Thomas the Tank Engine rolling along... duh duh duh duh... duh duh duh duh...

These are some late-blooming roses on the side of our house this afternoon. They were just so gorgeous, I had to take a picture. Who'd have thought pink would look so nice against a bright blue house? Maybe I'll suggest to the owners that they should repaint the dark blue trim on the house pink. Mmmhmm. And no, we don't live in a forest (for anyone who is confused) -- those towering pines you see in the background are in our backyard. About 10 feet from the house. No, really. Living in Utah, I loved pine trees because they reminded me of mountains. But here, they are EVERYWHERE, and I'm SICK TO DEATH of them. I'd give anything to see an aspen. Or a maple. Or a...

Here's a mishmash of interesting things from the last few weeks.

This is our homemade version of Thomas the Tank Engine from earlier this week. Anna loved him so much that she really wanted us to go buy blue paint and paint him. Luckily, I talked her into just pretending to paint. On Tuesday night, she wanted all four of us to eat dinner inside him, but I put the lid on that idea pretty quickly.

I was feeling adventurous this week, so here's a picture of Mariah's first blueberry experience: blueberry pancakes. Needless to say, she's a big fan. Oh, and next time she's eating them naked. *sigh* She also had her first experiences this week with chocolate, strawberries, and ice cream, and she's handled them all quite happily. I figure that she's eleven months old, which rounds up to a year, so she's ready. I'm spending the next week or so switching her over to cow's milk, and two days ago, I officially finished nursing. *hum the Hallelujah Chorus to yourself*

The girls and I went to the zoo this week with Anna's friend Kayleigh and her mommy, and since my hands were so full, I didn't take any pictures, but here's a movie from our zoo trip a few weeks ago, just so this story doesn't feel left out.

The girls had a lovely time -- Anna loves doing anything with Kayleigh. The best picture, had I taken it, would have been one of Anna and Kayleigh walking down the path ahead of the strollers and running from exhibit to exhibit holding hands and giggling. They were so cute and silly--they could have been two 12-year-olds whispering about boys.

This is our darling little garden. We planted the herbs on the left-hand side in the mid-summer, but a few weeks ago, it got cool enough to plant the autumn things. In this tiny, 5x3 ft. section of the flower beds, we've planted cilantro, oregano, parsley, swiss chard, mesclun (spring mix lettuces), broccoli, leeks, romaine lettuce, and butterleaf lettuce. As you can tell, we don't have very much of anything, but since this is sort of a gardening practice run, we figured we'd try a variety of things and see how they do. Most things are doing really well, and we're very proud.

This week's Anna moment: brownies. She asked me on Thursday afternoon whether she could help me make something, and when I asked her what she wanted to make, she said, "Brownies!" We made a pan of fudge brownies with chocolate chips on top, and she helped me stir the chocolate in the pan, add all the ingredients, and even crack the eggs. We had the brownies after dinner, and she took about two bites before she lost interest (she's not a big dessert lover), but now every time I'm in the kitchen, she asks whether she can help me. It is both a delight and a burden. :)

This week's Mariah moment: the backpack. Anna has an Elmo backpack that she uses to haul things around the house, and Mariah has fallen desperately in love with it. She pushes it to me, sort of half-crawling, half-walking, and wants me to put the straps on her. Then she walks around the house hanging onto my hands (since having it on her back completely overbalances her) and beaming like she's winning an Olympic medal. When she gets tired of walking, she tries to sit down, but since the bag is almost as big as she is, she can't straighten up. She gets so angry, and she rips the straps off her shoulders, but twenty seconds later, she wants them back on again. We go through this cycle several times a day, with her growing more and more frustrated each time, so yesterday morning, I put the thing up on a shelf where she can't reach it and can't see it. I feel bad because it makes her so happy, but I'm not willing to deal with the post-thrill frustration.

This week's Adam moment: BYU football. Every year I dread fall. It happens for many reasons, but one is because I have to share my husband with the BYU football team. I knew going to the game last week would set him off, but you people really have no idea what it's like. Soon I'm going to take his phone away because I'm tired of walking into a room where I think he's playing with the girls or reading or sleeping to instead find him reading ESPN articles where they once again unfairly favor the PAC-10 over the MWC. Okay, so it's not QUITE as bad as I claim, but really. Does anyone else know my pain?

This week's Sarah moment: wakeboarding. Or the lack thereof. Friday evening, we went boating with Jason and Jen again, which was great, but they convinced me to try wakeboarding. Needless to say, I was a dismal failure, but the worst part was that I didn't even get to enjoy any pizza because my stomach was so full of lake water that I wasn't hungry. Yeah -- my second attempt was especially disastrous. So, it may take me some time to regain the courage to try again, and until then, I'll just enjoy the wind blowing my hair back and the spray coming up as the boat speeds over the waves.

Sorry if this post is a little long -- I never know how much I have to say until I get going. But then, most of you who are reading this know that about me already. :) Have a great week!