these two crack me up!
claire showing off her special smile.
ellie giving us her natalie morales smile.
both doing it and being goofers.
a little more normal.
sweet, similar lookin’, goofin’ seestors.
I love seeing these pictures all together so just scan through them. witnessing them grin at each other is great. they also make each other giggle often.
I {heart} seestor love.
Praise GOD! my dear friend becca is having a baby in 5 weeks! I am so excited to meet her little babe and since she decided to not find out I will be in suspense until Thanksgiving or a bit thereafter. A few friends and I threw her a baby shower on this past Sunday and it was such a sweet celebration. I totally forgot my camera so thankfully Nicole snapped a few pics.
the delicious spread!
we made these caramel apples one night and they ended up looking super cute.
julia, nicole, becca and me. becca was usually the one of us who wasn’t pregnant and now it is ME!!! yeah!
becca and her sweet mom, carla who traveled from texas to come to the shower.
becca and one of her favorite boys – addison. the shower was at nicole’s house during naptime and addison was so patient waiting for a snack and a hug from becca.
congrats becca (and mikel!)! I am so excited to meet your babe soon!
with darkness setting in earlier and earlier we are starting bath time right after dinner. it is usually a much longer activity in winter and with 3 growing kids the tub is getting a bit small, however, none of the kids notice. they have a blast and the floor in the bathroom is usually soaked each night. charlie serves the girls starfish soup and they eat it up (ie: drink A LOT of bath water – ewww).
ellie trying to sneak into claire and charlie’s area.
satisfied with sitting a row back. they love to stir their cups with their toothbrushes and dump water out over and over. somehow it never gets old.
ok – she had enough. ellie was trying to wrestle charlie back. they were having fun. check out her muscles!
more and more ellie and claire are having their own little conversations with their babble language. often claire answers ellie with a “noooo” – not surprising since she gives that answer to me 90% of the time.
the other night we watched them have a discussion over the fan and they were carrying on for awhile. I love observing them. It is incredible to watch the way they look at each other and “chat”.
here they are discussing something. claire is on the bench.
a few nights ago at dinner we were sitting around and eating when ellie started crying pretty hard. I thought she bit down on her spoon wrong. As I was consoling her I asked her if she bit her spoon, but she was still crying and sad so she didn’t respond. that is when claire started moaning and sort of whimpering and holding her cheek. I said “claire, do you feel bad for ellie?”. she continued to moan and then kept grabbing her cheek. I mentioned ellie’s tongue or lip, but claire continued to pat her cheek. I looked at bill and said do you think she is telling me that ellie bit her cheek? I looked in ellie’s mouth and sure enough she had bitten her cheek. it is so sweet to see them care about each other. they really do get worked up when the other is truly hurting (not if they don’t want to share something). such a special relationship these two will have.
wow – my brain is on overload. here is what it is trying to manage lately….clean the house for realtors, purge, pack some junk, purge more, look at visa documents, get confused, keep cleaning, take care of kids, look at flights to NZ, see there is a good deal (ie: less than $2k/ticket), try to buy flights, spend hours on the phone with air NZ with no luck, look at flights for christmas travel, realize flying with all our skis, boots, car seats, kids with a layover is not worth the money or effort – we will drive, show house to realtors, think about keeping the house show ready – makes me want a drink, get passports in the mail – yeah, brainstorming christmas ideas for the kids even though they don’t need anything, try to find the brain power to make a meal plan, print out visa applications and let them sit on the counter, look at our calendar for the coming months to see when we can fit in interview trips – ahhh, prep for my upcoming weekend of having fun with family and friends, pack for the weekend, want to take a nap, but can’t shut my mind off, look at flights for trip we will take to AZ for bill’s work in feb, oh and doing all the daily stuff that keeps this family going – reading with kids, changing diapers, laundry, dishes, food, baths, naptime, bedtime, on and on. I know this will all be worth it, but I am SOOOOOOOO looking forward to have a few things checked off this list and in almost less than 8 months being in Auckland! Visas – here I come!
this fall charlie started AWANA Cubbies. It is held at our church on tuesday nights. I drop him off at 6:30 and pick him up at 8 pm. He seems so big when I drop him off in the dark and pick him up when it is really dark! Cubbies is a great program where kids get to have fun and learn about Jesus at the same time. Charlie also has a little story that we go through each week and a Bible verse to memorize. last week parents were invited to join in. even though I was really tired it was great to be able to observe him in a group. thankfully, laura has been coming a lot of the tuesday nights so I am able to put the girls to bed and go get charlie alone.
nicole took these pictures that night. charlie was giddy.
this is a first. charlie was smiley and addison was not having it. either way it is a picture of the two of them.
claire’s happy smile because she is coloring (ie: eating the crayons).
charlie had been playing with duplos on the table and when he was finished claire climbed up and had a blast playing by herself.
when I asked her if she wanted to get down she gave me her most used answer… “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO”. this is her “no” face.
ellie – watching her sister. her poor hair had all fallen out during nap.
claire loves to put duplos together and make a tall tower. every time she connects one she stands up and gets excited.
YEAH!
back at it with sister watching.
I love how determined and focused she is!
ellie – pointing out that a bus or big vehicle must have just driven by!
charlie has been bringing home some pretty impressive artwork since starting preschool. since I am usually putting it in the trash/recycling a day or two after being home I decided to snap pictures of it.
charlie doesn’t really expound on any of his artwork. I try to ask questions – why he chose a certain color, etc – but he just doesn’t like to share much. I can’t imagine his teen years.
his teacher wrote on his red picture “a circle rainbow” – must have been his inspiration.
while I was in boston the kids had a great time with nana. bill was around on and off because he was on call. here are the few shots from when I was away.
ellie was thrilled to find the bathroom door open and pulled up charlie’s stool next to the toilet just like it was her little office! how gross! bill thought it was hysterical and took some pics.
nana let the kids eat a snack on their little chairs while watching a leapfrog video. apparently they loved it. claire was in the “zone”!
they also enjoyed playing by the staircase. ellie is on the left.
charlie built some serious train tracks with nana.
apparently the girls really like the teeter-totter and can now use It without people holding them on for support. it is so sweet to watch them go up and down. claire is the main powerhouse.
