October

Isn't it still October? The weather here is finally cooling off--I can't believe we are already half way through November! October seemed a bit more like summer to us. We kept the General Conference tradition going this year and went apple picking on Saturday. We met friends there and had fun picking apples, pressing cider and picnicking with them. We enjoyed listening to conference in the car on the drive to and back.

For one of our Thursday field trips we went to Wonderland Bakery to look around and pick out a treat. Kate took notes for inspiration for her "cupcake club" she wants to start with her friends. The floor of this bakery was all glitter--every little girls dream. 

We took our treats for a picnic at the Newport Beach temple. It was a beautiful afternoon and we loved running into my cousin Melanie's family visiting from Utah. Here are all the kids together. Clara and Megan are born on the same day!

Gwen has been my sous chef a lot lately. She does a great job and is proud of herself for being able to use a sharp knife. I love having her in the kitchen--she's great company and is really helpful!

A few other random photos from October... reverse trick or treating at a nursing home. This is the second year we've done this and I was so glad we did it again. The girls loved it. The kids were so sweet passing out flowers to the elderly residents and wishing them a Happy Halloween. A friends caramel apple party is another tradition we look forward to every October. And Kate excited about her "Tanner-opoly" prize she saved enough "money" to buy--a lego set. We are all individually doing the Book of Mormon challenge--trying to finish the Book of Mormon before Kate's baptism. Kate is listening to it and Gwen is reading the illustrated version. We copied a friend's idea to make a Monopoly board with incentives for reading. The girls earn play money for reading each chapter and can choose to spend it at the "family store" once a week. It's been a great motivator for the kids and lots of fun. I'm so proud of them and their hard work!

Halloween festivities! We celebrated with cousins and family and my parents Halloween party. We went to a church trunk or treat, a school parade, a Disneyland Halloween party and trick or treating on Halloween night. By then I was ready for it all to be done!

Cutest little ladybug.

Carving pumpkins. The girls got to do most of it themselves this year. Gwen's carving session ended in tears that lasted for an hour after accidentally sawing off a tooth in her jack o lanterns mouth. She was so upset that her jack o lantern now looked nice instead of spooky and it was all ruined! So much sadness and drama. Later that evening she exclaimed that it was a good thing after all, because now her jack o lantern lost a tooth just like she had!

Clara loved looking at all the sights at Disneyland. She had her mouth in this "oh" shape and kept saying that over and over. She loved the jungle cruise ride and pointing at all the animals she calls "ba-ba's". 

Our neighborhood is a lot of fun on Halloween. We get a lot of trick or treaters. Gwen was finished trick or treating early and came home to pass out candy. I think she liked passing out the candy better than getting it herself. She even started passing out candy of her own after we ran out of candy. Clara was cute to watch as she would sit by the candy bowl digging her hands through the candy saying "mmm. mmm." over and over. How does she already know that's the good stuff?? After we put Clara to bed and Paul and I got to sit on the porch drinking tea and watching Gwen pass out candy. We chatted with friends and neighbors who came by and mentioned how our hot weather in October might be worth the beautiful 65 degree evening we had on Halloween night. It was really nice! Kate got to stay out a little later with friends and then the girls had fun sorting all of their candy. The best part!

Clara

Clara is 15 months and we are all loving this age. A few things I want to remember about her...

She now prefers walking to crawling. She took her first steps around 14 months but it took her awhile to get very fast on her feet. She's getting better and looks so cute toddling around.

She is such a great sleeper and napper. She is so easy to put to bed--it's wonderful! Just give her her paci, which she calls her "night-night" and her blanket and rarely does she fuss! She still takes 2 naps and wakes up happy.

Her favorite toy is her baby doll. She gets excited and says "baby, baby, baby" when she seems them. She will carry them around and put them in the stroller. She loves her baby dolls.

Kate has a horse for her American Girl doll that she rarely plays with. Thankfully Clara loves it! She loves to go into the girls room where it is and calls it a "baba". She pets it's hair and points to it's nose. Saying "baba, baba, baba". She also likes to open and close the Rebecca dolls eyes. 

She loves to brush her hair and play in the bathroom drawers with the hairbows and brushes.

She loves her baths and doesn't like to get out.

She is learning new words every day. The ones she says the most are "ball, book, cracker, more, all done, mama, dada, baba, baby and hi".

She loves to read books, although she moves around a lot while we are reading. She likes to point to the pictures. All the animals make the same sound to her. She points and grunts "uhhh". That's a growl sound to her.

She folds her arms during the prayer and is so proud of herself with she does it. It's the cutest.

Her favorite foods are scrambled eggs, any kind of fruit, salmon, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sweet potatoes and broccoli. We try not to give her sweets, but with two loving big sisters who share with her, she ends up eating sugar. She always says "mmmm" over and over whenever she has a sweet treat.

When you ask her "Where is Clara's nose?" she points to her nose and then points to yours. It's one of her favorite games.

She likes when we sing "If you're happy and you know it" and clicks her tongue as one of the actions.

She loves to make an "o" shape with her mouth like this.

Clara brings such joy into our homes. Gwen and Kate love her so much and look forward to seeing her every day after school. Gwen loves taking baths with Clare-bear and fetching her toys. Kate is so helpful to get her out of the highchair when she is done eating. We love our girls.