September - October 8, 2017

Another month has come and gone. After a long summer Fall is finally here and all that comes with it! It is most definitely my favorite time of year. Here's what has been going on for us since I last wrote.

Luke has been quite difficult lately. He is still our sweet boy but he's definitely pushing his limits and having a hard time listening to us. All totally normal for this age but still frustrating for us (and him, sure). I think a lot of the issues stem from a desire for more attention, as it has definitely been divided with having a new (ish...) baby at home. I'm trying to implement some mom and Luke time each day during Penny's first nap and I hope that will help. Another thing he's started is a weekly playgroup with a few friends around here. We switch off who hosts and it's already noticeable how he's becoming more comfortable at friends houses without me and it's also helped with his socialization a lot.

Little stinker drew all over himself. 

Hiding from brother during a tantrum...

Penny is growing up so much. She is now eight months old! She's still not crawling because every time she flips over onto her tummy she cries and cries. It makes me so sad-- and also it's not something I was expecting since Luke crawled around this time. She is sitting up on her own so well, though. She also can stand holding onto things and I think she is even trying to pull herself up to things. She has found more of her voice and babbles mamamama, dadadada, babababa but more lately she has been growling and it's pretty funny. The other day she was eating some meat and I said, "Do you like that, baby?" and she promptly growled.

I love this sweet sitting girl.

Another adventure we went on was to SeaQuest with Grandma Sandi, Aunt Shelley and cousins. This place is so neat because you can actually interact with all the animals/fish/birds there.

Play hard, crash hard, 

We have also been enjoying some family park time and frequent Lodestone Park. We pack a picnic dinner and then play until time to put the kids to bed. It's been fun!

Standing up to her toy, as mentioned above.

A big thing that happened this month was General Conference. Every six months we have the opportunity to hear inspiring messages from our church leaders. I always come away wanting to do and be better. Now that my parents live here it has really become a family event, whereas when we lived in Boise we just watched out our own. Now we spend one of the conference days with them and the other with Bryan's family.

Another fun thing I did with the kids was to take them to Gardner Village to find witches. Really it's just a fun excuse to get out and enjoy the fall festivities with some of our neighborhood friends.

Last Friday was the day before my birthday and Luke decided he wanted to take me to McDonald's for lunch. That was fine by me and a nice little treat for both of us.

That evening we went to a Harry Potter Fall Festival at cousins Ava and Sylvie's school and while it wasn't the most authentically Harry Potter event I've ever been to, we still had a lot of fun with family. In particular, Luke, who got to ride a train, a pony and jump in a bounce house!

The next day was my actual birthday. Bryan let me sleep in, made me breakfast and then later that day we went out to lunch with my parents and Lindsay and her girls. I just love having some of my family here. Later we went out to a pumpkin patch and had fun picking out pumpkins, riding tractors, eating donuts, exploring corn mazes and riding on a hayride.

Luke exploring pumpkins with his cousins

Penny loving on Ava

Penny loving on Sylvie

My adorable, goofy boy!

Whitneys at the Pumpkin Patch take 2-- with a new family member!

Other than these things we've been busy working on a project in our basement (more details when it's done after Christmas!) and I've been making all kinds of crafts.