Terrible Two's

I haven't resorted to this yet but I am awfully close! This was from our Relief Society activity and I thought it was hysterical! Ellie has just been on a whole different level of hard for me than I have experienced thus far. She has many opinions, demands, she is smart and knows how to do a lot of things as well as not being scared to do anything. She screams a lot and is extremely loud and stubborn and sometimes makes me want to cry and pull my hair right out.  

When she gets mad or agitated, which is often, she says "uuugghhhh" loudly, calls people stupid, and spits with her tongue out (like making a pass gas sound!). She is out of control sometimes and I don't know where picked up the spitting habit. 

I want you to know that you are giving me a really hard time lately Ellie but I sure do love you tons. You are infuriating one minute and cute as can be the next with your babies and saying who is your best friend at the moment. You make everything you see into a mommy and a baby and it is so sweet how you think like that. 

I love love you but you are very hard for me right now! But as I have been told, these are the easy problems just wait until she is a teenager, so I will take them and be happy you still want me to hug and hold you. 

Colt's Best Buddy Bevo!

Meet Bevo the guinea pig. The week before Halloween Colt got to bring his class pet home for a week. He was so excited to have him here and got even more attached as each day passed. By the end of the week he never wanted to put the poor guy in his cage and I know he would have loved some quiet time in his cage!

It was really cute to see Colt so attentive to Bevo. He just wanted to take care of him and play with him like he was a real toy. It was so sweet to see him care about this little guy!

Everyone loved little Bevo and he was constantly being played with. Colt got his quality time in with Bevo when the girls were at school.

Just sitting there watching Bevo in his house!

And boy did Bevo love to eat! The kids were feeding him as much lettuce and carrots as he would take. I think he gained like two pounds when he was here! Colt can't wait until we get to take him home again! Thanks for a fun week Bevo!

Eric's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Eric!! Eric's birthday was in October and the kids loved decorating for his big day. They hung balloons all over and made some other decorations. The kids had off that day so after we got to celebrate a little and help dad pop all his note filled balloons, we got a babysitter and headed out for some massages! I was lucky and got to enjoy his birthday too with massages for both of us!

Rachel made him a rubber band bracelet, Livy wrote him a book about our family and Colt not wanting to be without a gift went and dug something up to give to him-a Justin Bieber book! He even wrapped it up with help from his sisters!

Ellie helped Eric by opening all his gifts for him.

Happy Birthday Eric! I hope you know how much we all love and appreciate you for all you do and the great person you are! We are so lucky to have you! I love you!

Salt Lick aka Salt Lake

A fun quick weekend in Austin to check on the boat dock after a storm. One anchor ripped off but everything else was ok. I love when the kids can be entertained by just being outside and that's what it is like there. Collect stuff, explore, throw stuff, watch dad work on something :) It was beautiful weather and we got to go to our favorite Austin resturant, Salt Lick. Even the kids liked it which is rare for them to enjoy the same stuff as us! They were talking about how they liked but kept calling it salt lake instead, another of my favorite places to go!

She is so sweet sometimes! And so cute always!'

They Make Me Laugh Sometimes

They are fun, frustrating, hard, loving, sweet, strong and sometimes pretty funny....

Driving in the car Colt got upset and whiny that he had no more juice in his cup. After telling him three times that I can't fill his cup up in the car I tried a sarcastic approach "ok Colt, let me just get this apple juice out of my pocket and fill your cup up." It didn't have the intended effect but it got him to stop whining, with a puzzled face he asked "why you have apple juice in your pocket?"

Colt loved this bandage when Rachel hurt her hand and had it wrapped up, so he got one too. Wore it out to dinner and everything. 

Can we say mild addiction to the ipad over here? Hiding in the cabinet so she, Livy, could play skylanders. Colt is the other addicted one. Rachel and Ellie couldn't be bothered.  

After Chinese food one night Colt opened his fortune cookie and "read" it himself to us. It said "You come here, play with your friends, and go on a trip." Pretty good fortune!

Doing water balloons with dad, his favorite water activity!

Colt continues to crack me up daily.

When we are reading scriptures his new standard question is, "Did they have the grass plates with them?" No point in correcting him, it makes us all smile :)

He takes everything so serious and totally believes everything the girls say. If they tell him he is tiny, that is it in his mind and later he will get upset about something he can't do and I will try to tell him he can do it and he will say "Rachel-Livy said I tiny so I can't do it." He is very trusting and genuine. He over reacts a bunch but he totally believes it is really that bad-with a cute sad face and voice :)

Pain from the monkey bars, ouch! She loves to do them and has put in lots of time practicing. That was one of her goals she told me and now she needs a new goal because she accomplished that one!

Healthy hands here, until a few weeks later, then she ripped hers apart too!

One night Livy was really sad about something. At the dinner table Rachel was trying to cheer her up and it was so sweet. She asked dad to tell her a joke to cheer her up and then tried her own joke. When it didn't work she says, "ok, well that didn't work so lets try something else." So she did. She kept trying anything she could think of to make Livy happy. I loved seeing this nurturing side of her and her taking care of Livy when she needed it. Usually it is the other way around so this was heart warming to watch. Love their bond these two.

Livy's friend Becky was supposed to come over to play but wasn't feeling good. The next day she felt better and was going to come over and Livy said, "I know why she is better already, yesterday I said a prayer for Becky that she would get better. I thought it would take a few days for her to get better but he must not have been busy so he did my prayer." So cute, sweet, and faithful!

Colt loves Skylanders now. He just got underwear, under panties as he calls them sometimes, and when he was playing his game later I hear him talking to himself, "This guy is on my underwear, I can't believe it!"

A place mat master piece of our family!

I love when Eric is home to entertain Colt and Ellie during homework time!

Colt loves taking lots of pictures of himself every time he gets a hold of my phone. It makes me smile to see what he captures on here.

One day Colt didn't want to go to school so he told me, "Today is not a good day for me to go to school, I'm tired." and then fell on the couch with fake yawns!

At the park one day Colt told Ellie, "watch out for those yellow flowers, don't step on them because Heavenly Father really like those flowers." So sweet sometimes.

"My daw-wee. I carry my daw-wee all day." She likes to add "all day" to lots of her sentences.

Ellie locking herself up in the mornings!

Colt's other obsession. He loves making us dancing elves.

This is the first picture on my phone and I just love it of Rae. It is a year old but she looks so sweet.