The Wilsons

Emma had her first piano lesson on Monday and she loved it! She practiced that night and yesterday evening and can’t get enough.  Its fun to watch her face light up and its pretty clear that she is proud of herself. So great.

Lizzie can now sit all by herself without falling and she is happy doing it. She will just sit and play for long periods while we either play with her or get our chores finished. I bought her some stacking cups last week and they are her new favorite toys. I’ve been giving her more floor time and a few days ago she taught herself how to get up on her knees and rock back and forth. I am excited for her but not yet ready to have a crawler on my hands. She is easy now and I think I need her to stay like that for a little longer. Her little voice is coming out more and more each day. She started out with mama and now she says her g’s and b’s and d’s and strings several sounds together to sound like sentences. It is really cute and I love to sit and chat with her when Emma and Jojo are playing or in bed for the night. Its really not fair that she is already 7 and a half months old.

Joe went buck hunting last week at his company’s ranch–Rancho Blanco near Laredo, TX. He got a 10 point buck within his first couple of hours and then shot a hog the next day. This is the first big buck he’s gotten since we’ve been married so it was pretty exciting! He had a fun time and it looks like he’ll be mounting that poor deer’s head—more pics to come on that.

I had a “Bring Your Own Project” craft night at my house last week for our church’s Home Skills group. We had a lot of ladies show up, each one with a different project. I love stuff like that because you can gets lots of ideas. Its like Pinterest Live. I decided to make a hospital gown for my sweet SIL, Julie, who is having her baby next week. It was the first article of clothing I’ve made for an adult…luckily one size fits all!

…months that is, since I last wrote. I’ve been sitting around eating bonbons. So let me update you.

I will start with Joe first…He has been super busy at work lately. He has been out of town pretty regularly and is actually in Laredo hunting right now. He has been to Dallas, Panama, San Antonio, College Station and Laredo in the last few months. He has been fishing, hunting, grilling and using his smoker a lot too in his down time.  All very manly and whatnot :) His work with the Young Men at church keeps him pretty occupied too but he loves every minute of it. Because of the busy schedule, we have been making the most of the time we have with him, so when he is home on the weekends they seem to fly by.

I’ll go next…I have been busy for the last few months with our new baby Lizzie and making our transition into a 5 person family. Honestly, it was a little rough at the beginning but mostly because I am pretty tough on myself and expect too much sometimes. I realized that I don’t have enough hands or time to do everything that I want to do so I have had to prioritize (therefore, no blog). I have started writing more often and in detail in a personal journal so I think I will make this more of a highlights page of our life. So, having said that let me give it to you quickly…or not so quickly since I am catching up!

I started my own preschool in August called Mrs. Wilson’s Day School. I have to say, its pretty awesome and I LOVE it. I can use my education and be at home with my kiddos so it is a win-win. I have 6 other students (besides Jojo) and they are great kids! Class is from 9-12 Tuesday-Thursday. Other than that, I have stayed pretty busy with my calling, planning curriculum, play dates, journaling, new sewing endeavors, and restarting the same novel about 5 times.

Emma’s turn…She is a 1st grader! She has a fantastic ‘seasoned’ teacher and is doing excellent. We couldn’t be more proud of her as she learns to be a responsible, hardworking student and a good friend too. A few months ago we finally taught her to ride a bike w/o training wheels and we go out to the culdesac almost every day to ride. She is an avid reader and can’t get enough of Ivy & Bean and Judy Moody. She has been taking dance (a combo ballet and jazz class) and has loved it. She was born to dance but I think formal training is not for her, she is more of an expressionist/interpretive dancer :) When dance ends in a couple of weeks she will start piano lessons. She’s been asking for over a year and is thrilled to start. She has a loose tooth at the moment (her first) and she can’t stop thinking about it! She gave a talk in church a few weeks ago on Agency and made us so proud as she stood tall and spoke confidently (can I bottle up that self-confidence and give it to her someday when she needs it?!). She is such a fun girl for me to have around. I let her stay up late every few nights just so we can hang out while the other kids are sleeping. We read together or do a craft or just sit and talk. We had a GNO a few weeks ago and we had the best time together. She is growing up in leaps and bounds and our conversations are pretty great.  We got our nails painted, ate froyo at Swirll, and browsed Barnes and Noble. She said it was “pretty much the best date ever”. I thought so too. :)

Jojo is a pistol. He is charming and naughty all at the same time. I think he knows he has us wrapped around his little finger. That will be big trouble for me someday. He loves to have one-on-one time with us and almost explodes when Daddy comes home at night so they can wrestle or fly his remote control helicopter. He is doing great in preschool (i might be biased) and his new skill is writing his name. He really thinks that is great :)  He loves to have his friends over for preschool and playing animals… or pretending to shoot animals with his nerf gun which he affectionately calls his “shoot-gun”. He loves snuggle up and read books and doing puzzles is his favorite quiet time activity. He and I take a short nap or two each week and it just might be my favorite activity ever. He is a man’s man and can’t get enough time with his dad, granddads, and uncles.

Lizzie Bizzie. She is the perfect 3rd baby. Sweet, happy, easy-going. She snuggles me when I want her to and plays when I need her to. She puts up with a lot of interrupted afternoon naps, long errand running and loud kids but she is great through it all. She has a sweet little personality and an infectous smile. Whenever someone looks and talks at her, she beams…maybe she lacks attention and gets over-excited when she gets some? I am a third child, I can understand that. You gotta do what you gotta do Lizzie. :) She reminds me a lot of my mom, though. Very sweet and always what I need to make me feel happy. Gotta love people like that. Lizzie is now 7 months old. She is learning to sit and can do it for short bouts on her own but falls occasionally. She has 2 teeth on the bottom which were rough on her coming in! She is moving all over the place now and can get where she wants to be in no time, though she isn’t crawling. She will roll and use her hands to change directions then roll some more. The past few days she has been getting up on her knees and bouncing so I think crawling is right down the road. If you ask Emma she will tell you that Lizzie says, “more”, “momma”, and “Emma”. She does say those things but just occasionally and I’m not sure she really gets it. She beams if you ask her to say something though :) funny girl. She is eating lots of solid food and I have been preparing her baby food. I don’t know why I didn’t do it with the other kids, it is so much more appetizing and not hard at all! She is a great eater and is growing like crazy. I don’t know how she got so old so fast but we sure are having a ball with her!

Look at the previous post for a bunch of pictures :)

All boy: Broken arm, cowboy boots & hat, camo jammies, and a batman toy :) 
My goofy kids, messin aroundJojo “babysitting” LizzieThe fam at the Pumpkin PatchTrunk or Treat: two kitties and a cowboy (Lizzie was in my arms as I took the pic, but she was adorable!)
From our awesome camping trip for Jojo’s b-dayLiz Biz
Jojo painting at preschoolJojo and Ems at Daddy’s work, again…messin around :)Happy girl, about to get her grub on 

Riding in the culdesacA fav of mine… Joe & LizzieEmma sporting the skirt I made (one of my new hobbies–repurposing clothes)

Jojo being scary in his Batman jamsEmma & Grammy having facials (Emma being a green monster!)Our family picture from Lizzie’s blessing day (It’s one of my favorites, THANK YOU, EM!)Awesome expression, Liz Biz :)Emma laughing hysterically while we practiced for her spelling testJojo and his helicopter–He is awesome, you should see him fly it!Ems and Pops at our gingerbread house making party for Joe’s b-dayLizzie on her blessing day on August 6, 2012
My sweet, sweet girl!

3:10 – She’s here!

1:20 – Still waiting.

11:30 – Epidural is in and she’s ready to use it.

11:10 – Everyone is doing fine. Just waiting for Lizzy.

7:20 – Checked into the hospital.

We’ve had lots of baby doctor visits lately and all is going well. I am measuring right on track so I wonder if Lizzie will be my smallest baby? I measured 2 weeks ahead with both Emma (8 lbs) and Jojo (9 lbs, 1 oz.). I am definitely ready to have her here! She is getting really wiggly and without much room left, its pretty uncomfortable-especially at night! I can tell it is the end because I am living on Tums and have been congested for weeks. Also, my feet are swelling and I am just generally not feeling very attractive  :) I’ve been nesting a lot lately and I think I have most everything together. I bought new bottles, pacifiers and those sweet little newborn diapers that smell amazing. I also needed to buy her some summer outfits since Emma was born in the fall and didn’t have a lot of warm weather clothes in the newborn and 3 month sizes. Buying and washing the clothes is getting me really excited to meet her. I can’t help but wonder who she will be. I assume she’ll look just like my other two but you never know, maybe she’ll come out with brown hair or something. We’ve known we would name her Elizabeth Dale for quite a while. We all call her Lizzie already. ‘Elizabeth’ is a family name on both sides (my maternal grandmother and Joe’s great grandmother-his maternal granddad’s mom) and we have loved it since we had Emma. ‘Dale’ is a family name too. It is my maternal granddad’s middle name, my mom’s middle name and my middle name too. Another fun thing about it is that all of us (my mom, me and Lizzie) are also the third children in our families. We can’t wait to have her in our family. The kids talk about her all of the time. Emma hops into bed with me most mornings and just wants to rest her hand on my tummy and wait for Lizzie to kick. She snuggles close to me in church and waits for Lizzie to move around. Her face lights up and I can tell she is in love with this little girl already. Jojo talks about all the things we are going to do with her and how she can come to the park and shopping with us. Just today he told me how sweet he will be to her. I love it. Its funny how we all already feel like we know her and love her. I am so grateful to be a mom and to be lucky enough to have another little angel come into my family.