What is going on?

Here are some things going on in our lives:

Iris – She is still short and stout, we call it “fat and happy”. She wants to crawl so bad. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth and then plops onto her belly. It is very easy to get her to smile, which is different from Scott at that age. She sleeps through the night, but doesn’t take as good of naps as I would like her too, but maybe my expectation is a little high. She just got done with the spitting phase and has moved onto breathing heavily out her slightly open mouth, kind of like Darth Vader. Some days her eyes are blue in color and some days they are more hazel. She is also starting to eat more solid food. She loves Cheerios especially when she can get them from her hand to her mouth. She loves getting attention from her brother.

Scott – We are so impressed with how well he has done with all the changes of having a new sibling. He has been in his toddler bed since he was 16 months and still doesn’t leave it after we shut the door. He sleeps through most of Iris’s crying and our coming in and out to comfort her. He loves to push Iris’s head down into the floor when they are playing. Iris seems indifferent to the whole head pushing experience, but I have to imagine that it kind of hurts her so I usually make him stop. He LOVES his Duplo blocks and plays with them the majority of day. He especially loves making train bridges with Daddy. He is getting better with using the potty. He has learned to pull his underwear on and off, so he doesn’t have to run around naked anymore. He is also mastering the skill of pooping in the potty instead of a diaper. Naptime is now diaper free, but I think I will keep the night diaper for a little longer.

Jeff – He is doing great. Still loves his research, though it is going a little slower than hoped. He loves his new calling as the young men’s president. He is really impressed with the young men in the branch and is excited to see them accomplish goals and progress.

Mary – I am painfully close to finishing my degree. I am in the last few weeks of finishing my last class. Half the points for the class are due just after Thanksgiving. This was certainly the hard way of finishing college, but I think I appreciated more the opportunity of an education. I love being a Mom and I can’t imagine anything more wonderful. I am a primary teacher and I love it. I love singing the songs, being with the kids, and knowing all the answers to the questions (it makes me feel like I actually know something about the gospel). I also serve with wonderful people.

Happy Thanksgiving week! As Mr. Kytle (high school language teacher) said before that much longed for thanksgiving break “The thought of turkey is dancing in my head” or something to that effect!

The Zoo and Underwear Head!

We love going to the zoo here in St. Louis. It is free, which fits perfectly into our budget. Jeff took Scott and Iris the other morning while I ran in Forest Park when I was done I met them at the zoo and we went to the dinosaur exhibit together.







We are potty training Scott, it is going semi-well. To encourage him we have bought lots of really awesome little boy underwear. The pair that Iris is wearing has spider-man on it.

More Pictures

I have some more random pictures that I want to post. I can't figure out how to put pictures on the sidebar. I think it has more to do with dail-up internet than anything else.

Most of the time Scott loves having Iris as a sister, except when she breaks his lego train bridge. Iris loves having Scott as a brother except when he thinks she is a jumping board!


This is a family sandwich, poor Iris is on the bottom, but as I remember she thought it was funny!


I love this picture! Grandma Anderson got Iris a lot of beautiful red and black velvety dresses. This is the first one she fit, the rest are 12months and will have to wait until Christmas.


Jeff was the first one to see Iris do this face. He kept telling me how Iris would do a scrunch face and how cute/funny it was. I didn't believe it until I saw it.

Halloween

This was Scott's first Halloween where he understood what was happening. Scott was a skeleton, he used the same costume his Daddy used when he was his age, and Iris was a very cute chubby lady bug.

A week before halloween we had a trunk or treat at the branch, this was a good primer for him. He loved the candy! We decided to use the candy as potty incentives. By the end of week the candy was gone and we were ready to get some more!

Scott is still a novice halloweener, he was ready to go home after only four houses! I made us go to few more houses before we called it quites. The first thing Scott did when he got home was to dump out all his candy on the floor and see what he got.

When I was a girl I was a professional halloweener. My Dad was very serious about getting halloween candy. We would go for hours, my Mom would drive the car and Dad would walk along with us. When we would get cold we would warm up in the car for a few minutes and then keep going. I can remember times when I wanted to stop and go home and Dad wouldn't let us.