Some of his favorite things!

My dear boy started walking about 13 months.  I love those new steps, the stiff knees and wobbly stance. It is so fun to see my babe gain more independence and ability to do more things, like kick a ball.  Here is some pictures of his early steps and what he loves doing with this new skill.

Marshall is absolutely obsessed about balls.  He wants to chase a throw a ball all day long.  He brings the ball to Great-Grandpa and has him throw it, as he tries to read his paper in the morning.  They are so cute together!  Grandpa adores Marshall as much as Marshall adores Grandpa!  Marshall likes to pick up and throw balls, he kicks them and rolls on top of them.  He can't get enough.  One day Paul started to spin a ball for him.  It was so funny as it was something that he had never seem a ball do.  He tried to spin the ball the same way that Paul did, he put his finger on it to try and get it to spin on his finger to.  He passed it to Paul and asked for more over and over.  Here is my boy with a ball!

Those sweet shaky steps!  He is so excited about them and of course the ball he is chasing!

 

Grab the ball...

 pick it up...

and throw it, of course!

He also got a haircut just before these pictures, it isn't his first one but it is more then just a buzz.  He has it a little longer on the top then the sides.  He also now has enough hair growing in on the front that it matches the rest.  It sure makes him look more grown up!



Marshall also loves to empty the dishwasher. as soon as it is opened he is right there getting into it. I love to clear away anything but the kids stuff and then let him explore with it. He is exploring, getting things in and out of the baskets and stacking things all around. He is sure a smart boy and learning so fast!

Of all the things that are this boys favorite things, this is the tops, Eating! He asks to eat all the time. He can be in his high chair and eating non-stop for 2 hours and ask to get out, then immediately ask to eat more. He is picky and will throw anything that he doesn't want but eat all of the oranges or grapes in the house. Here he is enjoying yogurt, he cries for more every time he finishes, he loves it! So I am grateful to be able to have these sweet memories of what my boy is like at this stage. I know all too well that it changes too fast and I want to remember this stage. He is so easy going! If he is fed and has a ball he just play until he is ready for be again. He is so great and I love nearly every second that I get to be around him!

My daughters: The author and the hobo

Kyndal had an experience a few years ago that has really stood out to her.  We were in Salt Lake City and going to visit at Temple Square.  There was a lady that was on the corner and Kyndal vividly remembers her sign that she had no food or water and that she was homeless. Kyndal felt sad for her and she offered some of the food that we had brought with us.  She felt so happy that she was able to do this and has remembered it over these years.  One day she wanted to publish a newspaper article and chose to write about this experience.  She wrote the story out beautifully and we decided to act out pictures to go with it.  It was so funny for Elliette to play this sad homeless person.  They often dress up in huge winter clothes like this and look like little hobo children, so I knew she could pull it off.  The pictures went really well with her article and looked like a professional little newspaper.  It was a fun project!  Here is our re-enactment.

It was so hard for Elliette to keep a sad face.  It made her crack up and we all started laughing.  Trying to be sad is really hard.  It was so cute!

A Fall Hike!

The leaves start changing and I get just itching to get out and enjoy it. We went on a hike with some of our favorite people, the Laws.  Out to the Kananaskis, to Sandy McNabb area.  It was a perfect day and we enjoyed a picnic and the beauty of fall.  The weather was gorgeous and it was just a wonderful day all together.  I didn't get many pictures of the kids as I was so caught up in the landscape.  We also had Caeleb Watters with us and it was pretty funny as he, Dawsyn and Isaac found a mud puddle to play in.  After they were already totally filthy and wet by the time we had discovered their game we just let them play in the puddle.  They splashed and played for half an hour.  Some more of those great kid moments, kids need mud puddles!  But funny to deliver Caeleb back to his family half dressed and totally messy!  We love the fall!

Elliette was using that bottle to catch bugs, one of her favorite pastimes.  I always tell her that she is my little entomologist.  We had so much fun studying bugs with her this fall!

 

How we spent our days!

We have really tried to enjoy our time of warm weather as I know it doesn't last long.  I try especially to enjoy the time with my kids as I am learning quick that these days don't last long either. We sure have a lot of fun together.   I want to remember many of the good little things that are our life now so that I can appreciate what we have here together.  I want to remember what these days were like, so full of fun and laughs and of course lots of work and crying and fighting.  All of these things make up our lives.

Kyndal has received a regular night to do the dishes.  It is a job that she doesn't like at all.  The gloves have sure helped though.  At least she looks cheerful here.  Paul did take a picture of her one time that she was throwing a fit about doing the dishes.  It was pretty funny, all the dramatics.  She would be pretty embarrassed if I put that up here, she is getting to that kind of age.

She is such a fun big girl!  She is full of personality and definitely has a lot of resolve.  She can do anything in the world that she decides she wants to do.  It is great to watch her grow and learn and see the amazing girl that she is becoming!

The kids have just loved to ride bikes all summer.  We tried to take Elliette's training wheels off.  I thought that because she is really good at nearly anything physical that she would do just fine and learn quickly.  So we took off the pedals to help her learn to balance when she pushed herself.  This is how Kyndal learned and in a day and a half we were able to put the pedals back on and she could ride.  But we also practiced in the church parking lot, which is a perfect gentle decline so that she could just sit and the bike would go.  So Elliette was trying to push herself with the feet in the back alley.  She could not get enough speed to coast with her feet up.  So she would get all scared that she was wobbling and stop quickly.  She did that for half the summer or would then take out the trike instead, so we put the training wheels back on and she rode away the rest of the summer with them.  Next summer we will have our parking lot back and try again.  Then Elliette may also be tall enough to be moved up to the next bike size and this one will be Dawsyn's, as she tried to take over it this year.  Anyways, we have loved our bike riding!

One of these dear moments that we want to have the kids remember, their time with The Great One!  Dawsyn and him actually fight most of the time so these moments are extra dear.  This was a book on horses that Dawsyn would sit next to grandpa and read nearly every day.  Sometimes he enjoyed reading it with her as well.  It is just so cute to see him doing these things with the kids!

Grandpa may look like he was beat up, but it was actually the attack of 3 little girls that found a tube of lipstick!  He had to go and take a shower after this attack.  They thought that this was the funniest thing ever!  I bet you can imagine the giggling of those little girls and grandpa enjoying the kissing attacks that he got.  It was pretty funny!

Elliette is so good at playing with Marshall.  Kyndal is great to take care of him and Elliette is so great to play with him. Dawsyn mostly just bugs him.  But here is Elliette making a bed for Marshall and pulling him all around the house in it.  They both had such a fun time laughing and enjoying it.  I love the look of adoration on her face as she looks at her baby brother!  We all sure love this boy!

Daddy enjoying some time cuddled with all of his girls.  His lap will not be big enough for long, so these moments are sure enjoyed!

Pretending to be asleep.