Serena - 9/10 months

Serena is now a little over 10 months.  At her 9 month check-up she weighed in at a little over 13 pounds.  She's gaining weight, but still is petite as ever!

In just the past few weeks she finally learned how to crawl.  She'll now poke her head around corners, then squeal as if to say, "I'm HERE!!!" And she's got her two bottom teeth.  

The rest of the girls love playing with her - especially Norah.  She's always hugging and kissing Serena, and bringing her toys.  Such a joy to see them all together.

Be Not Afraid

Today Mason and I gave talks today in sacrament meeting on...chastity.  Yes, chastity.  We were quite surprised with the topic, seeing that it normally isn't spoken about from the pulpit (unless it's General Conference).

I was suuuuuuuper nervous.  We had a month to prepare, and while writing my talk I felt guided in what I was going to say, I still felt like it was too harsh and direct.  I was worried in how it would come across in my delivery.  But this year I decided to live by the motto "Be Not Afraid," so I trusted in my promptings and went with it.  (Inspired by a blog post I recently read about choosing a word or phrase each year to exemplify and live by).

And an amazing thing happened.  For every talk I have given in sacrament meeting, from the time I was a teenager, I have had that pounding heart and shaky legs for the duration of my talks.  But not today.  For the first time I felt calm and at peace, and spoke much more confidently than I ever had while addressing my ward.  I knew the Spirit calmed my soul to help me deliver the message I knew I was suppose to give.

Afterwards, sooooo many people came up to me and Mason to tell us what a wonderful job we did with such a difficult topic.  I was glad that I had followed my promptings, and that the Spirit did help me when I needed it most.

Great Sunday all around.

New Year, New....

...everything!  Well, sort-of.  I gave my blog a facelift, and I'm going to realize my goal of having a website to showcase my art and promote my work.  And also try and utilize social media with all that.  Seems daunting?  A bit, but it's a long time coming.

Christmas 2011

For Christmas this year Mason's youngest sister C.C. came to visit. Our girls love it when C.C. comes. She's lots of fun and the girls just have a good time with her. A few days after Christmas we went up to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It was the girls' first time. They had such a good time that we are planning a return trip very soon!


 Christmas Eve
 

 

Keira showing us a star while we read a poem about the symbols of Christmas

Mason and Ava leading us in Christmas carols

Grandma and Serena

Grandpa and Serena

The tree after Santa came


Christmas Day

Since we had church in the morning, we let the girls see their gifts from Santa, then opened the rest when we got home

Some pictures of everyone after church

Our silly girls!  (Minus Serena, who was napping)

Getting warm by the fire!

Onto the presents!

Exploratorium

This is a painting I made for Norah's room.

Two years ago.

more art

As a busy mother of four, it's been tough for me to find time to devote to my artwork. Over the past two weeks (and watching Conference solidified my resolve) I've decided to put forth more effort. And now that my kids are getting a little older, it's a little easier. I'm not perfect, and maybe I should do more, but for now my goal is one sketchbook page a day and working on Serena's bedroom painting on the weekends. And to kick it off, here a cute little zebra from last week.

So happy drawing to me!

hello holiday season

To ring in the next three months of holiday fun, last night we made ghost cookies. They are pretty simple really, but tons of fun to do with kids. They are Nutter Butter cookies dipped in white chocolate with mini chocolate chip eyes. The girls had a blast making them, and Mason had a fun treat waiting for him when he came home from the Priesthood session.

Happy Halloween!