Hadn’t updated in awhile, but there’s not too many new things going on.

School has been back in session for a couple of weeks. Jaden fell and got hurt one day and came home to watch for a concussion. It was kinda scary getting that call from the nurse.  I was so happy that everything was ok and didn’t mind one bit having him home with me the rest of the day! He was playing tag on the basketball court and tripped over a ball that rolled in front of him. Poor guy really hit his forehead hard!  He got his report card last week and got excellent grades. All A’s and O’s except for handwriting which was an S+. He finished his first chapter book in three days.   There’s a possibility he is getting his first wiggly tooth too!

Jackson is starting to pick up sight words here and there. He makes me laugh all the time with his funny little statements. I call him my Peter Pan because he is not in as big of a hurry to grow up as his big brother is. He keeps telling me he is not going to go to school in the Fall but he will be staying home with me instead. He’s also been practicing his handwriting too. It helps that I saw Jaden go through kindergarten and kind of know what to do to help Jackson now.

Ellie is talking more and more. She seems older now that she can say words. She loves “oosh” (shoes) and got a new pair yesterday she won’t take off.  She likes her hair done, and enjoys pretending to put on make up while i get ready and is very routine oriented. She knows that when she wakes up, we pick out her clothes, get dressed, do hair, brush teeth, etc. She makes sure I do not miss a step. She never likes to be left out and we call her our Women’s Rights Activitist around here.  And yes, going to the store is still a big challenge with her. She is getting new molars in, and kept pointing at them to show me. I felt so bad for her that they hurt and she knew exactly what was going on.

Here are some pictures off of my phone. enjoy!

Jack is double jointed in his thumbs. We were laughing so hard yesterday at breakfast watching his tricks!

My three love bugs

a necklace i made her. she felt like a big girl! Please ignore the disgusting food in the background. Yes, Jackson loves cheeseballs and we stopped for lunch at Wendy’s. Don’t judge.

Getting comfy on the couch during tv time.  She ran and got her blanket and pillow for it.

Sweet.

Every night, the kids have been out back playing with Daddy. She loves her princess shoes and car.

Two french braids

Story time at the library with friends. Jack had a blast.

Playing in the clubhouse

She got into my make up bag one day.

Club meeting in the tents

This was on MLK day. We loved our lazy morning.

Jaden got his first haircut here at home. Micah did such a good job!

Rocking her babies

We played salon, and I curled her hair. She did great sitting still.

My grandma was on facebook last week dressed in a cow costume. It was pretty funny!

Jackson practicing his name. The top was the first time he wrote it that day, the bottom was after he learned how to write lower case letters too.

Silly faces

Reading time

Pre-enrolled Jackson for school

Sneaky Ding Dong Thief

Put ‘em up

Always has to have a baby with her in the car

Secrets

Painting with Friends

With Ellie’s birthday sandwiched between Christmas and New Year, its a little crazy around here!

This year, we had a small party on New Year’s Eve for lunch with family and it was the perfect size for Ellie to celebrate and have a great time with those who love her! Kind of neat, because two years ago on New Year’s Eve, we brought our special gift home from the hospital.

We had a very special contribution to the festivities this year. Our good friend Jodi made Ellie a pink puppy cake, and it was absolutely adorable!  I gave Jodi a picture and it was dead on! The best part is how great it tasted. We scored a bonus cake as well. Thank you so much, Jodi! We loved it!

We had plenty of good food and homemade lemonade from our tree (this year we probably had 100 lemons, doubling last year’s amount! I juiced 200 oz and still have ten more lemons on the tree! We also got closer to 25 blood oranges off our tree, our first year for those!) We ordered a bunch of pizzas and just hung out and had a great time!

Banana bread, rice krispy dog bones, puppy chow made with nutella, and homemade caramel corn, chips and dip, fruit,  pasta salad and pizza.

I printed on lunch bags a dog picture and gave away caramel corn for favors, and  made puppy dog balloons with two pink colors of balloons with them. Simple decorations to complete our little puppy party.

I didnt get a picture of the balloons, but here’s a sneak peek a week later, haha

Birthday girl got some pretty fantastic gifts! She is a blessed and loved little lady!

Then it was cake time. It was so sad having to cut into it!

I love you little Eloise Cora, and am so thankful for God giving us such a sweet beautiful happy and healthy little girl that completes our family! Just can’t believe two years have already flown by!

Holy Canoli! Eloise is 2! Last week, like we did last year, we drove up to Flagstaff to see the snow, which happened to be on Ellie’s birthday! Micah took off of work for a couple of days and we enjoyed some nice family time.

First the birthday girl opened her gifts. She wore the same pajamas as she did last year on her birthday

Then we loaded up the car and headed out.

Chocolate chip cookie’ed Ellie was so excited! Then she was out.

We got up there later than we had planned, so we bummed around. Ellie had spilled water all over and we werent sure if we were going to play in the snow, so we went to Target for some dry jeans. Then we got a quick lunch, went shopping a bit, and hung out at the hotel until our traditional Chili’s at  Flagstaff dinner. We surprised the kids with hot chocolate before bed, sang happy birthday to the birthday girl with cupcakes and surprisingly all of the kids were sleeping by 10! It was by far the best hotel sleep we have had with kids yet.

Happy Meals are a special treat.

“

The next morning we got some breakfast and went to play in the very disappointing amount of snow there. The kids loved it though and we were there plenty long enough to experience it.

Our view from the hotel window

And this is where Ellie pretty much sat the remainder of the day.

Love those family times!

This Christmas was pretty great, as most Christmases seem to have been since we have been blessed with kids. I love seeing the magic through their eyes, teaching them what Christmas is all about, and enjoying time together.

Micah was able to take a few days off between the holidays and it was really nice to have Daddy around a bit more.  Jaden went to school through Thursday, and had his Christmas program the Monday before. We baked cookies with Ya Ya and Grammy the Sunday before, and saw Santa at Bass Pro Shop Tuesday before (because we just HAD to, according to Jaden). We did Christmas at Paw Paw’s the Thursday before, Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Tresler’s Saturday afternoon and then Christmas at Grammy’s Sunday afternoon. In between, we hung out with family and friends, Micah led a Christmas Eve service and we had church Sunday morning.

Here are some pictures of our Christmas week.

Cookie Baking

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Jaden’s school Christmas program.

Dog Sitting for Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannon

Pajamas I made for the boys like Grandma Eloise used to make

Waiting to get Jaden after school

Before church the Sunday before Christmas

Bass Pro Shop Santa

We got there at 5:30 for this:

So we had two hours to kill.

Then after it seemed like forever, it was our turn to see Santa. Ellie was not having it.

Our official picture. It was like that moment in Christmas Story for Jaden. He was wanting to go so badly, and he waited so long, but when it was his turn, it was so rushed and Ellie was so crazy that he got really mad when he saw the picture. “I look like I am just staring.”

Jaden’s class party was Thursday, the last day of school. He requested sugar cookies and candy cane cookies for 36. Apparently I waited too long to buy cello bags because the week before, Joann’s was wipe out. Its ridiculous how much they push holidays on us before it happens, then when you need it, they are out. So I bought clear cello bags, stamped a white snowflake on it and got some christmas fabric at hobby lobby 50% off to use as ties.

Thursday night we went to Paw Paw and Tina’s for Christmas celebrating. The kids made out well, got to play with new toys early and got to see a special appearance of Santa! I didnt have my camera out for Santa but the kids enjoyed it

The next day was especially fun. No school and new toys!

Saturday was really hectic. As soon as we woke up, we went to church to set up for the Christmas Eve service, and then the rest of the day kept coming. We enjoyed downtime at Grandma and Grandpa’s house

Jaden got his helicopter that he has been talking to Grandpa about for months!

After Christmas eve service, we stopped for half off drinks at Sonic, made some grilled cheese, put out the luminerias, opened Christmas jammies, put out cookies and milk and then read Charlie Brown Christmas on the ipad.

Christmas morning came early, and I got up at 6 and got breakfast in the oven. I made Paula Dean’s gorilla bread. It was so so good.

Christmas was waiting for the kids!

So we woke everyone up and the fun began. We always put the tv fireplace on with Christmas music while we open gifts. It was fun to lay back and watch them.

The boys both received Ipod Touches from Santa, and Ellie got this cool pink trike.

I think they liked every single gift that they got.

With all of the hustle and bustle with church, I didn’t get a picture of them in their clothes together, but I hurried and snapped this one with my phone before going into Grammy’s. Ellie just woke up and didnt have her silver shoes on.

Waiting to eat

Great food!

The kids know the sooner I get a picture, the sooner they can move on.

What we saw a lot of since they got their ipods.

Uncle Mike showing them cool things.

Hanging out

The kids made out like bandits. I was shocked that we could fit everything in the car in one trip at each of the grandparents’ homes!

As soon as we got home, before we did anything else that night, we all went through the kids’ old toys to donate the ones they didn’t want anymore. I think that will be a tradition because it was a lot easier for them to give up their old stuff with shiny new ones waiting for them.

Then the fun of assembly came. Ellie insisted on her pink car first.

The helicopter charging station.

and before bed in their new jammies from Aunt Ginger

ahh, peace on earth.

Jack got his haircut the day after Christmas. What a handsome little guy

Merry Christmas, 2011!

It’s almost as if a switch was flipped the day she turned 2!

Besides her two new favorites “what’s that?” and “up there” she’s starting to speak more and more!

She also says Mama, Dada, hi, hello, bye bye, bird, puppy, bo Bo for pacifier, and as the boys call it, her own special language of hum talk.

When we began this blog in June 2005, I never would’ve thought we would still be blogging! I love our family blog, and to be able to go back and see when things happen is cherished to me.

I have a lot to post soon, but right now, as things slow down and we start getting back to normal, we are enjoying each other’s company, playing with new toys, cleaning and getting back into normal housework and savoring the rest of the week of jaden home before he begins his second semester of first grade.

Happy new year!

Hi!

Its been a month since I last posted every day pictures

so I thought I would give a quick recap.

We had a concert with cousins conducted by Jaden:

We got to see a very old train come in

Ellie had croup and pneumonia. She was a pretty sick little girl.  I ended up having to take her into the ER because her breathing got so bad.

video of her trying to breathe in and out.

Finally able to breathe and sleep

Had to make a game out of the oxygen because she was fighting it so bad.

Steroid shot after her xrays (which was just awful how they had to do it)

Then Jack got croup and Jaden got something that made me him sick all last week.

Jackson and Ellie love painting while I am working in the kitchen.  Its looking like Ellie enjoys arts and crafts as much as her big brother does.

We’ve been baking a lot of treats

And we don’t forget to take care of the babies around here.

Micah and I went to a small hot air balloon festival

We went to the Gilbert Days Parade

Dave Shelf has still been doing his tricks and mischief! Here’s a couple of tricks he did this week.

Painted their noses while they were sleeping

TPed our tree

And colored on the kids’ coloring pages

**I kept starting and stopping this post yesterday, but ended up taking Ellie to the emergency room. Poor baby has Pneumonia and Croup. **

Here’s a mix up of the pictures from our three Thanksgiving meals. We had a very nice holiday and hope you did as well!

In no order whatsoever….

Jaden stayed home on Wednesday because I thought he wasn’t feeling well. Ha! That turned out to be false. They hung out and watched movies in bed most of the morning.

Introducing Dave Shelf, our own Elf on the Shelf. The kids named him and every day he shows up after telling Santa if the kids have been behaving every night.  He came Thanksgiving morning in the birdcage. Friday morning he was in the kids’ play kitchen with a stuffed belly and a turkey leg in his arm, Saturday morning, he was fishing for goldfish in the cracker jar, Sunday he was playing Wii and this morning he smeared toothpaste all over the sink in the bathroom! Naughty Dave!