It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

But just at our place...

We started it.

I made a wreath!

Lainee is as excited for Christmas as I am, so naturally when she kept asking and begging to put up the tree, I caved. 

I knew Garen would think we were crazy, so we put the whole thing up and got the lights on before he got home. Then we all helped decorate after dinner, with cookies and hot chocolate.

Both of these stinkers were beyond excited about it.

I made new stockings this year too. The old ones weren't my favorite, plus they wee too small. Lainee helped pick out flannel and colors for each. I kinda like them :)

By the way, it rained today and I love it! It may not be snow, but at least it's not 80 degrees!

Curiosity

We all know 3-year-olds are curious little creatures. Here are some of the ones I've tried to answer recently. Some have to do with previous conversations we've had, and others are totally random and unexpected.

Why do we sleep?

How come _______ (friend) doesn't have a baby like me?

Where do ladybugs and butterflies and caterpillars and dragonflies live?

Why don't butterflies turn back into caterpillars?

Do reindeers and dogs and cats have skeletons inside their bodies?

Do skeletons have eyes?

How come the seven dwarves don't have nostrils?

Why doesn't Donald wear some pants?

What is Goofy? (A dog) No, he's not. He has a beige face.

... Let's hear what your kids have asked lately!

October-November Memories

FAMILY~

Garen's parents and his little brother Koy came to visit for a few days and we did tons of fun stuff. It's awesome for the kids to get to see their grandparents!

FALL FUN ~

Pumpkin patch

Pumkin patch

Scary friends hehe

Halloween costume parties

Festive treats, of course.

Bat girl was sick of wearing a mask and cape, and traded them in for this cute headband and some beads! She went trick-or-treating as a flapper.

Cute bow I whipped up last minute. This was way easier than all the sewing for batgirl. Maybe we should have done it in the first place!

GAREN~

Garen started rotations shadowing a PA at a family practice clinic in Las Vegas. It's 90% Spanish speaking so it's been tricky to get into, but I think he's doing really well and enjoying himself! We're proud of him :)

EVERYDAY FUN~

Even though I hate that it's holiday season and still 75 degrees out, it is perfect weather for long walks and quality time outside. This day we collected pinecones to use for later crafting :)

Sometimes we snuggle in the morning.

This guy climbs on everything! 

My latest struggle is getting him to drink milk from a cup. He loves the cup, but not if there's milk in it. He loves his milk, but only if it's in a bottle. Ugh. He drank maybe 2 oz this day, and threw it on the floor.

On the bright side, he walks now! He also claps for himself, and waves to us sometimes, and he's so cute when he does it.

GROWIN UP~

Mr. Silly Pants is 11 months old now! He will be a year old in four weeks and one day. Mixed emotions.

New goal:

I am going to try REALLY hard to not put all my cute, funny, sad, dramatic, silly, most-likely just annoying pictures on Instagram and Facebook. I'll do a few here and there but I want keep up with stuff on the blog so that someday I can use it as a record of our family, and not have random parts of the story missing. 

Plus maybe this works better so people who care can look at my pictures and hear my stories, and people who get annoyed by pictures of other peoples kids can just ignore me.

Starting now.

Let's catch up!

So I feel like I've skipped a lot since I got this silly iPhone and Instagram is what keeps the family up to date. I'm going to try to just throw out some cool pics with summaries of what has happened in the last month or two.

I just want to say that this right here is better than any therapist. They are my sanity and my support and my besties. Love you all to pieces!

Oh hey! A couple months ago, Lainee finall jumped into the pool by herself. I wasn't sure it would ever happen. It was just like everything else she has ever learned- she watched and waited and watched and waited until she knew she would do it, and do it right. Anyway, YAY for the Lainee Girl.

A while ago the kids got to be part of a pediatrics lecture at Garen's school. Lainee thought it was the coolest thing EVER that she got to go to Dad's school.

One time we ate lunch at Pizza Hut with our buds.

Some of Garen's family (Chris, Kyly, &Baiden. Derrick. Kelsie) came to visit. We went shopping, disc golfing, watched movies, swimming, stayed up talking, took pictures, walked the strip. It was awesome and we miss them!

This one time... We tried to meet Garen and walk him home from school, but we weren't very smart cause a humongous storm came and tried to beat us up before we could get to him. I had to turn around and RUN home in the soaking-ness with the big old double  (not-jogger) stroller, and we took this picture in the mailbox shelter at our complex...

The Jace-man had a sick day. We all did actually. Just for a couple days and it was only one of those rotten little colds, but it wore the poor baby out. This is him trying to keep playing but not being able to. Sad day :(

Around the time school started, we also started up a group preschool that we moms take turns teaching. Lainee loves it and has lots of good friends who do it with her. 

Jace decided he was going to start training to be some kind of mountain climber some day. At 9 months old climbs to the top of the slide and then up all the stair to the top of the big toy like a crazy person who wants his mom to look funny chasing after him. 

We went and checked out the Ethel M Chocolate factory and it was pretty sweet. We even got some free, delicious chocolate. Mmm. Thanks for invite, Durrants!

Our stake had a fun run and we all did the 5k. Lainee did a lot of running for a munchkin. She's definitely not used to the heat like some of the other crazy 3-yr-olds we saw out there. It was pretty fun to try even though I usually say "fun run" is an oximoron. 

Lainee is still doing some Gymcats gymnastics through Parks and Rec, and this week her coach even asked when she will turn 4 because she does really good! (She still has almost a year. Oh well.) 

There was an evening once when I was meeting someone at the park, and was also watching Sophie while her mom was working, and naturally I don't have a triple stroller so they piled into our bike stroller. Yeah, I could have just made Lainee and Sophie walk but how much fun would that be compared to this?!

Yep. My kids are pretty cute!

We watched General Conference this last weekend, and this is our Sunday morning conference tradition. Apple streusel muffins and orange Julius! Mmm mm. 

We have been doing a lot better at having Family Home Evening on Monday nights with a little lesson, songs, treats, the whole kaboodle. (By the way, who remembers Kaboodles? Me!) This is our last FHE activity. We read a little story from the Friend magazine about a little girl who prayed to Heavenly Father to help her not be afraid of "Monsters in the Closet." And then we made these fun Halloween jars!

So my amazing photographer of a sister-in-law took our family pictures while they were in town last month and they turned out fantabulous! Thanks Kyly!!! Oh and it helps that I love these three so stinking much too. They are the loves of my life!