Best Big Sister Ever

Ella's been eager to help feed Betty, so we finally made it happen. Betty's not too sure about it yet, but it's clear she's in good hands.

About Ella: For about the past 6 months or so, when asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Ella always responds with 'A Mommy!' and then sometimes throws in a random occupation like a podiatrist, dentist or waitress (way to aim for the stars!) :) But in judging from her first answer... I think I'm doing something right (for the moment anyway.) Love my girls.

The boy loves nature

Today when I picked up Henry & Ella from preschool, the teachers said to Henry: Henry, tell Mommy what you did today. I got excited and asked if he went #2 in the potty (we've got #1 down, but #2... not so much.) Anyway, Mrs. T said "No...." and Henry just looked at me so happy and proud. The teacher went on to explain that they were outside playing on the playground and noticed Henry off by the fence by himself. Upon further investigation, they realized that they could see his little bottom... so low and behold, my son realized he needed to go potty and found himself a place out of the way on the edge of the playground to pull down his pants and go pee!

Ahhhh...one of my most proud moments. I of course then had to explain that we have a pretty big yard at our house and often times we decide to "nature pee" to keep things easy. Seems it was pretty easy for him today. I spoke with his other teacher and she explained that it's the first time she's ever seen that happen... she's been teaching for 20+ years. Again, I'm so proud!

Splashing Around

We've been lucky to have our pool open for almost 2 months now and enjoy it probably 4-5 days a week. It's taken the place every other night of a bath PLUS it's a great way to burn time and energy after dinner! Here are a few pictures of the crew playing around poolside. Betty's not loving our 'baby' pool yet (the weather's been too rainy/chilly to do much) but she loves to hang out next to the pool.

Let the Boating Season begin

Henry and Grandpa, driving on Memorial Day. I have a feeling, you'll see many more pictures of our kids driving boats over the next few months.

Bad, Bad Baby

No, I'm not talking about Betty. Ella's first dance recital was to that song. Pretty cute. Here are some 'pre' show pics of Ella and 2 of her gal pals.

For GranDad

One of his favorite pictures of Ella is similar to these... so here are the same style of shots with Betty Jane.

Dedicated

We recently had a Christian Baby Dedication at our church: Granger Community Church. We go up on the stage and publicly promise to raise Betty in a Christian home and teach her about Jesus and the Bible (to the best of our ability.) Betty is so precious and absolutely a blessing. We are incredibly lucky to have such wonderful children. We also had a lot of family who were able to share in our joy for the weekend, especially Uncle Tim (Phil's brother) and Aunt Alex. Thanks again for making the trip!

I think I can...

IPad. So cool and super intuitive. Apple's doing something right if our 4 year and 2 year old can navigate our new IPad (YouTube specifically) better than our parents. Wow! They are obsessed. Check out their 2 favorite videos (both about gummy bears...)
Gummy Bear Song
Disney's Gummy Bears Theme Song

A school performance...

The mother's day lunch at the kids' school. Henry's first time on stage... he's the one with his hands on his cheeks... think he loved it?

Some shots before school:

Caught in the Act

Betty's pretty stingy about smiling for the camera. She's been smiling for about 2 weeks or so, here and there but I can never catch it on camera. Finally, she smiled pretty yesterday.
It just melts your heart.

Side story: Betty (still) just adores Phil. He can just say hello to her and she lights up and smiles. I, on the other hand, have to work at it. Strangely, I've found that when I get up to feed her at night, she always gives me the best smiles. I'm convinced that she just likes me better in lower lighting (like only with the small glow of a night light...) Hmmmm, how should I take that?

Also, click here for a recent attempt at chatter.

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

Poor Betty Jane. She was born with a beautiful head of hair, not too crazy, but even all over. Dark brown... so cute. Then Mom had to put a super cute headband/bow in her hair for Mother's Day. I swear she only wore it MAYBE for 3 hours and she doesn't even move around much - she slept the whole time. Sure enough, when I took off the bow, her hair-line changed. Now she sports what I call, a forehead mustache (the hairline in FRONT of the headband is still there but behind it...well she can rival the best receding hairlines.) At this point, 8 weeks in to life 'outside' her hair loss seems to have subsided and it's just light and even all over. However, she's started to rub off in a ring shape around her head from twisting her head all around. Poor thing. I know it will grow back, but we girls care about our style. Check out the difference:



Where she started (at about 3 weeks old)







With the bow, it's SUPER cute BUT...





here's the result. Love the girl, but c'mon Mom!

Cute shots

Henry flying a kite - what a big boy! PS - the radio tower is pretty far away (don't be worried!)

Visiting with Grandma D


Snuggling with my newest girl...

Betty's first bath (in April)

Check out these first photos. Henry's curious, Ella's nervous and Dad's got his hands full!

Two Stories

I'm back in action, I think. I plan to update the blog more often. I hope to do a bunch of 'future' posts so that you have something to check back on in the next few weeks. But before I post more pictures, two quick stories:

2 weeks ago: I let the kids outside to run around while I 'loaded' the car before school. They usually just run down to the Mannex (detached garage) and play in the driveway. I heard some squealing and I ran to see what was going on... Ella & Henry are no where to be found. After a moment's panic-attack, I realized they were in the front yard. They had discovered our sprinkler system on and were running through the water without a care in the world... did I mention it was 60 degrees outside?!?!? Think they were ready for summer?

This past weekend: Henry and I went grocery shopping. At our store, there is a 'car' in the front of the cart that kids can drive through the store. I was trying to hurry to get what we needed and get home (which also limits the number of times we go to the potty at the grocery store!) We're almost all the way through and Henry tells me he has to go potty (again.) I've bribed him to get back into the car/cart with a mini-pkg of doughnuts and some M&Ms. We have 2 aisles left to go and finally, we are waiting in the check out line. I look down to check on him and he's got the doughnuts in one hand, M&Ms in the other and a package of random cheese puffs in his lap. Not sure when/how he snagged the bag of cheese puffs, but they were the biggest bag (family size) that I've ever seen. He simply said "Mom, I want these" and it was the cutest thing I've seen. Needless to say, we bought the cheese puffs and he was the happiest boy around. So cute!