Nicknames

It has been very natural as a mother for me to give my children different nicknames. It's funny each one of them naturally got there. Clair seems to have a lot right now. I wanted to list them out so I might remember that Monday.

At first she was our Clair bear. She will always be Clair bear. A few others of coming to the picture. 

Often when she is cute call her my pumpkin pie.  

SomeTimes I call her my Clara beara. 

When she is angry and can't wait for something she stomps her left foot up and down. I call her my Thumper! 

She is always in motion, and I have started referring to her holding her as wrestling an alligator. She sometimes my little Allogator.

Baby cakes. 

A busy boy

Max is a very busy boy. Mac's loves to play with people. He like's to talk. He likes people to talk back to him. He is all over the house every day looking for fun things to do. Favorite activities are when someone else engages in an imaginary game, such as getting into nesting taking off and helicopter. He loves to talk about where you're going and take toys and incorporate them into fantasy trip. Nests and fortes are definitely his thing.

His other favorite thing recently is playing with his remote-controlled toys he got a Christmas. 

Max would like more mommy and daddy time. I hope we can improve on this and start giving him a little more what he wants. Love him dearly!

An artful Christmas

This Christmas Ellie was really into making Christmas gifts. She takes pride in calling herself an artist and wanted to share her artistic skills and gifts she made for mommy, daddy, and a few others.

There were so many gifts under the tree for us from Ellie. She wrapped each one herself. She put those on them. And she took great pride and pleasure in giving them out. Below is a snapshot that includes just a few of the art hasn't for me for me over the Christmas. I wish I would've taken more feathers. She is a creative girl and loves to spend loads of time with her art. 

I love the picture in the card below showing daddy Elliot mommy, note the matching dresses for mommy and Ellie.

Eight months old

Just before Christmas on December 23, Claire turned eight months old. My youngest baby is growing up way too fast. She is such a happy baby!

She is learning to eat chunky foods herself. Starting a Christmas dinner she fed herself peas and carrots. She also nibbled on some of grandma's homemade reason for Christmas breakfast. She made happy sound each bite she took of the delicious bread.

Today after her morning nap, I found her pulling herself up over her crib. It was instantly time to lower the crib. She now sleeps below the kissable height. I can't bend into her crib and kiss her soft, warm cheeks good night before I go to bed. :(

Clair is my one child who likes to sleep on her tummy. Ever since she could confidently role, we often find her sleeping on her belly. This is another way she is a bit like her mama.

Clair is in constant motion. She can do a pretty good army crawl throughout a given room to explore just about anything she wants. She still gets the shakes with anticipation of her holding something she really wants, such as her mama. This makes me feel so good. It is evident this girl loves me so. Babies give such unconditional love to their parents. It doesn't matter what I do, she gazes at me with all the love and forgiveness in the world. If Only we could keep that innocent and that ability to love unconditionally has we age. This is something I hope I can get better at for my children sakes. 

There is such a pleasure. She delights not only me, but everyone that meets her. 

Christmas Day 2013

The kids woke up at 7:30, just like clockwork. The excitement was evident in the first sentence. We had to coax them into our room. They wanted to go downstairs and explored. I wanted the traditional video of them coming down the stairs. But I think they had already seen, At least I Know Ellie had.

Everyone got up rather quickly, I managed to snap a photo of the kids with their baby sister before heading down the stairs. Even with the excitement of Christmas morning, they were willing to sit down and snuggle Clair. They love that girl so much!

Excitement was evident. Ellie was a bit more bossy and into it and she'd ever been. Instantly demanding to open presents, and wanting others to open them too. I was proud of the fact that she did want to give her presents as much as she wanted to open presents. She made sure each of us got a present within the first five minutes. I eventually had to ask her to chill out a few times.

It was interesting having a crawling child at Christmas. This has never happened to me. Clair really wanted to be in the middle of everything. I don't think she actually got to eat any of the paper, but, it was close at many times. Because of this fact, we didn't do as much playing in the wrapping paper as normal. But I still managed to get a picture of the kids amongst the trash on the floor at one of our midway breaks.

The morning and the present went on through to lunch. It was a little bit quicker pace than normal, but still breaks to play and explore presents. Max was just like Ellie was at his age. He would open something exciting, and really with all his heart want to stop and play with that item. I love when the kids are at that stage. It's hard when you have an older one who has outgrown that stage and a young one who is still in it. I would rather go with the younger ones perspective and take it slow, we tried. 

After lunch, things got more hectic as we prepared to have the whole family over for the evening. It's nice posting, but also stressful. I think everyone had a nice day though. I know mom was exhausted at the end of the day.

When I was putting Max and Elly to bed, they said they were sad Christmas was over. I suggested that it did not have to be overcome we could have Christmas again tomorrow. And so when they woke up on the 26, Ellie quickly reminded me, "Mama, remember today is Christmas too." :)

That's my girl!

Christmas eve

Christmas has been busy this year. I wish I would've taken the time to write after Christmas eve and Christmas day. But on the 26th laying in bed very late, I will try to do the days justice.

Ellie has been so excited for Christmas. She has been diligently counting down the days since the start of the month. She has managed to make some excitement and her brother too. Both of them were very excited for Christmas morning. Though, I don't think Max remember much about what he had in store for him.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Ellie made several homemade artistic gifts and wrap them and put them under the tree. There will well over a dozen gifts under the tree for me, daddy, and grandpa. My girl is very sweet, and it is evident that she loves me so very much. She is quite the little artist as well. We also enjoyed shopping together this Christmas. How he picked out a nice present for her daddy, her grandpa, and her brother. It turns out the remote control train that Ellie bought for Max  was one if his favorite gifts this year.

Christmas eve we went to church, and headed to Cosl fire for a pizza dinner. We got home around 715 and proceeded to do the yearly ritual of leaving cookies, hanging stockings, and trying to settle into bed. The excitement was evident as the children jumped around. Max was very cute and full of energy. He was silly or more energetic than normal! It was cute to see the sugarplums dancing through his little head as he spun around the living room. Ellie to school of energy and excitement, making sure we could all the right things to ready the house. Somehow, I managed to convince Ellie that Santa doesn't come the house is messy. Will see how long this theory keeps them cleaning. But it worked pretty well this year, at least for one day.

Right before bedtime, it dawned on alley that healthy, Gabriel, would be leaving tonight. This brought a little sadness amidst all the excitement. She asked me if she could go say goodbye to him before bed. It was adorable. She left Santa a note asking if he could visit. Her idea, and makes me smile. 

Mommy and daddy's chores lasted until about 11 o'clock. We made it to bed had a very good time. And the children slept alone peaceful sleep. I told Mexicali they could not get up before 730. They said I was mean. But you know what, they complied. It was a nice morning for everybody. :)

Christmas traditions

I don't feel we have really established any particular Christmas traditions with the kids. That said, I've recently tried two new things with Ellie - we stayed up to watch sound of music live one night and also welcomed an elf on the shelf which Ellie has named Gabriel. 

Watching the movie in bed with Ellie was so nice. We both enjoyed this time. 

The elf has prove. Quite exciting as well. When he arrived Ellie was in shock. Despite asking for him, when she spotted him she ran upstairs almost in tears screaming "there's a real live elf in the house!" Tears quickly turned to smiles and she has left him a card, some activities and even some challenges already. She likes having him. 

My son

Is so many things. Adorable, emotional, persistent, curious, and so much more. I think of this each time I look at this photo of him sitting on the floor in the laundry room watching his blankey go round and round amongst a lot of towels getting washed. He's too much!

Clair is growing - seventh month

Clair is changing so much. This past month has brought so much change. She is able to do little things and is also trying to move onto big things. She is now very good at sitting and playing, she's a pro at replacing her own pacifier, she rolls freely and is showing a preference for sleeping on her tummy, she's atarting to eat things herself like Cheerios, puffs, pancakes and bananas. She still smiles all the time. She loves to jump and move. Clair looks at her big brother and sister with such awe. Her smile makes us all happy, it is infectious in such a good way! I have even seen her on her hands and knees, successfully taking a crawl forward!

Here's a picture of her rolling over after one of our morning snuggles to try to see what her daddy's doing. Wake up daddy she says! 

My oldest baby turned six

Six years ago Ellie Grey made my biggest lifetime dream come true - becoming a mother. I've wanted to be a mom since i can remember. I'm so thankful to be blessed to be mom to three great perfect children. 

This was the first time I was away from my girl for much of the day - she had school. It was sad to send her off, but I did. I was anxious to meet up with her after school at Girl Scouts. I brought cupcakes for her to celebrate with her friends. Ellie had a good day. She had a nice hat and a smile on her face. She was happy to see me and greeted me with a leap into my arms. We were both happy I was there. 

The cupcakes were a hit and the meeting was cute. After the meeting we picked up pizza and went home to celebrate with the family. Ellie asked for pineapple pizza for dinner, so tags what she got. She enjoyed opening a large number of presents. 

Her favorites were her now and arrows from Grampa, her Merrida outfit from Grannie, and rollerblades from us. She couldn't wait to go shoot the arrows. 

It was a nice evening for a school night. 

On Saturday we then had her big party. Take 3: Erika and Ellie wanted another shared birthday at pump it up, so that's what we did. This year Ellie had lots of friends there. She enjoyed everyone's presence. They are getting big, but still really enjoy their cousins, each other and this event. When I put Ellie to bed, she told me she. couldn't wait for her next party. I smiles and told her not to wish her life away. 

At six, Ellie is an artist who just loves learning. School is so great for her. She loves her baby sister and has a good relationship with her brother too. She is a mommas girl, and can also really enjoy time with her daddy. She has some good friends in the neighborhood - Ashley she calls her best friend, and she enjoys playing with Wren a lot too. She's a very smart cookie. She is a great singer. She loves spending time with her family. He's pretty adventurous, other then with food. For good or bad, she is a lot like me. My hope is that she is a better version of me, which I think is totally true. :) I love my girl with all my heart. She makes me so proud. She makes great decisions and has a good heart! Love always. 

First Parent Teacher Conference

I admit it, I was excited for Ellie's first conference today. I have to watch myself as I am already exerting my expectations of excelling academically on Ellie. I'm not sure if she knows this yet, but no doubt she will. My expectations are high. Today, I found out that she is truly meeting them. I couldn't have been prouder when the teacher told me she is going to move Ellie up to the higher reading group next week. She's reading at level 8, which is the year end expectation. This makes me so proud because this is the thing I really struggled trying to teach Ellie. But with her teacher, she is truly taking off. She's a reason machine and I'm so very proud of her. 

The report was very positive. Math "is a breeze" for her says her teacher. Soon she will start teaching a small group some diet grade math concepts. Ellie will be in that. Ellie has a good group of friends and manages to get along with everyone well. She's a star! I am a proud momma! And she's setting the bar high for her siblings. :) 

.... That's wrong of me to say, isn't it.  

My reader

Elle is taking off with reading. She's pretty good at sounding out the words. Kindergarten is so good for her. 

She's also quite the little artist. I love watching her blossom at school. She thrives learning and trying new things. I love my girl!