Fun Kids Videos

Heard of They Might Be Giants? Check out their new videos with kids songs!

Here is one of Lily and my favorites:


Get this, they are touring and coming to Boise. How fun would that be. I remember loving their songs "Particle Man" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"

And a few extras... "It's like a bonus"

A couple weeks ago we had a delicious french toast dinner. Isaac was crying about something and I realized he had lost his fork. I looked to the floor first, of course, but didn't see it so I started the search around his seat. Low and behold he had reached behind him and stuck his fork on his back, thanks to the sticky syrup. I'll have to remember that one for next time I need to stick my fork somewhere I don't want to lose it! :D

Here are a few extra pictures from my Utah trip. I got to go have lunch with my previous boss and wonderful friend Elizabeth. I have soo many wonderful memories working with her at BYU. I'm soo glad and excited that Katie gets to work with her now! My mom also got Isaac these adorable Superman pjs. They remind me of my little brother Nick. He had a pair when he was 7 or so and wore them all the time.

These other pictures are from a fun day at the park with my family. Isaac and his cousin Trevyn liked playing with wood chips together. Isaac loved going down the slides. I had to try to take this picture of him and Trevyn on the slide like 4 times because every time I put him up there to take the shot he would turn around and slide down the slide on his belly.

And Lily ran off and made a new friend instantly. She even helped her climb to the top of the rock wall. It was a really neat park. I love this picture of my mom and Isaac. This is his classic "cheese" face.

Giraffes, Monkeys and a Baby Elephant too

Last week, while visiting my family in Utah, we were able to go to the Hogle Zoo. I have not been there since I was a little kid so it brought back some memories. Lily and Isaac loved seeing the baby elephant and the baby and adults giraffes. It was really fun to go with my mom and dad and my sister Kimberly. I'm sure I have a picture of me drinking from the lion's mouth water fountain.

Utah Children's Museum

Last week, the kids and I went to Utah to spend some time with my family. We had a great trip. One day we went to the Gateway Discovery Center. The kids had a blast, even little Isaac had plenty of things to do.

They had this fun area with lots of tunnels and plastic balls that you could put into various holes to see them travel through the tunnels. Isaac loved putting the balls into the tube that sucked them straight up. Check out this video.

They also had lots of pretend play areas: a construction site, a play house (inside they even had a little mouse hole), a grocery store, a gas station, a farm, a rock climbing wall, and a water play area. Lily and her cousin Trevyn also got to do an art project where you blow paint around your paper with a straw.

We were about ready to go and realized we hadn't even gone upstairs yet. So we thought we would take a peek. There was tons more stuff upstairs! They had a little theater with costumes to put on a play, as well as comic strip creation tables and a place to make your own little movie. You first choose your background. They you place the little play horses in front of the background and press the button to take a picture. Then you would move the horses a little and take another picture, continuing this for 15 pictures. Then press play and watch all your pictures come together. It was pretty cool! (My favorite part!) Lily enjoyed the comic strip area, coming up with her own little story to match the pictures she colored. She is so creative.

Then they had a big area with puzzles and magnets and blocks and all kinds of stuff, as well as a whole tv station set-up so older kids could play news anchor or camera man. They had this fans blowing up with a glass cage around them so you could insert little paper cupcake liners and watch them fly up and out. Lily and Trevyn did this for over 10 minutes and Isaac just watched them curiously. I also liked this wall they had with tubes you could arrange to make a tunnel to travel a ball from the top to the bottom. It was so fun to have my mom and sister there, especially my cute nephews Trevyn and Brayden.

Then they also had a terrace with a helicopter that made real LOUD helicopter noises. Lily was "brave" and enjoyed this part of the museum as well.

It was a big hit and we will definitely be going back next time we are in Salt Lake. I wish our Discovery Center would bring some of these fun, new activities!

Fall Time Favorites SWAP

Why do we love the Fall time? I love the smell of the cooler air and actually enjoying the day outside. I remember the excitement I felt when I was younger for the beginning of a new school year. Oh yes, and I absolutely love all the fun holidays we have coming... Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Here are twenty things I love about Autumn:

1. Stew, Chili, and Crock Pot Meals... oh, and corn bread!
2. Hot Tub Time
3. Watching football snuggled up to my husband
4. Fires in fireplaces (hopefully do that this year!)
5. New seasons of favorite TV shows (super silly, I know)
6. Wearing cute jackets and warm socks (goodbye flip flops, I'll miss you)
7. Shaving legs less often, warm welcome to slim fit jeans
8. Crunching and raking fall leaves
9. Coming into a warm house on a cold night
10. Pie... pumpkin, cherry, peach, berry, soo yummy.
11. Starting a new good book
12. Family fun outings and traveling
13. Pumpkin patches and pumpkin carving
14. Cute flannel pajamas on the kids
15. The smell of cinnamon
16. Adding another quilt on the bed
17. Caramel apples
18. Baking cookies to give to friends
19. Feeling of warmth
20. Cherished moments with family and friends

I also LOVE Fall decorations... I think because you get to leave them up for much longer than most other decorations, which is why I'm really excited about my sister-in-law's Fall Swap!



I hope you will join in on the fun. Costing you only $15 and you get to get a fun fall decoration, craft, treat, SURPRISE! in return! Head on over to her site to enter... maybe you will get a special surprise from me... :D

I think my front porch could use some fall inspiration. Any ideas for me? I love my blue door but my front porch really has no character. I want it to feel welcoming, warm, and friendly. Maybe I need to head over to my favorite Home Goods store for a shopping spree. :D

First Day of Preschool

Today was Lily's first day of preschool. Her friends Sarah and Ryan are in her class, along with many new friends that she is excited to get to know. She had a great first day. They talked about sharing and being kind. Lily got to pass out the napkins at snack time and has been talking all afternoon about having her teacher over for dinner, or a picnic, or to play. I guess it was love at first sight! Thursday is Grandparents Day and show and tell. I'm sure Lily will have lots to say about all the wonderful grandparents she has!

Labor Day

We had a nice weekend before Labor Day so we were excited to have one more day to our relaxing weekend. In the morning, Tommy and I had tennis lessons. During my lesson I was doing some lunging and hitting exercises and hurt my knee really bad. We tried to do some little exercises the rest of the lesson but by the time I drove home it was really painful. It hurt just to move from the brake to the gas. I don't know what I did but I've been resting it and icing it lots. We were planning on taking a little drive to a river to play and I'm glad we still got to go, even if I was Mrs. Hobble.

We found a nice river area with lots of rocks for the kids to throw in the water. Isaac even got into it. Lily had a blast and was a little sad I forgot her swimming suit. Maybe next weekend! Lily said, "I have a great idea! I can take off all my clothes and then I can go swimming!" Nice idea, eh? She also said, "I wish I was a rock so I could go fast." Too funny! Here are some pictures. The weather is perfect this week!

Lily the Gymnast

We like to keep Lily involved in different things so she can develop her own interests. With a new school year starting we asked her what she wanted to do: swimming, dancing, gymnastics, soccer, etc. At first she said baseball, but when we told her that is only in the spring she decided gymnastics would be fun. I'm a little sad to not take her to ballet, because it was soo cute to watch, but I know she will really love gymnastics. She has had two classes so far and really likes it. Her teacher is Russian so she has a really strong accent. The kids have a hard time understanding what she is saying sometimes. At the end of class she had the kids raise their arms up high and say "Thank you Coach." All the kids repeated after her, "Thank you Goj."

I like how firm she is with the kids to follow the rules, that is just what Lily needs! Here is a video of Lily trying out the head stand. She started out right next to the block, like all the other kids. But she couldn't stay up so she moved out further and figured out her own way to stay up. It was really funny to watch. I wish I had it from the beginning but I was keeping an eye on Isaac who keep walking out the open front door. Right after this video she went on to help Lily do it right, but it wasn't as funny. :D