Riding Horses with Aunt Mush

Siena loves horses! And more than that, she loves riding horses, especially Aunt Mushy's horse "Jackpot" in Vegas. She loved feeding them and riding with her sister and cousin Jairus. Michelle was so good and patient with all the kids too!

Pumpkin Festival

We went to the Pumpkin Festival in Cedar city! For $5, each kid can play countless games with prizes, including fishing, basketball throwing bean bag toss, etc, cookie decorating, pumpkin painting (Siena painted her entire pumpkin blue. It was really cool! Face painting - Siena was a butterfly and building a project from Home Depot (Siena chose a bug catcher because of her affinity to the little leggy creatures). We had a fabulous time!

Tessa's 18 month Vocab inventory

MOM!
DAD!
shoe
hi
hello (ewo)
bye-bye (aye-aye)
dog (gog)
MINE!
NO!
NO, DON'T!
No way! (no-wee)
uh-uh
eww!
That (dat), as in 'I want "dat"'
more (moy)
banana (nana)
water (wawa)
juice
book
up (bup)
done
go go
on
balloon (ba'oon)
please (pease)
Eat!
baby (bee-bee)
bubbles (bubu)
Siena (Se'a)
Tess

and Tessa's favorite word: "POOP!" (She says it very loudly anytime someone checks her diaper. Or sometimes just for fun.)

RIP Banjo

End of a Banjo

Husband (to "Pinkie"), and martyr to Siena, Siena's "lovey" is officially retiring. After 2 overly-loving years of being slowly eaten to death (Siena's comfort has been to pick off small bits of fur and eat them....), and after countless warnings, Banjo was officially taken out of circulation.
He was a good, faithful stuffed dog.
Banjo is survived by his wife "Pinkie" and his replacement, "Back-up-Banjo," who is intentionally and significantly less furry than his predecessor.

BYU Homecoming

Some pics that were taken at the BYU Homecoming School of Education event. The girls had a great time, with all of the planned games for kids. And I even won a CD in a drawing! Yay! The only thing better than a sale is FREE STUFF!!

Parade Parody

This picture pretty much sums up the morning, trying to get the girls ready.

We went to the BYU Homecoming parade this morning and had the best time ever! We were behind the ROTC, which would let off an occasional
cannon fire, which set off car alarms. Very entertaining!"Grandpa John" was in charge of the floats in the parade this year. He was in the class of '71, so we were on the 40th anniversary alumni "float", which happened to be on my mom's '54 blue Chevy pick-up that she inherited from her Dad. There was
just enough room for the girls and I to squeeze into the cab. The truck has had a lot of work done on it, but needs a lot more work done on it now! With all the stopping and slow-going, the clutch completely burned out (there was smoke coming out of the hood, and it reeked! Some passers-by put their shirts over their noses to try not to inhale. The truck died on us 18 times during the 2 miles or so of the parade route. My favorite quote from one of the '71 graduates riding in the back of the truck "Don't get too close to that [brand new] Mercedes in front of us. The exhaust on it really stinks!" (No sir, that's us!!)

The best part of the parade: Tessa waving hi and Siena yelling out the window "BYU, BYU, BYU BOOGERS!!!" Only one guy in the crowd even noticed she was yelling "Boogers" instead of "Cougars." That look was worth $1,000,000. She really got the crowds going, and everybody loved it! Especially with Tess waving too and waving her pom-pom. Siena was working so hard to keep the chant going the whole time, she siged a big relief "fffffewwwfffffff!" when it was over! I don't remember the last time I have laughted/cried that hard!

Grass Helpers

Siena loves bugs especially "grass helpers". She was so excited when grandma found a grasshopper, and she could keep it as a pet. We now have 4 pet "grass helpers": 2 alive, 2 dead.