Us

Just sharing a little holiday joy

Just a snack

I really wanted some cookies as a late-night snack

(I know, bad habit)

but was too lazy to make any.

Next thing I know, Ben is (literally) whipping

up this amazing snack for us.

I'm always telling him he is the king of 'white trash' cooking. Meaning, he takes a bunch of random food we have and turn into something delicious and also amazing looking. He believes presentation counts for like, 80% of your meal. Now, if it would just happen more often...

Marthafest!

Today I went to Marthafest!

A day of crafting and food in the name of

Martha Stewart.

The queen of crafting.

It was glue&paint-filled day of fun!

My friend, Erin, put it all together.

She is amazing.

We, of course, had to have Martha present.

Meeting Santa

We went to our ward Christmas activity last night

and who was there?

Santa of course.

Kharisma's good friend, Hank, told her that he

would wait for Santa with her and show her that

Santa isn't scary.

It worked because she sat on his lap and even managed a smile!

Willum just stared.

Dress up

Just showing off a little of her spunk.

She is such a funny girl,

I am constantly entertained by

the things she does and says.

I just love my kids!

... the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day.

I casually mentioned that maybe we should put a Christmas tree up this year since Kharisma is older now and would probably have fun with the whole Christmas thing, and to my surprise he happily agreed! (hence the title)

So for family night we went and found a little Christmas tree because I didn't want to put up our big fake one, especially since I want to take it down before we leave for Utah.

Here we are searching for the perfect tree.

Found it!

We spent the evening watching the animated scripture movie The King is Born, stringing popcorn and cranberries and drinking eggnog. After the movie, I asked Kharisma what it was about and she said, "Jesus! I love Jesus." So cute. It was a lovely evening and I'm glad to have a little Christmas cheer around our home now!

Our little tree is quite cute, I think. And out of the way of a little exploring boy.

Thanksgiving!

turducken (ˈtɜːdʌkən) from tur ( key ) + du ( ck ) + ( chi ) cken
— n
	a boned turkey stuffed with a boned duck that is stuffed with a small boned chicken, sometimes also containing a breadcrumb or sausage meat stuffing
Ben, hard at work, on his turducken adventure.

(Sorry for the gross picture)

The chilluns... look how healthy their plates are.

The final masterpiece... 48 hours later.

Aesthetically pleasing, yes.

But let's just say I'm thankful he got this out of his system.

Many things to be grateful for:

my husband

healthy kids

education opportunities

supportive families

friends

the gospel

Our Days...

Chillin' with Dad.

Kisses (or licks) from sister.

Bonding time?

I dread "feeding" time.

Halloween, race, and kids!

I completed my first race on Saturday with my friends, Laurel, and Marilou. I've only running been for about a month now so I'm pretty excited that my first race was 4.75 miles! It was harder than our training runs because I'm not use to running when the sun is up and being able to see how far I still need to run! So glad to have such great running partners though! Thanks for motivating me!

Ben and the kids came to support me so this is a picture before the race... don't mind Kharisma's nose, she just has a little carpet burn from running down the hall while smearing her face along the carpet.
We had another successful Halloween this year with our Dr. Suess theme. The Cat in the Hat with his Thing 1 and Thing 2 and I'm the mom. This is at the vet school party.



And last but not least... my happy little boy is 7 months old now. He weighs around 21 pounds. He crawls, sits, and eats (when I decide to feed him solid food) and has two teeth on the bottom and four teeth on the top all coming in at once. He seems to not even notice though so that's good! I feel so blessed to have Willum. He's such a joy. He is sleeping so well... around 12 hours at night and only wakes up once. Although last night he didn't wake up at all. And now, the question you want to ask... when are we going to cut his hair? Never ;)
Kharisma is sporting her new-old dress I just made for her. The fabric came from the stash of treasures from my grandma's house along with the sweet detailing around the middle. Willum has a matching tie. I love this fabric. Hopefully I have enough to make myself a skirt...

6 months

Oh, my little Willum.

6 months

It feels like he's been with us forever though. I'd give his 6 month stats but when I went for his check up I was just five minutes late and they told me I was too late for the appointment. Plus, she said, even if I was on time they couldn't give his shots because he wasn't quite six months yet. He would be, the next day. Instead she scheduled another appointment in two weeks... if I were the complaining type I would've complained to someone. After all, they're the ones that made the appointment in the first place. Instead I just vented to my good friend that understands my pain :) Five minutes late is good for getting both kids ready in the morning. Anyway, enough. Willum is probably 21 or 22 lbs now and I just started giving him some baby cereal... as much as I dread the messy time-consuming task of feeding babies I thought it was about time. Although I'm quite proud that he reached his great stature on breast milk exclusively for six months. Liquid gold. That's what I produce.

I refer to Willum as a little old man because he is so set in his ways. 7 pm sharp he starts getting cranky and wants to go to bed. I love it. His sister hates sleep... until she's actually asleep then she doesn't wake up. He takes two naps a day, morning and afternoon and then sleeps all night except for a quick snack around 3am.

We took him camping over the weekend. He was a champ.

Willum seriously melts my heart. I think it's so exciting to watch babies grow and become little people. He's already crawling. Well, a crawling scooting type thing, but he sure gets around. I discovered today that I can no longer let him nap on my bed.

(Warning: bad mom confession)

Yeah... he fell off.

Good thing my bed is only about a foot off the ground. Usually he makes noise when he wakes up but today I just heard what I guess was him rolling against the closet doors. As soon as I picked him up he smiled at me so don't go calling CPS on me :)

The two kids thing is getting easier. Still haven't mastered grocery shopping with them yet, probably never will. I love watching the two interact. I hope they become best friends. I keep telling them they are!

the end

Pictures--Enjoy

Just some random pictures from the last few weeks...

At Raya's bubble birthday party...

Dressing herself.

She thinks she has to be completely naked to go potty.

&

this little cutie.

That's all for now.

Love This Boy

I just had to share how much a love this little guy.

He is such a good baby,

so sweet

chunky

happy

content.

Also, he looks pretty adorable dressed as an old man.

He loves his sleep. He takes a morning and afternoon nap, and sometimes a short one in the evening. He loves to go to bed on time, 7 is best, he starts to get fussy after 8. He has slept through the night quite a few times but lately wakes up once or twice but I feed him and he's back to sleep in about 10 or 15 minutes.

My mom and Willum.

Just look at those rolls.

Love them.

Like his doctor said, I could just "chew on those [thighs] all day!"

Kharisma wanted to play with him she said and then insisted that he have one of her headbands on. Willum loves his sister. Sometimes when I think she's snuggling on him too much I look at him and he has a huge smile. Kharisma makes him laugh and his face lights up when he sees her.

When Ben is in the room Willum keeps his eyes glued on him, turning his head to see him where ever he goes. Willum is also very ticklish and giggles and squeals with delight.

*sigh*

I just can't get enough of my little guy.