Mobile Moments August

The Baldwin family had tons of fun in the month of August.
Nicholas and I had a fun time checking out the new JoAnn store in American Fork.  Yeah for not having to drive to Orem to go to JoAnns!

Anna and Nicholas like to play trains.  This is one of those games that usually ends in tears. I will let you guess what usually ends up happening.

To change up our afternoon reading time I brought out my Big Books.  Anna thought they were great.  Funny that the books are as big as she is.

Anna was playing store one day and just had to stop.  "Mommy, I can't go to the store without making a list."  Not a lot of window shopping going around at our house.  You get what is on the list and get out of there.

Quilt class has begun again.  Here are the blocks for the first month.

Nicholas loves trains.  He could play with Anna's Geo Trax all day long.

Nicholas is a fashion boy.  He really does have an opinion when it comes to what he wears each day.  He is really into shoes.  Whenever he gets a chance he likes to try on shoes.  He likes Anna's church shoes the best.

Daddy's shoes are not too bad either.

Here is a view of our sad little garden. Our beans did great.  You can see the thick wall of beans.  The rest of the garden well,...there is always next year.

We bought a new dresser set to match our bed.  Anna and Nicholas loved helping Devin put them together.

I am really impressed at how well Nicholas can use a screw driver.  Who knew?!  It must be a boy thing.

Devin likes to make these marshmallow, graham cracker, chocolate chip treats for the kids. Nicholas loves to eat them and makes a complete mess of himself in the process.

Anna and Nicholas like playing with their humidifiers.  The lids make great hats.

Anna really enjoys making cards.  I was really impressed that she wrote Happy Birthday all by herself. Way to go Anna!

The kids found my bucket of clothes pins.  Very fun!

While I was putting Nicholas down for his nap Anna decided that she needed to organize her alphabet books, they were all mixed up on the shelf and it was driving her nuts.  She did a great job putting them in order.

The kids like sitting in our chairs.  The chairs are quite comfortable.  Add a blanket and I bet it is even cozier.

Anna was a great helper with pinning the pattern for her Halloween costume.

It is getting cooler in the mornings, so it was time for new sweaters.  Nicholas loves putting his hood on.

We bought the kids new clothes for the winter.  The clothes look so big. I know by next fall they will be too small.  

At our Stake Yard Sale / Swap thing we scored some new puzzles for Anna.  She is getting really good at the more complex puzzles.

Our beans were amazing this year.  This is just what I picked off of one side of our fence.

Part one of Anna's Halloween costume done!  (Just the pants)

Anna woke up one morning and decided that she really wasn't ready to wake up, so she went back to sleep under Devin's desk.

Nicholas loves music and he loves to play the piano.  He is such a cute little piano man.

I pulled all my empty jars out, organized them, and inventoried how much food we have left from canning last year.  Pulled the good old Ball Blue Book out.  Ready to can like crazy for the next few months.

Devin watched the kids so I could go to Education Week.  Seriously it is my favorite thing to do!

Here come the beans!

Nicholas really enjoys doing puzzles.  He is so patient, much more so than a cute little girl in our house.

I got "marked" for the triathlon. I am glad that it didn't take too much scrubbing to get the numbers off after the race.

After getting dressed one day, Nicholas decided that he wanted to put his PJs back on.  It was quite challenging, mostly because he didn't take his other clothes off first.

Nicholas loves to cook.  Put him in an apron, give him some kitchen toys, and he is good for quite a while.

The cucumbers decided to join the harvest party with the beans.

To celebrate the first day of school...for everyone else...we went to the Splash Park with the Curtis family.  We love spending time with them.  Anna and Korver love playing together.  They are pretty cute together. :) Funny that Korver is a month older than Anna and at least a whole head taller.  They had a great time playing in the water and floating things down the river.

 Nicholas was in heaven!!!  He ran all over and had a great time.  This was the only picture I took of him because he was moving so fast I couldn't keep up with him.  I am excited to go to the Splash Park more next year.  I need to be less of a chicken taking my kids places.  They really have so much fun.

What do you notice that is strange about this plate?  How about all the lima beans?  Yes, Anna still loves lima beans and we happily give her all the lima beans from our plates and Nicholas doesn't mind giving up his either.

We went to the library and this was as far as the kids made it when we got home.  In the door, take your shoes off, and just sit down and start looking at books.  I sure do love having two cute little book worms in the house.

We finally took Anna to get her first real hair cut.  My neighbor Cami did a great job.  She let Anna watch Dora (which I never do because I think Dora is...well, I don't like Dora).  Anna was totally glued.  The trim looks great.  I really love Anna's long hair.

I don't know who was more excited for Anna's Preschool Open House. Anna had a great time meeting her teachers and seeing her classroom.  I had a wonderful time visiting with her teachers and well...let me tell you it is wonderful to finally be on the flip-side of the teaching world.  I LOVE IT!!!!

Orangesoda had a Lazy Ironman contest over the summer.  You just needed to do all the distances for an ironman over the course of the whole summer.  Because I was training for the triathlon this challenge was easy.  I am happy to say that I was the first female to earn the Lazy Ironman.  But most importantly, I beat Devin, Mahon, and Lance.  :)

I think Legos and Babysitter are synonyms.  I love watching Anna and Nicholas play Legos together.  They build some pretty amazing things.

Here Nicholas is again with his trains.  He loves Thomas, Percy, James, and all of Thomas's friends.

Nicholas isn't the only one who likes Thomas and Friends.  Anna decided that she could do her job faster if James helped her.  Who knew trains could be "really useful engines" by helping unload the dishwasher.

And then there were peaches, LOTS of peaches!

We have entered the wonderful world of Play Doh...that is until Nicholas thinks he should eat some.  At some point he will learn that Play Doh is not food.

And more cucumbers.

I cleaned out our bathroom closet one afternoon while Anna was playing at a friends house.  A clean closet does me about as much good as a Diet Coke or chocolate for some ladies.

Anna really likes her new jacket and hat.

One of Anna and Nicholas's jobs lately has been to pick up peaches.  This is a two part job.  They have to watch out the window all day to see if there are any peaches on the ground and then they have to run outside and pick them up.  We seriously do this at least three times a day.

August was great!  Now on to September's adventures.

Anna Is A REAL Reader!

I love teaching, always have, and I imagine I always will.  Anna loves to learn.  Teacher + Learner= a cute little girl who picked up a book and just started reading.  I sat there amazed!  Bunny Ride was a book that we had never read before. (I loved it as a kid and saw it at the library and just tossed it in the bag.)  The words were simple so I had Anna start reading with the intent of letting her read a word or two, but doing most of the reading myself.  Boy was I wrong!  She did wonderful!  When Devin got home from work I told him that Anna needed to read him a story.  This is just a clip of her reading this book for the second time ever!

Way to go Anna!!!! 

That's Just Me

Back when I was single and teaching school I had lots of single friends who were also teachers.  Many of them loved teaching because it let them have their summer free to travel.  I thought about jumping on the travel wagon.  I had friends who went to Europe, Africa, Latin America, and all over the U.S.  All of which sounded like fun places to go.  Trust me they are on my "Bucket List."  Each year that I taught I thought I really should go somewhere fun over the summer, but where?  I finally decided that of all the places I could go, the one place I really wanted to go was on a Church History tour.  I love Church History and I loved the thought of going to all the places where everything happened.  So I went on my awesome teacher trip.
Here I am in the Sacred Grove.

Imagine covering most of the church history sights from the very beginning to Nauvoo. IT WAS SO AMAZING!!!!
One of my favorite parts was going to the Nauvoo temple. I am a huge temple person.  One of my "bucket list" things is to go to all the temples in the U.S.  The Nauvoo temple is beautiful.

 So rather than going to Europe or Hawaii, which would have been fun, I went on a Church History tour with my wonderful friend Tammy.
With this said, when Julie is needing some Julie time what kind of "Girl's Week" does she asks for?  BYU's Education week of course!  Devin knows that I don't want to run away to go shopping or have a pedicure, I just want to plant myself in some religion classes for a week, take notes like crazy, and drink from a spiritual fire hose.
This year Devin and I made a deal.  I could go to Education Week and he got to go to Wood Badge.  Both of us came out on top.

Education week was wonderful.  I only went to three classes but I also listened to talks going to and from campus every day.  (The best was from my old Stake President Johnson.  If you want a great talk to read or listen to click HERE.)
The three classes I went to were perfect for me.  Merrilee A. Boyack taught a great class called, "Be All the Woman You Can Be."  She was funny very insightful.  Lost to think about, lots of things to do! I also went to a class taught by Vickey Pahnke Taylor called, "Our Savior's Love: Stronger Than Anything On Earth."  I have gone to her classes before and she is wonderful.  Just one of those great warm fuzzy classes that help you feel good.  Last but not least in any way, I went to Brother B's class.  Back in the day I went to Institute.  I LOVE Institute!!!!!  Ronald E. Bartholomew was my favorite teacher of all time!  I am so grateful that I get a little bit of Brother B time at Education Week.  He is so fun to listen to, but gives it to you straight up.  I could listen to him for hours!  His class was called, "Understanding the Process of Spiritual Rebirth."  Talk about an amazing class!!!!
I had a great idea this year at Education Week.  I spend a week taking notes, being inspired, and just being charged with the spirit.   I wish there was a Conference Ensign edition that had all the text from the classes I went to, so I could study it all year.  I decided to give me a bit of Education Week all year I would pick one book by one of the teachers and study it all year.  I picked a book by Merrilee A. Boyack called Toss the Guilt and Catch the Joy.  Good stuff!
So that's just Julie.  An Education Week Nerd, but a very happy nerd. 

Brigham City Temple Open House

We have been very blessed to live so close to so many temples.  One of Anna's favorite games to play while we are driving is, "Find the Temple."  Anna has been lucky enough, in her short lifetime to go to the Draper temple open house.

The Oquirrh Mountain temple open house.

And now Anna and Nicholas have both been able to go the the Brigham City temple open house.

Don't you love this, "Let me help you hold still" head-lock that Anna has on Nicholas.

Both of our kids were really excited to go "IN" to the temple.  Nicholas was so excited the whole drive up.  "See Temple! See Temple!"  He just wanted to run around in the temple, which was a little bit tricky.
It is a beautiful temple!

I love the old tabernacle across the street.

We were lucky enough to see a family from our ward while we were there.  Here is Anna and her friend Chase.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of them infront of the temple.

The best part of going to this temple open house was all the great people that came with us.  My mom was able to come,  Devin's brother Gene, and our friend Braxton.  Braxton is going to school up in Logan and because it was Labor Day weekend we picked him up to bring him home for the weekend.  It was SOOO good to see Braxton we sure love him to pieces!!!  Anna and Nicholas love seeing Braxton too.

So there is another temple open house.  If my count is correct this was my 7th temple open house.  With  three more possible temple open houses in the future that will make 10!  I am so grateful to be able to take my kids to the temple.  I love that they LOVE the temple.

Stewart Falls

We went on an amazing adventure to Stewart Falls as a family.  We have gone on short hikes with our kids before, but this was the first "real" hike.

Everyone was excited to get going and the weather was perfect!

We left just before lunch so after walking a bit we found a nice spot to eat our lunch.  Anna and Nicholas loved watching a squirrel.  The squirrel loved the food they dropped.

Anna did great!  The hike is 2 miles to the falls.  The only problem she had on the way up was that there were lots of people with dogs on the trail.  The trail is not very big and there are not a lot of places for a little girl to hide.  

We made it all the way to the falls and the kids had a great time playing in the ice cold water.

I have a fun picture of me and my roommate Sarah infront of these falls.  (That feels like a million years ago.)  It was a great hike then and still is now.

On the way back I could tell my little Anna was getting tired.  A 4 mile hike is a lot to ask of a 3 year old.  I ended up carrying her for a little way.  I actually thought she was going to fall asleep in my arms, but she didn't.  

Anna gave the hike two thumbs up!

The trail was really dusty, and my feet got really dirty.  I just can't imagine hiking in anything but my Chacos. 

Nicholas had a wonderful time.  He loved riding in the backpack.  Smiles all around for the Baldwin family.

We  were very grateful that we were in the car driving home when it started to rain cats and dogs.  That would have made our hike quite a different experience.  For the record, our hike was fantastic!