Ella..

is definitely...

well loved...

and she doesn't...

seem to mind one bit!

Being Creative!

With the change of the weather and the fact that my backyard isn't completely fenced in and I get tired of going outside to make sure the boys are still in the yard....I've had to become creative. Oh okay I stole this from Mckmama. I remembered read this a long time ago and thought the boys would have fun with it.

Since we are on WIC right now we get a ton of peanut butter and a ton of rice. Peanut butter we use...rice not so much. So I took a couple bags and dumped them in this cupcake container I have.

I gave the boys a couple baby food jars and spoons. We also have these two teeny tiny dinosaurs the boys got out of the vending machine at the dentist. I told them they should try to cover them up and then find them...kind of like an excavation.


They were having a great time, but about 5 minutes into the fun when I was having to pick up rice all over my dining room floor I decided it was time to move things out on the deck. I can only handle so much!

In A Perfect World...

- My husband wouldn't still be looking for a job after 10+ months of being unemployed.

- We wouldn't have had to contact our realtor to find out how much we could sell our house for.

- We wouldn't be totally floored by the amount our house would sell for right now...drastically less than a few years ago.

- My husband wouldn't be contemplating joining the National Guard to have his schooling paid for.

- I wouldn't have had to update my resume and start applying for jobs. Jobs that will take me from my children.

- I wouldn't have an interview next Wednesday for a job in Bellevue.

With that being said...we don't live in a perfect world. We live a fallen world! One where suffering and sorrow happen everyday. I know that we are suffering, but there are other families that are worst off than we are. We have each other, our health, food in our bellies and a roof over our head. Do we have some tough choices ahead of us? We sure do!

Likes and Dislikes

She likes sitting in her highchair now. The Bumbo isn't safe anymore...she tries to reach out for things and can almost get out of it. She also likes certain foods more than others...in this case she liked the Banacado! The other day I found out she doesn't like peaches or I should say peaches don't like her. She woke up from her nap and threw them up...all over herself and her crib! :(

30th Birthday Celebration!

On Wednesday night my parents came over to watch the kids so Michael and I could go out to dinner at The Melting Pot.

Does that dress look familiar? It's the one I got awhile ago at a garage sale for a dollar!!

Mmmm....cheese fondue!



They are having this special right now where the menu has a tropical theme to it so we had lettuce wraps instead of a salad. This was my least favorite thing we ate because of the sauce.



Wonderful Riesling our waiter recommended. Since we went on a Wednesday all wine was half off if you bought the bottle. We got this bottle for $14 when that's what it would have cost to have 2 glasses. And we got to bring home what we didn't drink.



Lobster tail...yummy!

Waiting for our food to cook!

Time for dessert! Cookies and Creme Fondue...so good it's sinful!

Stop drooling on your computer please! ;)

Happy Birthday to me!

Goodbye twenties...hello thirties!

Time For Tea!

On Saturday my mom took me out to the Secret Garden Tea House in Sumner. I love going there and it was so much fun to spend one on one time with my mom.

We each had 2 pots of tea and tons of scrumptious food. Since mom told them it was my birthday they brought me this cute cake. I was so stuffed so I just boxed it up and took it home.

After we left the tea house we went back to my house so I could nurse Ella. Then we were off again this time to the SuperMall to go shopping. Mom bought me and the kids some clothes. Then after all that shopping we went to Red Robin for dinner. It was a full day of fun! Thanks Mom....love you!

7 Months Old

Tomorrow Ella is 7 months old. Crazy!

- At her 6 month check-up a couple weeks ago she was 15lbs 7oz and 25 1/2 inches long. She is now consistently fitting in her 6 months clothes.

- She is still sleeping great 11 - 12hrs a night. She usually wakes up around 6am and needs to cry a little, but then she goes back to sleep. She's wanting to go down to 2 naps, but we've been pretty busy lately so her naps have been interrupted a lot lately. I love that she's flexible!

- She loves playing with toys and chewing on them. She especially loves to play with her brothers toys.

- She nurses 4 - 5 times a day. If she had been my first child this would have freaked me out. All the books say she needs to be eating 6 - 8 times a day. She's never wanted to eat more than 7 times a day...even when we first brought her home from the hospital. She eats what she needs and that's it.

- She is eating baby food twice a day now. She doesn't really like the fruits very much...I think they might be too tart. She loves yams and squash though.

- She is trying to pull herself up to a standing position.

- She hasn't actually crawled yet. She lays on her tummy and moves to the right and then the left with her hips and it ends up moving her whole body. Yesterday she tried to pull herself for the first time using her hands. I think she'll be army crawling in about a week.

- She is a scoocher when she sits on her bottom. She'll be facing one way and then a few minutes later I'll check on her and she's completely turned around.

- She thankfully is over the anxiety she was having a month or so ago with people other than mommy holding her. She would cry the instant I gave her to someone else. I didn't make a big deal out of it I would just take her back and I think that helped reassure her. Now I can give her to different people and she's fine. She still turns her head and looks at me like, "Why aren't you holding me mama?", but at least she's not having a meltdown anymore.

Labor Day Weekend!

For Labor Day weekend we went camping with friends. We've done this since before kids so it's an annual tradition. This year we were able to start our adventure a day earlier since Michael didn't have a painting project on Friday.

First stop MCD's for lunch!


Next stop American Heritage Campground. One of the reasons I love this campground is it's just south of Tumwater so it's only about an hour and ten minutes from home.


While Daddy got the trailer (we borrowed it from Michael's mom and dad again) all set up the boys ran around the campsite.

On Friday it was down right hot so Michael took the boys in the pool. The pool was "heated" but was in the shade so it was a little chilly!

Ella and I watched from afar and walked around the pool over and over.

Then I she sat in one of these cute kids chairs they have.

By the time Owen wanted to get out he was shaking he was so cold. He didn't want to leave though...he just wanted to stay bundled up in his towel next to the pool.

When we got back to the trailer I pulled the keys that I had got out of Michael's pant out of my pocket and looked at them and then promptly said, "Michael why did you give me the wrong keys?" Yeah like I said....I had got them out of his pants pocket. Sometimes I wonder about myself! Anyways I did in fact grab the wrong keys...thankfully it was hot so I had opened all the windows. Still we ended up breaking a few little latch things to get the screen out so we could put Owen through the window. We tried to explain to him how to unlock the door, but he wasn't getting it so we just had him bring Michael his pants with the right set of keys in them.

After all that excitement Michael set out to build a campfire. He's been really into Dual Survivor this show on The Discovery Channel. A few weekends ago when we went to Mount Rainier he bought a metal match. If you don't know what that is it's a magnesium block that comes with a little knife. When you scrap the magnesium off it becomes very combustible so then you use the knife to make a spark and start a fire. Sound easy and looks easy on TV, but it takes a little practice. Michael got it after a few tries.

The boy enjoyed hanging around the fire drinking "juice water" and eating chips.

This picture reminds me of the first time we took Owen camping in 2007. Owen was only 8 months old and Ella is almost 7 months now.

Our friends arrived at the campsite later that night and it was crazy getting everything set up before it got too dark. During the next three days we did lots of sitting around the fire.

We had a squirrel that kept stalking our campsite. He kept walking on the picnic table and he actually ran behind Michael and touch his back. So I gave Grayson the job of making a sligshot to trying to spook the squirrel away.

Michael and Fred thought they should go bigger and better!

So using his Dual Survivor skills again Michael made a bow...

and an arrow!

That worked! He never actually shot the squirrel. He did shoot at it and got close, but thankfully the squirrel lived another day. He did leave our campsite alone after that! :)

Some of the other things we enjoyed while camping were...Taco Soup!!!

Smores with Nutella! Revolutionized smore making! Try it you'll love it!

Feeding goats! They are hungry animals!

Cute sweaters with hoods!

Playing on the seesaw!

Sliding crazy...it was a fast slippery slide!

Watching Toy Story outdoors! Hey they were sick!

Playing with toys in the trailer!

It was a wonderful time which is surprising to even type because I remember thinking at one time that we would never do this kind of thing with 3 small children, but really it was great. Even though they were sick there weren't any major meltdowns, they slept well and played nice. I can't wait for our annual camping trip next year!

Potty Time!

Tonight after dinner Jack told me, "I go pee pee in the potty!" So I took him into the bathroom, got the little potty out and he sat down and went. We've been thinking about doing potty training boot camp for Jack in a couple weeks anyway so I was really happy that he initiated it on his own. He was very excited to wear his Buzz undies.

Over the course of the next 2 hours Jack went pee pee in his potty a total of 4 times and had one accident. I was so proud of him! Of course almost all of the trips to the potty (there were quite a few that resulted in no pee pee) were initiated by me, but still the fact that he is understanding how to push out his pee pee on command is a pretty big thing. Soon we will have another big boy in our house!

Bow & Tongue

A week or so ago Ga-Ga bought bows for Ella's hair. They are so cute! Her hair isn't quite long enough yet and it's really fine so they just slip right out. I'm thinking of using a little hairspray to help them stay in when her hair gets a little longer.

This is the look on Ella's face most days right now...she is obsessed with sticking out her tongue! She might be wanting to feel her teeth with her tongue too...I'm not sure though!

Blogging & Comments

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. We were camping for labor day, MOPS is starting up and I had no joke 10 loads of laundry to do...oh and grocery shopping. Life is crazy right now! I'll get back to it tomorrow...no Thursday night I'll blog!

You might have noticed a change in my comments. I had to remove the ability to comment anonymously because I kept getting a bunch of spam in my inbox. If you'd like to comment you'll just have to sign up for a Google account. Sorry!

Two Teethers!

So cute!!!