Phone photo dump from October and November

Thanksgiving 2013

everyone but me

We had a nice Thanksgiving week. Yosuke and Manami got into town the Sunday before Thanksgiving so we got to spend time with them for a few days, which was nice. It was their first time meeting Natalie. Olivia loved seeing both of them, but seemed to especially enjoy playing with Manami. I am glad she has another great aunt (and I have a nice sister-in-law), in addition to my sister, of course. :)

My sister (Aunt Sarah) came into town Wednesday and stayed through the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun with her too. She, my parents, and I went to see Fiddler on the Roof on Friday night while Yusaku stayed home with the kiddos. It was nice to get out of the house with my family and the show was great! It was at the Loft Theater, which I had never been to and was pleasantly surprised. It was a small theater and we had front row seats.

Thanksgiving is such a nice reminder for me of how lucky/blessed we are to be able to celebrate with both of our families together every year. Not only do both sets of parents live in town, but we all get along well enough to just have one big joint Thanksgiving. This means we don't have to travel far and we only have to go to one place to see everyone. Now that is something to be thankful for. I am so happy our girls have this family dynamic!

Here are some more pics from Thanksgiving!

Maga and her girls

Papa and Natalie

playing Heads Up after dinner

Indy Visit with the Gosches

The first weekend of November, we met up with the Gosch Family in Indianapolis for a visit. It was their first time to meet Natalie. Daniel flew in from Colorado and Sarah drove down from Chicago. It was great to see everyone. We wanted to show them the Indianapolis Museum of Art since we loved it so much after discovering it on our last visit. It did not disappoint. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and foliage as we walked around the grounds. After this, we headed to Mass Ave and did a little shopping at some of the cute shops there. On Sunday, before we all headed our separate ways, we walked along the Monon Trail in Broad Ripple and once again, enjoyed the beautiful weather and colorful trees. We finished up with some tasty pizza at Bazbeaux's before heading home. See pictures below. :)

Leslee and Jon's Wedding

Leslee and Jon got married October 19. They were such a beautiful/handsome bride and groom and their wedding was a blast. I am so happy for them! Here are some pictures from that night.

Maybe my favorite picture of the night.;)
Clearly Olivia was NOT happy about having her picture taken.
Quinn is looking  at her like, "What is wrong with that kid?!"

Best pic we could manage of the four of us.

One of my other favorites...Olivia had been waiting all night for Quinn's cousin to hold her hand.
She finally did and Olivia turned around to look at us with such a happy look on her fae.

Where has the time gone?!?!

I can't believe it's been almost two months since I last posted. In the meantime, we've had my cousin Leslee's wedding, Halloween, a trip to Indianapolis, and Thanksgiving among other things. Part of the reason, my blogging has taken a backseat is because I've been very busy crocheting hats for my little etsy business (http.www.oliviaemi.com/shop/oliviaemi). It's been fun, but it had started to get to the point that it was becoming a little stressful, so I decided to take a break for the next month or so.

I guess I will start with catching up on the girls. Natalie will be 4 months in just under a week! She is sweet and happy most of the time, except for when her teeth are bothering her. She's still a pretty good sleeper at night (in bed with me) and is growing like a weed. Can't wait to see how big she is at her 4-month check up coming up. She smiles and giggles and just rolled over for the first time yesterday (December 5). She grabs her toes and sucks on her fingers and is starting to figure out how to suck her thumb. She likes gnawing on Sophie the giraffe and soft, velvety materials. She is in the phase right now where she is very attached to me and cries almost every time I try to hand her off to somebody else. Here are 2 month and 3 month pictures of our little cutie pie.

Olivia is smart, funny, challenging, and sweet all at the same time. She is constantly cracking us up with the funny things she says. She is a great big sister, always wanting to hug, kiss, talk to, and play with Natalie. Quick to try to comfort her if she's upset and to protect her if she thinks someone is upsetting her. One of her favorite things to do is play with our neighbor Amelia and she particularly loves to pick up these tiny green airsoft beebee gun pellets that are all over the place from Amelia's brother Nick. We now have millions (okay, that's an exaggeration!) of these things all over our house. She loves playing hide-and-seek and her favorite hiding spot is under the dining room table. She has become so good at hiding that a few times lately, I have had a hard time finding her. Despite my attempts to avoid creating a princess-loving girl, she loves Sofia the First, Ariel, and Tinkherbell. She loves music and dancing and requests that we have "dance parties" in her bedroom. She loves skirts and tutus and twirly dresses. She has an incredible imagination that includes imaginary friends, her favorite of which is "Amy." I would love to be inside her head. :) Here are a few pictures of our sweet, goofy girl.