A Smattering of Thankful

We do our fair share of dreaming in this house. Someday we'll have...a house, a yard, a second vehicle, a landlord who responds, a tuned piano, a night without a fussy baby, etc. I feel like we still do a pretty good job of being thankful for our apartment, how safe we feel in Miami, parks to play on, Sterling's bike, owning a piano, three beautiful kids. Life with three babies in Miami in med school is not the easiest thing, but (as Josh Groban puts it) we still realize that there is so much to be thankful for. I love this time of year that specifically reflects on that! 

I'm grateful for so many things, big and small. For how much Sterling loves his program. For our playgroup friends and ward family that support us so much. For the missionaries here that we love to feed (one right now from Nibley that knows "Puma" Rasmussen, haha!) and Sterling gets to work with occasionally. For the gorgeous weather. For a working dishwasher (even if it doesn't wash silverware). For health. For my camera. For moments rocking my precious babies to sleep in the evening, in the middle of the night, in the wee hours of the morning. For this season in our life. It's amazing, really, that even though the med school budget can be tight, the nights can be sleepless, the days can be stressed, how wonderfully grateful and blessed we are at the same time. 

We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today along with a living prophet and apostles to guide and direct us. We have the temple in which we are sealed for time and all eternity to our families. We have the sure knowledge that Jesus Christ offered to atone for our sins so that we can repent and return to live in God's presence after this life. I am so thankful.

Here's a few pictures from the last little while of just some moments at home of my little family. I love them so much.

Will helping Molly out with a phone call. 

So much play. 

Sitting up in the bumbo.

 Everyone needs a turn in the bumbo.

I took this picture because Ruth often goes up to Molly when she is in the swing and pushes her and chats with her and sings to her. It's the sweetest.

Oh, this sweet baby of mine. 

My ballerina.

We all love time with daddy!

Stay tuned for more posts of our wonderful weekend home with daddy!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

I've been on a pie kick, so we started a new tradition---personal pies before setting up Christmas! Ruth and Will had the greatest time with these, and I have to say, they are pretty much the perfect size for a dollop of ice cream on top and-much to my dismay-came out of the muffin tin super easy. The kids were thrilled, Sterling was excited for pie, and best of all it made the entire house smell so CHRISTMASY, it put us all right in the mood.

I didn't have enough dough to cover the tops, don't judge, haha. 

First things first, the nativity. The kids have been playing with this nonstop since we pulled it out, so I'd say its a favorite!

On to my most favorite thing: stockings! I love our stockings SO SO SO much! I love every single little thing about them!

Miss Molly Fay was there.

Ruthie got to put the star on top of the tree!

I love our little tree.

We decided not to put our little bells on the tree this year due to choking hazard and ages of our children. But Will has been carrying them around in this jar ever since--he thinks its the greatest!

The best part of the night-turning the lights off and listening to our Christmas tree. I doubted Sterling when he wanted to uphold his family's tradition and get singing lights--but they're pretty much the greatest.

Merry Christmas everyone! And Happy Thanksgiving! And welcome to the best time of the year! (even if Sterling did head out to study right after this and said "woah! It's hot out here!")

Robert Is Here

Robert Is Here is literally where we went.

Lots of birds! Not that you can see them, but they sure made a lot of noise!

I just thought this was cool. 

So many places we want to go!

Two little monkeys. 

Tasting the honey. 

ALL the kinds of honey you could taste!

We had a blow-out diaper experience. The Asians were concerned. Haha.

This goat got a little too close and Ruth was not impressed. 

This rooster was my fav.

 We went to this place, Robert Is Here, and it was pretty neat. But we picked a hot and HUMID day to go (last Monday, winter weather here is ALL over the place) and I was thinking that we'd just play in the splash pad, only Miamians think its winter, so the water was turned off. So instead we wandered around and looked at all the exotic fruit. Because that is, after all, what Robert is Here is. A fruit stand. For tropical fruit. You can taste a lot of them. Plus a lot of kinds of honey. Then they make shakes with fresh tropical fruit--anything you want. I asked for recommendations and picked key lime. I LOVE key lime yogurt so I figured it was a safe bet. It was more like....a limeade shake. It was just so LIMEY! The kids did not like it, but it was actually quite refreshing. I wish you could taste test the shakes--so many kinds of fruit I've never tasted before! The honey was super crazy too, everything from dragon fruit to chili. The animals were fun but lazy. The funniest part was the Asian tourists we were waiting for our shake with. They didn't see Will in his seat under the stroller at first and when they saw him they jumped out of their skin and started talking crazy fast! Haha. They also pointed at Ruth's hair a lot, the baby a lot, her diaper a lot (I know, I really need to start carrying a second set of clothes. I actually did have a jacket in the van but it was SO HOT!) and just in general fawned over all the kids. It was entertaining. I want to take Sterling there sometime just because its so neat to see all the fruits! (and why don't I have pictures of the fruit stand? no idea.)

Fun

This boy keeps getting cuter and cuter and SO big!!!

This girl is also adorable.

Last Saturday we went to the park immediately when the kids woke up at 6:30am. We stopped at Publix and got a dozen doughnuts and some chocolate milk and headed over. Our van said it was 68 degrees. Ruth could NOT stop shivering, she had goosebumps all over, and she kept asking to go home because it was TOO cold! Haha. In retrospect, we should have brought jackets for the kids, but it really felt great! Then Sterling went to Sams Club with us and helped us unload the van before heading out to study for the entire day. Gotta love med school when the only time your husband can see the kids is 7am!!!

For some reason this whole playground reminded me strongly of Canada. Is there some wooden playground in Canada that is like this one? There really must be, because it seemed like it in my mind but I couldn't place where. Haha.

I was at the park by our house a couple days before this and a mom recognized me from library story time. She was super friendly and once she understood that we had recently moved here she started telling me all SORTS of information about things to do with your kids in the area. One of which was this park, and we really loved it, so thanks for the tip Marcella!

Parks are always so much more exciting when daddy comes!

This river reminded me of North Dakota, I told Sterling that it was similar in size to the river by our house in Minot. Plus the low wooden fence reminded me of Oak Park. Miami actually has a lot of these little 'rivers' all over the place---all the water has to go SOMEWHERE!

And that was our lovely morning with dad. Can't wait for him to take a test on Wednesday so we can enjoy a completely stress-free Thanksgiving!!!