Two Months Old Today!

Baby Ella turns two-months old today and we are still alive to say it!  Although I absolutely love being a mother, I do not love the first two months of my babies' lives.  They are really tough for me.  So I feel like we are starting to come out of the fog!  Ella is starting to sleep a little better at night although she is no where near where her sister was at this point as Lia slept through the night for the very first time at eight weeks old.  After putting Ella to bed between 10 and 11 o'clock at night, she is now starting to wake up only once a night for a feeding before 5 or 6 a.m..  This makes a huge difference for me as I actually feel half human in the morning instead of completed shredded which is how I feel after two feedings a night.  So I am very grateful for this and hope to see her sleeping through the night by three months!  Ella is chunking up a bit and is now wearing most three month clothes and fitting in them.  She also smiled for the first time on May 4th to her father and now smiles and coos all the time when you talk to her up close.  It's the cutest thing!  She has also given two, tiny laughs to date--one to a friend of mine and one to me (much to Ron's chagrin who has always gotten the first laugh with our other children).  But neither laugh was a full-fledged giggle, so I am still hoping that this one is being saved for him!  Ella is still a really good eater and still prefers to be held during her waking moments which, unfortunately, does not happen all the time since she is a third child!  However, the good news is that she is finally starting to lay happily for periods of time while awake without crying.  I am also so grateful for this.  Hopefully things will just continue to improve from this point on!  

I tried to get a picture of Ella smiling, but she kept on getting distracted by my camera.  So this half-smile was the best I could get.

Just Loving...

this sweet, little girl these days!

While the Cat's Away...

The Mice Will Play!

This morning, Ron was left alone to take care of Ella and Logan while I was at a women's conference for church and Lia was at a Girl Scout event.  When I came home, this is what I found...

Ella dressed in an ensemble that included pieces from three different outfits.  It was quite hilarious!  Oh, and please notice that only one of her mittens is on her hands.  Needless to say, my type-A personality could only take it for so long as her outfit quickly got changed the next time she had a dirty diaper.

And I found Logan hanging out on our dining room table playing with a candlestick.  He is such a little stinker sometimes.  I don't think I was very effective in expressing my feelings that he should NOT be sitting on the table playing with mommy's nice things because I burst out laughing and ran and got the camera when I discovered him.  Oh dear.  As a result, he'll probably do it again today.

Water Fun!

Once again, we were blessed with some amazingly hot weather this week in the high 70s and 80s!  Just like two weeks ago, I felt this obligation to plan an outdoor activity for my children every single day so that we could get outside and have some fun before the weather cools back down and the rains return.  Yesterday, we picked Lia up from school and drove directly to Issaquah to spend the afternoon at Lake Samm playing on the beach.  My mom joined us and we had a picnic lunch on the grass and then watched Lia and Logan play for a few hours on the shoreline while Ella slept at our side.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera and so I don't have any pictures, but it was a wonderful afternoon.  The lake was almost empty until the high school kids got out of school.  It was so relaxing and peaceful!  What an enjoyable way to spend the day.  Today, I hosted a sprinkler party for all of Lia's friends in the the two morning Kindergarten classes.  Including moms and siblings, we had a total of 31 people show up!  I couldn't believe it.  For almost four hours, Lia ran, frolicked, splashed, laughed, and played with all of her friends in the pool, the sprinklers, on the play set, and on the sport's court!  It was a huge success and so much fun.  I only was able to get a few pictures at the beginning of the party because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off most of the time while playing hostess and juggling a toddler and a newborn who refused to go down for a decent, afternoon nap!  Oh well. It was so worth it.  I'm so grateful that Lia has made so many wonderful friends in the past two years at preschool and at school and love that we have a backyard big enough to host the masses!

Lia and some of her gal pals playing in the pool.

Lia and Sienna running through the sprinklers!

I got to break out Logan's hand-me-down swimsuit and swim shirt for the summer season.  He was so excited to wear it for the first time because it has Nemo all over it.  It's cute to see how interested he has become in his clothes lately (especially when they are covered in trains or dinosaurs or characters from a movie)!

Baby Ella

I just feel like I have barely posted any pictures of Ella these past few weeks.  Although we have been busy doing a lot lately, it seems like Ella has been asleep for most of it and, as a result, has not had her picture taken much!  Poor, third child.  :-)  So I made a point today to take some pictures of her while she took her afternoon nap on my bed.  I love this picture because it captures how Ella is now sleeping most of the time with her two arms spread out next to her head.  This is how all of my children slept as babies once we stopped swaddling their arms in blankets.  So sweet!  Ella turned six weeks old yesterday and has just started smiling at us.  Of course, Ron got the first smile on May 4th while tickling her chin.  I got one the next day while trying to put a pacifier in her mouth and the day after that while wiping spit up off of her mouth and chin.  It is the cutest smile--a very big, open-mouth one that she does over and over again.  I just love when my babies finally start interacting with me--it is a welcome "payment" after weeks and weeks of hard work with no reaction whatsoever from the baby!  

Logan's 2 1/4 Report

My sweet Logan hit his 2 1/4 year mark today.  It's hard to believe that this little boy is already cruising through his third year of life!  Logan is such a busy boy!  He has really started enjoying activities this his older sister participates in the past few months.  He loves being outdoors and playing at the park or at the beach.  He loves playing with other children, coloring and completing art projects, and riding his tricycle on the sport's court.  He really has an enthusiasm for anything "fun" that is so contagious and so adorable.  Logan still loves Elmo, but has added Pixar's Finding Nemo, Cars, and Monsters, Inc. to his list of movies that he enjoys watching in the morning.  He also still LOVES trains and gets so excited whenever we see one or whenever he gets to play with his grandfather's train set.  We also recently introduced him to Thomas the Train and he loves playing with his little train toys and watching the show on TV.  Logan talks nonstop and typically repeats everything over and over again until we respond to him.  I think it is adorable, but it drives Ron a little crazy.  He also says, "KO9," whenever he says letters or numbers on things like signs or boxes or in books.  It's so funny.  He also tries to count and will say, "2, 4, 5," and gets the colors blue and green confused all of the time.  Logan is fascinated with tunnels (thanks to train tunnels) and now calls everything a tunnel whether it's a little hole in a toy or the space under a pile of blankets or an overpass we drive under while on the freeway.  It is so funny!  Logan is much more active and adventurous than his sister was at this age and has little to no fear when it comes to climbing up ladders at the playground.  He also started climbing up into his high chair whenever the tray is off which is just hilarious!  He continues to be very sweet and gentle around his baby sister, but has started throwing some wicked tantrums when he doesn't get his way.  He can have several of these a day which is no fun for the adults involved.  Logan has also started wanting to keep his pajamas on all day long and no longer wants his diaper changed which can lead to some crazy tantrums on the changing table each morning.  Also, no fun!  But, overall, we just love this little boy to death.  Ron and I think that he is the cutest boy around and so funny.  He makes us laugh every day by the funny things he says and does.  We think Logan is going to be a bit of a character when he grows up!    

Silly Logan snuck his "ya ya" out of his crib (which is against the rules) and climbed into Ella's bouncy chair with his blanket the other morning.  He seriously relaxed in there for several minutes while playing with the tag on his blanket.  This kid just cracks me up.

The Birthday Report

My birthday came in three parts this year due to the need to schedule around the weather and Lia's activities.  We started out with going to a park for a picnic lunch with my mom for the third year in a row.  The weather was predicted to be much nicer on the day before my birthday, so we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather while we had it.  As always, my mom packed a scrumptious picnic and the five of us headed down to a park that we haven't visited in a long time.  The weather was so nice and we had so much fun!

Logan and Lia enjoying their picnic lunch.

The kiddos and me getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out my one candle!

This park has a large pond and plenty of ducks.  Logan was so fascinated by the ducks that he left the picnic table early to try and touch them.  Obviously that didn't work out so well.

After lunch, we headed over to the playground for some play time!  Here is my Lia...

and my Logan enjoying themselves.

Sweet, baby Ella slept through all of lunch and most of the playground time.  I feel like I never get any pictures of her on any of our outings because she is always sleeping!  So, today, I remembered to pull up her car seat cover and get a picture of her.

After the playground, we went on a walk around the pond and by the river.  It felt so good to be outside enjoying the sun and breathing in some fresh air!

Logan and Lia walking down the ramp to one of the docks to look for ducks.

Grandma and her girls posing on the bridge while Logan refused to be in this picture.

Logan was mesmerized by the river and the baby ducks we found swimming in it.  Here he is climbing over the railing on the bridge to try and get a  better look!

Lia had two activities scheduled on my actual birthday--one in the afternoon and one in the evening.  As a result, we decided to celebrate my birthday on May 9th instead.  The first activity was visiting a nearby nursing home to pass out art projects that the students had made for the elderly to put in their rooms.  Only a few students from each Kindergarten class were asked to attend based on their exemplary behavior.  I was so proud of Lia for being chosen by her teacher.  Here is Lia with all of the other Kindergartners who participated in the activity.

After the nursing home, Lia and I dashed home for a quick, crock pot dinner.  Although Ron had bought me a beautiful birthday cake, I had planned on eating it when we celebrated my birthday on May 9th.  BUT after Logan attempted to eat it three different times throughout my birthday, I realized that it wouldn't last another day, so we quickly sang "Happy Birthday," blew out the candles, and ate a slice before Lia and I dashed out the door again.

Lia had her bi-monthly Girl Scout Meeting that night which normally is not a big deal as it involves dropping her off and picking her up, but the mothers were asked to attend this meeting to help their daughters make a Mother's Day gift--an herb box!  So, I spent the evening with Lia working on this project with the rest of her troop.

Here is Lia with the two other Daisies in her troop, Addyson and Mila.

Par my request, Ron brought home Thai food for my birthday dinner on May 9th.  We enjoyed eating it in the dining room and then opened cards and gifts afterwards.  Here are my two older ones helping me out!  Although it was a pretty fragmented birthday, I am grateful for all that Ron and my mom did to make it special.  Thank you!

And, lastly, we wrapped up Mother's Day two days later on May 11th with a quiet day at the house.  Ron prepared a fabulous dinner for the first Mother's Day ever as this was the first year that we didn't get together with my family since I became a mother in 2008.  This is a picture from the morning when Logan asked me to lay down on the couch and cuddle with him while we watched a movie.  He has never done this before!  It was the perfect Mother's Day gift from my busy, two-year old!

Getting Old.

So, I am turning the big 3-8 tomorrow and I'm really not quite sure how this happened.  My thirties have really flown by in one big blur.  It feels just like yesterday that I was celebrating my 30th birthday on Catalina Island or my 31st birthday at the historic Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego with Ron at my side.  Were did those carefree days of living in Southern California as newlyweds go?  Two houses, three children, four jobs, and four cars later, here we are.  But as fast as the time has gone, I must admit that I really do feel my age sometimes.  Although I don't think that I look or act that different, there are definitely some parts of me that are very much a 38 year old, mother-of-three.  Need an example?  Well, take a look at the birthday gift pictured above that I received from my parents today that I was absolutely thrilled about getting!  I received a new laundary basket (because my old one was falling a part), a new peeler (because Logan throw away my favorite one), a new attachment for my vaccuum, and one of those super cool thermometers that show the temperature in like five seconds after swiping it across a forehead (no more rectal thermometers for my little ones).  And, yes, it really was the perfect gift for me.  Apparently I have no more need for a cute outfit, or a fashionable piece of jewelry, or tickets to a concert.  Just some practical and well-needed items to help me out in my domestic arena.  Yep, I definitely getting old.  What will 40 bring?  :-)

Fun in the Sun!

We have been blessed with some unbelievably hot weather in the low 80s these past two days in the Pacific Northwest!  This is pretty unheard of for the end of April and the beginning of May! As a result, I felt it was my motherly duty to plan a fun outing both days--even with a newborn baby in tow!  So, yesterday, we met my friend, Cassie, and her three children at the park for a picnic lunch and some play time on the playground.  Today, we went down to the Carbon River in Orting for another picnic lunch with two of Lia's good friends from school with their moms and siblings.  It was so nice to be in the warm sunshine and to watch my children have some fun outside!  And I am so grateful that baby Ella slept through both outings like a champ making these adventures a whole lot easier--especially with such a busy, two-year old on the go!

Lia and Logan eating their lunch at the park.

Lia and McKenzie playing at the playground.

Logan and his super, flushed cheeks at the park.

Lia, Addyson, and Sienna playing in the sand at the Carbon River.

Logan really got into the rock throwing and playing at the water's edge.  This is where he spent the entire time after eating his lunch!

Logan with Sienna's little brother, Conner.

Logan throwing one of his many rocks!

Such a cute boy.

Conner, Sienna, Lia, and Aria playing in the big puddle they made in the sand with lots and lots of buckets of water of water.