September

Time for another catch-up post.

My mom and 2 uncles (Jo & Peter) came over for a 2-week visit in September.

We (they) planned lots of fun outings.

Brunch at Sundance has become a tradition for my parents. So the first Sunday we drove up beautiful Provo Canyon.

After brunch we drove to Park City and walked around Main Street for a little while.

Of course no family visit is complete without traveling in Utah. We went to Moab for a weekend, giving my uncles a chance to rekindle with the place where Trevor and I got married on their previous visit.

We visited the usual, Arches NP and Canyonlands NP, but we also went to Dead Horse State Park.

Trevor and I both celebrated our birthdays during my family’s stay. We had amazing dinners at Mazza and The Happy Sumo. Both Will and Tessa were adventurous and tried new things.

Mazza

&

The Happy Sumo

(Don’t worry, that is not sake in her cup.)

At The Riverwoods there was live music before we had dinner. We sat and listened for a while and tried to take some good pictures. That didn’t work out so well with the boys.

I did get this video of Tessa dancing to the music.

We’ve been working in our yard pretty much every single weekend this year, so it was nice to get some help.

The day before their arrival Trevor and I found out that I had miscarried. On the day of their arrival my family had to wait for 2 hours on our front porch for us to come back from the hospital. (Sorry, again!) I don’t think I ever really told my mom how much I appreciated her help and support in the two weeks she was here. I know that she knows this, but it should be said anyway. So Mam, dank je wel!

Mess!

Tessa just walked up to me saying “Mess”.

Then she ran to the kitchen, got a towel out of the drawer, ran back to the couch where she was sitting, and “cleaned” up the dry cereal she had spilled.

Good girl!

Some of the things we did in August…

– A 4-wheel drive day trip to Cascade Springs

As you can see in the upper left picture, Will and Tessa were really excited for this. It was a nice drive though!

– Hiking Timpanooke

One date night Trevor and I hiked part of the Timpanooke trail. We got a late start and we had to turn around at the Giant Staircase and still hiked most of the way down in the dark. But we did see a moose and some deer.

– Sundance

We had some time to kill one afternoon while in town, so I took the kids up to Sundance. We walked around for a bit, ate a snack and drove back to town. The temperature in the canyon was a lot nicer than in the valley.

– Another Belt Promotion for Will

Brown-Orange!

– Our trip to Lake Powell

Which has its own post.

– And some random pics of the kids

Ready for the sun!

Both fast asleep in the car after Granny Night.

Tessa trying to dress herself. Those are Will’s socks.

Tessa feeding Will’s bear her lunch.

Some of the things we did in June…

Still working on catching up from the summer!

– Swimming lessons for Will

– Belt Promotion at Karate for Will

His brown belt!

– Swimming at Seven Peaks

– Sword Camp at Karate

I didn’t get any good pictures of Will using his sword, unfortunately. But he did well enough to earn another belt, his second in 2-weeks time!

– Pinewood Derby at Scouts

Will’s car got a few first and second places, but ended up in fourth place overall. Together with Trevor he spent a few evenings working very hard on his skeleton car.

– Johnson Family Reunion

I took Tessa to Kris’ family reunion. She had fun playing with all the toys they had there. Since they had held a reunion last year as well, it wasn’t as busy this time. It was still good to hang out with everyone who did come.

– More swimming lessons for Will

Will has done so well this summer. He was able to go to the next class up. His favorite thing: Survival Float. Nothing better than just laying in the water!

– Playing at the Park

I took the kids to the park for lunch one day. Will took the pictures of Tessa.

– Wedding Stephanie & Steve

(Pictures courtesy of Ashlee Elizabeth Photography, thanks Steph for letting me copy them!)

Some of the things we did in May…

– School Carnaval

– Karate Tournament

Dianna, Adelein, Isabelle and Granny came and watched Will compete in forms and sparring.

– School Dance Festival

The 4th grade classes danced to Cotton Eye Joe.

– End of school Festivities

With his teacher Ms Jensen.

Graffiti

Luckily she used washable crayons!

Tessa @ 15 Months

Tessa turned 15 months a few weeks ago.

She has grown quite a bit and is no longer our little baby. It is so much fun to see her develop into a little girl (with a big personality)!

All greasy from eating pancakes in the Netherlands!

Some (fun) facts about her:

– Going up and down the stairs by herself. She is fast!

– Feeding herself. She won’t let you feed her very often anymore. She likes to eat with utensils and is pretty good at it.

– While in Europe she preferred to walk behind the stroller and help push in stead of sitting in it.

– Dogs. She loves reading about them, seeing them and petting them. Mostly little ones though. She also likes to chase Granny’s cat.

– Suckers and fruit snacks. We used them to keep her happy on the plane, and now she knows where we keep them. Which causes some tantrums sometimes.

– Speaking of tantrums, they are definitely more normal nowadays. She’ll let you know when she is not happy with something.

– Reading. Either with one of us or by herself. I’ll sometimes find her in her chair with a book. Hopefully this one will stick!

– She is more and more interested in Will and what he does. Which can be a little annoying for Will. But it is fun to see them “play together” sometimes.

– She does not like to step over cracks in concrete floors or door steps. She’ll just stand by them and whine a little. It takes her several tries to get over it.

– When Trevor is working outside I often put Tessa on the window sill so she can watch him. She likes to lick the window and draw things.

– She still loves to draw. She’ll usually sit and draw for about 10 minutes.

– She recognizes herself in pictures and the mirror and will say her name.

Her stats from her latest Dr.’s visit (last week):

		Weight			Length			Head Circumference
		Pounds	Grams	%	Inches	Cm	%	Inches	Cm	%
At birth		6 lbs 13 oz	3100		19	48		13.5	34
2-weeks	0 m 13 d	7 lbs 5 oz	3310	20.66	20	50	40.72	14.2	36	55.36
2-months	2 m 1 d	10 lbs 7 oz	4758	40.62	22	56	35.33	15.2	39	53.79
4-months	4 m 3 d	13 lbs 3 oz	5980	38.08	25	63.5	76.45	16.5	41	74.94
6-months	6 m 13 d	13 lbs 15 oz	6320	8.72	25.5	64.5	31.84	17	43	65.33
9-months	9 m 11 d	16 lbs 15 oz	7680	14.27	27.5	70	42.05	17.6	45	67.99
12-months	12 m 3 d	20 lbs 3 oz	9149	35.68	29	74	48.21	18	46	70.18
15-months	15 m 11 d	23 lbs 6 oz	10600	59.82	30.5	77.5	53.3	18.3	46.5	68.2

Random Pictures Of Tessa

While getting our camera ready for our trip to the Netherlands I came upon these pictures of Tessa. They were all taken during the last 3 months.

Drawing

Will loves to draw cartoons. He is always making up stories, and even in his journal all entries have pictures, kind of like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He is very secretive about writing in his journal, but then when he’s done he comes and shows us the drawings he made.

The last 2 months Tessa has gotten into drawing as well. She knows where we keep the crayons and pencils, and usually gets them out herself. It is nice for me, because it will keep her busy for 10 min.

I Can Do It Myself

 

And then this happened…