October

I can't believe it's been about a month since I have last posted.  October was a jammed packed month for us.  But here are the highlights from last month.

Matthew has started his medical rotations! Woohoo!  He is done with all the lectures, classes and endless studying and now actually gets to experience all the things he has been learning about.  His first one is currently at the podiatry clinic at the medical school. He has loved it so far and is learning a lot. I love hearing about everything he gets to see and do now. It's also so nice now to have him home in the evenings instead of having to go back up to school to study.

This year Matthew and I were asked to be in charge of our ward's Trunk or Treat party.  Definitely an overwhelming job! I was excited to do it but it was just a lot of work and kind of consumed my month!  I had a committee to help which all did such a great job and I couldn't have done it without them!  It's just getting every little detail ironed out that takes so much time.  I was kind of relieved when it was over.  We had close to 250 people attend and I got lots of good feedback so hopefully that means it was a success!

Costumes this year were very low key since I had a lot on my plate this month.  Austin is really into the show  Jake and the Neverland Pirates right now and really wanted to be Jake this year so I decided we would all go as pirates.  I already had mine from several years ago, I found most of Matthew's at Goodwill, and then made Austin's and Kensley's and some of Matthew's accessories. For some reason I really wanted Kensley to wear a tutu just because she hasn't ever worn one yet so her costume kind of morphed into rocker-chick pirate but whatever! 

Matthew's school always puts on a great Halloween carnival and this year was no different.  We went around to several offices trick or treating with his friends Peter and James.  Then we enjoyed snacks, inflatable slides, and carnival games.  Kensley was a sport in the stroller for most of it as long as she had some candy to hold and play with. 

I also got a new calling at church this month.  I am now the laurel advisor! I am so excited to be working with the young women!  They are such a fun and great set of girls. 

The week of Halloween will get its own post because my sister Jenna and her family were able to come visit!   So. Much. Fun! 

8 Months

We love our little girl! She is 8 months now and has really developed a lot in the past weeks. She is a crawler now! She can now go anywhere she wants and loves to explore.  She somehow always finds the door stoppers and loves to "boing" them.  (You know, those little spiraly things on the baseboards that keep the door from banging into the wall behind it?)  She knows where every single one is in our house.  Austin thinks it's pretty funny.  She has barely been starting to pull herself up against things. However, this little girl won't sit up on her own!  I feel that is a little out of order but I guess she will get it sometime.

Kensley has gotten her first tooth in and I can feel another one coming in. Teething for her has been brutal. Way worse than with Austin,  I'm hoping the first tooth is the worst to go through.  She has finally started to sleep through the night but only about half of the time. We finally have her sharing a room with Austin.   They still wake each other up all the time but I'm hoping they will get used to one another.

Kensley just loves her brother to pieces.  As soon as she wakes up she looks for him.  She always wants to see what he is doing or to crawl over to him and "play" with him. Austin has been really good with her lately. He will get on the ground and crawl right next to her and tell me, "Look, two babies crawling!"  If he is playing cars he will give one to her to play with too. We definitely still have our moments but I can tell they are going to be good friends.

Exploring and getting into things:

Really wanting my camera

 Posing after lunch

 We went to the Children's Museum and she was able to really play with things instead of just sitting in the stroller for most of the time. 

We all just adore this little girl!

Family Pictures 2012

My good friend Kiya took some family pictures for us and I LOVE how they turned out!  She is so wonderful and so awesome to work with.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Ahh! How I love my little family!

Update

It's been exactly a month since I last posted. Ahh! Where did the time go?  I feel like we have done a lot this past month so here goes...
In between Matthew's summer term and fall term we had a little break so we made a quick trip to Indio, CA.  We went there last summer and had so much fun we decided to go again.  It's only about 3 1/2 hours away so it was very worth the trip.  Not that there is that much to do in Indio, but the place we stayed has several fun pools and play areas for the kids. We went with our good friends the Kmetzschs and had a great time. Our boys played so good together and kept each other entertained the whole time.  The adults had fun chatting and playing games in the evenings.  I completely forgot my camera so these are from my phone.

On one of the days we drove about to 30 minutes away to Palm Springs, CA.  On our way we passed this huge windmill farm. I mean, like windmills as far as the eye can see.  Apparently it is the 7th biggest windmill farm in the world.  It was actually pretty neat to see.  We stopped and took pictures. 

Palm Springs has a lot of history and was old Hollywood's vacation town. It has a cute downtown area that we walked around and we even passed Marilyn Monroe's house there and Elvis's honeymoon house. We had to get a picture under the huge Marilyn statue. (darn blogger for not letting me rotate this pic)

We stopped in this hat shop and all had fun trying on hats.

Such a great little get-a-way with friends!

Then about a week and half later was labor day weekend. We realized Matthew had Friday and Monday off so we quickly decided we wanted to go somewhere.  We talked to Matthew's parents in Utah and decided to each drive half way and meet in Vegas!  I'm so glad we did! It was a quick last minute plan but worth the trip.  

While trying to decide what to do while there we found out it was the opening weekend for Wicked to be playing.  We have been wanting to go see it together since we've been married but haven't had the chance yet.  Matthew has seen it once before we met.  However, tickets were expensive or in the nosebleeds so we weren't sure if it would work out.  

Well all of that didn't matter because I won 2 front row tickets in a raffle!! 

 My button says "I won the Wicked Lottery!"

We found out about this raffle and decided to take our chances. It was worth a shot. We had to show up 2 hours before the show, put your name in a box and if your name was called you won the chance to buy $25 front row seats. Well guess whose name they called?!  Yes, mine!!  Woo Hoo!  I couldn't believe it.  Me and about 10 other people won tickets! 

The show was so amazing.  My face I'm sure looked just like a kid in the candy store the whole time.  Especially from the front row!  We could see their faces and emotions and it was just so fabulous.  It also worked out perfectly that Matthew's parents were there to watch our kids.

Here we are in our front row seats

Such a fun and night!

Other than that we mostly hung out, swam and enjoyed our long weekend break.  It was slightly cooler here too so it was a nice little break from intense heat. 

 We also got some voucher to eat at one of the Casino's buffets. So we were able to walk around downtown and have lunch. This is inside the Venetian. 

 Matthew's sister Aubrey came too.  It was so fun to see her and catch up.  Austin and Aaron played so well together the whole time. They were really cute together!

 Austin was so sad to leave so no smiles from him.

Now we are back in the swing of school. Matthew has a short term of classes right now and then will start rotations in October.  

Beating the Heat

We haven't really done a whole lot lately. Just hanging out at home mostly. Matthew's summer term of classes is coming to an end and he is taking finals this week. It's just been so hot that we avoid going outside as much as we can.  Also I now have to plan around 2 different nap schedule so we are home bound a lot. This means I have had to become a more fun, creative mom at home which is hard to do. But here are some of the things we have been up to lately.

Playing with beans and construction trucks (don't mind the mismatched pjs)

 Baking. Lots of baking. Austin loves to help and he really does a good job.

 One day, I put Kensley in her bed for just a minute to go do something. I was gone about one minute and came back to find both kids in the crib! Austin had dragged the piano bench over and climbed in.

I have been cleaning out some things and Austin found some pink gloves.  He wanted to wear them and play doctor.

I took this picture from my back porch. Check out the haboob.  Yes, that is a real word.  We get these massive dust storms during the summer months that roll through and I guess that is the official name for them.  They are pretty intense!

Here is another one from last summer that we saw coming towards us. Scary huh!

 We visited the new temple site for the Phoenix Temple.  It is about 10 minutes from where we live. Too bad that we will have moved away by the time it is suppose to be finished. 

 Who knew that Austin would be completely entertained for 1 1/2 hours with a sink full of water! Completely soaked, but thoroughly entertained.

6 Months

My little girl is now 6 months!  Time seems to be flying by.  That's already 1/2 a year.  She's like a real person now and not a little, tiny newborn.  That's crazy to me!  She is so sweet and we just love her and all smother her with kisses.  Some of us smother her a little more than others. :) 

Her stats:

Height: 26.5 in (75%)

Weight: 16 lbs 8 oz (50%)

Austin loves that Kensley will now look at him, watch what he does and smiles at him.  He loves to go in and see her when he hears her wake up from napping.

 This little girl now likes to grab at everything, including the camera.  She can roll all over the place now and tries to get anything within her reach. 

She is doing great at eating infant cereal and the few fruits and veggies that we have tried so far. She has not been a very easy or fun baby when it comes to nursing.  Even still she has issues with it. Austin was so easy and I loved nursing but with her I will be counting down these last several months.

 She doesn't have any teeth yet, but she is quite the slobber queen. 

She is sleeping really good at night but is still getting up once a night to eat but is very easy to put back to sleep.

 Kensley is definitely a mama's girl.  She doesn't let Matthew comfort her or put her to sleep. 

 She seems to be as thrilled as I am about this summer heat too!

She is just such a sweet and happy girl and we couldn't love her more! Happy 1/2 birthday!