Newborn pictures..

Landon had his first photo shoot! He did AWeSOme... here is just a few of my favorites. We attempted to get some of Stella and Landon together but Stella wanted nothing to do with it! It turned into a huge screaming fit. I was very sad that we weren't able to get any.. but pick your battles.

 

Bikes

 The other day Dale was delivering the mail and saw a little girl bike with a sign that said for FREE...Dale didn't hesitate and put it in the mail truck and brought it home. We had scored BIG! (We had been toying with the idea of getting Stella one but thought she was maybe a little to small still.) Stella face was priceless when he was getting it out of the trunk. She kept saying "bike- bike" and jumping up and down. Stella little grin is priceless!

She loves anything to do with a bike right now! Dale has been training for his race and I think she is trying to be like her dad. We spend most of our day outside.. it's the first thing she asks to do in the morning...

" Outside bike mom."

I woke from a nap ( I know what a good mom I am sleeping while my daughter is awake) to hear Stella screaming, I ran into our room to find that she had gotten into Dales biking stuff. She was mad cause she couldn't get the helmet unbuckled.

3 Little Buddies

James (2months) , Tate (5weeks) & Landon (3weeks) 

I really wanted to get a picture of these 3 kiddo's... They where ALL born with in 2 months of each other.

It will be fun to see these three grow up together, before we know it they will be running around... Wish we could freeze time!

NAp Time

 The other day I went to "attempt" nap time with Stella, we did the routine.. read some books and sing some songs. We got done and she said "Mom, baby"... so, I gathered all her babies and put them in bed with her. Stella looked at me and said " NO BABY!" It took me a few minutes to catch on to what she was meaning. She wanted baby Landon in her bed with her. This has been the first time she has wanted to have him be around her... I was so excited!! I ran to get him and did as she asked. I couldn't resist taking a snap shot of them together. Stella has been a great help and love that everyday is getting better with the adjustment of having to share mom all the time. She is such a sweetheart!

Potty Training.. ALreaDy??

(Don't mind the hair... Stella thinks that she needs
to do it like this on a regular basis lately)

For about a month now I have a little friend that thinks she needs to visit the bathroom with me. She will watch me potty and then intently watch me get the toilet paper and wipe. She has started thinking she needs to join this little adventure along with me. At first she would sit on the scale in the bathroom and act like that was her toilet and have her toilet paper in hand and stand up and wipe her bum.. then we went to her wanting to start throwing it in the toilet and needing to flush it and wave bye-bye! Well, now we have taken it a step further and she is actually wanting to sit on the toilet and do her duty in the BIG girl potty!!! It's not an all the time thing which I'm ok with right now. I'm just trying to make it a fun thing for her... but I'm an soo excited! I feel like I need her to talk more before we start this completely. She cracks me up!

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She is my little coppy cat right now. Whatever mom does she does. The morning routine take double the time by the time we get things done but I love it! We have some good laughs.. We brush our teeth, do our hair ( which she has to do..wet her hair and comb it) make-up..YEs, i said makeup and then put on our pretty jewels. (thanks to grandma ellis & aunt Alyse).. We are ready for the day!

Activities..

I decided the other day that the only way to make it through the winter months without is to come up with an activity or two for Stella and I to do through out the day. Sometimes before I started doing this I felt like Stella was getting super bored of me and that we needed to make some adjustments...
I found this website '101 things to do with your kids' it has been a great help for idea's. Here is just a few of the things that we have been doing...

She loves to carry this clip board around and draw... We try to draw or color a picture everyday. I think I'm finding myself enjoying coloring a little more too!

What would we do with out play doh.

I took Stella to the store let her pick out a mix and frosting. She got more into this then I thought.. she would she loved putting the cupcake liners in the pan it turned into a fun game
for her.

We are working on some fun Valentine things, more to come soon!

BYE- BYE beloved Binky

So, the other day we dropped off Stella to grandma Ellis' house and we forgot the beloved BINKY! I just happened to call mom at lunch and she said "So, did you forget to tell me that you took something away from Stella?" I was very confused and said "NO".. she said well I have no binky today...my heart stopped Stella loves this thing way to much and felt terrible that I was putting my mom through HELL! My mom said they were going to make it through the day. I called Dale and we both decided that this was the week that we were going to finally do it! This has not been an easy task at all.. first night she cried way to LONG, nothing we did would make her stop. We were both ready to give in... but just as we about did she STOpped!

(Can you find Stella?? I kinda got nervous for a second but then spotted her. Half of her body is crawled under the bed... I'm assuming that she was trying to find the Binky cause sometimes it drops down under the bed.)

I had to take a snap shot of this! I went to check on Stella and this is what I found, bed tore apart and no Stella in bed... I hope the nights to come will be better I feel very sad about doing this to her, it's the first thing that she hasn't lost interest in and has been the toughest thing yet! Dale said" For sure the next one isn't having a Binky... I cannot do this again!" I totally agree, but I guess we will see:)

Nursery

I think that they should change the rules on the whole nursery thing, I think about 14-15months you should be able to take your kid to nursery, that is when I feel like they are ready to leave you.... when they reach about 17-18 months this is when you start to see them start to get clingy again! First week of nursery was great... she walked it and started playing with the toys... second week complete opposite! She knew it was coming after the closing prayer she started screaming and holding back not wanting to go! I walked her to her nursery and we get to the door and she starts screaming even louder and now we are getting the stares like I just did something terrible to her.... The nursery leader said just go it's better this way. I do as she said and start to walk away hearing her scream and me feeling like a terrible mom! I go to class and can still hear her screaming and I cannot even pay attention in class.. I go to get her and I meet the nursery teacher in the hall, she says "That they couldn't get her to stop and to try next week!" I felt so bad. We couldn't get her to stop crying we tried everything! We ended up leaving church early because she was getting so bad, I felt like we were being more of a disruption than anything! I hope next week can be different.... if not we may have a child that will never wanna do the whole nursery thing!!

New YEars

We got together with some of the neighbors for New Years! We ate some delicious treats, played a games and let the kiddo's play! We brought in the New Year a little early with the kid's... Stephanie had some glow bracelets and some noise makers. Stella loved these!! (Great idea Stephanie.) Thanks again for a fun evening!

Sledding

We don't have much snow but were determined to find some... We went out to Burnett's for a little get together.. we did a little sledding, ate some yummy food and caught up on lives adventures!

This was perfect snow weather for the little kids (at least for Stella) sun was out not to cold. It was her first adventure in the snow and she did great!

The perfect sledding hill

Stella and I testing out the sled.. We never could get a really good reaction out of her if she liked it or not

The cousins

Dad pulling Stella on the BIG tube!

I don't really like the winter weather but I do wish we had a little more snow so it felt more like winter and not just yucky blah weather... hope we can get some sooner than later!

Cleaning day

she loves to study things and see how they work...

Stella has loves to help us clean up the house! She is one big helper.. She loves to hold the dust pan while I sweep... this has become helpful now that I'm starting to get a belly! She loves to help vacuum, dust and mop. We will usually end with a dance off... Stella loves music and loves to dance! She sure is growing up and not a baby anymore :(

fort

I love when Dale has a day off, they come very rare and so we definitely take advantage of them! We get to stay in our pj's pretty much the whole day, be lazy and do whatever we want. We made a fort... and had so much fun playing in it!

Stella would climb through and reach the top and say "BOO:.... and giggle

Here is our finished product

I love this little grin..priceless!

SURpriSe...

We are having baby #2 and couldn't be more excited!! This pregnancy has been very different and started off a rough but I'm starting to feel better and hopefully getting back to my semi normal self... I am feeling a range of emotions... but couldn't be happier to have this little peanut become part of our family! I am grateful for friends, family and neighbors that have been very helpful.

Bryce BIG 12!

Happy Birthday Buddie! I hope you had a great day! I love this kid so much... He is so great with Stella, I couldn't ask for a better helper. He is ALWAYS doing some type of sport activity with Stella and teaching her how to do things. I love how determined he is to do something and will never give up when it comes to sports, I love that he still has a very tender heart and always concerned with how things are going in his older sisters lives. I love you bud!

Look at these fine men! Bryce was able to get the priesthood. He has been very excited
about receiving it, and is glad Bryant will be right there to help him out.

I love these guys so much! I am glad that my grandparents make special effort to be to the important things in our lives and the sweet spirit they share while visiting.

More halloween fun...

Our ward this year did a Halloween carnival for the kids... Young Men and Women put it on and we had a blast putting it together, it was a lot of fun! I think Stella was trying to figure out what was going on the whole time but she sure did like getting the candy from each booth..

Nothing like the good old bing bag toss..

I cannot decide if Stella loved this one because of the candy that was being given or if she really liked throwing the ball threw the tire. Either way she was super content.

Later on that night we had the Burnett Halloween get together..

Dale and I decided that we would just go as each other for Halloween. Dale made a perfect girl :) Stella went as a little skunk.. My mom made this costume for Byrant when he was little, she has such talent. I hope one day I can learn to sew like her.

The jail birds with some of the grand kids.

Our Little Stink!

Christensen visit..

Katie and Dan came out for a quick visit during the fall. It was so good to see them, I felt like was a dream cause it went so quick! We managed to get a lot into the days... We took Stella on an adventure on the LTD bus and got some Aggie ice cream, played game, had a Halloween Party and managed to squeeze in a well needed/updated family photo shoot. Thanks Chalet!

We miss you already guys! I think that sometimes you take advantage of family and when they are thousands miles away you learn to love and appreciate the little moments you get to share with them, even if it is a quick visit. We love you!

Ellis halloween 2011

Our Ellis family party was another success!! This year we did it at our house... I had a lot of fun getting the house all decorated, putting together games (with the help from ALyse & Rach) and have a yummy spooky dinner.

We played some fun games...

In the back ground you may see the T.V. on... Dales Cardinals were in the world series and we couldn't risk missing any detail of the game! The Cardinals ended up winning this year and I had one happy hubby!

So worth sticking your face down in a bowl of whipping cream and finding gummy
Halloween treats...

We got some pictures of the group and each couple...

Thanks Family for making our get together very fun and a good memory to always remember

Shooting...

The other night we took Bryant out shooting with Dale. I have never seen a kid get so excited!!! Bryant has been wanting to go hunting/shooting with Dale for a while but it has taken a little convincing from us to let my dad let him come:) Dale has been needed to sight his gun for the the beloved deer hunt. We thought it would be perfect to have Bryant come out with us. The boys have pellet guns but it's not a ton of fun to shoot them in the back yard they say cause they need space.... space is what Bryant got! We made him his own target and let him shoot around.