Sunday, October 17, 2010

She makes me laugh!

My little Miss Peyton is quite the performer! (I have no idea where she gets it from!) One of her favorite things right now is to listen and sing along with music on the mp3 player. She ignores everything else and will go off into her own world. Sometimes she will go out to the backyard and swing for a long time...



...other times she will simply twirl and sing. I love watching her and can't help but chuckle. I was on the computer the other day and she started singing "Welcome to the Luck Lady Saloon" from the Melodrama, Way Out West in a Dress, and twirling. I was able to take this video and she was totally unaware!

The Happy Farmer...

I know every mother feels this way, but I am so proud of Morgan. Just over a year ago she began taking violin lesson from Kris Briggs, a fabulous teacher, and she has come a long way! Besides the music, she has learned some great lessons. It is really a struggle everyday to get her to practice, but I think it is character building. Even though she gets frustrated because "it's hard" it is good that she has to work for it (most things come pretty easily for her). Even then, I think she is making remarkable progress. She is finishing up the Suzuki book 1 and is beginning book 2. I appreciate the time we spend together as I help her practice. I hope one day she will look back and appreciate it as well -- it must stink to have your mom be a music teacher. :)

I took this video about a month ago while she was preparing to pass off this song, "The Happy Farmer." Of course, she played it perfectly until I got out the camera, but she still did a good job. Morgan made me promise that I wouldn't post this on facebook, but she didn't say anything about my blog... Ha ha!


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Cougar Fans...

Our family loves the BYU Cougars! Whenever the Cougs play Air Force in Colorado Springs, we have the tradition of going down for the game. Holly and Brian were nice enough to watch Peyton and Cooper for us (we didn't think they would appreciate the game, the drive, and having to sit still), but we first had to get a picture in all our BYU apparel glory.


The Air Force Academy is such a great venue to bring the family to. The tailgate party was fun with Costa Vida, the cheerleaders, and pictures with Cosmo. Once in the stadium we love we loved watching the cadets in formation and the fly-over. There was a wonderful feeling there and being around the military felt like a fitting way to remember 9/11. There was a cool tribute to the heroes of 9/11 during halftime.

Sadly our boys didn't really show up to play, but we all had a great time together. We sure hope BYU will still play Air Force once in awhile so that we can continue our tradition!


Cougar fans: Ahlstrom family, Lyon family, Wasden family and Siders family


BYU touchdown!



First day of preschool...


I love that Peyton is so excited to learn! This year she is going to preschool at Miss. Wendy's and she absolutely LOVES it. Miss Wendy has some super fun things planned for the school year and Peyton looks forward to every school day. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that many of her friends are in her class. She sure likes going to school like a "big kid."

My Cooper Boy...

I am not quite sure where the last year went. Safe to say that I didn't spend it blogging. :) Somewhere in the sleepless haze, I remember lots of diapers and picking up messes. In any case, I was busy being a mom. I am glad that I was not so busy to enjoy some of the cute things that Cooper does, especially since he is my last little one.

I love the way Cooper hooks his finger over his nose while he sucks his thumb. Most of the time, rather than crawling, he does this little monkey scoot thing. (I need to get that on video soon because he is doing it less and less now that he is getting more comfortable with walking.) He also has a great belly laugh! On occasion he giggles, but more often than not, he bursts out with a great "HA!" He is so affectionate and gives great kisses and leans his head against you and sighs. This boy gets and gives lots of loves!

On the day he turned one we went to the park (while Morgan was at her violin lesson) and had a little photo shoot. We got some great shots, if I say so myself! Totally a "cuteness overload!"






To celebrate Cooper's first birthday we kept it simple at home. I made cupcakes and Morgan, Trevor, and Peyton helped him blow out is candle. He LOVED his cupcake and I loved his crazy hair after some of the frosting got in it.





Happy first birthday, my Cooper boy!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Ahoy matey!

I love Trevor's imagination! He loves to build and "invent" things. Recently we had to cut down some dead trees in our back yard and told Trevor he could go to town. Well he combined those trees, a wooden pallet that our shed was delivered on, many cardboard boxes, and almost an entire box of nails to make a boat. Many hours of focus went into building this masterpiece. I especially love the details of a rudder and a slingshot base to attack enemy craft.

It was a sad day when, after a few weeks, I told him that it needed to be torn down. I think he enjoyed the demolition almost as much as the creation! :)