Family letter

Aahh, I am loved - I got 6 comments last post! I've only been getting to blogging every other week, so I end up with a lot to say and post. Here's what's been going on the last two weeks.

We had our family pictures taken at the park across the street from the temple. I'm pleased with the results and we've already gotten them printed and displayed in our house!
Eden was still a little sick and wasn't happy when it was her turn for individuals. My neighbor, the photographer, took some of her on Thursday but I haven't gotten the CD yet. Can't wait - they looked cute!

Here's the promised picture of Steve in his new glasses - he looks super handsome, huh?
Last weekend was UEA break. We met J,L and P's families at Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. That's a fun place to visit each fall - there's a lot for the kids to do!
My little Princesses!
They loved putting on a show on this stage.
Little Eden, who sometimes seems surgically attached to my arms!
Cute cousin picture.
E&E on the tire swings.
Some of our crew.
We celebrated Karyssa and Lynn's birthdays.
I'm training Emily up to be my replacement holder.
These three got a little tired of walking!
3 friends on the grain train.
Tanna and Ella on the grain train.
The next day Jill and I went to the Scarecrow Festival - also at Thanksgiving point.
Ella, Tanna and Eden had fun in the little Toddler Town section for awhile.
Ok, Eden doesn't seem to like her replacement.
We're FINALLY next to ride the train!! We only waited in line about 45 minutes!
We also got to go to Farm Country. We got to do the wagon ride and pony ride as well. We had a fun day jumping on all the inflatables, playing all the carnival games, and going through the Jr. Haunted House about 100 times! The weather was beautiful and we actually got a bit sunburned!
Here's adorable Ella in her play glasses ready for preschool to start!
Here she is again ready for dance class. I've gotten crafty again lately and started whipping up some tutus. We made a pink one for Karyssa's b-day, a purple one for Ella, a purple and pink one for Tanna, and a green (Tinkerbelle) one for Emily. So cute!
Adorable Eden! She's full-fledged crawler now and crawls around to find us. She likes to pull herself up on anything and everything. She's also very active and likes to get into whatever she can get her hands (and mouth) on! Her top two teeth are bulging through, but haven't popped through yet! (I've been sympathizing with her lately as I've been nursing a GIANT canker ALL week! OUCH!) [Update: Right after I wrote this I noticed one of Eden's teeth actually has popped through! Yeah, Eden!]
Speaking of getting crafty, Steve and I have been busy sprucing up our living room. Last Saturday I asked Steve to hang up a new shelf for me. He thought that would be a great time to paint an accent wall in our living room. So we got busy picking a color, repairing the old nail holes, and painting the wall. We had a little trouble in a couple areas where the paint didn't stick to the new wall texture, so Steve redid those areas yesterday. Here's the almost finished result. (We're waiting for Eden's new pictures to fill in the last frame.) They're a little hard to see but it's a baby picture of each girl - it's amazing how similar they all look!)
Speaking of crafting, here's my Trick-or-Tree Ella and I made. She helped me strip the leaves off the branch (Steve did some pruning last week) and spray paint it black. Then Emily and Ella made the lollypop ghosts to hang on it!
We now have our family pictures on the other wall - just need Eden!
And my last craft post. When Krissy was here during conference, she mentioned that she cross-stitched. So somehow I got her to finish the cross-stitch that has been sitting on my shelf for years. All I had left was the backstitching and she was able to get it done during conference! I'm so happy to have it done. I started it in high school!!! I got it cleaned and framed and just need to hang it in the girls' room. Steve's been doing his own crafts as well. Here's the new shelf he hung in his cave with the custom figures he's been making. He's back into Megos now that he discovered they're being rereleased.
Here's one he recently finished.
The girls had their primary program today. It was so nice to sit back and enjoy watching it, instead of being in charge of it this year. They did an excellent job. E&E did great on their parts!

Steve and I took the plunge and have been working on getting Eden to sleep in her own bed at night with no feedings. Night one: She woke up at 11:30 and screamed her head off for an hour and a half. We were practically deaf after that. She woke up 3-4 more times but we were able to walk her to sleep in about 10 minutes. Night two: She woke up 3-4 times for about 10 minutes each. Night three: She woke up ONCE for about ten minutes!! Tonight's Night four and we're hoping for the best!! I figure beyond the obvious benefits, it sure is adorable to have her snuggle and fall asleep in my arms!!

We've been hearing a lot about the flu and swine flu lately. Luckily we've been healthy so far. I've been having the preschool kids put on sanitizer before they even come in! And we're more diligent about washing when we come home.

Couple of cute stories. Emily has been walking around with a play phone stuck to her ear all week having pretend conversations. One time I started talking to her when she stopped talking. She said, "Shhh...Now I'm listening to the soothing music!"

One day Emily came home from school with a scrap of paper that her friend Braydon had written his phone number on. Daddy was very nervous when he found out she'd given him her number as well!! He came to play one day, and she played at his house yesterday. She's always gotten along with boys great.

Steve and I rented Seventeen Again last night. Cute chick flick -even Steve enjoyed it. I've been busy following the coupon sites and trying to get deals on groceries and Christmas presents - I really want to be done before the Christmas craziness comes! Happy Halloween this week!

Family letter

Ok, I put my heart, soul and entire Sunday afternoon into my last post and apparently only mom, dad and Mark ever check up on me! So now you are my new favorites in the family and this blog is dedicated to you!!!

Our actual anniversary was on a Monday, so we decided to drive the Alpine Loop and see the fall colors. It was beautiful and we ended up meeting a couple from our ward there that took our picture for us!
We really enjoyed conference weekend last week. I loved all the talks and enjoyed hearing from the prophets again. We had fun visiting with Chris, Krissy, Sloane, and Holden. Chris must be slowing down in his old age because he actually spent several hours in my house at one time!! (Well, I guess I should subtract the time he spent going to get lunch!) Steve ended up coming home early that day - slow work day - and we headed down to the BYU bookstore. I hadn't gone there in ages. But we picked the WRONG day! Not only was it extra busy for conference weekend visitors, but I'm sure there were missionary reunion visitors. AND it was the big BYU/USU game that evening. So the store was packed. But we did get some BYU creamery ice cream out of the deal!
Here's the kids watching conference and playing conference bingo. While Holden only lasted about a minute, the other girls lasted at least an hour, then played quietly, but still listened for the words they needed. They ended up hearing all the words except tithing.
Sunday night, Emily had earned all her pebbles (for good behavior) and decided to have another family sleepover. She didn't have school the next day, but daddy did, so we had it in our bedroom. Here's the girls with all the toys they can't sleep without!
We went to library time the next day and this is how I found my girls after I finished checking out the books. So adorable and they so LOVE books!
They read their books all the way to SLC where we visited the children's museum again. It's been awhile, so we had a blast!
Even Eden was able to enjoy herself this time!
The drive home was pretty eventful, though. After having it out with a RUDE parking lot attendant and already being stressed out, I had something fly into my car on the freeway. The truck in front of me on my right was pulling a trailer and the metal wheel cover came off and flew right into my windshield! I thought it was just a mudflap, so I didn't swerve to avoid it. Then I heard the crash and screech as it slid down the side of my car. I was glad I didn't cause an accident, but it was a bit unnerving. I didn't know if I had any damage to my car, but I wrote down the guy's license plate numbers. I didn't really want to wave him down, for fear of a crazy man with my 3 kids in the car. When I got home, I realized that there were several deep scratches on both side windows and both pillars. So I got to call Steve to report a claim. So I had to deal with going to the Highway patrol office to report the claim and see if they can find the guy. Of course, it was an ALASKA plate, so I'm probably out of luck. The estimate came back at $1000 of damages! Luckily, Steve knows how to replace windows. I've decided that driving is just WAY too dangerous lately. A couple of weeks ago, Steve sideswiped a giant rock trying to avoid a merging car and cause $1000 worth of damage to his car. I constantly get people trying to merge into me on all this dang road construction in American Fork. Right by my house they are putting in a new rail line, which makes the road 1 lane most of the day. They are completely redoing the freeway exit by my house and it's down to 3 lanes on state street. I thought construction season was almost over, but it's still full-blown going around my house! They finally finished putting in all the new water pipes in our neighborhood. Now we have to pay some contractor several hundred dollars to connect our pipes to it. And I DON'T even want it! It makes the outside water non-culinary, which means we won't be able to use my outdoor drinking fountain anymore. Ah, the joys of home and car ownership!

Here's a pic of Ella's preschool class on Cat in the Hat day!
3 sisters playing dollhouse together! I love it!
Even though Eden still prefers being held 99% of the time, she does enjoy exploring the floor level occasionally!
Here's Ella on Wacky Wednesday day! She was so excited and knew exactly how she wanted to dress herself!
Emily got to dress up for 1st grade as well! They were having career day - guess what Emily wants to be when she grows up?
Friday, I took the girls to the Provo library to see the Dollhouse Festival. Paige and Natalia met up with us as well. It was fun to see all the dollhouses they were auctioning off. They also had a boutique and some kids activities. We didn't buy tickets for the Mad Hatter Tea Party the next day, but we did like the display!
They also got their faces painted.
Then Steve met up with us and we went to Payson to visit Grandma and Grandpa Tanner. It was fun to see them again and the girls enjoyed running around their backyard for awhile. Then we stopped to visit Lynn, but poor Steve wasn't feeling well. So the next day we went to Costco so Steve could have his eyes checked. He's been having really bad eye strain from sitting at the computer too much at work. Turns out he needs glasses for near and far-sightedness. When Steve told me he needed bifocals, I burst out laughing - even though we were sitting in the very busy food court! Oh, I have to get some joy out of my aging husband, right? Anyway, he decided just to get single vision lenses for computer work and he'll get another pair for distances later. Check back next week for pictures of my handsome distinguished husband! Here's E&E enjoying the digital piano at Costco that I REALLY want to buy!!!!! Maybe Santa will bring it.
Today Steve and Eden stayed home from church. Steve has no voice and Eden's been sick for a couple of weeks now, so it was probably best. I can't wait for Eden to get better and be happy again!!

We had family pictures taken yesterday. I'm excited to see how they turned out! My neighbor took them for us at the amphitheater across from the temple. Eden wouldn't sit for her pictures, so she said she'd take some of her another time. That's nice. Emily also had her first art class and loved it. That's what she chose instead of dance class (like Ella), so I'm glad she's learning her likes/dislikes and talents. We're up for another busy week. Only 3 days of school because of UEA, but I seem to sure know how to stay busy on holidays!!