Not a Time for Perfection

I love having one on one time with my kids. I know they aren't very old yet but I'm trying to set that precedent now. I do things like cuddling, reading, tickling and last week on September 18th I did cupcake time. Now it wasn't completely just us but we were the ones decorating and eating.

 

I had some leftover cupcake batter from a baby shower a few days earlier and so I decided to make it up and use the frosting that didn't get used because I overfilled the cupcakes and they wouldn't come out. I need to spend some time perfecting the cupcake because I am always hitting and missing. Anyways...Benjamin got excited as soon as he saw me filling the cupcake pan. After they had cooked and cooled I put some on a plate and grabbed the jar of goodies.

 

 

I tried to frost the cupcakes with butter cream frosting that wasn't room temperature long enough yet. So that was a bit of a chore and cramped my hand. I didn't care what the cupcakes looked like. Though in my head I had a picture of perfection I knew it wasn't about perfection right now. It was about having fun and letting Benjamin explore the world of decorating cupcakes for the first time.

 

He couldn't even wait for me to decorate one before he swiped it. Oh well!

 

 

 

 

 

Benjamin and I both had our fill of sweets that night. I had to stop and put them away as I'm a bit of a binger.

 

 

Need I Say More!

The next morning we spent getting ready for church. Heather made a fabulous breakfast! Pancakes! And with bananas in them and nutella to go on top. I enjoyed mine but not as thoroughly as my niece Isla did.

 

Heather and Brooks have a trampoline! Need I say more! It was a big hit. We will buying one in the near future.

 

When I got clothes out for a Elizabeth a few weeks ago this was dress #2 for the next Sunday after the ruffle one. Riki and Charity Styles got it for Elizabeth. I will have to have her wear it again next week for them.

 

Church was nice. Jared and I both got to go to 2nd and 3rd hour and just listen and participate. Though when Jared was introduced 3rd hour he was asked if he was the parent of "the runner". 1st hour was a fun one with Benjamin. I wound up in the hall mostly as Benjamin would not stay in the chairs and ran up on the stand.

 

Heather made us a nice lunch and packed us snacks for our ride home. She is so awesome! Thanks Heather and Brooks for a fabulous weekend!

Cousin Time in Pullman

We went to Pullman last weekend. My mom called me last week and told me that a good friend of ours had passed away. My thought was that makes 3 so are we done for the year? She told me the service would be that Saturday. I didn't debate too long. I wanted to go. Since we were going to be in Richland, WA which meant we were more than half way to Jared's sister's house we decided to see if we could drop in for a visit.

Heather was awesome she didn't miss a beat and said come on over. We quickly packed our bags for the weekend. The service we went to was for Sherry Krull. She was one of my mom's best friends and one of my friends too! Sherry was an amazing woman who helped to teach me that our prayers are answered!

We got to Heather's house in the evening and Brooks Jr and Benjamin went to town playing together! They played really well together all weekend. I loved the fact that my kids got to see their cousins and that we could visit with Heather and Brooks. Heather made us a fabulous wheat and dairy free dinner! (Which by the way we are repeating here at home tonight!). Kabobs and rice! Yummy!

 

 

 

 

After dinner we took the kids to the park and let them play. Swinging was a big hit. Benjamin did great even on the big boy swing! I was so proud of him!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Months Already!

Elizabeth turned 3 months old on September 15th, 2012. Those 3 months have just flown by. She has changed and grown a lot. She is coming up quickly on 17 lbs. I am sure she will double her birth weight without an issue by 6 months.

  

 

Elizabeth loves to smile and to be entertained. Jared says her temperament is very different from Benjamin's. Elizabeth wants your attention and for you to entertain her. Which does make working from home a little harder sometimes. Thankfully she is better in the mornings than the evenings!

 

The "banshee" cry is no longer happening like it used to. I've been starting to have some wheat and dairy and she seems to just spit up now instead of screaming bloody murder. I am going to try to stay off of it some still...but it's hard!

 

 

Elizabeth is wearing 3-6 month clothes now. She loves to pull her dresses up to her face or blankets. She is starting to get too big for her swing even though it's a great friend! She tries to play with the bear on her swing which is so cute to watch! She can handle the exersaucer now which is great and she spins herself around.

 

She can move herself up onto a side which means she will be rolling over before too long. Jared's prediction is that she will be more mobile in 6 weeks. Specifically rolling over and scooting herself around.

 

 

There's a tiny bump where her canine tooth would be. So she might be getting a tooth coming in before too long already (for my sake I hope not).

 

After nursing Elizabeth loves to stretch out on my lap and she rolls her head off my leg and it feels like she is trying to do a back flip almost.

 

Elizabeth sleeps great at night! She will go down typically around 8:30-9:30 and wake up around 2 or 3 and then sleep for another 2-3 hours and wake up again and repeat. I really appreciate that she sleeps so good. She will fight going to sleep though during the day sometimes which can be annoying. But other times in the mornings she will just lay there and fall asleep without an issue. She actually put herself to sleep a few nights ago. I laid her on the ottoman and went off to do some work and came back and she was out for the night.

 

 

She loves to listen to me play the piano and can sleep through it thankfully at church! She smiles when she gets in the car and sees her monkey mirror. Elizabeth does not like to go below 35 miles per hour.

 

Elizabeth loves to watch her crazy older brother. And she loves to smile for her daddy! We are so grateful to have Elizabeth in our family! She is such a sweet girl that we adore!

Random Pictures

I take a lot of pictures of my kids trying to capture the moment. The problem is that I don't take time to write things down or blog quickly what happened and so then they look like just random pictures. I'm trying to stay caught up so they aren't too random. Though I must admit sometimes I just take pictures because I think my kids are cute or I want to document the outfit they are wearing.

 

Anyways here's a trip down random pictures lane.

 

Benjamin wearing his daddy's dress shoes. He certainly enjoys walking around in our shoes from time to time. (August 30th, 2012)

 

Elizabeth is playing with a crinkly toy that my cousin Ashley made. I want to make some of these for on hand gifts for baby showers etc. (September 5th, 2012)

 

Elizabeth sleeping next to me. She loves to sleep in her car seat which is fine with us. We pad it with a big thick blanket and then wrap her up. Sometimes she falls asleep on her own other times she falls asleep in our arms and we transfer her to her car seat. There's been nights where she sleeps in her car seat for the first half of the night. (September 5th, 2012)

 

This picture does not do Benjamin's lip justice. I was upstairs with Benjamin getting a snack or something. Oh we were sharing some of my soy ice cream on the piano bench. There wasn't much room and Benjamin decided to walk off of it while twisting or something and fell straight down with his chin into the bench. His teeth caught his lip and he bit almost straight through. I brushed it off at first thinking he was just scared but while comforting him I pulled my head back and saw that I was covered in blood. I screamed for Jared! It took a bit to calm him down but it did heal just fine. Thankfully the mouth heals quickly! (September 6th, 2012)

I am in love with this outfit. Elizabeth is in the 3-6 month clothes now. She can still fit some just 3 month items and 1 brown 0-3 month skirt that I don't want her to grow out of (maybe I should make her some like them). Anyways I went through the clothes and had a blast realizing all the new adorable clothes she had to wear. This one comes with a pair of jean shorts that have the same material on the edge of them. Thank you to her Aunt Tausha!!! Elizabeth loves to pull her dresses or shirts up to her face! Not always very lady like but then again she is my daughter! (September 8th, 2012)

 

Benjamin is my little "All American Boy". We've been letting him play out in the backyard more and more on his own. His typical routine is to run along the fence and then hide behind the garden and play in the dirt! (September 8th, 2012)

 

When I went through all the clothes I told Jared Elizabeth is wearing this dress on Sunday. LaRee Keenan from church had bought it for her along with a cute pink bonnet! Elizabeth looked so precious! I found LaRee at church and had to show her too! (September 9th, 2012)

 

Jeggings! It's a word! I thought Jared made it up but I've heard others use it. Jeans that are leggings...Jeggings! I do love how they show off her plump little leg rolls! I also find it funny how her onsie says Smile yet she is just staring. Probably wondering what is that black thing blocking my mommy's face. (September 10th, 2012)





Benjamin climbs everything! I mean everything! If he can't scale it himself he will or he will push other items to be able to climb. Here he is on top of my work desk! (September 10th, 2012)



 

Benjamin playing on the couch above his sister. He enjoys looking at her and laying his head on her to show his affection. (September 10th, 2012)

 

Benjamin has climbed the bookshelf before so why this picture now?! Because he is doing it on his own without using a laundry basket or chair to climb it! (September 10th, 2012)

 

Sometimes Elizabeth will fall right asleep on my chest while I am working. I just lean back and let her lay there for awhile while I work. (September 10th, 2012)

 

Yes that's right! Elizabeth can hold her head up enough to be in an exersaucer (you try to spell that!)! Benjamin loves that this toy is out and available too! (September 11th, 2012)

 

Benjamin is such a funny boy to watch! He gets really excited and flaps his arms like he is a bird and is going to take off flying! (September 12th, 2012)

 

Here is Benjamin laying on the ground watching TV holding one of his favorite toys...a car charger for my old CD player. The bottom drawer of the desk is his favorite as it is full of random cables. (September 12th, 2012)

 

Friday Harbor

"I blog in order." I just said this to my husband. Why do I blog in order? Does it matter? It helps me to know where I last left off. Finding time to blog with everything I have going on seems hard sometimes. I have almost a months worth of blogs or pictures to post right now and while I feel behind in so many things I am going to keep plugging along and try to document what is going on in my life and how I feel about things.

It's been almost a month (in 5 days to be exact) since we went up to the San Juan Islands for a quick day trip with Olga. We had a lot of fun! We got up early and packed the kids in the car. We had hoped that the kids would sleep basically the whole way up. Benjamin was too excited! We were dressed and leaving the house in the car. He stayed awake and yelled basically the whole way up. Olga had some headphones that she tuned him out with a bit luckily.

Benjamin was a big fan of the ferry boat ride. We let him explore after getting some breakfast. I was able to get myself a breakfast burrito without the tortilla or the cheese. Thank you!!!

Once we got to Friday Harbor we headed out across the Island to Lime Kiln Point first. There were a lot of amazing spots to explore and enjoy. We even got a family photo. Thank you to the nice man going whale watching.

Once we got out to a lookout point Benjamin was geared up and ready to go again. I let Jared deal with him mostly because you had to have a death grip on his hand or arm. Benjamin is pretty fearless and loves to his explore and so does his daddy. Like Father like son. (Is that really how the phrase goes?)

 

 



Jared and Olga found a pair of prescription sunglasses and had fun being goof balls with them!

There's a lighthouse at Lime Kiln Point which was closed. But we had fun exploring and since we were there so early we basically had the place to ourselves. Jared took Benjamin and Olga down to the beach at one spot by the Lighthouse so that Benjamin could throw rocks. I enjoyed watching from above.

This was a hilarious moment! Olga got stuck in the tree trying to climb.

She was victorious over the tree!

Jared couldn't be left out of the tree climbing fun!

We figured she had sat in Benjamin's carseat, Elizabeth's Crib and now she had to do the stroller!

We decided to walk out to the Lime Kiln since we were there. When we got to a point above it we called it good as walking back up the hill from where the Kiln actually was did not look like fun. Especially to me!

After enjoying everything we could we headed back to the car and went across the Island a bit to "South Beach". Benjamin fell asleep so I stayed in the car with him while Jared went to explore and Olga did too. I took care of Elizabeth and then fell asleep with her on my lap. I saw Jared moving driftwood around from the car but I had no idea why.

 

I learned why later! He built a shelter. I wound up using it to nurse and try to get Elizabeth to go down for a nap again. Olga apparently napped while the rest of us did too but in a blanket on a log in the sunshine.

We played in the water for a bit which was fun. But it was really cold! After enjoying the beach we went back to Friday Harbor to get in line for the ferry. We went and did a little shopping which I got a new clock for my living room. I love it! Thank you Jared! Happy Anniversary to you too! 7 years of marriage and 10 years of being together! Time flies when your with the one you love!

The ferry boat ride home was just as fun for Benjamin minus a little slipping and scrapping his knees. We really had a great day together as a family. I totally recommend Friday Harbor!!! It's a fun family activity...it's a little spendy but we enjoyed it.