My Micali Girl

I found a few pictures that hadn’t made it to the blog. Micali was so lucky to have her cousin Makenna come and stay a few weeks this summer and then Aunt KayKay and Aunt Kendra. She loves them so much and definitely enjoys the attention.

 

  Here she is posing with the “fancy” candlelight dinner we had with our frozen pizza on Firiday night. She was so proud  and we had to sing Happy Birthday to everybody a couple of times---even though it wasn’t anybody's birthday. Just a random thing she decided would be fun. I think we need to stock up on a few more candles. We had a great time together as a family. With the lights out Eli even ate his whole piece of pizza, pepporoni and sausage included. 

Micali is quite the character. I love her innocence. She is sure the world revolves around her and that everyone is very interested in her. Our neighbor passed us the other day while we were on a walk and she said “oh were you looking for me.” She thought since we had left that the neighbor and their dog were missing her. She is such a good big sister. Helps out a lot and plays so nice with her brother.

I have ran out of ideas on how to get her to stop sucking her thumb. The horse ride and stickers motivated her for 3 days but now I can’t get that thumb out of her mouth with anything I try. (I am willing to take suggestions)

I love that she is so appreciative and will always tell me thank you when I do stuff for her, she also still loves to snuggle randomly and will hug and kiss anybody when they say  something she really likes. Last night Luke was talking to her about taking her golfing next summer and she got a huge smile on her face and nearly tackled him as she ran to him to give him a kiss and a hug.

Sunday photo shoot

Micali had her pictures taken in this purple dress so I really wanted to get a picture of Abigail in it. She is a couple months older and much bigger but we managed to squeeze her in to it. I thought she was adorable. Micali and Elijah decided to join in on the fun. Micali isn’t scared in that picture….that is her attempt to smile with her eyes open.

It looks like Abigail ended the photo shoot with a lick on the nose from her brother. Somebody need to teach him to kiss WITHOUT the tongue.

Abigail loves her Daddy

Hot and Spicy Date Night

Saturday was packed full of fun. Luke and I even managed a date night. We waited to start the fun until the kids went to sleep. So at 8:30 we began the adventure.

Neither one of us had any idea what we were doing. But we trusted the internet to tell us just what to do. We found a recipe that had good reviews and decided we would just follow it as closely as  possible.

The date night activity----SALSA

What could be more hot and spicy?

Trying not to cry over the onions

Filling the last of the jars at 1:30 am

 

We seriously had so much fun chopping, dicing, talking, laughing, crying (over the many many onions) and solving world problems. I am glad I convinced Luke to help me out. I didn’t know that we would be in for a 6 hour project.

Finished with 21 pints of YUMMINESS!

8 months

2nd Annual Apple Picking Adventures

We went to an apple orchard again this year and picked a whole bunch of apples. They had a bad late freeze that took out more than half their apples but, we were fortunate to hear about the ones they did have.

Eli has an unhealthy obsession with DVDs---even if he isn’t watching one he would at least like to hold it. Here he is trying his best to get back in the van instead of helping us with the apple picking.

Micali couldn’t leave out Just Dog. He makes everything more fun.

Abigail and I weren’t much help either but we did manage to fill one bag.

And the best Apple Picker Award this year goes to…..

And a peek at last year

Pack Rat

I have felt like a pack rat the last couple weeks. We are storing up food for the winter months. I tried out something new too…Micali and I made apple pie filling. It was a lot of work but OH SO GOOD! We have also froze lots of fruit for our morning smoothies, pureed all sorts of fruits and veggies for Abigail’s baby food, and will soon be canning applesauce and salsa.

I can’t believe how much of a help Micali has been in this process. She just gets right in and does anything I ask her too. Her favorite was peeling the apples and pulling the pits out of the peaches after I peeled and and cut them. I am so glad she likes to be in the kitchen and help me out. Part of the reason may be because we do all of these fun things while the “little” ones are napping so she gets to stay up and it is her special time with just me.

This past weekend

On Sunday morning we loaded up and went to watch conference with our great friends the Chadwicks. They were out at a cabin in the mountains. It was a beautiful drive. Along the way we ended up with TWO flat tires but, luckily our van has tires that you can drive 120 miles on them while they are flat. It wasn’t the smoothest ride after that and you can’t go over 50mph but we were so glad we were not stranded in the mountains in the middle of NO WHERE!

When we finally got to the cabin I was in awe of the beauty. It was so peaceful watching conference and looking out the windows at this…

Splits

Abigail has a strange way of getting comfortable. Every time she is on the floor she ends up in this position. I always move her legs back underneath her and moments later she looks like this again. She really doesn’t like this position when she is trying to roll back over to her back. It doesn’t work so well for her.

she wasn’t sitting and fell forward this was just her laying on her tummy and she pulled her legs forward like this.

Her new nickname… “Splits”

Primary

Micali started going to Primary in January. She has adjusted well and is totally loving it. Her teacher is great and she also has made some good friends in the class.

Luke and I started serving in the Primary about a year ago right before the sacrament meeting program they do each year. We have a great class of the 10-11 year olds. We love our calling and have enjoyed teaching them the stories of the Old Testament this year. The theme for Primary this year is “I know my Savior Lives” So, all the songs focus on Jesus Christ. It is so awesome to be in primary and feel of the spirit of these children while they sing songs about the Savior.

My favorite is “I Know that My Savior Loves Me.” I get goose bumps nearly every time we sing it. It has been fun to practice the songs at home with Micali in preparation for this years program which, we will be having in a few weeks.

She is memorizing these songs so well. Just take a look…..