November Update

It looks like I'm in a phase of life where I get to blogging about twice a month. Hopefully someday it will be more often again - life is just a never ending to do list right now, and that's okay!

When I see this picture I fast forward in my mind 15 years and think of me and my girls having a weekend of shopping, eating, and sleeping in a hotel together. I'll be squeezed in that bed with them in the morning and we'll watch TV and order breakfast and just be lazy. The kids are out of school for Thanksgiving Break right now, and I make these gals (the early risers) come hang out in bed with me after they wake up so I can lay in bed just a few more minutes.

This sweet girl is 6 months old. She is still so bald and no teeth. She just started sitting up without help this week. She is starting to have solid food more often, and she is learning to slurp out of the baby food pouches. Those are such a dream compared to spoon feeding her! She goes to bed about 7 at night, wakes twice to nurse, and then wakes up for the day around 6:45 or 7. She takes 3 naps, and they are still pretty short. The longest one is usually about an hour or so. She definitely prefers to be held, but she likes her Exersaucer, jumper, and rolling around on the floor too. 

Leah rolled herself into this situation the other day.

This picture sort of shows the relationship between these two. Natalie adores Leah and is a little bit "in your face" with her. Leah prefers a little bit of space. :)

One afternoon I was making rolls (hardly ever happens these days) and I gave Emmy a little piece of the dough. She loved it. She played with that little thing for quite awhile.

Here's a picture of our master bedroom so far. I love to decorate our home, but it's hard to find the time and even to know how to do it. It's hard to pull a room together! This one is coming along slowly, but it's feeling more like a peaceful, happy space that I want it to be.

Just get a load of those thighs! Oh this picture makes me laugh. Her legs remind me of a tap dancing pig or something like that. 

If I am in the same room as Leah, I can be pretty sure she is looking at me/for me with those big eyes.

Jansen was helping Leah learn to sit up.

It got cold here a couple weeks ago and it scared the snot out of me that Texas weather was a super hot summer that quickly transitions to cold. Thankfully the 60s and 70s are here now, and we are loving it. I REALLY miss "seasons" and snow this time of year, but being able to play outside and enjoy the sunshine is so good for my soul. I can't decide what I would rather have.

We've started to explore the parks now that it's not so hot and Leah is on more of a schedule with more time in between naps.

Natalie has created a whole Christmas outfit for Leah out of paper. This is her hat. It says "Christmas Lia," which is how Natalie prefers to spell Leah's name.

Just for journaling purposes, this girl is our hardest kid right now. Love her to the moon and back, but she is difficult at the moment. 

Our first few months here Nate was getting home at a decent hour. The last little bit he has been getting home at 7 or 8, and the afternoons are SO long. I usually take everyone outside to ride bikes around 4:30 so that no one (especially me) completely loses it. Dinner is comical. 

I snapped this picture last Sunday as Nate talked to the kids about tithing and why we were going to tithing settlement. I am thankful for his leadership and testimony in our home. He's wearing one of his new suits we bought him a couple weeks ago. He has never had a "real" suit. Just a couple from his mission that he got for like $20. It was definitely time. He looks great in them. :)

Latest Bits of Our Life

Natalie had an assignment at school to prepare a report about a mountain lion and create a diorama of it's habitat. She worked very, very hard on it, and I love all the creative little "Natalie" details.

After watching Natalie work on her diorama for several days Emmy decided she wanted to make one too. She likes the British English pronunciation of the word though, and she will correct you every time - DIORAAAAAMA (with a short "o" sound). I absolutely adore her little sun and clouds and animals. It's hard to know what to do with these projects after the assignment is over. I usually hide them for a few days/weeks and wait to see if anyone asks about them. If no one does, I throw them away. If they ARE asked about, I pull them out and we start the process again of hiding and waiting.

One afternoon Natalie and Emmy did a kind deed and "made" our bed. They also left a couple pictures they drew and a picture of Jesus.

Yeah, this also happened one afternoon - Leah and her horse drawn carriage.

Jansen LOVES to play Lego Chima on the computer and Boom Beach on my phone. He has to have his homework and jobs done before he can play either of them, so he is always very motivated after school to complete both of them. He will also do just about any extra job for some extra time to play. I love having some help with bathroom cleaning!

One of Leah's favorite things to do is pull on the cord to the window blinds.

We've been trying some solids with her here and there, but she definitely doesn't seem to care for the pureed "baby food." Bits of pizza are much more up her alley.

She loves sucking on this one little finger.

She loves to hold and grab things and is rolling around front to back and back to front a lot now.

And then there was the time she spit up right onto/into her father's mouth and I made him stop for a picture.

We had such a wonderful time with Steve and Jody here a couple weeks ago. The men took Jansen and Natalie camping, and I'm sure the kids will always remember it. They even rented canoes. The first thing Natalie said to me when they walked in the door the next morning was, "We did all the things you don't want us to do!" 

On Halloween while the kids were at school we did a little exploring and stopped at a really neat antique shop.

This guy keeps the customers in line.

After the antique shop we had lunch at The Apple Store and enjoyed a rare coolish afternoon. 

Nate is building a play set in our backyard almost entirely from discarded wood he has picked up around our neighborhood. It's going to take some time to complete, but we both agreed that the memories made while building it would be great ones and maybe just as fun as actually playing on it.

Halloween Things

We were invited to a couples Halloween party this year hosted by some friends from our ward. It's kind of funny being the "new" people at the party instead of the ones hosting or helping to plan it. I kept feeling stressed whenever I would try to think of what we should be, but then I came across this idea on Pinterest. Totally unique, inexpensive, and very doable. I loved it. We had a really good time, but we did have Leah with us, so we left a little early and had our hands full most of the evening.

I got to help out at Emmy's preschool Halloween party. I loved seeing her little "preschool world." She really enjoys it and looks forward to it every week. She doesn't like me to walk her to the door anymore though...I guess she's too big for that now.

We had a ward Trunk or Treat and Steve and Jody were able to come with us. I made a white chicken chili and a big trifle dish of dirt pudding with creepy crawly gummy worms. There was music at the activity, and it was fun to watch Jansen rock and dance his heart out to a few songs. 

So costumes this year. Jansen and Natalie really wanted to be Steve and an enderman from Minecraft. I was not going to pay a lot of money for the costumes, and I didn't have the energy or creativity to make them. So one night about a week before Halloween I made them get online with me and pick a couple costumes. Jansen ended up choosing this ninja one, and it has already gotten a lot of use as a dress up as well. And yes, that is a lid to a pot that he is using as a shield.

Natalie chose this werewolf costume.

And Emmy joined the millions of Elsas on Halloween.

Leah had no say in her costume, but I think she was the cutest elephant ever. I tried to take her trick or treating with everyone, but she goes to bed at about 7 lately, and it was just too close to her bed time. She was tired and cranky. So she and I stayed home and gave candy to the 2 trick or treaters we had.

We did the whole "trade most of your candy for a toy" thing this year. I asked Nate if I could throw away all the extra candy because I will just eat it, but he wanted to keep it so he could take it to work. It's November 6, and it still hasn't made it to his work. He has it over by his side of the bed where I pick at it all day just like I was worried I would. 

Visit to a San Antonio Mission

I never really knew about the missions in San Antonio until we moved here. We stopped by one that's not far from the airport after we picked up Steve and Jody last Saturday. The older I get the more I appreciate the history of wherever we are living. 

I think Natalie is sporting some ketchup on her shirt from a quick lunch we had at A&W before visiting the mission. And give me one good reason flip flops HAVE to match.

We thought this was such a perfect place for the kids to enjoy as well as the adults until we saw in a pamphlet that no one is supposed to really walk, touch, or sit on what remains of the mission. Which I totally understand - the kids just had a lot less fun after we informed them they had to get down.