We finished out October with such a fun Halloween night and then seemed to dive right into November. Charlotte is much more alert these days which seems to make the days go by even faster since when she's awake everyone just wants to sit and "play" with her, which has been a great tool to try to help us slow down and to just enjoy the little things. The days are definitely still full and most days I feel like I just run around from one place to the next but everyone seems to be thriving and are into the daily routines which are so helpful. I do love being able to walk to and from for both Joseph and Ella's schools so although I feel like I push the double stroller all day long, I have to admit that I actually love it, especially on the days when I don't have to get into the car at all. We don't have any complaints of being able to be outside so much in November!!
Julia's personality seems to get bigger every day. She has started calling out "Mom, Mom" in the mornings when she wakes up and although it is so cute it is also sad to hear it knowing that she is growing so fast. She still calls Joseph "budder" and Charlotte "baby Lar lar" so hoping those continue for a long, long time! She is continuing to do amazing without wearing diapers with just an occasional accident and will let anyone and everyone know that she is a "big girl!" We were walking home one day from school and a lady asked her what her name was and she proudly responded, "Big Girl!" I about died!!! She is still hard to understand by strangers but she is talking up a storm and we are all pretty good about deciphering what she is saying.
Rich's co-worker, and our friend, dropped off some hand me downs for the girls, including a scooter and the girls were so thrilled! Julia loves that she has her own now and doesn't have to fight Ella to use hers.
My Uncle Bruce and cousin, Bruce David, came into town the first weekend in November to spread my Aunt Gloria's ashes on the California coast since she loved it so much here. The visit with them was bittersweet but we are so glad that they came and we enjoyed the weekend with them knowing that Aunt Gloria was looking down on all of us being together, reminiscing about the good times with her. We had dinner at the Ozecks one night and then spent a day at my parent's home as well while they were in town.
Love these sweet sister moments. They can get on one another's nerves but for the majority of the time they do play so well together. Ella has begun referring to Julai as "honey", especially when they are pretend playing and it is the cutest thing! I am guessing that a teacher calls her "honey" but I just smile every time I hear her say it.
We went to a friend's birthday party on November 5th at Pump it Up and the kids had a blast jumping as well as playing the other games there together.
And they came home with pretty awesome party favors and spent the entire afternoon in them!
We continue to spend a ton of time in our cul de sac. The girls often will walk their babies when they need a break from riding their bikes/scooters and do such a great job of taking care of them.
On November 8th the girls came with me to vote, well, actually just to drop off my mail in ballot but they both got stickers and enjoyed playing at the playground after. What an election! I fell asleep on the couch that night as the ballots were being counted and when I awoke to feed Charlotte at 3:00 a.m. I truly was shocked to see that Trump pulled it off and will be our next President. My feelings are definitely mixed; however, I am choosing to be optimistic instead of fearful and can only hope and pray that our country and world come together so that the future can be brighter for these sweet kids of ours.
More fun at the Westwood Club later that week.
Ella and Julia love to play doctor with one another and one day when Ella was at school, Julia decided that Charlotte made a pretty good patient.
I just love that she's only 2 and knows that this is an otoscope.
Back in the cul de sac on November 10th.
Hanging with "too cool Charlotte" on November 11th.
LOVE!
Veteran's Day fell on a Friday this year so we had a nice long weekend, especially since Joseph didn't have school on Monday due to parent teacher conferences. Rich had to work on Friday but the kids and I met up with friends at the Poway community center to hang out and to check out the Superhero event that was going on. The barbells was our favorite station-look at these strong girls!!
Joseph and his final soccer game on November 12th and had such a fun season. He really enjoyed it and is asking to play soccer again in the spring instead of baseball. We also signed him up for weekly classes at North County Soccer Park in Poway in the meantime since the next soccer season doesn't start until March. The Black Widows didn't win many games but the boys all really got along well and for Joseph being the only kindergartner on the team he hung with them all well and held his own...and he learned the art of the "dab".
We decided to hit the beach on Sunday, November 13th. It was just too nice of a day in November not to. The kids didn't have faith formation (or "church school" as we call it) that day so we went to 9:00 mass and then came home, packed a lunch and headed to Del Mar. It was gorgeous and a great way to spend the day-just what I needed. I didn't think that the kids would go in since I knew that they water was going to be cold, but I should have known better. They were all in within the first five minutes of being there and loved every minute!
Charlotte hung with me in the shade and enjoyed her first day at the beach!
There were large mounds of sand right behind where we were sitting so they kept themselves entertained on them for a long time! Seriously, nothing makes me happier than seeing them play together so well.
Just chillin' in the bath on November 13th. She could stay in here forever.
When I am in the kitchen, Charlotte hangs in the bouncy seat with me if she isn't sleeping and she normally does really well.
Jules and I have gotten into a good routine of dropping Ella off at preschool and going for a run and then she always walks with me for the last quarter of a mile or so. Her favorite part is to balance on the planters as we turn onto our street and always looks forward to doing so. She rocks the pj look most runs, too!
On November 18th, Ella's preschool class put on an adorable Thanksgiving performance. They sang 4 songs and then had a "feast" together, I have to use the word "feast" lightly here since it consisted of popcorn, apple sauce, carrots and a pumpkin cake. They loved it though! Ella did a great job performing and had the hand motions down with the songs.
Her teachers were nice enough to allow Julia to join Ella and her class at the table and Jules loved it. She is definitely going to be ready for preschool next year.
We made turkey hats later that day and I cracked up laughing when Julia came out like this!
After church wrestling on November 20th. Do you see Julia's legs underneath Joseph's? I love that the girls love to wrestle as much as they love to play with their dolls.
I'm sure that Charlotte will be there with the rest of them soon enough but for now she just likes hanging and watching them all. We really just wanted to eat her up here on November 21st in these adorable donut pjs!
The week before we were at the beach and then we were in sweatshirts and beanies! We had a cold spell the week of Thanksgiving (meaning 50s but that is cold now for me!!) so we were all bundled up while we were out in the cul de sac on the 21st. This was the first day of Thanksgiving break (there wasn't school for the entire week) and it rained that morning which was kind of nice since we just hung out at home but by the afternoon it cleared up and we were all ready to get outside to get some energy out. We spent a lot of time hanging with the neighbors in the cul de sac during break.
Nice and warm after coming in that night.
On Tuesday the 22nd we met up with friends from Josephs' preschool at the Westwood Club. It was great to see friends that we hadn't seen in awhile and loved that the kids, and the moms, picked up right where we left off. We ended up staying there for 4 hours and had a great time!
Ring around the rosie with Taylor
Checking out baby Charlotte together
Managed to snap a pretty great picture of the four of them on November 23rd...if only Charlotte was looking at me but I'll take what I can get!
It's crazy hat Charlotte is getting so big that the kids do a better job of holding her in their laps sitting up rather than her lying down now. She definitely likes to be looking out at the world and is very social!
The rest of Thanksgiving break was great. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Nani and Poppa's which I'll do a separate post about and then spent Black Friday taking the Christmas decorations out and playing outside with the neighbors. Joseph played straight from 11:30 to 5:00 with just a quick 15 minute break for lunch. They spent a lot of time collecting bugs and then showing them to the dads who were hanging out together in the driveway.
On Friday night my parents took the three big kids for a sleepover so it was a treat for Rich and I to almost have the house to ourselves...we didn't have any big plans but were thinking that we'd grab a bite in 4S Ranch after dropping them off, but Charlotte screamed the entire way home fro some reason so we just wine home, heated up leftovers and then I fell asleep on the couch by 7:30!!! I woke up pretty well rested though and it was a treat not to have to make breakfast for everyone at 6:30 and Rich, Charlotte and I ran Lake Miramar together before going back to get them. We picked the kids up later that afternoon and finished decorating the house (except for the tree) and just had a quiet rest of the weekend at home hanging out, only leaving for church and just playing in the cul de sac.
I was in the kitchen and Julia called for me to come to see her and this is what I found. She was so proud of herself of putting the sunglasses on Charlotte!
Our little elves were such great, and very excited, helpers while decorating!
Our house was a total disaster area though for a while over the weekend with Thanksgiving decorations to be put away, Christmas decorations to come out and then just the normal chaos from having 4 kids! I stayed up late Sunday night putting everything away because I had to start the week with some order or it would have driven me crazy!
We put this little tree upstairs in the hallway and found Ella like this that night-this right here makes all of the chaos of the season worth it.
We finished out the month by getting back in the school routine on Monday, the 28th. The night before I was kind of dreading the early wake up/get out of the house routine but after Joseph and Ella were both at school and I was in Joseph's classroom volunteering, it was nice to be back in the routine of the week. Here are a few final pictures of the last few days of November...
Our couch cushions end up as forts, islands, boats, etc. at least once a week.
Ella missed Charlotte after being back in school and needed some extra snuggle time.
Happy girl with spiky hair!
Went for a run with Jules and Charlotte and peeked in to find her snoozing like this!
I mean it does not get much sweeter than this!!! Love the chillier weather so that she can wear hats in the morning!
And to finish out the month here is picture of the first time that Julia has worn pigtails!! Her hair is a hot mess these days-it is still so short up front but the back just seems to keep growing and growing!! I try to put it up every day but it normally only lasts for about thirty minutes so most days she just looks like that hot mess that I just mentioned but she's a pretty cute one at that! Rich keeps threatening to cut her hair but I am standing firm that if we do that it will only make it worse since the front is so short that you couldn't even it out anyways so we'll just let it keep growing for now. It doesn't seem to mind her so it shouldn't bother us, right?!? Happy November!!
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