Feet. Yummy!

We had to do a little editing. I totally forgot about covering that cute little thing up.

Cookies

 Emmy was the sprinkle queen. She used so many sprinkles on her cookies you could hardly see the frosting. It was super.

 Maryanna really wanted to sit in the high chair. Apparently, she never used her chair at home, so her parents got rid of it. She was excited to use it at my house.

 I always love having Lisa over to chat. As a mother of five, she always has fun stories and great advice when I need it.

 Jonathan got frosting on his nose trying to eat his cookies like a cat.

I had my friend Lisa and her two little girls Emmy and Maryanna over to decorate Halloween cookies. It felt more like Christmas outside, but since Halloween is the next holiday I forced myself to make cat, ghost, and moon cookies. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the activity went. Jonathan loved dumping sprinkles and M&Ms on his cookies, and of course, eating them. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. It is definitely something to do again.

Snowman

The snow just kept coming this weekend. Saturday afternoon Edmund took Jonathan outside to play. I looked out the window and saw Edmund rolling the biggest snowballs I had ever seen in my life. Then, I saw him trying to lift them on top of each other. I quickly grabbed my boots and camera and baby monitor (David was sleeping) and rushed outside to help. Jonathan was delighted with the outcome of the giant snowman. We also showed him that you could eat the snow. (Probably not the best idea, but who doesn't love a little snow?) After he tried it, he couldn't put it down.

Snow

I do not know why he was crouching down.

 It happened. The first snow. While David was sleeping this morning, Jonathan and I went out and shoveled the driveway. After David woke up, we went to Wal-Mart (Jonathan calls it the bike store) and picked up some new snow boots. I'm excited to try them out tomorrow. On our way home, he told me that the snow looked like sugar. I was so proud that he thought of that on his own. I love him so much!

Necklaces

I remembered yesterday about his huge shoe box full of necklaces and bracelets that I had acquired mostly during college. Jonathan was in heaven digging through it and trying them on.

Jonathan

 Jonathan is such a stunning two year old. He is pretty serious and very focused. He loves reading books. His favorite book at the moment is Where the Wild Things Are. If I pause while reading it, he can usually finish the sentence. He also says some very hilarious things and has quite a sense of humor. Today, for instance, he informed me that Daddy has moles on his back, and at dinner he told Edmund that I had a big tail. He loves looking at himself in the mirror and shouting "No!" I try and tell him that he looks even cuter when he says "yes," but he doesn't care. He prefers "NO!" with an angry face. He also goes down the stairs like a snake: on his back, slithering, feet first.

The other day while he was in the bath he said, "Camera." I said, "You want me to take a picture of you in the bath?" and Jonathan replied, "eeeyyyyyess." He really holds onto the "y" sound. It is terribly cute. He also loves Edmund's long board and is so proud of himself when he stands on it. He often requests that we make stairs out of the blocks, and then he proudly marches up and down them.

My main struggle with Jonathan is meal times. I seriously don't know how he is not starving all the time. We make him stay at the table until dinner is over, and usually after the crying dies down he'll eat a little bit. I try and keep healthy things available, so if he does get hungry he can have an apple or a cucumber. He is doing well adjusting to David; however, he does not like it when I feed him. If he notices that I am starting to nurse David, he comes over to where David's head is and screams "NO!" really loud (just like he practiced in the mirror.) This ensures that David does not eat, and I am then available to play. I have started to sneak off to different parts of the house to feed David, so I can get a head start before he finds me. I also have him watch Baby Einstein in the morning while I put David down for a nap, and he is allowed to play with my phone in the afternoon. I feel guilty using it for that, but I just don't see how I can manage any other way.

David

 David. I wish I could put a little heart around his name. He is an amazingly happy, smiley, strong, cuddly, active, and wakeful little guy. He discovered his feet a couple of weeks ago. I love it when he doesn't have any socks on and he really reaches out for his cute little toes. My favorite thing he does is chortle. I can't call it a laugh or a giggle because it is deep in his throat. He always chortles when I'm taking his clothes off, and I can usually make him do it if I gently tickle his ribs.

He is a complete puzzle to me. He is very easily distracted which is a good thing when he is hungry or tired, and I just can't feed him or put him to sleep that very second, but it is a bad thing when I need to nurse him and Jonathan is making all kinds of noise. David seems to be on a 24 hour schedule. Instead of being awake during the day and taking two or three naps and sleeping at night (or returning to sleep after I feed him), he is awake during the day and at night. He seems to think that he needs to be awake for two or three hours in the middle of the night. He isn't really fussy or anything, he is just content and very much awake. I suppose that would be wonderful if I could function on four hours of sleep, but it really makes my days long.

Temple

We took a walk around the Rexburg Temple after dinner today. We are so lucky to have a temple where we live. I think we take it for granted, and we should definitely go more often. Jonathan likes to point it out to us when we can see it. I didn't even know that he really knew about temples, but we were reading "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus,"  and he pointed it out and said, "Temple!" The first thing he said today when we got out of the car was "Man!" and he pointed to the Angel Moroni. He thought that was pretty neat. He also loved all the stairs and hills on the temple grounds. David was cheerful and smiley.

New Car

 We just bought a new 2007 Jeep Liberty. We got really lucky. We had set a budget for a new car, but it seemed like everything in our price range was old or had really high miles. We had almost settled on a Subaru Outback that was about 5k over budget when I decided to make one final look on Craigslist. There was the Jeep. It only had 38,000 miles and it was exactly what we were planning on spending on a car. It was even a couple thousand dollars below blue book. We are so glad that we didn't buy that Subaru. The Jeep is so much fun to drive!

Now we are planning on selling the Oldsmobile. Jonathan is such a good little helper!

Boys

I love my boys!

The Bear, The Blanket, and The Sheep

Jonathan loves his bear, blanket, and most recently the sheep. They accompany him all over the house. They are present at most meals, and sometimes they wait patiently for him while he takes a bath. When he cries, the first thing he wants after Mama is his blanket. They are all special too. Great-Grandma Berry gave him the blanket before he was born, and Uncle Jon gave him the bear for his first birthday. The sheep was sent to me by my best friend Sami for David, but Jonathan has really taken to it. It is tricky to wash them. Jonathan usually keeps pretty close tabs on where they are. Edmund managed to sneak them away today after church. Jonathan never noticed. It was such a relief to see them back to their original colors.

Park

Grandma-Chelle went to Porter Park with us, and I was finally able to get some pictures of Jonathan playing. His favorite thing to do is climb up all the ladders and run back and forth across the bridge. He does go down the slides, but he is still a little nervous about it. He is not interested in the swings at all. Lately, we have spent some time chasing squirrels and kicking leaves.

David usually does not enjoy the park too much. He is pretty fussy, and then goes to sleep. We finally bought a double stroller, but after using it once or twice I realized that I like to carry him in the front pack better. Jonathan just loves me to follow him around the park, and the front pack makes that possible. I think David likes it better too.