cuteness

The best part of my day is just playing around with these two:




The other day I caught Jenna playing the piano and singing this song:

mystery dinner...

Sometimes while I'm making dinner, Jenna likes to get into the pantry and peel the labels off all our canned foods:

I can usually tell what everything is by the size and shape, but every once in a while we get a surprise vegetable or soup for dinner... It's kind of fun!

Jenna also recently discovered safety scissors! She goes crazy for cutting everything into tiny little pieces:

A couple of weeks ago Jenna was invited to a birthday party for a couple of boys in her nursery class. We jumped at the chance to encourage giving! She helped us pick out presents, and then we let her decorate the gift bags:

It was a wonderfully adorable idea, if you ask me!

That same morning we had gone to the Home Depot Kids workshop. In Utah, they had an entire isle and probably 20 tables dedicated to the event. Here in D.C. there was a single table, and Jenna was the second attendee. What a difference!
Check out those hammering skills:

Petting Farm

Jenna and I went with some friends to a petting farm. It was a really cute little place, and the kids loved it! They had hay rides, pony rides, nursery-rhyme-themed playhouses, emus, sheep, bunnies, goats, toys, and slides.

We could walk around with and pet the baby goats and chickens, but the adult goats were kept behind a fence that you could feed them through; It's a good thing, becuase they were mean! I tried to feed the little ones, but the big ones kept ramming them out of the way!

Jenna wouldn't actually feed them from her own hand, so she put food in mine and held it out for them:

Then she found out they would eat leaves and straw that she found on the ground. After that she tried to force the sheep, bunnies, emu, and horse to eat the straw:

She said "Here sheep, eat it!"

It was so funny!

Jenna loved being able to pet the baby goats. This guy was sleeping, and Jenna shook him until he woke up! Poor little goat:



Then she made piles of "food" for the goats and chickens to eat:

We walked around the pony several times and I asked Jenna several times if she wanted to ride him, and she said that she wanted to. But, when we got right up next to him, she wouldn't get on... So we did the hay ride instead. It was fun and she pointed out all the pumpkins and animals we passed:

I'm sad that we didn't find out about this place until the week it closed. Jenna didn't want to ever leave!

Scary

We planned on having Jenna wear her giraffe costume from last year again, but when I dressed her up for the library's Halloween Story Time, she didn't want to put it on and refused to put on the hood. I tried asking her what she wanted to be; I showed her a princess dress and asked if she wanted to be a princess (she's in to princess movies...). She said "No, I'm Jenna!".

Then I remembered her blue checkered dress. When I first bought it and put it on Jenna and put her hair in braids, everyone said she looked like Dorothy. So, we decided to run with it...

Paul kept getting straw in his food,I had an itchy face all night, and a lot of kids were scared of me, but we had a lot of fun!



Crazy, sugar-high Jenna:

D.C.

Paul FINALLY got a Saturday off, and the weather was perfect, so we took the metro and spent the day in D.C.!

We started at the Art Sculpture Garden:

Honestly, it was a little disappointing, because it was just a bunch of "modern art" pieces, which we think are just wierd...

Then we walked to the capital building. I've been reading "The Lost Symbol" which takes place in D.C. and I was excited to see some of the rooms and artwork they talked about in the book... But, when we got there, they wouldn't let us through security with EMPTY water bottles. We didn't want to throw away our fancy camel baks, so we'll have to check it out next time. The outside was pretty cool. All the engraving and statues all over D.C. make me want to get a book about it all...



Then we went to the US Botanic Garden. We loved it! There are rooms for all the different climates around the world, with a children's area in the middle:

What a cutie!

I'm pretty sure Jenna drowned that plant, but they wouldn't put expensive plants in the children's room, right??

My favorite... so cute!

We finished up at the National Air and Space Museum. I knew Jenna would love it, because she gets so excited whenever she sees an airplane or helicopter.

She was so excited, running around and pointing at everything!

The Metro was exciting, too! Everytime we came out of a tunnel, Jenna exclaimed "It's a sunny day!". But eventually, it became old news, and she just colored on our maps.


It's so exciting living near so much history, and we can't wait to go back!

Redskins vs Colts

We usually don't get free tickets for the football games, but Paul scored some tickets to the Colt vs Redskins game! So, I invited some friends and we had so much fun!

People were looking at us like we were crazy for bringing such little kids, but they were amazingly well behaved!

This was the view from our seats, but with the camera zoom we could see this:

The game was all of our first NFL game, and it didn't disappoint! Honestly, I was probably more excited to see the Colts than the Redskins, but I cheered for our boys anyway! Jenna did, too. While the team was running out of the tunnel, Jenna was dancing and wabing her "Go Redskins" sign. And when they scored, she "whistled" (put her fingers in her mouth and squealed really high).

Paul joined us in the second quarter and got us some food: the only real perk we get during football season...

The only thing I didn't like about the game was the fact that there was no yellow line on the field, so I could never tell if they got a first down!

Its a Sunny Day!

So, after 3 months, a Maryland State inspection, a cracked windshield replacement, 2 sets of wiper blades, another Maryland State inspection (because we had driven over 1000 miles), 2 (count 'em: two) grueling trips to the DMV, and almost $1000 in fees...

We got our car registered! Whew... that's just too much work!

Normal Naptime Scene

Kali: It's time for a nap!

Jenna: It's NOT nap time! *pointing to the window* It's a sunny day!

Haha! She's just sooo silly!

August and September

Well! Although it may seem like it, we have NOT fallen off the face of the planet! We're actually loving it here in Maryland! It was difficult to update, however, because we don't currently have the internet. I know: wierd. I just haven't missed it enough to want to pay for it yet... I'm sure we will soon...

Anyway, here's a little of what we did in August and September:

-We packed up and loaded our trailer:

We literally had that trailer loaded from floor to ceiling! We got all our stuff crammed into only 7 feet!

Jenna had a great time helping!

- We said our goodbyes to BYU

future cougar!

- And DROVE! First to St. Louis. We stayed for three days; went to the temple and the zoo. Then on to Laurel, Maryland. Paul drove the entire trip! That was pretty much my fault. Our car was soo packed that I had to sit in the back with my feet up on the seat that whole way. You see, while we were packing the trailer, I put aside way too many things to take in the car with us. Oops! Paul's a stud, though, and got us here in no time!

Jenna did surprisingly well in the car! She had trouble sleeping at night and threw up a couple times (my dad thinks she gets travel-stress), but she was great the rest of the time – she loved to color! A pleasant surprise for a kid that’s hated her car seat from day one!

sleeping...

-My mom, Daniel, and Becca visited for a few days. We went to see the temple, White House, Washington Memorial, and National Zoo.

Unfortunately, both the animals and Jenna weren't having their best day...

-Paul’s been working a TON! There’s a lot of work to do, but I think he’s enjoying it. We haven't gotten to get out to see a lot of D.C. with him yet, but when football season ends we're gonna see it all!

-Potty Training. Well, at first, it went better than expected. We decided to just make the switch to underwear all at once. She had a couple accidents, but pretty much didn’t have a problem after that! She was potty trained! And it seemed all too easy...

Three weeks later, though, she quit. I don’t know what happened! We had a bad couple of days and then she was back in diapers. I know, that's supposed to be the worst thing you can do, but trust me, we tried everything we could think of...

I'm sad because she was doing so well! And then it was like one day she decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. I guess that's what we get for making her potty train before she was really interested...

-Paul and I got called as Nursery leaders! Haha! That’s really funny because I had just recently told Paul how I would love to be in nursery, but not until Jenna got out, because I’d like for her to get to be around other adults at least one day a week! So, of course we got called to nursery!

Oh well, at least Paul and I get to be together! That was definitely the best part about teaching in the primary last year. And there are so many nursery-aged kids in the ward that they split the nursery in two, so we just put Jenna with the other group, and she doesn’t seem to mind at all.

-Our apartment has a pool, and Jenna absolutely loves it! Her blow-up ring actually holds her up, so she won’t let me touch her. She said “I do it all myself!” She kicks her feet and thinks she’s really swimming! Hopefully next summer she’ll actually learn to swim.

-Paul's mom and Hilary came to visit for Labor Day weekend, which Paul was working through! We had a fun girl weekend and walked around D.C. a bit. While we were there, Grandma took Jenna on a carousel. Jenna loves them and was sooo excited! When it started, Hilary and I thought it was the fastest carousel we'd ever seen! Poor Grandma was getting motion-sick and Jenna was holding on for her dear little life! I started to get nervous when her bum was inching farther and farther to the right, but one of the workers rescued her and put her on Grandma's horse. Afterwards, Jenna was just staring into space. I asked her if she had fun and she said "yes". Then I asked her if she wanted to ride again and she said "no".

Jenna and Aunt Hil

That's the Lincoln Memorial in the background!

-I love our neighborhood! Which is really lucky because we just found a random place online! It's quiet, next to a library and playground, shady, has walking trails, and is close to almost everything I need!

-Jenna's favorite thing to do right now is color and draw. She tries really hard to stay in the lines, and she always just uses one color...

*update: a couple days later, Jenna decided to start using EVERY color she could!*

-Jenna has learned the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Articles of Faith. I can't get the videos up right now, but will do soon.

-We've been so spoiled the last couple of years in Provo, that I was shocked to realize that we don't get General Conference on TV! And with the lack of internet, we had to listen to Conference on my phone! I was actually surprised at how many voices I could recognize! It was wonderful, and I'm glad we could at least hear the messages!

Entered to learn... Going forth to serve!

Paul and I always said that we would cheer for the local team wherever we lived, so...

GO... redskins?!?!? Hmmm... this is going to be harder than I thought.

That's right! We're moving to D.C.!!!! Well, technically we'll be living in Maryland.
They offered Paul the job last Thursday, and the days since then have been SUPER stressful, because we have only 2 weeks to find a place to live (across the country - with only the internet to guide us), find a moving company, pack up here, plan our trip, and say goodbye to Provo!

But now:

-We found a place to live and signed the lease! We talked to our new Bishop - He lives nearby and assured us it is a good area. And he just raved about the ward! He made it sound so great - we're excited to meet them!
-We've reserved our U-Pack trailer!
-We've already started packing!

I'm going to miss Provo a lot! I never really appreciated all the amazing things about Utah until recently. But, I'm excited about our new adventure:

-Washington D.C. Temple! I'm so excited for this to be my temple! It is where my parents were married, and is the most beautiful temple ever!
-This is really the perfect time in our lives to live somewhere fun like D.C.! I don't have to worry about finding good schools for our kids yet, and we can explore D.C. and New York and Palmyra to our heart's content!
-We're closer to both of our families! Except for the Calhouns... I'm going to miss you guys! See you in Nauvoo in 2014! ;)
-And... Wait for it.... Panera is less than a mile from our place! Woohoo!

Wish us luck!

Hogle Zoo

We finally made it out to the zoo! Jenna and I went with my cousin, Cherelle. She was my very first best friend, and she is still one of the funnest people I know! I'm glad we got to spend the day with her.

Here's a bunch of cute pictures and videos from our day:

This fountain is the only thing Paul remembered about coming here as a kid. He said we had to get a picture!

Me and my baby:

Cherelle and Jenna:

First, we saw the elephants:

Jenna kept picking at the "elephant grass" and wanting to give it to the elephants:




We tossed the grass toward the elephant and told Jenna she was saving it for later...
Then we went and saw the ostriches. We saw one of them poop, and Jenna yelled at it to "go take a bath!" That was so funny! I wish I had got it on camera...

Of course, Jenna was really excited to see these:




We tried on some silly hats:

And Cherelle bought Jenna a toy. Jenna then proceeded to scare all the animals and a couple other children with it:




Later, Jenna wanted to attack everyone with her tiger, but freaked out if we tried to get her with it! Silly girl!

In the small animal house, these weird little bunny-crossed-with-a-deer animals were very interested in Jenna:

And we got to see a brand-new baby alsigator:




Jenna loved the carousel:

The gorillas were all gone, so we had to improvise:

remarkable resemblance, eh?


We finished off the day playing in the playground:

Then I got attacked!...

while Jenna and Cherelle hung out with the prairie dogs.

We had a fabulously fun day!