This was one of my favorite outfits on Emily. It was a hand-me-down from the Burgoynes and she wore it all the time. I wanted a picture of her in it before she out-grew it (you can already see it stretching here) so I took these.
Some early morning girl time one Saturday
I finally succeeded in making a passable pupusa!
Some family game time interrupted by a little Christmas jammie photo shoot
I LOVE that Emily has her finger in her mouth in this picture too
So menacing
We were going to go on a train ride this morning, but Dad said, "I'd rather build you a swing set with the money we would have spent on the train." So he did! With some help from Sam, of course, and with lots of "help" from the kids.
We LOVE it! Why didn't we get a swing set earlier? I will never be without one again. We celebrated with dinner at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth.
That large yellow thing in Levi's hand is what they call a "nacho." It's a crispy corn tostada shell with tons of melted cheese on it. Levi called it a giant cheesy chip. He was so sad when they were done that he asked the waitress at the end of the meal if he could have another one. He was very pleased.
On Sunday, Rodney Puplampu drove up from Austin to see Mom and Dad. We've known him since my Dad was his Scout Master in Detroit. He had married Trina while they were on their mission in Germany and wanted to introduce her to them. She is absolutely lovely and we had a fun dinner together and got to see their gorgeous wedding photos and new house photos and Mom and Dad told them about their mission.
Goofiness after dinner
This is Levi's warrior face...
Anna got sick one evening, so we kept her home from school and took her to the Perot Museum with us instead. She was done throwing up by the time we walked in the door of the museum (as in the last time was in the parking lot) and we used tons of hand sanitizer :)
This guy was so cute. The museum wasn't very busy and he was explaining every single display in the space hall to us. We had moved on when he came up behind me and said, "Do you want to see some fossils? I'm allowed to do whatever I want, so I could get them out and show them to you." With an invitation like that, how could I resist? And of course it was cool to see and touch several different fossil samples.
Emily cooking with me
Dad added a baby swing to the swing set
At the weather station at the Perot museum
Sweet and sleepy after dinner
Levi had about a month where it was almost impossible to get him to go to bed in his own bed. This was a night where we just let him fall asleep on the couch
We always like to paint when Grandma comes
photo by Levi
Anna relishes the rare occasion when she gets to feed Emily and she's so sweet and patient while she does it
I bought this little sweater romper not long after I found out I was pregnant. I didn't even know what I was having, but I figured it would work for a boy or a girl. She always looked so cuddly in it.
The rest are photos from our afternoon trying to take a family picture for our Christmas card. Ruth bought a DSLR on black Friday and we were the guinea pigs. However, I wanted Levi to wear a vest and Levi did NOT want to wear a vest. I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.
You can see me and Levi way in the background where I am pleading, bribing, threatening him to
wear the damn vest!
It didn't work. I was not employing any good parenting skills in that moment and felt terrible later. I apologized and gave lots of hugs.
Thankfully, chubby babies make it easy to smile
By some miracle, the vest is on! Papa and Grandma worked really hard with their silly faces.
Look at the relief! It's over!
So lucky to get to live near grandparents! Especially ones who are so involved and loving.
