Categories
Family Fun

Christmas Time at Temple Square

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Last night, we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights. We loved it!

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We got there a little before 5pm, which was nice because it was just getting dark, & we also found free parking on the street. Then all the lights came on as we were unloading from our car. Perfect!

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I loved that there was NO snow! Almost December and we’ve only had like 3 snow days! Yessss! Keep up the good work, Utah.

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The Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to build (most temples take more like 2-3 years to build). Lots of hard work & sacrifice went into this beautiful building.

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Baby Caroline was present as well, but she was all cozy in the stroller, so I opted not to disturb her just to snap a photo.

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Chase liked leaning back & pretending he was falling in the water. My photos of that were all blurry, so I won’t post them! We were glad he didn’t actually fall in.

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Charlotte loved this Christmas tree in the Visitors’ Center. It had shiny pastel ornaments, including her favorite colors which, of course, are pink & purple.

We also saw the Nativity outside & listened to the story from Luke 2, we saw the beautiful Christus statue in the North Visitors’ Center, we looked at some paintings depicting some Old Testament prophets, and we heard a high school choir perform some Christmas carols. It was a great evening!

Categories
Charlotte

Tea Pah-ty

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Charlotte’s favorite pastime lately is to have tea parties. She asks me to have tea parties with her about 5 times a day (she actually asks, “Do you want to have a tea set?”). Sometimes I’m able to oblige, but sometimes I can’t! So I finally showed her how to have a tea party with her dolls (so that I could be off the hook, at least this time).

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She raises her eyebrows & asks in a high-pitched, feminine voice, “Would you like some teeeeea?” We’ve tried to get her to say “hot chocolate” rather than “tea,” but apparently it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, because it hasn’t stuck yet!

Side Note: My mom bought Charlotte this tea set a couple months ago when Caroline was born. Charlotte later told me that she wished that the cups, etc. had faces on them, like the ones in her current favorite book, Penny Loves Pink. So I quickly drew some silly little faces on them with a Sharpie. Charlotte was delighted! She calls the teapot “Mrs. Potts,” of course.

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Categories
Chase

I Just Noticed!

Chase is at school. I just realized that he had made Charlotte’s bed & his own before we left to run errands this morning. I hadn’t asked him to do so, but he did it. He can be such a sweet boy.

Note the sheet hanging down from underneath the comforter of Charlotte’s bed. No, I did not fix it, even though the “OCD voice” in my head urged me to.

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Here’s Chase’s bed. I think of it as more of a “loft” because I had to balance up high to take this picture! Chase loves his cozy minky pillowcase & blanket. I had my friend Sarah make them for him for his birthday last April, & he doesn’t sleep with anything else!

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Also, last night at dinner, Chase & Charlotte were following Pace’s lead by thanking me profusely for the “delicious dinner” I’d made. I am thankful to have a thankful family, & I’m also thankful for golden moments like that when you feel like you’re doing something right!

Categories
Caroline

Caroline + Mommy

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Categories
Caroline

Caroline Jean at 2 Months Old

She’s a smiley girl now! We can’t get enough of those huge, “gummy” smiles that brighten her whole face.

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Snuggle bunch. I wrap her up & give her a binky when she’s ready to go to sleep. We both love that warm snuggle time! And of course, I love that sweet baby smell.

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Pace is a great dad. Caroline used to look kind of bewildered when Daddy would nuzzle her and give her raspberries. But now she smiles & coos at him.

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Time with Daddy is the best! He talks to Caroline and imitates her when she excitedly moves her head around like a little bobblehead.

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Look at those chubby cheeks! That’s the #1 comment Caroline hears when people see her at church or anywhere else. We don’t mind it, because it’s true. She’s very chubby! She was 13 lbs. at her 2-month Dr. appointment (95th percentile) and 23” long (75th percentile). She’s a wonderful baby to have around!

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Categories
Family Fun

Back to Halloween

I busted out the ghillie suit again this year and gave a scare to anyone who was willing to come near our house. Somehow, none of the kids expected it with a guy filming them. Here are a few of my favorites, thanks for filming Grandaddy!

Scared the crap out of this girl.
The poor little fireman left without even getting candy, and his parents were laughing so hard.
This whole family came up so I had to wait and come up slowly. I love how they all react to each other.
And finally, I moved across the street to the bushes to get the neighbor girls.
Categories
Charlotte Chase Family Fun

A New Source of Food for Thought

Our city has a new library! The old one was tiny and falling apart and, frankly, disgusting. I didn’t really love taking my kids there for Story Time because it was so crowded & brown water was dripping through the ceilings (besides the fact that people would bring their green snotty-nosed, coughing kids to Story Time, even though they were clearly sick). But I do have fond memories of practically tearing that place apart, with kids in tow, to finally find the coveted city Medallion which ended up scoring us some great prizes last summer. So, I guess the old library was alright!

The first thing Chase & Charlotte wanted to do when we visited our new library was play in the manmade water feature out front. It has steps up to it that kids can easily climb, so I think it was okay for them to splash in the water & slide down the edges of the little waterfall. With things like this, I just let the kids go for it & wait for someone to come out & yell at us if it’s not OK.

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Charlotte didn’t even mind her bum getting wet as she slid down, that’s how much fun she was having.

Side note: Charlotte doesn’t like to get dressed in the morning. I let her choose what she wants to wear, but lately, she gets mad about her long sleeves or tights having “bumps” in them. On this particular morning she was bawling her eyes out about this red shirt having “bumps” in the sleeves. When she looked down & saw that tears had dripped on the front of her shirt, she started to cry even harder, saying, "Now we need to change my shirt because it has my cries on it!” I didn’t understand what she said so I asked, “What??” and she said pointing to her wet cheeks, “My wittle tears got on my shirt so we need to change it.” I laughed (despite my frustration with her) and reassured her that the tears on her shirt would dry soon, especially if she stopped crying!

Inside the library, we checked out the children’s section where they have cute little shelves & chairs & computers. The kids pored over some literature for a while (actually, they were Batman comic books).

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We climbed to the top floor so we could look out at the creek and the city.

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I lugged Caroline around in the car seat the whole time so she would stay asleep (shoulda brought the stroller for her)!

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Right after this, we had to go pick up Chase’s carpool friend & take them to kindergarten. When we got to the friend’s house, I told Chase I’d go up to the door to get him so Chase wouldn’t have to get out & do it. But Chase responded, “No, that’s OK. You have to carry the baby around all the time, so I can do it.” And with that, he hopped out of the car to go get his friend. WoW! Sometimes Chase can be so considerate & helpful.

Categories
Family Fun

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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Halloween is my favorite holiday. Pace thinks that is weird. What can I say? I’m a Terribilini girl, therefore I LOVE candy! And I love everything else about Halloween, too.

The photo above is from last Saturday. We invited the Fears to go with us to Central Utah Gardens for some free family fun. We dressed up in costumes not only to be festive, but also to get free Krispy Kreme donuts like last year… But the donuts this year were not Krispy Kremes after all. AND I spent all but 5 minutes feeding & changing Caroline in the car & taking Charlotte to the bathroom. Oh, well. This is my time & season for taking care of children!

Chase wanted to carve pumpkins. I agreed, but made him do most of the dirty work (for which he insisted on wearing rubber gloves). Charlotte’s face says it all!

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After a few minutes of using an awkwardly huge, sharp knife, I borrowed one of those carving kits from my neighbor, Emily. In the past I’d figured that those kits were a waste of money, but it made the carving sooo much easier, and it was fun to do a cool design on the pumpkin. Next year, we’ll be buying a carving kit!

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On the big night, Pace wore his authentic military sniper Ghillie suit. (When he has the whole thing on, he just looks like a big bush.) He hid in our yard and scared people who came trick-or-treating at our place. People loved it (after the initial shock), and some even remembered that he’d hidden & scared people year before last also! It was SOOOO entertaining. I hope he posts some of the funny videos that Jim caught on camera.

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One unsuspecting pre-teen kid used Pace as a step-stool to get up to our porch! He was startled when he realized that the “pile of grass” was a person! When he & his friends were leaving our house, his fellow pre-teen friend apologized, “Sorry, Grass Pile.”

I was surprised by how many big kids & teens went out trick-or-treating. I remember one Halloween when I was about 13, my best friend Jamie & were bored & really wanted some candy. So we put a big sheet over us and went out trick-or-treating as ghosts. Whenever we’d knock on the door, we’d duck down so we’d look shorter (Jamie didn’t need to duck too much). When people would answer the door, we’d exclaim, “Trick or treat!’” using our best high, youthful voices. Most of the time, people were annoyed and disgusted that such OLD kids would go around trick-or-treating. Some people were even angry about it. Lame. But around here, it’s the norm for older kids to go out on Halloween! Go figure.

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Caroline sporting the hot pink onesie that Amber gave us! It says “Wickedly Cute.” Perfect for Halloween!

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Charlotte was a dainty ballerina. She knew all year that she wanted to be a ballerina because in the Berenstain Bears Trick-or-Treat book, Sister Bear is a ballerina for Halloween. The great thing is, if she decides to take ballet lessons, she can wear this same leotard!

Categories
Caroline

Fresh Baby, Anyone?

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I took a few photos right after Caroline’s bath yesterday. She really just wanted me to swaddle her and rock her to sleep rather than make her endure a photo shoot…

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But I just can’t get enough of her chubs, her yummy scent, and her sweet disposition. She smiles at us (first “real” smile at 4 weeks), but they’re so fleeting, I haven’t captured a smile on camera yet. It will happen sometime!

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She’s busy growing. She wears her 3-6 month clothes now. We love this baby!

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