Whew!

I can't believe I've been on maternity/disability leave for six months! The time has flown by. I'll only be doing overflow work and mostly from home, but I don't know exactly how much that will be. Hopefully not much because in preparation for my eminent return, I've been "practice working" and it is not so fun. That means, I'd edit during nap time and after Aurora's bedtime and a few hours when Aurora went to play at someone else's house in between Allegra's feedings and fussy times. That translates to about three hours a day, leaving zero time for anything I like to do, which includes blogging, reading, and sleeping. So if you've noticed a lack of postings lately and a really grumpy, stressed out Carrie, that's why.

Meanwhile, the girls and I have been having a lot of fun. Sept. 20 we went to the Day for Kids Festival at Newhall Park with my sister-in-law Kristin, mother-in-law, Dee and niece MacKenzie. MacKenzie was a real trooper because she's ten and not really interested in the activities but was happy to help Aurora. Aurora idolizes MacKenzie.

Allegra at two months: At her doctor's appointment she was ten pounds! That's huge considering she was only 5lb. 15oz. at birth. Aurora didn't get that big for about six months! Her outfit in the picture was bought by Grandma and Grandpa in Japan. It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but she won't fit in it by then! Notice that it is gender neutral--here's the story. My baby gender ultrasound was scheduled when my parents were visiting Japan. We couldn't contact them by phone, but they would be checking their email. Once I found out the baby was a girl, I decided to be tricky. I used an online translator to find out the word for baby girl in Japanese. Then I emailed them, "It's a joji!" They "cheated" and used an online translator and found out it was a girl but decided to check with the locals just to make sure. They had no idea what a joji was! So in order to be safe, they bought a gender neutral outfit for the baby and were happy to find out for sure that it was a girl when they got home.

Happy Fall! Well, almost! Too bad it got hot again!

I just love this outfit. I'm so glad it fits! In contrast to my little roley poly, Aurora is my slow grower. Here she is one year ago in the same outfit:
Granted, it was a little big back then, but I just had to have her wear it to the pumpkin patch and I was afraid she'd grow out of it by this year. Nope! Oh well, she get's to wear it for two autumns!

Here we are at Lombardi Ranch this year. It was about 100 degrees and it sure didn't feel like fall! In the last picture are Keira and Kaleb--some of our friends who went with us. It was impossible to get all the kids to stand still for one picture--we really tried!


Aurora helped me make pizza one night:

We a fun visit with Uncle Matty, Aunt Lisa and Baby Sarah for a weekend!


The girls and I went to the SCV Rose show with Grandma and I was inspired to work a little harder in the backyard! This variety is called "Moonstone."
Allegra made a friend!And we visited Bridgeport Lake with the twins.


So I may not have been posting for a while but boy, have we been busy!