I organized an activity with the help of some awesome ladies in my RS this past month. We had an international potluck and the turn out was awesome. So may people brought delicious things with awesome stories. I brought Butlawa which is a Lebanese celebration cake. We were planning to make it with my parents the night before they left for Florida, but their orange blossom water (a vital ingredient) had fermented. So Sean, the kids, and me made it all by ourselves. It was the first time i’ve ever done it without my mom, but I think it turned out great. Brett and Alana especially LOVED painting the filo dough with butter.
Sean was a sweetheart and provided a nursery for the activity with one of the other brothers in the ward. The next day Brett had early out which means he starts school at 11:30 and ends at 1:30 instead of the customary 12:45-3:45. Alana was throwing the biggest fit and I couldn’t get her in the car in time so we were late. I had to walk Brett into school and just kept telling Alana not to scream in the hall. She thoroughly wore herself out and promptly fell asleep on me when we got home. Poor girl! She slept the entire 2 hours and I had to wake her up to go get Brett from school. Lizzie was asleep for the first 45 minutes too, so we had some quiet rest time that day =)
I decided it was time to decorate for halloween earlier this year. I usually wait till October, but we put things our in mid September this year. Brett and Alana enjoyed trying on the tiger costumes our family wore when I was pregnant with Alana.
September was an incredibly busy month! Sean ended up delivering 3 babies. Two of them were his, but not due until October. The other was also due in October and was another providers patient, but since the baby was early the other provider was out of town. So Sean got to do the deliveries and all the postpartum rounding. Sean also did 2 moonlighting shifts and was on call over a weekend again. Brett has had 2 soccer games per week. That made Tuesdays and Saturdays much more busy, but so much fun! He is actually a really good player! He’s made several goals and is great at defense. He doesn’t get very many breaks because he is so good and doesn’t tire as easy as the other players (who are 3-4).
My parents went to Florida for 2 weeks so we went out to their place to pick up mail, mow the lawn, and clean up the garden. We got lots more tomatoes and I made tons of Tikki Masala. Alana got a new dress from Papa and Mimi and it is so perfect for her (no poof!) She refused to wear any other shoes with it, so I took her to Kohl’s one day with some Kohl's cash from my mom and got her some darling mary-janes. They are so cute, I wish she would wear them more!
Lizzie is in full scooting mode now! She gets up on her hands and knees all the time and is very effected at kinda throwing herself forward. She is adoring eating all baby foods and even tried ritz crackers last night, which she loved. I guess I shouldn’t say all, she like rice, wheat, squash, carrots, peas, green beans, sometimes sweet potatoes and will tolerate apples and bananas.
Alana’s friend Ramona invited us to come as a guest to her ballet class. Alana was pretty excited about it, but spent the entire time glaring. She said she was just furious that she wasn’t snuggling me. We won’t be paying for dance lessons for awhile =) She would just rather be a lion or dinosaur or dragon!
We got to babysit my niece and nephew for an evening and it was so fun to see all the kids curled up on the couch together. Cousins are so special!
More soccer fun!
My parents came to visit the Sunday after they got home from Florida and brought all kinds of fun things. Chocolate frogs were so fun! Brett got Starwars Mickey and Minnie figures, Alana got Lion Guard toys, Lizzie got a Mickey and dinosaur, I got a rolling pin, Sean got an awesome Stitch pen, and we all got some cotton candy and a Mickey caramel apple! They were so generous! It’s been so fun to hear about their trip, I still haven’t seen all the pictures!
With Lizzie’s new mobility, I am getting used to what baby’s get into. I have been trying to read to the kids from the Book of Mormon everyday and I left the book on the floor. When I came around the corner from the kitchen I found that she was horking down on the back of the book, haha. You would think I would have learned, but a few days later I was making dinner and the older kids were outside. I peeked at Lizzie and saw that she was playing with the library books. I thought that was just great and went back to my cooking. When I came over again I realized she had eaten a page of the library book! At least she is just so darling and gives me the biggest grins!
Alana was being a train conductor one day when Brett was at school.
I have been listening to Harry Potter and a combination of that and the cooler weather has made me want comfort fall food. One day Alana helped me make lion house rolls, a meatloaf, and roasted sweet potatoes. Alana thought it was great to get to help me all by herself without having to share jobs with Brett!
Brett had his first school picture day and this is the outfit he chose! Such a handsome boy with great taste!
This is the face Alana makes when I say smile lately (also notice the braid which is her favorite hair style of late as well).
Lizzie loves to sleep with her head completely stuffed into a blanket or stuffed animal which is why she still doesn’t get to sleep with a blanket. This little pink mouse came home with us from NM last time we visited. Sean sewed it one summer, I have found Lizzie sleeping on it at least 3 times! I got a picture of her doing it twice.
I am going to try to make a better effort at recording spiritual things on this blog since its our journal. I have always been prone to have disturbing dreams, ever since I was little. They can be anything, but usually leave me feeling very sad and seem to drive the spirit away. I was talking with a dear friend a month or so ago about how she reads the scriptures to help her fight away temptation. Bad dreams aren’t exactly a temptation, but they are something that I feel like I need to fight. I received a very clear impression that if I were to read my scriptures, the bad dreams would get better. I have been making a much greater effort to read each day and Sean and I have also been trying to read together (we’ve recently been going through the For Strength of Youth booklet). I have noticed such a huge difference. Its like the scriptures and words of the prophets give my brain the power to fight off the bad dreams. Its just really cool!
I also got the opportunity to go to the Salt Lake Temple for a session a few weeks ago. It was a relief society event so Sean took the kiddos and I went with my friend. For several months I have been trying to think of what I should be doing. Part of it is because our budget is a little tight and I always think it would be a good idea to supplement our income, and part of it is because I am feeling a need to improve Jennie, not just mommy (although mommy is my favorite thing to be). I have been considering doing a small preschool out of my home next year since Alana will be preschool age. I’ve also thought a lot about photography, although its just so overwhelming and there are so many people doing amateur photography lately. It was amazing the clarity I felt as I progressed through the session. It seemed so clear that Sean can moonlight and that is what will help with the tight budget and that I have the privilege of being at home. I don’t know if this will always be my answer, but I felt so strongly that the things I needed to focus on were service, gospel learning, exercising for enjoyment, and improving my skills at piano. The temple is a remarkable place!
We went to Red Robin last Friday and Lizzie sat in the little highchair and ate baby food with us, it was so cute and the first time she has done that. She really loves being more a part of the family dinners. Sean and I had s’mores sweet potato fries!
This last weekend was conference weekend and we had so much fun! Six months ago, I was waiting for Lizzie to pop out of me and kept having horribly uncomfortable contractions, so it was really hard to focus on conference. It was nice to prepare for it and get to have it be the focus of our weekend. Brett had a soccer game Saturday morning so we missed the first half hour of that session, but as soon as we got home we started watching. We played a game where we had little bowls of candy for different words. Every time you hear the word on the bowl you can have a treat from inside. On Saturday the word for whoppers was love and there was a fantastic talk that said love a million times. Our kids ate so much candy! On Sunday we changed up a few of them and put in some pretzels and gold fishes. Luckily the treat for the word joy was gold fishes because President Nelson said joy a ton!
On Saturday between sessions we met my parents and Grandma at Ikea for lunch. It is always such a treat to visit with Grandma and my parents. Grandma especially loved seeing Brett in his soccer jersey. We browsed a bit and then hurried home to watch the afternoon session.
Sean watched the priesthood session at home while the kids rode bikes in the front yard and I cleaned the kitchen.
On Sunday morning we had some friends from our ward over for pumpkin waffles. It was fun to have friends over and super fun to watch their little 3 year old boy get so mad when the speakers didn’t say the words for the right candies =)
We watched the final session at my parents with my grandma, then had a yummy roast beef dinner! We even had pumpkin pie!
Residency is such an exciting time where Sean gets to decide what kinds of things he wants to focus on when he gets a job as an attending physician. His first rotation his intern year was ob and he actually really liked it! He was thinking he would like to have ob as part of his family practice, then he decided he hated the call and didn’t think he would like to after all. We’ve also learned a bit more about malpractice insurance and having ob malpractice is a lot more expensive so you have to deliver a certain number of patients each year to even break even on the insurance.
Then this last month he had the 3 deliveries and the call seemed so much more reasonable because we live 7 minutes from the hospital. He is able to be at home hanging with us while his patient is in labor and then he just pops over for the delivery. He also has had more opportunity to see what its like to see patients before they become pregnant, during pregnancy, and afterward getting to take on the pediatric patient. Its one of the things he loves so much about Family Practice-the long term relationships with people and the continuity of care for entire families. So we are considering it again and he is going to try to reach out to some local doctors who include ob and women’s health in their practice and see what their path was like. It’s fun to see all the different ways our life can go, and its exciting that Sean and I get to decide together=)
Sean is on the pediatric emergency room this month and is at his 2nd shift while i’m writing this. The shifts are all over the place, but he has no call this month and no clinic, so I think we will actually see a lot of him!
Lizzie is working on sitting up and trying to hold her bottle. She is getting more vocal and spends lots of time screaming (in joy). She loves to jump now and is going to be a bumble bee for Halloween. She will be 6 months old tomorrow. I went through all our 6-9 month clothes and realized that Alana was 6-9 months in the summer so we had some shopping to do. We went on a spree yesterday and I actually think I need to return some because we bought so much! She’s still in size 2 diapers and still in 3-6 month clothes.
Brett is still loving school so so much! He has been having a stressful time figuring out how to make it to the bathroom and came home in tears today because he had an accident. It occurred to me that I have never told him he can call me from school. I told him that he can always tell his teacher he needs me and they will call me. I also have been e-mailing with his teacher and we’ve got a little plan for him. My heart just breaks when I think of how stressed he must have been for half the day knowing he’d had an accident but trying so hard to keep it together and not cry! As soon as he saw Sean he just broke into tears. He is trying so hard to be grown up. I got to volunteer in his class again this week and it was so fun to see the way he sits on the carpet and follows directions so well! He is a little sponge absorbing everything his teacher says. I just love being his mom! Also I think he might have a loose tooth! He is going to be Poe Dameron for Halloween. 
Alana is really struggling with sleep right now. She gets to sleep okay, but just wakes up a lot and needs snuggles. She has started wearing panties at night because she is staying dry and getting up in the night to use the bathroom. I think she mostly just wants to sleep with me, but it can’t be a permanent solution (although I don’t mind the snuggles). I think she tries so hard to be a big girl during the day that in the night she just needs to be little. Its funny because she will fall asleep in the car and as soon as she wakes up she acts completely awake and won’t let anyone carry her or hold her. She loves to tell Sean and I when she is doing something right, especially when she thinks Brett is doing something wrong. Like when she notices that Brett is grumpy she will tell me that she’s the one who isn’t grumpy =) She is still obsessed with Lions! We bought their Halloween costumes on Tuesday and when I asked if we could put a bow in the lions hair, she said no she wants to be a king! Ha ha! 
Okay one last thing and then hopefully I won’t get so far behind next time!
We went and saw Lindsey Stirling in concert last night! You guys, i’m such an obsessed fan. I’ve read her book, I follow her on Instagram, I watch her youtube videos, I listen to her music, and I even follow her dog on Instagram! So needless to say I was pretty excited to see her new concert. We went with Neil and Rebecca and had our kids watched with cousins by a young married couple. It was just so fun. I think my favorite part was when we were all standing up at the end waiting for the encore and they played the theme from Roundtable Rival and both Sean and I looked at each other and screamed and jumped up and down. We are pretty reserved people so this is big for us. Anyway it was an amazing show and we just had so much fun.
I enjoyed reading your blog! You've been busy!
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