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!