November

In November, Jonas turned 2 months old.

This month he started to give smiles very willingly.

And he realized that life with two older siblings=constant entertainment. As you can see he is beyond excited.

In November, we had our first major snow storm of the year. 11+ inches.

So we built our first snowman of the year. This was taken during a lull in the storm. He eventually just became a big snowy lump after the rest of the snow came down.

In November, Nic did a pizza station with the kids.

And we played in the snow some more.

In November, Froggy made his debut in our home and has replaced Minnie as the favorite stuffed animal. He has been dubbed "Quincy" and here he is next to his buddy Jonas.

In November we also spent two lovely, sunny weeks in Arizona. Post coming up next.

Jonas' Blessing

On November 4th Nic gave Jonas a blessing. (In our religion, fathers--or another male family member or friend--give babies a blessing and their name). Nic blessed Jonas and it was beautiful. He blessed him with an soft heart so that he can be open and willing to act in the name of our Heavenly Father. He blessed him to use this soft heart and sweet spirit to bless the lives of those around him, including his own family someday. I love it because Jonas truly is such a sweet soul. He is so mellow and low key. His brother and sister can be climbing all over him and he just smiles. Seriously. This baby rarely cries. And when he does, all you have to do is pick him up and snuggle him and he is happy. (I know people often hate it when other people say that about their kids, but he really is so sweet and I want to remember that for when the terrible twos inevitably hit.) He will just stare at you with the sweetest smile on his face. Or sometimes he'll just coo and goo like he has the most important thing in the world to tell you. Quite frankly, I believe he does have important things to say. In fact, I think babies can't talk because the veil is still so thin that they remember heaven and want to tell you about it. I really do believe that and I love that I get to be so close to something so fresh from heaven.

Anyway, enough gushing about my sweet boy. His blessing day was wonderful and we had so many people come to share in his day. Nic's entire family was there along with my Grandma Kelley, my Dad and Penni, and our good friends Camille and Paul and their kids, Jackson and Jayne. My aunt and uncle Paul and Julie were also able to stop by. Thank you to everyone who traveled and was able to be there. It meant a lot to us.

Jonas with his Great Grandma Kelley.

After the blessing we had everyone to our house for brunch and afterward we were able to go to our local park where Ali took pictures of our family. We were even able to get a pictures of all of Nic's family (with the exception of our nephew Ethan). Pretty impressive.

And here is the sweet boy all dressed up in his blessing outfit.

  

(My mom says she can always tell when I am tired because I show it in my eyes. I have passed that along to my kids, as you can see below.)

I am one lucky mama.

Halloween 2012

Mason's preschool party and parade.

 

Pumpkin carving.

Trick or Treat.

Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but it is exponentially better with kids. In fact, I'd even say I love it with kids. Especially when they are this cute!

Fall Was...

Painting a birdhouse and other "crafts". (Also, to note, fall was potty training this girl. 2 weeks in October and she had it down pat. My least favorite part of parenting, but it feels like such an accomplishment when its done!)

A very amateur photo session with my assistant and a super cute subject.

Lots of loves for little brother.

 That always leads to this.

 Cute baby boy.

 Going to the pumpkin patch with Mason's preschool.

 Playing doctor with baby brother. Which is currently Sage's favorite thing to play.

Fall was lots of cuddling with my precious boy, playing in the leaves, and finding creative things to do indoors. Fall was also Halloween and Thanksgiving. Those posts are to come.