Kasey nearly breaks my knee

Kasey has been wanting Ady to join a dance or tumbling class since she was a week old. I kept on insisting that we wait till Ady wanted to join the class. Well Kasey convinced Ady that she wanted to learn to dance and tumble so last week she started her class. The class is about an hour long, half dance and half tumbling. Ady loves it. And so does Kasey. Of course Ady saw the other girls wearing tutus and leotards and thought that she wanted one too. So Kasey bought a leotard and Melanie made Ady a tutu. Ady still has trouble pronouncing certain letters, and she often gets her L's and R's mixed up. So today Ady was wanting to wear her "reotard". This of course caught us a bit off guard and we asked her to repeat herself. This time she was very clear. She wanted to wear her retard. Kasey spent several minutes trying to help Ady say leotard, and sometimes Ady says it correctly, the rest of the time, she wears a retard.

Ady loves the tutu that Melanie made her and wanted to do the dance that she learned while wearing the leotard and tutu. So Melanie got out her camera to record it for all of us. What she didn't expect to catch on video was Kasey's wicked Wii golf swing.

Snowman

We got about a foot of snow in the last 24 hours. As soon as it started snowing Ady wanted to build a snowman. She has never built a snowman before, actually she hasn't been around snow much at all. But her favorite song is a nursery song about a snowman. So I told her that if she waited for today that I would help her build a snowman after church. Of course, I was somewhat expecting and maybe even hoping that the snow wouldn't stay. But it did. And so out we went.
Ady also helped me shovel the walks and driveways. Her way of shoveling is a bit different. She lays her shovel down and using her hands she scoops snow into the shovel. Then she drags the shovel over to the side and calls me over to help her dump it out. I thought we were done being outside in the snow, but Ady found out that her cousins were out next door building more snowmen. So we had to go join them. Ady helped build 2 more snowmen, one snow turtle and enjoyed a snowball fight. She was soaking wet and smiling when we finished. She informed me that tomorrow we have to do it again, but this time, she wants to build a snow dragon not a snowman.

Brock is really getting better at crawling. He still scoots mostly but knows how to get up on his knees and crawl. He has also started to pull himself up and stand. He loves being played with and will laugh and smile if you play with or tickle him. Ady likes to play ring-around-the-rosies and patty-cake with him.

This summer Ady started saying her whole name. We found her to be pretty funny when she would introduce herself as Adyson Van Tassell. She would even shake hands with us and introduce herself. So then my reply would be that I am Dad Van Tassell. She refuses to accept this. She says that Kasey and I are not Van Tassells. I have tried explaining that we have the same last name as her, but to no avail. Well we found this town in Wyoming.
Maybe someday Ady will realize that her and Brock aren't the only Van Tassells out there. Ady said something kind of funny the other day. She had just gone to the bathroom and I asked her if she went potty. Her response was that she had not gone potty, she had gone pee. Well, Kasey has gotten after me several times about watching what I say and do around Ady because she will copy or repeat us. We thought that "potty" is a better term for a 3 year old to use than pee. So I asked her if she had gone poop or potty? She told me that she had gone pee. Obviously I'm not careful enough at times. Trying to figure out how to better explain why we wanted her to say potty not pee I crossed over to the toilet to flush the handle. Looking in I saw that she had indeed pooped. So I turned to her and said, look you went poop and potty too. She looked right at me and said, "no dad, I went poop, pee and potty three".

Signs

I found some "odd" signs recently. I wasn't able to get pictures of all of them, like the billboard in Chicago about Carlos Boozer. But I did take pictures of two of them, and I thought I should share them. Here is the first one.
This is a sign at Ford's Theater, the place where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The sign says that firearms are prohibited. Now, I know that signs like this are in other places also, but I found it somewhat ironic that it was here. Maybe they should have had the sign up some 140 years ago?
I have never seen a parking sign like this. Not a drop off area, it is a "Kiss & Ride".

Why we don't climb on stuff

Ady climbs on everything. Sometimes I swear we spend all day telling her to get off this or that. It doesn't matter; the fence at the zoo, the kitchen table, the back of the couch, me, every rock that is bigger than her, and anything else that seems inviting at the time.

Maybe this time it was partially our fault, obviously Brock was put on the cannonball. We were at Fort McHenry near Baltimore a few weeks ago and as soon as Ady saw Brock on the cannon ball she wanted to climb on the cannon. The funny thing is that I was able to catch what happened next.
She was putting her foot on the cannon and it slipped off and down she falls. Next frame...

The funniest thing about this isn't that she fell. It is that Kasey never moves and is smiling the whole time.

Halloween & Whatnot

For Halloween this year Brock was a bumble bee and Ady was a horse thingy. We went with Nat and Thayne to their ward party and to the mall to go trick-or-treating. Ady was all over the trick-or-treating thing. Ady borrowed a costume from Natalie. Her costume included a hat, but she didn't like wearing it. Basically her costume was a horse with a pair of stuffed human legs on its back so if she stood right it looked like she was riding a horse. At the mall there was a news crew and the camera man must've thought Ady was cute, because he came over and put her on TV. Of course Ady didn't want to say anything except "Giddy-up". We stayed in Buffalo for about a week. And yes, we did go out for Buffalo Wings while we were there. Then we got back on the road and went to Kirtland Ohio.
Previously Kasey and I have been to Nauvoo Illinios, the Palmyra New York area and the Independence Missouri area to see LDS church history sites. But in order to make it to see Wicked in Chicago we drove right past Kirtland in 2007. But not this time. We went and toured a couple of buildings like the Newel K. Whitney store and home. But the neatest thing we saw was by far the Kirtland temple. The tour was exceptional, and the guide was very knowledgeable. Just in case you were wondering, Ady refused to be in this picture.
Before we made it to Buffalo, we visited Will and Emily in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They took us to Hershey and we went to Chocolate World! As you can see in the picture, Audrey and Ady are very excited and are avid chocolate fans.
The day before we went to Gettysburg. The visitor center is extremely informative and interesting at Gettysburg. I think that we all learned so much while we were there. Although Ady was far from quiet while we walked around the cemetery, we gained even more respect for those who made so great a sacrifice for us. Here we are standing in front of the memorial which is placed where they believed President Lincoln stood when he gave the now famous Gettysburg Address. The night before we went to Gettysburg we stayed with my Uncle Dick and Aunt Kathryn.
The day before we went to Gettysburg we visited Philadelphia. It wasn't exactly on our way, but how could one be so close and not go? Liberty Hall was under construction, but was still awesome to visit. The tour was amazing and although usually I make Kasey stand in the photo, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to have my picture taken in the very room where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were signed. What an amazing place to visit! We also at Philly Cheese Steaks, visited Christ's Church, toured the US mint, saw the Liberty Bell, and Walked around Ben Franklin's post office/home/and publishing building.
We were driving somewhere, I honestly don't remember where, and I looked out my window and saw these trees with their leaves and thought it looked pretty cool. Of course, when I pulled over and got out to take a picture Kasey thought I was nuts. Our trip is now over, we are back in Minnesota and tomorrow will be hooking up our trailer for the long drive back to Utah. Should be back in Utah this weekend.