three years versus seven months

We have been a TV free household for 5 months now. It has been a really wonderful thing for our family, and while we do miss being able to watch RSL and Jazz games, we have SO loved the quiet and peace of being screen-free. I cannot see any scenarios in which we would ever go back to having TV in our home-- we just don't want it anymore. Well, in addition to that, this past week we have had an (unintentional) experiment into the world of being internet-free, and I have to say that I have actually really enjoyed it. I don't know that we would ever make the choice to completely go sans internet, but I do kind of like the idea of only using it on certain days or something. Anyway, my point with all of that background information was really just to say this: this is going to be an incomplete post. It was supposed to be a post of a bunch of our fall outings, from pumpkin patches, and hayrides, to fall festival at school and carving pumpkins, but with my limited access to the internet, that isn't happening. So I figured I should at least post the photos that I already had ready and uploaded before Halloween has come and gone. Hopefully I'll be able to post the other things before too long.

Pumpkin patches have a dreamy quality about them, don't they? Visiting them is one of my most favorite fall traditions-- we went to three this year :).


These photos here? They pretty much sum up the rest of my post. Lots and lots of pictures of Baby Girl smiling and looking sweet, and not very many pictures of her big brother because he was too busy picking out pumpkins and getting dirty to be bothered.


Exhibit A:


Aaaand here we have exhibit B:


See what I mean? So now you'll understand why I have so many more pictures of Pearl than George in this post, and you won't think that it is because I love her more than him. She is just easier to take pictures of :).

Our little gourd-sucking cherub.


I sort of want to make an October calendar just so I can use all of these pictures.






Ah, there is George again :). He seriously is so hard to take pictures of when he is next to Pearlie because he just wants to be talking to her and making her smile.




My tractor-driving lover boy.


Our children did have parents there with them.


Nothing like a gourd stem as a teething toy.


George really outdid himself with this shot-- he looked and smiled?! Shocking, really. Love these two kids of mine.


After the pumpkin patch we came home and got in Halloween jammies. Of course I have some pictures of Pearl in them, and of course I don't have any of George.


Our Halloween festivities included lots of alliteration. Hopefully I'll be able to show you what I mean soon :).

picture overkill as therapy

Too many things on my mind tonight. Most pressing is how in the world I am going to come up with, oh you know, like $20,000. But that is a story for another day, a story that I am sure will be broadcast loud and clear from this blog at some point in the future when things are a little less muddled.

Since I can't wrap everything in my life up into a pretty, uncomplicated package right this minute, I shall attempt to at least get a little control over this here blog. I have approximately a million photos all ready to make their debut here, but I haven't come up with a clever way to organize and post them. So tonight, to make me feel like I am making progress somewhere, I am going to dump them all here. One big fat post of pictures. You don't mind, do you?

Her hair is staying dark so far, and I can't even tell you how happy that makes me. A blue-eyed baby with dark hair? In love. Now if only I could order up some dark eyes for the next one...

I took this series of photos one afternoon when we were hanging at my mom's house. Pea happened to have a pretty precious outfit on and was sitting up facing the big sliding doors, the light hitting her just so. I see everything in photographs these days, and when I saw her sitting there I was happy I had my camera.

The seven months of Pearl's life have truly been a whirl. I do not know what happened to months 4, 5, and 6. Really. They are just suddenly gone, and in front of me is this baby who is sitting up alone, rocking on all fours threatening to crawl, and scooting herself around with those chubby little feet in a walker. Not sure what she is trying to taste in this second picture, but that ever-busy tongue makes me smile.

We still haven't gotten into solid foods much, but Pearl Loves-with-a-capital-L when I slice up some fruit and stick it in that little mesh holder for her to suck and gum to death.

I'm not even sure why I like this picture, but I do. Probably just because it is of her.

Remember when I told you I would post the rest of the pictures we took when we were up by the Alpine Loop awhile back? Here they are.

Whenever I look at this picture I think of the Joker saying "Why so serious?" from that Batman movie (John just informed me it is called The Dark Knight) and it kind of ruins the happy moment that usually comes when one looks at a sweet photo of her children :).

Ah, there we go, that's better. I love that they are totally making the same face.

Here is the daddy with the babies.

And the mama. And just so we are clear here: John and I actually didn't really have the intention of being in these pictures. We didn't set out to get family pictures-- we were going on a drive up the canyon so John could bury some scientific wire in the stream to collect data. I got my kids dressed in clothes that I thought might be cute to take a few photos in, but what you see here is mostly luck. John and I happened to be wearing clothes that sort of worked out and we ended up getting a few cute pictures. Happy accidents.

Do you know that Pearl looks a LOT like I did when I was a wee babe? I had dark hair and blue eyes (though by this age my hair had begun to lighten), but I am pretty sure my Pear Girl has a few pounds on my seven-month-old self. She is so round!

We had to settle for bunches of pictures of either John or I with the kids, but not all of us together. It was too hard to get us all looking at a camera that was just sitting there with no one attached screaming and making funny faces.

Ha ha, see what I mean? Can you spot the abnormality in this photo? We tried (to get a family picture), but it was pretty hard and we were pretty unsuccessful. If you can see what is wrong with this picture (besides the crazy wind blowing us away) you will win four points.

This was a moment that just happened where they both were looking at the same thing at the same time and I had the camera on the right settings. Yay for that because it almost never happens.

Unless their daddy is dancing and singing like a crazy man to get their attention. Then they both look.

I know that I said the first photo I posted a couple of weeks ago was my favorite from this day, but I have since changed my mind. These last two are my favorites. I love the way Pearl is looking at her daddy with her hand resting under his chin, and then I love the kiss I captured (again, this just happened, we did not try to set this up) in that second one. And I love that George is just chilling there, probably looking at some really cool rock or stick that he could grab to throw into the water. Looking at these makes me motivated to do less of the "George! Pearl! Look over here!" pictures, and more pictures where I just let them be.

Quite often while Pearl is napping George and I will paint. In fact I have a bunch more photos to post of a more recent painting-while-she-naps session, but I figured I should get to these first. If I don't want to worry about any messes I will tape up some paper to the back of the house and just let G do his thing. Blast winter coming to ruin this delightful activity.

Nevermind the jungle that is our grass.

The thing I love most when I look at these? The dozens of those little animal/shape bracelets that he has shoved onto both of his wrists. Oh three, you are such a perfect age. I cannot get enough of this boy at three.

I have stories to share about this little boy of mine. He is full of so much humor and happiness and I don't want to forget any of it. Here is a little teaser of things that won't make sense to you, but then I will remember to write about them later.

*expecting audible answers from Heavenly Father, and "I thought the Holy Ghost would come, but he didn't."

*the privileges he revoked from his father when J said no to me (ha ha, cracks me up)

*putting a pillow behind Pearl and his promise to me after

*J as Mario up on the stand at church

*sobbing for his sister when she got shots

And to finish up tonight (whew, right?!), I will post these cute pictures...

...so that I can finish with this hilarious one. Her face. Kills me.

With that face in my mind as I go to sleep tonight I should have pretty awesome dreams, right? :)

stripes

Yes, that is my son eating an ice cream sandwich for breakfast. Let me tell you why. A few months ago a very nice old lady in our ward dropped off a package of ice cream sandwiches at our house. We must not like them that much because the poor things are still languishing in our freezer. Anyway, the other morning George ran out into the kitchen to meet John when he came in from his early morning job, and G must've spotted the box in the freezer. When George came back into the bedroom he asked me if he could have an ice cream sandwich, and had clearly been sent in by his daddy to see if that was okay. Well I don't like to ALWAYS be the one to say no to things like ice cream sandwiches for breakfast, so I told him to go back and ask daddy, thinking that John would say no, of course. Ha. A few minutes later G came bounding back in the room with an ice cream sandwich in tow, happily chomping off bite after bite. Since my kiddos happened to be wearing coordinating jammies that morning I had wanted to snap a few pictures of them, but I had not planned for ice cream sandwiches to be involved. Oh well. When I asked John why he thought it had been a good idea for our son to eat ice cream for breakfast he looked at me like I was the biggest party pooper in the world and said, "It's just like eating cereal for breakfast except the milk is frozen." Oh, silly me, of course it is, we'll have ice cream sandwiches for breakfast from now on.

Maybe try to look past the ice cream sandwich and just see a brother and sister in matching pjs, mmmkay?

Once the ice cream was gone G moved on to trains and was kind enough to let his sister observe. As long as she didn't grab the tracks :).

She didn't seem to mind not getting a turn. But check out the sweet, happy face she got when she grabbed a spare piece of track to play with.

What she was really after was a train. Blast those short little arms!

I so love that Pea is getting big enough to be entertained by her brother for decent stretches of time. Giving George a little friend is the best parenting decision we've made yet :).

Her activity of choice may have been sucking on the trains, while his was playing with them, but they were doing it together, and this whole sibling thing is truly so much more dreamy and joyful than I could have ever known.

Oh my firstborn. He is still such a treasure and delight to me. Such a precious soul this little boy has, and I am so grateful that he came first to pave the way for the ones that will come after.