Splashin' Around

Elijah usually only gets a bath on Sundays right before we go to church b/c as soon as I get him out of the tub and put clean clothes on him he spits up--STILL! But this week, for some reason, I've been motivated to give him a bath two nights in a row!! He seems to have so much fun that I had to get a video :)

For last night's bath, my sister-in-law jinxed me. She was telling me how her son poops in the tub almost every time she gives him a bath. I went on to tell her that's only happened to me once quite a few years ago when I was babysitting. Well, when I was letting out Elijah's bath water, I noticed it looked kind of grainy and was wondering where all the dirt was coming from. Upon looking in the tub, I noticed he had pooped! Little stinker :)

Boys & Their...Dolls?!

So Mr. Elijah is getting around pretty well these days by rolling over and over and over until he gets to where he wants to be. Well, last night, I looked over and noticed he was playing with one of Mikaela's baby dolls! I thought, "Daddy's gonna love this!" So, of course, I had to get a few pictures in. Upon having a closer look, I noticed he had spit up all over the doll! That made his daddy real proud :) It left Mikaela very anxious to have her doll back :)

It looks like he's poking the baby's eyes out--guess Daddy doesn't need to be so paranoid about him "playing" with Mikaela's dolls :)

Counting & Animals

I decided to start teaching Mikaela some German and Spanish. She is really surprising me by catching on to the languages fairly easily. She seems to be doing better with the German right now. I think it's just easier for her to pronounce--the whole rolling your r's thing just isn't happening with the Spanish words :) But she is learning the Spanish words too--she just can't pronounce most of them correctly :) So far, she can count to 10 by herself in both languages (she can almost count to 20 by herself in English), and we have been learning some animals. It's kind of funny b/c the other day we were watching something where 2 kittens were stuck in a tree and she said, "Mommy, dos kitty cats!" I've also caught her counting her puppy dogs and babies that she has with her :)

Below is her counting to 10--I have to give her the first number so she knows what language we're in :) The second one is her telling me the names of the animals on one of her puzzles. The biggest problem with all the things she learns is that Eric is usually at work when she does them. And then when he is around, she gets embarrassed and won't do them, so I have to record her! Oh well--I guess this will help me to keep records of her milestones, and ya'll can see too :)

Playin' With My Toy

Oh--I guess you thought by the title I was talking about one of the kiddos! Nope, I meant me :) I was just playing around with my camera again today. There are so many things I want to practice, but my subjects are not very cooperative! These babies--especially Mikaela--are so sick of me taking pictures of them! I can't wait until it stops raining and being wet and muddy outside so I can drag them outside for some outdoor pics :) These were some of my favorites!

Awww!

Big sister sometimes takes the spotlight, but this little man is starting to do some pretty cute things :) Isn't he just so squeezable and kissable?! He doesn't completely have his balance yet (thus the pillow behind him :) ), but he gets better every day!

Christmas Eve

Yes, you read the title correctly :) But these were some more pictures that I couldn't get to for awhile--and then they kind of got forgotten :) But these are pictures taken at Eric's grandparents' house on Christmas Eve. They live a mile down the road from us, so it was a short trip! Most of his family got to meet Elijah for the first time, and we got to see some of his cousins' kids for the first time! Mikaela was shy at first, but it didn't take her long to warm up and start playing and being silly :) Once again, there are no captions b/c w/Bubbleshare's system of captioning it just takes way too long--and I figured these pictures are already late enough :)

Visiting With Friends

We were so excited to get to visit with our friends who just moved to India this past summer. They had lots of visiting to do in only a two-week period (right before and just after Christmas), so we just had everyone who wanted from church to all meet in one place so they could see lots of people at one time :) This is one set of pictures that I couldn't get to for awhile b/c of computer issues, so here they finally are! Oh, and no captions this time--Bubbleshare was being ridiculous in how they wanted me to do captions and save for each individual picture--it would have taken way too much time! I figured if I'm ever going to post them, I better just do so as is...anyway, towards the end there are a couple of family pictures--one is of us, and the other is of our friends who live in India! Fraziers, we had so much fun getting to see ya'll!

Rolling Over!

Well--my little man is starting to become mobile! Elijah finally made a complete roll from back to tummy on Sunday! I'm excited and not excited at the same time :) It's kind of nice to have a stationary child :) But at the same time it's so cute watching him do his new tricks! The first video was taken on Sunday (Jan 20), and the second was taken on Monday (Jan 21). By today, he was a pro, going from back to tummy and sometimes back to his back--no consecutive rolls yet, but I'll post a video when he gets there :) ! And, he's really been pushing up high and is acting like he's trying to pull his knees up. Sometimes he even gets to a push-up position (but with pointed toes)! He may be really mobile here soon! I could definitely wait a little bit on the whole crawling thing, but we'll see what happens!

You Really Gotta Have Some of This!

Ever feel down in the dumps? ...

Like there's no reason to keep going?...

Had a bad day? ...

Had a good day? ...

Do you have any of this in your life? If not, you should really get some. It's extremely therapeutic. It is a wonderful gift the Lord gave us to have in our daily lives. He has such a way of knowing exactly what we need :) If you don't have any of this in your life, watch this for some inspiration! I promise--it's quite contagious :)

"Then our mouth was filled with laughter,and our tongue with shouts of joy;then they said among the nations,'The Lord has done great things for them.'” Psalm 126:2

Ever Feel Like This?

Mommy help!!!

How Coot!

So yesterday I gave Mikaela a shirt to put on. She takes it, holds it up with both hands and says, "how coot," (translation: how cute) as she has this "awwww" look on her face. And this was for a plain white, long-sleeve t-shirt :) Then today, she put on her purple princess dress (b/c I was trying to get her to try something different yesterday--well, the dress is a little too long so she is continually tripping when she wears it--and guess which dress she picks to wear every time now?) and says, "how coot!" She definitely mimics everything and is constantly reminding me that she's always listening even when I think she's not!

Oops--how did this picture get here?!

She is quite the princess--with just a tiny (or maybe not so tiny) touch of roughness about her :)

Whoo Hoo!

Well--I guess don't get too terribly excited--of course, the only ones who will be excited will be the parents and grandparents anyway :) But Mikaela can now spell her name! She can spell it out loud and spell it on the refrigerator and chalkboard with magnetic letters! But like I said, don't get too excited--this does NOT mean she will say her name--it just means she can spell it :) She STILL refers to herself as Potty or Potty Joy--sometimes she'll even say Joy really fast so that it sounds like Pottyja--she likes to add a little variety to it :) She does, however, say Eric and Header, and then she bends half-way over and fake laughs :) (And, BTW, no she's not getting any help from me! There's absolutely no cheating in this household :) And if you know how I am about the whole cheating business you'll believe me--you have to really do it right all by yourself, and if not, you have to start over and try again until you do get it right :) )

Ghost Whisperer Update

Well--it seems there's been a change of plans. Matt's episode of "Ghost Whisperer" won't come on until next Friday, January 11. You can click here for more details :)

Being Mean...

I really have no idea what Mikaela is trying to do or say besides, "Beein mean." But she keeps doing this over and over! The look on her face cracks me up and how she squats while doing whatever it is she's doing with her wand and tiara :) She obviously knows what she's saying b/c when she sees the video she repeats it over and over. When I ask her what she's saying, she says, "I doe know!"

Scavenger

Mikaela left the kitchen for all of two minutes last night while I was finishing up cooking dinner. When I walked into the living room to see where she was, this is what I found (except imagine ALL the contents of my purse scattered on the floor--everything out of my wallet on the floor too--I had to crop the important stuff out :) ). And the score for her was the sucker she found in my purse :) After she had a spanking and ate all her dinner, I let her eat it. That proved to be another mistake--on my part this time!

Like the way Mikaela's socks are now becoming her gloves?!

6 Months!

I can't believe it's been 6 months already! Elijah is growing fast, and I don't think it'll be too terribly long before he catches up to his sister :) The 6-month mark is kind of bitter-sweet--it's always so fun to see each of their new stages, but it also means I have to remember to have other food for him besides Mommy's milk :( It's so much easier when I don't have to worry about extra food to pack! Oh well--he LOVES his rice cereal! He's doing a really good job of eating all his food and then getting upset b/c he wants more! So I added more to what I was giving him and fed him twice today instead of just once, but it still wasn't enough for him :) Below you can see him "mmmmming" his food :) , and then you'll see his display of a tantrum b/c he wants more :)

Honey Do's

Sorry for no Christmas pics yet--I do have some, but our laptop is out of commission right now, so I don't have access to any of those pics :( But as soon as I can recover them, I'll be sure to post them :)

Well, Eric has had a week and a half off of work now. It's kind of sad that he has to go back tomorrow :( We've really enjoyed having him home with us. He got to do lots of stuff around the house that we've been needing to get done, so Mommy thought that was great! One of the most tedious projects was to re-do some of the letters in the kids' room. Back in August we had central air and heat installed in our house. Well, the kitchen is an add-on room, so there is no attic over it. Thus, they had to cut a hole in the corner of MJ and EM's bedroom and put in a 90 degree duct so we could have a vent in the kitchen. Then we had the duct framed and sheetrocked. Well, it just so happened that all of that stuff was going to cut into 3 of the letters that took me so much time to paint. So the guys were very nice and did a great job cutting out the sheetrock with each of my three letters! So here's what we did:

Here's the corner with the duct that was framed and sheetrocked. I painted it and re-stamped some of the firefly/ladybug border. Also, see the bugs that I stamped under the box? :)


We found some empty wall space for the three letters. Eric traced them and then cut out the sheetrock in the wall for each of the letters. Sheetrock is some of the messiest stuff ever--it gets everywhere!!
Then Eric used Liquid Nails to glue the letters into their respective holes. This was all one day's work. We were pooped, and, obviously, so was Mikaela :)

Yesterday, we finished everything up. Eric made the frames, and I painted them. Then Eric put up the frames, and I did all the touch-up painting around them. I think it would have taken me just as long to redraw and paint the three letters, but I just didn't have it in me! I think it's a nice touch the way it is now :)

Ghost Whisperer

In case you'd like to watch, my brother Matt will be on the t.v. series "Ghost Whisperer" this coming Friday, January 4--he'll be playing the part of a high school basketball player. "Ghost Whisperer" is on CBS--you can click here to find your local time and channel (it's channel 11 for those of us in Houston). Just click on your state and then on your city. Then you can search your local page for a program schedule. I think for most of us in Texas it'll be on at 7 p.m.