Thanks and Stuff

We shared a lovely Thanksgiving with my brother Mike and his family in Virginia. Every time we visit Virginia I'm a little more inclined to move there as soon as possible.

I have much to be thankful for.
At the moment, I'm thankful Emme decided to learn how to get herself up
(and down) the stairs this weekend.

(giant cat!)

(regular sized cat)

We have a tried and true method for helping our kinder learn this important life skill:
we accidentally let them tumble down the stairs shortly after they learn to crawl.

This provides both a lesson in depth perception and a healthy fear of stairways.
(Never had a repeat offender.)
Within a couple of months they're ready to give them a go again with a new determination to
not get injured this time.

Judge away but it works like a charm (unintentionally) every time,
as long as you can handle a little well-earned parental guilt. Which I can.

Hope your Thanksgiving was groovy. (good + gravy)

Last Bit

I was confronted suddenly by yellow maple leaves against a blue sky yesterday and it made me quite unspeakably happy.

I think Emme noticed as well.

We all spent the rest of the day absorbing the last little bit of Fall.

Winter, I'm not ready for you yet. Please hold off a little longer.

Toothless

Yet another milestone being shattered by this young lady, who lost her first tooth last week.
She seems pretty happy about it.

 And a few classic Jane moments for you to mull over during your weekend:

Missionaries at dinner: "...and so we see that by small and simple things, are great things brought to pass. Taking the sacrament each week is an example of that."
Jane (with big eyes): "Yeah, like it's a really small piece of bread and a tiny little cup of water."


Jane, on her way up the aisle to the stand for her primary program, crouched over, gave me two thumbs up,
and whispered intensely as she walked past our row: "I'll make you proud, ok!?"


Then yesterday, as we were drawing pictures and writing words that start with "n,"
Jane, ever sensitive to others, held this picture to her chest before showing it to me and said,
"This is Nathan. He has glasses, but DON'T laugh."

I tried really hard, but I couldn't help myself.

Sure love that ever serious, always hilarious Jane.

Have a great weekend.