Thanksgiving 2013.

This year for Thanksgiving my cousin Debby, her husband Randy, and their 3 children came from Seattle.  We went there last year, stayed with them, and had dinner with another cousin of ours in the Seattle area.  It was so fun to have them here this year!  I really adore Debby and always feel like I want to be more put together and awesome after I’m around her for a little while.  She’s just really neat!  And her husband, Randy is great too!  Elna had a great time playing with their kids.  I just wish they lived a little closer!

We were so busy talking, we took almost no pictures of the kids, and no pictures of the adults.  Next year we’ll have to make a bigger effort!

Diane, Madeleine, & Elna

We wanted to host it our house, but because our house is pretty small, Brian’s parents offered to have it their house.  We spent the morning making food to bring over.  We had a great dinner and a great time together!

Hattie started crawling Thanksgiving Day!  She was pretty cautious at first, but within days she took off and she hasn’t slowed down!

Our cute little turkey!

I originally made this turkey onesie for Elna in November 2011.  Here is a side-by-side of them each wearing it.  Harriet, left.  Elna, right.  This is the first time I have ever thought they look alike—if you cover Elna’s hair, it’s easier to tell that they have very similar faces.  Man, we have cute girls!

Harriet—8 months!

Several weeks ago we went to Mexico with Brian’s family.  While there, Harriet turned 8 months old.  My sister-in-law, Heather, took some family pictures for us and some individual shots of sweet Hattie.  I love these pictures and this cute girl! (had Elna cooperated at all we would have had individual shots of her too)

Look at those teeth!

Love this little one!

At 8 months, Harriet:

--is as mobile as she possibly can be without actually crawling.  Every day I think: today is the day she is going to start crawling!  And then she doesn’t.  (a week after 8 months she crawled for her first time on Thanksgiving day, but that’s for a different post)

--loves, loves, loves the bath!  If she hears the water running for her bath she shakes with excitement.  I love that both girls can take baths together now.

--sleeps best if she has one pacifier in her mouth and another in her hand.  She loves her paci.

--will spit her paci out so fast if she thinks she is about to eat something.  This can be pretty funny when it’s not something she’s going to eat, like something I’m going to eat or something that she can’t eat.  Brian once threw her a cracker, she saw it coming, and her paci came out so fast.  While the cracker was in the air her paci came out and the cracker and paci landed at the same time.  Oh, how I wish I could have gotten that on camera!

--is very ticklish on her chest and has the deepest belly laughs when I nuzzle her there. 

--loves to be in a grocery cart and laughs wildly when I’m pushing her through the parking lot because of how bumpy it gets.  It’s such a fun ride for her!

--she really likes to be held.  This can be endearing or annoying, depending on how you look at it. 

--is generally one of the happiest little babies I’ve ever seen.  We are so in love with her!

November as seen through my phone.

My girls will remember dancing with their Daddy (and hopefully with me too sometimes!)   Brian is so fun and my girls love him!  Elna knows how to turn on the music and will start a playlist and then we all start dancing.  Usually when a song comes on she says who’s song it is.  “This is Mommy’s song” or “Elna’s song” or “Daddy’s song”—there’s even a song for Chris and Stacy.  I love this!

Dancing at Brian’s parents house.

When Harriet gets excited she buries her head into our shoulder like this.  She does it every time I get her from her crib or other random times when I hold her and I don’t want to ever forget how she does this because I really really love it.

Cooking with Grandma.  Grandma Fae is extremely patient and Elna has so much fun with her!

All clean after a bath.

This is what my morning looks like—two girls in their high chairs with oatmeal.

Eating bread dough // Telling her baby to smile for the camera: “Milo baby” (translation: smile baby)

A hot chocolate kind of morning. She’s using a mug I got for Christmas when I was about her age.

Holding a friend’s dog—Elna is not afraid of dogs.  She didn’t get this from me or Brian!

Brian and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.  Brian is my best decision, my best friend, and my whole world!

We had sparkling cider, Brian gave me beautiful flowers (he said “I decided to get flowers you like this time!”—he chose well!), and we went to dinner while Brian’s parents watched the girls.  Thank you Barbara and DeWin!

Brian took the girls to church while I stayed home one day sick.  He also did Elna’s hair—I like it!

One morning while I was busy cleaning, Elna said “look mom” and when I looked over she was doing the splits.  She does them so easily and also loves doing summersaults.  I’d love to get her into a tumbling class.

We went shopping for some prizes for Brian’s birthday.  Elna loves getting balloons from Old Navy.

Harriet can easily pull herself on to most anything.  She was so mobile this month, though she didn’t actually start crawling towards the end of the month.

Harriet and her uncle Chris.

Elna happily doing one of her chores.

Brian caught Elna reading books in her rocking chair.  Pretty sweet.

A cold day in our backyard—she really loves to be outside.  Even if it’s freezing!

Make a wish!

This girl loves Home Depot!

Pretty in pink.  Love love my girls!