Tomato Soup

Not too long ago, we had a small case of cherry tomatoes in the house. Brianna LOVES tomatoes and had been snacking on them. Thus while Cameron and I were doing some work in the basement, the case of tomatoes was left out on the counter for Brianna to eat. Upon returning upstairs to make lunch, Eli informed me that he had made lunch already. Tomato soup.

"Mom! It's so good! You should try it! It has three ingredients. Tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and water."

The whole time that he was explaining his method of making tomato soup to me, Brianna was greedily keeping the soup all to herself. Yes, she ate it all. A few days later, Eli and I had this conversation:

Eli: "Mom, can you buy some more tomatoes?"

Me: "Why?"

Eli: "So I can make some more tomato soup."

Me: "Why do you want to do that?"

Eli: "Because I didn't get to try any when I made it before."

Me: "Why didn't you try it?"

Eli: "Because it has tomatoes in it! I don't like tomatoes!"

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year! Eli and Brianna are both at an age that trick-or-treating is incredibly exciting. And there was also a lot going on. Eli had a party at pre-school and got to wear his Halloween costume. During Eli's party I took Brianna and Paige to a party/story time at the library. Brianna loved it, and Paige slept through the entire thing, of course. We also found out that The Sweet Tooth Fairy was giving out free cupcakes to trick-or-treaters and that Sonic was selling corn dogs for only 50¢. After the parties we hit both places.

Later, there was a party at church. First we ate dinner, I had chili the kids had hot dogs. Next the kids went through the spook alley that dad helped to create. When they came back, I asked them if it was scary. They said, "No. But we got to eat worms!" After that were games, and Eli left mom's side to run around with Iron Man. Two Iron Men, actually, but the matching costumes were not on purpose. Following the games was trunk-or-treating. And oh the candy!

Dad was a little pooped out after all the fun. His vote was to go straight home and skip out on the trick-or-treating. But he was outvoted. We didn't go far, just down the road. And we had the addition of Batman and another princess with us. Eli kept running super fast with his friend to each door, leaving Brianna and Batman behind. We had to keep reminding them not to ring the doorbell until the rest of the party arrived.

Here are Eli and Brianna in all their Halloween glory! Eli is a pirate and Brianna is Snow White. They were a little too excited to stand very still for a picture so this is the best we could get.

After sending the kids to bed, Cameron and I watched "Wait Until Dark" together. Just enough to get a little spooked without missing sleep. What a fun day!

Sister Love

The other day, as I was listening to the baby monitor, I heard Brianna in the room where Paige was sleeping. I went in there ready to fuss at Brianna for interrupting Paige's sleep. This is what I found.

After that, I just wanted to hug her instead. Especially since Brianna doesn't usually share her toys with anyone.

Welcome! Welcome!

This post is a little overdo since Paige was born last week, but welcome home Paige! Paige Alexis was born at 7:30 on October the 5th. She weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Luckily for me, labor was quite a bit shorter than with my other two, about 10 hours shorter and they let me sit in the tub this time. Always before they wouldn't let me because my water had broken, but they allowed it this time despite my water having broken.

As they were poking and prodding, the nurses commented on her pouty lips.

She is a very content baby. She doesn't cry very much, unless I don't get to her fast enough. Mostly we just hear little whimpers.

There are those pouty lips again.

After getting all cleaned up.

I love this set of pictures with the kids because you can see what Eli and Brianna think of Paige. Brianna is super excited, and Eli is a little hesitant. He says he likes her, but he doesn't want to always touch her like Brianna does. He sometimes asks to hold her, but that is mostly because Brianna asks to hold her.

Paige has very dark hair like mine. She also has dark eyes, which will probably turn brown. They are still the grayish color of a newborn, but Brianna's were much lighter in color when she was born and then they turned blue.

Some may have noticed a trend with my babies, Eli was born 12 days early weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz. Brianna was 3 days early at 8 lbs 12 oz. And Paige was born 2 days late at 9 lbs 5 oz. I can't have any more kids, or they'd be a 10 plus pounder...

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, it's a little late. My birthday was actually a few days ago. Here is the cake I made for myself!

Yum! Strawberry Cream Cake! And Cameron got, and installed for me, a tilt out sink drawer. I'm not sure exactly what it's called, but it's one of those things that goes on the back of the faux drawer in front of the kitchen sink. It has a little tray that you can put scrubbers, drain plugs, etc. into so that they aren't sitting out looking ugly beside the sink. Yaay Cameron! And Yaay for yummy cake! Oh, and Eli drew me a very lovely picture of himself.

Northern Utah

Just a few days after getting back from California, Cameron took a trip with the scouts to Lake Powell. Since he was off having fun, we decided we should as well. We drove up north to visit with my sister and also to visit with Cameron's family. We had a great time! I apologize for the pictures. They were taken on an iPod instead of on Cameron's amazing camera. Hence the blurriness.

Unfortunately I only got one picture at Grammy Teena's house. This one was taken by Uncle Brayden. Luna was a little unsure about Eli, but he sure loved to chase her around and pick her up!

While there we went to Park City and rode on the funicular. The kids loved that! And Brianna wanted to go on it again, though she called it a train. Cousin Avery and Brianna played with Aunt Carrie's and Aunt Courtney's old American Girl dolls. Brianna mostly wanted to feed them breakfast and put them to bed. Avery had more elaborate play in mind. The kids also had a lot of fun at Grandma Judd's "park" and were swinging in her back yard for quite a long time. And then we watched this video and the kids were singing the song and doing the dance for the rest of the weekend.

  

When we were with my sister, we went to Wheeler Farm and the kids got to milk a cow! Brianna accidentally left her baby at the farm. We had to go back and rescue it the next day. Somebody had thrown it into the cow pasture. It was in a mud puddle... that probably had more than just mud in it... yuck... 

Here they are with their cousins on a tractor. This is also at Wheeler farm. 

All in the bath together! 

Going through a cave in the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point

Building a dinosaur 

This was by far the kids favorite thing to do at the dinosaur museum. It was basically a raised sandbox with the added bonus of water going through it. I think the idea was to build canals, dams, etc. But the kids just played in it. In the above picture, you can see the back of Eli's head, cousin Rachel on the left, cousin Natalie in the middle, and Brianna on the right.

We stayed a few days longer than Cameron was in Lake Powell so that we could be up there for my sisters birthday. I made her a Raspberry Cheesecake and a Cafe Rio Salad. Both very yummy!

California

For Memorial day, we took a last minute trip to see my grandparents near Sacramento. I think it was Wednesday morning when Cameron said, "Let's take a trip to see your grandparents this weekend!" I wasn't about to argue, since I don't get to see them very often, and I love to visit with them!

While we were there, we visited a fish hatchery. The fish were all pretty small this time of year, so that part of it wasn't very exciting.

But the kids loved the big fish that they could go inside of and climb on top of!

Brianna thought it was a fun game to throw her baby out of the fish's mouth and then go and "save her."

After Eli saw some other boys climbing on top, he wanted to do it too. But he needed help from mom.

Brianna decided to take a rest from climbing in the fish.

Next stop was the Folsom Zoo. It's much smaller than the Sacramento Zoo, but considerably less expensive. A few of the animals we saw there...

There were quite a few peacocks walking around there. This one we got pretty close to, and it didn't seem to mind the crowds of people.

Grandma and Grandpa

We had to take Eli on the train!

Lounging at Grandma's house!

Eli and Cameron were drawing pictures together while they were waiting for dinner.

We got to see my Aunt Cathy too.

The next day we went to Fairytale Town together! That was a big hit. If I had let them they would have stayed all day, but Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa were all getting tired. Dad didn't come to this one because there was a hike he especially wanted to do while we were in town and there was no other time he would have been able to do it.

This is Cinderella's carriage. Brianna really liked this one! They could climb inside of it too. 

The Tortoise...

and the Hare.

The Wizard of Oz

Jack be nimble! Jack be quick! Jack jumped over a candle stick!

It's kind of hard to see both of the kids in this picture, but here they are on a pirate ship.

And inside a castle.

The Old lady that lived in a shoe. This one is a slide.

This is a water fountain.

 Brianna and Eli loved this slide. Although Brianna kept going inside to climb to the top of it and then wanted me to come up to go down the slide with her. You have to go all the way around the barn and back in on the other side to get up to the slide. There was a tarantula in a cage at the top of the stairs leading to the slide.

These next three pictures are in Sherwood Forest. We ate lunch in here, and it was a good size playground for the kids. There were also little chairs in this section, marked as Robin Hood and Little John, that Brianna loved to sit in.

It's a family tradition to take a picture climbing through the cheese. Cheesy I know! :) This place has been around since my mom was young.

Mother Goose. Eli decided this was a slide, although I don't think it was originally intended to be.

Eli's favorite place to play was the Crooked Mile (There was a crooked man, that walked a crooked mile...). It was a little raised sidewalk that wound around through some bushes. He decided it was a racetrack and kept running along it.

Brianna and I coming out of the Crooked Mile.

Brianna in the Crooked Little House.

We also camped in Yosemite on the way there and on the way back. It broke up the drive a little. But I don't have any pictures of that. And if I did, the kids would have been a huge mess! It always amazes me how dirty they can get after camping. We had a really great time in California. I wish we could have stayed longer!