Saturday at the Pumpkin Patch

The highs are still in the upper 80s this week. I swear I remember even Vegas cooling off more than this by late October. How I miss cool, crisp fall weather! We decided to visit a pumpkin patch with our friends the Harters even though it doesn't feel too fall-ish here yet. It was a really beautiful drive, and it was fun to see more of this place we now call home.

Leah lasted a little while in the carrier, but then it was back to the usual of just holding her. That's how she likes it. She's not a big fan of carriers, strollers, etc. Leah was a trooper, but I am looking forward to the days when I don't have to trudge back to the car to nurse her (too hot to do it outside). 

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story of our day at Lovecreek Orchards.

A Little Bit of Everything

Sometimes I see my kids at a certain "moment" and I realize I want to remember it because of just how ordinary it is. This was one of those moments. Jansen was eating and reading at the counter, and I just wanted to capture 9 year old him. He's not doing anything special, but the moment means a lot to me.

And then he realizes I'm taking a picture of him. 

I love to watch Leah when Nate comes home from work (although this picture was after church.) When he gets her attention and she makes eye contact with him she lights up and gives him a happy grin.

We've learned you can't sit or stand in one place too long out here (fire ants!!!), but the buggars left these two alone long enough for them to read a book together. We've seen a few scorpions, a snake, some spiders, etc but from all the stories I heard I actually thought we'd see a lot more nasty things.

This picture is probably from at least several weeks ago. These months are full of happy little milestones.

Emmy saw this and said, "It's me in my dress ups! Holding my baby!" Nate and I have commented to each other more than once that dress up clothes are probably the most used "toys" we have.

Nate often takes the kids on little bikes rides after dinner. As you can seen, there is a lot of construction going on around us. It's dusty, but not too loud thankfully. Our street is full of trucks and workers during the day, but they are getting close to being finished. 

Emmy can be pretty timid on her bike. She likes to have us hold onto her handle bars or stay right next to her, but she's getting a little braver every day.

Leah is almost 5 months old, and from day one I have been so lucky and thankful for how the other kids have adjusted to having a new little sister. They ADORE her...Jansen and Natalie especially. They even make up funny songs singing her praises and shouting hallelujahs and hosannas. They love to kiss her and make her smile and laugh. They already have such a deep and genuine love for her. They cheer when she wakes up from her naps. 

There are a lot of jobs to be done around the house these days, and Emmy is always Nate's little side kick. She hangs out in the garage or backyard with him as he chips away at our list of things to organize, build, and fix.

Can you believe this face? Haha, I love what cameras can capture in a split second.

This one makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

We are giving Leah some rice cereal or oatmeal here and there, but she's pretty much just still nursing every 3to 3.5 hours. She's not too keen on a bottle yet either. Also still a big girl - about 97th percentile for weight.

Poor Emmy can never quite get enough rest. Now that she is sharing a room with Natalie, she goes to bed later and wakes up earlier than she should. She actually rarely falls asleep like this during the day despite needing the extra rest.

She wears my bracelets more than I do.

I can just smell sweet Leah when I look at this picture. She's so soft and snuggly and kissable right now! She's causing me quite a lot of stress and restless nights still and likes to be held a lot during the day though. I'm starting to see her naps develop and get longer and that is fantastic news for this momma.

I can't even remember if I have blogged about Emmy turning 4. She loves being 4 and often asks me questions about when she will be 5. 

She got some roller skates like her sister for her birthday.

We got the absolute sweetest letter from a missionary who was serving in our ward in Maryland. Nate was the ward mission leader there for awhile, so we got to have the missionaries over often and Nate spent a lot of time with them. Elder Brimhall sent this name tag for Natalie because she was always jumping up and trying to rip it off him. He and his companions were so good with the kids. This letter made all the meetings and time Nate spent away from home for his calling worth it.

This is what 5 or 6 o clock looks like at our house. Mess included.

Lexi and Addi's Visit

Lexi and Addi came to visit last month. It made me realize just how much I miss my little sister and all my family. After a move, it was nice to have someone "familiar" around, and I loved being able to see Addi's personality. The kids loved having an aunt and a cousin here to add some excitement and variety to our days. 

Lexi and I are 7 years apart...same as Natalie and Leah. I love this picture of these two.

We had our usual Friday movie night and pizza. We almost always have a smoothie on movie night as well. I think they chose to watch Mulan that night. 

While Jansen and Natalie were at school, Addi and Emmy had fun mostly just playing around the house and in the backyard. We didn't do much (any) sightseeing. It will still so hot and hard to work around naps and school.

I will never forget the night Addi and Lexi got here. Nate picked them up at the airport, and as they came in the door Addi just was marching several steps in front and acted like she owned the place. I was worried she would be clinging to Lexi and too shy to interact much, but I was sure wrong. I just love her!

Sort of a funny story...Nate was so sweet and basically kicked us out the door one night to go have some fun just the two of us. That meant he had to put all 5 kids to bed, including a baby and a 2 year old. He really really wanted us to go see the Riverwalk. Well we tried. We could not find it! No matter what we googled or how many times we looked at the map on our phone, we could not figure out how to get to the Riverwalk. We ended up heading back in the direction of home and having dessert at BJ's and then going to Ross. We just laughed about the whole thing. I can't wait to see these two again and to have Brennon come too next time!

Something - Anything

Well, that did it. Nate and I were downstairs winding down and getting ready for bed and he said, "You're blog has dried up." He's right. But for good reason! After living here for about 8 weeks (I think) we just got internet on Monday. And we are speaking in church this Sunday, so any spare moments I have I feel like I need to be working on that. But his comment made me determined to post SOMETHING tonight - ANYTHING - to relieve the drought.

So maybe just a few quick things. And an extremely unattractive picture of my foot.

There are ants here that bite. And it hurts and itches and they are awful little things.

Leah is changing a lot lately, and I am loving this new phase of grabbing at things (my face included) and rolling over and trying a little bit of "solids." 

I'm the new den leader for the Wolves at Cub Scouts. 

And that's it for tonight because my eyes weigh a thousand pounds and are red from so many nights of not enough sleep. Motherhood just does that to you.