Squad Goals

For Family Home Evening tonight, I attempted to review everyone's November "every day, every day, every day" goals with them.  But since hardly anyone could even remember what theirs were, I figured I'd just recap MINE, and then go over what this squad has been up to.  :)

MY November "every day" goal was to find at least one thing to be truly grateful for every single day.  Since it's the month of Thanksgiving, I thought this would be quite apropos.  My overwhelming gratitude for the bulk of the month has been baby related.  Shocking, I'm sure.  Hahaha.  In all seriousness, though, I am so very grateful for all the help that has been offered our way since Isaac was born.

{Another "Welcome Home" poster the girls made for Isaac.}

Isaac

{Newest squad member.  Almost 2 weeks old.}

• Squeaky McSqueekers had his first bath tonight!  And he hated it.  Hahaha.  Poor little lamb screamed almost all the way through it.  Once he was bundled up and dried off, he was MUCH happier.

• Even though he's still tiny, he's definitely starting to fill out!  Eating every couple hours {almost} around the clock is probably helping with THAT squad goal.  Haha.  :)

• He has a weight check at the doctor tomorrow, and then goes back in for some more blood testing at Children's Hospital afterwards.  He didn't pass the part of his initial newborn screening that tested for hypothyroidism, and had to have additional blood work done last week.  His TSH levels were still slightly elevated, so they want to check again tomorrow to see if they've gone down at all.  Hopefully, all will be well.  

Alex

• Meanwhile, Alex is finally getting used to the idea of Preschool!  It's taken a few months, but we no longer deal with tears or fits about not wanting to go, and I think he's actually enjoying himself while he's there.  :)  They had a "Thanksgiving Feast" at school today, and made these cute little pilgrim hats and a Fall Wreath.

• And not to jinx things, but we've only had ONE incident of night waking since we've brought the baby home from the hospital!  A tender mercy indeed.

• Unfortunately, the baby coming home from the hospital -- and my subsequent exhaustion from being up all night with him -- has resulted in MASSIVE amounts of screen time for the Lover Boy.  He has spent the bulk of his days plugged up in front of YouTube videos for the last couple of weeks, and the electronics overload addiction is going to be HARD to break.  

Jane

• Jane created this adorable little Thankful Turkey in her Primary class on Sunday.  My favorite things about it are that she labeled the bird with an "I am a turkey," and she included "freedom" as one of the things she's thankful for.  :)

• And I'm REALLY going to jinx things here, but Jane has ALSO been staying in her bed all night long for the last couple of weeks.  {Minus one TERRIBLE night, our second night home from the hospital.}

Sophie

• Sophie was excited to "help" me bathe the baby tonight.  And by help, I mean she watched me while I bathed him and then ran to get a diaper for him and his hat for after the bath was done.  :)

• I neglected to get a picture of it, but today was another orthodontist appointment, and the rubber bands she went with THIS time are red and magenta.  I think she quite enjoys picking out new colors each time she goes.  

Grace

Package from Papi!  {My dad always "cushions" his packages for the kids with lots and lots of candy.  Needless to say, his packages are always a hit.  Hahaha.}

• Grace's birthday has been stretched out a little bit longer thanks to my dad!  We got a package from Papi today with birthday gifts for the birthday girl, as well as a card and gift for ME/Isaac, and coloring books and other things for the rest of the kids. 

• I had to laugh out loud when I came across the following quote in the book my dad sent me, because -- in general -- Grace and I are not much alike.  But THEN, I thought back to Grace's church outfit getup from yesterday and I thought the verse was quite on the money.  :)

"As is the mother, so is her daughter."  -- Ezekiel 16:44

• I took Grace shopping on Saturday to get her some new church clothes, and found this skirt at Target that I loved and that Grace seemed to like as well.  And if you know how difficult it is to find stuff that Grace likes and will actually wear, you will know what a feat this was!  Hahaha.  And THEN, for church yesterday, Grace wore me down into wearing MY black heels to church.  Perhaps maybe she will end up following in my footsteps one day.  :)

Seriously though -- this skirt is totes adorbs.  I literally almost bought one in my size for myself.  But then I realized Grace would NEVER wear it if she thought we were going to be twinners.

Ethan

• And that brings us to Ethan.  My lights boy.  Yesterday saw Ethan bringing up ALL the boxes of Christmas lights from the basement to start an inventory of what we have and what else we need.  I seriously laughed out loud when I came upstairs and saw the state of his room, complete with a whiteboard plan of action.  I guarantee he will beg us to buy even MORE lights before the season is over...

• In more lighthearted news, Ethan beat me last night -- for the first time EVER -- in a game of Rummy 500.  He was quite pleased with himself.  :)

• On the academic front, Ethan has earned high honors for getting straight A's in the first quarter of school this year.  I love what a classic firstborn child he is.  :)  He's already planning out his future academic career and goals to ensure he gets a scholarship to college.  

And that wraps up the recaps!  I'd love to add more bullet points to everyone's lists, but it's getting late and I'm tired.  The only other big news happening here, is that my mom comes to town tomorrow and we're so excited to see her!!!  And with that, I'm signing out for the evening...