Autumn Celebration

There are far too few parties in our lives so why not make some up?  Yesterday we had our Autumn Celebration, complete with chili and cornbread (nevermind that yesterday was in the 90s), pumpkins and orange rice crispy treats on plastic spoons (if that doesn't scream fall, I don't know what does).

 I think these might go on the list of favorites.

I also think that dressing in orange really helped get us in the mood (as do the leaves on the walls).

(Did you know there are 3 songs in the Children's Hymnbook dedicated to autumn?)

Just a bunch of pictures

I was trying to think of a title or some theme to put these pictures in but I can't, so I'll just post them.

Haley giving Audrey something to play with.

 I can't help but think that Audrey will jump up at any moment and do some Jazzercize.

The afternoons can get long, we have to think of something to keep ourselves entertained.

"Smile for the camera."

Book of Mormon Stories

The Book of Mormon is Haley's favorite book, by far.  Since she's figured out how to climb up on the rocking chair in her room she'll sit there for quite a while and flip through the pages (often tearing them, we have a very "loved" book), usually she'll do this a few times a day.  Reminds me of Elder Bednar's talk from General Conference in April.  Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but maybe not.

"Youth of all ages, even infants, can and do respond to the distinctive spirit of the Book of Mormon. Children may not understand all of the words and stories, but they certainly can feel the 'familiar spirit' described by Isaiah."

This was the other morning while I was doing things around the house.

She's learned how to Zerbert

Also, let it be known that we are reserving the fun for Daddy only (just in case any visitor wanted in on the fun).

Zoos and fun

We had some good old fashion zoo fun yesterday with the Zollinger clan.

Haley loves anything that is her size.  She'll crawl over everything just to climb it.

Yes, it was THAT close.  They were feeding it right before I took that picture.  Haley was fine until the giraffe started to walk around.

Aren't there a few things that just make you smile?  One of those things is when I come upon something that Haley has done throughout the day when I'm cleaning up for the night. 
Like when I find Dolly nicely placed in Audrey's bed, swing or car seat.  Haley is such a little mommy and it makes me smile to see her little sweetness (especially after she's nicely tucked into her bed for the night).  Aren't kids great?

You scream

Haley loves ice cream.

The other morning after Wes left for work Haley was in desperate need of something.  For those of you who've been around her in the last 6 months you know that communicating this entails lots of "eh, eh, eh."  So after 2 minutes of going around the house figuring it out we narrow it down to the freezer, I open and she very excitedly grabs the ice cream.  Uh, not at 8 am babe (until you get to college and then you'll love the idea of being able to have anything you want, whenever you want, right Ben?). 

Artist in training

We've been doing lots of art projects lately, here are some of the highlights:

Fingerpaints.

Playdough.

Watercolors.

Some sort of art created with cornstarch and water.

And yes, that is a tablecloth she's wearing.