the one with another update on the kids

I'm selling some stuff I make on an etsy shop (heysmukke) with my sister (enter shameless plug here :) Go check it out) One of the things I make is a car seat blanket, so I have our infant seat out and Ellie just loves sitting in it 

 She also loves playing in the bath tub (with no water in it). Her favorite is the plug. 

Taegen got a little black eye. He was running around the couches and ran smack dab into the corner. :(

 Such a silly little boy he is. 

 we were on a walk and he decided he needed to crawl like this because this way "he wouldn't get all itchy from the bushes" 

Taegen age 3 1/2:

- " Dogs don't eat popcorn, they eat dog things..like poop!"

- "MMMM....tastey"

- while eating some celery for snack time, "our celery talks, and it's really annoying"

- He came to me in the middle of the night and normally he's carrying his monkey with him. This time he wasn't, so I asked him where he was (I was a little tired and thought he had dropped him on the floor right by my bed) his response was "On my bed, I didn't want to wake him up" 

Ellie age 13 months:

- Her first official word that is associated with something (besides mama and dada, which to me don't count) was ball. She also says done, mama, dada and hi. She tries to mimic the things we say, and sometimes they're audible, but most times it's just a babble.

- She talks in her sleep. She wakes me up cause I think she's awake, but when I check the monitor she's fast asleep.

- She's walking with assistance. She loves to walk along the furniture and walls. She's at the point where that's her preferred method if she's not in a hurry. But she still won't do it by herself. She has taken some steps (see video in previous post) and she stands by herself unassisted, so problem. But she hasn't ventured into walking alone yet. 

- Loves bath time now. I just have to keep a little trickle of water going for her to play with and she's completely content.

- Bedtime story time is also a favorite. But only if we're reading hard cardboard type books. The regular books with paper pages she doesn't like. She needs to be able to turn the pages herself. Her favorite right now is "I love you through and through"

- She plays ball with Taegen. He'll roll the ball to her and she'll pick it up and actually roll/throw it back. 

- She has 4 top teeth, 2 bottom and all 4 first molars. 

- Shes pretty much down to taking only 1 nap a day. there are times when she still takes 2, but those days are few and far in between. For the most part she wake up and 7 ish, takes a nap around 12 for 2 hours or so, then goes to bed between 7:30 and 8. Some days we stray from the schedule, which is not set in stone, but she most definitely does better on the days where she has a routine going. Plus it makes us all a little less stressed out.

I'm really loving this stage with Ellie. She for the most part really easy and content. The main struggles I've had with her have been sleep or sick related, so now that her sleep under control and she's not sick at the moment, we're having a lot of fun. Now she just needs to learn to walk :)

I'm having a little bit of a hard time with Taegen. I still love the stage he's in too, but he's more defiant now. Intentionally not listening/ignoring us, learning to lie, etc.. I know it's for the most part just the age and part of getting older. But combine that with his already rather difficult personality and we've had some tough times. But we have just as many good/fun times that life is still really wonderful, for both my kids. 

The one with all the videos

Ellie's first steps

This girl has so much personality! She does this all the time. She doesn't do it for very long in this video, but its the best I could get. She also loves to flutter her lips and spit. (Taegen has def been an influence in that one)

Like I said, so much personality!

Taegen is teaching her to dance. Sorry about the no clothes, he still prefers to just be in his underwear and it can be a bit of a battle to keep him dressed all day. He'll use any excuse to take off his clothes ("I spilled a drop of liquid on my shirt"," I peed [only 1 drop] on my pants/shirt", "I'm itchy" etc..) And if he takes his shirt off, he thinks he needs to take off his pants too.

The one with another park visit

I needed to get the kids out of the house, so we went to a park on base. Both kids had a lot of fun. Ellie loved this lady bug. 

 T had fun on the slide, although when he went down this way he did hurt his elbows. :(

 This is my new favorite pics of my kids together. Taegs really is so cute with Ellie. He's so concerned for her well being. 

 She didn't like this one as much. The lady bug has a bench instead of a seat to straddle. 

 She learning to walk. Still won't do it without holding on to something, but she's getting there. 

The one with the McQueen face

Taegen has lost one of his Lightening McQueen cars and he came up to me saying he's looking for the car that makes this face...

Or is it this face

Or this one

What about this one

Nope, it's this one. This is the face he finally decided is the one McQueen is making

Silly boy. 

The one where it's been 7 years

Today, it's been 7 years since my mother passed away. I've had a really hard time today. I don't really know why. Other than the first year anniversary I haven't really had a hard time on either her birthday or death day. I'm of course sad and think about her a lot, especially on those specific dates. But not normally in tears most of the day, like I've been today.

Maybe it's because I'm away from family.
Maybe because I can't go visit her grave, like I would normally do.
Maybe because I missed her birthday and now her death date and it's been so long since I've been able to visit her grave.

Honestly, I really don't know. But listening to these songs have made me feel better. I still cry, but I feel peaceful while they're playing.

To where you are
The Prayer

Both of these songs were played at my moms funeral during a slide show. I can't help but think of her whenever I hear these beautiful songs. These are songs are obvious why I would like them so they don't need any explanation. The next two songs do.

Hotel California by the Eagles. That was my parents song. I remember numerous times my dad would blast this song on the stereo and run and grab my mom and just dance with her around the house. I loved it. I use to always say I wanted my husband to do that me when I get married. haha. thats only funny if you know Jon...the man HATES dance. Then my dad would switch off between us 5 girls and dance with us too. It was a wonderful memory I have of not only my parents, but of me and my dad.

I'll build you a rainbow. I don't know who sings it, but my aunts changed the words to it and sang it at the funeral. The song is a lot of talking, with a chorus that is sung. It sounds a little weird. And the original was done in like the 80's so it sounds a little corny. But, like I said, we changed the words to fit our situation and it turned out beautiful. I can't seem to find my copy of it on the computer or else I would have been listening to that one all day too.

I miss you mom!

The one where I try again...

When we first moved here to SA I started going to the gym and dieting to help me lose weight. I lost 10 lbs and did a post about my success after 1 month. Shortly after I plateaued, which I figured I might do. I knew that while I breastfeed I don't lose weight. I guess I had more weight to lose this time so I was still able to lose some, but not all of my weight. My point, well I'm officially done breastfeeding!! Woohoo!!! So here I am, once again trying to lose weight. Me and 2 of my sisters, Kristel and Stacie, have decided to run a half marathon. Well, I should say, they have decided and I'm still on the fence about the whole idea. I really don't like running. So I want to see how I do with the training before I commit. Today I did day 1. And man... I couldn't even complete the whole thing. I was supposed to do 8 reps of run 2 mins walk 1 min. I could only do it 3 times. haha. Hopefully I'll get better. I figure this is a great way to help me lose weight and get in shape.

I've also decided I want to try Garcinia Cambogia as well. It's a flower that is grown in south east Asia. If you take the pure form of it, it has proven to help with weight loss. There's no chemicals, additives, preservatives, nothing like that. Just the flower extract. They say you can take it, not change your diet or exercise at all and still lose weight. I, howeve,r don't want to use if like that. I don't want a miracle cure. I think I just need something to help boost my body into gear. My baby weight doesn't just fall off, I have to work hard at it. Last time (after I had Taegen) I did weight watchers and Insanity and still couldn't get down to my pre-pregnancy weight. So I'm hoping this'll help me this time around. My goal is to be skinnier (preferably 30lbs lighter from when we left, which means -20lbs from my weight now) when we go back to UT in January. Plus once we get back, the marathon is 1 week later. So thats extra incentive to get healthy.

Hopefully I can do it. I'm sick and tired of being over weight!!

The one with the bedtime story

Both of the kids normally can't calm down enough to want to sit on either of our laps for long enough to read a story. But last night, they both did. And Jon took advantage. It was just too cute, I had to take a pic. 

And last night we went outside while Jon was working on his truck. Ellie thought I was pretty funny.

The one where she turns 1!

My baby girl turns 1 today! We woke up and did our normal routine, then she opened presents. Of course she didnt quite understand the whole concept. But she was excited when she was her presents. She had seen most of them before, since I had her pick some of them out.

 A ladybug cake for my Ellie bug

 She HATED it! It probably didn't help that she wasn't in the best mood. But once we started singing she stopped crying. 

 She touched it with one finger, but didn't like it. She liked the taste, but not her fingers/hand being dirty.

 Jon finally helped her out a little bit.

 Taegen taught her to bite the end of the balloon and she thought it was so funny.

 I think Taegen likes her balloon/ball pit more than Ellie does

 I got some cuddle time in, which I just loved. I hardly ever get both of my kids wanting to cuddle with me. I had to get some evidence. 

 more of her and her hating her dirty hands. She did better once I put her on my lap but she still didn't like it.

She hardly touched it. 

A little about her now:
-She walked a few steps to me. But other than that she's still not walking.
-Says ya and MOMMA! She finally said it!
-She sleeps through the night! WooHoo!!!
-She officially done nursing. Today was the last day I breastfed her. I have been slowly weening, so each week I eliminated 1 feeding. So the past week she was only nursing one time a day. I'm so re leaved to be done. As bad as that sounds, I was more than ready to be done. Hopefully she'll adjust to falling asleep without nursing first, fairly quickly.
-She's in a forward facing car seat.
-Hates bath time. Until about a week ago. I have to leave a small stream of water coming out of the faucet or she screams the whole time.
-She could care less for the tv, unless theres a song/music on. Then she's glued.
-She's actually pretty obedient. If she's getting into something she's not supposed (aka the dvds) and we tell her no. she'll look at us. Then put it down.
-Shes a BIG mooch. Taegen was too but it started at a much younger age for him. She took a little longer, but she is too. In fact, I will feed her until she refuses food. Then once I put her down and start eating my food and she immediately crawls over and begs for my food. Even if its the exact same thing she just finished eating.
-She's a hitter/scratcher :( She attacks your face and chest while you're holding her.
-She cries when you tell her no. Diva anyone?


and Taegen:
-He wants to be 6. The next door neighbor boy is 6, so thats how old he wants to be.
-After he eats or drinks something, he'll get up on a chair and puff up and say "Look mom, I'm bigger. I'm as big as you now"
-He's starting to throw tantrums and talk back.

The one with a visit from family

We had family come visit us a while ago and we had so much fun seeing them. Lexy, her kids and grandma came down for a weekend visit. We did a little shopping, relaxing, swimming, enjoyed the splash pad and even paid a visit to Jon during his lunch break.

Splash pad fun

 Caleb

 Taegs, Lucas and Berks

 Ellie was not a happy camper

 Shopping at Costco. They sampled a chocolate cake...I think they liked it :)

 Best Friends!

 Just a little relax time. Watching some cartoons

 I think she's a little confused. Buzz? Captain America? Hulk?

 At the beach

 Gettin in some good quality mother son time

 haha his face says it all.

 He was tuckered out from all the fun

 I just love this face!

 Not the most flattering picture, but I don't get very many of the both of us together, so I'll take what I can get. 

 grandma and the grand kids

 We ended the visit with some cute pictures. It's fairly hard to get 5 kids looking the same place at the same time. This is as good as we could get. 

 Man she's adorable...if I do say so myself :)

 grandma and the grand kids again

 hugs

 The boys (minus Caleb)

 Seriously, my son and his faces

 The girls. And of course I couldn't get Ellie to cooperate, so this is the best shot we got.

 the kids wanted an oreo. So Jon made them sit on the kitchen floor right in front of him to listen to his lecture about not making a mess....ok thats not really what happened. But he did make them eat it in the kitchen. 

 gma and Ellie. Ellie finally warmed up to grandma they day they left. Looks like she's just going to have to come visit more often.