Double Date

Last night, Josh and I went on a double-date with Charity and Leo (his sister and brother-in-law). We went to Moe's for dinner and then to a pottery-painting place. It was so much fun! This is the second time we went, the first being when Jasmine was 7 months old, with her in tow. This was much more relaxing :) Charity made an ornament for Jasmine the first year and decided that it would become a tradition, and when Jasmine's older she'll take her to paint ornaments each year. Isn't that fun?

I took a bunch of pictures as we painted. I can't wait to see the finished products; they always look so much better fired! Mine will look nothing at all like it did last night because I used a special paint that comes out in two colors after it's fired; I'm not sure why it looks red now, though.

Before:
Josh made a toothbrush holder:
My paint:
First coat:



"finished":



They'll be done next Thursday. Remind me, if I forget, to post "after" pictures :)

I'm going to be doing a "daily photo challenge" with Val, and I'm hoping to be good about posting those pictures here. Can't promise, though :)

Our Week, in Pictures

Next on my list is to get videos of Bekah walking, and of the girls singing with me. But for now:

getting ready to decorate

Jasmine was so excited to wear "Daddy's Christmas Hat"
just a tad big!

and again with the hat!

Bekah, helping decorate

Josh, being a lot more helpful

Jasmine loved putting up ornaments, though most ended up on the same branch!
Josh's favorite ornament

Giving her sister some "suggles"

Thanksgiving at my family's house, Jasmine doing Karaoke with her Aunt Vivi

and with Jacob

and me

"picture?"

Loves the tree!

Ever had a Chinese Grapefruit? Josh and I thought it was a little weird for our taste, but Jasmine loved it!

Just because Halloween is over doesn't mean we can't enjoy the costumes! Every time she puts it on she wants us to take more pictures of her in it. What a cutie!

A Jasmine tidbit:
Josh brought home more Pull-ups. Jasmine saw the bag and said, "What's that? Upadupts? Oh boy. Fanks!" :D

And we're BACK!

What a great week! I don't know that I'm in a huge hurry to do a week off again any time soon, but it was a good push for me.

I got some fun pictures, a lot of reading done (including one of Don Aslett's books on decluttering, which means I did a whole bunch of that!) and some great time with my girls. Rebekah is walking so well now, which is so much fun to watch.

I'm definitely looking forward to getting back into scrapbooking after a week off of that, but it will have to wait 'til tomorrow, when Josh is back at work.

Media-Free for me!

I've decided to take a week off of the computer, TV and radio. I'm excited that I'll be spending more time with the girls with no thought of "just a minute while I check my email for the 2,485,385th time today. I haven't decided yet if I'll let Jasmine watch any of her movies; I'll try to keep them off, but they might make it out if it's a case of keeping my sanity.

So I hope everyone in America has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that everyone has a fantastic week! You can call if you want to talk, and if you don't have my number you can always email Josh (or leave a comment here; he might check)

Jasmine Dictionary

I really need to keep better track of this.
If you were to talk to Jasmine, you would understand most of what she said (though you might not know what she means if, for example, she pulls in a crib mattress and asks for "slide.") But there are a few words that sound quite different from how we say them. Here are a few of our favorites:

R-str: Sister (Bekah r-str)
Uppadupt: pull up
Essla: Cinderella (all Disney princesses, though she is learning Ariel and Jasmine ("my name"))
TVD: DVD (any CD, actually)
ussa-down: upside down
Snow White: snow

And here are a couple pictures of Bekah from Wednesday. I've discovered the porch is a great place for pictures, when the weather obliges. Since it's not insulated and gets direct sun in the afternoons, it's a sauna on summer afternoons and a freezer all winter. But once in awhile...

Fruit Farm Outing

We decided to go to Kelly's Fruit Farm yesterday, where my family used to go all the time when I was taking ballet lessons (because it was in that direction). Unfortunately the huge cider mill was closed for the season, but it was still a great chance for some photo ops and delicious donuts and cider.

Jasmine loving her daddy

Happy to be out of the car!

How much for a bushel of Bekah?

Jasmine had to do it too!

Checking out the inventory

Much heavier than she expected

At my parents' house

My brother Phillip had fun trying out the camera :)

This is one of Bekah's favorite faces, and Phillip is the first one to get a good shot of it. She scrunches her nose and shows off her teeth and makes this silly breathing noise :)

Jasmine was fascinated by the birds in the trees

And my friend Jenn had an awesome idea to make toy food for her daughter, out of felt. I decided Jasmine would get a kick out of that too, so we bought felt and I started working on it yesterday, with the help of my sisters (Vivian and Amy). They made the chicken nuggets, and I made the fried egg and bread.

First Pictures

I had a wonderful surprise: a UPS truck came yesterday at lunchtime!! Bringing with it...Sebastian!
(yes, I really did name the camera. I think it's a fitting name, and since I bounce back and forth between saying "Nee-kon" and "N-eye-kon," it seemed like a good idea to call it something else entirely.)

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, and a few more today. I have a lot to learn still, but since we had a Nikon before and this one is very "intuitive," according to many reviews I read, I'm able to take fun pictures already. Here are a few:





Yes, you saw that last one right. Rebekah is officially walking. No more "one step and lunge." She doesn't usually get very far with each step and often quits after 6-8 steps and crawls the rest of the way, but she's getting good at it. I'm not surprised, since her sense of balance is incredible and she's been doing squats for over a month, so her legs are strong too!

And a layout from yesterday:

It's Time!!!!!

I technically still have 1/4 of the way to go to earn the money for my camera.
But there's a fantastic sale on Amazon right now, so we're ordering the camera this afternoon!! We're doing two-day shipping. I could get free shipping if I could wait two weeks, but that's insane. I want it NOW, and Friday seems like plenty of a wait.

Here it is: It's a Nikon D40, and is soooo cool. It's the smallest SLR camera by Nikon, and gets raving reviews from everyone. I can't wait!!!

So I'm pretty excited!!!


here are my most recent layouts: