Fall is Fabulous

Have I ever told you how much I LOVE the fall? I absolutely adore this time of year. (Especially the indian summer when it starts cooling down but is definitely still warm out.)

I always loved going back to school. I remember tying on my new school clothes and organizing and reorganizing my binder and school supplies every day till school started. It was weird this year to watch from the sidelines as everyone else went back to school while my life stayed exactly the same. I still have the excitement though and found myself craving a new outfit to wear and looking for "homework" projects for myself to do.

Yesterday, my mom came over (she is visiting to babysit the girls for Sarah). She taught me how to use the sewing machine she gave me last year! I had not even touched it because I didn't know how to thread it, etc, but NOW I am so excited to do some projects! I want to make a Halloween costume for Luke, some baby shoes for the cold weather, an addition to my nursing cover that shrunk in the wash so now it's too short, and anything else that I want to! Yesterday, we made a Kleenex tissue case. It is really cute!

Tomorrow I am making a car mat for Luke at Amanda's Super Saturday. That should be fun! I also am just dying to make an autumn leaves wreath. I saw a really cute one on the u-create blog and I just want to make it right now! I don't have any fall decorations.

I also really want tulips and daffodils in the spring... Anyone know when and how to plant bulbs? I think I am supposed to do that soonish...

Here are some cute pictures of Luke taken a while back. just being his cute self. :)

GO COUGARS!

Well, school is back in session and football season is starting. I have always been a football fan, while Francisco is not too fond of the sport. This year, we would really like to go to a BYU game. (Francisco has never been and I think (I hope) he will enjoy it! We bought Luke all the necessary get-up for the up coming games! GO BYU!

Yes, Luke is standing! We play "ready-steady-go" with him and sometimes he can stand for approximately 1.5 seconds. haha We got some cute ones of him falling into Francisco's arms!

Notice the 2 front teeth! So cute!

Crawls and Giggles!

This is the cutest video ever! Sorry it's so dark.

Pineview Lake

Last week we were able to spend time with all of Francisco's family. We went up to Francisco's cousin's husband's parent's house. haha Seriously though. They were out of town and so we all crashed up there. They live in Mountain Green which is really close to several lakes. We went up Friday night and played games and ate ice cream cake (Matt's favorite) as a celebration for Matt's birthday.

Saturday morning most of the boys and a few others went to the lake super early (around 6:30am) to go wake-boarding. Brady owns a boat and said wake-boarding is best in the morning because there aren't any wakes and ripples so you can do a lot more and ride outside of the wake of the boat. So Francisco went and LOVED it. He really wants a boat now so that he can wake-board more!
The rest of us went out later that day. I went tubing but so beat up! I have a rash on my elbow, a swollen purple toe, and two giant purpily bruises of my bum! I think I'm just getting too old for that sort of thing...

Luke LOVED the water! He just played and played and played. He had absolutely no fear. It was so cute.

We had so much fun at the lake and with our family! They are awesome and we are so lucky to have so much family so close.

Oregon Coast Reunion

This July, we were privileged to spend time with my wonderful family at a beach house in Florence, OR. It was awesome!!! We loved every minute of it. Dawn (my 1/2 sister) and her kids were able to come and it was so fun getting to know them better! We were also able to get to know Promise, Jeff's wife, too! It was sad that Jeff couldn't come, but we were so glad to have Promise with us!

We also went to Honeymon Park and played on the paddle boats and swam. It was fun! We had so many people on our boat that the back started to sink! So we kicked Nojah off onto the other paddle boat to decrease the weight. It helped. Francisco acted like a mermaid on the front of the boat. Such a nerd!

This was taken at a light house (I don't remember the name!) It was fun though to see it up close!

We only made it to the beach once and didn't last long because it was SO windy and cold! We did fly the lady bug kite though. We ended up spending time in a little bay area that was shielded from the wind.




We were able to go to the world's largest petting zoo in Bandon and pet baby tigers. They also had deer, goats, llamas, lemurs, baby lions, baby lynx cats, and so much more! They also had animals that you couldn't pet but you don't usually see at a regular zoo. The black bear was super cute and they had so many cool cats like leopards and jaguars and white tigers.


We spent a lot of time in the evenings playing games and telling stories! It was great getting to know everyone on a more personal level. We played some funny games including Taboo, imagine iff, and a shocker game that will shock you if you are the last one to push the button... (long story, but Nojah thought it was hilarious!)

and Of course we visited Old Town and ate BJs ice cream! Yum!

We loved the reunion and hope to make this a tradition! Thank you for putting this together Ma and Pa! We love you!

We laugh because we know it's true

Watch the video first:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff

I have to admit sometimes I act like the guy on this video. This advice is so crystal clear but sometimes we fail to follow it because we want things now! I like this quote: "Immediate gratification is for weak people" If we can't afford it, we don't buy it. I guess I have to start working on the 'saved money' part. I'm grateful for my loving wife that reminds me of this principle. Sometimes it is so hard me, and I feel enticed to buy myself a mac laptop or I-phone but I really don't need them now and we have other expenses, but it is so easy to put on the credit card, get a loan, etc. So many options!

I'm grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS, where our prophets have taught us this same principle. The only reason to go into debt will be to buy a 'modest' home that is well within our budget. I guess all the good things in life that are truly worth it and memorable are those things that we have worked so hard for. We rarely see those blessings immediately but we have faith that they will come.

Independence Day

This year for the 4th, we celebrated on the 3rd! We went to the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake to watch Eclipse with all of Francisco's family! It was great! This was definitely the best of the Twilight movies so far. We can also report that Luke's first movie in the theater was Eclipse! He really did great. After the movie, we went to a park just to enjoy the sun. It was a perfect day.


Luke really has a thing for ears... He just loves to grab them, eat them, whatever! He even plays with his own ears. haha This is his 2nd cousin, Sariah. She is 3 months old and almost weighs the same as Luke! crazy!

After the park we went to Francisco's cousin's house to eat ribs! Yum! We found these pork ribs that are precooked, and pre-marinated in bbq sauce. They are so delicious and so easy to make!

That night Francisco and I headed down to Sandy to watch the fireworks with Sarah and Brett and the girls. It was nice to see them! The fireworks were good, but they happened to light them off right behind a giant office building, so we kinda missed half the show because we couldn't see the short ones. :( oh well. Better luck next time.

My joy

After a long day of work and school, this is what I come home to:




I love Luke, he seriously makes me soooo happy.

6 Month Stats and chocolate delight!

Luke tried some yummy chocolate ice cream the other night. Papi wasn't doing a very good job at trying to get him to sleep! but he loved it! His face was priceless.


Luke had his 6 month doctor appointment today! He is doing great and is turning into a tall skinny boy just like his Papa Knerr!
Luke weighs 16.18lbs (18%ile)
His height is 27.33 inches (71%ile)
His head circumference is 17 inches (25%ile)

The doctor recommended that we add formula to his fruits and veggies just to add some extra calories because his weight percentile has dropped a little bit. At 2 months he was at the 41%ile, 4 months the 29%ile and now the 18%ile. But he is still growing tall steadily in the 70%iles. I'm pretty sure I'm feeding him plenty-- he is still primarily on breast milk and eats a solid about once a day. We now have WIC providing lots of baby food for him though so he will start to step it up with more solids! We will start trying meats soon! :)

An update on cute things that he does:
- He drinks from a cup-- he gets so excited to have some of Papi's juice!
- He rolls from his back on to his tummy. It's funny cuz he doesn't really like to be on his tummy and he gets stuck and can't roll back! He does this often when he wakes up at night or after a nap. I usually find him struggling on his tummy in his crib.
- He rarely takes a binky. He loved it as a newborn but after we lost it for a couple weeks, he never really took it again. He does like to hold it and chew on it though.
- He loves it when we make funny noises at him. We make whistling noises or slurping noises or purring noises and he just laughs and giggles. It's so cute!
- His hair getting longer but he still has his bald spot in the back!

Well, that's all I can think of for now!