Happy Birthday Natalie!

2 Years Old ! Trying her best to blow out those 2 little candles!

Opening presents with the Miller Family. And going to town on the candy corn from Shawn, Nate and Jake.

Having fun playing at the park in the rain! I had planned to go to the park as a family to play and have a picnic, until it started to rain. But then I decided the rain wasn't going to stop us!

One last picture before bed by all the birthday presents!

Our little Monkey Girl

Natalie has always been a little dare-devil! She is not at all afraid to climb anywhere, jump off the edge of the swimming pool, whether or not I'm there to catch her (in fact she gets upset with me for not moving out of the way so she can do it herself), swing as high as possible (she doesn't like me to push her on swings anymore - she always says "no - high mommy. Daddy high," - translated Daddy pushes her high like she likes).

So, here's the little dare-devil monkey girl on the top of our pasture fence. She would be standing at the very top if Nate didn't keep asking her go back down a little bit. Sammy is entertained holding a dragonfly.

I've been meaning to write down a couple other things about Natalie:

• Two of the things she says the most are "myself" and "I wanna try." She wants to try everything, and she really wants to do everything her self - yes she will be 2 years old this week.
• I love that she says "shucks" all the time. When she spills her cup, when something breaks, when a hornet stung me today(ouch), etc. It always cracks me up!
• She says "potty bad" all the time. She really goes a lot of the time, but she also knows how to use the "potty card," especially at bed time and during Sacrament meeting.
• She loves to play with her hair and with my hair, especially when she's tired. She's totally a hair twirler when she's sleepy. However, she does not like me, or anybody besides herself, to mess with her hair!
• She is so particular! If I put her in Sam's seat instead of her own, I will definitely hear about it. She knows how things are supposed to go, and how she wants things to go, and she lets me know if I mess up!

Ready for Church

I had to get a picture of Sam and Natalie with their matching backpacks on, all ready for church. We started putting the church snacks/toys/books in a backpack that Sam would bring, but then Natalie wanted to carry it too. Thus, 2 backpacks, not to mention seperate snack bags - with their names on them.

Natalie is loving nursery and doing great in it, and now tells me goodbye (without crying) when she hears the closing song. Sam still thinks it's hard to sit through 3 hours of church now that he's in Primary, but he's doing really well and liking it for the most part. I started playing the piano in primary the last block, and it's been fun to come in and kind of see how he's doing from a distance. This last week while I was playing, I noticed a little voice singing loud and clear, one sentence behind everybody else. Even though I couldn't see around the piano, I knew that little voice. It was so cute! The primary chorister (Cami Harbertson), also loved the little solo.

Gorillas at the Park and our little Monkey Doodle

When I first spotted these two creatures off by themselves on the far end of the playground, I knew we were in for a treat. I grabbed Sam and we were off.

Rarely do you encounter gorillas at a city park. I suppose that highschool kids dressed up as gorillas are a bit more common, but no less weird. These two weren't just wearing costumes, they were lumbering around on their knuckles and playing on tree trunks that were nearly parallel to the ground.


About fifteen minutes later, we saw a man riding around the park on his mountain bike with a cockatoo on his shoulder. The large white bird's flight feathers had been clipped but the bird was not tethered or fastened to the man in any way. It reminded me of a construction worker's happy-go-lucky dog that stands precariously close to the edge, on top of the tool box, in the back of the pickup truck, in too deep a bliss to realize its owner is just one bump away from needing a replacement at the pet store. Before we had a chance to ask many questions the cockatoo man was telling us all kinds of interesting tidbits about his companion. You know, stuff like the bird trashes the house when left alone outside of its cage and that he's chewed on the brake cables of the bike and that he's even shredded and rolled around in an unattended hamburger from Wendy's. The cockatoo man wanted to let us know that he was more than a little skeptical of the veterinarian's prescribed method for getting the grease out of the feathers.

Both the gorilla guys and the cockatoo man were more than happy to stop what they were doing when they noticed little kids approaching them. In fact, they almost seemed prepared for the show, like a zoo employee getting reading for the next crowd. You could almost hear them sticking to a script in their responses. Having eccentric interests myself, I have some understanding of this. When I walk the llamas down main street in Farmington I can tell you with 95% accuracy what 5 questions I'll be asked. ("Why again, do you have llamas?", "Do they really spit?", and "Tell me one more time, is there a reason you have the llamas?" being the chief three.) But the degree to which these guys seek out people to gawk at them and parade their oddness, even makes me look mainstream.

In conclusion, I like people that see themselves fulfilling some noble civic duty by dressing up as gorillas or letting a cockatoo ride shotgun with them on their bike for the sake of the kids at the park.

Picnic at the Park with the Prisbreys

The last few days have been a count-down to the Prisbreys coming to visit. Every day Sam would say "just 2 more days until Lily's coming," etc. Then this morning, he woke up a half hour early and came running into our room with his eyes half closed still to say "Lily's here today!" It was very cute to see how excited he was to see his cousin after a few months. We were all excited. So, Nate suggested we do a picnic at the Layton Duck Park during his lunch break. It was a lot of fun!

My Little Super Hero

Here's Sammy showing off how strong he is holding up the chair. He likes to talk about getting big and strong by eating good. And here he is in his Spiderman costume that he loves to wear. Sometimes he'll go over to the neighbor's house in it hoping they won't know it's really him.

My House!

When I took Natalie into her room tonight to put her to bed, Nate was hiding in there. He had snuck in for some more hugs and kisses as neither Nate or Sam could get enough of her. When she saw Dad already in her room, she defiantly said "No Dad. My house!"

Pineview Ward Campout

Here's Sammy with his sunshine headband and butterfly. The primary did a "Colors of Our World" talent show presentation at our ward campout this weekend, and the Sunbeams did the color Yellow. Sam was one of two kids that danced to the yellow song, and he was not shy up there on stage at all. It was so cute to see him dancing up there in front of everyone!

Sleeping in a tent with Natalie and Samuel didn't go as well as our last camp trip, but we had lots of fun being with our ward members and playing at the beach. Natalie is loving playing in the sand and throwing rocks in the water in this picture.

Natalie's Hair

This post is for you Bek, since I told you I would show you the result of Sam's haircutting career. It's really not too bad, but you can kind of tell from this picture how most of her hair on this side is about chin level, with a few peices that are past her shoulders like her hair in the back and other side. It's already grown out a fair amout as it's probably been about two months since Sam decided to see how well his little kid scissors would cut hair.

Bread Pan Shoes

While I was cleaning up dinner, Natalie and Sam escaped to visit their neighbor Al (a daily occurence). I found them sharing an apple with Al, wearing these "waterskis" on their feet. Yes, they walked all the way over to the neighbors in my bread pans.

Labor Day Fun

I wish I had a picture of my little muddy, stinky kids after they came back from playing in the mud with their Dad in west farmington, but a description will have to do for that part of the day. We weren't about to let them into the house, even to go straight to the bath, until they got hosed down. Sam told Natalie she was Santa Claus because she had a beard (mud all around her mouth). They had a blast! I'm so grateful that my kids have a dad that is so good at playing with them!

After playing in west Farmington the kids had a nap, then we took off for Cabelas. We had lots of fun seeing all stuffed animals and the huge fish tanks with Jared, Lisa, Emma, and T.J.



Natalie and T.J. had lots of fun pushing each other in the stroller. So fun to have good, close cousins to play with!

After Cabelas we hit Liberty Park for a KFC picnic and park fun, where Dan, Brittany, and Tanner Pulsipher joined the rest of us. It was a great day being with our little family and good friends!