Little cutie

Tall building

Allison is pretty good about playing independently while Nicole is away at school.  Her tall "budding" today:

The children keep learning

 Sunset a couple weeks ago:

Nicole started school this week. She loves first grade more than kindergarten because she gets to go for seven hours instead of just three, haha.

This was the best we could get in the bright sun.

With her new teacher on Back to School Night.

My in-laws noticed a few weeks ago that Allison holds a pencil in the proper fashion.  Who knew??!  I asked Nicole if she taught Allie how to hold a pencil, and she said no.  My in-laws were also fascinated that Allison was intently drawing circles.  That is her favorite shape, haha.  The other day, she draws a circle and looks up at me proudly and says, "cirdle!"  We have a game with different colored shapes, and she collects all the big circles and carries them around.  Nicole's favorite shape as a young child was hearts.

Allison's favorite color is yellow.  She loves her yellow saltwater sandals.  "Ye-woe shoes!  Ye-woe shoes!" she yells in the mornings.  "Yellow" is also one of her favorite words, because she uses the word for a lot of things, such as "other," or "green."  Nicole's favorite color as a young child was blue.

Allison holding a pencil like a pro!

A few weeks ago, Allison started stacking square Duplos into columns and calling them her "budding"s (buildings).  This week, she started stacking other shapes as well.  Yesterday morning, she made her most elaborate creation yet.  She is trying to carry it up the stairs to share with me, and pieces are falling off, and she is having a little breakdown.  Poor thing.  I went down and helped her bring it the rest of the way up the stairs.  She was quite proud of it.

The proud little Allison and her big "budding" yesterday

She is showing the camera her creation from today

Happy kids

We went to the county fair family farm fest today!  It was all free!

Allison was too scared to ride the ponies.

At home, however, Allison is not afraid.  She is not afraid of her mother while she's in time out:

She even walks on walls:

July and August

Down in Provo Canyon at the eternal spring.

Up in the mountains last week last week for a beautiful little hike.

We planted zucchini plants while Nicole's friend was visiting two months ago.  We harvested our first zucchini last week!

We met up with Nicole's friend this week at a cute little farm.

Daddy worked all Saturday, so we went to a battle of the brewers!  You seriously missed out.

Daddy surrounded by his girls last night.

Stories

Allison loves getting read to.

National Parks and the Shakespeare Festival

We were fortunate to visit the Grand Canyon National Park recently.  I didn't take many pictures, but I did snap a couple shots of Allison hanging on the edge of the Grand Canyon.  She loved hanging on those bars and protested forcefully when I dragged her away.

We also visited Bryce Canyon National Park.  A tiny village along the way was extra accommodating of people with certain health restrictions.

Allison was the one who found no pleasure at all in seeing the canyon.

In fact, she appeared to be plotting some sort of revenge against her Daddy for confining her to the hiking backpack.

Something we've noticed about Allison is that she usually isn't sad, and usually doesn't cry.  She is occasionally fussy and tired.  When she's feeling uncomfortable about being separated from her parents, she may stand aloof and suck her thumb.  But her two main moods are 1)  happy, where she loves playing and making connections with others, and 2)  angry, where she fights with all her might until she succumbs to the futility of her resistance - the second mood illustrated in her reaction to being forced into a car seat for another 8 hour drive:

We had the pleasure of attending a Renaissance Fair, held at the park, and the Shakespeare Festival.

While being watched by Grandma, Nicole climbed to the top of the rope structure and waited there for ten minutes for me and Daddy to return so we could see her proud feat.

Nicole said the turkey leg tasted "like candy," and Allison kept asking for more "meat," "bite of meat."  They made their daddy proud.

Too much fun eating donuts:

This nice, creepy man was handing out balloons:

We saw Macbeth, which is one of the best productions I've seen, with terrific actors.  My mom said it's the best production she's seen.  The Shakespeare Festival offers professional childcare at a very reasonable price, so, while we watched the play, the kids enjoyed the company of other children and the tutelage of the teachers.  They sent her home with this project she created:

The teacher grimaced and said, "I tried to convince her to write, 'nice'..."

Being that we saw Macbeth, I thought Nicole's note was appropriate.