February

Of course I wrote about how things are good and all that a few posts ago and this is what I get for it, a month of barely hanging on there. Crazy, trying, long month with some gratefulness and sweetness thrown in. Busy with callings, hard having Eric be so busy, grateful for great family, fun having visitors, hard watching them leave, sad watching people suffer, grateful for the gospel, hard with sick kids and non stop laundry, grateful that every month is not like this one. Savoring the sweet moments when they come and keeping them as reasons to keep doing this!!

Ellie enjoying the world of real food.

Olivia's dinosaur and writing. They talked about dinosaurs in school a few weeks ago and Livy really loved it. Dinosaurs are some of her favorite things. It doesn't matter what kind of art project it is, her paper is always full of stuff. Opposite of Rachel. 

Rachel's dinosaur and her name. She's a minimalist!

Gamers. Livy loves playing games with her daddy on the ipad. And he loves helping her out and teaching her how to build stuff in their games.

This little guy spends a lot of time in time out, or the corner as we call it. He is getting better about biting but loves hitting people with toys and squeezing the girls really hard. He asks why about everything and says "cause" whenever I ask him why he did something. We go around in circles with the questions.

He loves riding his tricycle and wearing a helmet. He will play at the park the whole time with this thing on.

Miss Ellie. She's picked up the phony baloney routine from Colt. She's got a whole phony baloney cry face too. It would be kind of funny if she didn't do it about 50 times a day.

Rachel and Livy love taking care of Ellie. They like to hold her and play with her and can't wait for her to get bigger so they can have another sister to play with. I feel bad for Colt a lot because most of the time they don't want him around. Poor kid. Maybe he gets it that is why he hits them so much!

There are a lot of these pictures. I liked someones face in each so I just put a bunch of them.

Here begins Ellie's torture. Move #1

Move #2

Move #3

"Rachel pleas save me!"

Colt's got the crazy look

Happy Valentine's Day. We started the morning with a sick Grammy (post to follow) and saying goodbye to visitors. Last year I made a trail with hearts from the girls bed room to their little surprise and they requested it again this year. They actually requested it a few weeks before v-day and I had no idea what they were talking about, like it was another person who did it. It took me  few days to remember! So, they like that. Then off to school for a fun v-day party for the girls and play time for me and Colt. Eric brought us all home some roses and then we went to Kevin and April's house for some pizza and cousin play time.

Eric sold his beloved Trans-Am on Valentine's Day. He was really sad to see it go. And even though I am happy with the extra room in the garage, I'm kind of sad for him to let it go because I  know how much he loved it.

More pretend cooking. Colt got to play this time too.

Cupcakes!

His "handsome" shirt. Every time we pull it out to wear he tells me "has-some." His mixing up of words cracks me up. When it is dark out at night, he says "dark in." When requesting an orange, he calls it "pink blue." ( I know it is one of those colors!) When we ask what he wants to eat he says "Dinner." What do you want for dinner "McDonalds, chicken, chinese food, sandwich cheese, taco." Sometimes all of them sometimes just one or two. Can you tell his mom doesn't cook?

This little guy is loving Toy Story now a days. He likes Jesse and Buzz Lightyear. He calls him Fuzz Year. It is so funny because it takes a minute before I know what he is talking about.

He wore this watch as his laser so he could shoot me like "Fuzz" does. He is always telling me "I shoot you mommy" with all sorts of stuff. Boys are just so different than girls!

Ellie is all over the place. I was ready for it to get easier but it is now getting harder. She is pulling up on everything now and moving from one toy to another. But she still falls and cries and gets pushed over sometimes by other little people. She is almost 9 months old and loves eating anything I will give her. She is getting more attached to me and cries every time I put her down and forget about walking away from her. Then comes the real cry. It is like a wrestling match to change her because she is constantly flipping over to her belly. She goes to bed great, she loves her bottle and holds it by herself most of the time. She is so cute still and I can't believe she is so old already. She started clapping last week and it is adorable.

New favorite game of theirs, tie ourselves together and do everything like this! They really are great girls and I am grateful to be their mom. Even when it is tough.

Everyone tells me she looks just like Colt now. She acts like him in that she is nonstop moving and wants to climb on everything already. I'm going to miss lots of thing about not having a little baby anymore but I know I love this age that she is getting to now also!