Candy!

Kiddos love Halloween candy!

Fingerpainting!

Kiddos did some fingerpainting recently. It was pretty entertaining! We got them into just diapers, set them in their high chairs, and gave them paint. We had to show them to dip their fingers, then go to the paper. Claire, of course, took a lick.
She also liked painting herself!
Their painting styles were very different. Claire liked to pat her paper, Jacob wanted to spread it all around

Thanks to Crayola's washable paints, the kiddos and high chairs came perfectly clean that night!

Dani's adventurous morning

Last week, Dani and Sara Brown planned on getting pictures of kids. This morning was the morning. It started off different than normal because Claire and Jacob needed baths since we had a babysitter last night so Dani could go to her interior decorating class and so I could do my Cub Scouts calling. After getting Claire out of the tub and spreading Magic Butt Cream over her bad diaper rash, Claire was basically inconsolable. So, with Jacob happily playing in the tub, Dani held and clalmed Claire down.

Upon returning to the tub, Dani saw Jacob drinking the water (which kiddos both love to do) - which had poop in it! (side note, this is tub-poop #3, all of which I have been absent for - and I'm there for almost all their baths!) Gross!!!

Dani said pictures were a mad-house with the 3 very busy toddlers. She said it was especially difficult to get one of Claire and Jacob close to each other. They're good buddies, but they don't like to have to be close to each other! We'll see later this week how the pictures turned out!

I'm just glad Dani is able to laugh at a morning like this one!

Learning and growing so fast

We've taught Claire and Jacob to say, "Please" (or "PEEEE!" in a really high-pitched voice) when they want something. If you're eating anything, or if there's something on the counter that they want, they'll walk up to you and say please. The next step, and certainly the more painful one, will be teaching them that saying please doesn't guarantee that they'll get what they want! We've already had a few big tantrums about that.

We're also trying to teach about prayer. Claire is pretty good at folding her arms at meal prayers. Jacob, not so much (he just wants to eat). Claire is also good for at least 1 prayer at church. Last Sunday, the person conducting the meeting stood up to welcome everyone, and Claire promptly folded her arms. It was very cute. When we said the first prayer, Claire again folded her arms, and then 6 seconds later, said "May-Men" and was off to read a book.

Here are some fun pictures of Claire with the Sockem-Boppers

They haven't figured out what they're supposed to be used for (yet).

Jacob looks like a little 4-year-old in this picture! They love having us put them up on these stools. So far, we've only had 1 little fall.
Cute Claire!
Jacob is seriously always on the phone. And when he's not, he's holding something (remotes, cars, his foot) up to his ear like it's a phone. Phones are a little bit of a problem toy at our house sometimes because Jacob likes to take them from Claire.
Dani thinks this picture of Claire and Jacob with their friend Abigail looks like one of those pictures from 100 years ago when you weren't allowed to smile at the camera, so we had to put it into black and white. Funny, huh?

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween! Claire was a flower and Jacob was a bee. After procrastinating until the day before, we ended up finding these cute costumes from a friend in the ward and from my sister Camie. Thanks guys!

Jacob really had very little interest in carrying his candy bucket around. Claire, however, didn't want to let go of it!

Our cute little flower! She's saying, "Shoe," which is said by sticking her tongue out and making a machine-gun-like noise.

Jacob and Nana. Both kiddos are always pointing at things. I think Jacob was hearing a doggie. He also points at cars, trees, and planes ("Pway?" - he always sounds like he's asking a question). Claire loves to point at the "Yee-ight" (light).

Kiddos' favorite part of Halloween, of course, was the candy! We were mean parents and have limited the candy intake, especially seeing how they wanted to wolf down the sweet tarts and licorice!

We first went to a friend's house for chili (it was yummy!) and a little get-together. Then, we went trick-or-treating at a number of houses. They really liked putting candy into their buckets, and Jacob especially saw no point in walking to another house when he could just transfer candy into his bucket at 1 stop! Claire eventually got it and would happily walk between houses; I don't think Jacob ever did! As always, we had lots of comments about our cute little kids!