November, part two

Some notes that didn't get put into November's post:


We got a new roof on Nov 7, 2011. There had been some wind damage, and Mom suggested I talk to my homeowner's insurance about it. After they sent out a claims person, and he walked all over our roof, he said they could pay to have the front half of the roof re-shingled. (old shingles off, new ones on)
So we had a roofer come give us a bid, and it turned out that he could just put new shingles over the old ones, and it would all be covered by the amount the insurance was giving us. He said the warranty for 40 years would still be fine, and it would be a great roof, even with old ones underneath.
What a blessing: to get a brand new roof, and not have to pay for it at all!! Of course, our premium will go up, and I won't even know by how much until May, but for now, it seems great!


Katie is so great about helping and wanting to do what is right. Katie is so smart. She is doing so wonderful with reading, and she amazes me with all she learns in school. When I put Katie to bed, she wants me to rub her back and neck and sing "Love One Another". Then she falls asleep almost instantly.

When I put Elayna to bed, she has  a large variety of songs: "Song of a bird" (My Heavenly Father Loves Me), "that one Katie does?" (Love One Another), "Heaven" (I Lived in Heaven),  and "not the heaven one" (My Savior Loves Me). Sometimes she will just say, "think about it Mom" which means I need to list songs until I say the one she wants. After the song, I'll say, "I love you, sweet dreams, sleep well." I repeat it until she smiles or laughs. The last couple of days, after I repeat it, she will say "You only have to say it once Mom".  Then she blinks her eyes at me-which means I need to tickle her with my eyelashes, and she tickles my face with hers. She's fun to put to bed, and she is getting to the point that she almost only needs naps ever other day, or else it is hard to get her to go to sleep.

Annalisa likes to eat some baby food (peas, green beans, or applesauce, for now) mixed with cereal, drink some water, nurse on both sides, AND have about 3 oz formula before she goes to sleep.
Ryan usually gives her the bottle while I get the other two ready for bed. Then Ryan listens for all 3 of them until he comes to bed around 2 am. This helps me sleep so well for the first half of the night. I know Ryan will take care of anything that happens, and I don't have to worry about it.  Annalisa usually sleeps until 6, then goes back to sleep after I nurse her, until about 8 or 830. She'll go back down a little after 9, for 1 and 1/2 or 2 hours. Then she sleeps after lunch also, about 2 hours.  11-10-11


Ryan was released from the Elder's Quorum Presidency. I think he enjoyed being in the Presidency, but he is the Ward Choir Pianist already. Plus, with me being in Young Women's, he can watch the girls while I'm fulfilling my calling. He's so supportive! 11-13-11

Annalisa got her first tooth (bottom) on Thanksgiving Day. 11-24-11.We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We are blessed to have so much family around. We ate at Mickie's house, and ate dessert at my parent's house. We had a wonderful day.


Elayna will say, "What the heck-o?"
Elayna drew on a desk that I was trying to sell.  I was pretty upset about it and made her clean it up. When she told Irma about it later, she said that "Mom was just yelling and yelling and yelling."

Katie and Elayna were in the tub, and they were being noisy. I told them to be quiet because they were right next to the baby. (her room is right by the bathroom) They both gave me blank looks, then Katie said, "well, there is lots of space in between us..."  11-24-11

Ryan put up Christmas lights. We worked and played outside while he was doing that. The weather was so nice and warm. Ryan worked from home so that Katie, Elayna and I could go up and see the Temple Square lights with John, Emma, Irma, Denora, Kelsey, Taylor, Jasmine, Shelise and Lexy.It seemed like it was going to be too much work, but Irma and Ryan convinced me to go, and we had fun. Everyone helped me keep track of the girls, and it was a neat experience. When we got too cold, we would go into the Visitor's Center to warm up. 11-26-11

Dad sang the Bass Solo for the Messiah Sing-a-long again this year. I love going. I love to hear Dad sing, and I love to sing along, with Ryan by my side. 11-27-11

November 2011

It snowed tons on Nov 1. It broke some of our branches.

This poor tree was just resting on our roof, it had too much snow on it to stay up by itself.

The power was out for about 2 hours on Nov 2. Katie was at school. The sun shines right into their room, so they weren't even affected by it. Ryan had worked late the night before, so he was still home when it went out. So he got to sleep a little longer, since the power was out as far north as Springville. Elayna was so funny. She would try a light, then say, "It doesn't work!" I would say, "nope, the power is out. None of the lights work at all." We did this with EVERY light switch upstairs. "This light switch doesn't work either!!"

 It snowed again a lot on the 5th. This is Katie, clearing off the driveway:

A cute picture of Annalisa and Elayna:

Amanda, Alisha, and Mom ran a half marathon in St George the first weekend in November.  I got to come along, and bring Annalisa also. They did a great job! When they were about a mile from the finish line, they called me, and I went and walked from the finish line to where they were, then back to the finish with them. Annalisa was in a stroller. It was kinda windy and cold. Mom, Alisha, and Amanda were freezing. After the race, we went back to the hotel, and they sat in the hot tub for a long time, trying to warm up. Annalisa just sat in her carseat and watched us sitting in the hot tub. We did a little shopping, watched the movie "The Help" -very good-- and ate some dinner. Then we left the next morning. Poor Alisha. She flew into Salt Lake on Friday afternoon, drove to St George Friday night, ran a half marathon Saturday morning, then had to drive back to Salt Lake to fly home to the East Coast on Sunday. A very short and busy trip for her. I'm really glad she came though. It was so much fun to just hang out with my sisters and mom. They are my best friends. And Annalisa was so great. She had 4 "Moms" seeing to her every need, so I don't think she cried the whole weekend.

 At a restaurant after the race:

 Katie has been saying for a while that she wants bangs. So, Nov 10th, I asked Amanda to come and cut some for her. These are the before:

 and after pictures:

11-14-11 Apparently Katie  was getting too much attention for having her hair cut. It was one of those days where I wanted Katie to take a nap because she had gymnastics today, and she is usually pretty tired from the weekend anyways. Neither Katie nor Elayna took a nap, which makes us all grumpy. So I was doing my best to ignore them while they played in their room, I thought. Katie came out with a handful of blond hair and said that Elayna was cutting her hair. I went into the den/Annalisa's room, and saw Elayna sitting on the floor, scissors in hand, and hair stuck to her clothes. Thankfully it wasn't much, and it was long enough I can pull it back into clips. I asked her why she did it, and she said she was big, and her hair needed to be short because she was growing up.

I also wanted Katie to take a nap on the 14th, because my parent's went and saw Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at a high school in Spanish Fork called ALA. I love R&H Cinderella, and they said it was an amazing show, mostly because of the costumes and scenery. I wanted to take my girls to go see it, and Ryan convinced me that it would be fun to just take Katie on a date and go. So as soon as gymnastics was over, we hurried and got dressed up, grabbed some food at Wendy's and rushed to the school. We got seats about 4 rows back, but on the very left side. It was so fun to watch Katie's reaction. She had no idea what a play was, and it was hard for me to describe it in a way that was different from TV. After the first lights darkening part, she said, "It's not over yet!". She said that each time the lights went down. And when the spotlights were on, she looked back to see where they were coming from. She wondered how they all knew how to do the dance at the ball. She was excited that we got to buy a treat and eat it while watching and waiting. (We got there about 15 minutes early.) She was physically jumping out of her seat during parts. I had her sit on my lap for a lot of it, because it was hard for her to see the stage really well. When the Fairy Godmother appeared, they made a loud popping noise and shot some confetti out, right in front of us. We all jumped! It was quite startling, and fun. Katie got all cute and excited when the Prince and Cinderella were walking in the garden and falling in love and about to kiss. It was like a physical manifestation of how my insides feel when a romantic and cute part in movies (or plays) happens. She was clutching my hand, kissing my cheek, and sitting on my lap. When we were leaving the school, Katie asked if we could watch another play soon. She was just so cute about the whole thing. She kept giving me hugs, holding my hand, and telling me she was having fun. What a sweetheart.

Ryan and Elayna had a date at home. Ryan brought some Taco Time home, and they watched Power Puff Girls. I guess one episode was about magical chalk that turned into whatever was drawn. Ryan said Elayna's face looked amazed and excited. A bunny bringing magical chalk to Bubbles, and then the chalk turning into something real? That is like Elayna's dream come true!

After Katie and I got home (around 945), we put her in bed, then Ryan and I just sat on the bed and compared notes about the night and the girls. It was really fun to just sit there and talk and laugh about how cute our wonderful girls are. It was so much fun to just watch their reactions to something new and different.

Annalisa in her high chair-eating some toys: 

Elayna's hair is getting so long: 

Annalisa  really wanted to touch those little animals that kept moving around:

Another snow picture (from the 19th):

Annalisa held her bottle all by herself for the whole feeding last night. I gave it to her in her crib, then put new water in the humidifier, moved some blankets around,  and Annalisa was still holding the bottle, even though she looked asleep. She is laughing so much more. Katie can get her to laugh almost anytime she wants.

I've been helping with Katie's class-it's been fun. Elayna and Annalisa came with me today (11-15-11) and Elayna seemed so in awe of it all. She followed Katie everywhere. Mostly because Katie kept dragging her places and telling her what to do, but you know. She sat quietly and walked in line to the library quietly. I think they both had fun with it. Katie is doing so well in school. She is reading the Sam Books. She is at Book 33 right now. It is amazing how she can learn 2-3 new words each time she reads a story. She is so smart!

Elayna knows all her letters, can count to 5, almost 10, with a little help.

We were going into a store, and I mentioned that we would need to go to the bathroom. I asked Elayna if her pants were dry. She said "No, the car water got them wet." What?? I clarified, "Is your underwear wet?"  "No, my pants are wet, but my underwear is dry." Okay, I guess I'll check that when we get inside. Then, as we are walking in, I noticed that the bottom of her pants were soaked up to about 3 inches. The "car water" must be puddles.  11-22-11

Annalisa's 6 month appointment was Nov 16, 2011. She weighs 17 lbs (66 percentile) and is 27.5 inches long  (94 percentile).  We took her for a well check up, and while the doctor was checking her ears, (almost as an afterthought,) he said she had a really bad ear infection in both ears! What?! I didn't even realize she was hurting! He gave us some antibiotics, and when we saw another doctor after the antibiotics were gone, he said the infection was all gone. Thank goodness for medicine!  Otherwise, she is growing and developing just as she should. She is eating a little baby food, and nursing a lot. She's a happy, fun baby.

Putting decorations on the Christmas tree!! I actually let Katie and Elayna put most of the ornaments on this year. I usually "forget" and decorate the tree while they are asleep, but I decided they should experience it.  I think they had fun. I put the most fragile decorations on by myself, but I thought they did a very good job of spacing the ornaments out pretty evenly, and making the tree look good.

October 2011

This was taken mid October. I seriously have the cutest girls ever!  I love my Annalisa, Elayna, and Katie!!

Katie and Elayna put up Halloween decorations Oct 8. Do you see any resemblance to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder here? 

Another decoration that Katie made. It is a ghost saying "BOO" and a little mouse saying "AAA". I thought it was very creative and cute.

The Temple Groundbreaking ceremony was on Oct 8, 2011. I had gotten up at 6 AM to go volunteer with the Bountiful Basket Co-op, and was pretty tired out when it was time to go to the church to watch the ceremony. In fact, I thought I had run out of time, and was discouraged that I wouldn't have time to get ready and go. When I got home, Ryan convinced me to go, and I took Katie. I am so glad I went!! It was such a wonderful spiritual experience. I thought it would be a prayer, some digging, and we would be done.

This is an artist's rendition of the Payson Utah Temple. It is amazingly gorgeous! I am so excited to have a temple so close by.  

Elder Dallin H Oaks presided over the ceremony. He had lived in Spring Lake during summers as a child, so had some fun memories and attachments to the area. Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy is the executive director of the Temple Department. He talked about the importance of temple work. Sister Janette Hales Beckham, General Young Women president from 1992 to 1997 and a Spanish Fork native, also spoke.   Elder Steven E. Snow of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Sister Vicki V. Walker, wife of Elder Walker talked also. It was such a spiritual experience. I was so glad that I went, and dragged Katie along with me.

Irma and Jerry drove down the Oregon Coast Oct 8-16, and Mom and Dad went to Mike and Kristine's house Oct 12-19.  My life seems so boring and I feel like I have no one to visit or talk to when either or both sets of parents are gone. Which is silly, since I have tons of family all around me.

Happy Annalisa:

Annalisa tried rice cereal Oct 3 and peas on Oct 21. She was happy with both, and is excited to try new foods.


Red Ribbon Week at school was fun for Katie. On Friday, Oct 14, they had crazy hair day, and they also had a field trip to the fire station. Elayna, of course, also had to have crazy hair. The field trip was really interesting too. The kids got to spray the fire hose, watch as one child had the fire safety suit put on (poor little girl could barely hold all those clothes up), and yell as loud as they could. The firefighter told them that in case of a fire, they should get on the ground, start towards the door, yell as loudly as possible, and he would come find them no matter what. Very good advice. Plus, getting them to yell loudly was a good idea. Most kids are told to not yell, so this was a good experience.

There was a day that I want to remember forever. Katie and Elayna convinced me to come play in the backyard with them. I was holding Annalisa, so it was not very easy, but we kicked some big balls back and forth. We ran a little, and played in the leaves. Then I told them I couldn't do it anymore. I sat on the back patio, holding Annalisa on my lap, watching Katie and Elayna play on the swing set. The sun was at just the right angle, and shown through the leaves as though it was a spotlight, turned directly on them. There was a slight wind, and the sun was warm. Their hair was glistening, and they were giggling and laughing and having so much fun. They would take turns standing on the slide, then "falling" and sliding under the sister that was below them on the slide. Then they would both slide down to the bottom, giggling the whole way. It truly looked like a commercial for a perfect sister moment. 10-15-11

October 16, Ryan and the girls were playing downstairs. Elayna fell and hit her head on the piano. She cried for a while, then Ryan sent her upstairs to go to the bathroom or something. The back of her hair felt wet, and I thought it was sweat, from playing so much. But when I looked, she was bleeding. We put some ice on it, and held her close for a while.

  I wondered if we should have brought her to the doctor, but Ryan convinced me it was small enough that we didn't need to worry about it. Of course, he was right, and it healed fine, as you can see.

 Us girls cuddling on the couch at Irma's house:

Annalisa figured out how to sit by herself on Oct 28:

She was pretty happy with the accomplishment:

Annalisa can hold her bottle (and sippy cup) for 20 seconds by herself. She loves her sisters, and gets so excited when she hears or sees them. Katie can carry her around, and they both seem to enjoy that. Katie can make her laugh more than anyone else.

Elayna's 3 year checkup was on Oct 26. She weighs 30 lbs, and is doing fantastic. The night before, I filled out a 4 page questionnaire that the clinic had mailed to me. All about her motor skills, her social skills, eating and sleeping habits, etc. I think it made the appointment go a lot faster, because the doctor could see at a glance how she was doing, and he didn't need to take the time to test if she could jump, or walk up stairs, etc.

A perfect fall day to play in the leaves. Oct 29: 

Annalisa has been sleeping in the bassinet all this time. We finally got the crib up and put her in it Oct 28. She slept all night long, without waking to eat or anything. The next morning I put her in the bassinet, and took this picture. She was way too squished!! No wonder she slept so well in the crib.

She tried some carrots that I had cooked and put through a hand held baby grinder thing. I think they were too solid. She didn't like them at all. It wasn't smooth, like baby food, so I think it was hard for her to eat.

My parents had their annual Halloween party. The kids have fun with the obstacle course downstairs and seeing all the fun costumes. Katie was a vampire butterfly. (I know, what?):

 Elayna was a cuddly Care Bear:

 Showing off the wings:

 All 3 girls together in their costumes. Annalisa was a cute little pumpkin.

We met at a Mexican restaurant in Provo with the Bowman's for Halloween. I drove up with the 3 girls by myself because Ryan needed to stay at work for a little while. He came to the restaurant later. When I got out of the car, I found out that Elayna had messed her underwear, so I took her into the bathroom and tried to change her. Thank goodness Irma and Jerry were already there to watch Katie and Annalisa while I was helping Elayna. Trying to change a 3 year old, in a bathroom that doesn't have a counter, much less a diaper changing station, is not very fun. It had gone all the way through the underwear, the clothes she was wearing, and the costume. Thankfully I had some extra clothes that we changed her into.  Not much later, she did it again and I had to go through the process again. Ugh. At least this time it had just messed her underwear, so I put a diaper on her because I could tell she had diarrhea, and wasn't going to be able to keep her underwear clean the rest of the night. We were going bowling after dinner.

The dinner wasn't a great experience, mostly cause I was in a bad mood. The Bowman's all helped, of course, but I was just onery. I had convinced myself that I wasn't going to go bowling, because I was tired, the girls were tired, and I was not very happy. Ryan convinced me that I should try it, and the girls would be fine. Once again, he was right, of course, and it turned out to be very fun. Katie and Elayna really enjoyed pushing the bowling ball down the ramp.

As we were leaving town to go to Halloween festivities with the Bowmans, the 2nd stoplight in Santaquin started working.  It is so crazy to have 2 stoplights in Santaquin, and both within the last year.

Some cute pictures of Annalisa to end with: 

 Pretty smile:

 Her ab workout:

September 2011

Ryan was taking a nap with Annalisa. I went in to check on them, and found them like this:

Irma, Katie and Elayna, at the lake by Palmer's cabin in Fairview:

My cute little boating girls:

Getting rides from Grandpa Jerry and Uncle Matthew:

These are some pictures from when Kristine and Jessica were here from Sept 24-26.  
Aizek, Jessica, and Annalisa. Annalisa is the oldest, then Aizek (6 weeks later), then Jessica (6 weeks after that). Aizek looks so light, and Jessica looks so dark. Their hair color is drastically different also.

Annalisa, Aizek, and Jessica- all in their blessing clothes. I was happy that Annalisa still fit in hers!

Annalisa gave me a "kiss" on Sept 1- she held her mouth open and purposely put her mouth on my cheek, then smiled when I said Thank You! She gets so excited to see us. She squirms and smiles so big. She takes a bottle easily now. She loves "Pattycake". When I called to set up her 4 month appointment, the receptionist asked for her birthday and my mind went completely blank. It took a good 5-10 seconds to even remember what month she was born in. It was pretty embarrassing.

What a cute smile!!

 Annalisa does this funny "belly crunch" to try and sit up, or to see what is going on:

Annalisa went to her 4 month well child checkup Sept 15, 2011. She was 15 lbs, and 26.6 inches long. She is doing really well in everything. She had to have more immunization shots, so she cried, but at least I know she won't die from some crazy horrible disease.

Grabbing those adorable toes:

Annalisa rolled from her stomach to her back at Bowman's house on the 15th. I saw her roll 3 times in a row on Sept 22.  Annalisa loves to "stand", jump, be tickled, have her sisters talk and play with her. She is grabbing things, and loves to watch hands move.

This is Annalisa, starting to roll over: 

 And this is her crying, when it didn't work exactly how she wanted:

When nursing, she searches for something to grab. She will intertwine her fingers in mine. I seem to be enjoying the small things more than I remember doing with Katie and Elayna. I love looking at and touching Annalisa's feet and little hands. I love to watch her watching my hands. She is so intent. Sept 29.

I just can't get enough of Annalisa grabbing her toes. It is so cute! 

Annalisa - watching me snap my fingers:

It is so interesting with this baby. I only used 1 or 2 blankets with Katie and Elayna. With Annalisa, I have 7 or 8 blankets around the house, and sometimes I can't find any. I also used to prefer just white diaper cloth for burp cloths. With Annalisa, I prefer the pretty, embroidered flannel ones.


Elayna is very dramatic. She loves Barbies, and princesses. She asks for Katie a lot, especially when she wakes up from her nap. She loves art-painting, coloring, using markers, cutting, etc. She also makes lots of messes, but I try to not get to upset about them.

Elayna, playing with tiny Princess dolls. She really loves these toys. 

She can pedal a tricycle and the training bike. The bike is too tall for her, or I think she would be riding that all around. She is also really good about playing by herself for long periods of time. That is kind of a disadvantage, because I tend to start working, she'll start playing, and then it is time for Katie to come home, and I haven't had the one-on-one time with Elayna that I should be having while Annalisa is asleep.


Elayna was talking to Mom about something, and Mom asked, "Really?" and Elayna replied, "I'm serious!" 9-29-11

Elayna wants to hold Annalisa, but after just a minute, she will say, "Heavy!" and start to push Annalisa off. 

Katie can do so many things right now. She rode her bike to school with me on Sept 14.  She got tired, and we rested once or twice, but she did it!  She does gymnastics, rides her bike, reads, and almost washes her hair all by herself. Not an easy feat with all that long hair.

 We went to Kindergarten assessment with Ms Halter - Katie is leaps and bounds above where she should be. She is so smart and catches on to new stuff very quickly.

A picnic at Payson Park, with Clarissa and Irma: 

 Ryan replaced the light bulb in the stairway - it is up very very high. The only way to change it was to get a ladder that extends on both sides, try to balance it carefully on the stairs, and then change the bulb. Understandably, it didn't get changed, hardly ever. Then I found a light bulb changer extender thing. It has a grip on the end of a long pole, so you can just change the bulb while standing on the ground. The reason I bring this up, is because Katie was so excited that we had a light in the stairway. She wanted to show all her friends. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her friends probably wouldn't care.

Katie loves to cuddle, kiss, and hug. Plus, she feels so comfy on her Dad's back.