There's Corbin with his silly, fun-loving personality. Then Caliah who is always so sweet and looking like an angel. Then Conley with his "cool," serious personality. I'm so excited to see the rest of the pictures!
Just a few things about each of the kids:
We love having a little girl! I think we say that everyday. Caliah is as girly-girl as it gets. Caliah's newest favorite thing is getting her nails painted. She holds her hands together and loves to show people her "pretty nails" and her "pretty toes." Her favorite color is for sure pink. She's been getting her nails painted several times a week lately. I've given up on painting her right thumb because she's always sucking on it. Maybe someday when she gets that she's not getting that nail painted because of her habit it will be motivation to quit.
She also loves shoes...she is almost always wearing shoes that she brings for me to put on her. She likes dresses...lately she has been taking her baby blessing dress out of the closet and admiring it and showing it to me. And if you can't get any more girly, she likes her bows. One of the most clear words she says right now is "bow."
She has a lot of favorite things that she likes to do she here's the list:
- Have her baby swaddled. She is always bringing her baby to me with a blanket so that I can wrap her up tight. I thought my days of trying to figure out how to make a baby stay in a swaddle were over for a little bit longer. Luckily dolls are not as wiggly as babies and so they stay in longer.
- Be wrapped up in a blanket herself (or her princess towel). Here's an adorable pic:
- She loves to read books. All my kids have which is a great blessing...definitely one of my favorite things to do together too.
- Talking to daddy on the phone. She's pretty obsessed about taking the phone from me when she knows it's him.
- Her and her daddy have a song and she recognizes it when he turns it on now. It's Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud." They cuddle up and dance and it's pretty adorable.
- She's talking up a storm lately...mostly jibberish but the days of full sentences are just around the corner.
- Today she wanted to sit on the toilet because she saw Corbin going potty. Then she proceeded to wipe all by herself (she didn't go potty though). She wiped a few too many times. This was the first very obvious time that she's shown interest in going on the potty. Wow, I might have no diapered children for the first time in over 4 years!
Corbin is our silly, determined dare devil as always. Him and Conley and are going to preschool together at Pocatello Valley Montessori School. Him and Conley spend their days playing legos and playing make-believe fighting something or other. Here's a funny story that demonstrates Corbin's "I'm up for anything" personality. Our cat had killed a mouse and Conley came inside to tell me to come look. I went outside and look around at where the cat is and I don't see a mouse. All of the sudden, Corbin goes, "Here it is mom!" He's holding it by the tail right in front of me. In a sort of panicky, slow-like manner, I tell him to "put the mouse down...!" He's seeing that I'm freaking out a bit and it like, "It's okay, Mom. It's dead. It's okay." I then have to explain to him why it's not okay to pick up dead animals and he gets good handwashing. Him and Caliah then are thoroughly entertained and they squat next the cat watching him pull about and devour the mouse, guts, blood, and all. Conley and I on the other hand, are very disgusted. Conley can hardly look at it. I love how my two boys are so different!
Conley celebrated his 5th birthday!
We went to the corn maze and he invited his cousins and friends. They had bounce houses, slides, and barrel train rides there as well. We had pizza and cupcakes and Conley got some lego and lego watches from his friends, a helmet from grandma, a car from great-grandma, and a bike and ninja costume from mom and dad. It was a hit and they were talking about it for days before and after. Conley is continuing to be very intellectual about numbers. He can do addition now without really counting on his fingers. He is semi-interested in reading (him and Corbin both like trying to figure the beginning sounds of words) but definitely has more of a drive for math concepts right now. One of the things I love about Conley is he goes, "Mom, I have to tell you something......I love you."
This past week we took a last minute trip to Portland. Juan was going there for a conference so we came too and played. We did the Oregon Zoo, Children's Museum, Forest Park (amazingly beautiful), the Rose Gardens, and went to a Halloween carnival at the park. Portland and Oregon itself were gorgeous. I definitely have my perspective of the state expanded. Here's some pictures from our trip:
I'll end with my testimony that God is aware of us even though he gives us ginormous trials to make us grow. There is much to be grateful for! We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas!
