Best Friends

Here is Elena and her best Friend Melanne. Melanne just had a birthday this past weekend and we took the idea from another friend and picked out matching shirts for Elena and her best friend. Elena was soo excited that she could pick out the shirts and Elena loved this candy heart shirt so much that she wore it two days in a row. In fact, I had to wash the outfit because she was begging last night to wear it to MOPS this morning. So my girly girl has now worn the same outfit for 3 days!! Luckily she decided to change into a dress later, so I'll have to hide the shirt for a few days. :) Elena is exactly 9 months younger than Mel, so they are very close which is great since her mom is one of my closest friends. She always has a friend to play with when mom wants to see her friend!

Better Hide Your Toys!

Okay now it has not been long since Natalie started crawling. Only a bit over 3 weeks have passed since our little one has become mobile. Now of course we know what happens once they become mobile so we are in no hurry to move her along, But oh does she have other plans! Two weeks after she began crawling all over the house, Forcing us to reinstall baby gates and once again babyproofing all the floors. She has learned to pull herself up on everything!
She knows the good papers and toys are now being put up on the couches, tables, chairs and the kids beds out of her reach so she does all she can to get them! That is much more fun than just crawling around.

We were hanging out in Ethan and Elena's room this morning while Daddy was napping downstairs and the siding installers were banging around Mom and Dad's room - Elena was trying to play up in her bed so Natalie wouldn't bother her. Natalie had a different idea. She was reaching for her dollies and her phone. She did manage to get the phone and talk to DaDa! She loves to call daddy! Oh the fun those girls will have!
(Once Elena realizes it's okay to share her toys with her sister)

Ethan and his Buddy

(Ethan and his Buddy playing with their trucks)

In our neighborhood, there are a lot of kids and usually they end up hanging out at our house, especially when the weather is nice. Some of them I don't mind being here, others....well.. you know.

The little boy who lives next door is the sweetest little guy He is one month younger than Elena, but he is Ethans' little buddy. Whenever they see Laithen outside, they HAVE to get outside right away! It is a race to get out there. They play so well together. This week it has been nice enough for Ethan to play outside every day which he is LOVING! He will come home from school and pretty much play until its dinner time. Which is strange for February. So I just had to take a picture of him and his friend enjoying the crazy weather.

Here is video clip of them playing in the puddles.
http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=13286E2B18033C9D

Mommys Little Helper

Elena is very much a big girl these days. She is trying to do everything anti-baby. She is the big girl, Natalie is the baby! So she has been proving this to mommy by being a good helper. This week it has been washing the dishes. She jumped up by the sink one night and dove right in!! So every night after dinner she asks, is it time to wash dishes yet?




(Don't worry those of you that eat at our house - mommy rewashes before they are put away :) )






Last week I showed her how to fold towels, so whenever there is a load of towels or blankets - It's hers to fold! - She is very proud of her work when she sees the big pile that she has completed.


With all this helping, you would think she would love the easy jobs like picking up her toys or her bedroom.. But those for some reason don't seem to be as fun. Mommy prefers to pick up toys to doing dishes and laundry, maybe this is a perfect compromise???

My Baby in Motion

Here is a video clip of Natalie crawling.
http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=BF9BDC757B2D753B

Baby's Getting Too Big Too Fast

It seems like time is just flying. This week two things have happened with Natalie that means she is getting bigger - whether we want her to or not. She has reached the 20 pound mark and was just getting too big for her baby carrier car seat, so we moved her into the convertible car seat. Then the other day I was telling Bill that we needed to lower the mattress in Natalies crib because she is starting to pull up. I was thinking how I hadn't taken any pictures of her in her crib and she was looking so cute the other day playing peek-a-boo with me, she decided to show me how big she is getting.

Our little baby isn't ready to do something like that... She's still our tiny little baby, not a big older baby yet, is she?

Olympic Bound?

This year is the first time that we enrolled Ethan and Elena in Gymnastics. We thought it would be a great way for them to get some excercise and get some energy out this winter.

Unfortunetly Miss Elena decided that she didn't want to be part of the class. She is the reason that we got the kids involved in the first place since she is such a daredevil at home. She is always flipping off the couch or doing some kind of crazy flip or jump. She loved the idea of getting into costume- painting her nails and toenails purple to match her leotard, putting a purple hair band in- she was ready! But when it came class time, she loved the free style running around and stretching, but would have nothing to do with the wait your turn, do only what the instructor says and not just twirl around in circles stuff.... Maybe next year.

Ethan on the other hand is having a lot of fun. He has a few friends from school in his class so he looks forward to seeing them and he does very well with the flips and different moves. He really is enjoying himself. The class is coming to an end here soon and he is already asking when he can come back again. I think it was a success.

Here Kitty, Kitty...

Jason 4 yrs old, made
Madison a house
Ethan pouncing on poor Madison upper left, Below Kitty loving up to Elena in her dee-dee (pacifier) days and the now mobile 8 mth old Natalie getting ready to get kitty.
(You can click on the picture to make it larger)

I was lying there this morning listening to our cat Madison meow and meow since no one was up yet. (He is our alarm clock if we haven't gotten up by 6AM - He'll meow outside of the kids room knowing that will get us all up!!) I was thinking how we have had him for over 8 years now and how much our kids have enjoyed having him. Madison used to not like kids. Whenever kids were over, he would either sit on the steps and hiss or just go upstairs and hide. Since we have had more babies he has gotten much better, Esp with Elena - She is his favorite- Elena has always been allowed to lie on him, pull his hair, poke his eyes - Whatever she wanted - he would allow it. Now that Natalie has become mobile and is crawling her favorite thing to chase is kitty. She calls him "key" The other day he walked into the room and her little face lit up and she said "hey key" It is so cute to see her start to recognize things. We are so happy to have him as part of our family.

Here we go.....

Okay, Here it goes. I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon and seeing if this works! If so, I will be soo excited as I have a place to post pics and update the wonderful things going on in our kids lives. Thanks for checking this out and keep coming back I plan to keep this updated hopefully weekly.