A New Look

I decided it was time for a new look. Our other header was summery, and I had planned to change it for fall, for Thanksgiving, and/or for Christmas. I decided to use a scrapbook page and alter it for the blog header, so I finally updated it. :)

Although it's cooling off, we seem to still have fall weather here in Virginia. Tom is working on finals now, and we're getting ready for a Christmas here! We should try to find Santa, and maybe even get a picture. For now, we have our Christmas jammies!

I have a random childhood memory of dancing to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" while we decorated our Christmas tree. Until 2002 we always had a real tree. I love going to get a tree, smelling the pine and being together with family. When I scrapped this page, I thought of this song, and was reminded of these things. So, the girls are here, rockin' around and decorating this little tree.

Ramona is seven months old on Friday! She's very active physically and verbally- she's been growling like a lion all day. We've noticed that she combines her rolling with army crawling to get around, and occasionally she gets up on her knees and rocks forward and back like she's revving up to crawl. She scoots backward on her hands and knees, so we're sure by Christmas, her first Christmas, she'll be crawling!

Eliza's sentences are getting more complex, and she loves to say EVERYTHING we say. She's our shadow, both physically and verbally. :) Eliza loves our little photo shoots. She was thrilled to be in matching jammies with Ramona and loves to see the pictures after we've taken them. This will be Eliza's third Christmas!

Well, that's enough for today. We'll be back soon! :)

So Much To Be Grateful For!

Well, I'm late! We hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We are so grateful for you, our family and friends.

We went to the home of Sam, Raelynn and Kate in our ward. It was fun to be with them and several other families. Everyone worked so hard to make it wonderful. Thanks to all of you!

Skype is amazing; we got to visit with family that way. We had Mona and Eliza playing and crawling around in front of the laptop on the floor. Oh, and it's official - Mona can sit independently now! Once she's up she has no problem staying there.

This photo is a little old, but here the girls are with a little turkey. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Tom, Jen, Eliza and Ramona

The Decline of Fall

Now that fall is almost over I had better post those photos that I meant to do a few weeks ago. Ramona is rolling across the room and sitting up almost completely on her own. Here's a page about her learning to sit. When I scrapped this page she was still falling every time I sat her up. Now she's sitting on her own for a while and when she falls it's usually intentional, to be able to reach or roll to something.

We love the fall in Virginia; it's just starting to get cold here now. We went to the Fall Festival at Cox Farms last month with other law students' families and ever since then Eliza asks if she can go to the farm to see the cows. As soon as it was in sight Eliza was squealing and giggling with excitement. She loved being with the other kids, fearlessly sliding down slides and climbing up hills to get to them. She played in the hay and with the goats. Mona cried during the entire hay ride, but Eliza loved it. We had apples (Eliza's first whole apple) and cider. Of course, we took photos! We had so much fun there, it will have to be a new tradition. (It was in the mid 80's that day!)

This one is a two-page layout, click on it for a better view. "I Heart Fall."

We'll be back soon with a post for Thanksgiving! :)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Our little girls are sick, so we're staying home today. We've been trying on costumes all month, but haven't gone anywhere. :) Eliza doesn't eat candy anyway. Yesterday when we came home from the park the ladies at the front desk shared their Halloween donuts with Eliza. That made her Halloween!! In her prayer at lunch she was grateful for dessert AND for chocolate (donuts).

Here are some Halloween pages! "Miss Mona Can Moooo Can You?" ;)

Here are a few from Halloweens past! My brother Dave in 1983, really enjoying his candy. Mom wrote on the back of many of our photos. The quote in the bubble was written by Mom.

I LOVED that my mom made the most wonderful costumes in the world for us. As I think about how much I loved them, I get ambitious to make them for Eliza and Mona. Then I find costumes on clearance and decide not to. Maybe when I get better at sewing it won't be so much more "expensive" to make them!

Here we are, the Halloween of 1988. I was Cinderella, Dave was an executioner, Sara was a ballerina, and Teri was making her famous "scary witch" face. Sweet memories...

This is for Dave and Sara, It's not exactly a Halloween page, but I dressed them up, so I thought I'd add it into this post. I love this photo where they're "Just Clowning Around."

Happy Halloween!

How Long Has That Been There?

About a week ago we were conversing with our friend, Lauren, regarding the teething stage. Her six-month-old girl was getting her first tooth. When asked about Ramona, I replied that she hadn't begun teething. Later, as Ramona was crying, Lauren spotted Mona's tooth!

Please excuse the poor photography, some of you may know how difficult it is to capture a baby's tooth. I slightly enhanced the tooth for you. :) The happy, proud owner, our little Mona. She's 5.5 months old now!

Thanks for sharing this special moment with us! Tee hee hee!

Our Cowgirls

Halloween is here and I thought I'd better post these photos. We have many costumes because I'm always buying them on clearance, so you may see others. These are their "official" costumes, because matching is too, too cute, right? Special thanks to Aunt Sara for making these possible!!

Here's our little sheriff, Ramona. I love how she held onto her vest.

I've finished a couple scrapbook pages too (they're clickable for a better view). Here's our cowgirl with her rockin' steed.


This one is my personal favorite, the sweet sisters.

Thanks for having a peek!

Miss You Aunt Sara!

It was never my intention to post only once a month... :). We've been having fun with Sara here! She just returned form the Tucson, AZ mission in August. She visited Dave and Kimi in Chicago, IL and then came to D.C. for two weeks!! We loved learning a little Spanish from her, hearing about her mission, and making food with her. Eliza LOVES having a special buddy and Ramona loved being carried everywhere in the baby bjorn by her auntie. Eliza loves to see the pictures we took with Aunt Sara. Here are some pages of our fun:

The National Archives
Sara and Eliza (2.5 years)

Forever Buddies

The National Arboretum
The Bonsai and Penjing Museum
Sara and Ramona (5 months)

Sara also made possible a few Halloween photo shoots. I'll post those pages later. Thanks for all the fun Sara!

Rockin' and Rollin'

Another milestone for Ramona. She's just over four months and has begun rolling over and scooting and rotating on her back, all while blowing bubbles. Here's the page I did of her today. She's four months and "Full of Wonder."

Journaling: Ramona will be four months in two days (in the photo). She is happily exploring her surroundings by observation. Lately she’s begun to grab hold of things- the container Mommy is using to rinse her at bath time, the faucet of running water, the hymn book the sister next to us in church is holding. She loves to hear songs, especially when her big sister sings them. She is beginning to roll over... soon there will be even more of the world within her reach.

A Child Willing To Submit

We have been taught by Eliza's sweet willingness. Lately we ask her to do something and she will respond with "Okay, I want to ____." Whether it's cleaning, drinking water instead of juice, sometimes even taking a nap - she'll usually do it willingly.

Eliza loves singing. I know she's awake in the morning when I hear "SunBEAM," the ABC's, or "mommies going shhh, shhhh, shhh." One of her favorites is "The Wheels On The Bus." She has been asking for the "fish fish fish" verse for the past month. I wondered if maybe a silly nursery leader taught them a fishtailing bus verse. Yesterday I remembered that the wipers on the bus go "swish swish swish." That's her "fish!"

Ramona loves singing and dancing. She'll put her arms up and twist in her bouncer while she kicks. "Pat A Cake" brings a smile to her face at almost any time. She bursts out laughing when she goes "up and down" as a person on the bus. Eliza loves to sing to Mona to cheer her up.

At about four months old now, Ramona's hair is getting long and Daddy sometimes says it looks like a helmet. Soon we'll be able to put elastics and clips in... we did a little experimenting today. Ramona's first pigtails:

Toddler Talk

I like to record Eliza's latest sayings... lately in addition to taking notes on what Eliza says, I have to do a little research.

Recently I was cutting a cantaloupe and Eliza ran into the room and said "xi gua! I like xi gua! I'm excited (hee hee)." One of the Mandarin DVDs Tom got for Eliza has fruits and vegetables on it. Sure enough, xi gua is watermelon. Last week Eliza ran from the kitchen asking for a banana in Mandarin (I still need to look that one up). Then yesterday Eliza was counting on her fingers... "one, two, four, eight... yi, er, san, wu, shi."

Tom and Eliza are starting to communicate in Mandarin. I guess I'd better work on it too!

Newbie In The Blogosphere...

Here's our little weblog, The Chronicle. Jen loves reading blogs and would like to share our story too so... here we go!

Our latest little adventure was in Georgetown. The day was overcast and cool. It was so nice to be outside without having to worry about Ramona's eczema flaring up from the heat. Before it started raining we saw most of the campus. Eliza loved the fish in this pool of water. Isn't she looking grown up?

A week ago we went down to Mount Vernon. We got there and realized that we'd forgotten the Bjorn and Jen's season pass. Instead of touring Washington's estate again (which we love) we ended up walking the trail along the Potomac. It was beautiful, but STEAMING HOT! We'll admit we're pretty wimpy. Eliza loves being outside, but she was so hot that she said she wanted to "go home, sit on the couch, and watch a show." Although, she would love a show anytime! Even Tom, a seasoned desert dweller, was ready to go. So after walking a short distance we snapped a few pictures and headed home. Check out Mona's huge smile! She's THREE months old!

Well, that's it for our first post. See you next time!