Colby Concert

Colby is quite the little soloist. Here are some of our favorites over the last little while.

"Hey Diddle Diddle"



"I Can Count by 10s"


Our favorite: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"


And yes, he likes to play with his ear.

November Pictures

Nov2008

October Pictures

Oct 2008

Hooray for Us!

Bryan and I recently completed some long term projects that we are quite proud of. Bryan did an oil painting of Sienna, Italy. He started it in October of last year.

Pretty amazing, eh?

And I've been working on decorating Sienna and Colby's room. When Colby moved in with Sienna I wanted to do something gender neutral. I started in February. Nine months, one baby, 3 quilts, 4 pillow-cases, and a window valence later, I'm finally finished. Here's some before and after pictures.

Before:

After:
(Of course fireman and fairy are the best decorations)
Colby actually prefers his "Rhino blanket" that Grandma Shepherd made (see before pictures). I do also. In fact making the toddler size quilt wasn't really necessary, since all of Grandma's toddler quilts are much cuter.

Now, any suggestions on what do do with the shelf above the closet? I'm not partial to Bryan's idea of the kids' foam letters. But I don't want to spend a bunch of time or money.

Halloween

We had a happy Halloween week:

Carving pumpkins for Family Home Evening. Sienna drew the sketch, then we gave her a marker and she drew it on the pumpkin, then we gave her a knife and she cut it out.

Okay, so we didn't really give her the knife. But the rest is true.
On Tuesday we had our church Halloween Party. Sienna was a black cat, and Colby was Clifford, the Big Red Dog. Ashley was a Jack-o-Lantern.
On Friday the kids went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood and got way too much candy, then we headed over to a party with some friends. Ashley was a lamb this time. And here she is with her friend Elliot, the Snitch (from Harry Potter).

What's new

Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to lately:

Colby got his finger slammed in the door...

Ashley pulled herself up to the couch (although it hasn't happened since)...
Making Halloween cookies...
Playing in the rain (Sienna loves any excuse to use the umbrella)...
Washing the kids... I mean car...

We took the kids bowling for their first time also, but I'm having trouble getting the video to load.

Recent Pictures

Here are some pictures from September. Highlights: Sienna at preschool, trip to Utah for Wes and Sharlyn's wedding, my parents' cabin, recent camping trip, and just plain ol' good times. Enjoy!

Sep2008

Run, Bryan, run!

Congratulations to my amazing husband who just completed the St. George marathon! This was his first after about a 10 year break from running marathons (grad school, marriage, kids, etc.). He completed it in 3 hours 28 minutes. That's 26 miles at an average 8 minute pace. Amazing! I don't think I could run even one mile in 8 minutes.

Bryan is hanging out in Utah for the next few days until his brother, Brent, returns from his 2 year mission in Mexico. We miss him but are so proud of him!

Bathtime Bruise

One tub + two kids + lots of toys + too much time + distracted mother =

Camping

We went camping this weekend at David Crockett State Park near Lawrenceburg, TN and had a great time. This was Ashley's first campout! (By the time Sienna was 7 months old she'd slept in a tent probably 20 times. Times have changed.) At one point during the evening Colby was rambling to me about something while I was watching the fire. He stopped mid-stream and commented, "Hey! There's fire in your eyes!" He had seen the reflection in my glasses.

Of gas, scarecrows, and primary

Nashville is out of gas. (Stated for my non-Tennessee readers obviously). Thanks to a false rumor and some paranoid people around the time of Hurricane Ike, our gas supply was depleted and has not yet been replenished. In order to fill up, one has to drive to several different gas stations to find one that isn't out of gas, then wait in a really long line, possibly to be told they've run out just before your turn (which happened to a friend of ours).

Our van ran out of gas on Thursday. After trying 3 different stations, I drove home with my gas gauge estimating zero miles left, praying I would make it home with my groceries. Thankfully I did. So we've been driving around in our car all weekend (when we have to drive at all), fighting with 3 car seats in the back seat and no air conditioning. Brentwood is a suburban city, fairly spread out, with nothing in the way of public transportation. So to get anywhere pretty much requires a vehicle.

So what is a family to do when it's stuck at home on a Saturday? Why, make a scarecrow of course!

In other news, our Children's Sacrament Presentation was yesterday and was a success I think. I am the Primary President (I direct the children's organization for our church, which has about 80 active children in it), and this is a big presentation the kids do during our main church hour. So I'm glad it's over. Since I've been president the program has always been very simple: talk, scripture, song,... repeated about 8 times. Sometimes I wonder if there aren't parents out there who prefer the more traditional program where every child gets their own speaking part and moment of glory. If so, I would gladly submit their name for this position. :) I'm all for simple.

Of course my favorite part was when Sienna and the rest of the Sunbeam class recited their scripture, and I loved looking over to her section during the songs to see her singing the words. I may have 80 plus kids up on the stand to watch over, but I'm a mother first, right?

August Newsletter

Pictures from August are here.

Tennessee Tidbits
Aug 2008

We seem to always write the newsletter for the past month halfway into the next month. So Kristen has pulled out her calendar to let me know what we did:

I had a nice trip to Denver and Salt Lake at the start of the month. I stayed with Jim Earl at Denver, attending a statistics conference by day and living the life of a bachelor with Jim and Steven Earl by night. (Jim’s family was in Salt Lake and Steven’s girlfriend was studying.) We did wild things like going to the all-you-can-eat Sushi bar and the dollar theater back-to-back nights, watching pretty much the same plot in different movies (“Ironman” and “The Hulk”). It was great. Why’d I ever get married?

After the conference I climbed 13,085-ft Keller Mountain with my friend Layne, and then flew to Salt Lake for the weekend to say goodbye to Kendrick, beat Dad in a few games of ping pong, and see the extended Eastmond family. It was a fun visit, except for the humiliation of losing a ping pong game to Cyn. Even though I was blinded with the sun in my eyes, I admit, I lost to Cyn.

Meanwhile, while I was hard at work at this conference, Kristen was just lazing around with the kids. They went to the pool, the dentist, read lots of stories, had some baths, spent half a day at our ultimate Frisbee tournament, celebrated Kristen’s birthday without me, and had lots of primary meetings.

When I finally returned, August 11 (our In-Between Day), we celebrated Kristen’s birthday. She got “Settlers of Catan” (thanks Mom Shepherd who let me pick out a gift for Kristen and then paid for it). The next day we celebrated my birthday. I got “Settlers of Catan” from Kristen. Great minds think alike. Anyone want a “Settlers of Catan” game?

We also had a nice family trip to the Williamson County Fair. Sienna and I rode the Ferris wheel, we enjoyed looking at the animals, and we got to see several hog races. That was great. Ashley now sits like a pro and has two teeth.

Hope your month was great. Love,

Bryan, Kristen, Sienna, Colby, and Ashley

Trip to Utah

Last weekend Ashley and I went to Utah for the wedding of my brother Wes and his bride Sharlyn. They were married in the Logan, Utah temple. That's the last of my siblings to get married. It was so great to see my brother so happy. Thanks Sharlyn!

Even though Ashley was a "lap child", there were extra seats on the plane, which makes it so much easier to travel!!

Anna Clare, my mother in law, graciously came up to Logan to help watch Ashley during the Endowment and Temple Sealing. Thanks so much!

I especially enjoyed hanging out with long time friends from Alaska, the Rehders (and McKeachnies). (Who has the picture of me and Regen with our babies?? Please send it to me!!)

Unfortunately it's kind of a blurry picture. They're a beautiful couple!

First Day at Preschool

I'm a little late in posting this (as usual). Sienna's first day at preschool was last Tuesday. She attends a Montessori preschool, run out of the basement of a home of a family from our church. She loves it! Here she is on the first day, in front of the "school", and with her teacher, Mrs. Sarieh.

Ashley at 6 months

We took Ashley to get some pictures taken at 6 months. I think it is one of the best times to take pictures. Smiles come easily, and they're not old enough to be shy or scared of strangers. So we got some pretty cute ones. See for yourself.

Sign Language

Our primary is doing "I Am a Child of God" in sign language this year for our Sacrament Program. This video tape is for the benefit of my presidency and teachers (who I tried to send it to but it was too large, so it goes on my blog instead).

Thanks Natalie!

Pig Drama

One of Sienna's favorite things to do is to "make something." She asks daily, sometimes twice a day to "make something." Sometimes I'll have a nice craft prepared with fun materials, that goes with the season or holiday. But more often I use a website (such as DLTK) and find a quick craft. The busy, preoccupied, lazy me usually looks for an easy template that she can do almost entirely by herself: color, cut, glue/tape, voila! A happy kid and free time for mom.

Yesterday she wanted to make a pig while Bryan was mowing the lawn, so she could show him when he was done. She couldn't decide which template she liked better, so she wanted to make two. She spent a good hour on them, making sure the colors were just right, even cutting out scrap paper to paste over a part she accidentally colored but wanted to leave white. She was quite proud of them. Bryan played the role of the very impressed father perfectly, asking for a closer look after the first quick glance.

Less than an hour later we were gathered on the couch getting ready to read, and I casually commented to Sienna that Ashley (who was sitting on the floor) was eating one of her pigs. Sienna leaped across the room and grabbed it from Ashley, then abruptly burst into a wail accompanied by genuine tears. Oh the heartache! the distress! all that hard work now ruined! She was crushed.

My typical reaction (why can't you act like a grown-up instead of a 4 year old?) would have been something like, "it's your own fault, you left it on the floor." But I was in a mood. As I called Sienna to me to comfort her and reassure her that we could make another one tomorrow, I struggled to hold back my laughter. I couldn't stop giggling. By the time Bryan came into the room to ask what the fuss was about, I was the one in tears and could barely spit out "Ashley ate Sienna's pig!"

It hardly seems worth a chuckle right now. But at the time, it was so hilarious that a paper pig could cause such dramatic, genuine, pitiful despair.

If this were Colby, my laughter probably would have just made him more upset. But after a few minutes Sienna was laughing at herself, although I don't think she realized what was so funny.

And yes, we made another pig today.

Cute as can be

Guess who's cutting her first tooth?
Guess who's sitting up?
Guess who has the cutest smile?

Miss Ashley Rose, of course.

July Newsletter

It is now over halfway through August, and I'm finally posting our July newsletter. Pictures from the month are here.

Tennessee Tidbits

July 2008

The Fourth of July is one of our favorite holidays. It started with a neighborhood parade down our street. I (Bryan) was on the parade planning committee (which consisted of me, our neighbor, our neighbor’s husband, and the self-declared “Miss Carondolet” – a 13 year-old-girl who dresses the part each year by wearing a prom dress, crown, sash, and riding in the parade in a convertible). I recruited our Cub Scout troop to carry the flag. Sienna rode her tricycle, I walked next to her, and Colby was pulled in our red wagon by a girl in the ward. Ashley and Kristen were spectators – probably a more important job, given that the parade-walkers outnumber the spectators 5 to 1. It was a great parade. We climbed in a fire engine, Ashley won first place in the costume contest, and the Brentwood Journal had a picture of Oprah Winfrey’s dad (our parade’s celebrity) with our house in the background. How’s that for cool?

After naps, we had our friends Chuan, the Lindemanns, and the Smiths over for a barbeque. Following the barbeque, we and the Lindemanns rode our bikes 2 miles to Crocket Park for the annual firework show, with Sienna, Colby, and Ashley in the bike trailer. This year Sienna was “really brave” – she lay on my lap completely covered by a blanket except for her eyes, allowing her to occasionally peak a glance at the fireworks. Colby and Ashley just stared wide-eyed at them.

The next day, July 5th, was spent floating 10 miles down the Harpeth River in canoes with our friends, the Edgertons. The Lindemanns were kind enough to watch Ashley for us. The river was very calm, and the fishing wasn’t that good, but it was still a blast. And the occasional small ripples were plenty large enough to scare Colby. We were late getting back from the rafting trip, so we headed over to Chuan’s farewell party at a co-worker’s home in our swimsuits. Remind me not to bring Colby to work parties in the future – it’s hard to have a nice time while worrying that Colby will spill his food or break some fragile item in a not-so-childproof house.

We had a fun weekend with Craig and Kim and family visiting on their way to Wyoming. We are so sad that they are moving so far away. Sienna is already talking about and looking forward to seeing them at Christmas time in Utah.

Kristen and Ashley went to Arizona for Robin’s wedding later in the month. (Why would anyone get married in July in Arizona?) She had a great time and loved seeing family. As of today, Robin and Spencer are still happily married. I stayed home with Sienna and Colby, as it would have cost us an extra $1000 to fly the three of us out there for the weekend. We had a good time at home. Sienna and I made a list of things we wanted to do while Mommy was gone, and we did most of them: fly a kite, go out for ice cream, play at the playground, build a tent-fort with blankets and chairs, paint, ride our bikes, and go swimming. One of the days while Kristen was gone, I watched the Lindemanns baby while they floated down the river. They put their daughter in Ashley’s crib for a nap at 9am, and she stayed in the crib without making a peep until 3:15. The Lindemanns returned to our house 10 minutes after that. Yes, I’m a good baby-sitter.

The rest of July was filled with the usual: Ultimate Frisbee on Wednesdays, work, church, running, trips to the library, and game-nights with the Lindemanns or Edgertons, etc. July is a great month. Love,

Bryan, Kristen, Sienna, Colby, and Ashley

We can be crafty!

Sienna had some hand-me-down shortalls with a Veggie Tales patch on the front that was coming off. I didn't particularly care for the patch, so we ripped it off and did a little painting to try and cover up the mark on the fabric. We used a hand-drawn pattern on freezer paper. (Thanks for the tip, Tira!)
Methinks it's pretty cute. But what wouldn't be cute on such a girl with such a smile?

Philosophically speaking...

Here are some thoughtful comments from Sienna this week. They always come out of the blue, at random times.

Sienna: "Does Heavenly Father make our thinks?"


Sienna: "Why don't we see Heavenly Father when we look out the airplane window in the sky?"
Mom: "Because He lives in Heaven and Heaven is higher than the sky."
Sienna: "Why doesn't He fall?"
Mom: "Because He's God and He can do anything".
Sienna: "That's a miracle!"


Sienna: "Why is Ursula mean?"
Mom: "That's just the way she is I guess."
Sienna: "Heavenly Father needs to make her happy."

4th of July

It's time I posted about our 4th of July weekend. We had so much fun! It started with our annual neighborhood parade. This time we had the Cub Scouts from our ward lead the parade with the flag. It ends at the house across the street from us, with a fire engine, Popsicles, face tatoos, clown, etc. Ashley won the costume contest. It probably helped that grandmas were the judges.

After errands and naps, we got together with friends at our house for a BBQ, the kids splashed in the wading pool, and the adults played croquet. Then the Lindemanns joined us in a bike ride to our city part to watch the fireworks. Sienna talked all week about how brave she was going to be. During our croquet game the neighbors set off some small fireworks and Sienna made a mad dash for the house and wouldn't come out again. At the park she kept her head covered, but she did look out several times. This is an improvement! Colby and Ashley watched with little expression.

On Saturday, we went on a canoing trip on the Harpeth River with the Edgerton family. We left Ashley with the Lindemanns (who were so kind to watch her all day!) We met at 10 at the canoe rental place. I thought it would be around 3 hours or so. We didn't get out of the river until after 4! The kids were great sports and we had a ton of fun. We stopped several times to swim, fish, throw rocks, eat, etc.
Pictures from the canoe trip are here.