304/365

We caught Ellie in a pensive moment. She was really walking tonight--6 or 7 steps at a time! We'll get a picture soon. Today at church, Darin & I both had to give talks, so Gavin & Ellie sat with a family in our ward and were perfect angels... much better than they usually are with us during Sacrament Meeting!

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Darin took a 6-week pottery class in August, and just started a second one. He's having fun experimenting with a new (old) creative outlet. These are some he did and brought home today. We also had our ward Halloween Trunk or Treat/Chili Cookoff today. (No pictures--our camera battery died!)

302/365

Here's Gavin as Obi Wan Kenobi making the "Jedi face" (his idea). We were on our way out the door to the Scentsy Halloween Open House--the first time we were able to see Darin's office!

301/365

Gavin had a fun Halloween party at Preschool today! Poor Ellie had her one-year well-check doctor's appointment and got 6 shots, which she definitely felt for the rest of the day. She could barely move without a whimper tonight, and was very cuddly. She's 17 lbs. 3 oz. and 28 inches tall.

300/365

Our birthday girl--we just love her!

I didn't realize until yesterday that she was born on the 300th day of the year!

299/365

Preschool and Pack Meeting today. Darin did a great job, and Gavin can't wait until he's a Cub Scout.
We also had a little hail today!... right at Preschool drop-off time, of course.

298/365

This girl is such a good eater! We've graduated from baby food--tonight she had some smashed tortilla soup (beans, rice, corn, chicken, avocado, tomato, etc.) She loved it! And it is definitely soup weather too. I love how she opens her mouth SO wide for bites of food. Also, her 5th tooth has sprouted on top!

297/365

Today was Gavin's first Primary Program--he said his part perfectly! Ellie has decided she is too old to sleep at church (or sit quietly). She wants to be walking around the chairs, talking loudly or being walked in the halls--she has quite a following there! It's gonna be a long 6 months at church until Nursery.

296/365

We're about ready for Halloween--I finished up Gavin's costume today, and Ellie's is coming via UPS on Monday. These costumes will be getting some good use! We have Gavin's preschool Halloween party next Thursday, Darin's work is having an open house/trick-or-treat party Friday, our ward party is Saturday, then we'll pass out candy to any trick-or treaters that come on Sunday, the 31st!
P.S. We're still working on Darin's birthday cake. It's rich, so a small piece with a tall glass of milk per day is about all we can handle! Notes for next year: Darin & I should each have small cakes, or share a cake, or invite a crowd to help us eat the cake! By Ellie's birthday next week, we'll be all caked out!

295/365

One of Ellie's newest "things" is pointing.

She's very aware of the world around her and likes to point things out to the rest of us.
Also, we have a new baby cousin born today, Drew Benjamin Williams. Welcome to the world!

294/365

We went to the locally famous Farmstead cornfield maze & pumpkin patch tonight. Fun!

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And now we have a PAIR of 40-year-olds in the family!

Earlier today, I asked Gavin if he knew how old Darin was turning today. He wasn't sure, so I said,

"I'll give you a hint: it's the same age that I turned last week..." His response: "90?" Close.

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The Baby Faces book was a favorite of Gavin's when he was 1, and now Ellie is ALL about it.

The complete text: Happy/Sad/Angry/Shy/Sleepy/Messy/Silly. When we read it to her (and make the faces), she studies the pictures on each page, then looks up at our faces & sometimes giggles.

She's 51 weeks old today! After next week we will no longer count her age in weeks.

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We left West Yellowstone after breakfast and headed to Rexburg where we did a quick tour of what I could remember from 20 years ago! Obviously, a lot had changed from the Ricks of yesteryear, but we went inside the Manwaring Center, found my old apartments and saw the new Rexburg Temple. We hit the road again & decided to take the upper road (US-20) and check out Craters of the Moon Monument, and took a 25 mile detour north to see the Sun Valley ski area. Another full day of lots of driving.

The kids did really well, but we were all really glad to be home again!

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We spent most of the day at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY. It was really a neat museum with five different sections: Buffalo Bill, Western Art, Plains Indians, Yellowstone Natural History & Firearms, plus Buffalo Bill's boyhood home, brought in from Mississippi! After a late lunch, we took our last stretch through Yellowstone (still no moose!) & spent the night in West Yellowstone, MT again.

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We saw two bears today during our continued tour of Yellowstone! Beautiful country. We traveled from West Yellowstone up to the Mammoth Hot Springs area, then back around the upper loop, eventually heading east to Cody, WY where we spent the night. When we got into town, we found a fun pizza place for dinner with big bouncy climbing toys, teeter totters, trucks & more. After spending much of the day in the car, the kids were so glad to get out & play--Gavin ate one bite of pizza every few minutes
(when I'd call him over to the table in between playing). Ellie was loving it too!

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We had breakfast & checked out Jackson before heading to Yellowstone's south entrance. We  stopped at Lewis Falls, went west at West Thumb and spent the most time at Old Faithful. We saw it erupt twice, had a late lunch at the Old Faithful Inn (so cool!), then checked out the NEW Old Faithful visitor's center--very nice. We continued up the loop, stopping to see more geysers, hot pools, fumaroles & animals. We did pretty well in the animal department--saw bison, antelope, deer, elk, trumpeter swans... but so far no "moosen" or bears! We stayed in West Yellowstone, MT tonight.

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After Gavin's preschool, we were packed and ready to go when Darin got home from work.

We drove 380 miles to Jackson, WY! I read to Darin from our Yellowstone library books on much of the drive, while Gavin watched shows or played games, and Ellie entertained herself with toys or slept. Great travelers. We arrived at our hotel around 11:00pm, and Ellie was not thrilled about being woken up.

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It's happened. I'm 40!

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Ready to take Gavin to preschool. Tried something new with Ellie's hair... boy hair sure is easier!
Enjoyed the last day of my thirties. Not scared of the forties. Love my life!

284/365

Pretty much every day, these two play in "the playroom" while I take a shower. It's right at the top of the stairs, so we have a safety gate on the doorway. It's also limited to Ellie-friendly toys, but Gavin goes in happily & plays with Ellie during my shower, because she will NOT go in by herself. He's a great brother!

283/365

10-10-10--cool!

Our ward Primary started practicing for their program in a couple weeks. Gavin's part is, "I can follow Jesus Christ's example by being kind." He already has it memorized, and he really IS kind!

282/365

It's beginning to look a lot like... autumn! I love fall--but I'm constantly craving apple crisp. We had a fun day all together, just hanging out & doing a little shopping. ... I just realized that Ellie has been wearing a different hot pink shirt in the last 3 days' photos. What can I say? The girl loves pink!

281/365

We had fun in the Halloween clearance section at Joann's tonight... Ellie wore these the whole night without taking them off, and Gavin got to get his favorite thing there--a black Halloween candy bowl with a skeleton hand that grabs you when you reach in. Ellie's not too sure about that one.

280/365

Ellie likes her new quilt! Here she is, doing her thing. We encourage her by saying, "awwww... so soft," and she'll snuggle up again & again. Today was a school district inservice day, so Gavin had no preschool either. We went to the Boise Watershed (wastewater treatment plant) kids event. Gavin got to examine a rock from the Boise river and identify the little water bugs that were living on it, he made a colored tissue paper fish and learned all about where the water goes when we flush the toilet. We went to Souper Salad for dinner, where we could not get Gavin to try kiwi, and Ellie could not get enough of the lasagna casserole, a concoction of beef, tomato sauce, cheese and overcooked rotini pasta. She'd scream between bites if we hesitated for a second to take a bite of our own dinner. Still a favorite though!

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Teeth! Ellie's also into giving kisses now... big wide open mouth slobbery wonderful kisses.

278/365

Now that Gavin has his letters down, we've started really working on writing. I generated these worksheets online, and he's diligent about it! His self-imposed "rule" is to do "one each a day."

It rained all morning, Gavin had preschool from 12:00-2:30, we went to the Boise Temple from 4:30-5:30 with the Activity Days girls, had Baja Fresh for dinner, then went to Pojo's (like Chuck E. Cheese) to play games as Gavin's reward for filling his "almond jar." He started the beginning of August, earning an almond every time he'd mind the first time. It's been full for a couple weeks now, so we've started over, but we're using candy corn instead of almonds this time. It's VERY effective.

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We've done a little Halloween decorating... I realized we hadn't decorated for Halloween since before Gavin was born! He was so excited to get out our Halloween/Easter bin (we don't even have enough Halloween decor to warrant its own bin). These ghost lights were from when we lived in Augusta!

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We enjoyed watching Conference--so nice not to leave the house at all today... Ellie has been snuggly lately--she'll go up to a blanket (or stuffed animal, or the kitchen rug, etc.), lay her head down on it & snuggle up. Today she was on this blanket at one point during Conference. I called her name to get her to look for a picture, and she rolled over, took her pacifier out & looked at me upside down. Cute girl.

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This was the scene at Iceberg shortly after 8:00 pm, following the Priesthood session of General Conference. We had picked Darin up from the Stake Center & came straight here. Kids & women were definitely the minority! We tried a Fresh Banana-Caramel-Marshmallow shake tonight... delicious!

274/365

Today we went on a fun outing with a group of moms & kids, mostly from our ward. We met at the mall bus stop at 9:00 am & rode the city bus to the main library in downtown Boise, where we watched a puppet show of 'The Princess and the Pea.' Yes, we could have just driven directly to the library,
but the bus ride (including one transfer) was part of the experience--the kids loved it!