Ella Turns 1!

It always floors me how quickly a year passes with a baby in the house.  Babies are a lot of work!  And when you're busy, time sure does fly.  I can't believe that in 365 days this. . .

 turned into this. . .

CRAZY!

She is such a happy, sweet girl and so fun to have around.  She loved her day!  My friend made her cute outfit.  She would not let go of the toothbrush, so it's well documented :)

She didn't blow it out, but did almost touch it.

She was not shy about the cake.  I think she ended up eating most of it.

or at least smashed it up pretty good

.

So exciting!  A brand new "baby Stella" for baby Ella.

Such a fun day with a fun little girl!  We sure love her!

Here are a few things Ella can do:
Say mom, dad, cow sound, dog sound.  Wave bye-bye, clap, try to put her socks and shirt on, whistle.  Jump from couch to couch with brother, stand for a long time, but nothing more than a few steps here and there.  Puts the phone up to her ear and says "eeh", puts the ear thermometer in her ear.

Her favorite things:
Stuffed animals, eating (she eats so much for someone in the 5th percentile for weight), loves when dad gets home, sitting on mom's hip while I make dinner.  Loves her brother!  She is constantly looking for him when he's not around.  When he's at preschool she crawls around trying to find him.  She loves dogs, babies, other kids, taking her shoes and socks off (yeah I feel like a bad mom caring a barefoot baby around in the winter), the remote, a box of q-tips, bouncing on the bed,  reorganizing the pantry!  

Gun Shooting Party

I haven't blogged for awhile and since life is about to get a whole lot busier with Christmas around the corner, I thought I would try to catch up.  We had a great Thanksgiving!  We went up to my parent's house in Honeyville.  I love that they still live where I grew up, and probably will forever.  While the boys were waiting for dinner they went down by the Bear River and did a little target shooting.  We told Jack a few days prior that we were going to do this on Thanksgiving, so every day after, he asked, "is today the gun shooting party?"  He loved it, and although he's a little young to shoot the guns, I'm glad that he was exposed to them and got a glimpse of how powerful they are.  Little boys are so curious, so I think it's better to show and teach him about guns then to just make them off limits.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a member of the NRA or anything.  I actually don't really like guns, but my husband does.  So since we have a couple of them in our home, I figure we better talk about gun safety.

Jack even wore ear protection.  Stylish :)

I'm glad that I can now say that he has had exposure to guns other than watching Bonanza with Grandpa.

Even Tucker got to go.

The "Ranger" is probably his favorite part of going to the farm.  It is pretty fun to cruise around on.

Halloween

Halloween was a highly anticipated event around our house this year.  Jack knew for months that he wanted to be a pirate.  We thought we would stick with the theme and have Ella be his parot. 

That is until my friend let me borrow her daughter's super cute baby chick costume.  But Jack was perfectly content with that, seeing as she was still his bird.  Jack got a super generic pirate costume that I bought at Costco after discovering that it would be $10 just to buy the patern to  make one.  Sewing just wasn't the cost effective solution.  So I saved myself some time and stress, and believe it or not, Jack didn't care one bit.  He did have one small disappointing moment.  After we bought his costume we went home and dressed him in pirate attire from head to toe.  Hat, eyepatch, sword, he had it all.  I held him up in front of the mirror and asked him what he thought.  His response was, "I want to be a cowboy".  Well, that didn't happen.  Steve and I really talked up the pirate costume, and before long he was once again convinced it was awesome.  A few nights before Halloween we went to a carnival they were holding at the Rec Center, the Spooktacular.  There were games, activities, and trick-or-treating for the kids.  Lately with all of the Halloween decor around, Jack has been proclaiming (I think in part to convince himself) that he's not scared of anything.  Steve decided to put that to the test and took him through the haunted locker room that was recommended for kids 10 and older.  The poor kid came out wide-eyed and white knuckled.  It was actually pretty sad.  At least I thought so.  Steve said the scary guys could tell he was little and kind of left him alone.  All except for one guy with a chain saw who chased them and yelled, "I'm going to chop you up into pieces."  I'm hoping there's no permanent damage.  Ella just hung out like she always does, and looked so adorable.  She was the cutest little chick around, hands down!  I was sooo glad that Steve decided to be fun and take us to the Spooktacular, because it turns out I spent Halloween in bed, sicker than sick!  Steve was such a good dad and dressed the kids up and took them trick-or-treating by himself.  Well, he went with our friends, but he took the kids without me.  I was literally the sickest I remember being since high school, and it stunk!  So Happy Halloween, there's always next year. 

Bingham Grandkids (minus our Indiana cousins) on Halloween

Jack's carving face makes me a little nervous :)

She kept reaching inside the pumpkin and grabbing bits of pumpkin to eat.

At least Steve was looking at the camera.

These two love each other SO much!

 

Sickies!

 I do believe that cold and flu season has arrived.  It decided to show it's ugly face around our house last week.  There's nothing quite like having sick kids.  It was a sad 12 hour bug, but I took full advantage of my super snuggly sick kiddos. 

These days it's a rare occasion for Jack to sit and let me hold him, or for Ella to fall asleep while I'm rocking her, so I enjoyed it, puke and all (well-sort of).  This was a monumental tummy bug for Jack though as he finally figured out how to puke in a bucket!  Props to him, right?  I'm happy to report that it passed quickly and everyone was fully recovered in time for Halloween,  Well, except for me, but that's another story. 

Tumbling

Jack is in his 6th week of tumbling and catching on fast.  He loves it and is constantly practicing at home.  I'm pretty amazed at all the things they can teach a 3 year old to do.  Here he is doing his back handspring.  He's supposed to make his body straight like a pencil at this point in the trick and you can see he does pretty well.

They do a circuit during the class to try and avoid having the little kids standing in a line.  The teacher shows them what to do on each part of the circuit and I'm always surprised at how well he remembers each trick to do.  Here he is doing a spin move on the trampoline.

Here's his cartwheel.  It's a little tricky still.  Jack's teacher's name is Ryan and he's awesome!  He's really great at teaching the fundamentals, and he's really patient.  It definitely takes a patient teacher with a class full of 3-5 year olds.

Here's a picture of his "dive roll".  It's a little blurry because it is so fast.  It's a great outlet for my high energy little guy!  He comes home worn out which is really good for a busy little boy.  I'm definitely glad I signed him up!  Look for this face in the 2028 Olympics ;)

Ella's 9 month well check

Look who is 9 months old and happier then ever!  Here are some things she can do: crawl up stairs, walk along furniture, say da and mom, wave bye-bye, clap her hands, dances when you say "get down girl".  She is growing up too fast but is still, as Jack affectionately calls her, our "little peanut".  Here are her stats:
weight: 15lbs 5oz (5th percentile); length: 27 1/2 in (45-50th percentile); head: 17 in (20th percentile)

Zoo Day/B-day party

Yesterday the weather was beautiful and my sister Heather and her little boy Brody were coming down for a visit, so we decided to take advantage of the weather and head to the Zoo.  We hadn't be there since the new Polar Bear/Seal/Grizzly Bear exhibit opened, and it did not disappoint.  We got to watch the Polar Bear dive into the water, pull fish out, and then eat them literally 2 feet in front of us through the glass.  It was almost too discovery channel for me, but Jack didn't seem to be bothered by it.  But then again, he and his Dad love watching those kinds of shows.  Steve usually appeases me and fast forwards through the animal violence.  Have you seen the movie African Cats?  My three year old sure has :) 

This was Ella's second visit to the zoo, and she found it every bit as boring as the first time.  She was a trooper and actually loved watching the elephants before she nodded off.  Sure love this little girl!

Jack held the map the entire time and helped us navigate through the zoo.  At the end I asked him if we missed anything, and he said yeah the zebras.  He was correct. 

We also got to go to our neighbors 2 year old birthday party and Jack loved it.  The pinata was a hit (literally haha) and he is still enjoying the candy from it.  One of the little girls at the party gave him a candy bar that she found in the pinata and he asked me, "mom is this chocolate."  I said yes and he took it out of his bag and threw it on the ground.  He has a thing with putting stickers on his face.  Whenever he gets hold of some, that's what he chooses to do.  I guess it's better then on my walls.

Ella found her present of choice, which was no surprise given her stuffed animal obsession.  I'm getting excited to shop for her birthday already.  And since it's nine days before Christmas, I feel completely justified in going overboard.  The left overs can always go under the tree.

She is such a little crumb snatcher.  She makes her way around the house and literally anything she finds on the floor, she eats.  This  incident was fairly benign, seeing as it was Jack's muffin crumbs, but that is not always the case.  No matter how much I vacuum and pick up she always seems to find something.  This morning while I was blow drying my hair she stood up and starting pulling toilet paper off the roll and eating it.  Sometimes I wonder if she's part goat. 

Hooray for Preschool

I love this time of year!  We have been having some of the best weather lately.  I love how it feels to have cool nights and warm days.  Also, the leaves have begun to change and they are beautiful.  And to top that all off, Jack started preschool!!!  5 ladies in my neighborhood and I started a little preschool co-op for the year.  It's perfect since Jack is barely 3 and I don't feel the need to teach him to read or write cursive or anything, but he loves getting out and feeling big.  We are now 3 weeks in he is loving it!  One of the moms hosts every week and we take the 6 kids for 2 hours in the morning.  We are pretty informal, but we have a topic to cover and also a letter of the alphabet.  I see a big change in him.  He is a very active/social kid, so getting away from mom for a little while does both of us a world of good. 

And. . . since I'm saving so much money by not paying for preschool, I signed him up for tumbling (pictures to come).  He absolutely loves it and is really good at it.  He has no fear and is really good and following his teacher's instructions.  I don't think we'll keep him in it forever, but it's good for now.  Steve is worried he's going to end up being a male cheerleader or something.  Too funny!!

In other happenings, this little sweetheart now has 4 teeth!  She got all 4 of them about the same time and out of nowhere.  She is a little non-complainer, so if they were bothering her, she never really let me know it.  We also have done a couple of things lately where I  have forgotten to take my camera.  One of those was the Brigham City Temple open house.  It was so beautiful and I loved that I could take my entire family.  When we walked into a couple of the rooms with murals on the walls Jack couldn't contain his wows.  Such a neat experience.  Also we braved the ward camp out in Park City last weekend.  Well, I guess technically Steve did.  I brought Ella home at night since I was worried about her in 30 degree weather overnight.  Jack loved sleeping in the tent and slept surprisingly well, Steve said.  Steve, on the other hand, slept in a summer sleeping bag and froze all night.  He's a good dad to take his little buddy camping.

 We recently had an open house at LDS hospital to celebrate the year long renovation.  We opened up the operating room to the general public to let them see what takes place in surgery.  I worked that day for one of my projects I need to complete at work, and Steve was  nice enough to bring the kids up to see the hospital.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity to get our picture with Elmo.  Jack did not like him one bit.  I don't blame him, he had a pretty creepy Elmo voice going on.  But I think this picture is funny :)

This girl loves stuffed animals more than anyone I have ever witnessed.  Steve threw her in the stuffed animal bin at Ikea one day, and she was in heaven.  She was sound asleep hugging Mr. Fox as we call him and I tried to get a picture but failed miserably.  So instead, here is a picture of Ella when she has been rudely interrupted  from a great snuggle with the fox.

Wicked/Fair Weekend

Last Saturday I had the chance to spend Saturday afternoon with my mom, sister, and 3 of 4 sisters-in-law.  My mom gave the girls tickets to see Wicked for our birthdays this year.  It was so fun to grab some lunch with them and head down town to the Capitol Theater for the production.  I hadn't seen it before and it was awesome.  I loved the storyline and the moral that things aren't always what they seem.  It was light and entertaining, and very well done.  Thanks girls for a fun day!

And if that wasn't enough to make it a long day, after I got home we decided to take a drive up to the Box Elder County Fair.  We like to go if we can every year and let the kids see the animals, and ride a couple of rides.  And of course, we had to get some cotton candy!

Jack called this the feather-duster chicken

She's not so sure about the pigs, and for good reason.  They were making some crazy snoring sounds.

As soon as we got to the fair Jack saw the ferris wheel and told us that he wanted to ride it.  He must have watched a show with a ferris wheel on it at some point because he knew what it was, and I have no idea how.  I thought that he would be scared, like start hysterically crying scared, but he did awesome!  Steve said he was a little nervous at the top, but he seemed to like it overall.  I'm glad that Steve was brave and took him on it.  There's something about those carnival rides that make me nervous.  Maybe it's the fact that you see them on the back of trucks cruising down the freeway, and then 24 hours later you're riding them.  I just worry that maybe a screw or something could have fallen off.  I guess I trusted it enough to pay a whopping $8 for my boys to ride, so I must not have been too concerned. 

This was the ride he really loved, though.  He legitimately thought he was driving!

This photo-op happened for exactly 0.2 seconds, so props to me, the photographer for getting a picture of him somewhat looking at the camera.  He is such a little picture avoider these days!

And lastly, here is my tiny 8 1/2 month old who is very hard to keep up with these days.  She's pulling herself up to everything, walking along furniture, climbing up entire flights of stairs, etc.  Good thing she is so cute, because right now she is wearing her mama out.  I think we hit a point and she switched places with her brother and is now my busy child.  The other day I had a moment that made me think she may need a little more supervision.  It was when I noticed something bright green in her diaper and realized that it was the plastic cover off of Steve's ear buds.  Yep, she ate it and pooped it out.  She is worse than our lab!  Well scratch that, I forgot that he recently ate a pair of gardening gloves.

Where Has The Summer Gone?

I can't believe that August is quickly coming to an end!  This summer has flown by like they always do, and although I'll miss the sunshine, I'm ready for a little break from the heat.  It has been a hot one.  Nothing too exciting around our house lately.  Just a few things I want to write down so I won't forget. 

Sorry for the small phone picture!

This little guy had his 3 year well check a week ago and is doing great.  He weighed 31lbs (50th percentile) and was 37 1/4 inches tall (55th percentile).  This wasn't what he wore to the doctor, but rather what he picked to wear to the grocery store yesterday.  He loves these boots tells me he can climb up the wall in them.  I saw what he meant by that the other day.  He grabs onto the rod in his closed and walks up the wall until he's upside down.  It is a pretty cool trick.  It's a little embarrassing taking him out in public like this, but really you never know when the first snow storm of the season could drop in on us.  He is really funny right now.  I have been trying to remember a few of my favorite lines so that I could record them.  A perfect example of his little personality came from a conversation I had with him the other day.  He doesn't love to put his pants back on after he goes potty and loves running around the house with his little naked bum.  Not a big deal, but he is starting preschool in a couple of weeks so I told him that if he doesn't put his undies back on the other kids will say, "I see your bum, I see your bum."  To which immediately replied, "then I will hit them."  And. . . there's not a doubt in my mind that he would.  He's very spunky :)  He wants to be a pirate for Halloween and a couple weeks ago I bought him a pirate sword from the party section at Target.  He loves that thing!  He and Steve were having a sword fight one evening and Steve said, "I'm Captain Blackbeard."  Jack didn't miss a beat and said, ''I'm Captain Crunch!"  A perfectly reasonable pirate name, really! 

Today we were at Costco and he saw a big poster that had a picture of a girl sitting in a hammock.  He pointed to it and said, "Oh no, that girl is caught in a net."  I could go on and on!  He's quite the kid, and he really gets a kick out of it right now when he can make his mom laugh. 

Little Ella is still as sweet as ever and sooo much fun right now.  She has two bottom teeth now which come in handy since she absolutely loves eating.  Steve and I had a bowl of carmel popcorn the other night and were giving her little pieces to eat.  After a few minutes of sharing Steve went to set her down on the floor and she started screaming (which is very out of character for her).  So he picked her up and she went right back to eating.  She is great and expressing what she wants without speaking.  Steve and I always laugh and how well she communicates.  She will eat anything and has been loving all the fresh steamed veggies I've been cooking up for her from Grandma's garden lately. 

She is crawling everywhere and is super speedy.  She is also pulling herself up to standing at any chance she gets, even in the bathtub.  No bad bonks yet, but I'm sure they're coming. 

Here she is doing her showoff trick with dad.  We had to get a picture of it since I'm sure she won't be doing it much longer.  She gets a face when she's doing it like she know's she's fancy!  Well Ella may not have had any bad bonks lately, but Jack had a horrible one last Saturday.  We spend the day up at Pineview on the beach.  It was fun to take the kids and Tucker and just play in the water and the sand.  Both of the kids were in heaven.  We didn't take any pictures since we left the camera in the car.  We packed in quite a ways so we had to pack light.  It's a lot of work to pack 2 kids, a cooler, chairs, etc.  Anyway, that night after we got home Jack was up on the counter getting a treat off the top of the fridge (Yes it doesn't do a lot of good to put the treats up high in our house.  It just encourages climbing.)  He stepped off the couter onto the stool and it slipped on our wood floor and came out from under him.  He fell and hit his mouth hard.  He bit all the way through his bottom lip and bruised his upper gums above his tooth that hit.  It was a really bad fall and I'm so glad it wasn't worse. 

He's a very tough kid.  I think I have mentioned before that sometimes I wonder if he has nerve endings.  He cried, but just for a minute or two.  I was a couple feet away from him when it happened and I had a really bad scared mom reaction when I saw it happen, so I know that part of the crying was from me scaring him.  He was still spitting blood for quite awhile after he quit crying.  We were going to take him to get looked at, but it was Saturday night so we just decided to wait a bit and see how it went.  It stopped bleeding and the gash on the front side of his lip was pretty small so we decided he was fine.  It's healing up nicely, but almost a week later is still pretty swollen.  Well I'm definitely dragging this out so I'll just end with a couple of favorite summer pics from my phone that I saw tonight and wanted to post.  Sorry they're small!  If I make them bigger they're blurry

Fun Grandma!  These boys love her!

Bummin at the pool

Just arriving home from a morning jog with Mom.

I didn't even care that he did this since it occupied him for 10 minutes.  Busy little boy!