Happy 8 Months, Livvy!

What a fun couple of months this has been with Olivia! She is revealing her sweet, happy, serious, and super fun personality to us more and more every day!

Here she is peeking over her crib - time to move the mattress down!

There is no doubt about it - Livvy LOVES Rocky! She gets so excited when she hears him meowing and looks everywhere until she finds him. She pets him, and as you can see, he loves her, too.

Livvy is moving all around. She can get across the room - backwards! Not officially crawling, I guess she is scooting on her belly. She can also scoot on her bottom when sitting up. She is pulling her legs up, though, and is definitely working toward crawling! She is also trying to pull up.

She still loves peek-a-boo and will grab any piece of material she can get her hands on and hold it in front of her face until we realize what she is doing and ask, "Where's Livvy?" Then she giggles and giggles when we say "Peek-a-boo!"

Everybody loves Olivia's one long piece of blonde hair in the front that is perfect for bow wearing. But, without a bow, it provides for lots of fun hairdos! She usually has one big curl right on top! I can count at least four times that Livvy has been told she looks like a Cabbage Patch kid (in a good way)!

Olivia looks like she wishes she could just jump in and play with the big kids. She watches them like crazy! Kiran and Ellery really play well with her, and Livvy loves it!

Livvy gives Jeff the biggest smile each night as I'm walking out of the room to carry her to bed. They BOTH love that!

Olivia has a very serious look on when she is first getting to know someone. Once she gets to know you, she gives great big smiles. She is pretty quiet around strangers. She talks to me when I whisper to her. And, she talks most when she is chewing on her toys - sometimes, it seems like she is chatting about all that teething (you can see those bottom teeth under the gums) she is doing. She doesn't mind being held by others, though she certainly prefers Mom and Dad. However, I go at least once a week to the gym, and she has cried a lot the past 4 times. She just doesn't know what to think about it, but the childcare workers there are wonderful! I hear my name being called to come to the childcare center at about 50 minutes into the workout. Luckily, I have no interest in working out longer than an hour!

Livvy loves her telephone and will play with it for long periods of time.

With Rocky again!

On a fun family hike!

We took some pictures in the UT Gardens!

Go Purple! :) We decided to show support for Uncle Keri's team, and Livvy happily sported her accessories.

On a playgroup outing taking a little nap

Her latest favorite way of sleeping with Giraffy under her arm, fingers in her mouth, and on her belly! Too cute!

Here are some sweet videos!

Preschool is Fun!

Ellery is having so much fun at preschool! She has attended 4 days of class now. She is learning a lot, and has already completed a homework assignment! Ms. Melinda is one of Ellery's teachers from last year, so that helped make what seems to be an smooth transition into a new classroom even easier! Ellery walked right in the first day and never looked back, and she has been ready to go to school every day!

She is thrilled to grab her pink butterfly backpack and her butterfly garden lunchbox on the way out the door!

Ellery can identify many letters. She can say her numbers to 25 and can count objects to 12. She knows all of her colors (getting brown and black confused occasionally). She knows circle, triangle and square shapes.

She is so curious about nature right now. She loves to find squirrels and birds. She is great at spotting other things, too. She can see an airplane from so far away that it takes a minute to come into my view. She has always been the first to see a balloon, and on our trip to TX this summer, I don't think she missed any United States flags!

Ellery is awesome in her play! She can play very well with others and also by herself. I often hear her talking away upstairs either while reading books or while engaged in pretend play.

Ellery is very independent but also very grateful when she receives help if it is needed. She has excellent manners and almost always says "please" and "thank you." She can get dressed all by herself, and she and Kiran take turns feeding Rocky (then running around the house chasing him). :)

Ellery loves to sing songs and is great at picking up a tune and lyrics quickly to sing along. This is perfect for her music class! She always comes home from school telling about music and sign language and shows me the stamp she received in class.

This is Ellery's recent homework assignment. Pretty funny story actually . . .

This year, her teachers are assigning family homework to provide a chance for everyone to work with Ellery on her projects. The first assignment was to design and dress a "little person" (contact paper in the shape of a child) just like Ellery. We did great until it was time for the face. I tried drawing eyes, and Jeff attempted the nose. Let's just say it was so bad that I found another piece of paper that was as close as possible to the original and cut out a round face to paste over our first tries. We may have some talents in this house, but Mom and Dad are no artists! I then looked online for help with drawing children's faces, and it turned out much better. Thanks for being sweet about it Ellery! I think she was relieved to see the second attempt as the first one looked a little like a scary creature from a freaky movie!

Anyway, back to Ellery. Our sweet girl is so calm and confident about school each day! What a blessing!

With Daddy and Livvy on the first day of preschool

With Mommy (who obviously was making lunches and a mess!)

I have missed both of my kids while they are at school, but I absolutely LOVE picking them up and hearing about their adventures! Then, Daddy can't wait to hear when he gets home! Life with kids is simply amazing!

Okay, now THIS is the way to celebrate the end of a wonderful first day of school for all these kiddos! (Malon, Kiran, Fern, Baylan, Ellery, and Livvy)

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Kiran (with vanilla - his favorite right now!), Baylan, Foust

Fern and Ellery (with cookie dough)

I Love Kindergarten!

My name is Kiran. I just finished my first two days of Kindergarten! I really like my teacher, Ms. R. She is very kind, and I know she is cool because she told me that one of her favorite movies of all time is "Star Wars!!!"

This is me on my first day of school. My R2-D2 shirt and my new Millennium Falcon shoes were perfect for the first day!

These are some of my school supplies.

This is my dad and me.

My mom and me

My whole family outside my new school

This is my dad, my sister and me the night before my first day reading "Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten." This is my favorite book about Kindergarten!

In class, I sit at the yellow table. I have a green chair, and green is my favorite color! My favorite things to do so far in class are play with blocks and Legos.

One of my best friends is in my class, and I have already met lots of other great friends.

I think I am ready for school because I know . . .

all of my uppercase and lowercase letters.

how to write my name.

how to count to 100.

how to do easy addition.

how to sound out letters.

how to read simple words.

how to write simple sentences with help.

how to follow instructions.

how to be polite and respectful.

how to have fun!

I also think I'm ready because . . .

I am adventurous and curious.

I love books!

lately, I have liked drawing and coloring and all things art.

I love to meet new people!

I love to try new things and learn new things!

My first two days, I ate all of my lunch and was starving when Mom picked me up!

One day, we walked with bubbles (to help us be quiet) and ducktails (to help us keep our hands to ourselves) around the school on a tour.

I found out that I will get to go to some extra fun classes on different days of the week: Music, Technology, P.E., Art, and Library and Yoga. I am excited about recess every day, and our playground is really awesome!

My first day, I had a little trouble saying "goodbye." But, that night at bedtime, I asked Mom if I could go to school again the next day because I liked it so much! And, now, I want to go to school every day!

Kindergarten, Here I Come!

Six Months and Growing!

Our sweet Olivia is 6 months old today! She is growing and changing every day. Today, she did five new and very big things: she rolled from back to front, moved around on her tummy, pulled her knees up as she tried to crawl toward a toy, ate her first foods AND . . . she played PEEK-A-BOO all on her own! So fun and check out the videos!

Kiran had the job of choosing the food she would eat tonight and picked organic sweet peas. Ellery's job was to choose the bib and spoon, which of course were pink! Well, when Livvy didn't care for peas, we decided to try sweet potatoes and topped it off with the tiniest bite of banana possible. We definitely broke the rules of trying one food at a time! She did not think too much of any of it and was very happy to eat her normal meal a little later. She has been pretty interested in our food for some time now, and I don't think she was as impressed as she had expected to be! That's okay, though, for now because Livvy doesn't seem to have any trouble getting all of her nutrients! She is growing very well and actually is around 75th percentile for weight and height and is wearing some 12 month clothes that her sister sported at one year!

Look at these sweet faces! Sometimes, I am still surprised at all my little blondies!

Livvy can reach for and grasp very small objects now (as tested with a small hair bow), so we have to watch out for big kid toys and other small things. She is giving sweet, sweet kisses and the most gentle but firm hugs around the neck - this is my favorite thing right now! She likes to feel Daddy's beard when he holds her. Livvy adores Kiran and Ellery, and they are beginning to involve her in their play, pretending she is this or that, then they are super silly with her, and she just squeals! She is amazing at getting her toes in her mouth and seems to enjoy this very much! She is still working on those teeth, but they can be seen beneath the gums now. Livvy usually sucks her two middle fingers on either hand but when teething (which has been a little bit of a challenge for all of our kiddos), she has been known to get almost 2 fistfuls in! Livvy's favorite lovey is her pink giraffe that plays "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Livvy is so happy every minute of the day most days, and almost every minute on the other days! She is such a joy to us all!

Now, I decided to add a few pics of all the kids at 6 months. What do you think? Do they look alike at this age?

Kiran

Ellery

(actually this is at 3 months, but the next photo of Livvy is same background and toy and thought it was a fun comparison)

Olivia

Well, this one is 5 months and the next is almost 5 months, but they were too cute and I couldn't resist including them!

hello

Just a word for our readers about why we haven't posted. Jeff has been consolidating our photo libraries and backing them up so we don't lose anything. It's been quite a task with 5 libraries full and over 35,000 photos - yikes! Anyway, I haven't had access to any photos or really to the computer in quite some time. I am very thankful he's doing this for us, though, and hopefully our pics will stay organized and safe now! We'll get to more blogging ASAP!

Our Little Princess is 3!

Happy Birthday, Ellery!



I'm a little Princess, and my Daddy loves me.
I'm a little princess and my Mommy loves me.
When they tuck me in to say good-night, they say,
"Good night, Princess Ellery, Good night!"
"Good night, good night, good night sweet Princess,
Good night." "Good night, good night, good night,
good night, good night."


The original version of this song was written and sung by Laurie Berkner. It has animals like frog, tiger, etc. where we replaced them for "princess." At one point, we were singing "Goodnight, Little Superman" for Kiran, but (boo hoo), he has outgrown this! :) Soon afterward a few months ago, Ellery discovered that she could substitute "princess." She asks us to sing it every night. Jeff and I love this!

Well, in case you haven't noticed, we haven't posted a blog just for Ellery in a very long time! Last summer and really this past year has proved to be a very busy one in the life of our family. We are finally settling down some, but blogs and writing down things about our family were some of the things that got left behind in our move, renovations, and pregnancy. Bless Ellery's heart, she didn't even get a blog for her 2nd Birthday. The great thing is that pictures tell wonderful stories and provide memories all on their own. And, one thing we rarely miss is taking lots of photos. Even if you don't see pictures here, you can know they are sitting in iPhoto on my computer awaiting their viewing by the world! For now, our photos are of her 3 year party, 2 year party and a couple other photos. I will try to get more up of the ones we have from the past year of our Sweet Big Girl soon!

Here she is on her 2nd birthday. See how much she's grown!







To our sweet Ellery:

We love you so very much! We are so proud of you and of the kind and loving girl you are! Here are a few things we want to share with you now and over the past year:

Princess and Pink are the two words that best fit you right now!

Your very favorite books right now are any princess books and Pinkalicious! How fun to combine these for your 3rd Birthday Party. We read, "What is a Princess?" and "Pinkalicious." We played "Pass the Teapot" and danced to some great princess music. Then, we got out our yummy Strawberry cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese frosting with a cherry and sprinkles on top, just like Pinkalicious cupcakes! I have to say, they were pretty awesome! You wore your beautiful, new and pink Princess Dress to the party! When Opal walked in the door, you ran to her, put your arms around her neck, and hugged her for about 2 minutes straight! So sweet! Evergreen and Hannah were very gracious and were willing to help do Princess hair for everyone! You, very matter of factly, decided you did not want them to fix your hair!



Princesses Opal, Ellery, and Baylan



Fern, playing "Pass the Teapot." You girls giggled so much during this game. Actually, everyone else giggled. You were serious about getting your piece of candy out of the teapot!



Our little Southern Belle with her new hat from Sally


Well, Ellery you have a pretty special Daddy! It was his idea to dress up for your party. What a sweet dance you two had together!

You have spontaneously said to me several times this week, "Thank you for my Princess Party, Mommy, and thank you for the cupcakes!" You are so thoughtful and grateful.



One day before your party, we asked you a question about it, and one of your responses was, "And all they princesses will be there, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle, and what is another one in blue?" to which I responded, "Cinderella" and you said, "And Cinderella, . . ." It was so sweet. I just couldn't figure out if you thought the Disney princesses would really be at your party. Apparently, your best friends were the best princesses. You were so glad to see them! You were so gracious at your party and truly were a princess.


My two adorable princesses!

Ellery, I can't do a 3-year blog for you without talking about your dear and best friend, Opal. You two are incredible together. It has really been almost a year now that you have declared each other as best friends. You simply love being together, and it is totally obvious that you care deeply for each other. I really love seeing the two of you together because I see such a purity in your friendship. It's what friendship ought to be. Ellery, you are so genuine with your thoughts and feelings already in life. What an amazing gift!







By the way, Ariel is your favorite princess, especially when she is wearing her pink dress!

Some really sweet things you say these days:

"Mommy, I love you soooooooo much!" Then I get a great big kiss! This totally melts me!
"Mommy, you're the best Mommy in the whooooooolllle wide world!"

You LOVES books! You always have. If you are ever really quiet these days, instead of wondering that your are into my bag snatching gum, I assume that you are "reading." You will just sit and look carefully at books for a really long time (at least 30 minutes). I love reading to you. That is special time for us.

Ellery, your favorite foods are cereal "with milk," tomatoes, and anything sweet! You don't like beans all that much. You don't really care for melted cheese - interesting!

You sometimes just sneak in bed beside me in the mornings and lay there. It's so sweet, and I love you snuggling next to me.

I am amazed at how much you have grown in the past year in lots of different ways.

You are an amazing sleeper! When we go in to check on you at night, you are out cold and you seem so rested each morning.

You are interested in some rough play with your brother, and you let him know when you are DONE by a nice, loud fussy sound!

Sweet girl, you are incredible on your scooter (which was Kiran's and now you have claimed as your own)! Everyone is always amazed by how fast you can go. My favorite thing you do with your scooter is lift your left leg at the end of each ride down the street. Another favorite for me is how you ask me to clap for you and say "Woohoo" for each ride! If I forget, you let me know about it.

You love being outside, and you love playing princess inside. We love that you are interested in so many different things. You enjoy singing, finding squirrels and birds outside. You absolutely can't stand spiders and have even had nightmares about them! The horrible shriek of a scream you have let out in the night about spiders sends chills right through me! I'm at the point, though, that after the initial freaking out about the sound, I can calm down more quickly usually knowing that it's just a dream.

Our pink ballerina princess even at the pool!
You did great in swimming lessons recently and had so much fun!

You are initially quiet when meeting new people. You seem to take everything in about them, and you warm up on your own time. When you do get comfortable, it is obvious by how you start being a little mischievous with the person, or hide from them. You don't let anyone rush you into things. You have a strong and wonderful personality. You are not easily persuaded by others, but you have such a sweet heart. You are often quiet and observant of others, but watch out when you get comfortable, you usually decide to crank up the volume and say whatever you want to say in a really loud voice!

This year you became a Big Sis! You are so sweet with Livvy. You sing to her and talk to her and love on her a lot! You really want to be a helper with her. Sometimes, you seem to go a little overboard with entertainment and get too wild for her. You are a wonderful big sister, and Livvy adores you! She loves to watch you and smiles when she see you!

You are a little stinker at times when it's time for photos. You will do exactly the opposite of what we ask!

You are a little bit of a Momma's girl these days. I have to admit that I am really enjoying it! You like to do lots of things with me and are often content just to sit beside me and read. You like to play more of a game of "come and get me" with Daddy! He has to be more sneaky with getting kisses and hugs. But, when he catches you and is silly with you, you LOVE it! At bedtime, though, Daddy tells me that you are very sweet with him as he sings your princess song, that you like to give him hugs and affection as part of your bedtime routine.

You, just like your brother, love Scooby Doo. I'm pretty sure it's your favorite tv show.

You are getting good at helping clean up your room, with supervision, and other parts of the house. You recently came to me excited about making your bed all on your own, and you did a great job!

You've always enjoyed bath time, and I don't ever have to chase you down like I do your big brother because you are in the tub almost before I get the water running!

You are really funny about music (and always have been)! From about the time you were able to talk, you would fuss when I sang music that you didn't approve of (usually something grownup)! If I sang a kid song, you'd be fine with it. Sometimes, you just didn't want me to sing and wanted to hear the radio. These days, your issues seem to be more about volume. You do not like music that is too loud or too wild. And, you are quite opinionated about it! This is the complete opposite of your brother who loves rockin' out as loud as possible. So, we have to compromise with music on a daily basis in this house!

Ellery Abigail, we are so proud of you. We feel so blessed to have you in our family. It is hard to believe that three years have gone by so quickly. You bring so much joy and laughter to us every day!

Well, there is so much more to say about our big 3 year old, and I will add a few things as I think of them. Below are some things I've written down about Ellery over the past year>


from 3/29
Ellery is such a sweet little girl. One of the last reports of Ellery is how she was always being a little sneaky, finding my gum and chewing it, etc. Well, she still has fun and endearing moments of mischievous (thank goodness!), but she is also becoming quite the sweet young lady. For months, she has been wonderful about saying "thank you" for things spontaneously. For a while, though, she did not want too many hugs and kisses. Now, she is such a snuggler! I love it! She lights up when we spend any one on one time with her talking about anything "pink" or "princess!"

The other day, we were at our favorite gas station, and she said,
"When I grow up, I want to be a Mommy and come here and get gas in my car."

Everything these days is all about, "When I grow up, . . ."

The other day, Ellery specifically asked to call Granna and Cookie on the phone.

Ellery absolutely loves to help me with dishes right now! She asks everyday, "Mom, do we need to wash dishes?"

We love the way Ellery phrases her questions as demands and will be sad the day that she asks appropriately, "Mom, you will get water for me?!" "Dad, you are making me breakfast?" (So, when Kiran started becoming so interested in Star Wars, Ellery got a new nickname: Yoda! She doesn't seem to mind :)

from 1/10
Ellery is now 2 1/2! As of this past week, she decided to be fully potty-trained! She is doing a great job and is very excited about her big-girl underwear! She asks to go potty all of the time now! She is such a sweetheart! She loves to say "I love you!" She usually comes downstairs in the morning with the biggest smile! She's almost always ready to see her big brother. Just when I think they can't be any more adoring of each other, they do or say something to let me know otherwise. Ellery absolutely loves to sing! She loves Taylor Swift. When we get into the car, she immediately says, "Momma, play my song!" That means, I want to hear "Our Song" by Taylor Swift. For a long time, the next words out of her mouth when the song ended were, "One more time!" She could have listened to it all day, I think. Now, when the song is over, she says, "Now, play brother's song!" Ellery is quite dramatic these days! She uses full hand motions when telling a story or explaining how she feels about something! And her voice gets really high-pitched, and there is nothing quite as adorable! I want to catch her on video, but all of these moments are extremely spontaneous! Maybe one of these days!

Ellery has suddenly taken a liking for milk. Very interesting in our non-milk loving family. She loves Kashi blueberry cereal with milk for almost any meal. She isn't great about eating other meals lately. Toward the end of the meal, we have to beg and plead for her to take each bite.

Ellery sayings:

Laying in bed beside me after coming downstairs on a Saturday morning: "Mom, you're going to make breakfast for us? We were upstairs and we were starving. So we are!"

Ellery has started singing with everyone at church in a high voice. It almost sounds like opera.

At church, she and her best friend, Opal, were sitting together. Ellery said, "I love you." Opal, is touching Ellery's cheeks and whispers, "I love you, too." Then, Ellery says to Opal, "You are SO special to me." Cute. Cute.



Kiran is into everything wild and rough! He wants to wrestle and fight (but he does it in as sweet a way as possible). He will let Ellery tackle him outside, and she loves it!


10/19
Dear Ellery,
We are having so much fun watching you be a happy, sweet, mischievous, and perfectly wonderful 2-year-old! You are becoming such a thoughtful and kind young girl.

We have been so busy the past few months. When you turned 2, we were in TX! You had such a fun time at all of your parties.

Some of our favorite things you say are,
"Excuse me"
"Well, actually. . ."
To Kurt (while half naked and with K's electric guitar in hand and full hand motions), "I want to play "Rocky Top" but where is Rocky?" Kurt: I put Rocky outside." "Well, I wanted to play Rocky Top for Rocky!" (all very dramatically)
"Guys, wait for me!
You are learning ABCs, saying all kinds of sentences and words. You love singing. A few songs you love to belt out randomly: "Rocky Top," "Happy Birthday to You,"

You can be so gentle and are such an incredible snuggler. In some incredibly adorable ways, you can also be such a stinker- hiding with my bag chewing gum in the bonus potty stall, etc. You can be quiet as a mouse found reading books so sweetly, and you can also be out of control crazy and so amazingly loud. Sometimes, it seems you only know how to talk in an loud voice.


You learn so quickly by watching and listening to others.




So fun to look back at all the ways you have changed and grown as a 2 year old. Now, we are so excited to share your 3-year adventures with you!

Love,
Mom, Dad, Kiran, and Olivia