January 26

Pictures from Ellie's birthday photo shoot at the bottom.  My friend is amazing!

Today is Ellie's 26 month birthday.  Here is an update on my baby:

• Ellie continues to be about the cutest thing ever.  She still takes 2 naps a day and sleeps well at night.  Pretty much every night between 9 and 10 she cries for a few minutes (up to 10) and then goes back to sleep.  If you go in to comfort her, it  makes it worse.  So we just deal with it.  She loves her blanket and often tries to get it out of bed with her, but is good to leave it in her crib when I remind her.  One day I came upstairs to find her and put her to bed and she was in the kids' room laying on one of Cade's blankets.  If she is tired, she will come over to me and give me hugs over and over again.  
• She is kind of a picky eater.  She loves fruit, bread and cheese.  I figured out if she has a fork, she is more likely to try things and eats more. She still loves her milk at each meal.  She knows where to find crackers in the kitchen and will try to get things by herself.  Or she will go in the kitchen and push her chair around when she is hungry.  She drinks a lot of water.    
• Ellie loves to get down and walk around in stores, but is still very happy sitting in the cart or stroller.  She is not shy and will run away if given the chance.  She is not very good about coming back when you ask her to.  I had to take all three kids to the bank this week.  Luckily, the lady gave us suckers right off.  I gave one to Ellie and she stayed by me for the most part. 
• Ellie likes to give hugs to certain people.  Like a lady sitting on a chair at church.  Never seen the lady before, but Ellie sure liked her!  She also loves to sit on laps.  It doesn't matter who it is, she loves to sit with people.  
• Ellie knows where her head, tummy, mouth and toes are.  She can tell you what a bear says and what a cow says.  We're working on monkey and mom and dad.  She signs more and all done occasionally.   
• Ellie loves her bath and if I mention it, she will go upstairs to the tub as fast as she can.  
• She loves to make us laugh.  If she hears the other kids get excited, she starts yelling too.  If she knows she is being cute, she will keep going.  
• She loves to find treasures and carry them all over the house.
• We recently switched her to a forward facing car seat and she thinks it is great!
• Ellie loves to throw her diapers away.  Unfortunately, she throws toys away sometimes too.  Usually when this happens, it is like 6 toys at once and we find them.  
• Her hair is getting long enough it needs a pony tail every day.  She is about 10 months ahead of Cami when it comes to hair.  
• She is a great kid.  I love her!  I am excited to watch her grow up and at the same time, already missing my baby.  

Cami

• Cami is a sweet girl.  She loves to help me, Cade and Ellie.  She will set the table, sometimes without asking.  She has so much fun playing with Ellie.  I love watching them and hearing them laugh.  She loves to play and be crazy.  Sometimes she gets a little too crazy, but she sure has fun!
• Cami is getting braver about going places.  She likes her preschool group and her friends there. 
• Cami loves her dad. 
• Cami loves to draw.  She mostly draws people and includes curly hair, eyes, mouths teeth, arms, fingers etc on them.  She just figured out how to write her name.  
• She knows about 18 letter and their sounds.  It definitely doesn't come as easy to her as it does to Cade, but she is a smart girl.  I think she is really good with numbers.  She can count to 30 and recognizes numbers 1-10 most of the time.  
• Cami still has trouble wetting the bed at night.  Each night when she goes to bed, though, she tells me she will try really hard and not wet that night.  I know she has good intentions.  
• She loves ponies, princesses, castles, bows, flowers, dolls, fancy dresses, twirling, braids, ribbons, painted nails, special shoes, and night gowns. 
• For her birthday she wants fancy shoes that are not for church, a rainbow party and a princess lego set (but that might just be Cade telling her that.)
• We had a fancy lunch one day last week.  Cami was in heaven.  They got to use glass plates, eat at the play table, with fancy cups and a chocolate mint for dessert.  She even liked celery with peanut butter on it because I told her it was a party food.  I think I want to do some kind of fancy dress up lunch for her birthday party with her friends.  
• Cami can't wait until she grows up and can go places by herself.  She decided this is when she is 12 or 13.  She is a cutie and I can wait for her to grow up a bit.  

Cade

• Still my handome guy!  He is now 5 1/2.  He weighs 49 lbs and is over 4 feet tall.  He likes sports and learned a lot about football in the fall and now likes basketball.  
• He is getting so much better at reading.  He is learning quickly and can recognize words without having to sound them all out.  
• He LOVES legos.  He can build his Star Wars space ship sets by himself.  He likes to play around and build his owns sets too.  His favorites are his guys though.  He has an Obi-Wan with a light saber, a clone trooper and a battle droid.  Hard as we try, they have all gotten lost and found again.  but when they are lost, it is a sad day.  
• He loves finding animals when we drive.  He is good at spotting hawks and ducks and geese.  We have been seeing bald eagles occasionally too which is fun.  We ordered some books for Cade about big cats and birds and he is excited to get them and start learning.  
• He is always trying to figure out  how things work and how I am going to respond.  When he is upset, he starts bargaining:  I will only put my shoes on if you promise to play legos with me later. or I will only go to the store if you will buy me a new toy.  He listens to everything we say and asks about random things later.  He loves books, especially chapter book and non-fiction.  
• Cade loves to play with our neighbor Liam.  They go to preschool together and will go to Kindergarten together too.  They have so much fun playing ninja, knights, bad guys, legos and who knows what.  Whenever Cade gets invited to their house, they invite Cami too and she has a great time playing with stuff too.  
• Cade asked me the other night:  Where does steak come from, anyway?  My answer:  Cows.  Cade:  What, do they poop it out or something?  I wish, kid.  Then it would be cheaper!
• Cade is still a talker. If he wants me to do something for him he will start "Mommy, after you do the dishes and help Ellie and Cami with ____ will you come do this for me?  He knows that I have things I have to get done and will list those off so I go help him after.  He loves to explain how his guys have special powers and fight the bad guys off (like shooting tiger teeth out of their hands).  He is very creative.  He explains each part of his space ship.  
• Cade takes good care of his sisters.  He enjoys pushing Ellie around on her car or building towers for her to knock over.  He loves playing with Cami and they make up all kinds of things.  Right now they are really into building hide-outs  and setting up houses.  
• Cade told me the other day he wants to go to BYU.  I told him that was a great idea.  Then he said he wants to play basketball at BYU.  We kept talking and I almost started crying.  I can't stand the idea of my kids growing up and leaving me.  One day my dad said something like "I'm glad we didn't have any more kids because all they do is grow up and leave."  I love each of my kids and want to keep them around for a while!

Princess Sparkle and Jungle Avengers

Princess Sparkle is a character that Cami made up.  At first, she said that she was princess sparkle and came from a kingdom far away to live with us.  Now she tells us stories about princess sparkle.  She tries to make them as sillly as she can.  In one story, Princess Sparkle ate her mom, her dad and her whole castle.  Another story was about Princess Sparkle's dog who decided to throw everything out the window--trees, cars, couches, tables.  Basically anything Cami could see while she was telling the story.  Princess Sparkle has a pet rabbit, a pet dog and a pet cat.  One day Cade and Cami made a TV so they could watch a movie of Princess Sparkle.  

Jungle Avengers is a thing Cade made up.  He has cougar man, tiger man, Eagle man and a few more.  He tells me about all of their special powers and machines and what the like to do to bad guys.  I need to get him to tell me again so I can write it down.

They are both really creative.

January 16

We had a pretty low key week last week.  With the snow, Kirk's work was cancelled Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon.  He was off Wednesday.  Monday we cleaned up the garage a bit and I went to Costco in the afternoon.

Tuesday I played in the snow with Cade in the morning.  It was really fun.  He went out to play and I was up changing the laundry and was going to take a shower.  I heard him laughing outside.  He was just jumping in the snow and having a great time.  I jumped on the opportunity and went out with him for about 45 min.  We invited Cami to come out several times, but she did not want to.  We built a snow fort.  We did a movie night at home that evening and watched the Princess and the Frog.  Cade sat on Kirk's lap the whole time.  Cami and Ellie ran/danced around during most of the songs.  Ellie sat on my lap for about 30 minutes and cuddled.  She doesn't do that very often and it was fun.

Wednesday we decided to get our dental work caught up.  We took Ellie to Scott and Kara's house and the other two with us to the Kennewick office.  Kirk cleaned my teeth.  We got him some lunch and then I left him there and went to pick up Ellie and take the kids home.  Kirk got 3 fillings done and caught up on some other work.  We had our friends watch the kids later for our date night swap.  We went to Texas Roadhouse and had a great dinner.   It was a fun, relaxing day.

We were home all day Thursday, except when I took dinner to a friend who was sick.  I don't really remember what we did.

Friday both kids had preschool--Finally!  I was able to get some computer work done at home while Ellie slept and then we went to Walmart, picked up Cami and went to Yokes before getting Cade.  It worked out really well.  Kirk came home kind of late that night and had a really bad head ache.  I put the kids to bed and went to get him some medicine and we watched Hawaii 5-0.  Saturday was super cold and still snowy.  We cleaned the church in the morning.  Kirk went to work and I watched my friends' kids while they went car shopping.  The kids were here about 3 hours, but it worked out great.  They all played together really well.  I took Cade to the Richland high school basketball game in the afternoon.  He is really liking basketball and football right now.  We were going to stop and get root beer floats on the way home, but our coupon didn't work.  It made me frustrated so we left, stopped at Yokes and bought root beer and ice cream.  We went home and made them with Kirk and Cami.  Ellie had some ice cream and it was really funny.  She made kind of a sour face when I stuck it in her mouth and then got a big smile and wanted more and more.  As I put each bite in her mouth, she wasn't too sure about it, but then loved it.

Sunday was our first day of one o'clock church for the year.  Ellie has had a cold and didn't sleep like I was hoping in the morning.  Kirk wasn't feel well either, so he took her home after sacrament meeting.

We had a good week.  We have a few more things planned this week, but it should all turn out good too.

January 8

Today is Sunday.  We had church cancelled because there is a lot of snow on the roads.  We have had LOTS of snow (for Richland) this year.  Cade's preschool has been cancelled 4 times already and I bet he won't go again tomorrow.  It's been really cold too, so the snow has been sticking around in between storms.

We had a great trip to Utah and fun Christmas.  We spent the first 5 days at Morris' house and then the next 5 days with the Smith's.  One thing I enjoyed was leaving the kids at the Morris' and going with Kirk to visit my parents for a couple of hours on Sunday.  We also went with the Morris' to the aquarium in Sandy and we all loved that.  I took the kids and Connor to see the new Disney movie, Moana, we went to Dairy Queen for lunch and went to a BYU basketball game.  Cade had a great time playing with Legos and Cami loved setting up houses and playing with the dolls.  Ellie walked around and collected anything she could find.  We enjoyed spending lots of time with them.  Kirk went fishing a couple of days.  We also drove up Provo canyon and saw mountain goats, elk, deer, and bald eagles.  Cade loves bald eagles right now.  Its fun to watch Tom get better at being a Grandpa.  He loves the kids, but isn't always sure of how to play with them.  But this trip he read lots of stories and even played dolls with Cami a couple of times.  He showed Cade all his bullets and made sure they got lots of ice cream.

Alan and Kristi drove up from Arizona the same day we moved our stuff to my parents' house (Wednesday).  We got to watch the BYU football bowl game.  Cade and Cami had fun playing with Tyrell and we got to meet Brady for the first time.  Cade, Kirk, Alan and Tyrell went hiking up American fork canyon.  I really wanted to go, but wasn't feeling very well.  My mom, Melissa and I went out to lunch for my birthday.  We spent one afternoon/evening at the Morris' opening Christmas presents with Scott and Kara.  Lindsey and her family drove out on Friday.  Cade had so much fun playing with Daniel and Josh.  They played with castles, cars, swords, pokemon cards, foosball, sticks outside and ran around like crazy.  Saturday was Christmas eve.  We did the traditional grandpa donut run.  We opened a few presents between me and my siblings.  We had a yummy ham and potato dinner and did the little nativity play.  Christmas day we went to church and Alan blessed Brady.  It was fun to have everyone there.  We did presents in the morning.  Cade got a new bike and Cami got a doll that she could dress up.  Ellie got a hooded towel and a water bottle.  (she doesn't need or want much).  We had a great day.  I feel like we really got spoiled from everyone.

We ended up spending a lot of time at my parent's house and not going out much.  My dad can't be around people or germs.  He doesn't have a lot of energy and its hard to mobilize that many people anyway.  I'm really glad that we could go and spend as much time as we did.  I always wish we could stay longer, but I love being there for whatever time we can.  We don't get my whole family together very often.  I really liked the time we could spend with Kirk's family too.

Now we are enjoying/enduring the longer, colder part of winter that comes after Christmas.  Kirk and I are looking forward to going to Cancun next month.  We've never done a big trip like that before and it's time!  We only have 5 days and 2 will be mostly travel, but we are excited.  Tom and Lisa are going to drive up to stay with our kids.

December 18

Getting ready for Christmas. . .

• Make a list of what we want to do to celebrate Christmas
• Listening to pandora kids Christmas music
• Setting up the Christmas tree--fun, kids want to put up all the ornaments
• Building gingerbread man boxes at Home Depot
• Watching the lighted boat parade on the Columbia River
• Watching Christmas movies like Frosty the Snowman and Santa Clause comes to town
• Building gingerbread houses with friends
• Going sledding at Badger Mountain Park with Liam and Becky
• Making snow angels
• Making salt dough ornaments
• Reading stories about Jesus each night for scripture time
• Visiting the reindeer and Santa at Beaver Bark--The kids were convinced that this Santa was the real one.  He had a real belt, boots and beard.  They were a little uncertain about talking to Santa, but did talk to him.  Cade asked for an alligator and Cami asked for a pony.  
• Buying Christmas presents for family members--Kara  met us at Walmart and she took Cami to pick out a present for Cade and I took Cade to get one for Cami.  
• Sending off Christmas cards to friends
• Seeing Christmas lights at Riverwoods shopping center
• Giving gifts to teachers
• Packing to go to Utah to see family

--Cami keeps telling Cade that he is getting a box of rocks for Christmas.

--Today she was playing with a nutcracker and said "where the blazes is a nut for this thing?"

Its been a fun couple of weeks!  Now we are in Utah.  

We drove back down here on Friday, December 16.  We ended up on snowy roads with fog in the Blue mountains.  We were going about 35 mph.  Luckily, there wasn't much traffic and we could drive down the middle of the highway.  The rest of the drive went smoothly, just long.  Saturday we spent most of the day at Tom and Lisa's.  Cade had a great time playing with legos and Cami spent the day setting up a house for Grandma's dolls.  Kirk went fishing in 15 degree temperatures.  We went out to dinner.  Kirk and Cade went to church today.  I stayed home with Ellie and Cami.  Cami had a fever last night and Ellie was awake for a couple of hours during the night.  After church, Kirk and Cade went up Provo canyon looking for animals.  They saw deer, elk, and bald eagles.  Cade even found a shot gun shell.  They had a great time.  Then Kirk and I went to visit my parents without the kids.  

This next week will be busy.  We are planning on going to the aquarium, north pole at 7-peaks, BYU basketball game, playing with cousins and celebrating Christmas.  

Thanksgiving 2016

We headed out to Utah on Thursday, the 17th, before Thanksgiving.  Here's a quick wrap up of what we did each day and some memorable moments.

• Thursday:  Cami woke me up at 4:30.  I took her back to bed but when she was still awake at 4:50, we got up.  The kids and I were out the door by 5:58 to drive to Provo.  The drive went well.  We stopped twice.  We listed to Magic Tree house and Cam Jansen books and watched a little magic school bus.  I gave the kids each a bag of snacks that they could choose and eat whenever they wanted.  Cami screamed her head off in the parking lot of Walmart because she didn't want to wear shoes.  Overall, it went well.  We made it to Morris' house about 5:30 their time.  10.5 hour trip. 
• Thursday night:  Cade was not feeling well.  He had a croupy cough and a fever.   We had a rough night but by morning he was doing much better.  
• Friday:  Relaxed in the morning.  Cami had fun playing dolls and Cade loves Grandma's playmobil stuff.  After lunch I left and went to see my parents and Lindsey and her kids.  I had  a lot of fun talking to Daniel and Josh and Luke.  Lindsey and I snuck away for an hour and went to Kohls.  I found some boots for Cami.  The kids had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa Morris
• Saturday:  Lisa and I went to Target in the morning for some Christmas shopping.  It was  a warm afternoon and we went for a "hike" up in Provo canyon and then watched the BYU game.  Tom, Connor, Cade, Lindsey, Daniel, Josh and I went to the BYU basketball game that evening.
• Sunday:  Church in the morning.  Cade, Cami and I went to my parents house for dinner.  The kids had a great time playing outside and climbing trees.
• Monday:  I met Lindsey at Grandma Water's house.  Kate and her kids were there.  I haven't seen them for years!  We played for a long time.  Grandma and Grandpa were so happy to have us there.  They made sure we had lots of toys, got some lunch and were very comfortable.  I brought lunch for my kids.  Cade and Cami were sitting in the kitchen eating by themselves.  I was playing with Ellie.  Grandpa Waters went in and talked to them for a while.  They made me promise to come back when we were in Utah at Christmas.
• Tuesday:  We met Lindsey at the BYU museum of Palentology.  The kids loved seeing the dinosaurs.  Tom was with us and his friend gave us a little tour of the back of the museum where they dig fossils out of plaster and keep the extra bones.  We walked across the street and saw the football stadium.  They were repainting the lines on the field.  We climbed up to the top of the stadium.  It was pretty cool.  That afternoon we went to Gymboree and Columbia outlets.  We (mostly me) wanted Chick-fil-a for dinner and we stopped there but ended up doing the drive through cuz it was getting late and Ellie was tired.  It was still very tasty.  
• Wednesday:  We spent the morning at my parents house and met their friends the Winders.  She brought a peach pie that was delicious.  We were able to see Melissa too.  We spent the afternoon at Morris' and visited with Marsha, Steve and Great-Grandpa.  They drove all night and got in around noon.  
• Thursday:  Thanksgiving!  Tom picked up Kirk from the airport and dropped him off at my parents house where we spent the day.  We watched football.  The kids played knights and ninjas and whatever else they like to do.  After dinner we went to the park and fed the ducks and went for a little walk.  I made pumpkin cheesecake and brownies for dessert.  It was a fun day.  
• Friday:  Kirk, Lisa and I went to a piano store in the morning.  I want to get a piano, but I don't know what we're going to do yet.  Cade, Kirk, Steve and I went hiking up in South Fork in the afternoon and saw a herd of elk (with the binoculars)  We all went to Cafe Rio for dinner.  After dinner we came home and got the kids ready for bed.  Kirk and I left them watching a movie and went shopping.  I ended up with a different coat from Columbia.  We spent a bunch of time at Cabelas too.  Kirk wanted to see shotguns and fishing line.  
• Saturday:  Ellie's birthday!  We went to see my friend Jill and her family in the morning.  We met them at my parents' house.  On the way I stopped at the dollar store to get Ellie a balloon and let Cade and Cami choose a present for her.  When we got out of the car at my parents house, the balloon came off the string and floated away!  Cami felt bad so we stopped on the way back and got Ellie another balloon.  I packed up the car that afternoon.  Kirk went fishing for the middle of the day and had good time on the river.  We had a party for Ellie and she opened a few presents:  puzzle, doll, teddy bear, singing card, microphone and magic wand.  She ate some frosting off her cake.  After the party Melissa stayed with the kids and all of the adults went to Kyle and Becca's wedding.  It was a short ceremony and then a big break and then dinner.  We learned a lot about Becca from her dad and brother.  We went home and finished packing.  
• Sunday:  got up and left before 6:00.  We ended up stopping a few extra time because Cami needed to go.  But, we made it home in good time with good roads.  Great trip, get to go again in a few weeks!

Moments:  

We had a big storm.  There was thunder and lightning, hail, wind and snow.  It was crazy.  

Cami--Tom was helping Cami tie a belt on.  He commented that her tummy was kind of big.  She explained that her tummy was getting big because a baby was growing in there.  I found Cami a few nights in bed without her pants on.  When we were at Costa Vida, I helped her go to the bathroom and found out she didn't have underwear on.  Crazy girl.  She loved shopping at Gymboree.  She wanted to buy everything.  She loves sitting on people laps and reading stories.  She didn't want to play with her cousins because they are boys.  She wanted to play with Lindsey a lot.  We are trying to get Cami to drink more water.  Lindsey convinced her that she needed Cami to help her drink water so they drank together a lot.  Cami did not like the ducks at the pond, but when we saw a bunny she wasn't scared at all.  She LOVED the boots I got her that my mom gave her for Christmas.  

Cade--He came in my room one night at like 2:00.  He thought it was time to wake up and was all dressed.  I put him back to bed and he slept the rest of the night in his clothes.  He loved playing with Daniel.  They found some big rocks in my parents sandbox and were convinced they had found dinosaur bones.  We gave them toothbrushes to clean them off.  I'm glad that Cade wanted to go hiking with us.  Sometimes he can seem so grown up.  He LOVED going to the BYU game.  Cade, Daniel and Josh were all smiles the whole time.  They just stared and tried to take it all in--lights, players, music, cheerleaders, big screen, fans.  It was so fun to watch them.  Cade made a special birthday card for Ellie.  He also had fun watching football with Grandpa and Connor and made a score card for Grandpa to keep score with him.  

Ellie--She is awesome!  she wasn't scared of people and it didn't take long for her to get used to new houses.  She just wanders around and finds toys and follows the kids.  She loves to be outside.  She loves skeeter's bed.  She loved to play on the stairs.  She finally figured out out to go down backwards.  If I try to get Ellie to go somewhere, she runs away.  We got her hair in a pony tail for the first time.  She loves eating and sitting in the high chair watching everyone.  She is a good girl.  Very adventurous, independent, and determined.  

November 13

This week has been pretty good.  Last Sunday was the time change meaning we were up early Monday morning.  We went to Winco and got there about 7:30.  Luckily, it is pretty un-crowded at that time and wasn't too bad.  Cami and Cade both went to preschool.  Tuesday morning we went to Wal-mart and got a couple of gifts and stuff for a 72 hour kit.  The weather was great and we went for a bike ride.  Cami tried riding our friends' pedal bike (with training wheels) and thought it was pretty cool.  I went to Relief Society meeting that night.  I attended a class about making temple attendance more meaningful and have decided I really need to try to get to the temple more often.  I also went to a class about marriage and family relations.  I need to try harder to show love and encouragement to my family.

Wednesday was another beautiful day.  Kirk went fishing.  We went to the park with friends after Cade's preschool.  I went to a baby shower that evening.  Thursday we went for a hike at a new place.  We didn't make it too far on the hike because there were lots of spur trails to explore and big rocks to climb on.

Friday morning Cami woke up sick.  Cade was off preschool but had a birthday party that morning.  I took Cami and Ellie to the grocery store for a couple of things while Cade was gone, but other than that, we watched movies all day.  Saturday Kirk had a CE course all day.  Cami stayed up in my room and watched shows all day.  Cade and I played with Ellie, building block towers and reading books.  We watched the BYU football game.  Cade made sure we had a snack during each half--first half was cookies and granola bars and second half was popcorn and gatorade.  BYU won by 30 points and it was fun to watch.  We had pizza for dinner and then Cade wanted to watch some more football.

Today is Sunday.  Kirk took Cade to church for Sacrament meeting and then he was going to come home and I would go to primary because I was supposed to teach.  BUT Kirk got called into work and brought Cade home after the sacrament and I just stayed home with the kids all day.

Tomorrow I am doing Cami's preschool here and she has a doctor appointment in the afternoon.  Her tummy is doing better than it was.  We leave on Thursday for Utah to see both sets of Grandparents.