Bridget at three months

I’m afraid this baby has been sorely neglected in the picture-taking department.  It seems that I just get so crazy running around that I forget to take pictures of what it is we’re doing.  And when I do actually remember my camera, my hands are always so full that I rarely take pictures with it.  But since she’s pretty much the spitting image of her siblings, I think that we’ll know what she looked like at this age.  Sorry, Bridget.  That’s the life of the fourth. We had our family pictures taken a few weeks ago, and I LOVED how they turned out.  Isn’t she a doll baby?  I could just eat her up.  Locals, if you even need your pictures done, call Jacque Larsen.  She’s amazing! For comparison’s sake:   Katie, Paul, Averi, and Bridget.  We make one child.  Katie is the most different looking of all of them.  And look, Averi and Bridget are lying on the same blanket and wearing coordinating outfits!  Too cute! Some things about Bridget: She’s got the most adorable smile.  She’s not super generous with it, but when she does grin at you, it makes you melt. She laughed for the first time today.  I made myself ridiculous trying to get her to do it for Aaron, but no dice.  I promise, honey, I wasn’t making things up. She’s a super sleeper.  For a while she had been sleeping 12+ hours every night.  For the last week she’s been waking up at 6:30 every morning (I think because she’s getting cold in there; the heater we have is a dud), but that still means she’s getting in almost 11 hours of sleep.  Now if I could just get myself to go bed on time so that I could be as well rested… She’s a pro at this eating business.  We’ve never had a baby that was this good at eating. (In her aerobics instructor “costume,” which consisted of a onesie, leggings, and a headband.) She’ll take a pacifier.  Again, our only baby that could figure it out.  She’s gifted, I’m sure of it. She’s found her index finger and loves sucking on that and on her fist.  She’s super strong and doesn’t mind tummy time at all. She drools.  A LOT. She spits up a bit, but she’s nothing compared to Averi.  That girl spit up more than any baby I’ve ever seen. She is very, very loved by this crew.  They take good care of her. She’s the best excuse for just sitting and doing nothing. She’s absolutely delightful.  It breaks my heart that I can’t have a million more just like her.

Fall Bucket List – Recap

Since it’s nearly Thanksgiving, I thought I’d check back and see how we did on our fall bucket list. 1. Go to a pumpkin patch  Yep!  Will blog about that…someday. This was the only family (well, most of them) picture we got.  Too bad they were looking directly into the sun! 2. Balloon Fiesta – So sad we didn’t make it this year!  We decided to do a last-minute trip to Utah, so something had to give.  Next year! 3. State Fair Apparently the only pictures we took were of the rather freaky acrobats. 4. Renaissance Fair  Done! 5. Go on a hike  The kids did this with Grandma and Grandpa J while we were in Utah. 6. Sew Halloween costumes Close enough! More on Bridget’s and ours in a later post. Baby aerobics instructor!  Pump it up, ladies! 7. Trick or treating! This blurry shot was one of the best I could get.  They were so thrilled to be getting the loot that they wouldn’t hold still at all.  This was the first year that we made it around the entire large block.  Yay for kids getting bigger!  Averi wore several different costumes during the course of the day.  For trick or treating she was Jasmine. 8. Family game night Did this several times, both with just our little family and with our family back in Utah. 9. Make s’mores over a fire.  Nope!  Totally forgot about this one, actually.  S’mores sound really good right now… 10. Carve pumpkins    11. Make a wreath Made a super cute yarn wreath with felt flowers, but then I ran into issues.  I tried a trick I saw on Pinterest that said to use pipe insulation that’s been duct-taped together instead of having to buy a wreath.  Didn’t work. At ALL.  So it’s completely fallen apart and waiting to be fixed.  But I did make it, and that’s what counts. 12. Make a scarf.  Nope.  But I sewed plenty of other things (and bought a new scarf), so I don’t feel bad. 13. Make chili.  I made a very nice paleo chili.  If I could remember where I found the recipe, I’d post it.  But I can’t.  I’m wanting to try a pumpkin chili recipe I saw.  Anything with pumpkin has to be great, right? 14. Go down to the bosque and take pictures in the leaves.  We didn’t get around to this, which makes me sad.  One of my favorite things about Albuquerque is driving down the road in the fall and seeing the huge swath of yellow along the river.  Next year!  We did get our family pictures done in downtown Albuquerque, so it’s not too terrible. 15. Make art with leaves.  No, but the kids did do tons of fall-related crafts in their homeschool art class. 16. Eat al fresco All. The. Time.  Until it got dark, of course. 17. Read on the patio while the kids play.  You know, I don’t think I ever really did this.  Usually because I was holding a baby, and lounging and reading isn’t really easy when you’ve got a baby to accommodate.  18. Visit to the farmer’s market.  No, but we did sign up for our local CSA.  We got our first box this week, and everything looks delicious! 19. Make our house smell delicious.  Just toss orange peels, and cinnamon stick, and cloves into a saucepan with plenty of water, turn it on low, and let it simmer throughout the day.  Lovely! Not too bad!  We were crazy busy throughout the fall, but we had a fantastic time.  Now it’s time for the holidays!  Turkeys are thawing (fingers crossed they’ll be ready by tomorrow morning!), turkey shirts are made for the kids, and the fridge is packed with produce.  I love Thanksgiving!

I really want to know what game they were playing…

What is the Box! of! Shame! and what does Averi have to do with it?