Autumn

Highlights of October have been cooler weather (although I'm jealous of all you who are enjoying brisk fall weather and brightly colored trees), Halloween of course, visiting a pumpkin patch/farm, going to the beach, Papa visiting, and a visit from Richard's cousins - the Ramptons and the Williams. Fun! Pictures of our last weeks on the latest slideshow, although we neglected to take enough pictures of our most fun moments :-(. And below you'll see our Star Wars obsessed son and our cute little munchkins doing one of their daily performances. I think one of the most common phrases at our house is "Watch this Mom!" I would like to clone myself - one for watching, one for actually doing anything. Love you all!! Life is good. Please keep in touch!

Peanut Butter

Chewbacca

SO LONG

It has been SO LONG since I've attended to this pathetic blog of ours! Our summer since the end of May has been so jam packed with events and... well stuff going on - don't want to bore all y'all :-) So I'm just gonna skip to the here and now: Currently, Richard is in a month of neuro-anesthesiology, which he likes. I'm very busy with all the usual stuff, plus all the different aspects of my relief society calling, and trying to squeeze in a few "extra" things like sewing, painting, and exercise. Gabriella and Sofia are taking piano, voice, and dance, and loving it! We still do school together, and Sofia also has a 3 year-old preschool she attends once a week (just a swap between mom's in our ward, like what we did with Gab's when she was that age). Lorenzo is a delight! He's a social, climbing, talking, silly little ham who loves to be involved and make us laugh. We enjoy our kids so much! COME VISIT! :-)

See 2 new movies below (sorry about the nudity!), and 2 new slideshows ("August '09" and "family photo shoot")

little swimmers

exquisite dancing

D and C 109:8

Brag

Can i brag about my family for a minute? First of all, Richard is Resident of the month at Memorial Hermann Hospital - the huge facility where he works.  This is no small recognition, though he wouldn't want me to mention it - you know how he is.  They wrote a paragraph in the newsletter about him that was so complimentary - I couldn't help but wholeheartedly agree with their assessment (and they don't know the half of it!)  Secondly, I also adore my kids!  We have so much fun together!  The girls are learning by leaps and bounds - we love doing school together.  I keep thinking their enthusiasm for it will wear off, but they still always cheer when I tell them it's time for school.  Lorenzo is starting to say so many new words, and it seems like each day he can climb higher, or do something more hilarious.  I am SO grateful for my family.  They delight me! And so grateful that I can stay home and focus my energies on caring for them all.  Alright, I'm done bragging now.  

As for any other news from last month... a highlight was a visit from the Rampton's (Becca, Richard's cousin, and her fam.)  We had so much fun with them and hope they'll come back soon! You'll see a few pics of them in the slideshow...

HAPPY

Review our March slideshow and you'll see pictures of our visit to Brazos park (about 45 minutes from our house).  We saw at least 20 alligators there, the craziest of which was a big daddy one with another smaller, dead alligator in its mouth.  I think he was taking a nap before eating it.  Or something.  We were standing probably 20 feet from it when we realized it was there.  Doesn't that sound unsafe?  But we were told "everyone's doing it" so we went ahead because it all sounded so intriguing :-).  But really, apparently in 25 years of the park being open no humans have ever been attacked.  It just seems so strange....

Also in the pictures: our visit to a farm with friends where we picked strawberries; our visit to a fire station for "school"; fun at the carnival / rodeo that was here in downtown Houston recently (Sofia was the daredevil and Gabs was scared to go on just about everything, even the horses - strange the phases kids go through); pics from a visits to the children's museum and the park and the zoo; also the girls getting ready for their dance class in outfits they clearly came up with on their own.

Life is good!  We are truly so happy and are grateful for each day.  We see God's hand in our life and feel so blessed... we imagine ourselves storing up the happiness to keep in reserve for potentially harder days ahead...