The Pumpkin Patch

It’s fall break around here, and that means…COUSINS! My kids have 4 adorable cousins on Ross’s side and they all get along very well. One of the first things we did together was go to “Jakers Jack-O-Lanterns” which is a fun pumpkin patch in Springville. They had a great time and everybody came home with a pumpkin.

Happy to be together.

 

The two oldest grand kids.

D hardly ever calls his favorite cousin by her name. She is always “my friend.”

L loves aunt Kathryn.

This…is a giant pit full of corn kernels.

 

Seriously… a giant pit full of corn kernels.

 

At this point, if you have an inner child, that child is trying to escape…into the corn pit.

Cousin time is the best.

The Love Box

A few nights ago, Ross bought me this beautiful box of chocolates and we picked from it while we watched Agent Carter. The box is so pretty I didn’t want to throw it away so we are keeping it for a new Valentines tradition.

For the whole week before Valentines day I will leave the box out on the table and we will fill it with love notes. The kids like to draw little pictures and pretend to write notes and I think A will really be into it. Then on Valentine’s day we will open it and read them to each other.

I think every holiday has a principle or set of principles that it represents. Sometimes those principles can get twisted a bit through over commercialization or other ways. Valentines day is about expressing heartfelt love for our family and friends. This principle can be twisted when we focus more on what expressions of love we would like for ourselves rather than how we will share our love with others.

Hopefully this new tradition will help us focus on sharing love with our family. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just sincere.

Oh Come Let Us Overrun Him

I promised a few stories from our trip to Utah. My favorite moment from the trip was when the kids put on a live nativity for the Grandmas and Grandpas. I don’t have any pictures from the Coughanour nativity, but here are a couple from the Vance’s. 

D took his job as Joseph very seriously. While Luke 2 was being read he would sometimes stick his fist into the air and shout “And I’m JOSEPH!”
L wasn’t so interested in most of her shepherd duties…except for one; when she saw the baby Jesus (which was actually a multicolored bear in swaddling clothes because we didn’t have a doll) she just adored the stuffing out of him. She ran over as fast as she could and tackled him to the ground and started sucking on his nose. We kept trying to get her to go listen to the angel but she was undeterred from her exuberant adoration. 

A was happy to be Mary at the Vance’s house. She took great care to smooth baby Jesus’s fur and make sure he was warm. She was excited to be an Angel at the Coughanour nativity and sang Away in a Manger like a pro.

Next year we will get a baby doll for the Nativity. A fuzzy bear is probably borderline sacrilegious. But the children still got into the spirit of the season, and I was really touched.

Kid Quote: Oh the Egomania!

Today is my birthday. Twenty-Seven! Ross has finals today so he had to leave early this morning. I slept in until 7:30 until the kids got up. When D came into my room and climbed onto the bed this conversation happened:

Me: Good morning!

D: Morning mommy.

Me: Guess what? It’s my birthday today!

D: No it’s not. My birthday isn’t until we get to Nana’s house.

Twenty minutes later, A woke up and came downstairs. She came into the kitchen and this conversation happened:

Me: Good morning!

A: Morning.

Me: Guess what? It’s my birthday today!

A: Oh. But I’m still four.

*Sigh*

Snuggle Bug

Why She Was Screaming

Ali Hansen came for Thanksgiving! It was so fun to have a friend from back home to hang out with over the weekend. We had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner at our friend’s, the Cottams, house. Ross’s friend Louis is a classical guitar major at the school and he put on a fantastic post-turkey, pre-pie concert.

While Ali was in town we also went to a Les Miserables sing-along which was fun. Ross isn’t much of a Les Mis fan, but he did a great job anyway and Ali and I had a lot of fun.

We dropped Ali off at the airport yesterday afternoon. When we got home we were walking to the house and A started jumping in puddles. She started screaming within a few seconds because…her feet got wet.