Girls Photoshoots

 Even age birthdays means photoshoots instead of birthday parties. Mid-September, I took Brooke to a field of sunflowers that was really pretty, and we had a fun shoot. Afterwards we went to get donuts before going home. 

A week or so before Camille's birthday, Camille and I were going to go up Provo Canyon. But there was a fire up Provo Canyon on the day we went for our picture outing, so we stopped at Orem Scera Park for our shoot. It wasn't as nice as I'd wanted, but we still had a good time. Camille played at the park for a while before we left, and we got some chic-fil-a for some dinner before going home.

Things That Are Bringing Me Joy Lately

1. Scented candles, especially fall scents 
2. Watching my kids play, together or separately
3. Sunflowers
4. Full nights of sleep
5. President Nelson's talks
6. My bed
7. Exercising every day
8. My bedroom (now that we've moved the baby out) 
9. Sawyer's hair -- it's growing in, and super fine, and sticks up all over the place
10. Jack's green eyes with brown speckles
11. Brooke's bright blue eyes
12. Camille's warm brown eyes
13. Daniel's sexy gray-green eyes
14.  Eating healthily, even when I don't feel like it
    
15. Gently ticking Sawyer's face while putting him to sleep; it makes him instantly drowsy and he seems to really love it, it's so cute watching him get all sleepy and he'll give me these tired little smiles 😍
16. Running
17. Getting to know my friends better
18. Long hot showers
19. Nursing Sawyer, especially when he reaches up and touches my face with his little hands
20. Spending time with my husband
21. Playing games with my kids
22. Family movie nights
23. Crisp fall days
24. Camille's tiny cuteness
25. Marco polo-ing with my family and friends
26. Diet coke with lime 
27. Sweet potato bowls with all the good toppings and cashew ranch
28. Going through pictures
29. Hanging out with my kids in the basement 

Some Things of Late

•  A couple of Mondays ago, Brian and Sammy invited us to go to Jakers with them. Jakers is a little pumpkin patch, corn maze, theme park for little kids. It's a bit like Cornbelly's but on a much smaller scale, and more geared towards little kids. We had a good time! Jack loved the corn pits, Brooke and Camille loved the slides and the animals. We went on a hayride altogether with Brian's family, and Jack just loved that, too. The tractor trailer took us through the pumpkin patch and corn fields, and it was beautiful. Sawyer was so good, too. He was super tired for a lot of it, but I just wore him in the carrier, and he did just fine until the very end when we were leaving. 
• I had a girls night the 1st of the month. A handful of us went to Cornbelly's all by ourselves. No kids. It was actually really fun! We did the corn maze together, we got treats and watched a weird Halloween lights show, we sat by the fired and chatted. It was so nice to get out of the house by myself and connect with my friends.
• I also had a girls movie night the week after that, ha! I told the ladies that went to Cornbelly's that I've always wanted to watch Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in October, but that Daniel hasn't ever wanted to do that with me. So, DeAnna Christensen and I picked a night, she hosted and we invited a handful of girls to come. We each brought random treats to share, and we watched the movie and chatted. It was a super weird movie, not one I'd likely watch again. But, again, it was nice to get out and hang out with friends.
• One Saturday, about a week ago, Daniel and I took the kids to a local pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. It was strictly a pumpkin patch, no rides or anything, although they did have animals. So we didn't stay too long there. We took a few pictures, the kids picked out way too many pumpkins that we then had to pare down, and we left. But it's a family tradition, and we love it. The kids get excited about going to the pumpkin patch. I had a devilish time trying to get a good picture of all of the kids with the pumpkins, though. They were not having it. They just wanted to look at all the pumpkins and pick out their perfect ones.
• On the 3rd, I took Brooke and Camille to Daisey Mapps' baptism. She came to Utah to get baptized because California has all kinds of crazy Covid restrictions. We felt so loved and special that she thought of inviting Brooke and Camille to her baptism, and we loved getting to take part in her special day. They invited us to her uncle's house for lunch afterwards, and the girls loved playing with Daisey and Lillee. The next week, we had Emilee and her kids come over for a play date.
  

Life Suddenly Got Busy

 After months of going nowhere and doing ... not much of anything, life got busy all of a sudden. I think it happened in the weeks leading up to the start of school. We were trying to fit in a few last summer activities before the kids started school, plus the getting ready for school and school shopping, and then we were headlong into school. 

With the girls gone for at least a few hours of the day every day, getting them up and ready for school, Jack going to preschool group twice a week, doctors and dentist appointments and the like, and social engagements popping up here and there, I've hardly been able to keep up! It's very strange. Even before the covid outbreak and the closing down of all things, I felt like life was in a comfortable routine, not too busy, but not too dull either. Then it all closed down, and we were very un-busy for a while. And all of a sudden, it's almost too busy!

With Sawyer, more than with any of the others, I feel like my time has absolutely evaporated. I'm doing all the things to take care of a new baby -- feeding, changing, playing, pumping, bottle-feeding, putting down to sleep. I'm also taking care of 3 other little humans -- feeding, and feeding again, playing with them, making sure they go to school, making sure they are doing homework and reading, having playdates, running them to and from places, reading to them, bedtime. Plus, then there's taking care of the house -- which I've whittled down a lot since Sawyer was born and doing only the bare minimum, which looks like laundry, grocery shopping, making food, dishes, tidying up, changing sheets, and doing minimal housework when I can fit it in sometime. And then, of course, I have to do some things for my dear husband to keep him feeling loved and happy. And I try to do a few things to feel fulfilled myself -- scripture reading, prayers, exercise, making my bed, reading (this has gone down the tube in recent months), and getting dressed (and preferably made up a little bit). 

I really feel like I've tried to pare things down to a very basic level, and I still feel behind. Just last week, I was really on the ball for the first couple of days, feeling like I was having energy to do all the things I needed to do and wanted to do, trying to get things done from my endless to-do list. And then it all just got ahead of me, and the last part of the week, I simply gave up. One night I was so tired and discouraged, I put the kids to bed, sat on social media for a while, pumped and read, and then got ready for bed. I didn't do any cleaning up and putting away, as I usually do at the end of a day to prepare for the next day. And that's what happens. Things just get away from me, they all pile up, and I just quit. Only for a day or two, of course, and then I start trying again. I keep thinking I need to figure out how to get things done and not feel stressed and also be able to enjoy my kids and my baby. 

Because that's the one thing that I really feel I must do: enjoy my baby. This first year of babyhood goes by so fast, and if I don't stop to enjoy him, the year will be over and I'll wish I had it back. So, that's my new goal lately. To stop every so often just to enjoy him -- to play with him, sing to him, hold him, snuggle him, stare at him, kiss his sweet little cheeks, hold his sweet little hand, enjoy his giggles and gummy smiles, the way his face lights up when I look at him. He is the sweetest little man, and I'm already sad thinking of how much he's already grown.

Anyway. On to less sad thoughts. In a nut shell, life has gotten busy, and that's not normal for me, and I'm trying to learn how to cope. There was one week, right after my family left, that was unusually busy for me and I was stressed sooooo much. I was teaching preschool that week. And the kids had dentist appointments. And I took dinner to David and Wendy (Kate passed away at the beginning of September; I should really give that another paragraph). And I was planning a baby shower for Gina Smith. And I ran a million errands in preparation for said baby shower. And we had a double date night with the Christensens. It just felt like one thing after another, and it was too much, honestly. All good things, but I wasn't coping well. And my kids were taking the brunt of it. Gotta find that balance. 

Our theme for preschool the week I taught it was the farm. We read some farm books, drew and colored spots on a cow, played duck-duck-goose (it was HILARIOUS watching all those little 3 year olds try to play that game... they didn't reeeaaally understand it), 

But even after that week was over, I expected things to slow down, and they did a little bit, but not that much.

Brooke's Baptism

The week of labor day was quite an exciting one for us. On labor day, Daniel and the kids and I went on a little adventure. The kids didn't have school and Daniel didn't have work, so we drove into the mountains to go on a hike to Donut Falls. We took a picnic lunch, put Sawyer in a baby carrier that I wore, and hiked up to the falls. It was a fun little family outing, and the kids were real troopers on the hike. We saw a big moose on the way back down, eating in the foliage, which was pretty awesome. 

Mom and dad, Julie and her boys, and Diane's family came into town on Wednesday of that week, getting in late that night. Julie and her little boys, and Diane's family stayed here with us, and mom and dad were at Denise's house, and the big Dunnihoo boys stayed with Brian and Sammy. The whole latter part of that week was just a big party. 

Daniel's birthday was on Thursday, so the whole day was taken up with birthday stuff: shopping, cooking, cake making, decorating. It was busy, but wonderful, and everyone pitched in to help. He requested Hawaiian haystacks for dinner and the same cake Brooke had for her birthday. 

Friday we just hung out at my house, and a bunch of our party went shopping at the outlets. Dad and I stayed home to watch kids and hold down the fort, which was alright by me. Everyone felt bad about that; but I was fine. I wanted to be able to supervise naptimes and be home for the girls getting off the bus. That night was a split guys/ girls night. The boys went to have sushi in Orem at Brian and Scott's favorite sushi place, and the girls stayed at my house for Cafe Rio and chatting about a bunch of nothingness. It was fun! 

Saturday was the big day. We all rushed to get ready and out the door. Daniel took Brooke early so that they could get dressed and ready for the baptism, while I followed with the rest of the family. Because of covid restrictions, we were only allowed 20 people in the baptism with us, and it was really difficult deciding who we would invite. We have so much family here in Utah, and then most of our family from Oregon came as well. Brooke's baptism could've been really big with so many people, and it made me a little sad that we couldn't have that. We ended up inviting the cousins closest to Brooke and one parent to accompany them. So we had: both sets of grandparents, our family (we didn't count Sawyer in our number though 😂 he slept the whole time anyway), Julie and Makai, Diane and Owen, David and Anna, Brian, Jennie and Emily. 

 

Even though we didn't have many people with us, it was still really special. We also couldn't take up too much time, because they had several kids getting baptized and we couldn't overlap with them at all. So all we did was an opening song (a child's prayer) and prayer, a short talk/ testimony from Gramma Holbrook and the baptism. 

I ended up kind of liking that there were few people and that it was shorter. It was more reverent and focused on the baptism itself rather than all the other stuff that happens at a baptism (music and talks). Brooke asked Julie and I to be the witnesses, which was pretty special for me. I had to rush back to the dressing room quickly, though, so that I could help Brooke out of the font and it her dress. 

She was so cute and sweet in the dressing room after her baptism. It was such a special few moments, helping her dry off and her dressed. I don't even remember what we talked about, but I felt so happy and close to her. She was pretty nervous in the few days beforehand, not knowing quite what to expect. We had practiced what happens with her, but it's still kind of unknown when you do it yourself. But afterwards, she was happy and excited. 

They moved us to another room for the confirmation and ending of the program, so that they could sanitize the room for the next family. Dad was playing the piano while our family members were writing notes to Brooke for her baptism book when we got into the room. Daniel led Brooke to the front of the room and invited all the men to participate as he confirmed Brooke and gave her the Holy Ghost. Brother Christensen was the member of the bishopric that was conducting our program. So he said a few words, counseling Brooke to read her scriptures and pray every day to invite the Holy Ghost into her life every day. And then we ended with "I am a child of God". It was quick but wonderful. 

 

 

We took a few pictures outside of the church building, and then rushed home so that we could do Sawyer's baby blessing. We knew that family were going to be in town for Brooke's baptism, so we waited to do Sawyer's blessing until then so that at least my parents wouldn't have to make two trips. Plus, it made for an extra special day. Fortunately, the baby blessing outfit still fit him, though it was a little short in the legs. 

 

 

Daniel gave Sawyer a beautiful blessing at our home, and then we took some more pictures and invited everyone to stay for a little lunch. It was wonderful having all the family with us for the day! 

 

We had that day and night to all hang out (all the girls got invited by Melanie to go to Denise's house for a movie night, which was fun. Julie, Diane and I had Shelby do some henna on us, which was amazing!), and then everyone was planning to leave on Sunday. 

Before coming here, Julie, mom and dad, and Diane and Hou called and said that Medford was burning down. Diane and Hou weren't even planning on coming at all because Diane had work. But Diane's dentist that she works for left town and canceled all of her patients appointments and closed the office for the rest of the week. And since Diane's schedule had suddenly opened up, they decided to come. They had been on evacuation alert, though they hadn't been evacuated yet. It was crazy to see the pictures of the fires and smoke, so close to where they live! There've been so many fires all up and down the west coast. I was worried about them going back to Medford amidst all that, and tried to convince them to stay a little longer while things settled down in Medford. But they had to get back to their lives. Julie ended up staying till the following Wednesday, for a few reasons, and it was nice having her for those extra days. We didn't do much those last few days, just hung out and let the kids play together. It was kinda nice. 

I'm so glad everyone came. It was a wonderful week!