Sam I Am: November 2024

Rebecca has been doing all kinds of new things at 9 months old. She says "woah!", claps her hands and cheers, climbs up and down small sets of stairs, and can make it up our big staircase. Her sleep at night goes up and down depending on our trips and how well we stick to her schedule, but she is very workable. She had been waking up every 3 hours to eat, and after a couple nights of Lamoni taking her into the office to sleep with her, she went back to an 8 hour stretch! Then she'll nurse around 3 a.m. and go back to sleep til 8ish.

Packing for our NY trip, making sure we all have winter clothes that fit. So cute!!

Peter is extremely flexible.

I love this outfit on her!

The boys decorated 99% of the tree themselves!

Benjamin's recital

Grandma Bear, Grandma and Bampa happened to be in town for it.

Liam earned and spent money. It was so cute seeing him be brave and buy things himself.

Our homeschool group really outdid themselves for this year's craft fair!

The boys' table at the craft fair.

Rebecca loves going up the stairs but hasn't figured out coming down yet. We have a baby gate and if she notices it's open she books it upstairs before anyone can stop her. She will also crawl to it and pull on the gate to see if someone forgot to snap it shut.

Preparations for the craft fair.

Katheryn, Benjamin, and some students of mine played Christmas songs in 4 part harmony for our church's nativity event.

Rebecca's favorite place is in the bathtub. Look at this progression of her coming to the bath. It was one of the first times she pulled herself up!

Peter takes her for fun (and fast) rides on her car.

Liam helps set the table.

Blueberries are definitely a favorite.

Peter is such a helper with big Costco shopping trips!

Kathryn and Jacob gave Liam this RC truck to build for his birthday.

Hanging out and Benjamin's cello lesson.

When we can't find Rebecca we check behind the couches!

We played a multi-day game of Monopoly, and you can guess who the victor was from this picture!

A Lego set from Liam's birthday.

Liam had a Lego birthday party. It's a good thing too, because it's all he likes to do, and he is super duper fast in building them.

This is how Rebecca occupies herself while I'm teaching - she walks over to the Christmas tree, pulls off ornaments and then plays with them.

Boys are never too old to play with cars!

Birthday cereal tradition - even though it about kills me, I let the boys pick out any cereal they want for their birthday. That way we only have 3 junky cereals per year, but I'm not totally depriving them...

Early morning birthday presents and hugs.

We do history at my house on Tuesday with Charity's kids, and science on Thursdays at her house. It works out great.

Nuclear museum for homeschool group.

Sometimes Katheryn stays with us during cello so she can come home with us and play. She's a great babysitter so I can watch Benjamin's lesson!

More craft fair preparations! Yes, this is what my table looks like for most of November!!

Here's a picture to prove to the boys someday how messy their room could get.

It's a good thing they're fast cleaners...

A drawing Benjamin did for Christmas cards for the craft fair.

Benjamin was asked to play cello with the choir for stake conference at church. He's on the bottom left.

I hang out at Explora children's museum with the younger two while the older two have their art class.

Lots of concerts all the time!

Making forts with friends.

Rebecca took her first steps to Charity (not in this picture, but it was about the same time).

Owl pellet dissection with our homeschool group.

Benjamin gave his book 7 cello recital, Peter book 2 piano recital, and Liam twinkle recital (yes, he actually played in front of everyone!). Unfortunately I was playing the piano so couldn't take pictures, and Lamoni only did video, so I'll have to work on getting some still shots from those.