Thanksgiving 2013

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Partridge home with lots of good friends---Sheltons, Partridges, Stahelis, Elder Johnsons (yup, two Elder Johnsons in a companionship together), Micah, and ChrisP's parents. The food was great, and the company was stellar. My only complaint is that there weren't enough leftovers. But each family ended up doing their own mini-Thanksgiving after our big joint one, so that problem was solved! 

I love Thanksgiving, and not JUST for the food aspect (though, that is a big factor). This year, in conjunction with Whitni, I was in charge of pies, turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. It all turned out pretty delish!

This year, the Hoyts "Thankful Tree" included things like "temples," "Jesus," "family," and "gratitude" (yep, Emery's grateful for gratitude). When I think about the blessings I have, I don't know why I EVER complain! (But I do, so I've obviously got some work to do...)

We didn't get any pictures at Thanksgiving itself (WHAT?!), but lest I leave this post photo-less, here's a family pic we took in November at Lullwater Park on Emory Campus.The fall colors are beautiful and though the world and life at large is far from perfect, this Thanksgiving found me feeling very happy and blessed.

How Time Flies...

Easter Day 2013, in ascending order of due date: 

Erika, Me, and Rosey (whose due date was the day this photo was taken!)

Last week (November 12th) at Mason Mill Park: 

Cameron (mine), Dane (Rosey's), and Grant (Erika's)

 I can't believe it was only about half a year ago we were all pregnant and anxiously awaiting the day our little guys would get here! 
Cam and Dane are about 9 or 10 weeks apart, and Grant was born 7 or so weeks after Cam, I think. We need to get some more photos of these guys...and hopefully get all of them to look at the camera :)

And, of course, the big sisters:

Rozlyn (2), Braelynn (3), and Emery (2.5)

Football

As wife to a football loving husband, I'm learning that a big theme of Fall is FOOTBALL. Watching it, playing it, talking about it, etc. I'm glad Pete has friends that play with him and entertain his obsession, because I just really can't help him in this area. I feel bad, I really do. I just can't get into it. I grew up in more of a basketball, cross-country, track and field sort of family. Until I get my hands on The Wife's Guide to a Football Loving Husband (if only such a book existed!), I'll continue to bake treats and food for football parties and show my support in other ways. When asked if I like football, I think I'll go with Emery's response to that same question: "No. But maybe someday I will!"

Pete's 2013 intramural flag football team and the other DPT team

As a side note, Pete recently found some really cheap football cleats to replace his old ones and picked up a pair for his friend, Jason, too. Since I'm trying to be supportive of the football obsession, I said enthusiastically, "Wow, this is awesome. You guys are going to tear it up at the Turkey Bowl this year in your matching cleats!" 

Then we both laughed.

(not because we doubt that they will tear it up...just because that phrase sounds a little funny coming out of my mouth).

Playing with guys from the ward on a very wet day

At the ward Trunk or Treat

In the Life of Emery

(this post has been in the making for a while now...like since the late summer months. But I still want to post it!)

Oh this girl.

She loves acorns. Speaking of which, here's a fun acorn treat recipe we recently made together.

She reminds me how exciting small things can be and how fun life is when you're not always keeping track of the minutes passing by and the next thing that needs to be done. She says and does the funniest things! She wants to be doing and going alllll the time and one of my favorite things about her is her imagination. Here's a smattering of fun quotes, stories, and adventures in the life of Emery.

Emery: Mom, Maybe if I wear my sunglasses, it will keep the thunder and lightning out!
(she hates thunder and lightning).

She's picking up on lots of uh, terms, lately..."Mom, Cam is just chilling out in his car seat" and "that pumpkin is legit!"

Some days I think we should speak a little better English. But she often corrects her daddy and his weird words ("Dad, it's tomaTOES, not tomatees."), so I guess we're doing something right.

Recently, we found a little caterpillar and brought it home to see if it would make a cocoon and hatch into a butterfly. When we asked Emery what we should name it, she said "Water." "Water? Are you sure?" We asked. "Yep, I'm sure." Well, little Water became quite the pet. Before going to bed at night Emery would ask questions like "Dad, what color is Water?" or "When I wake up, can I look at Water?" She constantly wanted to watch him in his little plastic-container habitat and was always saying "Water's so cute!" We eventually decided to release Water back into the great outdoors, with Emery's blessing of course (at one point I thought he died, and then his lovely little habitat started smelling, and I did some research and found out he would become a moth, not a butterfly, and well, apparently a caterpillar is a little too high maintenance of a pet for me. Bad news, since I really want a cat someday).

Saying "farewell" to Water

For our Family Home Evening a month or so ago, we went on a walk to catch butterflies. Emery was so excited to use her butterfly net. Hopefully the neighbors didn't mind us scoping out their butterfly bushes. Pete eventually caught one and we looked at it for a while before letting it go.

Whitney (best friend since 3rd grade) flew from Utah to visit us in Atlanta and Emery went with her on the huge Ferris Wheel that has recently been put in downtown Atlanta. I was a little nervous Ems might get scared, but Whit said she loved it!

photo from: http://www.ajc.com/photo/news/july-15-2013/pwF3h/

One day, Emery recited her version of Cam's birth story to me: "Mom, you had a baby in your tummy and then he popped out and I kissed him like this....Muuuuahh! He's so cute!" She is still taking the Big Sister role very seriously, and sometimes a little too seriously: "But Mom, I'm a big sister to go in the road BY MYSELF!" and "I'm a big sister. I'm not scared of anything. I'm braver than everything."

We all drove to the temple together as a family so that I could nurse Cameron right before going in. Emery loved being on temple grounds and seeing "Captain Moroni" (she won't say Angel Moroni for some reason) and playing with dad at the park during the session.

Once our morning run is over and we're back to the gate at our apartment complex, Emery is allowed to get out of the stroller and she runs the rest of the way to the sidewalk near our apartment where we do our stretching. She's a fast runner and an excellent stretcher..."Mom, I just need to go on a little run, my muscles are pretty tight."

The tennis court is our playground. Right outside the apartment, the tennis court has provided endless hours of tricycle riding, puddle jumping, ball bouncing, and running for little Ems and her friends. Nearly everyday, she asks to go play in the tennis court.

Probably the thing Emery spends the most time doing is taking care of her baby doll (right alongside me taking care of my baby Cam). She lays on her bed to nurse her doll, makes her rice cereal, reminds me to be quiet when her baby is sleeping, etc. She's going to be such a good mom someday! I'm realizing how important it is for me to be a good example to her. She often tells her "baby" word for word things I say to Cam: "Hi little guy! You're so cute!" and "Mom, my baby's eating good for me!"

She also spends a lot of time playing with playdough (my favorite recipe here)

I love this little lady!

Girls Night

Whitni, Stephanie, Angie, Anna, Rosey

These girls and the fun Girl's Nights we have together make me think I'm going to cry my eyes out on that fateful day in the not-too-distant future when I have to move away from Atlanta!

There's nothing like a little crafting, desserts, and girl talk to give life a little boost, right? I feel fortunate to have such good friends as neighbors and am looking forward to many a Girls Night in the future.

On this particular night, we worked on our own individual crafts and enjoyed chocolate fondue. And when I say "enjoyed chocolate fondue" I mean ENJOYED CHOCOLATE FONDUE. Like a chocolate feast. A celebration of all things delicious that one could ever hope to dip in chocolate. A beautiful array of food made exquisite by drenching in silky, creamy chocolate. Okay, I'm getting carried away (maybe I could start writing food poetry for hire?). I was just impressed by the yummy things these girls thought of to dip in chocolate: cake donuts, cheesecake bites, bananas, pretzel rods, apples (and caramel dip), rice kirspie treats, and marshmallows. Divine!

Cameron at 5 months

He sleeps in a closet

He often is called "Thomas"

And he's never had a blog post (all to himself)

Okay, well I did give his birth an exclusive blog post, but the poor kid is 5 months old and I haven't been doing any kind of monthly updates (and yes, he does sleep in my closet...or to be precise, he naps there. At night, he sleeps in the dining room. And I can't explain his nickname of Thomas, maybe his dad can do a guest post about that or something).

This kid has completely stolen my heart. I get accused by Pete on almost a daily basis of preferring Cameron over him. And of course it's not true! But I won't deny, I am pretty in love with this little boy. How could I not be?

At some point, gravity is going to catch up to his hair, and that will be a sad day.

At 5 months, Cameron...

-Goes to bed at 6:30 or 7 pm. I "dream feed" him around 10pm and then he either wakes up twice to eat or sometimes sleeps until 5 or 6 am when he eats and then goes back to bed for another hour or so.

-Eats every 3.5 to 4 hours during the day

-Loves his feet. He catches them with his hand and straight into his mouth they go.

-Weighs 15 lbs and is 26 in. long

-Loves watching the Big Sister, laughs when she jumps up and down.

-Rolled from his back to tummy on Halloween and now it's his favorite thing to do.

-Has my exact same skin tone (and I thought Emery was fair-skinned...). After crying, his face looks like it has been through a meat grinder. Just. like. me. Poor guy.

-Gets VERY excited about eating. He gets so excited he can hardly calm down enough to get a good feeding in. And he only likes eating while laying down. And he is very easily distracted. I find myself holding my breath while feeding him, because I'm afraid if I do, it will make him unlatch.

- Is just a content little guy. Fairly easy-going and happy most of the time.

And some more photos...

Yah, I just rolled over for the first time...pretty cool, huh, Mom?

October

Seriously? Must October be over already?

Here are the highlights of the month and an overload of photos...

My birthday included fun packages from my family and Pete’s family, a surprise heart attack on my door (thanks Rosey and Braelynn!), a delivery from the sweet tooth fairy (thanks, Heidi!), cheesecake and Mexican food at the Atkin's home the night before, breakfast from Pete and a diaper-duty free day, flowers and cards and chocolate, birthday wishes via email and text, and just when I thought I couldn’t handle any more food, Whitni brought me a food magazine (genius!) so I could dream about baking and consuming more. I felt loved and happy and I’m pretty sure 25 is going to be a great year!

We LOVED General Conference this month. We spent a couple sessions at the Cloward’s apartment and discovered that Emery was so enthralled with new-to-her toys that we were actually able to glean a lot from watching. We also had a potluck lunch with the 6 other LDS families in our apartment complex between sessions (we’re hoping to make that a monthly tradition).

Watching conference

Halloween was so fun this year! Emery was a grumpy, tired mess for our ward Trunk-or-Treat, so we ended up leaving early (which was a bummer because the Primary did and awesome job putting it together and it looked SO fun!). Luckily, trick-or-treating, a week later, was a much better experience. When we were getting ready to go, Emery saw her butterfly costume from last year hanging in her closet and exclaimed “Ohhh! I’d be SO pretty in that!” I agreed (naturally), so we got another year’s wear out of it. We did some last minute face painting that made the costume a little more fun, and I even got Cam a little monster costume (He had already worn his football outfit twice and I was ready for something new). Pete made a comment about how both our kids looked like blobs, but I think they were adorable!

Emery decided to use her butterfly net as a candy bucket

She loved her face paint! She was telling her friends about it as we trick or treated and how she "be'd so still" for me to paint it.

Here's our crew of friend we met up with to trick-or-treat. So funny how all the toddlers except 1 are girls and all the babies in the strollers are their little brothers

After trick-or-treating at the "Waffle House," a house where they give you waffles along with the candy when you trick-or-treat.

Cam is the furthest thing from a monster there could be, but he sure made a cute one! He was perfectly content hanging out in the stroller for an hour and a half while the Big Sister trick-or-treated

The monster zonked on the car ride home

Pumpkin Carving with Emery was a blast! She made squishy little “pancakes” with the pumpkin guts and you can tell from the photos how much she enjoyed the sliminess and fun our one-toothed pumpkin provided.

One date night, we left Emery at her friend's house and went to our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Duluth, Taqueria El Dorado. The plan was to meet the Stahelis and Partridges there, but we ended up getting there a little sooner and bedtime for the Cam-man was fast approaching, so, well, we just dug in without them. I’m glad I finally documented this restaurant because it is so good! It’s about a 40 minute drive in traffic, but worth it. Even more than we love this restaurant, we love these friends:

P's on the left, Staheli's on the right

The football babies. Cameron and Davis are 5 months apart and destined to be buddies.

Witches Lunch 2013

Halloween is coming up soon, so grab your hat and hop on your broom! 

What's your witch style? Glamorous, Spooky, Creative, Classic? 

Come in your finest witch wear and maybe you'll win a prize! 

We'll have food and fun for all. Feel free to bring your kiddies in their Halloween costumes, and sign-up to bring a dish to share!

My good friend, Lindsay, recently moved to Alabama after her hubby graduated PT school, and while I'm excited that she and her family are moving into the next stage of life, Atlanta just isn't the same without her! Part of the void left in my life with her gone (yes, the drama of that phrase is merited) included the annual Witches Lunch that she hosted each year in October. It's been so fun the past couple years to join my friends in their witch costumes for food and fun, also allowing our kids to get some more use out of their Halloween costumes. While I'm no party planner, I just couldn't stand the thought of there not being a Witches Lunch this year, so I asked my friends Erika and Kaitlin to help me plan one. Lindsey Partridge graciously allowed us to use her house (because we all have too-small apartments) and I think it was a success! Though, I must be honest, I much rather prefer to just GO to parties, rather than deal with the stress of PLANNING them.

I created a junior witch costume for Emery, re-used my witch stuff from the past two years, and Cameron went as a football. I was grateful that I didn't have to spend a dime on any of these costumes! Wait, that's a lie...the junior witch's "pet spider" was fifty cents. The rest were made using hand-me downs, craft supplies I already had, or were gifts.

And that photo in the bottom left corner is me pretending to run with my "football." Let's be honest, I'd look just as awkward were I not in a witch costume and were I actually holding a real football.

The witch winners for Most Spooky, Most Glamorous, Most Creative, and Most Classic:

Mainly we just chatted and ate tasty Halloween food, but we did get some entertainment watching the kiddos try eat donuts with no hands. Due to the large amount of infants, we had a nursing room and a sleeping room where anywhere from 1-3 babies were napping at any given time. Makes me smile :)

And here's my witch-in-training at the end of the party. Looking as pooped as me, sitting on the couch, drinking water. She was a trooper with all my busy-ness and preparations for this party.