My two cuties

My cute 3.5 month old

Noah is growing fast. He is trying to roll over. He likes to be held and talked to.  He loves interaction with others.  He takes 6 naps a day and is a great eater.  At our last doctor's appointment he was 12 lbs 14 oz and 23 inches long.  He likes to watch Harper and is starting to laugh at the things she does.  I love when he grabs on to my clothes when he is being held. I feel as those he is giving me a little hug.  He is able to reach out and grab his toys; he has good eye and coordination.  His black hair is falling out and seems to be growing in lighter.  He has a sweet countenace. 

Tummu Time

We have been putting Noah on his tummy more and he is really getting good at raising his head.

 Noah is sticking his tongue out at me.  Getting me off my tummy.

The Faces of Harper

Back in the spring we got a book from the library that had different faces for different emotions.  Harper has her own face for each emotion.

 Mad Face.  When she makes this face we say "What you talkin about Willis?"

 Happy Face

 Surprise Face

 Sad Face

Silly Face (she sticks out her tongue)

Future's so bright I gotta wear shades

On our way back from Snowbird, I bought Harper three pairs of sunglasses from the Dollar Store.  She loves to wear them and to have Noah wear them too.

 Also wearing the cowboy hat Grandma Flo bought her in Montana

 No autographs please

Cool girls play with calculators

Staying with Cousins

James had a Cross Country meet in Wenatchee and so I decided to take the kids to Derek and Alexis's.  Alexis graciously watched the kids for me so I could go to the Temple.  I haven't been able to go to the temple for 3 months and I can tell the difference in my life.  Usually if you don't have your own family names, you can only do 3 temple names for intitatories.  But since there was no one there but me I got  to do 9 names and spend more time in the temple.  I am grateful for the spiritual strength that comes form attending the temple.

Harper and Noah had a good time being with Evan, Greta, and Alexis.  The night, it was a Friday, Harper would not go to bed.  We were sleeping in the guest room and she kept getting out of bed. At about 10pm, I was ready to pack up and go home because I knew she was tired and that she would sleep in her own bed.  Derek and Alexis would't let me drive home and Alexis took Harper up to Greta's room and laid down with her till Harper fell asleep (about 10 minutes). Harper thought it was cool that she could sleep in Lucka's (Greta) room and bed.  She slept all night by herself in Greta's bed. I was worried she would wake up and cry out but she did not make a sound.

Saturday morning, Derek and Alexis took Harper with them to Evan and Greta's Cross Country race while Noah and I slept in.  Noah is not sleeping through the night yet so I was pretty tired and needed some extra rest.  Alexis said when they pulled into the park where the race was being held Harper asked "race?" 

 Noah and Aunt Alexis

 Harper and Aunt Alexis

 Evan making Noah laugh

 Noah is a watcher. You can tell he is taking it all in.

 Naptime

Greta is 11 and almost as tall as me.

 Evan and Noah are buddies.  Evan is really sweet with Noah and likes to hold him.

Harper with Evan and Greta after their race

 Uncle Derek, Evan, Harper and Noah.  Noah looks like he needs to be rescued.

Derek, Evan, and Harper watching the Washington vs. BYU football game

Harper's first Luau

Our ward had a Luau in September.  There is a Hawaiian family, Sibbetts, in our ward and some of their daughters perfomed with a dance group from Olympia.  The show was about an hour and Harper loved it.  She sat on my lap for about 45 minutes and watched. Then for the last part of the show she got down from my lap and did her own dancing.  

The Poops of All Poops

Noah does not poop very often.  In fact it had been a week since he had pooped.  I had to go fill a food order for Relief Society, and I asked the Lord if He could bless me for my service by helping Noah to poop. I was hoping it would happen while I was gone so James could have the joyous experience of changing Noah's diaper.  Well, Noah did poop while I was gone but James did not realize it till I got home.  In fact, James had put Noah on his tummy with a full diaper of poop.  When I got home, James went to move Noah and said "Ah, what is this?" The poop had oozed out of Noah's diaper and through his clothes.  I picked Noah up while James cleaned his hand and took him to the changing table. I tried to get his dirty onsie off but realized we needed to go to the bathtub as poop was everywhere.  So needless to say, Noah got a diaper change and a bath at the same time.

Noah went 8 days after this poop before he pooped again.  Luckily he split it up into two poops and it wasn't as bad.

 Every square inch of the diaper was covered

Our cute little Noah

 I love the face babies make when they are cooing

Double Stroller

We finally found a double jogging stroller that we could afford. I found a used one on OfferUp and they were asking $200.  I offered $150.  The owner said he had a couple of people looking at it that were willing to pay $200 but he would let me know if they didn't purchase it.  I prayed that it wouldn't sell.  Over a week later, the owner messaged me to see if I was still interested in purchasing the stroller for $150.  What a blessing.  I met the owner in Lacey and he was wearing a BYU shirt.  Funny that he was a member of the church.

Headed for our first walk. 

  Noah is still not too sure about the stroller. He does better when the stroller is moving

Maybe I shouldn't play goalie

I wanted to take Harper to a high school soccer game; I thought she would be interested.  Rather than pay, we went over by the district office up on a small field that has two soccer goals.  Harper played in the goals rather than watch the game.  At one point I turned around from the game and she had gotten her head stuck in goal net.

I'm Stuck

 James had to help her get her head out

Playdates

A sister in our ward organized playdates this summer at different playgrounds.  Harper loves to go play with her "friends".  One little boy, Neil, is two months younger than Harper.  Harper calls him "Nial".  At the last playdate, anytime Neil started to go off on his own Harper would yell his name.

 Neibar Kids, Vetter Kids, and Harper at Lake Sylvia

Neil and Harper throwing rocks into the Satsop river

Harper and Neil Vetter playing the remains of a campfire

Harper's Hat

We used a small strainer to clean out the bugs from Harper's pool.  Ever since then Harper has used the strainer as her hat.  Often when she plays outside she wears her hat.  She uses it as her bike helmet, even though she has one, or to just play in.

Our Garden

This year we planted a small garden.  We planted zucchini, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, chard, strawberries, peppers, basil, snap peas, and cucumbers.  The zucchini did okay till the slugs got them.  I was able to make baked zucchini fries once.  The peppers never came up. Our tomatoes did great and we had a few potatoes.  The beets grew but never developed and I don't know what happened to my chard; it just never came in.  The snap peas came in first and did okay.  The strawberries produced a few berries and Harper was quick to eat them.  Overall it was a good learning experience for me. I used both seed and starts and I think next year I will just use starts.

 We planted the garden in May.

This is our garden in August.

 James planted tomatoes and potatoes in culvert pipe.

 Potatoes from one plant

Our friends, Larsens, were moving and gave us some Spareribs from their freezer and so I baked our potatoes and cooked our zucchini.  This was the first time I made ribs and they turned out great.

Tomatoes and Zucchini.  The acorn squash as from Aunt Leann's garden.