Ellie

Ellie at 2!

What to say about Ellie....she is super cute, she cracks me up, she talks a ton, she is always into something, she never runs out of energy, she loves baby dolls, she loves doing what the big kids do, she loves her blankey and pacifier, she loves dancing and any music, she thinks she is in charge, she is very sassy, and she is a great kid and a handful! Now that Colt is in school I am so loving having one on one time with her! It is so enjoyable and fun and such a different dynamic than when every one else is around. She knows it too because she is usually so good when she is alone! If anyone else is around there is some sort of problems so I'm really enjoying just Mom and Ellie days!

A little cautious? She makes me laugh like 30 times a day. Now she is jumping in the pool with everyone else but the first half of the summer she was suited up like this.





So precious. She loves Dora and Little Einsteins, she loves reading books, coloring, dancing, and trying to play the ipac (ipad). She thinks she is big already and tries to pick up other little kids. She loves dogs and cats and any animals she sees. She is strong. She is smart. She loves to say "oh man" when something happens that she's bummed about. She calls the Colt, Rachel, and Livy "the kids." She calls dragons "draggers" and when she says Jesus it sounds like he is a rapper, "Jez-ee."



She loves being my little buddy and I am so glad she's my baby.

She has now started carrying a backpack or purse with her everywhere she goes with all her "stuffs" she says. It is crazy what little kids see, everyone with their phones now a days. She won't even walk out to get the mail without telling me to wait because she has to get her phone!

See her phone in her hand and her keys in her pocket!

They loved finding the Halloween bucket! She calls him "My Colty" and loves playing with him when he allows it! She has been his little shadow since the girls are back in school.

I love when they are best friends. It is so fun to watch. Some days there is biting and fighting but the other days they do great together and those are the great days!

She thinks wiping something on her shirt cleans it. She picks her pacifier off the floor and wipes it and tells me "all clean, I wash it on my dress." Same with her crackers and when I ask her to wash her hands she wipes them on her shirt and says she washed them! She makes me laugh, keeps me busy and some times frustrated but makes me laugh!

She is always carrying a baby around now too. They never have clothes on. She is usually really good at holding the head, I don't know how she learned that but it is adorable to watch her stand there and hold her baby, support the head, and rock or bounce her. It must just come natural!

The girls packing Ellie for school too! She sure wants to be big.

Ellie loves spaghetti, pizza, cheese, yogurt, mananas (bananas) and fruit snacks. She is the only one of my kids to drag a blankey around everywhere she goes.  

So happy to have on her cousins swim cap. All it takes is getting a chance to try something the big kids do!

Being a monkey and hiding from me. I was trying to change her diaper. I don't know how I don't have a picture of this but in New York she started taking her clothes and diaper off while she was in her bed for nap and then would have a wet bed when I got her up. So now for nap and night time she wears zip up pajamas on backwards so she can't get anything off and her diaper stays on. It is our Ellie strait jacket.

So cute! I love that smile and laugh!

She is always carrying baby dolls and bags with all her "stuffs" in it where ever she goes. There is always a whole pile under her carseat in the car. She has quite a collection of stuff in her bags but always has keys and a phone. She loves calling Grammy on her fake phone all the time.

She is still great at smiling for the camera and "cheesing" whenever I ask her to. She carries lots of photos around with her and likes to look over them all the time and talk to them. 

She is getting so old now! She loves to tell me "I don't want to" when I ask her to do anything at all (come here, put your shoes on, etc.)!! You have some attitude these days Miss Ellie and you make me so happy for nap time everyday! But also so happy to see you after nap! I love you munchkin!

Girl Time

Before we headed to New York for the summer we got some fun cousin girl time in at the roller skating rink! I haven't been roller skating in many years and to say it was challenging trying to keep these two on their feet would be a major understatement! But they still had fun!

There were many falls and some tears but they were pretty happy to be with mom, Savannah, Kylie, Jamie, no little kids, and slushies of course!

You girls are super special to me and I love you so much! I hope you always want to hang out with me!

June with Hannah!

June started with lots of swimming. Colt finished swim lessons and does great swimming with the big girls now. Ellie liked her lessons and now kicks around the pool with her floatie on and will jump in sometimes. She really loves to jump right on the sunbench on her belly and scoot herself across it pretending that she is swimming while saying "kick, kick, kick" the whole time. 

Eric sold his favorite truck, F-150 Lightning, and was sad to see it go. 

 So precious :)

The kids made a club upstairs in the corner. I don't know what they do up there but they include Colt and they all seem happy about it so it works out well. Their junk collection has tripled in the club since I took this picture! Eric is a member of their club but I was never invited in, figures!

After the lake house trip Hannah came back with us to spend two weeks with us. We did a few things but I am getting bad about pictures so this is all we have!

We went to the library to read to dogs, the older kids all got a turn and Colt and Ellie drove me nuts while we waited for them!

We went to the jump place and did lots of swimming. The girls went to a vacation Bible school for one week but Hannah stayed home with Colt and Ellie and I. The girls all played barbies a lot we had some friends over for swimming. They learned about the "would you rather" game and laughed a lot with that one. 

Sweet and funny Ellie....

Overly cautious Ellie! Cracks me up sometimes!

And of course we did fireworks! Eric and Colt have been waiting and waiting for fireworks! Colt has been saving his money and they all loved being part of picking which ones to get. 

Ready for the show! I don't even know how much Eric spent on fireworks but we did three night fireworks and all the kids had turns to pick which ones they wanted on their turn and Eric let them come with him to light theirs each time. What a great dad they have! They sure loved it and it was quite entertaining to listen to Ellie yell for them to hurry and get back to their seat. 

Colt finally finished his sticker chart! Way to keep going buddy, I know it was hard to get (and keep) all those stickers! So off to Chuck E. Cheese we went! 

This is after Chuck E. Cheese, everyone was happy except Rae because she was petrified of the Chuck E. Cheese mascot that comes out and visits the kids. Poor girl, he came out right as we were leaving and she had a very hard time with it. She says she doesn't want to go to Disneyland because of all the characters with costumes! 

One day when Rae went to VBS the rest of us went to a little tour of a firehouse. Livy was so intrigued by every tool and little compartment. She just loved it!

Colt's dragon fly friend. He insisted it was sitting on his finger but the poor guy was almost bent in half and just waiting out the rest of his time!

We love having Hannah here and are so excited to go see her in New York soon! These kids sure are lucky to have the best aunt there is!