Oh sad, sad neglected blog

Hello blog! It's been a week. Wow! :)

The most exciting news is that we can feel and see the top of Jill's first tooth poking up through her gums. So little Jill has been a little unhappy this past week, but soon the pain will pay off and she'll be one step closer to chewing on food! (But hopefully not chewing on her mommy and daddy. Her pinches are already pretty painful, so I imagine chomps would be even worse!)

Our Church had General Conference this weekend. It's usually one of my favorite weekends, but I was pretty distracted this time around. Thank goodness it's on the internet and will be in the Ensign. For the first session, I had four babies over under the age of 2, and for the remaining three, I had Jill and her buddy here, Santiago. (Of course the mommies of these babies were here as well, but it's still a lot of noise and running around.) (The children are all dolls though. Love 'em!)

Jill and Santiago

Interestingly (at least to me), Santiago, when translated into English, is James. Not all names translate into something different, but for whatever reason Santiago is James. I always assumed Jaime would be James or, you know, something at least similar, but hey, I'm not in charge!

Life over all is pretty good. I think Jill will be a clown for Halloween and wear the costume her daddy wore for his very first Halloween. It's a little big on her, since Jeff was almost a year old for his (since he's a November baby), but clown costumes are okay baggy, I think.

Jeff had an interview yesterday and has another interview next week. It's always encouraging when we can find jobs to apply for. The worst weeks is when there aren't any jobs to apply for. So, yay for interviews. They're at least something to be positive about!

Of course, with a baby this cute, it's pretty easy to be positive. :)

Yeah, other than the tooth and interviews I don't really have much to report. I can't think of any funny stories right now, unless not being able to remember anything is funny. I find it frustrating and funny.

I have been reading a lot of books recently, and the others that I've been enjoying are Shannon Hale and Janette Rallison. Both are writing for the young adult group. Some of them are for high school and others for middle school aged children, but I'm enjoying both. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing research for what I want my kids to read when they're older. The books are really good though with morals that I agree with and lots of humor. I find myself actually laughing out loud, and sometimes I've sniffled a bit, too. I definitely recommend them. Start with Goose Girl or Princess Academy with the Shannon Hale books (she writes more in the fairy tale genre), and start with Just One Wish or How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-boyfriend for Janette Rallison.

Those are my recommendations at least. Do what you will with them!

Here Jill is wearing a sweater and hat made by her great-grandmother, Alice.  Alice made them when Laurie was pregnant with Jeff, before they knew the baby would be a boy. Since Laurie never had a surviving girl, they've been waiting for 27 years for a girl to wear them!

Jeff thought the hat made her look like an old school football player, and I thought it kind of looked like a fancy, old fashioned swim cap.

Either way, it keeps her ears warm!