{Circus}

Last week we went to the Zoppe family circus! It was amazing. An old school family circus, it was small, intimate, and magical!

The girls loved it! Evette was in awe the entire time and Miriam enjoyed watching all the fun things happening around her.

We sat on the front row! So much fun!

This cute circus boy came up during intermission and played with Miriam - she was in love. When we were leaving the circus and saying goodbye to all the performers she kept cooing at him and smiling and even waved goodbye to him! He kept calling her "principessa" and it was adorable. She wanted to join the circus.

 So fun to watch these adorable families perform!

It really was a magical night! I wish we went every night they were in town! We loved every minute of it!

{Happy 9 Months!!!}

Happy Birthday, Angel Baby! You have now been on the earth for as long as you were in my tummy - 9 months!! (...if you add 5 more days because you were so comfortable and didn't want to come out!)

We're still rocking the 3-6 month clothes, size 3 diapers, and 2 naps a day.

Went to the doctor last week for her 9 month check up and she's still tiny - 15 lbs 10 oz which puts her around the 12th percentile for weight. Tiny and consistent.

She still hasn't mastered crawling yet, but she's practicing all the time! And she's getting so close! She can scoot around a little bit, and frequently goes backwards. So there's movement, but not always in the intended direction. Practice makes perfect!

She loves to eat. She eats pretty much everything we do now, as long as her 5 teeth (yes, 5 teeth! We got a new one on the bottom right side and 2 more on the top should break through any moment) can break it down a little bit. She's a huge fan of strawberries and noodles.

She is still the most snuggly baby around. She loves to give kisses and hugs. I am currently sporting 2 little bite marks on my lips from some fierce kisses and her sharp stapler teeth. She also wanted to give another little boy at church some kisses and ended up leaving some teeth marks on his nose. Oops. She loves to love.

I love this little face - the straight line mouth. so cute. She's also began waving this last month and saying "MomMomMomMom" which just makes my heart into a puddle on the floor.

So close to crawling! She'll get up on all fours and rock and rock and then roll over.

Ha - not quite baby girl.

She loves to stand. LOVES to stand. I think she just wants to be like big sister. She hasn't started cruising yet, and I'm totally fine with that. After big sister started walking at 9.5 months, I'm completely fine with this little lady taking her time learning to crawl and walk. Yes, I will just snuggle you and carry you around (it helps that you're so tiny!). 

So happy to have this sweet little girl in our home! She is teaching us so much! love you, angel baby!

{Columbus Day Weekend}

Sean had Columbus Day off! Why? No idea, but I'll take it! And he also worked from home on Friday so it was practically a 4 day weekend! It was magical. We were thinking about taking a big camping trip or traveling somewhere, but last minute we decided to stay home and just take it easy - spend time at home, work on a couple things around the house, and not be stressed out. Best decision ever.

On Saturday we went down to a pumpkin patch! I was so excited! Our weekends for the next few weeks are going to be kinda crazy, so I wasn't sure that we'd be able to make it, but I'm glad we did! Right now I'm desperately missing Dallas. Some of my happiest memories from Dallas happened in the Fall and I have been missing it. The state fair, the mommy school, the arboretum, general conference with friends, Halloween.... so being able to go to the pumpkin patch just gave me a little taste of fall and giving me some motivation and push on how to make California feel like home.

This pumpkin patch also had a bounce house, which is pretty much the greatest thing in the world.

They make me so happy!

These faces!!!! 

And a pony ride! First time and she was a huge fan.

Family Selfie! close enough lol

  

For the rest of Saturday we did some yard work and then had a camp out in our backyard! We bought a firepit (hooray!!!) Hotdogs and smores for dinner. (Miriam slept inside - we're still trying to get some good sleeping habits so I didn't want to mess that up by making her sleep outside.) It was pretty fun!

On Sunday we went to church and had dinner with some lovely friends. Sunday night we had some people over for smores (yes, we'll be eating a lot of smores with our new firepit). It was awesome. At our place in Dallas we regretted not investing into our backyard space early enough. We just thought it was dead and messy and wasn't much we could do with it. The last year or so we were there we really worked on it, added our veggie garden, worked on the grass and bushes, and have some wonderful memories in that backyard with our family and lots of our friends. We didn't want to make the same mistake here, so this whole weekend we worked a ton on the yard. Ripped out all the weeds in the overgrown garden, planted some stuff, made a new bed in the front, tamed the blackberry bush, worked on the woodpile, etc. We're excited with the progress we've made so far. This yard has a ton of potential and we're excited to see what we can do with it!

On Monday we went to go see Meet the Mormons. It was a great show! I was apprehensive, but ended up loving it! Evette really enjoyed it to and we've had lots of great gospel discussions about it. We've talked about why sometimes babies die, why people go on missions, and others. It's been fun!

Also - note Sean's awesome hair. This is what happens when you don't shower and work all morning in the yard - good man.

 

It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend! 

{Mom came to visit!!!}

My Momma came to visit us in California during General Conference weekend while Sean was running his marathon (he'll write all about that soon). It was so so so so so wonderful to have her here and to show her our world over here on the west coast.

We showed her our church, where Sean works, our old apartment complex, where we go shopping, the farmers market, she came to Evette's meet the teacher at her preschool (which was good because I was an emotional wreck), and it was so fun to have her here with us!

We also spent an afternoon at the beach and had a great time playing in the sand and splashing in the waves. About 30 seconds after I had the thought that we should probably pack up and head home while we were still all happy and well, a huge wave came and completely covered Evette. Poor thing was cold and covered in sand and salt. Should've listened to that still small voice! 

Overall, it was a lovely afternoon on the beach.

We also spent a good chunk of our weekend watching General Conference together. Miriam slept through a lot of it and Evette was great! She kept herself entertained through most of it and picked up on keywords that we've been learning about at home like "Holy Ghost" and "Prophet". It's great to see her learn and grow!

She sewed during part of conference! First time and she did great!

And she liked to cover Mimi's face in stickers.

She also made lots of bead necklaces during conference.

Mimi getting her hair done. Looks so lovely.

Spending some time in the backyard!  

Evette put on a little program for us one night - most adorable thing ever. She would get her tennis racket and use it like a guitar and sing us a song and then would come sit down and say a prayer. And then she'd get up and do a dance and then sit down and say a prayer. And then she'd hit the soccer ball with the tennis racket and then sit down and say a prayer. So fun!

Evette snapped this photo and I love it!

It was seriously the best to have my mom here with us! So many good times - so many good talks - it was wonderful. I love this lady so much.