Righteous Pride

Bradley is really picking up reading now. This is a video of him reading a book he kind of has memorized. This morning while I was getting ready he picked up a book I don't know if I've even read to him in the past month, and he pretty much read the whole thing!

Connor LOVES to sing. He really enjoys watching his new birthday DVD with nursery rhymes on it. During the day he will frequently just start singing all the songs, and he has most of them memorized!
Heck yah, my kids are dang smart! :)

Teething & Potty Training - Yikes!

I actually don't have very many pictures to post, surprisingly. I did however, want to update everyone on a few happenings in The Power House. :) This could be a long post. I have a lot to blab about. If you aren't interested in our children's newest physical developments, just skip it!
Halley's first tooth FINALLY broke through last Thursday. I have been able to see the teeth for over a month and a half! I guess she is going to take her precious time with teething, which means we could be in for it for the next 2 years! Her second tooth is still not through, and she is pretty miserable. She tries so hard to be happy though. Anyway, this picture shows how cute she is sleeping on her side. This is how she usually sleeps. Also, Halley has figured out how to roll over. She is pretty good at going from her back to her front, but when she gets on her belly she has a hard time rolling back over. It's kind of annoying because she doesn't like being on her belly so she has been crying during the night every time she gets stuck on her belly! Between the pain from her teeth and her new skill, I have been up A LOT at night. But, like my mother-in-law says, "Once you become a mother, you are always tired, forever more!" :) Ha ha ha . . .
Besides Halley's new stuff, Connor decided on Monday that he wants to wear big boy underwear. I was planning to really hit the potty training stuff hard in a couple weeks. We have a guest staying with us until Oct. 4. Her name is Ana. She is from Paraguay, and she usually lives with some of our friends out here, but she needed a place to stay for a couple weeks. (We love having her here, by the way. It's been really fun.)
Here's a random picture of the boys' and Wes' latest activity at night - reading the Narnia book "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." They do this every night while I put Halley to bed.
Anyway, so Connor has been doing really well. It has been pretty rough for me though. I have to set a timer or I forget to take him, and then he has an accident. He actually hasn't pooped in his underwear at all, but he doesn't really like to take the time to go pee. I wanted to wait until Bradley's two week class break started and until Ana was gone. It's hard to go anywhere when I have to take him potty every 30-40 minutes, and I didn't want Ana having to be around all the accidents. :) She's been really good about it though, and it's been fine. Hopefully it'll all be over in a week or two. :)Now that I've bored everyone with my children's exciting updates, I think I better end this post! Wish us luck in our new endeavors!

Halley's First Food Experience

This was a big week - lots of exciting things. Here are a few pictures of Halley eating rice cereal for the first time. For the past few weeks, every time we'd hold her while we were eating a meal, she'd cry. So, we figured maybe she was jealous and wanted to eat real food. Well, I guess it wasn't quite as good as she thought it'd be. It's just rice cereal!
FOOD! Alright, give it to me Dad!

Nasty! What is this stuff?

Are you kidding me?
I think I'd rather eat my high chair!

Before and After the Chopping Action!

This is obviously an after picture.
Yah, that's right! I did it! I chopped my hair, and man, it is SHORT! I still can't believe I did that, but I am actually liking it quite a bit. The only problem is that it is too short to put in a ponytail, which I don't like. But hey, it will be long enough for that soon enough, I'm sure.
Wes really likes it, and Bradley told his teacher at school that she needs to cut her hair because it's too long. :) Ha ha ha . . .
Anyway, here are some before and after pics!

I don't know if you'll ever be able to see his eyes in a picture!

These were taken right before I went to the salon.

And these were taken the next day. Wes took these pics, and he told me he got a good one! Grrrr . . . I don't like the pictures at all, but Wes is on duty tonight so I can't get another one, and I really wanted to show everyone. :) I tried to take some of me by myself, but it just won't work. Anyway, my hair is gone. I sold it to a guy in Santa Cruz. It is so weird, but I love it! I was totally ready for a change.

Cute Kids - Tough Life

Wes and I have both been having kind of a hard time lately. We are really missing "all the people we love," as the boys call everyone we left back in Utah. Life is just so different here. We've both been kind of sad. We miss just hanging out with family and friends who really know and love us. We miss the support system. We need help raising our kids!! We have some cool friends here, but they don't love us as much. :) Anyway, so it's been a tough few weeks for us. We are still kickin', but it's been a struggle. Pray for us! :)
Despite all our struggles - we still have some way cute kids so I'll post a few pictures for you!
This is one of Halley at the restaurant on Connor's birthday. I had to post it because she does this ALL the time. Whenever she is tired, and even when she's nursing, she puts her hand right up on her face. It's adorable.
This is a cute one of Halley and Connor. I have about 8 from this little session of pictures, but I won't post them all.
This one is dedicated to all the grandmas out there. We miss you! (It says "I Love Grandma" on her onesie.) Halley probably won't fit this outfit for long so you'll have to enjoy her cute outfit online. Notice the nice drool bomb?
Bradley decided to let Halley wear his pink glasses! I'm not sure if I posted this, but for a few weeks Bradley wore these glasses all day every day. He claimed he couldn't see without them. He would put them by his pillow at night when he laid down and put them on again in the morning. It was a funny phase. She is so dang cute.:)

Bradley Types a Letter

This is a video of Bradley typing a letter to my nephew, Zack. He was concentrating so hard. Cristi has been posting cute videos of Zack saying Bradley, Connor, and Halley's names. Bradley watched one and wanted to write him a letter on the computer.
I also want to brag about Bradley. :) He sat down to type this letter and did all of it by himself. He even knows the space bar and backspace, etc.
Also, this morning Bradley went in and got a book and read the whole thing to us. It's a book that we haven't read to him for over a month! It is a really simple book, but it does have a few big words like "saucer." He is such a smart boy. :) We are very proud of him.

A Few Pictures

I had to post this picture of Connor. It was my third attempt at taking a cute picture of him in some of his new birthday clothes. He was very smiley (that is, smiley with his eyes closed, of course), but he was also very wiggly! I had to chase him around the house.
Wes had an overnight thing this past Thurs.-Fri. so the boys and I went for a walk both days after dinner. This is a cute picture of them together.
On Friday morning I went in to get Halley, and she had both her feet stuck through the slats in her crib. She can't roll over all the way yet, but she sure can wiggle herself around! She obviously wasn't too concerned. She wasn't even crying before I came in - just a little fussy!

Cute Videos

Videos seem to tell a much better story than pictures, and we did a few this week so I thought I'd post them. We have been trying to catch Halley laughing for awhile, and we finally got a semi-ok one on Sunday. The boys can almost always make her laugh, but then they are so noisy it's hard to hear her. Sorry, but you get the idea.
The other two videos are from Saturday night. I think we took about 10! Wes and I were trying to get Halley to laugh. It was a lost cause, but Wes got her to roll to her side, and we also got the boys with their bath mohawks! They are so much fun.