Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  How I love this holiday!  It is a lot of work when you've got two busy toddlers, but it sure is satisfying when everything turns out nicely. 

This year, we had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, glazed carrots, Brussels sprouts with pine nuts, yummy rolls, orange cranberry relish, ribbon salad, Martinelli's and pumpking spice cheescake for dessert.  I am stuffed!

I am so thankful for a wonderful family: for my fun loving husband and for my sweet children, and for all my extended family.  I feel so richly blessed at the joy of family. 
I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It brings me such happiness and peace.  This is what gets me through life's hardest trials and brings me great joy.  I am so thankful to be a member of this church.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Halloween and kid pics

We managed to get the kids out for the trunk or treat.  The Primary was in charge of providing treats, so we had to be there anyway...not that we would have missed it.  Peter had a lot of fun.  Elly was a little bit sleepy, as it was past her bedtime.  But they both loved their costumes.  

I love the banana sticking out of the monkey's pocket.  So cute.

My little kitten. 
I am still not sure what color her eyes are going to be.  Gray?  Gray with brown?  Hmm...

Recent pictures on the stairs.  Elly is 19 months old here.  She's being a little coy.  

Elly looks to her brother for many things lately.  She has learned to say "please" solely by our coaxing Peter into asking nicely for things that he wants.  She is quite clever in her use.  When she is asking for something, and we are not wanting to give in, she gets a sweet little smile, squints her eyes and says, "Pease?"  I think she may have us wrapped around her little finger.  Such a cutie!
Elly has really taken off with her talking lately.  She probably has somewhere around 50 words at this point.  Although, she has a hard time with "s" at the beginning of words.  For example, "sorry" comes out, "vorry." We'll have to work on that.  It is fun to hear her talking so much.  I think it shocked us how much she understands and can say now.  She's growing and learning so fast!  

They like to play together.  Their favorite pastime is running around our large leather chair and chasing each other.  For such a little toddler, Elly sure can run fast!  

It is hard to get Peter to hold still for pictures lately, but Elly seems to love to ham it up for the pictures.  My sweet little girl!  

New Piano! and Cox Farms

Well, after months of searching, we finally found our piano.  We got it used from a dealer who gave us a good deal with free delivery and 5 year warranty, and free tuning.  It is a Yamaha console, and sounds pretty good for a piano of its size.  It is such a joy to have a piano in the home, and makes such a difference!  My kids seem to love it too.  I hope it means we can have even more music in the house.  I love a home with lots of music in the house!

Duet time.

During the government shutdown, we decided to go do some fun things.  It was hard to find fun things to do, as all museums and government parks were down.  But this little gem, Cox Farms, was AWESOME!  We had a great time and the kids loved it.  We will definitely make this an annual trip.

Fun hay maze

Chris and Elly at the top of the hay maze.

Daddy and Elly going down a giant slide on a burlap sack.

Peter LOVED these slides.

Fun little play area with train and music makers.

Couldn't resist posting this one.

I love this picture of Peter in the fire truck that he got to get on and explore.  He was a happy boy.

Peter and Chris going down a ginormous slide together.  Elly and I watched from below.  They also had a great corn maze and a hay ride, and a kid goat feeding pen.  It was great.  We also got to take home some free pumpkins at the end.  Such fun!

Goings on...

It has been quite the whirlwind the past few months.  I have not had tons of extra time for blogging because I just got called as the Primary president to our brand new ward.  They just reorganized the boundaries and created a new ward, of which we are now a part.  It turns out it is a LOT of work organizing a primary from scratch.  Having never been in primary before, this has proven to be a daunting task at times.  But it has also been an exciting and unique opportunity, and I am glad that I get to offer what service I can.  I have only been in it for a few months, and I already love it.  The kids are wonderful and I love to teach and learn from them.  It also helps that I have the most awesome counselors and secretary ever. 

This happened to poor Elly at one of the padded, indoor playgrounds.  This should not happen at indoor playgrounds, I feel.  They had some wood molding that came to sharp corners by the parent's seating, and she fell (or was pushed, I'm not sure which) right into the corner.  Poor kid.  The goose egg it produced had me worried, but she only cried hard for a few seconds.  She's a tough little cookie sometimes.

We have taken many opportunities to go to the zoo.  Our kids are a great age for the zoo, and the National Zoo is free and a great way to spend our free time.

On a whim back from the zoo, we decided to see some DC sites with the kids.  Here's the Lincoln memorial from a distance.

 

And Mr. Lincoln himself.  It's quite impressive in person.

Elly got a new bathing suit, but refuses to go into any water.  I think she doesn't like the cool temperature, no matter how hot it is outside.

This is what happens when Peter is in the pool.  Elly just watches, either outside on the deck, or from inside.  Someday maybe she'll venture into the water.

On our way to the beach.  This glasses are a little big, but too cute and funny to pass up a picture opportunity.

Elly loved the beach, as long as she didn't have to touch the sand or the water.  It's kind of amazing she enjoyed herself as much as she did.

We went to Colonial Beach, which isn't the best of beaches in the world, but it was fairly close by.  And it gave Peter his first chance to exerperience the beach.

 

Peter LOVED the beach.  This can't be overstated. 

Happy, excited boy!

 

 

Elly was a little sick recently and feeling very snuggly.  She is very snuggly in general.  It is very sweet. 

I have decided to try to get Elly to cut her nursing opportunities in half: from 8 to 4 times a day. At first it was a little difficult, as she kind of refused food and drink of any sort.  But she was feeling a little under the weather at the time, and I think she had a sore throat.  But it was just a couple days later that she started to eat more.  She still only sips a little from a cup.  Her liquids still come from me and fruit (usually grapes and watermelon) that she consumes in large quantities.  She is not going for the milk thing.  I hope she transitions eventually.

She has been starting to consistently say new words the past few months.  However, she has a pattern of saying a new word for a little while, and then never saying it again.  She did this really early, at 10 months with "up," and "more (mo)," and more recently has said, "hi, baby, bath, fish, sheep."  But it seems like as soon as she starts saying new words, she stops for some reason.  She still mostly resorts to grunts to express her views.  sigh.  She is very much a girl who is not going to do anything she doesn't want to do.  And yet, she is still a sweet, affectionate, and playful little thing.

I wish I could get pictures of Peter and Elly having their snuggling wars.  At first it looks really cute, but then it looks like they are trying to inflict death by snuggling on the other one.  I have had to intervene from time to time. 

Elly has started to give kisses consistently.  She especially likes to kiss her daddy, and it is very sweet.  She is a good little kisser already, and has figured out that she needs to close her mouth and pucker up.  So cute!  It took Peter a long time before he figured that one out.  I'll have to try to get pictures of this soon.

Fun at Parks

We have tried to actually take some pictures when we went out to parks this past week.  We got some cute shots.  

Elly has decided she likes slides.

Peter has decided he does not.  He does not like to be shocked from the static electricity buildup form the plastic slides.  Oh, my son is such a cautious little guy.  So serious sometimes.  

He usually takes more pleasure in playing with the bark than on the actual playground toy.

This particular park has a mini golf course.  It is not running right now, so we went on it with Peter's little play golf club set.  He loved it.  

Elly was not so sure what she thought of astroturf.

Clearly, we need to work on his form.

She decided it was not so bad after a bit.

 

 

Elly has started to appreciate the swing.  And it is Peter's favorite.  He will swing for a good twenty minutes straight.

 

 

Elly is starting to try to negotiate stairs.  She doesn't have many opportunities because we put a gate on our stairs.  But I decided to take it off so she could learn how to climb stairs.  I'll have to watch her, but I figure with all the stairs in this house, it's a good idea.

And this is a fun state park out on a little peninsula.  So pretty with the beach.

 

 

Peter loved to throw wet sand.  And eventually he ended up walking in the water with his sneakers on.  sigh.

Yes, it's actually ME in a picture!  Chris does not like to take pictures so much, but he actually volunteered to do these.  :)

Me and my Elly girl.