Our first family thanksgiving

We have spent the last six years (since we've had kids) running ourselves almost ragged on holidays.  Two Thanksgivings every year.  And seriously four Christmas's (spelling?)- all on Christmas day.  Well, this year seeing as we have grown to a family of five, we decided that it was time to spend the holidays in our own home (more or less).  Staying home for Thanksgiving meant that I was responsible for Thanksgiving dinner- gulp!  I went out in search of a tiny turkey but came home with a small turkey breast, which turned out so delicious because it was all white meat (my fav).  And for the first time in my adult life I had turkey leftovers for sandwiches.  Which I thoroughly enjoyed for two days.  I stuffed it with some cornbread stuffing from Trader Joes and seasoned it with olive oil, thyme, and parsley.  I kept things simple and made mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans (no casserole style here- I'm not a fan), sweet potato casserole, and store bought rolls.  I was so thrilled at how delicious it turned out.  It was a good first go for sure.

James and Ben kicked off the festivities with an early Turkey Bowl game, which Ben was so excited to be included in this year.  While they were gone I started cooking, while Jackson watched the parade.  Every once in a while he'd run into the kitchen exclaiming, "you gotta see this?"  I'd hurry over to the tv with him to spot some beloved character in giant ballon form.

It was so nice to gain back so much downtime, which is normally spent for us driving from one place to the next.  Don't get me wrong, I love to spend time over the holidays with extended family, but I think we finally struck a good balance this year.  It's so important to start creating traditions in our own little home and especially with little kids, enjoy the downtime as much as the festivities.  Otherwise it can all be just exhausting.

Can't wait for next year.  I might even step up my feast game a bit too.  

Christmas cutie

I made this little dress for Elle for our family photos. And since we focused on family photos I wanted to get a few of just her in her festive get up. Things started off rocky and the song I'm gettin' nothin' for Christmas was playing in my mind throughout all the tears. But after a quick milk break Elle soon got into the holiday spirit. 

And I just love these last ones of Elle and Ben. Gosh her brothers seriously love her so much. This kid can cause me a lot of grief but he is always the sweetest big brother to this girl and she is so lucky to have him. I can't wait to see how their relationship grows.

Elle's blessing

We blessed Elle in our church on November 9th. It was a very special day. Since we don't have church these days till one we hosted a little brunch at the house for family beforehand. All of James' siblings from out of state were there, including uncle Jayson and auntie Kaitlin who were meeting Elle for the first time. The weekend was made extra special as Elle's great grandmother, Sylvia, was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the day before. She was also meeting Elle for the very first time as she lives in Florida. 

This is the most hilarious picture of Ben above. He and I were cracking up for days. He dubbed it his angry cowboy pose. 

James have a very sweet blessing and for the first time one of our babes fussed a bit during it. She wasn't exactly screaming her head off or anything just an uncomfortable cry throughout most of it. She wasn't liking how all those men were holding her because once she was back in her daddy's arms she stopped crying. Elle has already blessed our lives so much and we are all completely smitten with her. She was a beauty in her special dress, shoes, and headband. Mommy's little angel for sure. 

Three months

I just keep getting later and later with these updates. Oh what can I say about this sweet amazing girl of mine. I'm just so head over heels for her and she is developing her little personality and just becoming so fun. She now babbles all day long and laughs for us almost everyday. She laughs especially hard for her oldest brother. His spit noises just crack her up. Elle also loves to make her own spit noises and her lips are constantly covered in bubbles. The smiles she gives me could melt me into a puddle. It is very easy to get this girl to crack a smile. She's a happy one like brother Jackson, who always had a smile on his face. We haven't had an official weigh in for a few weeks but according to my own scale Elle has packed on a couple more pounds over the last couple weeks, putting her right around twelve pounds. Some rolls are definitely starting to form and she's looking like the most beautiful cherub to me. Doc was concerned for a while about her liver but after several blood tests (no fun) everything is perfect and I hope that weight concerns are also going to be a thing of the past at her next checkup in January. I'm still nursing but my supply isn't quite cutting it, so we've finally settled on soy formula and I think it's the best for her spit up issues. Although she still has her very bad and wet days (but that only means multiple outfit changes!) We are at the beginnings of getting on a sleep schedule. She's still my very sleepy girl and falls asleep in the car a lot so it's not exact. Wake up is currently around 6:45 then it's back to bed by around 9:30/10 for a couple hours. Then another hour or so nap around 4. Bedtime is promptly at 7; otherwise it's grumpy town. This girl still loves her brothers and is rarely bothered by their craziness.  They enjoy trying to get her to play with toys and watching their shows with her. Ben, the iPad and Elle is how I manage to make dinner some nights (when I actually cook- not my strong suit). Elle has mostly given up the paci but will still take it to settle down to sleep. She has replaced the paci with her hands as you can tell from some of the below photos. She tries to stick both in her mouth at the same time and is always loudly sucking on them. Rolling is in the very near future as she's gotten very close. Elle's a strong little thing and handles tummy time like a champ, sits straight up on my lap, and loves to sit in her bumbo. As with my boys, I'm so excited to get to know this girl more and discover her personality and watch her grow. But at the same time it's going too dang fast. Slow down sister girl. Love you so much babe. 

This is Halloween.

Ever since Ben's third halloween I have always made/bought him a couple of costumes. There are always so many parties and activities and I don't want him wearing out his real costume before the big day. We kept things pretty low key this year and our only other activity was a little downtown trick or treating. I put together a very simple Frankenstein and mad scientist costume for the boys with some stuff we already had. I also glued some fake florals to a little beanie and cut out some felt leaves and had a beautiful little flower just like that. It was so fun to watch Jackson this year loving trick or treating. We also spent our October watching a halloween movie together on Friday nights and may have scared him a little bit with the movie Coraline. It was even scary to me. Now whenever I ask him if he wants to watch a movie he says, "no, it's scary."  Poor kid. We've moved on to Christmas movies so hopefully he will get over it soon. 

I decided on the theme the nutcracker for our family costumes. I did manage to pull off a ballerina look for the ward Halloween party but James was a Scrooge this year and didn't participate due to the World Series. I loved how the kids costumes turned out. I'm becoming a much more confident seamstress and sewed Ben's entire costume from scratch. With no pattern. I thought it turned out great. For Jackson, the Rat King, I made a simple king's cape, and for Elle I sewed her leotard, and embellished a headband and her tights. They wore these costumes at the party and then the boys wore them for trick or treating in Utah. It was a bit different this year, having spent the last four halloween's in Los Gatos. But we found a beautiful neighborhood in Orem, UT where they were giving out tons of full size candy bars. Score. Another great Halloween. Now bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both are going to be so fun this year.

Fall Festivities

Fall is definitely my favorite season. I love the weather, the colors (both in nature and in fashion), the food (soups and slow cooker anything), and the holidays (Halloween, hubby's birthday, and thanksgiving). Here's what we've been up to so far.

We hit up a couple pumpkin patches. 

Celebrated James' big 30th birthday with a Pinterest fail Oreo eyeball cake, pumpkin carving, and a Giants World Series victory! 

And I had fun playing dress up with my little pumpkin.

Our indian summer

I'm not always thrilled to live in California. I don't like the cost of living at all. I like nice weather, sure who doesn't. But I also really love true seasons. I've been craving fall like crazy and until just recently it's been a heat wave. So if it must be nearly ninety degrees in October the least we can do is get out and take advantage. Seriously we have had warmer beach days in October than we had all summer.