21 Weeks

All these pictures were taken last week. Asleep....and.....awake! :) She still likes to sleep all bundled up, vibrating away in her bouncy seat for naps. At night she does great in her crib--funny. She sleeps good long stretches, 6-8 hours a night. Sooo nice for me!


Lauren played a lot with her Little People Noah's Ark last week. She kept calling Noah "God" and said God was going into the ark. She likes playing with these Potato Head magnets a friend gave us. She might be getting a real Potato Head for Christmas...

Caroline constantly plays with her hands these days, sticking them in her mouth, folding them, etc.

She was 21 weeks last Thursday. Her hair is getting SO thin! I trimmed some of the longer pieces today, as there are only a few of them left, and they started looking straggly.

Why so serious, Baby?

Santa's House, Family Photos

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went with Brian's mom to downtown San Luis Obispo. They have this cute little Santa house in the Mission Plaza. It is free to go in, and the last time we went, we could take pictures of the kids with Santa. This year, however, they were charging $5 for them to take a picture or you could take your own (no limit) for $5. It just wasn't important enough for us to have those Santa pics to pay $5 for them. So to document the visit we took a few shots outside the little house. They did give all the kids a small coloring book and a mini candy cane, which they liked. Julia told Santa she wanted the set of 7? 8? Princess Barbies in the Target toy book. There are all the Disney princesses in the set. Austin and Lauren both told Santa they want a light saber! Brian has the old Star Wars movies, the set with Return of the Jedi (can you tell it's not my thing, as knowledgeable as I am? LOL), and all the kids like watching them with him! I just thought it was funny Lauren wants a light saber too.

That Sunday we took some pictures after church. None of the kids were thrilled about it.


Brian took these as I was setting up the stools for the pictures. I like them, because they are so typical! Miss Caroline gets packed around everywhere, and she is so good about it. She drools so much these days that the burp cloth goes wherever she does. Thankfully she is not a big spitter-upper!!





Brian's mom took a few family pictures for us.

Thankful Hearts, 20 Weeks

Wednesday Julia and Austin were off from school. It was the big day of preparation for me. LOL I cooked up the two sugar pumpkins from Austin's field trip, and Lauren's squash/pumpkin from the patch, made a pumpkin pie and apple pie, and chopped veggies and an apple for the stuffing, fried the bacon, etc. Austin and Lauren were RAMBUNCTIOUS!! Lauren went outside for awhile, but it had rained the day before, and everything was wet. Really they both needed to run around *out there* (meaning *not* in the house!), but they didn't. I told them they needed to be quiet so I could think! LOL After lunch I decided to eat one of the little tarts I'd made with extra pumpkin pie filling that wouldn't fit in my crust. I sprayed whipped cream on it and everything. I ate it, and it seemed to taste a little salty and kind of bland. It really wasn't too bad, just tasted less like pumpkin pie and more like something you'd eat for dinner. When the other kids went to bed for naps I had Julia eat the other little tart, and she said it tasted kind of salty too. It dawned on me then, when it was finally quiet (as the two hooligans were in bed!!) that I'd forgotten to add sugar to the blender when I made the pumpkin filling! Oh my. I told those kids I needed to think... ;) They were just so excited for Thanksgiving, I guess they couldn't calm down.

Thankfully I had an extra can of milk, and plenty of pumpkin, so I quickly made a new crust and quickly blended the new filling together. That pie ended up being delicious. :D Brian's mom arrived about 4 pm. We went to the Thanksgiving service at church after supper. Here's Princess in the morning:


Oh, Lauren....what are you getting into? Just looking at the DVDs, she informed me.

Caroline was 20 weeks on Thanksgiving.

Who needs turkey? I've got this yummy yummy fist!

They all love the baby!!

Thankful for these four

Brian's mom and me with our turkey

Brian got to do the carving

All the kids made a lot of turkey decorations which I hung on the walls and set on the table and counter. The spiders never got taken down after Halloween. They came down tonight. We don't need spiders hanging above the Advent candles. Julia set the table with our china.

Julia said she was thankful for her family. Lauren said she was thankful for God and Jesus. I can't remember what Austin said, but I am thinking he said he was thankful for God and Jesus too. Always a good answer. ;) Lauren had asked me days ago if she could have a chicken leg on Thanksgiving. I told her she probably could, have a chicken leg from the turkey, that is. :D And she did not forget about that chicken leg! Brian took most of the meat off, and she pretty well cleaned off the rest of what was there!

Thanksgiving night: They watched Miracle on 34th Street.

I don't think Caroline liked the broccoli salad I had on Thanksgiving, as she was really fussy at bedtime that night! I've noticed before that it bothers her when I eat broccoli or cauliflower. I went back and forth, trying to decide whether or not I should go out shopping early Friday morning. I finally decided just to go, and ended up taking Caroline with me. I woke up at 4 am, threw on some clothes and shoes. She woke up on her own, so I nursed her, bundled us both up, and off we went at 4:30.

I thought with all the talk of the economy being so bad that there wouldn't be too many crowds. Well. I thought wrong. Either the economy's ok, and people were spending lots of money, or the economy's bad, and they were trying to spend the least they could. I don't know. But the WalMart parking lot was full! Thankfully I found a cart someone had left in the parking lot, because I had to walk and walk and walk to the end of the line just to get into the store!! The line started at the WalMart doors, went past Payless Shoes, past a jewelry store, past a cigarette store, past The Home Depot garden center, past The Home Depot store, snaking around into The Home Depot parking lot. Yikes!! We waited in line for 50 minutes, just to get in the store at 5:45. My sweet baby just slept most of the time, cozy and warm in her carrier. She was smiling at me and the ladies around us before nodding off. It was an absolute ZOO in the store. Oh. My. Goodness. Never again! LOL But then, I should never say never. ;) I did find what I came for, eventually, though it was not where I thought it would be by the crafts, but by the cosmetics. I wouldn't have known that, except I saw one in another girl's cart and she told me where they were.

I am so excited--I bought my birthday (Brian was the one to say I got gypped this year, as we were busy with the new baby. I don't know though, it's hard to top a new baby for a present. ;) ) and Christmas present, a Cricut Expressions Die Cut machine. I've held out buying one, as I didn't want to buy cartridges to make different fonts. But now there is software you can buy that lets you cut letters using any True Type font on your computer! And it was a really good price this weekend! The machine came with two cartridges, PLUS, on the Cricut site you can get two free cartridges if you buy a machine by Dec. 15! I think it will be a fun toy! And I also think it will be useful for the kids for school projects. It took two hours to just do WalMart, so Baby and I headed home after just the one store, and got there just in time to see Brian off to work. :) As I'd only had 1 1/2 hours of sleep Thursday night (Caroline being fussy...), I took a nap when the little kids did this afternoon.

We've been eating yummy Thanksgiving leftovers, but no more broccoli salad for me. I sent the kids all outside today, as it was such a nice day. They built a tee pee with beanpoles in the garden. And found a worm and made a home for him in the bug cage. And Austin dug in the dirt and played trucks. Brian's mom headed out for a few hours this afternoon to do a little Christmas shopping while the kids (not Julia) and I slept. After work Brian went in the attic and got the Christmas decorations down. I put the Fall decorations away. We'll probably decorate more this weekend. Tonight Julia was telling Lauren stories, and as she spoke she drew a quick illustration on the MagnaDoodle. She told the Christmas story, along with a couple she just made up on the fly. Of course Lauren loves the attention! :)

Drive-In Movie Night, Candy Cane Legs

Friday night was the Sparks Drive-In Movie Night. It is a "big" Sparkie event, and the kids get so excited for it! Julia was only able to go last year, out of her 3 years in Sparks, as other things were happening the first two years. All the kids are supposed to bring a box, which is their car, to sit in to watch the movie. Most decorate their cars, but you don't have to. And of course, some kids (and parents!) go all out and super-decorate. One car, you can kind of see it in the corner behind Austin, was made into a boat. The same dad made his daughter an airplane last year! Brian picked up a box at a furniture store and he and Austin painted it blue. Austin decorated the wheels and chose #10 to paint on it.


The kids play Sparkie games for awhile, then settle in their cars to watch a movie. Last year was a Christmas story movie, and this year it was one directed by Kurt Warner, and I think Brian said his daughter was in it, but neither he nor Austin could remember the title. Of course they are "Christian" movies, being shown at church and all. ;) Brian is a Sparks listener, and he stayed to pass out popcorn and lemonade to the kids. Austin sat with two buddies from school, Logan and Cooper, who also go to Awana. Logan I know goes to our church, but I'm not sure about Cooper. They wore their vests. We all forgot Austin's. Oops.


It was actually pretty chilly this morning, 65 in the house when we woke up. We've only turned the heat on maybe 3 times this fall. This week is supposed to be more typical, cooler, thankfully!! It's one thing to have 80 degree + in the summer, but in November?! Crazy. Anyway, Austin has another cold and was coughing a lot, so he, Caroline and I stayed home this morning while Brian took the older girls to church. We told them they had candy-cane legs. LOL They both love prancing around in their boots! Julia still likes to match Lauren, and I really am not sure how much this is going to last, although she shows no sign yet of not wanting to dress alike. I'd gotten L and C matching shirts, and Julia asked where hers was! You can see in the pics we need to work on sitting ladylike. ;)


Julia has a cold too, but isn't coughing like Austin. Caroline is a little stuffed up, and it seems Lauren might have a touch of one; either that or she's at the tail-end of one. I can't keep track around here.... We might get some rain this week. Tomorrow I need to go grocery shopping for Thanksgiving--got to buy the turkey! Yesterday Austin had a birthday party in the morning for his friend Justin, who just turned 4, but he loves Austin! He's the one who calls Austin his big brother. He gave Austin a hug and kiss good-bye when Brian came to pick him up. :) It was a bike party, and other than Justin's older sister and brother, Austin was the oldest kid there. He didn't mind at all though. He had a great time riding his bike with the kids and just being at the party.

19 Weeks

I'm starting to get mixed up on the number of weeks Caroline is! Brian and I both had to wonder this week, is it 19 or 20? LOL Anyway, Thursday she was at 19. Lauren renamed her doll "Baby Caroline". So now we have two Baby Carolines in the house. When I put Lauren to bed for her nap that day, she said, "Now I want to tell the people Baby Caroline 'good night'." She always wants to give Caroline a hug at naptime, but this day she had to specify which one. ;) Her own Baby Caroline was already in bed with her. :D Here is Lauren and her baby visiting the people baby.


Yikes! Check out Alexandra's hair (below)! That doll never gets her hair combed. I'm not so sure it can be done anymore....


Lauren covered Caroline with the blanket--that is Lauren's special blanky.


Some tummy time. Looks like a faceplant.

But, she is getting stronger! Just had to muster up her strength. :) I love her round little head--so soft and fuzzy, and squishy little cheeks! Her hair is thinning a LOT. I find patches of it in her crib, little bits of baby hair just laying on the sheet.

You Know the Song...

You know the song, Deep and Wide? The other day, Lauren came in from playing and was singing:
Rose and bush, rose and bush
There's a fountain flowing rose and bush
Rose and bush, rose and bush
There's a fountain flowing rose and bush!

Then:
Rose and HMMmmm, rose and HMMmmm
There's a fountain flowing rose and HMMmmm
Rose and Hmmmm, rose and hmmmmm
There's a fountain flowing rose bush and HMMMmm! (She got a little mixed up on the last line.)

A few nights ago, Brian was going over Lauren's "extra" Under the Apple Tree section for Cubbies. They had to talk about signs of the changing seasons. He was suggesting things like the pumpkins and scarecrow on our porch, leaves changing colors, etc. Lauren was listening, and also deep in thought. Suddenly, she said, so excitedly, "I know! I know! Buffalo!" Brian paused. I was LOL in the kitchen. Buffalo. Buffalo?! How in the world did she come up with buffalo? And as a sign of the seasons changing?

Cute little baby smile

She is extremely interested in the cats!

Julia will often ask to take Caroline for a little walk.

Some cute ones from yesterday:

Oh my goodness. Check out those cheeks! And that chin!

I had fun with my breakfast group friends yesterday, though only two of them could come. The other two had other things going on. I made a hashbrown/ham/cheese/egg casserole, lemon poppy-seed scones with lemon curd, and a fruit salad.