The Weekly Photo (s)

Ugh.....

I got behind again! There has been a lot going on and I have started on some posts, but never got around to finishing them. I also cannot get this Syrian refugee crisis/Paris bombings/ISIS stuff out of my head. My heart hurts so much for the refugees and I want to help. I am also so infuriated that U.S. governors (half of them) will not let refugees into their states (even though the immigration process is very thorough and safe). Plus, the U.S. is hardly accepting any refugees and the small amount that Obama wants to bring in, has crazy right-wingers up in arms about it. I just don't understand how people can be so un-feeling and anti-human. It has been troubling me greatly. 

This week is Thanksgiving and I feel very blessed and lucky to be where I am. Running for my life with my husband and little girls, with hardly any food or water, sleeping wherever and having nightmares of the horrors we've seen would be a very grim situation. While I am grateful for what I have here, I am so extremely sorry for these Syrian refugees and I want to help. What can I do?

My brother is on his mission for the LDS church in Sweden. He is right in the midst of it, with refugees streaming into Europe for sanctuary. His missionary letters are wonderful and his pictures beautiful. You should really consider hopping on over there. https://scottboys.wordpress.com

Here are some Weekly Photos and hopefully I will write again soon.

For November 2:

November 16th:

November 23rd:

7 Months

I feel like these past couple months have flown by! I love, love, love babies and am really loving mine. She has grown up so much this month.

Just look at that posture!

 She was sitting up at six months and is pretty much a pro at it now. She scoots and rolls around, and also turns circles on her tummy (like a clock hand). She is getting much stronger and I predict she will be crawling within the next month or so.

 She still rather prefers me to anyone else (as it should be), but is much better about not crying when other people hold her. When she is in a new place, or even a place she has been, she takes some time to warm up to people and mostly observes and has a very serious expression. Once Alice warms up, she is all smiles! She has also started getting excited when Tyler comes home, which is so cute!

 Alice lights up so much when Elanor plays with her. Alice is also extremely patient with Elanor and only cries if she believes herself in real danger. I obviously watch Elanor very close (Elanor just loves her so much, so I have to remind her to not smother Alice with love).

As with most babies, Alice loves being outside. She also really loves animals and gets so excited when she sees a dog or cat.

 Alice is now sleeping through the night!!! I will write more on this in another post, but if your baby has trouble sleeping or napping I recommend The Sleepeasy Solution.

 Alice loves to eat and will eat anything! Her favorite is probably avocados, but she does seems to really enjoy soup broth as well. Alice is getting that pincher thing down and has started getting food in her mouth herself. She seems to be quite a dainty eater and tries to be very careful about getting food to her mouth.

 She is also pretty funny and likes to make us laugh with faces like these or funny noises. (She is doing this face on purpose.)

It is so fun to get to know Alice and figure out her personality. She is quite a bit different from our crazy, social, fun-loving, deep feeling Elanor. Alice seems quite calm, quiet and observant. She does however let you know when she is tired or upset in a pretty big way. Alice needs time to adjust to different places and people and is pretty dependent on me and needs me close. She likes to make us laugh, but does not seem to be an attention-seeker (being an attention-seeker is not a bad thing--being one myself as a child--so is Elanor). Alice also really enjoys music and dancing. She has the greatest smile and brings so much joy to our little family. 

Halloween 2015

It was really fun to have a new member of the family for Halloween, as it has been the three of us for the last four years. Elanor wanted to dress as a squirrel in her costume from the Willy Wonka play, so we themed our costumes around that. I made Alice a little acorn costume and Tyler and I were trees.

My face paint looked pretty good in person. I tried to make my skin look like bark.

Alice was such an adorable acorn and I love that Tyler humors me and dresses up. Though I suspect he likes it/does not mind and loves how excited Elanor gets when we are all in costume.

 Another one at Mema's (Tyler's mom) house! 

I did not get any good pictures unfortunately! It was too rainy outside and too dark inside to get any decent pictures.

It was raining so much (it had not rained for awhile and then this week, and especially on Halloween, it was torrential!). We had an umbrella, but Elanor was too excited and running from house to house to stay under an umbrella. Plus, her head was covered and she was warm.

A wet, but very successful squirrel with a full bucket of candy.

There is this house in Troutdale (little old people), who go all out and decorate for every holiday. Elanor loved trick-or-treating here!

 Look at that happy baby!

Here is Elanor's pumpkin. She just wanted everything to be very themed this year!

 We were able to see family, visit with friends, trick-or-treat in the rain, eat pizza and eclairs--so it was a good night! 

The Weekly Photo

This is the best photo we got, as it was soooo rainy and thus we were unable to go outside for pictures! Also, it got dark very fast.

We did have a lovely time though, more on that tomorrow!

The Weekly Photo

We went to the zoo this week with some good friends! We all have girls as well, which was kind of fun. This was the best group shot we got.

The lions were awesome this time (actually it was probably one of the few times I have seen a lion awake!). They were walking around, licking the windows and came right up to us!

So very cool.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

I love going to pumpkin patches.  My longtime friend, Kate, invited us to go with her and her daughter, Killian, to a patch near their house. It was super busy, which was not my favorite, but we had a fun time!

 Elanor, Alice and Killian.
 I did not really get a good picture of these three, as there is not a single one where they were looking.

These next few pictures are so very cute!

As I already said, Elanor loves doing these cut-out face pictures, but for some reason looked super bored in most of the pictures. Alice is pretty funny though and seems to be enjoying herself.

One thing I love about being back in Oregon, is seeing so many friends that I grew up with. Kate is one such person and I have known her for so long! We were in school together, did plays and ballet together, have traveled to England together, etc. She is one of my favorites. I hope our daughters can be friends too. We should have taken a picture together at the pumpkin patch!

The Weekly Photo

Elanor loves these cut-out face photo-ops, yet she is the one that looks bored in most of the pictures (she kept asking to take more and go to all of them that they had around this pumpkin patch).  This had to be a the Weekly Photo, because-- just look at Alice!

The Weekly Photo + a Little Rant About School

Elanor's 1st day of preschool.

This is the first year Elanor has gone to preschool. There are a variety of reasons I did not put her in earlier (too expensive, I taught her at home, and she had plenty of friends to play with already), but we decided to put her in this year because we just moved here and she needed friends, there was a close preschool with good reviews, it was inexpensive and we knew a couple kids going there. Elanor just started at the beginning of October and is loving it!

I think preschool is great and a couple hours a day, four days a week is perfect. I have been thinking and stressing about school ever since Elanor was born, because I don't know what to do! There are a lot of things I love about public school (variety of students, learn from a variety of teachers, its free, etc). However, there are a lot of things I do not like (too long of hours each day, too much homework/stress, they don't even learn all that much). School has changed so much since I went. The amount of homework and stress placed on kids, even small ones is so intense.  When one of my brothers was in school at Corbett as a freshman, he was in two AP classes, as all freshman had to at his school, and he said people would have anxiety attacks all the time over homework. It is just not necessary for school to be so intense. I do not think kids (high school, yes, but not so much that the average student has a panic attack about it) should have homework at all. If they cannot get it done the seven hours they are at school, then they do not need to do a further two hours when they get home. Kids should be able to play, have family time, etc. In other countries, such as Sweden, they have shorter days and shorter school years and yet out perform much of Europe. I love being in school and I want Elanor (and Alice) to experience that, but not in the schools we have in America. I don't really want to homeschool either. Perhaps for a year or two or whenever Elanor would want to, but I think learning in a diverse environment, such as public school is really wonderful. I basically wish Elanor could go to public school half of the day and then do homeschool as well. I am not sure it really works like that though.

Much of what we choose to do will be based on where we live at the time, the teachers at the school and how much I am able to help out at school (my mom did a ton at our school growing up). What do you do/plan to do? Thoughts, please?