15 Months Old Today!

It's hard to believe that my baby girl turned 15 months old today!  She is such a busy and happy baby.  She literally spends most of her day just puttering around the house or following her brother and sister around.  She loves being outside since the weather turned warm and can be found sitting on Logan's trike on the sport's court, swinging in her baby swing on the play set, or trying to climb into the baby pool.  Ella has really had fun playing in the water at Lake Samm or at the splash pad or the water park.  She laughs and squeals all the time and gets a big kick out of watching her older brother and sister play hide-and-go-seek with me (she usually shows me where Lia is hiding because she is so excited about it).  Ella still says the word, "Uh oh," whenever she drops something and added two new words to her repertoire this past month:  "Bye Bye" and the sound the elephant makes!  I think that is such a funny first animal noise to learn.  Ella LOVES reading books and happily sits on my lap in the recliner chair in her room to read books before nap time and bedtime.  She also officially weaned herself at 14 1/2 months old--so I am a free lady and loving every minute of it!  Ella still takes two naps most days and is sleeping great at night for about 11 hours.  In fact, I barely have to make a pacifier run anymore in the middle of the night which is wonderful.  Ella still is a great eater and is super hungry right now.  She must be going through a growth spurt as she eats so much more than her brother does!   No joke.  She also loves drinking water and milk out of her sippy cups with a straw and insists on having one with water in it during most of our car rides.  We just love our baby Ella and all of the fun changes she is making right now!

Clothes or no clothes, the trimming will get done!

Last week, Ron and Lia went to the store to buy a new baby pool to replace our old one that died last summer.  Since it has been so hot this past week, Logan has been in and out of that thing constantly which means I get to be the lucky individual who helps him with multiple outfit changes every day.  For example, he will start off the day getting wet in his pajamas which results in him wanting his bathing suit put on.  After I help him with that, he will play in the pool until he gets cold or bored and then wants to change into a dry outfit.  After I help him with this change, he eventually will wander back outside and get wet in his clothes.  He then returns back to the house requesting to be changed into a new, dry swimsuit which I have to help him with again.  This vicious cycle goes on and on all day long and by the end of the day, our deck railing is covered in Logan's wet clothes drying in the sun.  It's ridiculous to say the least.  So after multiple outfit changes today, I decided I was done and just stripped the boy down to nothing after after we finished dinner.  It had been over 90 degrees today and it was still extremely hot--so I figured that our boy could frolic in the backyard as naked as a jaybird and he didn't mind it one bit.  In fact, our naked Logan promptly picked up his toy, chainsaw and went outside to start trimming the hedges in the buff.  It was so funny that Ron, Lia, and I busted up laughing from inside the kitchen where we were watching him.  I just had to take a few pictures to document this event and to use as possible blackmail against Logan in the future!

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Bible Camp

We are only one week into summer vacation and already we have done a ton, but I have been awful about taking any pictures and documenting any of it!  Sometimes, I just want to "live" in the moment instead of experiencing life behind a camera and I guess this past week was one of those times.  Anyways, we have already hosted both an end-of-the-year BBQ for a bunch of Lia's friends from school and their families and a farewell party for a family from church.  We went to Meeker Days, celebrated Father's Day, went to the American Girl Doll store, and spent two days in Issy swiming at Lake Sammamish.  It's been a good start to this glorious summer of HOT weather!  In the midst of all of this, Lia attended a bible camp for the second year in a row with her good friend, Mollie.  This year the theme was "Wild" and the camp focused on jungle animals while connecting them to various Bible scriptures.  This year, two other girls (Lilah and Eva) from Lia's school attended and were in the same group as Lia and Mollie.  They all had a good time singing songs, completing crafts, participating in games, listening to stories, and doing whatever else they do at Bible Camp!  Here are a few pictures that Mollie's mom sent me...

From left to right:  Evan, Mollie, Lia, and Lilah in their cute, matching shirts and name tags.

Lia and Mollie posing in front of the giant, inflatable elephant. 

Lia and Mollie with Mollie's little sister, Gabriella, who also attended bible camp this year.  I promise that Lia is really wearing shorts in these pictures,  Apparently her legs grew too long this winter to continue wearing them this summer!  ;-)

Gone Fishin'

Being the third child, Ella spends a lot of her waking time just wandering around the rooms in the house where the rest of the family can be found.  She normally just busies herself with whatever toy or random item she can find at the time until she tires of it and moves on to something else.  Today while I was working in the kitchen, I looked over to find the funniest scene.  Ella had found Logan's water floatie and his fishing pole--obviously without knowing that they go together.  She then had sat down in the floatie on the floor with her baby blanket carefully placed on top of her lap and began playing with the fishing pole.  I almost burst out laughing because it honestly looked like she was playing an imaginary game fishing without even knowing it!  Such a funny baby!  I then sat down on the floor to take a few pictures of her.  Ella then did what she normally does whenever I sit down on the floor next to her and picked up her stuff and moved right over into my lap.  Hence the second picture!  Oh, what a cutie...

Fishing away!

Hanging out in mama's lap.

First and Last Day!

 Well, we wrapped up the 2014-2015 school year today!  As always, here is the comparison of Lia on her first day of school and her last day of school...

A nervous Lia ready to head off to 1st grade! 

My confident and grown-up girl ready to head off to her last day of 1st grade!  Please note the different Disney Frozen t-shirts being worn in both pictures.  Some things don't change all year long....like my daughter's love of this movie and its princesses!

A side pose of my girl with her Frozen backpack on.

A picture of Lia with our carpool buddy, Mollie, who we had the pleasure of watching for an hour every school day morning.  They sure are cute!

Overall, it was a really good year as Lia really blossomed.  She L.O.V.E.D. her first grade teacher, Mrs. Kawasaki, who just completed her 41st year of teaching!  Can you believe that?!  I could never do it.  But I digress.  Anyways, Lia loved her teacher, her class, and her little group of girlfriends.  Although she has known Lilah since her pre-K year at Celebration Preschool, she really bonded this year with her and they became best of buddies.  Reading really clicked for Lia and she advanced from unit #6 to unit #40 in their reading program (unit #34 was the goal for the end of the year).  I just love laying next to Lia these days and listening to her read out loud to me.  Lia also did well with math this year and developed a basic understanding of addition and subtraction.  She did well keeping up with her reading and spelling homework and got a 100% most Fridays on her weekly spelling test.  She also fell in LOVE with the monkey bars at recess (along with half her pack of friends) and played on them every day for months.  As a result, her poor little hands are constantly riddled with blisters, callouses, open wounds, and scars.  She looks like quite the tough gymnast on any given day.  Overall, Lia was a happy 1st grader who bounded off to school each morning with Mollie at her side after I dropped them off.  I'm so grateful for the wonderful school she is at and for her wonderful group of friends.  What else can a mom ask for?  

Oh, this baby...

I sat down today after dropping Lia off at school to write a few emails while Logan was watching his morning movie and Ella was wandering around.  A few minutes later, I looked up to discover Ella walking around the kitchen with Logan's potty training seat around her neck while pushing our toy popper.  It was probably the funniest thing I have ever seen this busy body do!  She just continued to wander around for the next few minutes like it was no big deal.  I managed to snap a few pictures of her before removing the seat from around her head.  Now if only her brother would show this much interest in using this thing!

Swinging Away!

Ron changed out our regular, third swing the other day with the baby swing and Ella is in L.O.V.E. with it.  All you have to do is put her in it and gently push her from time to time and she is happy as a clam for many, many minutes.  It's just the cutest thing!  It is so fun to watch her explore and experience so many new things outside this spring since she is now walking and the weather is warm!

Ella's first time in a swing on June 6th.

I just had to take a picture today of all three of my kiddos swinging side by side.  They look so perfect all swinging together in unison! 

Another shot of my sweet, baby girl today!  I just love her to pieces!

Bridging to Brownies!

Today, Lia became a Brownie by participating in her Girl Scout troop's bridging ceremony at DeCoursey Park.  It was a really cute affair.  Lia's leaders took them on their "final journey" as a Daisey around the large pond, stopping and talking about various items in nature as they went.  When they reached the bridge at the end of the walk, the troop leader, Nancy, asked each girl to walk across the bridge one at a time.  When they reached the other side, they were officially a Brownie!  They each got their own new Brownie vest and a few other goodies.  We finished off with a celebration back in the pavilion by eating a rainbow color of snacks and brownies.  It was a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon in P-town!

Lia and her troop stopping on their walk around the pond to listen to their leader.

Nancy talking to the girls about how to take care of ducks by not feeding them.

Lia's troop waiting to cross the bridge.

A final shot of my little Daisy.  My, how the two years have flown by!

Nancy helping Lia put on her new, Brownie vest after crossing the bridge.

My new Brownie!

Lia and the other members of her troop posing on the bridge with their new vest and rainbow-colored leis.  

The girls getting ready to eat their brownies and rainbow colored snacks.