November Fun

As I was going through all the pictures I took in November it seemed that the theme was how much Sierra is growing up. The phase "she grew up over night" seems quite literal with this girl. 

She learned to crawl right around Halloween and has discovered the independence that comes with it. She now has opinions of what she wants and where she wants to be. She is discovering a whole new world of things to get into. She still adores her brother but I think he's beginning to question how much he loves her. She just wants to play with him and he just wants to build a tower. He's still good with her but we've definitely had some added challenges with her mobility.

 

 From the day she started crawling this was her preferred position. kneeling on one leg and trying to stand with the other. Once she started moving she was ready to go all the way.

 The kids love spending time with my family. Preston has friends and Sierra gets completely pampered. They push her all around the house while she just plays with her own baby.

 I love her blue eyes!

 I asked Preston to make a silly face so we could send a picture to daddy. This is what I got. 

 She is always so excited about life. She's chasing her brother doing her best to catch up to him. 

 As the weather gets colder we are spending a little more time inside but that doesn't stop us from kicking a soccer ball. 

 This sweet face loves to play the piano. 

 Preston asked me if we could have a picnic after watching Daniel Tiger one day. So we made our own chicken fingers with carrots and broccoli and had a picnic while watching our new movie Wreck it Ralph. 

 When we're all trying to get ready for church and have a girl who just wants to be held we get creative. The booster seat at the piano was all she needed. 

 Part of discovering the world around her was finding the towels and making sure they never stayed on the oven.

 These kids both love it when daddy gets home. Preston runs and Sierra crawls as fast as she can to greet him at the door.

  If Preston had his way we would go to the Dinosaur Museum every day. 

 You would think that Sierra wouldn't care since she can practice standing anywhere but she gets particularly excited when we are out exploring new places. 

 There are two sand boxes in this room and no other kids. Originally Preston was in the other sand box but when he realized there was another kid to play with he made a new friend. With so much open space they wanted to play side by side. 

 Preston loves pancakes and requests them almost every morning (If it's not pancakes it's oatmeal). In order to mix it up I decided to make crepes but wanted him to be excited about them so I told him we were making "crepe pancakes" he repeated "grape pancakes" and seemed excited. He loved them. So much so he requested "grape pancakes" for lunch. I told him they were gone and would make a sandwich when I was done nursing Sierra. He went to work in the kitchen and I had no idea what he was doing until he came to show me his "grape pancakes." He cut grapes in half on his own and put them in a frying pan like we do pancakes. I guess even after having them he still thought we were saying "grape" and not "crepe." 

 The discovery of the dishwasher. 

 We had some unfrosted sugar cookies on the counter and frosting int he fridge. When I came down from getting dressed one morning Preston was very excited to tell me he had had a cookie. It was a little early for cookies and would have been better if he had asked but I couldn't be upset when he was so proud of himself. I assumed he ate one of the unfrosted cookies but when I looked in the fridge a couple hours later this is what I found. No wonder he was so proud of himself. He ripped into the saran wrap, got a knife and frosted a cookie which he promptly enjoyed and left the evidence.

 This was the moment I knew Preston was all boy. While playing with his play dough

 "look mom, a bum."

 Just weeks after learning to crawl she was up and walking with a little aid. 

 More evidence he is a boy. "Look, my tricky pants" as he runs across the room and slides.

 Fatherhood: when laying on the floor is no longer relaxing, it means you are a jungle gym. 

 We love when Jackson comes to play. Jackson is just hitting an age where he and Preston can play together a little more and Preston loves having a buddy.

 Jared and I have started making vanilla extract to sell. In order to legally sell it we have to use a commercial kitchen. Thank heaven for the tablet and suckers so we could do what we needed without them getting into things. 

 Sierra isn't the only one learning new tricks. This picture was taken by Preston. Jared had ordered this jacket online and was anxious to see how it looked so I put it on and had Preston take the picture. I'd say he did a pretty good job.

 Having fun with Aunt Jessica

 I've decided I need to be better about having more gospel based family nights where we can teach Preston the stories in the scriptures. I've got a long way to go to make it more of a habit but at least this was a start. We had a lesson about Nephi building a ship. We watched a little video, talked about the story, then made our own Nephis to float in a boat (bowl) in the ocean (bath tub). Preston loved it. If you can't tell who's Nephi is who's remember Jared is the artist in this family.

 Spending a fun afternoon at the Museum of Natural Curiosity with my siblings. 

When we are with my family I know Preston is fine and with someone who will watch out for him so I can relax. He is entering a stage where even when we aren't with my family he's venturing further away from me playing like the older kids do. It can be quite nerve racking to let him go play on his own but I know it's a necessary step of growing up. I can't make him stay by my side forever.

 Just taking pictures to brighten Daddy's day

 We've talked about going to a Jazz game occasionally, since Jared has never seen a pro basketball game, but never really did anything about it. When we found out the Jazz would be playing the Pelicans (the team Jimmer Fredette plays for) we knew the time was right. It was quite entertaining to see at least a quarter of the stadium switch from cheering for the Jazz to cheering for Jimmer when he was put in the game. We just can't break that loyalty to our fellow BYU alumni.

 Our first test run of deep frying a turkey. It was heavenly. 

 Preston's fish face

 Sweet morning cuddles

 I have gotten bad about taking pictures at actual events. This is all I have to document thanksgiving. We got together with the Allred family this year. I made the stuffing and a fudgy pecan coconut pie both of which turned out delicious. It was a great relaxing thanksgiving. We enjoyed a slow morning watching the parade then good food and good company in the afternoon and a relaxing evening watching football and reading stories at home.

 In an effort to get Preston excited about getting a hair cut Jared let Preston first cut Daddy's hair. 

For some reason this year I was very anxious to get Christmas decorations up. I managed to hold off until the week of Thanksgiving and we've all been loving it. We thought we did a decent job keeping ornaments off the lowest branches but it didn't take long for Sierra to show us which ornaments still needed to be moved. The decorations have slowly moved up the tree.

 We keep waiting for the snow and the doom of winter but it still has not come. In the mean time we have tried to take as much advantage of the jacket weather as we can. 

 Preston has never liked swings but he's finally found a way to play with them that he likes. It's okay this way because it's like he's flying.