Nighttime... Daytime!

"Mom, don't be mad at him. He's just nice... and a boy.. and a gentle boy.. like a mystery fish." - Abby speaking about her dad.

And here's my contribution today:

Animals+humor+British accents=total awesomeness.

Forever and a day.

I won't lie. I haven't blogged on purpose. Mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I've been debating doing a private blog. Some random dude started commenting on my sister's blog, and ever since then I've been super paranoid. I post pretty personal stuff sometimes... and I post a lot of my girls. And I'm linked to my sister's blog, and several people are linked to mine. So what's a girl to do?

In the meantime... we took some pictures of the girls. Grandma Jenkins (the great supplier of most all things adorable) sent an incredible package of matching dresses and pants for the girls. We got it Saturday, so OF COURSE we had to wear them on Sunday. And take pictures. So these are from Old Navy. We have more pictures to take next week of the next matching set of dresses.

We're all doing well. The transition from student life to REAL life has been rough. Much harder than we anticipated, but we'll get it, right? Right. Breathe in, breathe out. Abigail has many friends that she loves, I have many friends that I love, Jesse has many friends... that he loves... does that sound weird? And Claire has many friends. So as far as friends, we're great.

Claire had her ninth month appointment today. She's healthy as ever. She's a lot smaller than Abby was at this age. She's 90% for height, but barely 50% for weight. Really? She's a tank at home.. but somehow she's losing her belly. Anyway. She's crawling, pulling herself up, saying "mama" and "dada" all of the time, and sleeping like a dream. She's every bit as active as Abby was... wonderful foreshadowing, yeah?

And...... drum rolll....... PICTURES!







Ah, lovely Abby. Such a choice, delicate creature. NOT. She's practicing the Haka to do with Seth when he gets back from NZ.

We're super grateful to be in this spot in our lives right now. Heavenly Father has definitely watched over us and helped us every step of the way. What would we do without His help? I'm so grateful that He extends his mercy to us. Jesus Christ lives. And He wants us to be happy. With all of the blessings we've been given, how can we not be happy?

Loves to all,
Me

P.S. Have you checked out the Study Notebook on lds.org? Super genius and incredible help. Go. Look. ...Now.

ihasbackyard

Fact: I don't know how to edit photos. So what you see is what comes straight from my camera. I'll learn one day, but for now... deal with it. :)

I figured it's about time you saw bits and pieces of our house. It's just the outside for now. The inside is not so easy to take pictures of. It frequently looks like a tornado has gone through and the angles are always weird, you know?

So this is why I wanted a fenced backyard. I sent Abby out to go play while I did dishes. I didn't even have to worry about weird strangers walking by or Abby escaping down the street.

And best of all, I got to watch her... without her knowing. Kind of creepy, right? ;)

First she stood there shooting her water gun. She shot the windows, the side of the house, the grass, the cement, etc. etc. etc.


Then she decided that her rocking chair needed to join. Best part: as she sits down, she copies Papa Bear--from her Grandma Jenkins' Berenstain Bear book--when he says, "Ah, now I can relax in my easy chair."

She's popping the fruit snacks. Way to relax, girl! She's definitely a happy camper.

And then she saw me. At least she smiled. :)

This is the back of my house. Look at the trees! We're like enclosed in this little world.

And more of my backyard. Space to play! Now we just need a swingset....

And we had to include a Claire. She was sleeping during our outside adventures today.
A box! Best toy ever.

Living room. Coolest furniture. I know you're jealous.

This babe is a mad army crawler. She is FAST. She can do the normal, on-your-knees crawl, but why crawl like that when you can cruise at top speed on your elbows? Exactly.

Loves to you all, family and friends! I'm sad I missed my dad's bday so Happy birthday dad! But we are having an awesome time here and we're so glad that Heavenly Father has given us this opportunity and AMAZING friends to help us survive!

More to come!

Claire and Abigail

So my wonderful friend, Brittany, took some stellar pictures of my girls the other day. I love her lens. Yes, Maryn, it's your same lens. I LOVE your pictures too.

So now I want that lens. If only Christmas could come faster, right? ;)

I'm kidding! Grief.

So here are my BEAUTIFUL girls at Brittany's house! Didn't God give me such beautiful girls? I am so darn lucky.

Queen of raspberry blowing
Especially when baby food is involved.
She thinks she's SO funny.

And she is.

Oh, I just want to squish her!

BFF's Kylie (brown-eyed beauty) and Taylie (the blue-eyed beauty). Seriously, we have not had one day where Abby hasn't asked to see them since we left in AUGUST.
Yes, mom, mine is a blue-eyed beauty too.

Abby did not want anything to do with our photo shoot. And then she did something awful and I put her in time out. It turned out to be the best way to get pictures. She couldn't get off the chair, and she gave us some adorable faces. ;)



We miss you family! But hopefully this will satiate the picture need for a bit. Sorry, I already failed on my blogging twice each week goal. Hello? It's not easy moving!

Love you. :)

AAAH!

I moved.

But the reality still hasn't set in.

I feel like I'm just down the street from my mom; when my girls get to be too much, she's going to come save me.

BUT THAT IS SO NOT THE CASE ANYMORE.

I've only been gone for two days, but already I miss everyone.

I miss Maryn and all her creative brilliance. I know Abby misses her as her best friend.
I miss talking to my mom about everything, laughing about the funny things Abby said, and eating chocolate cheerio treats. Even though we forgot to make those this Christmas.
I miss my dad, his smile when he's holding a grandchild, and his goofy jokes about the Church.

I miss Sarah. Period. Why do you have to be so far away?

I miss Stephen and Ashton and their lively exuberance. Sometimes I think they are the happiest and most chill people I know.
I miss Sambo. Awesome, spunky, mischievous Sambo. We were just getting to be good friends finally when I left. Don't forget me, okay little dude?

I miss my friends in Provo. Who knew I'd actually miss that place? Megs, Kylie, Brianna, Erin... you girls are awesome. Miss your guts already.

I miss all my extended family that I've played with since I was four. You're all my favorite. I love you to death. I'll hold a baseball game on Memorial Day in your honor. ;)

I'm so grateful that I have awesome, AWESOME friends in Washington already. We pulled a girls night already. Best night of my week.

Things will be great. I just have to take this transition one step at a time.... but that doesn't even seem possible with how much is happening at once.

I'm trying not to think about it all.

But as I'm typing to you all, this is what I'm looking at:


It pretty much looks like an explosion on Inception in every room. Even though we've spent every day working on things... it doesn't seem to disappear.

And now for a random HAPPY note:

My Claire baby HATES baby food. We've been trying for weeks, but she just doesn't care for it. On Monday, Brit showed me a baby food she gives her babe called HappyBaby. Seriously, there's a reason for the name.

It's the best baby food ever!

Looks betters, smells better, and I imagine it tastes better because, holy cow, Claire downed a good 4.5 oz thing today of sweet potato, carrot, apple and cinnamon in like ten minutes. She would literally yell at me for more. I love that each pouch has a fruit and a vegetable. It's way easier to feed them. I squeeze it onto a spoon, but when she's bigger she'll be able to drink it right out of the pouch. And if she doesn't finish it all, I just screw the lid back on. No worrying about spit breaking down the food to mush.

So yes, it costs a little more, and I KNOW my family is chuckling about the "organic" label, but really, check out that happy baby! It's worth it!

Thank you for reading post #1 from Bellevue, Washington.

Love you!