Eli and Riley

Eli and Riley are so cute. I love taking pictures of them playing together.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is such a fun and stressful time for the little ones. It's hard when we put up the Christmas tree and then they can't open any presents. To combat this challenge, a co-worker suggested that we take Christmas books and wrap them under the tree. Then each day, we can open one and read it. It was a lot of fun for both kids because they can see the pile of books get smaller and gage how long until Chistmas and we can enjoy the season with each book.

Finally, Christmas came and after a very long night, full of interruptions, we were able to open presents. Eli went to the couch and saw all the presents and asked, "Is it Christmas?" I told him it was and his face lit up. He walked over to one of the presents that I gave him, a Starwars C3P-O case to hold all of his figures. It was given to us by a neighbor getting rid of it. He said, "Hey, I've seen that movie." He got other toys, like Legos, more figures and Transformers.

Riley started figuring out that presents were to be opened. She had a log of help from Eli. For Christmas, she got a stuffed unicorn from dad, some little people and a Zhu Zhu pet. After opening presents, we went to church, where we celebrated the real meaning of Christmas with music directed from the choir director, Jared. We ended the wonderful day at the Koyle's and were able to visit with the whole family there.

Christmas Tree

Riley loves the glimmer, ornaments, and lights of the Christmas tree. At first, Grandma's tree was nicely balanced with beautiful ornamnts. Unfortanetly, Riley's first encounter this year changed that. She went up to it and grabbed a glass ball on the tree, tried to bounce it on the tile floor, to discover it doesn't bounce. Eli was upset and told me that Christmas was ruined. We learned our lesson since then and put a few unbreakable ornaments at the bottom. Now, every time she goes up to the tree, she looks at the ornaments and goes "Oh!"

Beary Cute

This is a hand-me-down costume given to Eli by Charles. I thought it cute enough to blog.

Happy Birthday Eli!

Eli has turned four. We celebrated his birthday at the Koyle's for the weekend and then at our house on Monday. We then went to the end of the street for the Holiday Christmas Party. We shared his cake at the party. He loved his cake. Part of turning four, includes dressing himself. We have had a difficult time every morning getting him to get dressed. Finally, my mother recommended that I tell him that four year old's dress themselves. I was getting him started on this a few weeks before his birthday. And he responded, "Am I four yet?" I told him that he wasn't. He replied, "Then I don't have to get myself dressed."

His birthday cake. Don't look too closely. I used the wrong tip. Fortunately, the party was in the dark and he is the only one that I have to impress.

Nose Picker!

I hearby dedicate this post to my silly brother Jeron.  Sometimes when we get together, we tend to act a little immature.  It's like we are 11, combined.  I thought he would enjoy these pictures of my kids more than any other person.

One time on Halloween, we rang the doorbell with our finger in our nose and said "Trick or Treat."  Nobody laughed harder than we did.

Happy Halloween!

Here are my kids in their cute Halloween Costumes.  I love Halloween. I love to dress up my kids, I love the colors and smells of the season and I love all the cute decorations.  To all of my family and friends.  Happy Halloween.

She's Walking

Riley has been brave enough to take her first steps.  She can now take a few steps without falling.  Click the video to see.

Happy First Birthday Riley!

I can't believe that my baby girl is now one.  What a special little girl!  We had a great time with both parties.  Her aunt Courtney made the doll cake for her and  Mommy made the cupcakes.  She thoroughly enjoyed them, as seen in the pictures above.  Happy Birthday Riley Girl!

I Caught an Eli!

One Morning, I woke up and Eli was right next to my bed with a spider glue board on his wrist. I had caught an Eli. A few weeks later, this happened. Somehow, he rolled over onto a spider glue trap and it stuck to his hair. I wanted to cut it out, but he told me, "No! We leave that for the professionals." In order for him to not cut his hair, I told him that only the professionals can cut hair. Needless to say, it was quite an ordeal trying to convince him that this was the only way to remove the trap from his poor little head.

Crash 2!

Riley hadn't seen Daddy in a while and was fussing for him as she was ready for bed.  He took her into the bedroom, set her on his lap with the lights on and had a conversation on the phone.  She fell asleep on his lap as faster than he thought she would.
If that is not silly, last night, she woke up to feed and I fell asleep instead of putting her down in her own bed.  She crawled over toward daddy and laid across his body perpendicular as he was sleeping on his side.  A few hours later, he woke up to roll in his sleep and found her there and chuckled.

Almost!

Riley, Eli and I went to a park today. I asked Eli if he wanted to go and he didn't seem interested. Then I asked him if he wanted to go to a parking lot and he got so excited. He mixes up his words sometimes.

At the park, Riley was practicing how to stand.





Pretty soon she will be walking. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Back Blog 2

I have to admit, I have been working like crazy on a quilt and so I have been behind on my blogging.  Click the links below to see the blogs I just posted today, eventhough they happened along time ago.
Grandma Cookie-isms
Wet Riley
Reed Came to Town
Yummy!
Summer Time Popsicles
Another Superhero
Miss Patient

She has a Sense of Humor

The other day at dinner, Riley looked at Grandpa with this expression on her face. He, of course, burst out laughing. She, in return, laughed too. This went on for a few minutes. She often does this when she wants to make us smile. If that's not enough, she also does Zirberts. She started doing them on my arm to make Eli laugh. Now she does it on my cheek, Daddy's chest and any other surface to make a noise. My favorite part is when she laughs in return because she knows she is cute.

Miss Patient

I was feeding Riley bananas and she sat there, patiently folding her hands as I was helping her brother. When I came back, she had no complaint for more food. She was hungry, but she was just mellow.

Playdate from Arizona

Corwin, Sophie and Sherstin came to visit on Labor Day. Eli and Corwin had a great time, eventhough Corwin didn't fight with a lightsaber. They mostly played with Cars Cars and trucks. Here are some photos of their visit.
Corwin had sand in his eye.
All of them rearranged Grandpa's chess board.
Sophie was just plain cute. She really liked the fruit from Grandpa's trees. She called them peaches, even though they were nectarines.

Grandma Sibyl's Temple

I blogged this yesterday: Grandma Sibyl's Temple.

Summer Time Popsicles

Summer time is great, especially with popsicles for kids. Riley and Eli are no exception. Eli was so sweet to share with his sister and to help her with her popsicle.

Before Eli came along, I gave it to Riley and had to keep cutting the end of the wrapper in order for her to get to any of the sweet treat.

While Eli was helping her, she spilled some and it landed on her tray. Good thing Eli was there to lick it up. Riley repaid the nice gesture by playing with his hair with sticky fingers. We had a bath afterwords. Grandma and Grandpa just enjoyed their tenants with sore sides from laughing.

Crash 1.5

Eli was playing with the fan, seen below him and all of the sudden, he just laid down and fell asleep.  It was so unlike him, that I had to take a picture.

Drag Racing

Eli, Jared and I went to a truck drag racing. We were given tickets by our neighbors.   Eli fell asleep in the car just before, so he was a little cranky when it came time to watch the race. After a while, he started to have a great time, until his attention span ran out.

Another Superhero

Eli has found another superhero to admire. So far there has been Superman, Green Lantern, Thor, Batman... The list in endless. He started using this old velcro mit as a sheild and I felt it was time to give him the actual costume. Sure enough he was ready and played in it for hours.

Kerplop!

Eli was playing the classic game of Kerplop with Jared's aunt Carlene. The point of the game is to pull out the sticks one by one without the marbles falling out of the tube. Eli was so enthusiastic as he always is about everything and pulled the sticks out as fast as he could. We tried to tell him the actual point of the game, but he seemed to think that it was to make the marbles fall. As he was playing with Carlene, they struggled to put the sticks back as they get tight. He would say "This is tricky." Carlene said "I guess you have to be smarter than the sticks.". Eli responded "There just sticks."

Just Kidding!

Some of my favorite moments as a child include playing on Saturday Morning in my folks bed with all of my siblings. I do this now with my kids and still enjoy it. This particular morning Eli wanted to hold Riley. I let him and when it was my turn he said to me, "Nope, she is mine, you have to get a new one, Mom." I laughed and he replied, "Just kidding," And then he laughed his fake hammy laugh.

Yummy!

Riley has started a bad habit of spitting out all of her food as she eats. As she buzzes her lips, I can't go through one meal without getting vegetable purree all over my clothes. I think I just got so fed up that I just let her take her food and feed herself.

This may or may not have been a good idea.

Crash!

I went to the gym with my kids and on the way home, they crashed. I thought I was the one who was tired after the workout.

Reed Came to Town

Reed showed up randomly at our door one day, all the way from Boise. He came to take a GRE test for one day and left the next. We did, however, manage to get a few good pics with him and my kids. How can I not post them, when his mother is Eli's biggest fan?