Top 5

Top 5 things you love right now: 

1. Your night time routine-  We generally read 3-4 books, then we do "rock a twink" where we rock and sing "twinkle, twinkle". Then we scoochy, scooch to your bed do another round of "lay town twinks". We then hugga, hugga 10 times (hugs and kisses) and then I leave. Your Dad then sings "The Eyes of Texas" (Eyes) and you guys have lengthy conversations and ask lots of questions. You usually will keep him around, by saying "I've got one more question", or ask for another hug. 

2. Babies- You love to change, play and dress your babies. You are really grasping the concept of pretend play. The favorite name of all your babies right now is Hannah, after your dear friend Jeffy's sister (who you are holding above). 

3. "I can do it"- is the most frequent phrase we hear right now. You tell us at least 20 times a day that you can do it. You can wash your hands, brush your teeth, go to the potty all by yourself, open the door, close the door, take on and off your clothes, put on your panties, etc, etc. ....

4. Trains and Fire Engines- Most of our daily car conversation revolves around either or both of these topics. Your absolute favorite place is the Choo, Choo market, which is the little local Farmer's Market that we visit on Thursdays. 

5. Farmhouse- You love the farmhouse, the geese and the river and well just being out there and running around. You like to talk about your river, mountain and floating the river with Mom and Dad. 

There is much more that you love and talk about all the time. You do the daily run down of who you played with at daycare, talk about your family, but I had to get down some of your absolute favorites before we forget and the focus shifts.

Love you Laurelea! 

Camp Carlyle

We hosted our first annual Camp Carlyle over the last weekend. We had a total of 21 guests stay over, and 18 of those were all on Sunday night. It was quite the festivity and I'm now regretting that I didn't get more pictures. We floated the river, the kids ran and ran through the house, we ate well and overall enjoyed sharing our farmhouse with friends. Thanks to all of those you made it!

the girls claiming stake to their chairs

 Time to grub

 Glow stick fun!

Jackie

L, Jackie, Avery and Naomi

 Reading stories.. then the girls all slept in L's room. It was L's first sleep over!

 Attempting to share

 Breakfast

Esther and Avery

 Fishing!

Jackie and L

worms!

 Petting the fish

 tire swing fun!

Daley, Jackie and L

waiting to float

 Tent Time!

playing with Oliver

 Baby Hannah arrives

 The guys grill

 Then it's smores time!

 Pete playing songs for the kids

Naomi

 Helping to change Hannah's diaper

2.5

So this post might be a month overdue, but here is the Laurelea update!

 L you have turned into your own little person over the last 6 months. You are fiercely independent and can do everything by yourself. One day you told me when I was driving to pull over so that you could drive. We've been having a lot of conversations about when you can drive and although at two and a half you can be convincing this is one of those things that we just can't concede to.

You have done so well with potty training. We started a few months ago and have gone through a slow transition. You are now fully potty trained and have very few accidents. You will even go into the potty without prompting, and will wash and dry without assistance. You really like the washing part, so we have to sometimes come in and monitor to make certain your bathroom is not flooding.

Within the last 6 months we purchased a vacation property. You have done so well with this transition. You love your time out at the farmhouse and talk about your geese and river all the time. It's hard now to imagine us not having it in our lives as I think as a family we have grown so much closer. We spend 50% of our weekends out at the farmhouse and our favorite family past time this Summer has been floating the river.

You can be a tad stubborn and want things to go your way at all times. Sometimes you can be redirected, but more often than not you get upset and pitch a fit. We still do a fair number of time outs as your outbursts generally involve your fist and some part of our bodies. We are learning more how to control that and trying to teach you to channel your anger and stomp your feet or hit a pillow.... progress is being made...

It's hard to describe the kindness and affection that you show to younger children. You are a natural lover of babies and would surround yourself with them at all times if you could. You are fascinated with changing diapers, feeding your dolls and learning about caring for babies. You are so gentle and kind with small kiddos it is really amazing to see you with them and how kind and helpful you can be.

In terms of stats you are just over 32 pounds and 37 inches tall. You have really shot up and lost your belly fat. You are tall and lean and have hair! You still fuss at me when I try and do it every day, but it is so adorable to see with your hair done.

We love you lots Laurelea and can't wait to see all that you are up to next!

You had to have your baby go first!

kisses for woody

 somethings will never change-you are a wiggle worm!

Last day of vacay

Our real last day of vacation was spent enjoying the town of Park City. We walked around and looked at  stores, had lunch at a local brewery and then Karli and I headed to the St. Regis for some pool time. PC was very good to us. We loved the house, loved the people, and most of all loved spending time with family.If anyone out there is headed to Park City, we can't recommend this house enough. We found it through VRBO, people who own the house were great and we so enjoyed their home. You can find their info here. It's hard to imagine that we have to wait another 2 years to do it again....

 They had this amazing red moss in this little stream that cuts through downtown.

 Out and about...

 Lunch at the brewery

 The many faces of L.. this one she knew I was taking a picture. The next few she had no  idea her dad was snapping pictures....

 relaxing at the St. Regis 
 Nana and Papa got the kids these adorable bibs...

Come on ride the train

On Thursday of our Park City vacation we went on a train ride. I was completely convinced that L would love this more than life. She is in love with trains and adores going to the choo choo market every Thursday. Mom, Dad, Uncle Marty and Laura joined us for a three hour tour on the Heber train....

There was this adorable kids train in front of the station. L loved it!

 We got to get up on the front...

 She even got to drive the train

 Uncle Marty did too!

 Here we are ready to roll.

 Then the train started.. and it honked it's horn at every passing cow and L completely freaked on us... on top of it the train was robbed by some serious outlaws. Nana was accused of taking something....

 So this is what L did for most of the train ride. She rode in our laps with her ears plugged.

 And she missed seeing the scenic landscape..

 After 2 hours or so, she started to warm up (this is so much better than before)

So overall it was a pretty horrible trip. Our kiddo was miserable, we were pretty miserable and after the nose incident we thought we were doing something fun for her. Guess we've learned a lesson that our kid does not do loud noises.