Mud Puddles

Yesterday was rainy and cold. Brr! It still amazes me how fast, and how drastically the weather can change around here. Tuesday it was warm, and a little overcast - okay, I guess it was raining for part of the day, but it was still warm (upper 60's I think). Yesterday the thermostat on the car said it was 36* while I was driving around. Crazy!
Anyway, we had some fun yesterday outside in the cold and the rain. We bundled up and put on our rain boots and splashed in the mud puddles (which are abundant in our yard), and kicked a ball around. We have some drainage problems along our fences, so there are usually mud puddles there anyway. With all the rain, they were nice and deep. Since we had our rain boots on, I told Christopher he could walk and play over there. His eyes lit up at the opportunity to traverse the forbidden swamp lands, and kept kicking the ball that we were playing with that direction. A good way to use up some energy on a cold rainy day. Afterwards we came inside and had hot chocolate together. Very cozy. Don't worry - I wasn't running around with a nine month old baby in the freezing rain. Naomi was napping while we had our adventures.
One of Christopher's favorite things is when David or I make up a story to tell him. For a while he wanted them all to be about Rover (a dog), who loves playing in mud puddles. They would go something like this: Once upon a time there was a dog named "Rover" (said by Christopher). I would continue: his favorite thing to do in the whole world was "play in mud puddles" (also said by Christopher - he would choose what the Rover story was about each night, and more often than not it was about mud puddles, which is interesting since I don't think he himself had ever played in a mud puddle before. Maybe he was secretly wishing he could.) Then I would go on to tell a story about Rover the dog playing in mud puddles with his best friend, Christopher. So, I think that playing in mud puddles yesterday was fulfilling some life-long goal. It must have made him very happy.
He has recently been asking for super hero stories, so we might be entering a new phase. It's fun to be raising a boy, that's for sure! Here are some pictures. His pants got totally soaked and muddy, which must be a good indication of how much fun he had.

Artistic Christopher

Christopher loves being creative and artistic.  He wanted to take some pictures with my camera, so I let him take a few shots.  These are some of the ones he took, and I think they're pretty good for a three year old.   He didn’t have any help with them – he took them totally on his own.  Maybe he’ll be a photographer when he grows up.

Early Christmas Present

We like video games around here.  I should actually say that Dave and Christopher like video games around here.  I think I would like them more if I was any good at them.  I can master the ones with only one or two buttons to push, but anything more than that is beyond me.  We had the original Nintendo growing up, and my brothers were always so irritated with me when I tried to play.  "Moving the controller doesn't help any, Sarah!".  

I decided to work through my video game deficiencies, however, and agreed that a Wii would be a fun thing to have.  So, we ordered one online (they are impossible to find) as an early Christmas present for ourselves.  And, I have to say that I'm hooked.  It only took me a couple of tries to get the controls down (I'm still not as good as Dave at the controls, but that's to be expected!), and the games are actually quite fun.  I even beat Dave at some of them.  Christopher is also having a blast, because he can play them too.  I like that it gets us up and moving, and interacting with each other.  So, HAH Jeff and Todd - now moving the controller does do something! :)

No, we're not playing on Sunday. :)  Dave got a new calling as an early morning Seminary teacher, so he has to wear a white shirt and tie to class.  This is on a weekday in the morning after class.

Holiday Puzzle

My mom's family has a tradition of putting a puzzle together in between Christmas and New Year's.  Dave went and got me a couple of new puzzles a while ago, since he's such a nice guy, so I decided to start mine a little early.  I like putting puzzles together.  It's a nice chance to sit and relax, and chat.  Dave even got in on the action - he's not usually a big puzzle-doer - but he knows it's a whole lot more fun when you have someone to talk to.  I'll probably start another one after Christmas, just to keep with tradition. :)

Sam and Tanya

Dave's brother, Sam, got married last May to Tanya.  We went up to Utah to be there, and had a great time being together, and getting to know Tanya a little better.  They decided to move down here, and Sam was out a couple weeks ago looking for a job.  He found a great one in Dallas, that he says will be a great fit for him.  We're really happy for him, and excited to have them so much closer.  It's great to have family so close.  They'll be living in Plano, so that will be nice to be able to hang out with them on the weekends and stuff.  They started driving today, and will probably be here tomorrow sometime. Yay!  I hope they have a safe drive.

Sam and Christopher, while Sam was here

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.  I love baking at this time of year.  During the summer I usually stick to salads and quick, oven-less stuff, so it's nice to get back in to baking.  I'm excited to start on some of it tonight.  I like to try and get as much done the night before as I can.  I get the stuff done that doesn't matter if it's a day old - like pies, sometimes rolls.  Even still, I usually still spend all day in the kitchen. :)  I guess I'm still working on getting the timing of everything right.  I'm going to try a new recipe for the turkey this year, and I'm hoping it turns out moist and delicious.  I also just learned about brining, so I think I'll try that and see if it's worth the extra work.

I also want to say that I have soooo much to be thankful for.  I am so blessed.  As a kid, we had a tradition of going around the table, and saying what we were thankful for.  We couldn't repeat what anyone else had said, and it was always amazing how long we could go for.  I like that this holiday reminds us to be grateful, and to not take things for granted.  I know there are a lot of things I could be more grateful for.  I am especially grateful for my family.  David is a wonderful husband, and I love him so much!  He really loves and supports me - even when I'm crazy!  I love being a mom to my sweet, happy kids.  They are such a blessing!  I could go on and on, but I think instead I'll write notes to them, and also to the other people who are blessings in my life, to let them know how much I appreciate them.  Enjoy the feast and family time tomorrow!

Craftiness

I did a crafty project the other day at a friend's house, which I'm pretty proud of. It turned out pretty cute, and I'm proud of myself for finishing a project (I still need to finish our Christmas stockings, which I started two years ago!). FALL is on one side, and NOEL the other, so it should last for a while. I think I'll do a WINTER/SPRING one too - we'll see. Sorry about the glare on the NOEL one. The paper is kinda hard to see, but it's cute - I promise!

Christopher's drawings

Christopher has started drawing people, which I think is a pretty fun and exciting development for him. For some reason, though, he will only draw them on his Magna doodle. I took pictures of it to document his first drawings of people. The one that I got is of him - big round head, eyes, smile, legs and some hair. The two scribbles on top of the head are hair, not eyes. The eyes are the dots inside the circle. Pretty fun. In a different one that he drew, he added another smaller circle as his "danket" (blanket). Can't go without that! He's also practicing doing frowny faces and sad faces.

Dinosaurs Alive!

We went to the Heard Museum yesterday for their annual dinosaur exhibit. They have a bunch of dinosaur models that are about human-size along a walking trail. They were scaled down a lot from what the size they were thought to be, which definitely put into perspective how huge they were. The dinosaurs made sounds and moved their arms and stuff, which was pretty neat. There is a place you can stand and look out at a couple of the dinosaurs, which I thought was a neat way to see how it might have been.
We went with Jonathan and Katie, and I think everyone had a good time. It was a gorgeous day at about 73* (I think it got close to 80* in the afternoon), and it was fabulous to just be outside. I think I've been deprived of the outdoors this summer, while it's been so hot. I haven't wanted to take Naomi outside while she was so little, and it was so hot. So this nice weather is GREAT! I love oxygen. :)
Christopher reacted to the dinosaurs exactly how I thought he would. Not scared at all; totally excited, and slightly hyper about the whole thing. I don't have a ton of great pictures of us along the trail, simply because he wouldn't stay put for long enough. He was too excited to see what was around the corner. Here are the ones I did get.

The T-Rex totally startled Naomi with it's roar

There were two stationary dinosaurs for the kids to climb on

One of the trails - Isn't it gorgeous?

The kiddos and their daddies

I guess this dinosaur would actually be 3-4 times bigger

Pumpkins

So I just realized that I do have some pictures of the pumpkins we carved for Halloween. Dave did a nice job taking pictures of them, so I'll post some of the better ones.

Our pumpkinsSarah's

Christopher's
(he designed it, and I cut it out for him. the two circles on the upper left are eyes, the small one beneath them is the nose, and the longer one to the right is the mouth. A Picasso pumpkin :)

David's
kinda creepy, eh? He did a good job making it scary, I think.

Catch Up

I haven't had the chance to satisfy my blogging urge for a while, so I have a bit of catching up to do. I want to post some pictures of our Halloween experience, but I don't have them yet. Our camera is too big for my purse, so I didn't bring it Wednesday evening. We went trick-or-treating with Dave's brother and family, which was a ton of fun. Katie took some pictures with her camera, so when I get those from her, I will post them. I'm going to ask for a purse-sized camera for Christmas so that I can take advantage of all the good photo ops that come along. :) In the meantime, I will post some of the other stuff that's been going on with us.
Naomi's first tooth broke through this last week, which is exciting. She's been drolling (not too badly, which is nice), and chewing on EVERYTHING! She normally chews a ton, but for the past two or three weeks she's kicked it up a notch. The first one to come was the bottom right, and she's working on the one right next to it now too. She's been a little cranky at nap time because of it, so I'll be glad when they're both through. Then I guess we'll be on to the next ones. Hopefully, since she'll be used to the feeling of it all, they won't be as uncomfortable for her. Now that she has something interesting to mess around with in her mouth, Naomi's also started making some more fun noises. I can hear some different sounds coming out, and she's started babbling, and making conversation noises. It's a lot of fun to watch her learn and grow. She's gotten a lot more interactive in the last week or so.
She is still perfectly content to sit and let Mommy bring her toys to her. :) She's not crawling yet, or even rolling around. Well, I shouldn't say she's content about it - I think she's getting upset with not being as mobile as she would like, but she hasn't showed any interest in crawling or anything. She's perfectly capable of rolling over and pushing up, but hates being on her tummy. If I put her down on her tummy with a toy in front of her, she will try and push herself forward with her toes, but gets frustrated in a minute and will just roll over. It will probably all just click for her one day, and then she'll be off. There are pros and cons to the situation. I don't have to worry about her getting into things while I'm not watching, but she would be having more fun if she could move around. I'm sure when she is crawling, I will be wishing she was back to her stationary state. :)
She is totally adorable, and her whole entire face lights up when she smiles. We were singing Primary songs tonight as a family, and she was having a blast. She loves music, and people, and being with her family. She loves it when just about anyone pays attention to her. She will stare at someone, until they look at her, and then give them her biggest smile when they finally look at her. It definitely gets people to smile and play with her. I guess she already knows how to work it!

New Calling

I got a new calling today at church. "Another new calling??" you say. Yup. Another new calling. "Didn't you just barely get a new calling?" you ask. The answer to that would also be yes. Apparently I can't hold down a job like I should. :) I'm still in Young Women's, so it's not too big of a change, thank goodness. Now, instead of being the Mia Maid's adviser, I'm the second counselor in the presidency. That puts me in with the Beehives. I won't be teaching as much on Sundays (once a month instead of twice), but I'll be more responsible for mutual. I'll also have all the meetings and stuff to go to. So, not too big of a change, but I will be getting more responsibility. I guess that once I feel like I'm getting my life organized again, something else comes along. Wouldn't want to get comfortable, would I? :) I do love working with the girls, and I'm glad I'm still in with them. They have such sweet spirits, and I feel like this is where I need to be right now. So, here we go!

Crazy Pictures

So, the layout for the last post is kinda crazy. The pictures are all over the place...sorry. :) I had them all lined up, but then the words had gotten all mixed up, so then I had to fix the words. Now it's late, and I don't want to fix it again. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm this morning. We had a good time feeding the cows and goats, going on a hay ride, letting Christopher go on a little train ride, eating hot dogs, and picking out some pumpkins. The little goats were pretty cute, but had some crazy eyes going on. It seemed expensive to me, especially since Christopher seems to have the same ideas on fun as Dave does. The whole time on the hay ride, Christopher kept asking me where we were going, and was trying to figure out why we were sitting on some bales of hay in a trailer, being pulled by a tractor. I guess there need to be a purpose or something. :) Naomi had a great time hanging out with her daddy. I held her for a little while, and she got all cranky until Dave took her back. It's so fun to see the kids having so much fun with him. There were a lot of good photo opps today, so we got a bunch of pictures. I'll just post a few, and then send some more to the grandparents. I think we'll carve the pumpkins for Family Home Evening, and I'll post some pictures of how they turn out.

Autumn

Yay! I'm so excited that it finally feels like fall around here. The car this morning said it was 62* outside, and the weather report says the high is supposed to be 65*. I grabbed a sweatshirt and my slippers to make breakfast. We even turned the fireplace on last night. How cozy! I love sweaters and cushy socks. My favorite way to sleep is when it's freezing cold, and I have a ton of blankets piled on me. If I have enough blankets, the best sleep I get is when I've been camping (not that I've been camping recently - it's not Dave's favorite thing :)). I'm excited for the leaves to start changing colors. I enjoy all the season changes, but this is probably my favorite.

Best Friends Forever

I love watching Christopher with Naomi. He is so sweet and gentle with her. She adores him, and lights up whenever he even looks at her. They haven't had any "sibling" problems yet, but I'm sure we'll start getting into that when Naomi gets more mobile and into Christopher's things. For now, though, I just love watching them together.

Halloween

Halloween is coming up fast. I love this time of year. Jeans and sweaters, the leaves turn colors, the crisp scent in the air, hot apple cider, pumpkin pies, parties, and the holidays are beginning. Now, most of these autumn experiences are memories of how this time of year is supposed to be - not how it really is here in good ol' Texas. The weather is still in the mid 80's every day, although we did get an awesome thunder storm a couple of days ago that seems to have cooled everything down to upper 70's, which is nice (still not really sweater and hot apple cider weather, though!). I do have to admit that I'm really enjoying the fact that we can go to the park in the middle of the day and not roast. We've been having dinner outside on a regular basis, and one day we even had breakfast and lunch out there too! :) It's wonderful to get some fresh air.
I took some pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes for the grandparents. I'll post those. It's a lot of fun now that Christopher is old enough to understand the holiday. He's excited to be a train engineer, and Naomi will stay warm and cute in her pink leopard outfit. We'll see how long we stay out this year. Last year Christopher was so excited about getting the candy that he wanted to go home and eat it, instead of knocking on more doors. Also in the Halloween spirit, I found a fun candy-making kit at the store the other day. Dave and Christopher made them together, and had a lot of fun. I was wishing we lived closer to grandparents, because then we could have taken some over. Unfortunately, it's not really a good idea to hand out homemade candy to trick-or-treaters any more. So, (poor us!) we just had to eat them. :)




Pumpkins, spiders, bats, ghosts, cats, & mummies

Jumping Jacks

I took the video camera to TKD a while ago to catch Christopher's jumping jacks. It makes me smile to watch him - he's so cute. He's actually gotten a lot better at listening, and at almost all the moves, since I took the video. I'm so proud of how hard he works, and how much he's learning. He's younger than all the other kids, but keeps up with them almost all the time. He practices at home, and does his best. The video is a little long, but the jumping jacks are at the beginning.

General Conference

Well, General Conference is over for now, until April. We had a good time listening to the talks. I love how I feel encouraged and inspired to do better - in such an uplifting way. There's nothing better than hearing the prophet of the Lord telling us exactly what we need to hear! I am always excited to get the G.C. edition of the Ensign (Church mag), and to read over the talks again. Especially the talks that I missed, or only partly heard, because of the kids.
For those of you who don't know, General Conference is a church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints/Mormon) meeting that happens every six months. The leaders of the church speak at the conference center in SLC, and it's also broadcast to meetinghouses across the world, through satelite, and over the internet. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs, and there are talks given. Really a wonderful way to spend the weekend. Oh, and it's fabulous to be able to watch it on T.V.! Much nicer to let the kids take their naps at their regular times, and not have to keep them quiet at the church.

Christopher's birthday

Christopher turned three yesterday. I can't believe it's already been three years since he was born. Time has flown, and I love being his mommy. He's a great kid, with a lot of energy. He's very social, and loving. Sometimes, without prompting, he will come up to me and say, "You're the best mommy in the whooole world. I love you". It just makes my heart melt. I love him! We had a party for him on Saturday, and invited his friends. He had a blast playing in the water outside, and having a picnic with his friends. He loved his presents, and it seems like he felt very special. We gave him our presents, and the ones from his Ouma and Oupa yesterday. A tradition in my family is that you get to pick the dinner you want for your birthday, and he choose lasagna. So we had lasagna and leftover salad from the party (there were a lot of leftovers!). And, of course, birthday cupcakes and ice cream. I have to say that the icing was the best I've ever made. I creamed the butter first, before adding the icing sugar, which made a big difference. We've had a fun couple of days, for sure!