September in a Nutshell

There are so many deer in our neighborhood, but it's still exciting for the kids every time they see them. | Trying to soak up every bit of sunshine before the cold months come!

Poor Tate was a little sickie boy and had to do a nebulizer four times a day for about 2 weeks. Poor guy.

 The girls draw probably an average of two hours a day. Bryn's favorite thing to do is to draw ponies in different adventures. Her drawings are so fun!

 Proud little Mya with two of her drawings

 Tate spends most of his days scheming how he can crawl into the dishwasher. In this picture he has a cucumber slice in his mouth - a cucumber that he reached up and stole from Mya's lunch plate! | Tate got another hair cut to get rid of his straggly hairs. 

 I love my simple days at home with these three! Some moments are chaotic and messy and silly, but I love my job of mother and I love this stage of life. 

Liberty State Park

 A few weekends ago we spent a beautiful, warm morning at Liberty State Park. It's just half an hour from our house and it has great views of the NYC skyline, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty.

 The closest my kids have gotten to the Statue of Liberty

 We brought bikes and scooters to ride along the trail. 

Not pictured is the humongous cluster of playgrounds that the kids went nuts over. Also not pictured is the stop-and-go traffic we hit on our way home, due to construction. Yikes!

It was still a really fun morning as a family. I love my little buddies and the fun area that we live. 

Back to School

School started for us New Jersey folk the day after Labor Day. We celebrated on the first day of school with our annual Back to School feast. It was such a great night as a family.

Our theme this year is "I can do all things through Christ" (from Philippians 4:13). I planned on making a painted sign with our theme, but things got crazy and so Bryn ended up helping me out with this sign. (She's got a few misspellings in her sign, but she literally whipped this sign out about five minutes before our meal. Thanks Bryn!)

I was in charge of preparing our "feast" and Josh was in charge of introducing our theme. He gave us a great message, encouraging us to center our lives on Christ. This year Josh and I really want our family to be even more Christ-centered. Life can be challenging - school, work, parenthood, and all the other big and small challenges - but we want our children to know that they can be strengthened in all circumstances by staying close to Jesus Christ. Through Christ, all our stresses, concerns, fears, and disappointments can be replaced with faith, hope, confidence, and happiness. The future is bright!

The girls were perfectly polite and behaved the entire night ;)

The good news: I made a cake that did not shrink up - a big success for me. 

The bad news: I forgot to buy the powdered sugar for the glaze, so this unfrosted cake is cracking me up in all these pictures. Oh well! We served it with ice cream and no one seemed to mind the missing glaze.

After dessert, Josh gave the girls Priesthood blessings, an annual tradition at the start of a school year. Josh specifically blessed Bryn that her speech issues can improve this year as she continues her speech therapy at school, and that Mya can have confidence and courage as she begins her new classes this year. Both girls felt so special getting a blessing from their dad.

Bryn on her first day of school. So far Bryn has absolutely loved first grade and her teacher Ms Testa.

 No normal poses or smiles for this girl.

Mya isn't doing preschool til next year, but she is taking a couple classes each week at the Rec center: Ballet/Tap dance, an art class, and a gym class. So far Mya is loving her classes. She is so excited to go to each class and she proudly gives us a report at the dinner table, sharing lengthy recaps of what she did in each class.  

 It's sometimes sad to see how quickly time goes by, but it's so fun to watch my children grow and experience new things. I sure love my little family!

Tate: Eleven Months

 Tater Boy is eleven months! He just gets better and better. Here are his eleven month stats...

 FOOD:

Tate still nurses at 7 am, 10:30 am, 3:00 pm, and 7 pm. (Sometimes he skips the afternoon feeding, though. I'm trying to get him down to three times a day.) He also joins us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner- generally eating whatever we're eating. His favorites are any chopped fruit or steamed vegetable, wild rice, soups, pasta, pizza, pretty much anything. 

 SLEEP:

He sleeps from 7 pm to 6:30 or 7:00 am. He takes a morning nap, usually around 9 am, for an hour or so. Later, he takes a good afternoon nap, usually around 1:30 pm, for about two hours. He's a great sleeper! He just plop him in his crib with his blanket and pacifier (still haven't broken that habit yet!) and he puts himself right to sleep. 

 PLAY:

He is Mr. Curious lately! He loves opening cupboards and drawers and rummaging around, tearing toilet paper, climbing into the dishwasher whenever it's open, pulling out wipes or tissues from the box, dumping and chewing on the girls art supplies, and other mischief. When he does something naughty we say "Uh uh uh" (instead of "No") and now he understands it well enough that he says "Uh uh uh!" to himself whenever he starts doing something mischievous. We'll hear him saying "Uh uh uh" from the other room and find him playing with the computer cords, or emptying the girls clothing drawers.

He is a speedy crawler, a great stander, and walks along the furniture, but he isn't walking on his own yet. He loves climbs our staircase about 50 times a day. He loves, loves, loves balls and enjoys tossing balls around the room and chasing after them. 

Basically, he's just the greatest little guy around, and we are so happy he's in our family. Love you, Tate!

Bryn, Mya, and Tate at 11 months

Turtle Back Zoo with Mya

 I miss Bryn now that she is in full-day school, but it's fun to have a little more time with sweet Mya. We had a fun morning at the Turtle Back Zoo the other day. I only took pictures of the bird area since that was Mya's favorite part...

 Selfie with the pretty birds

August Pics

 I'm behind on updating this little online journal of ours! It's already October, but here are a few snapshots from August that I want to remember...

 Tatey Boy loves the swings!

 And Brynnie Girl loves a good pose!

 The girls thought it would be so funny if we made our own paper bibs to match Tate at lunchtime. 

 Ponies ponies ponies! All day every day! Both girls are so into it and it's adorable to watch them playing "Ponyville" together.

 The cutest moment of the month may have been the day that Josh randomly got home from work early and spent the evening with the kids in the backyard building forts for the ninja turtles (Josh's old ninja turtles that he grew up with).

 New Jersey weather can be a bit extreme from time to time. This rainstorm was crazy!

 This is a familiar site. Mya loves to check out "big kid" books from the library like Bryn and "read" them to herself. 

 One of Tate's favorite activities is opening and emptying drawers.

 Most weekend nights are spent park-hopping. 

 Tate loves eating dirt. It's kind of a problem. 

 Curious George!

  Bryn is the sweetest note writer.

"Dear Mom and Dad, I want you to know how much I love you! And that day by day I work very hard to make you happy. I sure love you. Love, Bryn"

Tate's first play date. I was dying. 

We'll end with these two little faces :)