mia

christmas morning. cheeks. little person. serious. ankle chub. sweet breath. happy. familiar. mine. ours. snuggler. delicious. endearing. perfect. pure. angel. forever.

starting young

not only does he have van hooked,

now he's starting on mia:)

a little excitement

van could hardly contain himself all week. he was going to take his very first bus ride ever! to the zoo! how can life get any better?

so i invited myself along to document...


this guy was funny. very animated, and passionate about snakes

the kids had fun watching him and learning about different animals

next to van is his cute teacher ms. erwin.

he thought it was pretty cool to actually touch the snake

and trick the goat into thinking he had food

favorite animal of the day, the giraffe.

we can't leave miss mia out of the action

i love this age that van's in. he still thinks it's cool to give thumbs up, hold my hand when we cross the street, or give me a hug in front of his friends. i'm taking full advantage of this short window of time that we have for that stuff. all too soon he'll be in junior high and think it's nerdy to have his mom around, like some other children i know in junior high (sound familiar jasmine?:))

side note: he had his pants on backwards all day.

torture

the house is done. it was finished last week. we're not moved in though. complications at the bank are holding us up. i go and look in the windows and wish we were there.

yesterday the kids and i had a good talk about the things in our life that are happy even though we're not in the new house yet (we're all chomping at the bit). it has been a good opportunity to teach them how to deal with disappointment. because it always comes, and it's always o.k. if you let it be.

don't worry house, we'll be there soon. playing and laughing and being a family. you won't be lonely for long.

the weekend

this was supposed to be the "we moved into our new house" post, but sadly things don't always work out when we want them to. hopefully next weekend we'll have some good news to report. here's what we did instead...

thursday
went to see jasmine sing in her fall choir concert at the junior high. she got bumped up from the regular choir to the "show choir" because her teacher found out that she could rock the house. she got her own choir dress and everything. that's my girl:)




she had fun showing mia off to all her friends


friday
can't think of a better way to spend a friday night than at the elementary school for a carnival! van had been looking forward to this all week and was so stoked to go. he spent his tickets on cotton candy, the bounce house, getting his hair painted, and a cake walk. good times man.









saturday
watched jasmine put her acting skills to work at the stake roadshow. she's a natural.


sunday
went to church, had everybody over for some kickin' chili and sweet potatoes that my mother in law made, watched the sanders' old home movies, ate too many desserts, and helped the kids carve a pumkin


as things worked out, it's probably good that we didn't get into the house this weekend. we would've had to do all this and move too!

my best friend

his reputation preceded him. he's a "player" they told me. i must confess, that tweaked my interest. i silently observed him while at a party together. he approached me first. we talked about brazil. supposedly i gave him "the eye". my mission for the night: get him to ask for my number. he did.

80's movies marathons, rap music lyric trivia, hanging out, long talks, was this guy for real? i was very at ease with him, like i'd known him my whole life. totally natural.

alright, enough of this "friends" stuff. i finally had to kiss him (wuss). i conclude that he's not a player, just a sexy bald guy that gets the chics. very honest and sincere in all his relationships. loves his family. knows the birthday of every one of his nieces and nephews without having to look it up. i thought that was cool.

boyfriend. fiance. husband. insta pop. he loves my kids like they are his own. not just kind of, but really. "team sanders", we're in this together. a true companion. love of my life. how could things get any better?

baby mia. i finally have a baby that's not just mine, she's ours. i never felt that before. as circumstance would have it, i always did things on my own. he loves every burp, fart, gurgle, and smile. everything she does is precious and hilarious at the same time. never wants to miss a moment.

he knows his way under the hood of a car, can fix anything in the house, geek it up on the computer, dunk a basketball, helps jas with her algebra and gives advice about boys, can dance like a backup for mc hammer, speaks portuguese, does the dishes and takes out the trash, gives me the last cookie, works hard, easily amused, game for anything, tells me i'm beautiful, almost never in a bad mood, is van's best buddy, opens the car door for me, likes to cuddle, likes to talk, cries when he's happy, gets excited about the little stuff, tells me what a good mom i am.
and at 2 a.m. when i'm up nursing mia, he lays next to me and whispers, "thank you for taking care of our baby".

he lives to be a good husband and a father. he loves that he has a family to take care of, and we feel that from him every waking minute of every day. he's the man i get to spend forever with. he's my best friend.

annual pumpkin patch outing

we met up with the fam at the pumpkin patch for family night, and topped off the evening with ice cream at braum's. my infamous over-documentation of events resulted in a ton of pictures, hope you don't mind...