Run of the mill family update

We have been staying busy. Same as everyone else. Before I ramble on, aren't these cute friends?

We went to the Dallas Arboretum and played the whole day. What a great place to hang out.

Other stuff: I've started recording texts again for the fall semester. There is a very reading intensive class, so I'm sharing the burden with a friend. We both have new babies, so we figure between the two of us, we can get it done. Modern Jewish Literature. I'm looking forward to it, MUCH more so than some topics I've done in the past, namely geology. blech. So far it reminds me of some of my undergrad classes.

Jake is busy. We are trying our best to get a schedule down that works for us all and is best. He is up eeeeearly in the morning to teach seminary (kind of a Mormon Bible school) to the freshmen of the two wards that meet in our building. Besides being tired, he loves it. He then heads off to work where he is still learning the ropes. Our evenings are a nice kind of chaotic until the kids are down and we can prep for the next day. Weekends are nice.

Cole is starting to sleep longer at night (hallelujah!), and he's in his own room now. Tessa still dotes on her brother and is starting to be a little more careful around him. She still has her moments, though, and I've got to watch out for her trying to pick him up....and putting her shoes on his head. Mostly she just wants to snuggle and pet his face.

We had a fun BBQ with friends on Labor Day. I brought a cup of Amdro with me to rid the world of the fire ant that crawled into Cole's car seat and bit him a few days earlier at that park. --Don't mess with my kid, ant.-- I received my own bite that day and decided the next time I was there (Labor Day), they were going down. Well, didn't see any there yesterday! Mwahahahaha! However, there were plenty of mosquitos on Labor Day, and I wish I would have been a little more proactive in that dept. for Tessa. They got her and her friends good.

Silk vanilla soy milk? I think it's really good. I still miss my milk, but the bean juice isn't bad at all. Thanks to all of you that made me realize how common this dairy thing is.

Our photographer friend had visions of a fairy mini shoot she wanted to do, but of course had to try it out first. Tessa was one of the invitees for the shoot. You don't have to ask anyone in our family to dress in costume twice. Tessa was all over getting to dress up like a fairy with her friends and had a total meltdown when she had to take her costume off. We were close by Jake's work for the photos and went to have lunch in his office afterward. She changed her clothes, but I let her put the wings back on. You see very quickly who likes kids and who doesn't when you go through a huge office building with a two year old wearing fairy wings. Elizabeth has the ad up on her blog if you want to see: http://www.earthmamaphotography.blogspot.com/ Tessa is in the bottom two right pictures.