Bubba is 4 months!

It has been a LoOOooooooOOOOoooooOOOOoooonng time since I've blogged. But it's Sunday, and Emerson is 4 months today, so I figured, why not!? That, and I'm so far away from my sisters and need to stay in touch with them... so I'm doing my part to keep them updated with us since we are terrible at calling.

We are all settled in our new apartment in Shoreline. The area is great. We're not too far from anything and it only takes Cory about 30-40 minutes to get to campus on the bus. His school schedule is great so far since he's not working yet. (He's supposed to have a meeting for his research lab at the end of the week... so hopefully after that he'll actually be working 10-20 hours a week. Hooray for an income!) The kids and I get to see him a lot! And I love that. We're also only 3 hours from the in-laws, which is awesome for all of us. We actually went up this weekend for Krystal's birthday (which is actually tomorrow) and to open Phillip's mission call (to Santiago, Chile!!!). Since Cory isn't quite working yet, and we really have no idea what his hours will be, I decided to find a job as well. I ended up getting hired at Macy's seasonally and started training last week. I'll finish up my training tomorrow, but won't have any real hours until November. Honestly, that's fine with me. And I should be able to get hours that coincide with Cory's school/work schedule so we don't have to leave kids with a babysitter ever. That sure would be great.

Now that we've been here a month (exactly!), and been to our ward a couple times, they finally know we exist and have been asked to speak in church. I get to speak next Sunday, and Cory will speak the following Sunday. Apparently they like to be kind to the parents of young children folk. Thank goodness for that! I like speaking in Sunday when you're brand new to a ward because it gives the ward an opportunity to get to know you without having to say your name about 50 bajillion times. You're more approachable to the more apprehensive. The ward seems SO nice already. I think we'll really love it here, which is great since we really want to try to buy a house/townhome (something!) next year and it's good to know of at least one GOOD area to look. (Renting is ridiculously expensive, and we can cut our housing expenses in HALF or LESS if we can find a house in our price range...which just makes good sense since we'll be here at least 4 years.)

On to the kiddos:

Olivia is almost 16 months now! She's chomping at the bit to go to nursery. Cory will go in there with her some Sundays because she just loves it and it's getting to hard to contain her during Elder's Quorum . In this ward, they meet in the cultural hall on the stage, so running around really isn't an option.

She is jabbering all over the place! And she's just the funniest kid. She loves to be scared. One of our favorite games is to have Olivia chase me, and I'll run around a corner and pop out yelling "boo!" as she approaches. She will say "boo! Boo! Boo!" until we play. She also LOVES "Popcorn Popping," "Do As I'm Doing," "Wheels on the Bus," and tons more. She absolutely LOVES puppies too. In the Deaf ward after our ward meets, we have to remind her not to bother the service puppies while they're working. (There are 2... so it's really hard for her.) Olivia is now down to 1 nap a day, unless she's not feeling well. I'm not so sure I'm ready for only one, but she doesn't seem to need 2, so we go with it. We also joined the local YMCA and Olivia loves to play with the other kids. She has absolutely no social fears (so far) and the second we walk in the door, she's gone. She doesn't like leaving either. She makes friends everywhere she goes. We just love our sweet and sassy little girl!

Emerson is 4 months today. He's a little string bean! We still need to get to his 4-month check-up, but we're trying to work out this insurance mess and don't have a pediatrician yet... so no stats. But the kid has abs! There is no chub on him at all! But he has the sweetest little face, is ready to smile any time, but also gets the saddest little face when he's upset. It's hard to sympathize because it's just too cute. In the past month my boy has learned to roll over both front to back and back to front. He twists every which way, so one minute he'll be on his floor gym grabbing his toys, and the next, he's 2 feet away in a completely different position and orientation. His sister did that too, so we're not surprised. We put him in his own room for the first time about a week ago, and he seems to sleep a little better. Before we moved he was sleeping through the night... a full 8 hours! Since being in Washington, we haven't had such luck. He still wakes up at least once and it's usually more like 2-3 times. It's tough, and mommy is tired. You'd think with how much he eats, he'd sleep all day! At least in the past week or 2 he's been taking really good naps. Hooray! He used to sleep for 15-20 minutes and be good for another 4-5 hours. Now we get at least an hour! I attribute that to his pooping at least every other day now. Hooray!

That's our little family so far. We are looking forward Thanksgiving at Ma and Pa Scott and Christmas at my sister Kristy's in Oregon!