It’s almost November! October has been a busy month and we’re looking forward to some Halloween celebrations on Saturday.  Here are some pictures from the past month:

Calder enjoying some yogurt. He gave up on the spoon and decided to try and drink it instead.

Amelie adores her dancing clothes. She would wear them all day every day if she could. This was our compromise the other day.

The Pleasant Grove Orchestra had our Fall concert the other night. That's me sitting second chair, first violins. We're a small group and nothing too spectacular, but I'm enjoying the practice and getting to play some great music. It's hard to see in this picture, but we do actually have a wind and brass section.

And just to complete our tour of randomness, here are some of our neighbors 🙂

I love this time of year and am looking forward to the holidays!

When Calder was born, my Aunt Bobbe sent him the sweetest little blankie. It’s fuzzy and blue and has a tiny teddy bear sewn into one corner. Well, for the past several months, Calder has been very attached to this blankie. He sleeps with it and drags it around the house with him. He even takes it when we run errands. Calder loves to hold the blankie up to his face and sniff it while he sucks on his fingers. Precious. So, I thought I should document some of this blankie love.

"See my blankie?" Calder is also learning to smile when I say, "Cheese!" Pretty cute.

This blankie is definitely his favorite thing. He just loves it and even says, "Bankee" now when he wants it. Thank you, Aunt Bobbe!

Calder is learning lots of new things these days. He says, “Yeah,” when you ask him a question (if the answer is yes, of course), gives kisses with a big “Mwah!” sound, and says “Milk” when he wants his sippy cup. One of his favorite books is The Wheels on the Bus (thank you, Uncle Colin and Aunt Jill!) and when he wants to read it, he says, “Round and round!” So fun to watch him explore and learn!

A couple weeks ago, I won 4 tickets to Cornbelly’s Corn Maze, just up the road from us in Lehi. So, we decided to head up there one afternoon and see what it was all about. We had a lot of fun!

This was probably Amelie's favorite part. They had racks of princess dresses for all the little girls to try on and she got her picture taken with the Pumpkin Princess in her carriage. The Pumpkin Princess's dress was pretty amazing--it looked just like a pumpkin!

Amelie whizzing by on the cow train that was pulled by a tractor.

Just hangin' out on the humongous rocking chair.

Amelie had a blast in this corn room. It was a room full of corn kernels that the kids got to play in. It left her covered in dust, but she sure liked swimming and jumping in all the corn!

We also tried a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich–it was actually quite tasty! So, thank you, Cornbelly’s for the free tickets! It was a fun way to enjoy Fall.

First, let me say that we really enjoyed the preschool where we had Amelie enrolled. The teachers were loving and engaging, the classroom was filled with great activities, and Amelie loved being there. However, after a month at this school, I decided to pull her out. The reasons might not make sense to everyone, but they were important to me. For one, preschool kind of started taking over our lives. The morning was all about getting ready for school and rushing out the door, then I had to decide what to do with Calder for the 2 hours Amelie was in school, and then we had to pick her up and come home. It was a lot of driving around. Secondly, I discovered that I really missed being as involved with Amelie’s learning. I want to be the one to watch her excitement as she figures out how to write the number “2” and I want to be there as she discovers all the marvelous things this world holds. So, although we loved the school, we decided to bring her back home and I set up our own little preschool here at home. We have a savings account that we’ve been adding money to every month for our kids’ education, so I was able to stock up our little classroom with manipulatives, learning games, fun musical instruments, and lots of other great activities for Amelie. Here’s a look at what we’ve been doing:

I'm having fun coming up with activities. Here's one I made using some sparkly leaves and pictures of leaves. We're working on placing matching leaves on each picture working from left to right. Besides this left to right movement that gets her ready for later reading and math skills, this activity also reinforces the concept of patterns.

And what little girl wouldn't want to work with sparkly leaves?

In this activity, Amelie sorts the stones according to color. She also gets to practice her coordination as she scoops the stones. This week, I introduced some small tongs to the activity to make it a bit more challenging.

This simple flower arranging activity is one of Amelie's favorites. She'll do it over and over again.Â

Another pattern activity. We have lots of sheets with different patterns on them. This is a picture of the first time she worked with it. We've been working on moving from left to right in sequence and she's getting the hang of it. Once she gets these sheets down, I'll introduce ones with fill-in-the-blank patterns where she has to figure out the pattern and fill in the missing shapes or continue it.

Our calendar. Each morning, we talk about what day of the week it is, what day tomorrow is, what month it is, and what the weather is like that day. I've also been starting a routine of saying prayer, singing a song, reading from The Friend, and reading another book if she's interested. It's a nice way to start the day.

So far, things have been going great. I normally pull out her activities when Calder is napping. She even likes to do her “work” (that’s what we call it) in the evenings before bed. We’ll also be joining a little community preschool that some of my friends have started. So, twice a week, for a couple hours a day, she’ll go to our neighbor’s house with some of her friends. I’ll be on rotation with the other moms and will help out with the class every so often. I think she’ll enjoy that time with her friends. So, lots of fun things going on in our house! I’m reading several books on education theory and am excited to be learning about how to teach my children. I am totally fascinated by it all.

Sorry I’m posting this so late! Life has been busy lately. We had a lot of fun celebrating Calder’s 1st birthday. What a big boy he is becoming! It’s so fun to watch his personality develop and express itself and to watch him grow and learn. We’re glad that we were able to celebrate this fun age and a wonderful first year with some of our family and friends.

Calder was showered with fun gifts. And thanks to Ang for my birthday present, the fantastic cupcake stand. It made for such a cute presentation! Each cupcake had Calder's initials made from fondant on top.

Calder enjoyed opening presents. We opened this great little phone from Grandma and Grandpa Haymond first and we were worried he might not want to let go of it to open other presents!

Calder saw this monkey from Grandma and Grandpa Austin and just had to hug it. A new friend!

Amelie was shy and hesitant about approaching her 1st birthday cupcake, but not this little guy--he was all over that cupcake!

Stuffing more cupcake into his mouth. What a fun day for our sweet Calder!

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate and for the love and support you offer our little one. He is surely blessed.