Mama has a crush

...on this sweet guy who turned 8 months on Wednesday. I just LOVE him and all of his sweetness. His personality is really emerging and he loves to join in on our conversations with some babbling and tarzan-like noises. He also loves when we sing to him, especially when we include his name in the song. Price is such a happy and smiley baby - what a joy!

(Nathan has had our camera during the day so all I have is this pathetic phone photo!)

Sporty girl

Tonight Ellery and I went on a shopping trip to Marshalls. I heard they had some little boys polo shirts so I went to see for myself. Not only did we get Price some cute polo shirts in sizes 18 months and 24 months (are you kidding...where did my baby go?), but Ellery found a few other things that she just had to have. A Dora softball glove and ball, a size 1 soccer ball, and of course some lip stick (aka chap stick). One of our little neighbors is always out kicking her soccer ball around and so Ellery knew just what to do with the one that was just her size. She doesn't really have the whole catching thing down though...that will take some practice.

Mama's helper

Ellery has been in to feeding Price these days. She is such a little mama. Tonight she helped me put him to bed. She then decided she wanted to stay in his room to check on him while he fell asleep. All dressed up in high heels, jewelry, and a head band she peeked outside his door and told Nathan and I, "Shhhhh, I'm taking care of the baby."

From a guppy to a goldfish

Goofing off with Hallie

Floating on the raft with Miss Megan

Waiting her turn for the slide





Floating on her back

Putting her hands "like a pillow" so she's ready float



Hi Mom

Ellery loved her teacher

Ellery had her last day of swimming boot camp on Friday. It was as dark as night outside, the skies had just opened up, and tornado warnings were in full effect. I called Houston Swim Club to see if they would still be holding lessons, and of course they were. I wanted to miss so bad, especially since I was going to have to wake Ellery up from her nap to get us there on time. However, they told me it was a special class because parents get to sit pool side and take pictures and the kids are given awards at the end of class. So, I felt I owed it to Ellery to get us there. She did so well throughout the entire two weeks, made so much progress, and I wanted her to get her much-deserved award. She was promoted from a guppy to a goldfish and we will now be doing maintenance classes a couple times a week for the next month. Her certificate says she has satisfactorily completed these skills: comfortable in water, puts face in water, breath control (bubbles), glides, kicks with barbells, back floats, rolls over, turns and climbs out of pool, and retrieves rings.

I am glad we attended and I got to get a few picture of our girl in action before my camera battery died.

Part 2 and a funny story

We got together with the extended family after lunch. It was a hard Easter especially for Papa, since it was the first one without Nanny. Hopefully having all of his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids around made it a little bit easier.

Aunt Sherry helping Ellery take a swing at the pinata. This was E's first pinata experience and she thought it was the coolest thing ever. After the pinata, they all went outside to hunt Easter eggs. Of course, there was the treasured prize egg. Family traditions are so much fun.

After church we went to lunch with my family. Ellery carried Bolt wherever she went that day. Today she tried to see if Bolt would rescue her like he does Penny in the movie. It was hilarious. She kept saying, "Zoom, zoom Bolt. Zoom, zoom."

The Easter bunny visited us at lunch. She kept telling him thank you for bringing her Bolt.

Okay, I think I figured my blogger problem out. Yeah. Here are some more pictures from the weekend. Oh, and the funny story from today has to do with a little issue at swimming lessons. Ellery has been taking swim lessons for the past two weeks. We have to go every day for two weeks and then she can start on a maintenance program. I was not looking forward to this two week boot camp but I have to say it has been the best thing for her. The first three days she cried her way through the lesson. Seems my little girl does not really like being told what to do, especially when it involves diving her head underwater. I don't really blame her. But, on the fourth day she started loving her lessons and enjoying her new skills.

So today was that day for her, meaning it had been four days since her last bowel movement. I can always tell D-day because she starts tip-toeing more, asking to be held a lot, and not really wanting to run around and play. Well, I keep telling her she needs to try to go before getting into the water but she wasn't having it. I make the hands-down best decision of the day (or maybe week) and decide to put her in a swim diaper just in case. As I am watching from the window, I can see her straining and telling the teacher something probably to the likes of, "My poopy hurts." I am thinking, oh no. I am wondering if anyone else is watching what is going down. I decide to break the rules and go into the pool area and ask her teacher if I need to get her. The teacher shakes her head no and says she is fine. Hmmmmm...maybe she didn't go. Fast forward to the end of the lesson. They all get out of the pool to make their way to the slide. Ellery gets out and practically has a tail from her massive pooping incident. I am just laughing by now as I watch an instructor go up to her and turn her around to get a look at it. They then send her back to me to do a seriously dirty diaper change. It was disgusting. She is humilitated but crying even more because she didn't get to participate on the slide. She rushes back to finish the last 2 minutes of class. Life with a toddler who only poops twice a week! Thank the Lord for swim diapers.

Picture overload Part 1

Our weekend in pictures! It was a wonderful Easter weekend with family. My dad was sick all weekend though, and so Poppy was unable to be a part of all the festivities. We missed him! We enjoyed having Paige and Taylor here so much and are always sad when they have to go home.

Getting set up to color eggs

"My Paige" as E calls her

Look how pretty!

Can't forget the princess stickers as the final touches

In honor of Nanny we present our first bunny cake

This was our first attempt and it is sure to get better each year

Celebrating the birthday girl again!

Price loving his bath in the sink

Ellery got the dog Bolt in her Easter basket...she is in love with the movie.

Price in his Easter duds

I will post the rest of the pictures tomorrow. I am having a hard time with blogger and uploading pictures in an orderly fashion, as evidenced by my previous crazy posts. I spend forever getting them to look good and the minute I hit "publish post" they go all funky on me.

Easter and Birthdays

***Can someone please explain to me why most posts come out looking so crazy? Sorry but I am giving up trying to fix it this time.

We have had so much going on this past week and this weekend, but I didn't want to get behind on posting pictures. Last weekend, we had an Easter egg hunt with our neighbor friends. We have the most wonderful neighbors.

Ellery, Taylor, and Carter

This weekend we are celebrating Paige's birthday and Easter with the family. We attended a service on Thursday night in which we were able to really take time to think about Christ's death on the cross. Tomorrow we will rejoice that He is Risen!

Last night we went out to celebrate Paige's birthday! We also went on a little girls shopping trip to Nordstroms - my mom, Paige, and I - during the day. I love spending time, just the 3 of us. We laugh together and are brutally honest with one another, whether it is when trying on clothes or picking out baby names. I now am 100% sure that skinny jeans are NOT for me (I was 95% sure of that already) and Paige knows how we feel about her future baby name choices. No, she's not pregnant. We were just having fun!

We went to Tony's for dinner and the dessert we had was called The Bomb. It is seriously the biggest ice cream cake I have ever seen. And it tastes even better than it looks!

Ellery had her first slumber party last night. My sweet (although I told her she might be crazy) friend Tiffany offered to keep Ellery over night at their house. Somehow 2 little girls turned into 3 and it was a full on party! Tiff says they did great although they didn't sleep much! I am sure there will be some funny stories and pictures that will surface soon!

More on the weekend in another post...we are off to carry on my Nanny's tradition of coloring Easter eggs. We will miss her so much this Easter!


Oh and here is a picture of Pricey. I don't want to leave him out. How he ever managed to sit all 23 pounds of him upright I am not sure!

Play date with Ford

Ford came over last week and Nathan captured some pics of the boys. Ford is about 3 months younger than Price. I can't wait to see what the future holds for these two!

And the four boys!

A Big Girl Bed Dilemna

Tuesday night we decided that we would finally put together Ellery's big girl bed and let her make the transition. We had been talking it up to her and were confident she could handle it. The rule was that a big girl bed meant no pacifiers. Her dentist encouraged us to get rid of the paci by age three so this was what I came up with. I was so sure she would want to be out of her crib that she would gladly give up her paci. I am sure you see where all of this is headed....I completely under-estimated her attachment to her paci.

I remember saying to Nathan, "No turning back on this paci thing." Famous last words. Ellery was all ready for bed, so excited about her new princess sheets, and enjoying bouncing around on her new bed. We broke out the camera and took pictures and Ellery gladly put her pacifiers in a bag and bragged about how she was giving them to baby Emery. So we tuck her in, say prayers, and leave the room. About 10 minutes later, we hear her crying for mama and daddy. I go back in to see what is wrong and she tells me that she is not ready for her big girl bed and instead wants to sleep in her baby bed with her paci. It was too late to deal with any of it at this point, so we make the change and put her in her crib.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I decided that maybe we would try one change at a time. I got to thinking that no diapers, no paci, and a new bed were a lot of changes at once for an almost three-year-old. I make the decision that she could sleep with her paci in her new bed and I will deal with getting rid of it down the road. I really do not care that she still uses one and in fact, I think I will really miss seeing it in her mouth at night and during nap times. It keeps her somewhat of a baby in my mind I guess. I just don't want her teeth to suffer any consequences from having used one for so long.

Well, she seemed excited about my change of heart and laid down in her big girl bed for a nap. As I am walking out of the room, however, she tells me that she wants back in her baby crib and that maybe she will be ready for a big girl bed when she is three! I try to talk up the bed and all of it's great benefits, but my girl is set on being in the crib. How long can they stay in those things? I am sure there is some sort of weight limit!

Ready for baby Emery! Did I mention that E still uses newborn pacifiers? The round ones! She sucks on them out of the side of her mouth like a pipe. This is what has caused one of her front teeth to not fully descend. We made sure that Pricey took the Nuk from the get-go.

Saying her prayers

All ready for bed...we think.