A Few Family Firsts

It has been cold and rainy for weeks.  We love to play outside, so it has really been a bummer for all of us.  We had to get creative to get out of the house and in the process we had some fun family firsts!

We decided to go to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.  It’s a very hands on place and was perfect for Calan.  He could touch several of the displays, play in the wet sand searching for “lost” dinosaurs and even become an archeologist and dig for bones.  He loved it.  We let him roam free and I loved watching him explore at his leisure.  He kept looking up at me as if to say, “Is it ok that I’m touching this?”  and I would tell him, “Go for it buddy!”

Ellie loved it as well.  She is such a happy girl and even though she’s not big enough  to get involved she loved watching Cal.

Cal has a fairly new obsession with trains.  We decided it would be fun to drive up to Salt Lake City and ride Trax further into town for dinner.  We told Cal we were going to ride on a train and the entire drive up went something like this, “Mama, choo choo?”  “Yes Cal, we are going to ride a train.” Two seconds later, “Daddy, choo choo?”  “Yep, we are going to get on a train Cal.” This continued non-stop.  He was so excited.  We bought the tickets and lucky for us Mr. Sunshine decided to pop out for a quick “Hello”.  It was beautiful train riding weather!  We are going to have to do this again soon.  Cal was in heaven!  He just stared out the window the entire time, taking it all in.  Ellie loved smiling at all of the other passengers.  She is such a social butterfly!

We went to Apollo Burger for some burgers and fries and ended by sharing a delicious chocolate milk shake, a first for Ellie.  Yeah, she was a huge fan!

Patrick had been itching to go to the airplane museum at Hill Air Force Base.  It is one of his favorite places and believe it or not, Cal had never been there.  It was time to introduce him.  We drove up and met Lonica, Johnny and Jalen.  Oh how he loves his cousins!  Cal literally ran from plane to plane and could not get enough.  Of course he and Patrick took their sweet time at the beloved B-17, the coolest most beautiful plane ever created.  He is as hooked on airplanes as his daddy.  I love it!  As always, Ellie was just happy to come along for the ride. 

All along I have been cursing the rain begging it to stop.  I still feel that way and look forward to running through the sprinklers and eating popsicles together.  But in the mean time we were able to make some very fun memories and experience several family firsts.  And that, is a good thing!

Here Kitty Kitty…

Calan loves animals… loves them! 

Too bad for little Cal we don’t have any pets.  In fact, we won’t have a pet until our kids are old enough to take care of it themselves.  It’s going to be a little while.

Luckily for Cal our neighbor has a cat.  Today after church the cat made its way into our yard and Cal was instantly smitten with her.   She was so sweet and patient with him, even when he was less than gentle with her. 

Cal wanted to feed her and asked me for a cracker.  I explained to him that cats don’t like crackers but that she would probably like a drink of milk.  He helped me get a bowl and pour the milk.  He set it down and was seriously giddy as she slurped it up. 

I have to admit, it was sneaky on my part… win over the affection of our neighbors cat?  It’s perfect!  Cal has a new friend to play with and we don’t have the responsibility of caring for her. 

We put our kids to bed and as I passed our back door this is what I found… She was waiting for Cal to come and play or waiting for some more milk, probably both. 

I have to be careful.  I can see Cal feeding all the pets in the neighborhood and our backyard could soon become a zoo.  I joked with Patrick that Cal is a mini Dr. Doolittle.  Oh he is so cute, I could just eat him up!  

Ellie’s 9 Month Check-Up

Our sweet little Bell is 9 months old and that means it’s time for a check-up.

Every time our pediatrician enters the room he says, “How is our lovely Queen Elizabeth today?”, and every time it makes me smile.  We really love our doctor!

Here are her stats-

Length- 26 3/4 inches (25%)

Weight- 15 pounds 9 ounces (5%)

She is itty bitty, but her growth is perfectly consistent with her last check up. 

At this same age Cal was 29 inches long and 22  pounds.  He is her BIG brother in every sense of the word! :) 

Ellie only had to get one shot and she was so brave! 

As we left Cal remembered the suckers and asked for one.  When we got home he still had some left and decided on his own to share it with sister… such a thoughtful boy!

We love you so much little Ellie! 

Mothers Day

Mothers day is a very special day. For me it is a very beautiful, humbling day. It is the day mothers are honored.

I feel so blessed to have a loving mother that has always supported me in everything I do. She worked hard to provide her children with a good life… She blessed us with a great life! I love you mom!

On this day my sweet husband is so thoughtful. He always surprises me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a tender card that makes me cry. He also buys me a new perfume that he picks out just for me. For an entire year I get to wear this gift. I love this tradition! He makes a delicious breakfast and I always request steak sandwiches for dinner with peppers and gooey melted cheese on a thick roll- heavenly! Cal and Ellie helped me make a yummy dessert this year, one of my favorite things to do with my children.

But I will be honest, Mothers Day to me is sweetly emotional. I am daily appreciative and mindful of my children’s birth-moms… but on this day my heart overflows with gratitude and love. As I squeeze my babies tight I am overcome with appreciation for the decision Jenny and Brooke made to make us a family… to make me a mother. The sacrifice they made to give their babies a father and a mother is, in my opinion, the greatest sacrifice any person can give. I honor them with all my heart. Because of them my life long dream of being a mother is a precious reality.

So instead of writing it “Mother’s Day” I think of it as Mothers Day without the apostrophe. I do not feel this day belongs to me. It is because of their love that I carry the title of mother and it is a day I will always lovingly share with them.

To all of us… “Happy Mothers Day”

Siblings…

For 9 months we have had 2 children.  But only in the last month or two have they really become siblings. 

Cal was so little when Ellie was born, only 16 months old.  His life changed over night- and even though there was a fascination for our new little addition, there was an adjustment period that wasn’t always roses and smiles.  He was used to 100% of the attention and now that was no longer the case. 

His idea of being “soft” didn’t always match the needs of a newborn.  He wanted to play with her but didn’t know how and wasn’t patient enough at the time to learn.

Things have changed in a drastic way.  Cal is very aware of Ellie and loves to play with her.  He is still working on the being soft issue, but amazingly Ellie never seems to mind being pulled, pushed  or even steamrolled by her big brother… in fact, she loves it!

Here are a few of the tender moments I managed to capture.

While I was cleaning up breakfast, Cal decided to play a little football with Ellie.  He put his helmet on her and then attempted to throw his football at her.  Luckily for her he has terrible aim.  He will make a better lineman than a quarterback! :)

We love going to Costco because of the double seater cart. It looks like Cal has her in a head lock, but he kept giving her hugs and kissing her on the head. This is her look of, “Uh mom, you gonna help me out here?” 

Yesterday the weather was so nice we went on our first official family bike ride.  We can’t find a helmet small enough for Ellie, but we stayed on our neighborhood roads.  On his own Cal put his arm around Ellie and never moved it.  It was as if he was protecting his little sister.

We had just emptied a box of diapers and Cal asked Patrick to put Ellie inside.  He zipped her around the house saying, “Choo Choo”  He’s TOTALLY into trains and was thrilled be giving her a ride.

While making breakfast I gave Ellie a few cheerios.  She has done so well figuring out how to get food from her little fist to her mouth.  I turned around to find that Cal had moved his little stool up to her highchair  to help feed her.  One for Ellie, one for Cal, one for Ellie, two for Cal.  She is going to get ripped off every now and then, but you can tell by her face that she doesn’t mind one bit!

 

I love the interaction between the two of them. 

Everyday is a new adventure for all of us to enjoy!

Little Ellie Bell…

Ellie is a joy.  She’s such a happy baby and has a smile for everyone she sees.  She is so tiny, I can hardly believe she turned 9 months old yesterday.  She still fits comfortably into her 3-6 month clothing.  Her little fingers are so dainty.  She is such a little lady. 

Ellie brings so much joy into our home.  She absolutely adores her daddy.  She lovingly tolerates all of Calan’s shenanigans with a smile, and daily she fills me with sunshine.

Just the other day I put her up with me as I got ready for the day.  She was so cute I could hardly stand.  She was so excited to meet a “new friend” in the mirror.  She spent over 10 minutes smiling, talking, waving, playing patty cake and even giving kisses to her reflection. 

That is the epitome of little Ellie. 

She is so aware of the people around her and anxious to share her cheer.  Even when she is tired and wanting to sleep, she has a smile up here sleeve and is ready to share.  Her little nose crinkles up and her grin is from ear to ear. 

Ellie Bell, we love you so much!  You truly are a ray to sunshine in our life! 

Life…

I just spent the last hour looking at family pictures.  Pictures of Cal when he was just a baby.  Pictures of him at 9 months old… the current age of Ellie.  Pictures of Ellie as a newborn.  Pictures of the kids over the last couple of months. 

The pictures tell such a sweet story.  So many incredible memories attached to each photo.  My babies are still young, but how on earth does time roll along so quickly?  It seriously makes my head spin.

The last couple of months have been very eventful for our little family.  So many great experiences, leaving us with smiles… and some experiences leaving us with a deep appreciation for life and a new understanding of just how fragile it is. 

I found a journal from when I was 9 years old.  Every other entry is several months apart, with an apology, even an brilliant excuse why I hadn’t written in so long.  Excuses such as being SOOO busy.  How busy can a 9 year old be?  The truth is, I’ll never know what I was so busy doing because I never wrote it down.  Sad. 

But now it is more than just me.  I have little ones that I need to write for.  I have felt prompted on more than one occasion to write down an experience and then talked myself into waiting… waiting until I could formulate my thoughts in an elegant way and then never followed through.  Again, sad.

I have decided to remove the comment option from my blog.  I love having a blog- for family and friends far away to follow our life if they’d like.  But I am realizing that with the option for comments I sometimes feel I am writing to an audience rather than to my babies.  Is that weird?  Perhaps.  But I think it will allow me to think only of them and hopefully will take away the strange pressure I have put upon myself to write a great post.  Instead I will just post about life.  Our simple, beautiful life. 

I have lots of catching up to do! 

Here we go…