Sweet baby

Sophie is such a sweet baby. She is just starting to smile on purpose! It is incredibly difficult to capture on camera because the smiles are gone the instant we commend her on smiling. I stood on the scale with her a few days ago, and I think she is almost 10 pounds now! She is growing so fast. And last night she slept for almost six hours! So I am totally on a sleep high today, that is the most consecutive sleep I have had in a month! I am sure it isn't going to be a regular thing yet, but I will take what I can get. I can't believe how fast the last month has gone and whenever I look at her I think how fast this is going to go by. Then I see Jack and how big he is, he is almost up to my shoulder now, and realize how fast it really does go by. I am grateful for each moment I get to spend with these kids, they are so amazing!

I am getting antsy to start planning our next family vacation. We did go to California this past summer and had a great time, but as Isabella told me, it's not really vacation unless you stay in a hotel. And though I didn't tell her so, I am inclined to agree with her a little bit. We took it really slow in Cali because I was so pregnant and the drive was a bit more exhausting than usual. So it feels like it has been a long time since we have all been on a vacation. The kids of course want to go to Disneyland, which I am always up for. Jack mentioned that he would like to go to Yellowstone. I am up for anywhere. After all we won't be going anywhere till after the new year, and at that point Sophie will be even easier to travel with. I am a big fan of travelling with babies actually. I just pop them into the baby Bjorn and off we go. They are not prone to wandering off, and they have no opinion on where we eat or what we do. Everyone gets good breaks while the baby is nursing, so no over tiredness from me driving everyone to see as much as possible. I carried Bella in the Bjorn until she was 16 months old actually, and it really was my preferred way to travel. This is Bella at about 6 months old when we went to the Oregon Coast. Another thing I love about the Bjorn is how toasty it keeps baby when the weather is cold.

So, if anyone has any suggestions as to where to go, I am up for them. We are good with both road trips and flying vacations. I just want to start planning to go somewhere, so we have something fun to look forward to and work toward as a family....

Where's the kid?

Last week was Red Ribbon week at Jack's school. He loved it because each day comes with a theme of how to dress. Usually he and I negotiate over what he wears. It usually doesn't go well. I don't want to stifle his creativity, but there are some fashion choices I just can't live with. Socks and sandals, monochromatic, red pants and orange shirts. I admit, I am not the most fashion forward person myself, but I feel it is my job to not let my children look completely goofy. I don't mind letting them wear capes or crowns or any dress up stuff really. I even spent a day shopping with Bella while she wore Tinkerbell wings. I find that kind of fashion eccentricity a bit charming really. Anyway, I digress, the last day of red ribbon week was wear red day. Luckily Jack owns red pants as well as a red shirt. But the main thrill for him was that he matched the sheets on his bed. Maybe I should only buy him well coordinated bedding.

Sophie has been enjoying her swing. So much so, that I manage a shower everyday! Yay! She hit one of the toys the other day with her hand and Bella got all excited. From the beginning Bella has had a vision of sharing her toys with Sophie, so I think she can hardly wait for that stage to begin. I am anxious to see if she is just as excited when Sophie actually wants to play with her toys.

Pumpkins!

We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday to pick out our Halloween pumpkins with the kids. This is really the earliest we have ever made it there. Usually we are rushing around at the last minute to get there and then we end up in a rush to get them carved and ready to go. In fact, a few years ago we didn't even carve pumpkins, we just colored them, we were that late. Anyway, we thought we better go sooner rather than later in case the weather turns really cold and we don't want to take Sophie out in the cold. It was a lot of fun. We came home with a lot of pumpkins and the kids wanted to carve them right away. I told them we needed to hold off for a few days so they will still look good at Halloween, plus, if we hold off, we will have a built in FHE activity.

After the pumpkin patch we went to Fuddruckers for lunch, and the kids and I ran a few errands. I bought the kids some chocolate milk on the way home and Bella spilled some on herself in the car. I thought it was mostly gone at that point, but when we got home she rushed in the kitchen holding the chocolate milk, fell down and we had chocolate milk everywhere. Jack started laughing so hard he could barely speak. He said the bottle spun around in a complete circle, and sure enough, the ceiling and all walls were covered in splatters of chocolate milk. It took Nate a long time to wipe it all up, and we are still seeing traces of it, mostly in the stairway-how did it get that far!

I am still not quite finished with all the Halloween costumes, I am hoping I can be productive this week. I am starting to get used to our new schedule and feeling more recovered, so I am aiming to finish up some projects this week. In other family news this week, my Sister in Law got engaged! I hear she may get married in April, though I have no confirmation of that. Also, my cousin is expecting and due in June! So lots of fun ahead!

Lovely Baby

Sophie is such a sweet baby. She really doesn't get too upset about anything. She is calm and pleasant and just likes to hang out with all of us all day long. She doesn't get put down too often. Even though she doesn't sleep much at night, she is so pleasant while she is awake. And being that my mom is still here, I get a pretty good nap daily and am not feeling the exhaustion of it all yet.

We have been so blessed and taken care of by our ward and neighbors. We have been brought so many delicious meals and so many cute gifts. Nate's fellow coaches even sent some cute outfits and a bouncy seat! It has been so nice and everything has really given me an opportunity to just hold the baby and focus on her. I realize those days are short, before I know it she will be up and about, so it has been lovely to just hold her and get to know her.

We had parent teacher conferences for Jack yesterday. They went really well, he is doing really well, he has 100% on everything they have done so far. He really loves school and has a great attitude about everything they do. His teacher seems like she is enjoying her first year teaching. And she seems to not have any drama in her life, which is nice. His kindergarten teacher was great,but distracted by her wedding a lot of the year. And I also liked his first grade teacher as well, but she had a really difficult year in her personal life. So I am hoping this year will be all in all uneventful.

Nate met us at the conference with his glasses covered in tape. A kid punted a football and he was talking to another kid and got clocked. His glasses are totally destroyed. I thought he was joking at first because they had a football banquet they spotlighted the coaches at. I figured it was a joke about him being a computer programmer. But no joke and we will be off this weekend to get some new glasses. He has needed a new exam so it's really not too bad. He did have a few cuts around his eye as well, but no permanent damage.