I know it has been a really long time since I have wrote a blog post. So to those few readers that I still have I apologize. We have had kind of a crazy busy summer. Caleb had an amzingly light schedule so we had to savor every moment we could. So we worked on the house a ton...yeah really fun! We painted all our trim and it was a huge project, and made us not want to do any more projects for a few months. But we worked in our yard, built an attic space in our garage, built a chicken coop, and put up some new light fixtures... despite our own unwillingness to do house work.
Besides that we went swimming almost every day, played in the backyard, went to Disneyland, the beach, and Santa Barbara a few times.
Joshua has had a very eventful summer. He grew two shoe sizes! He always wants to buy flippers like his daddy has for swimming, we told him he grew some so he does not need them. He thinks that is pretty cool, and keeps tell us about he is getting bigger and bigger like his daddy. He ask took swimming lessons this summer and can now swim around the pool.
He still needs practice to get really strong, but his confidence has gone way
up with it. We also taught him to ride a two wheeler which he loves. The only problem is he peddles along great until he sees something neat and crashes into it. We are working on focusing on riding the bike. In general he is just getting so grown up. He is a real free spirit, he does and is exactly what he feels like doing or being at any moment, regardless of who is around him. He is the most uninhibited child I think I have seen, and I love it, and am constantly just laughing at the
things he says and does. He is also
a real boy and loves to be outside digging in the dirt, or just running around in circles in the backyard yelling "aloha" to his cousins in Santa Barbara, or playing his harmonica.
Lately he loves putting on shoes, and doing neat tricks for us. He also likes to trick his
sister into doing things or "sharing" toys with him.
He is super sweet and a great sweet talker. Thus he can be a real stinker sometimes :). Although, he has become a great worker and loves to help us
do things, although, sometimes he is a little too much help. His favorite job is taking care of the chickens. He collects the eggs everyday, and (with a little help) fills their water and food, and helps clean the coop. He loves the chickens. All in all we really, really love having him in our family. He is a great little boy, and keeps us very busy, and constantly entertained.
Abigail has also grown a lot this summer, unfortunately her hair has not. She is starting to talk a little, but everything is still 2 syllable sounds, and mostly made up. Although she can't talk much she has no problem whatsoever communicating her every need, and does so often. She understands everything we say, the greatest is her sense of humor. She will get things we say or do and understand and laugh, and then almost try to tease and joke with us back. She is just very silly and happy most of the time, and when she is not she is pushy. She is a determined demanding little thing, but I just have to laugh because I know I am getting what I deserve, just like my mother always said I would. My parents still tease me about my stubborn determination, and still get frustrated with at times. But out of great weaknesses can come great strengths, and my determination has gotten me through a lot of things, so I hope it will help her as life goes on too. So I try hard not to stomp it out of her, I figure like me she has that personalty for a reason and I should let her be who she is. I have realized more and more that children come to you with wonderful strong personalities, and that is who they are. They are great spirits who have already learned and developed personalities and are given to you in tiny helpless bodies, our job is not to change them but to teach them or guide them into making good choices.
Anyway Abigail is funny, and sweet and a real joy in our family. We all just our crazy about out little Abba Gabba as we call her. She is constantly giving everyone kisses and hugs. She is also always concerned about everyone, if Joshua is sad she will try to hug him or bring him a toy, or if I give her a treat or something to eat she always says "ja-ja" and wants me to give her one to bring to Joshua. I don't now if it is a natural girl thing, but she just naturally cares for and is concerned for everyone around her.
Her favorite thing to do is get dressed, or rather undressed and redressed
several times a day. Unfortunately she usually just decides that nakedness is the best option, and I find her playing toys wearing nothing but Joshua's fire boots or some sort of other accessory. I don't mind the clothes changing thing, but I am really hoping that she grows out of the nakedness things really soon. Being determined like she is she usually likes to pick out her own outfits, and put on her own clothes. So if I get her dressed I usually find her five minutes later in a new outfit, usually put on backwards, or with two legs in one hole kind of thing. So the whole thing is quite a process whenever we actually want to go somewhere. I pick my battles carefully, so we usually compromise with clothes somewhat matching, but sometimes backwards, and usually fire boots, or some sort of other accessory.
Abigail's first real word was "Pooh Bear", and she loves anything to do with pooh. With our Disneyland passes we have been going to Disneyland a lot and every time we do we have to go on the Winnie the Pooh ride at least four times. She claps and is excited every time. Last time we went she had a real treat and got to finally meet Pooh bear and give him a hug. The entire time we waited in line to see him she was grabbing our face and making us look as she pointed and said mama mama pooh bear. Once we got up there she ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug for a long time. It was so cute, I had never seen her so excited. We also met all the other characters, which she liked. Although she was a little nervous with Eeyore. Unfortunately Piglet was not there, who is her absolute favorite.
The other Disneyland favorites are of coarse Dumbo and the Carousel. Last time we also tried the canoeing, which Joshua really wanted to do. They both liked it until Abigail dropped her paddle in the water, and they both panicked as it floated away.
We are going to be really sad when our passes run out, we have really enjoyed going to Disneyland, and being able to relax and not worry about getting on every ride.
This month Joshua also started up preschool again. He still goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few hours. He loves it, and is so excited every time he gets to go. He loves his teacher and has a small class of nine kids. He loves to be around other kids, so it is great social outlet for him, and he is learning a ton. I just can't believe next year he will be in Kindergarten!
Besides that I have signed up with my sister to do a half marathon in November. I have love running and have always ran a lot so I figured it was time to do a half marathon. I have really enjoyed having the motivation to train and push myself a little more with my running. I go on my longest runs alone with Abigail when Joshua is at school. She naps the entire time I run, but always needs to accessorize for the run, and make sure that her baby gets to go too.
Caleb had this morning off so we decided to drive 20 minutes up the canyon for a little hike. We went up to a small town called forest falls and hiked up and around the falls. It was really beautiful. It was also amazing to see the climate and terrain change. This town is in our ward boundaries and regularly gets snow! While we have a pleasant 68 -70 degree weather at our house they will have 30 or 40 degree weather. In the winter we often see people driving around our warm sunny town with a foot of snow on top of their cars. Anyway, it makes it a lot more lush and full of pine trees and some pretty fall colors. We had a really great adventure. The hike was no more than a mile total so Joshua was able to walk it all by himself and loved it. He collected rocks and sticks, and threw lots of things into the falls to watch them float away. Abigail rode in the backpack, but we let her out to help Joshua throw things in. The falls were really beautiful and big. There was one really tall one that fed into lots of smaller ones with cascading pools. Also everything was looking greener and prettier after our first real rain storm since last spring.
A few days ago we also went to our neighborhood park to practice Joshua's bike riding. I soon found out that it was next to impossible to help him get on his bike and manage the big hills and other obstacles while helping and watching Abigail on her trike. So we decided to climb trees and slide down the slide after about 10 minutes of bike riding. He did at least practice a little, but we need to wait for daddy or a much wider straighter path to attempt it again. Despite the bike riding problems we had a fun time and got some cute pictures. 
