelyn got the Monologue Murray award because she can talk for hours on end, sometimes with no one joining the conversation. And Whitney got the Merry Murray award because she is so smiley and cute, you just have to look at her and she smiles! So fun.
So you should all copy me and start your own family holiday, it's the best.

seasons

Katelyn has loved playing in our leaves!

One day last week we woke up to find a couple of inches of snow, and Katelyn would not let me rest until we went out and made a "snowman". So here we are at 8am.

this is our neighbor's tree, it's my favorite kind, a flowering pear. I thought it looked pretty with the fall colors under snow.

Whitney was obviously a bit confused, and she only came out for a minute.

Here's Katelyn in her full on snow gear- this year we have the snow pants, gloves, and boots, as well as coat and hat.

Luckily it hasn't snowed again and we should have a couple more weeks in the 50's...hopefully...

numbers

Whitney at 6 months- Kate at 6 months-
18 lbs 4 oz 17 lbs 2 oz
27 inches 27 1/2 inches
18 inch head- 99th percentile!! ??


Average number of hours Katelyn sleeps every night- 10.5
Percent of the time Katelyn takes a nap- 50 (SO TERRIBLE, I'm praying the naps don't end yet, she's not even two and a half for goodness sake and she needs them, see below)

Amount of time Katelyn spent crying yesterday because she couldn't get her pajamas off: 10 minutes
Amount of time she spent crying becasue I took her pajamas off for her: 5 minutes
Amount of time she cried because I forced her to put clothes on because we were having playgroup at our house in 5 minutes: 5 minutes
Time spent crying because it was too late to "get your phone, and call all my friends, and tell them not to come, I'm having a bad day"- 10 minutes
time spent playing calmly- 3 minutes
Time spent crying because the boys were playing with her castle: 5 minutes
Later, time spent crying because someone touched James the train: 3 minutes
Later, time spent crying because she wanted her cookie monster back, but Melanie wasn't supposed to just give it back to her, she was supposed to count to ten first before it was her turn: 7 minutes

Poor girl, she had a hard morning. She didn't cry the rest of the day though...
I'm so glad she can talk so well and tell me exactly what's wrong at all times. I just need to help her learn to get over it!! Any ideas on how to do that??

fall/halloween pics

Here are some pictures I took yesterday of the girls. Kate's shoes are on the wrong feet, I'm just happy she can put them on herself.

a funny face
what? Katelyn's actually looking and smiling at the camera??

I love this one of Whitney.

And Whitney's sitting up so well on her own!

Our little animals.
trick or treating- the elephant bum!
Whitney trying to get her share

the stash!!

what a fun day. see the video below for more.

Happy Halloween movie

Katelyn enjoyed trick or treating yesterday!! At first she would just hold up her bucket when she came to the door, but after a while she finally started saying "trick or treat!!" very loudly and cutely at each door. Then she decided she could get candy faster if she ran from house to house, so as soon as one door closed she would hand us her bucket and take off! So funny. Also her costume was a little small (it said 2-4T but she's tall) so she looked hilarious with her costume legs flapping and the huge elephant bum bobbling. Good times.