November in a Nutshell

 I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving already! This month has flown by....really this whole year has! It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is this week and then Christmas is just a few weeks away!

I wish I was better at keeping up on the blog. I really hate going back over a month and trying to remember the little things that I wanted to remember....all the funny things the kids have said and done, all the random thoughts I've had, all the milestones that have been reached. But here I am again, trying to remember...

Ellie can sit on her own now. Really she's been able to sit on her for over a month now. All 3 kids were able to sit by 4 1/2 months, which I LOVE. The world is just a happier place when you can sit on your own.  :)  She still has absolutely no interest in rolling or being on her stomach, but Emma was that way too so I'm not really worried about it. It'll come when she's ready.

Ellie and Matthew both took their turn with a nasty cold/cough last week. I love that the kids get extra snuggly when they're sick, but I really hope we don't end up with the sickies too much this year. I'd forgotten how hard it hits those little babies. It was a rough week!

I went to my very first parent-teacher conference this week. Emma's  teacher said she is doing fantastic and is a joy to have in class. She said that Emma is a great story teller (very true! She gets it from her dad) and that she's also really good at math. She is also advanced in her reading skills and is doing a really good job sounding out words and spelling phonetically. I am SO glad that Emma likes school. A lot of stuff just comes naturally to her and she is just soaking it all up. I love helping out in her class and being able to watch her in that environment.

Jon went on a short (left at 6:30 am and was home by 9:30 pm) "business trip" this month. He flew down to L.A. with his co-workers to visit the Dreamworks studio down there and do other fun stuff. They visited the L.A. opera costume shop and learned about making and designing costumes. While there, they were divided into teams and had to design a costume out of a material (newspaper, coffee filters, bubble wrap, etc). Jon's team made a viking costume out of newspaper and won the fashion show. The prize was 2 tickets to the San Francisco opera. We've never been to the opera (I'd say we're not really fans, but who knows....maybe we'll decide that we really are :)  ) so I'm excited to go.

And here are some random pictures from the month...

We went to a birthday party for one of Matthew's friends. One of the party favors was play doh...can you tell he was excited?

I LOVE that all my kids have blue eyes. I think they're gorgeous!

It's a special treat when the kids get to take a bath with Ellie

Ellie thinks it's pretty fun too

I also love Matthew's scowl/pout face

For a family night activity we played pudding pictionary. Jon and the kids were not too sure about it until we started playing. It ended up being really fun. We kind of got carried away and stayed up way too late playing. Good times!

A Halloween clearance find. I bought this ghosts and monsters brownie kit. Of course the picture on the box showed lots of cute little creations.

The picture on the box looked nothing like this...haha! But the kids did these all by themselves and were really proud of them.

On Veteran's Day, we decided to take advantage of Emma's day off of school and go to the Berkeley children's museum with some friends. Apparently the entire bay area had the same idea. It was packed! But we the kids had fun anyway. We ended our little outing with a quick trip to Yogurtland for the best frozen yogurt ever!

I bought this swimsuit on clearance....isn't it adorable? Too bad Ellie never got to wear it (aside from this little photo shoot) and now it's too small...sigh...

Sisters

Awww...I wish it was summer so they could wear these dresses more...why do I get so attached to their clothes???

Emma's class is learning about Native Americans right now. As part of this unit, they had a trading day. Each student brought in items from nature to trade. I happened to be helping in her class that day. It was such a fun little activity. As part of the unit, they also chose Native American names for themselves that they've been using all month. Emma is Climbing Cub.

Emma traded something for a "plumello". She thought it was a pumello (we have a pumello tree in our yard) but it's really a cute little squash.

Serious negotiations going on for some sea shells. Emma actually scored here...she got 2 really cool sea shells in exchange for 2 leaves.  :)

Family Dinner

Lately (the last several months...or years) our dinner time has gone like this:

4:30- I scramble to come up with something for dinner
5:00-5:30- Time to eat...the kids have been STARVING for the last hour, but magically as soon as dinner is ready they're not hungry and they don't like what I've made (unless it's pancakes).
5:30-6- I try to get Matthew out of the play room and into the kitchen, Emma sits at the table complaining about what we're eating, and Ellie is screaming because she needs to eat or go to sleep.
6:30- I've given up. Emma ate a couple bites, Matthew is playing happily in the play room, his dinner left untouched, and Ellie is down (or going down) for the night. Jon gets home and we start bed time.
7:30-8- Jon heads to the kitchen and grabs yogurt, cereal, a quesadilla, or (occasionally) dinner. I'm annoyed that I put any effort into cooking something that nobody appreciated.

Sound familiar to anyone else??? Maybe....or maybe we're the only ones who struggle with dinner time. Either way, we finally decided something had to change. We need Matthew to start eating so he can gain some weight, but more importantly we just wanted our evenings to go smoother. We wanted dinner time to be something that we all looked forward to and could actually enjoy together. So we decided that we would really try to eat together every night. We also have been trying to plan a week ahead for meals, to avoid the last minute scramble. I know it's not rocket science, but it is just not something I think of ahead of time...honestly it kind of stresses me out to figure out meals every single day.

So, we put our plan into place and I have to say dinner time, and our evenings in general, have been going SO much smoother. Jon has been trying to get into work earlier so he can leave a little earlier. He's also started letting me know each day when he'll be home (or when he's on his way home) so I can have dinner ready when he gets home. We have also started planning our weekly menu together each Sunday...no more last minute scrambling- hooray!

The kids still don't LOVE everything I've made, but they have eaten ALL of their dinner every night. It is amazing! I have to give full credit to Jon for this. He is really good at making up little games, songs, etc to get them excited about their food. Races are very motivating and we've found that it's way more fun to pretend to be an animal eating it's food than it is to be a kid eating their dinner. They're little things, but it's made all the difference in the world!

Tasty Toes

 There's no doubt about it....this little girl loves her toes! And I love her squishy chub.  :)

Yum!

Those red cheeks and chin appeared last Saturday. I'm guessing it's excema so I've been putting hydrocortisone cream on her face, which seems to help. The red spots look painful, but don't seem to bother her so I'm hoping it just clears up soon!

A Little Bit From Halloween

Emma and Matthew REALLY got into Halloween this year. It's not one of my favorite holidays, but it was fun to see them excited about it. Our Halloween decorations consisted of their school art projects and a few pumpkins scattered around....maybe next year we'll do better.  :)  

The Saturday before Halloween we carved our pumpkin. Emma chose the design. She actually filled several pages of a notebook with different design options. It was really cute. After the pumpkin was carved, Jon put a jar of dry ice in it, which the kids thought was super cool.

Saturday night we went to our church Halloween party. There were lots of fun games, friends, and of course candy.

It's becoming tradition for our kids to have 2 different costumes each year. So for the church party Emma was a bumble bee

Matthew was our little doctor

and Ellie was a tired little pumpkin

 On Halloween, Jon went to work, but the power went out in the morning, so he got to take the rest of the day off. Luckily, he got home right when Emma's class Halloween party was starting, so he was able to take Matthew and Ellie while I helped with the party. 

That night we went trick or treating in our neighborhood with some friends.

SO excited to go get treats!

Costume #2- the spider witch

 

 

The cutest little chicken

Our trick-or-treaters

These pictures were too cute not to post. These two are fascinated with each other.

 An hour's worth of loot! They both LOVED trick-or-treating. After he got his candy at each house, Matthew would run back to us and yell, "I need more treats!". Emma could have gone all night, but Matthew was so tired he didn't even go to the last few houses. It was a fun Halloween!

 

You Know You Live in California...

You know you live in California when your 5 year old writes this, entirely on her own and unprompted in any way.

"Is it going to be an earthquake? Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes and yes."

 

The Perfect Combination

 A bowl of water + dry ice + dish soap = hours of fun!

Or leave the bubbles out. The kids are completely fascinated by the smoke too! Either way, it's a simple, inexpensive way for kids (and dads!) to have fun. :)

A Little Mega Update

Because I've been a major blog slacker lately, here is a quick rundown of what we're all up to these days.

Jon- Work, work, scouts, work, scouts, and work. He stays busy so we really enjoy the little bits of time in the evening and on the weekends that we do get to see him. He is working on Madagascar 3, which comes out next summer.

Sarah- Busy keeping up with the family, the house, and the never ending papers....seriously, why do schools feel the need to send home so many papers? And what am I supposed to do with all of Emma's assignments/art projects/homework that she just loves and can't part with???

I've also been going to Weight Watchers for the last 7 weeks to get rid of the last of my baby weight. I am PROUD to say for the first time in my life I have lost all of my pregnancy weight AND have gotten back to my pre-pregnancy size. And it feels really, really good. It feels good to be eating healthy, to have energy again, and to know that I reached the goal I set out to reach.

Emma is LOVING school. She has a really great teacher and is learning so much. She loves practicing reading and writing, loves p.e. and recess, and still loves art. Every inch of our fridge is covered with her paintings, pictures, and other art projects. She suddenly has a super busy social life, and honestly I am struggling to keep up with it! This girl has SO many play dates! Some of her best friends from school are Julian, Steven, Eric, and Kaden...yes, all boys! That's just who she plays best with. She also likes Hope, Lola, and Mayra. She and Matthew's best friend though is our neighbor, Brady. They LOVE playing with him and because they are so close and convenient they often end up playing together 3-4 times a week.

I go help out in Emma's class every other week for an hour. It has been a lot of fun so far. Last week we cleaned out a pumpkin, separating the seeds from the rest of the insides so they could count the seeds. The week before I helped them paint owls for a project they were making. Next week I am going to drive for her class field trip to a local children's museum/zoo. The kids usually come along with me, and she loves having us all there.

Matthew....oh where do I even begin with this boy??? He is on a mission to prove that he is completely independent and can and will do everything by himself. He is also out to prove that he will only do what he wants to do when he wants to do it. Jon is really good at making things fun and getting him to do what we need him to do. He has gotten him to eat ALL of his dinner 2 nights in a row now. The doctors are really concerned with his weight (he's 3 1/2 and still at 25 lbs), so we need him to gain so they'll let him be. They really want to put him on an appetite stimulant, but I told them I really wasn't comfortable with that. They're going to re-evaluate in February, so hopefully he's made some good progress by then. He also did allergy testing yesterday and it turns out he's only allergic to dust mites and grass. After talking to the immunologist yesterday at his appointment, his health issues all make sense now. This little boy has been tested for everything under the sun and everything has come back normal, except for his liver enzyme levels and his T-cell levels (but those could be abnormal from being sick). They do think he has asthma (I'm not convinced) and we know he has the allergies. The peak allergy times for grass are March-June and August-September. He ended up in the hospital in June and August....both high allergy times. So, he's just super sensitive. To avoid a repeat of this last year, they have given him a prescription for some allergy meds that he'll take during allergy season.

Other than that, he is also LOVING school still. He's making progress and will actually leave preschool without me having to go in and carry him out. Halleluiah! He loves show and tell at school, and he LOVES anything that has to do with Emma's school. She makes a lot of books at school and has learned several really fun songs. He could sit and listen to her read her stories and sing her songs all day.

And we can't forget Miss Ellie. She has started going to bed earlier....between 6 and 6:30, which is great. Some nights she'll sleep 12 hours, some nights she wakes up once to eat, and some nights she's up 4 or 5 times just needing her binky put back in. Those are really rough nights! She loves to come snuggle in our bed when she wakes up in the morning, and will usually go back to sleep for awhile after she joins us. Ellie is also a talker. I love listening to her babble.

On Sunday we went to visit Jon's family...and Ellie wouldn't let any of them hold her. Talk about a sudden and major case of stranger anxiety! She has never done this before. It was really sad, especially for Grandma! Hopefully this is just a phase and it passes really quickly!

And that is life in a nutshell for now.  :)