Talmage's Tooth

Talmage lost his first tooth today. It has been wiggly for months but he refused to wiggle it. While visiting the Humphery's last week, Evalyn showed a great example of tooth wiggling. She lost it the day after we left. When Talmage heard that he started wiggling his like mad and we pulled it out today.

Thanksgiving Trip part 1

For Thanksgiving this year our family took a road trip up to visit Carley's family, who recently moved to Arkansas. Aaron, Carley, and I went to high school and college together. She married Dustin the same summer Aaron and I got married and we hung out as married students, in Rexburg, until Aaron and Dustin graduated and we all had to move away.

It was great to get the families together for an extended visit.

My family left Monday morning and drove north through Texas for six hours and then headed through Oklahoma and then on up into northwest Arkansas. We arived at their house Monday evening. The kids did a great job in the car. Our family had only seen the first hour of the drive before. The remaining 10 hours were all new territory for us. Oklahoma had very bumpy roads and was our least favorite part of the drive. We really like the hills, rivers, and trees in north west Arkansas. I bet it is beautiful when all the trees have leaves.

While visiting we went to a great Native American Museum. Talmage was afraid of this stuffed bear and we had to turn him around and back him up so that we could take this picture. After it was done he ran to the other side of the room to be as fare away from it as possible. Anya loved the bear and kept petting it and trying to shake its hand. We had to keep reminding her that we aren't supposed to touch things in museums.



Outside the museum they had this teepee. The kids enjoyed going in it as well as sifting though the mulch to find an arrowhead to take home.

It was a bit chilly (in the 50's) and windy for our family this day so we had to break out the coats. Talmage and Evalyn stuck together when ever possible. They say they think they might get married when they grow up.


The next day it was warmer and we went up to Belle Vista so see the Glass Chapel. We also found this lake up on the hill.

Talmage and Evalyn again.

Anya and Lucy climbing the rocks. They had fun together but were not stuck to each other like Talmage and Evalyn.

Our family squinting into the sun in front of the lake. It was good to see blue water again.

I'll post pictures of the Glass Chapel in the next post.

Beauty and the Beast

Here is a video of Talmage playing Beauty and the Beast. When I showed him the video, he laughed at his head keeping the beat. It looked like he was trying to be his own metronome. He is doing a great job learning the piano but every once in a while he reminds me he still want to learn the violin. He also wants to learn how to play the organ and thinks it would be the coolest thing to play the organ in either the Tabernacle or the Conference center when he's "grown a foot or two."

Halloween

During the day we rode bikes and Aaron even took Anya's training wheels off, at her request, so she could start learning to ride on two wheels. She is wearing my helmet because her hair was too big for hers, as you will see in the next picture.


In the morning I put her hair up in rags so that she could have curly princess hair in the evening. She looked like Medusa most of the day.



Here is her curly hair after I took the rags out. She had a lot of comments on her hair. A few people asked if it was a wig.



Talmage asked for a mustache and Aaron went all out. He loved it.


Here are the kids pumpkins. They drew a picture with Aaron's help, on a piece of paper and then he transferred it onto the pumpkins. They were very pleased with their handiwork.



One of the kids took this picture of Aaron and I in our festive orange shirts.

Wonderful Weather

We are having amazing weather right now. This summer's heat made me forget how nice it usually is here. We have been riding bikes, playing at the park, and today we spent the afternoon cheering for Aaron at a work softball game. They lost but Aaron pitched a shutout last inning against some tough hitters.

My arthritis seems to finally be under control and I'm loving playing outside with the kids and having energy all day long.

Well Visit

The kids just had their annual check up with the doctor. They are both healthy and passed their hearing and vision tests. They thought the doctor was crazy for asking them to pee in a cup and Talmage was enthralled with the little through door from the restroom to the lab, were you place the specimens. He kept wanting to check to see if they picked up his cup yet.

Anya is average for her age (40 inches tall and 36lbs). Talmage kept to his usual 30 percentile for height (he's almost 45 inches tall). Yeah he's just 5 inches taller than Anya-- she could end up taller than him. But what he lacks in height he made up in weight. He was 51 lbs, a good portion of that is muscle and their is no denying he has his father's build.

The kids both received immunizations. Talmage got one and didn't even say ow. He has no problems with shots and has set a great example for Anya. She received four shots, one at a time, and didn't complain about any of them. The kids were excited to get band aids. It was a very happy visit to the doctors today-- probably our best to date!