Rob had another busy week, but not quite as bad as last week. He is in the process of training a woman, named Carolina, to take over his current job. She is visiting from Costa Rica and we invited her over for dinner on Thursday evening. (Rob goes to Costa Rica in January for 10 days to continue the training... I'm trying not to stress about this already, but am. You may remember how horrible things were for me the last time Rob left the country. At least I'm not pregnant this year, right?). So anyway, Carolina is lovely. She speaks near perfect English (very slight accent), is very sweet, and gorgeous to boot. Well, Mr. Charming (aka Tosh) was right by her side the entire evening. He sang her songs, kissed her arm at random, smiled and laughed at everything said, and basically tried to get her attention by showing off all night. I just had to take a photo of them together because it was really quite funny.
Tosh is becoming more independent as well as self-reliant. Rob and I walked in the family room yesterday after church to find that Tosh had gotten a yogurt out of the fridge, grabbed a spoon, opened the yogurt, turned on the TV, and ate the entire thing without so much as a drop on his clothes or any mess to speak of. We were lucky to grab the camera just in time:
I gave Tosh a little trim today. I only cut an inch or so off his hair so it is still plenty curly. He is quite reasonable and cooperative about this sort of thing which is so nice (unlike his older brothers who aren't so reasonable when it comes to haircuts and nail trimming...). After Tosh saw the first short curls fall to the ground he said, "Not my CURLS!" For those of you that have seen "Shrek," it reminded me of the Gingerbread Man saying, "Not my BUTTONS!" And no, Tosh has never seen that movie...
I didn't take one photo of Liv this week. Isn't that a shock! My camera battery is near dead and I've been so busy. She looked all fancy for church yesterday as she wore tulle for the first time (baby shower gift). Her new trick of the week is saying, "ma ma ma ma..." All of my boys made the "da da" sound first. She also eats green beans which none of boys liked. She is once again back to sleeping through the night and we're on a very nice daily nap/feeding schedule. She is awesome. Can't say it enough. Love that girl!
Hewitt is doing great. I've decided that 5 is an awesome age. He has been so mellow and there are many times when I think he is going to get upset about something and he just doesn't. It's been so nice. He is becoming a great defender. If he feels that anyone in the family is being mistreated or is upset for some reason, he comes to the rescue and sticks up for them.
Tonight for Family night we talked about gratitude. I told the true story about how my Dad's house burned down when he was away at scout camp as a boy and how my grandparents were basically left with nothing. I also told the story that I heard many, many times growing up about how my Grandma Dunning owned two dresses. One that she wore to church, and one for every other day of the week. The point of the lesson was to help our kids (especially our oldest child) realize HOW MUCH we have and to show more gratitude for our many blessings. Hewitt was quite concerned as I told the story (asking lots of questions about what started the fire, etc.) and was having a hard time understanding that I was talking about my Dad as a child. At one point he said, "So Grandpa's house burned down and that's why they moved to Texas?" He was so sweet and concerned and I'm glad he didn't get upset or embarrassed when Burke and I couldn't help but laugh at his comment. Hewitt is such a tenderhearted sweetie.
Burke is out of school and it is throwing me off of my schedule a bit. He was really helpful trying to get the boys to do some chores with him today and loved my challenge tonight of only "expressing thanks" in our prayers instead of asking for things. He is looking forward to seeing Aunt Sue and Uncle Zach this week for Christmas and all of his "Dunning" cousins next week for New Years!
I am busy trying to get everything pulled together for Christmas. It is finally "Fall" here as the leaves are just now changing color and falling....into our pool! (the pretty trees that I like so much in my backyard are creating quite a mess) 
Besides leaves, our yard is full of weeds and I'm sort of missing the break from yard work that "winter" brings. We also discovered several dirt piles in our yard: gophers! That's a new one for us.
Besides leaves, our yard is full of weeds and I'm sort of missing the break from yard work that "winter" brings. We also discovered several dirt piles in our yard: gophers! That's a new one for us. That about sums up the week. Have a Merry Christmas! We love and miss you!
Liv is seven months old! She actually sat up for the first time on the 10th (see photo in green jammies). She was so happy and proud of herself! At the beginning of the week she was still sitting pretty slanted, but has already straightened out a ton and can sit for several minutes without falling over now. She is also moving around the floor like crazy and is tucking her legs up under herself like she is going to crawl soon. I'm hoping to at least have another month or two of her NOT crawling. Tosh was crawling by 8-9 months and walking by 10, so we'll see how Liv develops. Liv has suddenly been waking more at night too. Is it growing pains? Teeth? "Where is my Mom" anxiety? Who knows. I'm just hoping the long stretches return and counting my blessing that she's been such a great sleeper up to this point.
