One Year Old!

Somehow in the last year, Ellie went from this tiny 2 lb 3 oz, 13.5" baby......

to this! She's now 14 lb 15 oz, 26" long. That's an impressive gain, although even for a 9 month old (her adjusted age, from her due date) she's still very tiny.

She went from her Daddy's hands being bigger than her body,

to this!

From Daddy's wedding ring being able to fit on her arm (we didn't want to push it on but it would have gone up her arm),

to this!

From her arm being the same size as Mommy's finger (I couldn't find a picture from when she was born, she was about 6 weeks old in this picture),

to this!

From being the same size as her teddy bear,

to this!

Ellie didn't care too much about her birthday, but her brothers did. She had a rainbow cake and really wanted the candle (which we never lit). She grabbed at the cupcake I gave her, but never even licked at it. She wouldn't eat any ice cream, either. She's not too big on eating these days.

The inside of the cake was rainbow, too, I stole the idea from my cousin's wife.

Ellie can roll over, almost sit up unassisted, babble, make lots of sounds with her tongue/mouth, she loves certain toys, and she loves her brothers. She's a pretty easy going baby, so sweet, so happy, and we sure love her! She does not love eating, which hopefully is a result of her getting three teeth all at once. One year ago she was such a different baby, it's amazing how much they change in a year! Last year she definitely couldn't do this......

September 2011, School, and House Painting

The boys play mostly where Ellie plays, so it's not too hard for her to get to their things now that she can roll easily! Thankfully when my parents were visiting my dad helped get the gate installed at the top of the stairs!

She's like King Kong or something. Destroying innocent sidewalks.

Time to go to school! Ian is excited for third grade, he can't wait to learn multiplication. When he found out he'll learn cursive, too, he was ecstatic! Caleb and Levi are both super excited for kindergarten. They got to have grandparents here for their first few days of school!

Ian, the big third grader, all ready for the first day!

In order to conserve the number of pictures on here, I put Caleb and Levi together. This is them ready to go to their first day. They go to afternoon kindergarten, and then come home the same time as Ian. They are in the same class, only because I requested afternoon school and there is only one class. So Levi will always wear stripes to school, to help everyone tell them apart, and save them from answering who they are all day long. Caleb loved that his pants had pockets, I don't think he took his hands out of the pockets until he was at school!

Our lovely house, half primed, and needing to be painted badly! John spent countless hours prepping the house, scraping, power washing, and sanding.

We were so blessed to have my parents come and help for a week with the painting! We got the majority of the painting done that week. Our house is quite tall, making it a challenge to paint. John has a really tall ladder, which we could reach most of the house from it. But then there is the chimney which is even taller - so John got a little creative getting it painted.

All finished! All it needs is a little trim work and it's all done!

Last year Ian was going to enter a lego creation in our county fair. But when I ended up in the hospital at that time, it didn't happen. So I was trying to convince him to enter something this year. I read off all the things he could do. I forget how old Levi and Caleb are getting, they both were the ones excited to enter something! In the end, Ian made chocolate chip cookies, Caleb drew a picture, and Levi painted a potato - they had a potato-head contest and this is what he wanted to do. They all got red ribbons!

Ellie got her first haircut. She had two places, in the back on the sides that were growing really long and nothing else was growing much, so I decided she needed it cut.

I don't think she even noticed I was doing it, Daddy was reading her stories. It's much better now that it's all even! For the time being, at least!

This one is for my sister, too bad I didn't bring this shirt this summer or Ellie and M would have been twins!

Ellie wanted to get in on the construction play that she sees all day long!

We canned a lot of pears (and some peaches, too). Caleb and Levi took it upon themselves to sort them out. Their teacher is doing a great job when Caleb is able to apply his knowledge at home - "some of them had two attributes - both small and smooth!" It sounds so cute coming out of the mouth of such a little guy! They actually did a pretty good job of sorting the ripe pears, too.

Where's the bunny? All Ellie needs is a red and white striped hat like Waldo!

July and August 2011

This summer seemed to go by really fast! June was taken up with finishing school and swimming lessons, we were out of town to reunions and visiting most of July, and August included more swimming lessons and getting ready for school. And along in there we celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary!

On the Fourth of July we went hiking. Ellie didn't enjoy it too much, but the boys had a great time!

Ellie's cool shades on the Fourth. We set off some fireworks in our yard that evening, which Ian stayed outside for the first time and actually enjoyed himself! Ellie watched them intently, also, from the non-mosquitoey indoors.

We had a great time visiting both sets of grandparents and almost all the cousins, aunts, and uncles during July. At one family reunion we hiked 2000 feet down a mountain. This is how Caleb and Levi went down half the mountain :).

July means birthdays! Caleb requested that they celebrate their birthdays with Grandma, with whom the share the special day, and we did (we've gotten to celebrate with Grandma every year so far!). This is Levi with his train cake, driven by Woody.

And Caleb with Buzz and his rocket. It's hard to believe they're five years old!!

When we came home we celebrated again with Daddy (who was not there for their actual birthday). We did it on two different days to let them each have their own special day (although I realized they're wearing the same shirt!). We did Caleb's first, and let him blow out candles again and open presents.

The next day it was Levi's turn! He's very excited to be five!

Ian didn't have any formal cub scout meetings in the summer, but he worked a lot on his requirements. One was making dinner - this yummy pizza!

We got some caterpillars in August, to watch them turn into butterflies, which is absolutely an amazing thing. Here were four of the five already in their chrysalis.

Then they turned into these pretty painted lady butterflies, which we released when grandparents were here to visit. Two of them didn't want to fly away, and Grandpa was able to take them out on his finger and place them on a flower.

I got a pretty decent picture of the four of them! Just for fun.

We watched some grain being harvested - that's big entertainment around here! It makes me wonder what Ellie will find interesting - right now any kind of machinery keeps little boys' attention.

And, we built a sandbox to play in! John also spend countless hours prepping our house (which you can see some of how bad it is) to be painted, which we also did, pictures to come one of these days........

I guess there's not too much about Ellie's summer - she got to watch a lot of swimming lessons, she met all her extended family, and did pretty well traveling, even the long 10 or 13 hour drives. She got two teeth, and learned to roll from her back to her tummy while at Grandma's house! Other than that, she's just been a happy little girl who loves her brothers!

Ellie, March to June 2011

Ellie has changed the most over the past few months, of course! She's a happy little girl, and we all love having her around. She's had a few eating strikes, but other than that she is doing really well. The doctor wants her to eat more, of course, but she's been really healthy - no illnesses or concerns!

In March, her grandparents came for Ian's baptism and her blessing. She was blessed in the same dress I was. She is much bigger than I was, and the bonnet didn't fit so I got some ribbon to put in her "hair" (it all fell out!). The dress is yellowing some, and the ribbon I found that matches is called "antique white." Didn't know I was an antique just yet, but I guess I am!


She has mastered the art of sucking her thumb! By the end of March she was pretty good at keeping it in her mouth when she wanted it.

Is she a girl, or what? Her brothers love to choose her clothes, and they usually choose all one color. This day it happened to be pink!

I took her 6 month pictures, because I didn't want to take her in a public place just yet (she was in hiding until May). This is one I like, I haven't yet chosen one to hang on the wall.

By April she could hold her head up! She only likes her tummy for about a minute, and then she gets mad. But she does like to look at Winnie the Pooh.

In May we took her to church for the first time. I did take a picture, just didn't put it on here. We started taking her out to places like the library and such, too, and thankfully she's still stayed healthy! She also had her first time in the swing in May, she liked it! Ellie went out of town for the first time, over Memorial Day weekend. She went to visit her grandparents and meet some aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Ellie isn't yet teething, but she almost always has some or all of her hand in her mouth! She likes to suck her right hand, but she sucks her left thumb.

Her hair is starting to really grow in after it fell out! She has a ways to go, but it's improvement!

Ellie has discovered her toes! She sucks on them, too. And anything that gets near her mouth, fabric in particular. When I put her arm in a long sleeved shirt, and her hand isn't completely out of the end of the sleeve yet, it's automatic - the hand feels something on it, and in the mouth it goes, every time.

Ellie is a fun little girl. She's a happy baby, and really quite easy. She loves her brothers, and she loves her daddy - she gets the biggest grin when she sees him! I was feeding her solid foods, but then when she didn't want to drink bottles, I stopped, so she'd hopefully be more hungry for formula. I've been starting to let her try what we're eating, mashed up, and she's not gagging! It's wonderful! She doesn't eat hardly any solid food, still, but at least it doesn't gag her, so there is hope. Ellie weighed 12 lb 7 oz at the beginning of June, at 8 months.

Levi and Caleb, March to June 2011

Caleb and Levi are two very different boys, and I try not to group them together, or even call them "twins." But as far as telling what they've been up to lately, and in an effort to actually get this up to date sometime soon, I put them together. They do, after all, spend probably 95% of their time together.

They've made numerous houses for their monkeys, the big one is "Papa" and the small one is "Ookers," because he says "ook, ook, ook, ook," of course.

The monkeys have both had lots of rockets and space ships made for them, too. Ookers is strapped to a block rocket with a rubber band here.

It was totally by chance we ended up with two of these shirts - my sister sent us one, and then John bought one at a garage sale. It took a while to even realize they are exactly the same. It's not often they wear them at the same time, though. I always wonder if anyone besides us can tell them apart. Can you?? I also think it will be interesting to see Ellie's response to seeing two brothers who look alike, if she'll be able to tell them apart right away or not. It was funny, there was a picture sitting on the counter of Caleb wearing a shirt they each have one of (from the hospital picnic) and Levi said, "there's a really cute picture of either Caleb or me." He couldn't even tell who it was (it was a recent picture, too)!

John's sister invited us to their hotel swimming pool when she was in town, they had a fun time. Levi and Caleb both like the water pretty well. They took swimming lessons in June, and did quite well. They both passed the first level!

A new sleeping bag? This is Levi, inside Caleb's pillow case.

They helped (a little) paint their room! I decided that it was about time Caleb and Levi got to choose how to paint their room, and to make them curtains. So I let them each choose a color and I painted two walls each color.

Levi wanted orange, although it's a little more yellow than orange. He doesn't seem to mind.

Caleb wanted green. Their curtains are green and orange, too.

When we went to visit Grandparents over Memorial Day weekend, Levi and Caleb shared the bottom bunk. This is how they fell asleep. They are best friends!

Most of the time, they really don't even sleep on their beds! They both seem to love the floor.

Digging in the dirt is a favorite pastime. Snow shovels are great - year round fun :).

They both seem to talk Daddy into putting them on his shoulders quite often :).

Caleb and Levi are fun little guys. They do love to play together, and they watch out for each other. They get along most of the time - but when they don't, they are really mad at each other! It will be interesting to see as they go to school, and meet new friends, how they interact. I can't believe they're almost 5 and will start kindergarten soon!!