I finally decided to let Nora try using a fork, and boy did she love it. Dinner was full of smiles and laughs. She worked so hard to try to get food on the fork and even used her fingers to put the food on the fork and hold it there until it made it's way into her mouth.
We had been hearing all weekend about the big snowstorm that was moving up the east coast. We went early yesterday to the grocery store to stock up on food. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones with that idea and the line to check out wrapped around the store. We encountered several "Scrooges" who were not happy about the situation and wanted to let everyone around them know. Right as we were putting our items on the belt for checkout Corinne yells "Pee pee! I have to do pee pee!" Luckily, Jeremy was there also and could continue to check out while I ran Corinne to the bathroom for her urgent bathroom need.
The kids were having so much fun despite hardly being able to move around in the snow. Corinne kept getting stuck and yelling, "help! help! I'm stuck!" I think the whole neighborhood could hear her calls for help.
Daddy came out too and made snow angels with us and threw snowballs at us. I think we were outside for maybe 30 min before we were all cold and ready to go inside.
around her head. The hair grew back and the top stayed long so I could do some things with the top of the hair like pigtails. But then there's the struggle of getting a 6 month old to sit still while trying to put rubber bands or clips in her hair. Not easy. Then there is the bedhead problems. 
This is a ubiquitous problem due to the frequency of her meltdowns. Notice in the picture the winding of the hair around and under her forefinger. This is my current struggle. I recently chopped 2 inches off her hair in an attempt to remedy the damage she has done with broken ends resulting in a hole on that side. I'm almost tempted to cut it all off. I threaten her every time I see her twisting her hair by getting out the scissors and telling her I will cut the knot out if I find one. She has now become proficient in undoing the knots she puts in her hair. I guess that means
that problem is solved, right? 
Here Nora shows us how old she is now.
She loved her cake and managed not to get any on the floor.
So I'm a little behind in posting. We lost the adapter that connects the camera to the computer and I just barely found it. So here's what has been happening this Fall. First is Matthew's "man-ring." He was very attached to it after his pirate party and wore it to church and to school until he "lost" it. (Meaning I threw it away after he went to sleep.) He definitely thinks it is way cooler to be a girl than a boy right now. I'm just trying to not make a big deal of it. Yet.
We also made a few adventures to the apple orchard. I had to include a picture of Nora since she doesn't seem to make a debut on the blog very often. She's just so laid back and sweet that sometimes we don't realize she's there.
These are some other pics of some gorgeous fall colors around the apple orchard.
This is the best picture I got of my ghosts for Halloween. Matthew decided this year that he wanted to be a ghost. And since Corinne has to do everything Matthew does, she had to be a ghost too. I felt a little lame just putting cut up sheets on the kids when all the other kids have nice costumes, but they wanted to be ghosts. And I'm not buying a ghost costume when I can make one myself. And they were happy. Everyone got a loud "Boo!" from Corinne as she went trick-or-treating.
Grandma and Grandpa Strong came out for a week to see the fall colors, but they just missed the peak by about a week or two. There were still a few colorful trees out but not like it was. Now there are the oak trees that turn brown. Not so pretty. We did find milkweed seeds that blow in the wind that the kids loved.
One of the things that I have enjoyed about living here is the awesome orchard within a ten minute drive. In the summer we picked delicious peaches and now we're into apple and pear season. They have many different varieties but we chose to stay within the safety of the Golden Delicious variety.
Corinne only picked a few apples but spent most of her time sampling the produce. (Don't worry--they allow taste tests.) 
Jeremy took another trip to AZ and did some more work on the house. Here is what he did. I want him to finish the tile design all the way around but he didn't have time to do that this last trip.
) which Matthew believed housed the golden plates. At least he knows the story.
A reconstruction of the original log house that Joseph Smith grew up in and received his vision of the angel Moroni. It was interesting to see what humble beginnings Joseph Smith had. On our tour we discussed how it couldn't have been coincidence that the Smith family had crop failure 3 years running and then heard about thriving crops in the Palmyra area which happens to be where the golden plates lay hidden.
Jeremy and Corinne heading into the Sacred Grove where Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. What a beautiful area! We enjoyed learning more and experiencing some church history sites while living in the New England area.
After Kirtland we headed up to Niagara Falls. We opted to ride the boat 'Maid of the Mist' instead of taking the hike up to the falls since you can see both the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls up close without having to cross the border.
A look at the Horseshoe Falls. The Horseshoe Falls reminded me of the "Devil's Mouth" waterfall at Igacu Falls, Brazil. I think that overall, Iguacu Falls has bigger and better waterfalls, but Niagara Falls was still impressive. Jeremy says he likes Igacu better because it is more natural and less commercialized. There is a waterfall scene from Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull that takes place at Igacu Falls.
Here is a photo of "Devil's Mouth" at Iguacu Falls. There are approx. 2 km of waterfalls. This view is only a fraction of all the waterfalls there, but the most impressive view. 
