Questions from Hammer

Dear Hammer,

You are growing up so fast.  You are getting tall, but you are also learning new things all the time.
You love learning at preschool, but you also amaze me sometimes by the things you pick up at home.
You learn things from Lulu a lot.  When she sings songs or recites things she has learned, you pick them right up. You could sing the alphabet when you were 1, because Lulu sang it a lot then.  When she learned our phone number this summer, so did you!
You learn from tv shows and your Leapster too.  One day you picked up our toy dinosaur and said "Ankylosaurus has a club tail," pronounced perfectly just like your dinosaur book you love to read on the Leapster.
And of course you learn from asking me (and Dad) lots of questions.
You have entered the Why-Stage.
For example, this was our conversation the other day:

You: Why does the car move?
Me: Because it has an engine.
You: Why?
Me: Because the engine works hard and that makes the car move.
You: Where is the engine?
Me: Under the hood.
You: Why?
Me: So it's safe under there.
You: Why?
Me: So it won't get ruined, and it will make our car move.
You: Where's the hood?

Another day when we were outside Lulu pointed out how some clouds looked like a train track and we said that Thomas the train must be up in the sky.  You just kept staring and staring and I could almost hear those wheels turning in your head.  You were just amazed that a train would be up there.  You kept asking me where Thomas is now, and I kept telling you that he wasn't ever up there, it was just some clouds that looked like a track.  But then you would answer, "No mom, he's up in the sky somewhere."  When you are 3 you take things very literally, and your imagination is in over-drive.
So I'm not sure how your 3 year old brain pictured the engine in our van, or what an engine does when it works under that hood.  No matter how you visualized it, you listened to everything I said and accepted that it makes the car move.
Hammer, sometimes you surprise me with what you can do. I often underestimate what you are capable of learning at your age I guess!  You have always been very smart, a quality I know you will always possess.  I hope your love of learning never wanes and proves a huge blessing throughout your life.
It's fun to watch you try to understand how things work, even if I have to answer a million questions.  I'm happy to be the one to teach you, and I'm trying to do the best I can. It's one of my favorite things about being a mom!

Love you my inquisitive one,
Mom

Conference Traditions and Dad's Hunt

Dear Family,

Last weekend was one of our favorite times of the year, General Conference!  It really isn't that fun for kids, to sit for 8 hours and listen to church talks.  But Dad and I love it, and we have started some traditions that has made the weekend fun for you too!
Every six months when conference rolls around, I bake homemade cinnamon rolls on Saturday morning. Our tradition is to also share some of our hot tasty rolls with one of our neighbors.  You were all very excited to take them across the street and share just as conference started and tell them "Happy Conference!"
Another tradition we do is to get out the "conference tent."  We only get this tent out at Conference time, so it makes it really special.  Mr T, you were especially excited about the tent this time.
New this year, we printed out some coloring and acitivty packets for the two older kids.  Hammer, I think you colored one page.  Lulu, you colored for hours, and put together some fun things. It's a tradition we will have to do every conference now.
We also took the dog out for a walk, but that happens every day of course.
All of this fun happened while Dad was on the Elk hunt.  He had high hopes of shooting an elk for us to get a lot of meat.  To tell you the truth, I was not that excited about a freezer full of elk meat.  I consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to food.  It's not that I didn't want to try elk, but I was just worried it would be too gamey and we wouldn't love it, and then we'd have a ton of it.  Plus, last year Dad came home empty handed, so I wasn't too worried.
Well, guess what?  Dad surprised us and came home earlier than scheduled, on Sunday night.  Grammie had come down to help and play, but she was only here for about 3 hours before Dad got home with his prize.  He shot an elk this year!  I was actually pretty proud of him.  This was only his second hunt ever, and a spike elk is pretty hard to spot and shoot.  It was exciting.  He spent a lot of time carefully cutting up the meat. We ate some the other day, and it was good!  All of you kids actually enjoyed it! So it all worked out. The elk meat filled the fridge for a few days, and then we fit it in our freezer.
Dad also brought home the elk's head, with the tag attached to it's ear for proof that he was allowed to shoot the animal.  Lulu and Mr T, you both thought it was really interesting. Hammer, you wouldn't get close to the severed head unless I was holding you.  We had to take pictures to document all the different reactions.
So, here are some of the best pictures from our exciting weekend:

 

 

 

 

 
Love you my little carnivores,
Mom

Life Lately, September Edition

My Dear Family,

Another month has come and gone.  September was exciting, and beautifully warm, and of course fun.

To celebrate the first day of school, after dinner I let all 3 of you get in the tub for what we call "glow-in-the-dark-tubby-time."

Lulu, on the first day of school you rode the bus there, but I drove you home.  So here you are getting off the bus for your very first time, right in front of our house.  Pretty nice!

And here is the group of kids that wait with you Lulu when you get on the bus in the mornings.

Hammer, you were also excited about your first real day of school and using your brand new backpack!

You chose to place your name under the banana instead of the cupcake.  I was pretty proud

Look at those beautiful jalapenos!

and bright red tomatoes!  Mmm.

Mr T, you were happy to be out in the warm sunshine, playing on the basketball court.

Lulu and Hammer, you both still like the puppy!

And the puppy likes tug of war

Lulu, you always want to go to Activity Days with me.  You are always disappointed when I tell you that you need to wait until you are 8.  It was no exception when we had our annual daddy-daughter hike for our first activity in September. Here are the girls and their daddies on the hike.

We still take Pluto out on a walk every night after dinner.  We often stop at this little park.  Lulu and Hammer, you love to talk to each other through the drainage grates.  Mr T, you like to get in the action by yelling out "Wa!" because you see water down there.

We've noticed that the sun has started setting at the end of our walks now.

This is one of the crafts I made this month.  It's a back-to-school wreath.  Pretty cute huh?

Mr T, you really wanted to put this helmet on.  You looked so cute that I ran to get my phone to take your picture. Of course by that time you were pretty mad that you couldn't get it off your head.

And here you are Mr T with a dirty face, looking like a raccoon.

Every night after our walk, if the sun hasn't set yet, we play on the grass in the front.  All 3 of you hope that our neighbor will come over and play with  you.  It's the highlight of the whole evening. She is giving you a piggy-back ride here Hammer.

In the middle of the month we had a lot of smoke in the air from fires.  It made for some really cool red setting suns.

This, my dear kids, is a pile of acorn hats.  Just because they looked hats piled up like this.

We finished decorating and organizing your toy room!

Mr T, you had your 15 month check-up.  You're still a giant, measuring in at 99% height.  Hammer had to come along this time.

Mr T, you look scary here.  A vampire? A bear? A screaming baby in the tub?

2nd activity days this month was a card making party.  Here is one of the invitations I made to tell the girls what time and where to meet.

Hammer, you are pretty obsessed with the watermelons.  You checked on them every day, since they were the size of a lime.  And you still love to go out and find the few stragglers in the vines.

These are the world's hottest peppers, or something like that.  The Ghost Pepper!  We have a healthy plant with beautiful fruit, but we aren't sure what to do with all the spiciness!

Yes Mr T, you ate dirt, again.

Hammer, you insisted on wearing your Waldo glasses to Walmart.  I had to agree because it was so funny.

More pictures from our evening walks

Lulu, remember when you and I were laughing so hard at Pluto, sitting on the table with a mouthful of strings from that old soccer ball?  The way they were hanging out, he looked like he had a chinese beard.

We're plugging along in this race called life.  And I think we are very much enjoying it.  Don't you?

Love,
Mom