Proud Mama

I am so proud of my girls and the progress that they are making with their reading. Right after parent/teacher conferences earlier this month, both girls were re-tested for their reading level.
Ashley is reading at a level "K" and Amelia is on a level "L". I love reading with my girls. It is so fun to see them interested in all sorts of new subjects. They will frequently stay up at night reading after we have tucked them into bed. They just can't get enough.

Riding the Real Train

I've always wanted to go for a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. It just seemed like one of the "bucket list" kind of things to do. And now seemed like the perfect time to go. Elliot absolutely loves trains. He was so excited to finally get to ride on the "real" train. Not to be confused with that tiny little train at the zoo.

Our train was scheduled to leave the train station at 11:00 one Saturday morning. We hoped that we had picked a good time to go so that we could enjoy all the fall colors through the canyon. The funny thing though (for us) was that since we live in southern Utah county, we took a drive through Provo Canyon to get to Heber, then we rode the train through the canyon again on our scenic tour, then we drove home through to same canyon. I've seen enough of Provo Canyon to last me a while. We met up with my Mom and Steve, and Tamara and Brian and his girls to go on our epic adventure. The train ride would be 3 hours and I was a little worried how well the kids would handle it. Amelia pretty much wanted to play Angry Birds for the entire ride. I made her actually enjoy the scenery a little bit too. Ashley was afraid of the train cars from the moment that we climbed aboard because they were all decorated for Halloween and the "haunted canyon" rides. For at least the first half hour, all she said was that she wanted to go home. Elliot was in heaven! He loved everything about the train and is still talking about it, weeks later. Micah was a trooper. I was lucky to have my mom there with an extra set of arms since she held him for the entire first half of our journey.

Elliot and Ashley kept themselves very entertained by taking a lot of pictures. I'm so glad that grandma had her camera too!

Ashley took this great picture of the view out our window. It was a beautiful day for a train ride, but very cold.

About 30 minutes into our ride, we got robbed. Amelia thought that they may actually be real robbers and so she hid my phone that she had been playing on so that they wouldn't take it. Ashley was sitting by me so I explained to her that it was all just pretend so that she wouldn't freak out. Elliot was a little unsure of the situation but never got too scared.

We tried really hard to get a good family photo. Maybe this is as good as it gets.

Look how sweet. At least someone got a good shot.

I love that Amelia's head is peeking into this one.

Once we got back to the depot, we did some quick shots outside and then we were off to get into our cars and warm up. We also went out to lunch/dinner with everyone to celebrate the September and October birthdays. It was a fun day and now I can check that off my list of things to do.

Micah - 10 months old

Oh my, oh my! The last 10 months have sure flown by. And now that school has started, I think that the time is flying by even faster.

Micah turned 10 months old on the 1st and I actually remembered to take a picture. Elliot was such a good helper to get Micah to smile.


How big is baby? SO BIG!

Micah's newest trick is to climb up the steps and get out of the living room. Since we have a sunken living room, it is like having a built-in playpen. At least until baby learns how to climb up those two steps. Now that Micah has learned how to do this, he rarely stays put in the living room for long.

Along with turning 10 months old, I decided that it was time to get him to sleep through the night more consistently. Lately, he has been waking up 1 or 2 times a night. And since I am usually exhausted, I quickly nurse him back to sleep so that I can get back to bed. With weaning on the horizon in two months, I figured that now would be a good time to get Micah to sleep through the night. Just like clockwork, Micah woke up just after midnight on the first. I went into his room, gave him a cuddly stuffed dog to keep him company, pulled the blankets over him, then went back to my room and turned off the monitor. I'm not sure how long he cried for since I fell asleep fairly quickly, but he slept just fine the rest of the night.

The next night, I tried to nurse him (as usual) just before going to bed, but he wouldn't have it. He ate for less than 5 minutes and then was ready to go to bed. So, I put him to bed and he slept all night long. I finally had to wake him up the next morning because I needed him to eat. The following night was to same story. I tried to nurse him before tucking him in for the night and he gave me the cold shoulder. So, I wrapped him up and put him to bed. He slept for about 11 hours last night. And once again, I was desperate for him to wake up and eat. I hope he continues to sleep well at night since it certainly makes my nights better.