Sweeties

I love celebrating my sweeties. The girls were kind of spoiled this year.  Ellie got a pair of high heels that she has been asking for for a long time. Lila got a jewelry box.  They each got an outfit with a matching outfit for their American Girl doll and a new dress. Steve and I exchanged fun and fitting cards and some sweet somethings--Steve loves the Reeses hearts and he got me some sugar cookies, I'm a sucker for baked goods.

Traditional heart shaped pancakes.

Last week I told Steve that I think I signed up to help with Ellie's class valentine party. Turns out I signed up to be in charge. :) It was fun, but I did start out with a list of 9 volunteers and there ended up only being 3 of us, but the kids had a ball decorating cookies, hearing a story and making valentines, and then I played some games with them with conversational hearts and chopsticks (which I needed to acquire a few more and Steve had a bogo coupon for Pei Wei that was about to expire so we had take out last night). Then we decided to take lunch in and eat with Ellie since I was going in to setup for her party. Lila thought it was great to be at school and wanted to stay. We then had our traditional fondue dinner--so delicious and for dessert personal white chocolate mousse pies.

 






















Fortunately we started making our valentine's early. The girls had a ball making them and put more thought into than I thought they would--they would pick colors they thought would look good together to melt together.

Watching them melt in the oven while eating ice cream.

Valentine's they made for each other. :)

Just Life :)

We've been enjoying life and having fun, but haven't had anything too momentous to blog about. Steve took Lila on a date at the end of January which included her field trip to Get Air, a trampoline park and lunch. She thought it was great and kept talking about how she wants to go back there for her birthday.  She talks a lot about her birthday and what she wants.  Let's see the list includes, Frozen dolls and/or dresses, the movie, and make-up (what?).

A couple of Saturdays ago it was so lovely outside that we bundled Andrew up and put him in the jogging stroller with Lila and Ellie rode her bike while Steve and I jogged. It was so fun to get out as a family. I can't wait for spring when we can do more of that.

On Chinese New Year we were able to go to Ellie's school and see her participate in the parade with her class.  They made a dragon and everything. Lila was so excited to see the "festival" as she kept calling it. I did a little research on the Chinese New Year so we could have a little discussion and I found out that they do a deep cleaning on New Year's Eve to cleanse and have a fresh start for the New Year--sounds like a tradition I could get on board with, the girls were not as excited about it.

I don't know why she is still wearing her coat--she was so set on wearing red per instructions and she wears her snow boots whenever she can. :)

Ellie came home from school last week and was so excited to tell us that she "digested" an owl pellet. It took me a minute to process and I said you mean "dissected".  She then explained that she found a skull in hers and even brought it home yesterday--yay. ;)


We went sledding and snowmobiling with Venessa and her girls on Saturday. It was fun and cold. Then we were able to attend the ward baptisms which included our cousin Ellyn Olenslager and the blessing of her newest little sister Aneyah. It was a wonderful meeting.  We love hanging out with family.

 
Andrew has started giggling. It's that fun hesitant laugh where you're not for sure if they are going to cry or laugh. We sure do love trying to get him to giggle. Life is good!

Andrew's First Roadtrip

The girls didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday so I decided to take the kiddos up to visit Mimi and Grandpa and for Andrew to meet the Great Grandparents. At first, Steve and I were going on Saturday and spending the day visiting the great grandparents and then leaving the girls for the weekend, but Ellie got invited to Isaac Wright's birthday party and he is one of her new best friends in her class this year and really wanted to go so we then began discussing several versions of the trip--the problem was I had ward council Sunday morning, was asked to giving the opening prayer in sacrament, and doing sharing time, then Steve's work scheduled pictures and other appointments on Monday that Steve couldn't get out of so we decided the kiddos and I would leave Sunday after church and stay through Tuesday.  Steve was a little nervous to send us off because Andrew had never been in his car seat for that long, but he was a great traveler. I nursed him right before we left and he never fussed. Ellie sat next to him and gave him the binkie and he dozed off to sleep. It was a nice break for all.

Picture soon after we arrived and Andrew was fed. We were visiting with Uncle Kirk & Aunt Brenda.

 

The girls received their first valentine from Great Grandma & Grandpa Merrell-they were so excited!

The girls loved telling all the great grandparents stories and were trying to teach Great Grandpa Olenslager a new game on his tablet--it was pretty humorous to watch. :)


Dad took the girls to Zumba and it was quite fun to watch. Then he took them to dinner. Good relaxing times for everyone! :)

Ellie & Mom's First Date

Today Ellie and I had our first date. I have to admit it was kind of hard to get myself out and going, but once we got in the car and Ellie started talking and talking--I thought you know what I can just listen and not worry about having to do something like cook dinner, change a diaper etc. It was nice! We had several ideas for our first date, but Mommy really wanted to get a pedicure so Ellie agreed to try it and I think she liked it. :) They served us hot cocoa and peppermint bark with water in these fancy glasses. She was silly and burped a couple of times--she never does that and here we were at the spa and it was a bit ironic. After the pedicure, I told her I would take her to get a hamburger or something, but she just wanted a special donut so we went to Krispy Kreme and she picked out any donut she wanted. It was a fun afternoon. We've already decided on our next date in March we'll go shopping for a white dress for her baptism and get lunch.

Getting in a Groove

I feel like we are finally settling into a routine. Don't know if I mentioned that Steve was really busy in November. Right before the baby came he had 3 clients give him new projects with a 10-14 day turn around. With those deadlines Steve took the 2 days off we were in the hospital and then went right back to work. I'm glad he could spend the time with us in the hospital--there is something wonderful about having just the three of you for a bit and Steve really is comforting during the whole delivery and recovery process. So life felt like a little bit of survival during November, then the holidays came and schedules were just a bit crazier than usual. Steve did manage to work from home a lot during December allowing me the flexibility to leave sleeping Andrew home while I ran the girls around etc. which was so nice and I am so grateful.

Last week started a new year and I managed to do carpool for Ellie's school, get Lila to school, and carpool for Lila's dance class last week while taking Andrew--granted it was only a 2 day week, but it was a nice ease back into life giving me the confidence that I can do it. I managed to make good dinners, do homework, and finish preparing for primary (the first Sunday of the year is always a little crazy). I think we are now a confident family of 5. ;)

Andrew continues to grow; he weighed 11lbs 8oz at his two month check-up. He also received a round of immunizations and all I can say is we have heard a lot of screaming from him, but we have never heard his hurt or scared scream--it was a whole new level. He has dropped a feeding at night and is sleeping pretty good most of the time. As a matter of fact, he slept all night Saturday. Of course I didn't because my body is used to getting up between 2&3 a.m. so I was awake and did a bit of cleaning which woke up Steve--oops. Yesterday he was really good with his naps. I would lay him down awake and he wouldn't fuss much if at all before falling asleep and he would sleep soundly until the next feeding (Steve thinks it may be due to the shots) and he had a rougher night last night. I tease that he can only have a good day or night, but I'm sure we'll eventually work it out. Until then we'll just keeping loving on him. :)

Dangerously Close

to sucking his thumb

 

Final Party of 2013

I saw this cute idea on Our Best Bites blog where they decorate their Christmas tree for the New Year Eve festivities.  I liked the ideas, but my tree usually comes down the day after Christmas (let's be honest--I started taking down stuff on Christmas this year, don't think of me as a buh-hum-bug, but I just find it nice to do it when Steve still is home and family is here to help so it comes down pretty quickly). Anywho, I still wanted to incorporate some of these ideas so I decorated our railing. The girls woke up on New Year's Eve to find the decorations and couldn't wait for the party.

They could not wait for the party which I told them would start after dinner. So finally at 5:30 we had sloppy joes, cauliflower, and these delicious cookie cheesecake bars for dessert then the party started. Since we had just finished eating we decided to postpone Just Dance for a bit so we went outside and did sparklers--always a hit.  Then we played Just Dance.  Then we popped the balloons which they found coins and jokes inside--this turned out to be more fun that I thought, they actually thought about the jokes and came up with some good answers.  

Lila did not really like the popping sound, but would scavenger for the coins and jokes as soon as the balloon popped.

We then played Uno Spin and had more cookie cheesecake bars.  Then we watched the firework shows in Taipei and London on YouTube then off to bed with the girls.  I'm going to bed as soon as I finish this post. :) Tomorrow we'll have our traditional breakfast of Aebleskivers and then I have ribs ready to go for dinner.  We'll work on 2014 family goals which I think will include a date night rotation--it was so fun to work with the girls one-on-one with their Christmas crafts and Lila asked if I would take just her to lunch after her appointment with the urologist so I thought it would be a good thing to add to the rotation. Happy New Year!

Special Fast for Lila

Last week I took Lila to the doctor because she had had a fever above 100 for 5 days.  Turns out she has her 4th urinary tract infection. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic to treat it and a low dose antibiotic for two months to "suppress" it.  I then received 3 phone calls from the doctor's office on Wednesday. They said this time the infection is resistant leaving us with three options, an antibiotic that is hundreds of dollars, three shots, or a home health IV for 7 days. Really not good options. We filled the antibiotic and made an appointment to see a urologist.  I then sent an email to some family asking that we have a special fast for her last Sunday.  

We just left the urologist office and she sent us home with what should be a simple fix. I really hope it works--I'm kind of kicking myself for not insisting they do a urine sample today (when your daughter seems to get one monthly it would have just been nice to know the infection is gone). She is returning to her happy healthy self and we hope to keep it that way. :)

I have a testimony of the power of prayer and am grateful to a Father in Heaven who hears and answers.

Christmas Festivities

Mimi & Grandpa arrived on Christmas Eve in a Uhaul with a grand piano.  So the afternoon was a bit crazy trying to figure out how to get the piano in the house which included shoveling snow off of our yard--after the uhaul got high centered once. ;)  Then actually moving it, we have great neighbors who were very kind to come over on a holiday and help.  Have to admit I was a bit nervous during the moving process and worried how it would fit in the room and how to take care of it with little kids, but it is a nice addition and we will enjoy it. Thank you!

During the moving process, Mimi and I were working on getting dinner in the oven.  Venessa and crew showed up in time for Nate to help move the piano then we had dinner, opened a few presents, and let the girls watch Prep & Landing.

On Sunday the girls and I decided they could make gifts for everyone, so they weaved the aunts and Mimi pot holders, made bracelets for Izzy, Siena, and Uncle Jakey (since he was the one who started making bracelets with them), and Grandpa got Monster Corner bookmarks to go with his birthday books that he got early to enjoy on his upcoming vacation.

Traditional Christmas Eve pajamas from Mimi. :)

That evening before bed we watched a couple of Mormon Messages titled What Shall We Give and The Reason Behind the Season. We talked with the girls about how the best thing we can do for the Savior is to try to be like him, to be kind to others, be obedient, and how prayer is the way we communicate with Heavenly Father and know the things he would have us do. It was a nice discussion and I am so proud of my girls.

Christmas morning Lila awoke a little early because she needed to use the restroom (she was fighting her 4th UTI--more on that later). I told her she couldn't come downstairs until we were all ready and to go back to bed and if she got up again to get Mimi and Grandpa. About 30 minutes later I see her looking over the little balcony area and then she goes running to Ellie's room screaming, "Ellie, Ellie Santa came, Santa came."  :)  Ellie wanted to use the restroom before coming down so on the way there they noticed that Santa had left their stockings and a few bonus items of Frozen sister bowls and barrettes by their tree in the toy room--they were so excited because that is what they had wished for that Santa would leave stuff by their tree. Lila would not let go of the Frozen items and after every gift she opened she would go back and hold it or say something like, "Oh I just love the Frozen barrettes." Once again simple things making the difference.

Isn't he a cutie in his Christmas outfit. He is such a smiley boy now and sometimes doesn't know what to do when his sisters aren't gathered around him talking to him. His presents are pictured below on the right: a fancy playmat and some squeezable cars that wind up and go.

I found cute ideas for the girls to make presents for each other too. It was so fun to have some one-on-one time with them and to see the excitement as they made the gifts for each other. At first I wished I had started earlier than 2 days before Christmas, but they were having a hard time keeping it a secret, asking me every hour if they could give each other a hint or show the size of the present. They each loved their gift: Lila made Ellie a tie snake because she loves to read about snakes--much to Mommies dismay and it was a perfect craft for her requiring only stuffing, gluing on eyes and a tongue. Ellie mad Lila a butterfly mask because Lila loves to dress-up, loves butterflies, and has been on this kick making paper masks.

They received several presents from friends this year and we had them put them under the tree and wait until Christmas.

Daddy recording and opening his stocking. :)

Great Grandpa & Grandma Merrell (my Dad's Mom Dorothy) sent the girls a cute card with $2 to spend. They love getting money and were so excited. Grandpa Buckley even tried to help Lila put her bill back in the envelope, but she would not let go of it--it was quite a funny exchange. They were also generous with sending something for Andrew's gift.

Thursday, Jake and Marcee came up and we continued the festivities at Venessa's home. We opened presents, ate lunch, toured a home, and just visited.

 












Friday my Mom and I did a little shopping and then we went to Surf-n-Swim after which we drove through the lights again. :)

It was a wonderful celebration filled with love.  I am so grateful for the testimony I have of Jesus Christ and the opportunity that I have every year to focus on his birth and life. This season was especially filled with his love and peace as we welcomed Andrew into our family. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27). Merry Christmas!