So, umm, this is really going to be more about what we did over conference than actual conference itself.  I have a crappy memory and struggle with paying attention sometimes.... but we had a great weekend that I want to share :)

We watched the Saturday morning session at home.  Matt was super sleepy.  I also had to work at 1pm, so I nursed Henlie before leaving, and she fell asleep.  They "shared" a conference nap after the first session.

At work, I streamed the afternoon session.  I also chatted with Matt a little about it during the session. (yeah, both of those things break rules....I'm over it)  That was probably the session I listened to the best....

Fortunately, it was an easy Saturday, so I got home at a decent time.  We went over to Mom's house for the Priesthood session (which was aired on the Internet and TV live for the first time!).  Matt watched and the girls did crafts.  I actually didn't take a craft (I really thought I wouldn't even get off of work until 6pm), but I chatted with Camile and Kayla while they did crafts.  Charlie and Henlie had fun playing with the train and tracks with Grandma.  After the session when Grandpa and Devan got home (they opted to still watch at the stake center), we had traditional ice cream :)

On Sunday, we watched the first session at home.  I'd asked Matt if we could ride up the canyon to look at leaves because the mountains had been so vibrant.  He said as long as the weather was good, he was always up for a drive.  I seriously looked forward to this all week lol.  We finally left around 12:30pm or 1pm.  Matt asked if I cared which canyon, and I told him one with pretty leaves.  So he took me to Provo Canyon, and we drove up to Squaw Peak.  It was my first time going up there.  I can definitely see why it's a favorite ride for motorcycles... so curvy!  But the leaves were super pretty.


It was pretty crowded, but we did get a parking spot at the top.  We hung out for a little while looking out at the valley.


It was kind of chilly....and, obviously, windy :)


We saw quite a few hawks, some at eye level, and some even flying higher than we were.  I love hawks :)


Other exciting sites were two guys parachuting off the mountain, and an itty-bitty red aeroplane that flew by.



We watched them land and then got back in the car.  Conference was starting, and it was getting chilly.


Matt wanted to drive out to the new UVU Intermural fields by Geneva, so we headed out there.  They are pretty nice.
 

There's a lot of land out that way with some new developments going up, so Matt made me get out the Zillow app while we drove around looking for houses in our current price range.


We then got on the freeway, but diverted in Provo to try to find Matt's old house...while still looking at houses on Zillow. 


We got a wee lost, and Matt gave up.  We headed back to the freeway and to home.  I had fun spending time with my little family and listening to conference.  It was a pretty great weekend.

One more month - eee! We've been in party planning mode for a month now.  I'm sure glad, too.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Henlie still has a full month before the big 1 year mark.

This month has sure brought out her cute little personality.  She smiles easily.  She loves to dance, especially to drums.  She is our little drummer girl :)  She still doesn't like when people go to grab her hands.  She is also pretty stoic while she observes new people, but once she has warmed up, she does just fine being handed off.  She is very curious and loves to get into everything.  She also thinks it's funny when we tell her to get out of something. She'll turn and just grin like, "Yeah right, look at me go!"  She loves to go, go, go so much that she doesn't like to go to sleep at night.  She also will wake once or twice most nights.  Most unfortunate for me.


As for her dancing, we went to the Great Basin Branch ceilidh and cookout on Saturday, Sept. 14.  After dinner, they had a kitchen piping contest.  She was rocking out and "singing" along.  She also loves to play with the little radio at Grandma Biggs' house.  I first saw her skills on Sunday, Sept. 15.  She beelined it to the radio, pushed a button for some music, and started rocking back and forth. It was so funny and cute!


As I have mentioned numerous times, she really loves the drums.  She loves to bang on the popcorn tin, the toilet, the walls, the doors, the tables.  She'll grab ahold of some drumsticks and bang on stuff.  She loves to watch Daddy drum.  Dad has even let her sit on his lap while he plays his drumset. (First time it has been played in awhile...)  Drums are grand.


I love how happy she can be.  She really does smile pretty easily, as long as it's not bed time :)  She'll see us down the hall and grin, along with a sharp intake of breath accompanied by a high-pitched noise.  That's her happy noise.  The first time Matt heard it, he thought maybe she was having an allergic reaction to something and her throat was closing off....  which, it does kind of sound like that...  However, that is just her happy noise.  If she's really happy, it is followed by giggling :)  She loves the puppy and the kitty still.  She will grin at them and get all excited if they get close to her.  She loves tickles, flying, and being upside-down.  She really loves if someone will play with her, too.  Who doesn't love attention, though? :)


She is really good and getting into everything and playing by herself, too.  This is handy when I'm trying to get other things done.  She likes to explore and get everything out.  She loves to pull her toys out of their respective put-away places.  She loves to get ahold of lots of papers and fling them about.  She thinks it is great fun to grab hold of them and flap like a crazy person.  In the kitchen, her first stop is the second drawer from the bottom.  (It's the perfect height for her while she is standing.)  She pulls out all of the hot pads.  If I put them back, this will entertain her for awhile.  If I don't?  Well, she finds other things to get into...  She can get everywhere in the house, pretty much.  She is a speedy crawler.  She can also be pretty quiet when she wants to be.  I have had to look for her on a couple of ocassions.


This month's biggest accomplishment, however, has been WALKING!  Friday night, Sept. 20th, I was at work.  Matt and I were chatting, and he told me the baby walked.  He said she took like a step and a half and then sat down.  I thought to myself, nah, that's not walking.  She has sort of done that already anyway.  Later that night (I found out later) she took like six steps on her own.  Since I had so vehemently denied Henlie actually walked, Matt didn't tell me.  


Well, Matt was gone recording with the pipe band on Saturday, and the baby and I were home together.  We had just finished nursing in her room, but she wasn't sleepy, so I set her down between the chair and the ottoman to put myself back together.  Enter the puppy.  Henlie got excited and started heading to the puppy.  Since I was otherwise engaged and she was next to two pieces of furniture, I wasn't positive if she was holding on, or if she walked on her own.  Two seconds later, she confirmed that she could walk by her lonesome.  We practiced lots that day, and she would just laugh and laugh, as if to say, "Look at me! This is awesome! I'm awesome! This is so much fun!"  Yep.  She is pretty cool stuff.


Other new developments including pointing and squinting.  She loves to point at stuff.  I think she is just starting to grasp that she can use this as a form of communication.  As for squinting, I'm not quite certain where she learned it.  She'll grin and scrunch up her face and squint her eyes closed.  She and I will squint back and forth at each other, and she'll just giggle.


Along with pointing, we've been doing a little bit of reading.  She has this book by Susan Boynton called Moo, Baa, La La La!  Basically it has lots of animals and goes through what they say.  I figured she's older, and she can point, maybe she'll be a little more into it and we can interact a bit more.  I think it's a favorite of hers for now.  She particularly loves the horse page.  The horse says, "Neigh!" and the way I read it sort of sounds like giggling, and she will sit and laugh every time I say "neigh."  It's pretty darn cute.

Perhaps the second most exciting thing, next to walking, as been her first tooth!  Her top teeth have been working on coming out to play for awhile, and her first one (top center left if you're looking at her) finally erupted on Oct. 3rd.  This makes her bites of banana much cleaner :)  The others on top are still thinking about coming out.  We haven't seen any inklings of the bottom teeth joining us, though.

I took her into the doctor for another weight check, and she weighed in at 19 lbs 3.5 oz. which is exactly 50 percent.  I measured her height a day or two later (because I forgot :)), and measured her at 27.75 in.


She gets more and more fun each day.  She loves seeing other kids.  She loves her cousin Charlie.  It really is pretty easy to get a grin or a laugh out of her.  Now if only we had the energy to keep up with her ;)