Happy Thanksgiving

This year I'm thankful for so many things. I'm thankful for my teachers and my preschool. I'm especially thankful for my singing voice!




I'm thankful that Jessa Rose sprouted some bottom teeth!

I'm thankful to have a temporary roof over my precious little head,

And a little backyard to play in.

And I'm thankful for my dad, who is the best daddy in the world!


I'm thankful for Joey's birthday party,

And for silly string!

And now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it's time to start talking Christmas time!

Christmas time means Christmas treats! Pretzel reindeer!

Next year we'll be sharing with our baby!

We had a few pictures left over from last weekend. Daddy got these pictures from the people at his work who were all pitching in to do a stream cleanup.
Mina and Daddy worked very hard to clean up the stream while I took Mommy and Jessa to a party at Pump It Up.

Mina and her buddy Evan.

This week, we started getting ready for Christmas! As you already know, Santa came last weekend to the mall, but there were way too many kids there to see him. We decided to come back during the week when all the big kids are in school. Good thinkin'! We walked right in and parked it right there on Santa's lap and got to talk for a good long time. I told Santa I want anything Bolt and Penny. I also told him he could bring me princess stuff. Mina seemed a little nervous-- she just repeated to Santa whatever I said.

Santa told us he would work on our orders, but that we needed to be super good. That's very easy for us!

After our visit with Santa, we decided to stay and play at the mall. We rode the toys and pretended we had the kind of mom who gave her kids quarters.

Mommy says pretending is fun. I think quarters are funner.

On Saturday, we went to a trial dance class with Hartley!

We loved it and I think Hartley and I are going to sign up for intro to ballet and dance together!

Mina is still a little young for a regular class. But she had fun dressing up for the trial class!

And then, right after that, we went to North Hills for the tree lighting!

Rudolph and Frosty were there!

Baby Jessa is getting over her first real virus this week. She had a fever last Monday, then got all kinds of stuffy and grumpy, and now is working her way out of a nasty croupy cough. Luckily, her appetite was back this weekend just in time for peaches! Yummm!

Giddy up little sister!

Girls morning out!

It's good to be a girl!
On Saturday, Daddy and his friends moved our stuff from our house into our temporary townhome. No heavy liftin' for me!

Instead, I did the hokie pokie with Elmo!
Elmo brought Santa Clause to our mall to ring in the Christmas season. We sang and we danced and we ate cookies for breakfast.


The Chick Fila cow came too. He didn't bring me any chicken though. So I ate a few more cookies.


And then, the sun came out!
It's been rainin' and rainin' and rainin' for days around here. Luckily, it cleared up in time for moving day.
We decided it was a good time to teach Jessa how to swing. She was all for it!

Here are some of my last pictures from inside our house on the hill.

rub a dub dub!

Three Masons in the tub!
Jessa likes her bath seat!

But who needs a bath seat?

Not our baby!

Jessa is six months old today, and look at her, sitting so pretty.

Not a master of the sit yet, as you can see, but very nearly there.

She's also trying very hard to get her tummy off the ground. Her tummy is big-ish (in a fabulous chunky monkey sort of way), so it's not quite as easy as it looks!

She's also trying to stand a little. And of course, like any good baby, she's practicing her falling down, too.

Hartley watches the baby's progress and tells her mom she wants a baby sister too. She's even offered us Hayes, in case we were interested in making an even exchange. Sorry Hartley! We're keeping our baby!