Ellie's 2nd Birthday

I can't believe Ellie is 2!  It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital.  She has a great personality.  She loves to laugh.  Her most favorite thing to do is hop on 2 feet.  She does it all the time.  She loves Dora and Boots.  She is very easy going and brings a lot of joy to our lives.  I am looking forward to spending some one on one time with her while Sam and Marley are at pre-school. 

Ellie turned 2 on Sunday, August 21st.  We didn't have a big party. We had Nick's parents and my sister and parents over for dinner and cake.  Ellie got a Dora backpack, a Dora doll, a new baby doll and a lady bug that lights up at night.  Grandpa Steve also painted her a rocking chair that has Elmo, Dora and Boots on it.  All of her favorites.  Aunt Britt got her a Tickle Monster book and some clothes.  She loves her new toys. 

I started potty training her today.  We will see how it goes.  I started with Marley when she was 27 months.  It's a little bit earlier.  I'm ready to get these kids out of diapers!  Hoping to get her trained before BSF starts. 

Worst Blogger ever...

I may be the worst blogger ever.  I have been meaning to blog about our summer so far, and summer is almost over.  Where does the time go?

In July, we took a "vacation" to Indy to see Nick's mom and dad.  It was a busy weekend in Indiamackolis as the kids call it.  We left Friday evening and got up there pretty late.  On Saturday, we grilled out lunch with Nick's family  We also went to an indoor water park. The kids had a lot of fun.  When we left there we drove around for a while so the kids could take a nap.  Nick showed me around Fairland.  I find Indy so confusing.  It's so much bigger than Evansville!  We decided to take the kids to the drive in that night to see Cars 2.  The kids weren't as into it as I'd hoped.  It was nice to go though. 

Sunday we went to the Zoo.  Their Zoo is fantastic.  The kids had so much fun.  Despite the heat, we were able to enjoy seeing all the animals.  They were able to see a tiger up close and we got to see a dolphin show.  Hopefully we will get to go back soon. 

Monday, the 4th of July, we went to Steve's family reunion.  We don't get to spend a lot of time with his dad's side of the family, so it was really nice.  We spent the day swimming and playing yard games.  After that we went downtown to the Canal for fireworks.  Traffic was so crazy that it took us an hour and a half to get home.  If we ever move to Indy, I doubt we will go see the fireworks again. 

These pictures are out of order.  I'm still learning how to work on this site. 


July 4th cookout





Cookout







At the drive in

Tuesday, Nick had a meeting for work and his mom took us to the Children's Museum. We visited the Dora exhibit and then it was time to go home.  The kids had such a great time and were completely exhausted.  Looking forward to our next visit. 

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At the Zoo

Out of Order

I was going through my posts and found a bunch that I never published.  So I did that today and they are very random and out of order.  Sorry.  My goal is to do a better job with the blog. 

Christmas 2010

Here are some pictures from Christmas.  We went to Indy this year.  We took a trip to the Children's Museum as well. 

Ellie's 1st Birthday

Ellie's 1st birthday was on August 21st.  Nick's mom and dad and brother and his family came down for the weekend. They got here on Saturday afternoon.  We spent some time hanging out and then went to Gatti Town for dinner. 

Sunday was Ellie's party.  We ended up having our family over. It was a lot of fun.  Ellie really enjoyed eating her cake.  Ellie got a lot of neat presents.  She got a big girl car seat.  She got some really nice outfits too.  It's hard to believe that my little baby is one years old. 

Ellie still isn't walking, but she is taking lots of steps. She is saying a lot of words too.  Mama, Dada, Elmo, snack and night night are her most common words.  The twins are very talkative.  Marley and Sam can say their ABC's and can count to 12.  (Thanks Sesame Street)  I am so blessed to be a mother to 3 wonderful kiddos.  I'm looking forward to seeing them grow up. 

I stopped nursing when she turned one.  It's been a challenge for me to figure out how to eat like a normal person.  I have been either pregnant or nursing for 4 years so it is going to be hard to change my diet.  I've been used to eating a lot of sugar.  I need some discipline!

We are really enjoying having our foreign exchange student with us.  She dislocated her knee cap 2 weeks ago, so we are trying to figure out the best way to help her heal.  I found out yesterday that she was in the opening ceremonies for the Torino Olympics.  Pretty cool! 

Exhaustion!

On Halloween, Sam and Ellie were sick.  Ellie was sick in the morning, and Sam got sick at night.  Ever since then, Ellie has been randomly throwing up.  Last Tuesday she ran a fever and threw up all day.  Saturday, she was throwing up again so I took her to Urgent Care.  They had to do a strep test, which Ellie did not enjoy.  Then they pricked her finger for blood work.  I didn't think she was going to recover from that one.  Her bloodwork showed a viral infection.  She was fine Sunday and Monday and then today after lunch she threw up again. 

I'm simply exhausted.  I've counted 9 different days where she has thrown up at least once in her bed over the past 2 1/2 weeks.  I have done more loads of laundry in the past 2 weeks than I can count.  I can't really go anywhere because I dont' know if she is contagious or not.  I love going to Mommy & Me at the Y and have missed the last 3 Mondays due to sickness. It's only November!  Usually my kids are healthy, so I don't know what is going on.

Ellie's 12 month pictures

Here are a few of the pictures from Ellie's photo session with Jessica Bernardin from September.

May 2011

May has been a very busy month. This past weekend Nick and Sam went to Indy to see his parents and the girls and I stayed here.  Nick and Sam left on Friday morning and came back yesterday.  On Saturday, they went to the Indianpolis 500 parade.  Sam had a blast.  Nick said as Jillian Michaels went by she pointed at Sam and said, "So cute!"  Grandpa Steve got Sam a little train set and he has been playing with it non stop. 

The girls and I had a great weekend.  We went to the Farmer's market and picked strawberries.  The girls had a lot of fun.  We went to a party with Nicole on the far west side of town.  The water was too cold to swim, but we still had a good time. 

Yesterday, we went swimming at Cindy's house.  Nick and Sam joined us and it was a lot of fun.  I forgot to reapply sunscreen and the twins got their first sunburn.  It's not too bad, but I still feel pretty bad about it.  The twins are now able to swim with arm floats on.  This is a big relief for me.  Before I had to have a lot of help.  Now I can manage all 3 in the pool at once.  Ellie doesn't really like the water. Hopefully that will change this summer. 

Today I signed the kids up for the summer reading program.  I'm trying to limit their time in front of the tv.  They love to look at books, so hopefully it'll be a good distraction.