Life is definitely accelerated with two kids. The second half of August and first half of September have flown by! August was marked by Christopher’s first flight for a meet-and-greet in WI. Both boys were such troopers during our travel. There was barely any whining or crying through the 
airport and on the plane, and then the 2 1/2 hour car-ride from Milwaukee was complaint-free. I was amazed, and quite proud of them both. They both took to sleeping well at Grandma Laura’s house, even though it was the first time we’ve tried to have them share a room, and Will’s first attempt at sleeping in a ‘big boy bed’ that was not his own–we did a twin mattress on the floor to prevent falls. He not only slept well, he even maintained his napping schedule without much of a fight. It was wonderful seeing everyone during our visit. Thanks to EVERYONE we saw who made an effort to work us into their schedule! Christopher was his normally happy self for everyone, and William absolutely LOVED a certain border collie named Mike who shared his tennis balls for throwing. We took a ceremonial run through the corn and picked raspberries with Grandpa Bruce. William was still a bit scared of the 4-wheeler. Next time! The farm was so much fun, but by the end of the week Will started asking about driving back to our house. I guess it’s good that home is calling at the end of a vacation.
The day after our WI trip we hosted the Robert’s family reunion. The weather was amazing, everyone brought good food, and the boys played until they were absolutely exhausted. William has such a fun time with his 1st and 2nd cousins. By a quick count I think there are about 10 kids under the age of 10 when we all get together (not bad for a group of about 35 people total). It was fun to see William try to keep up with the bigger kids. He did so well! It was also fun to meet the two newest additions–my sister-in-law’s twins Zeke and Zoe. They are SO CUTE (and rumor has it SO much work).
The day after the reunion Christopher had his 4 month doctor’s appointment and shots. I am thankful that both of my boys have thus far been completely unfazed by their immunizations.
Christopher is still neck-in-neck with Will’s 4 month measurements. He seems so much bigger to me, but I think it is just because time is moving so quickly this time around. He’s sleeping pretty well–usually eating once during 10 hours of sleep overnight. Last night he was sucking his thumb a couple times! I am hopeful that this will lead to better self-soothing and less trips in to find his binkie. He is 5 months old in about 10 days, and we did his first spoon feeding this morning! Most of it still drools back out, but he sat in his high-chair well and seemed genuinely interested in the spoon. It’s funny how with Will I was reluctant to start solids at 5 months, and with Christopher I’m raring to go. One thing I’ve been a little slow to start is the cloth diapers with Christopher. I’ve managed to get some good sale prices on disposables and he’s outgrowing them faster than we’re using them. I snapped all the cloth diapers down to his size, so I’m going to make a new commitment to using them on him soon.
William is is usual talkative, energetic, opinionated self. He is especially opinionated when it 
comes to potty training. His opinion is emphatically that he wants nothing to do with it unless it is before bedtime and he’s trying to stall. I guess all kids are trained by kindergarten? We’ve tried treats, lots of praise, bought him power-ranger big boy underwear, and talked about how Christopher needs to use his old diapers because he’s a baby. He just doesn’t care. Sigh. Some day. In happy news he is an excellent big brother. As Christopher grows and becomes more interactive William has taken interest in giving him toys, making sure he has his binkie, and comforting him when he’s upset–“It’s ok buddy” he says. They are really cute together. William seems to be learning that some of the things that used to be his are now Christopher’s–like the baby spoons. Some of the toys he still has trouble with as demonstrated in the first photo below. Being big is hard sometimes!
August was pleasantly cool and wet, at least by Utah standards. That meant good things for our water bill, but was hard on some of our tomatoes which developed splits. We still managed to have a pretty good crop, and I’m daydreaming about next Spring’s garden already. Fall is already in the air and before we know it, it will be time to clean up this year’s garden. Besides the usual raking leaves and the end-of-year garden clean-up, the only other pressing project before winter is getting the outdoor pond-form dug in. If you don’t remember, we had a small outdoor pond at the old house and got a slightly bigger one off the classifieds for a steal when we moved in here. The first summer it sat on the patio, and this summer it sat in its proposed lawn location. All that remains is to dig it in and decide if we want to use a heater to let the fish stay out there all winter instead of bringing them into the basement as we have done in previous years. It sounds simple enough, but we might end up sending both boys to grandma’s house in order to get it accomplished.
Last weekend I took my first attempt at canning. By the end of the weekend I had beets, salsa, and spaghetti sauce in nice little jars. I am thankful that we are storing/borrowing Grandma 
Marion’s canning equipment. The only thing I needed to purchase new was a jar lifter and a magnet for pulling the lids out of the hot water. Overall the project was exhausting but successful. The most surprising part was how messy canning beets was! After all the prep work for the salsa and spaghetti sauce I thought beets would be a breeze. No one warned me it would look like someone had stuck a pig and let it run all over my kitchen. What a mess! AND when I thought it could get no messier…this weekend I canned grape juice. Now my hands are purple. It is all a learning experience for sure. This weekend we also canned tomato juice and a few peaches. More peaches will come mid-week as I discovered our farmer’s market box was not quite as ripe as I’d hoped. In the coming weeks we’re going to try our hand at applesauce and pears. I’m excited to see the basement canning room fill up!
Thankfully we have an offer on our old house and are planning to close in about 2 weeks. Unfortunately we are paying in and not making a profit, but it still seems like a better option than keeping it for another year and dealing with raking leaves, shoveling snow, and wondering ‘what if’ renters trash it, the furnace dies, the roof needs to be replaced, etc. I will be glad to have that small piece of stress gone. In brighter news we have begun discussing remodeling the bathroom in our current house sometime in 2015. I will be happy to see the gray and pink tile go just as I was happy to see the wild pink rose wallpaper come down. I’ve found that being an adult sometimes involves taking a loan for the things you want and shopping for things like toilets in your spare time. It is quite an exciting life. 🙂
I am looking forward to another visit from my parents between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Partially by chance we found really cheap tickets and got them booked. It is so nice to see my parents enjoying their day-to-day lives and each other more since they stopped milking twice per day. I am thankful they now have the option to travel more often. It is excellent timing since right now we don’t have the time off and money to fly back to visit as much as I’d like.
So that’s the update. Along with the craziness worth mentioning, there is always an endless stream of laundry, washing the baby bottle/pumping dishes, and making lunches for work. Will someone take a nap for me? 😉
Take Care Everyone!
S.~