our special Christmas present

Yesterday we accepted a counter-offer on this house. We are so excited!! Please pray with us that escrow would go smoothly. It looks like we'll be closing mid-february, just in time for Elliana's first birthday!

You know your two year old is in the Christmas spirit when...

he sings the following, "Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O, and on that farm he had a Reindeer, E-I-E-I-O." Yes, it's official Noah is ready for Christmas.

All about "E"

When I first started blogging, most of my posts were all about Noah. I would blog about his milestones, personality, my frustrations and so on. Now that I have two (and my life seems that much more hectic) I realize that my blogging is less frequent, mostly pics, and rarely about either one of my children individually. Since I just got back from Elliana's 9 month well-baby checkup, I thought I'd blog all about my sweet baby girl.

Elliana is 9 months and 6 days old. I can hardly believe it! When my dr. said that the next time we'd see him was at her 1 year checkup, it really hit me...my baby is growing up...much too quickly.

My sweet Elliana is so much fun. She's as content as can be playing with her toys, crawling all over, and pulling herself up on anything and everything that she can. She's been "talking" more and more; we've heard ma-ma and da-da....but she's not actually referring to us, just practicing. She has also started to "dance" to music and especially loves to join her big brother while he dances. :)

Speaking of her big brother, she LOVES him! And guess what? He LOVES her too. It's the sweetest thing. Many mornings when he hears her wake up he wants to be the one to welcome her to a new day. He'll say to me, "I go get her?" When he goes in her room I hear him say something like, "Good morning, Princess", "Hi, sister", "Hi, Elliana. How are you?" Her happy squeals let us all know that she's equally excited to see her big brother. I love how Noah refersto her by one of the nicknames we've given her; it's adorable. Many times when he goes to "get her" in the morning, he ends up in her crib and together they have a ball. :) It usually includes snuggling, singing, laughing and maybe even a little bouncing. ;)

I said that Elliana is very content...and she is. She's generally the happiest little baby. Except when she's not. :) I usually tell people she's perfectly happy 99% of the time...but that 1%? She will let you know that she's NOT happy. I wonder if this is part of her female genetic make up? She's been a great sleeper, however, I feel like we've had a bit of regression lately. :( Unfortunately she's started to wake up in the middle of the night...and some nights 2 times. The good thing is that this is exactly when Noah did the same thing. You may remember this post, I was sooo confused at what was happening. Fortunately only 4 or 5 hard nights and he was back to his normal sleeping. It's been a little bit longer for Elliana, specifically because of some traveling for the holidays and a couple late nights out (I'm much more of a softy when she's not in her normal enviornment or routine). I hate having her cry it out...especially when I know that in a couple of nights we'll be messing up her routine again. However, since we're going to be home for the next 2 weeks with no real travel plans, I think we'll be able to get back into routine, and after a couple hard nights, I'm sure we'll be back on track. :)

She continues to be at the top of the charts for height (29 inches) but has thinned out (haha, the drs. words) and is in the 50th percentile for weight (19 lbs 6 oz). The first few months she was bigger and longer than Noah was at each of her check ups. However, starting at 6 months, she started weighing less than he did, but is still just as long as he was. She loves to eat, but is intent on eating big people food too. If it's just me feeding her lunch, she's pretty content eating baby food, but when we're all sitting down to dinner, she'll spit out her food and whine until I give her some finger foods. She likes most fruits and veggies except green beans and bananas. I know, what baby doesn't like bananas?? :)

Elliana is such a joy. She adds so much to our family...I can't imagine life without her. I look forward to hearing her happy squeals in the morning, and love the sweet cuddle times we have. She has a smile that could melt any heart (and often works it on anyone who will take a second to look) and has definitely caused our hearts to grow and grow.

my cuties.

Noah came out of the bath and said, "Look, Mommy! I'm just like daddy!"

What a joy it is to find this sweet face waiting for me after her nap. You can see she was still a little out of it when I took the picture. :)

I am blessed indeed!

no words

Alive

Yes, we're still alive! I'm sorry that my blogging has been so spotty lately; I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things here in blogland. :)

We've had a very fun couple of weeks! Pumpkin patch, disneyland, my 30th birthday, trick-or-treating...just to name a few. :) Here are a few pictures of some of the fun we've had:

At the pumpkin patch:

Getting ready to ride the Teacups at Disneyland. Noah LOVED this ride.

Celebrating my 30th birthday with my family:

Visiting grandma

Trick-or-treating

laughing and crawling

Two things that my littlest loves to do! Well, she just officially started crawling this week, but she LOVES to laugh...especially at her brothers silliness.

Santa Cruz

This past week we got to head up to Santa Cruz for a much needed and thoroughly enjoyed time away. Some of our dear friends moved up to the Watsonville area just about two years ago and we always look forward to visiting them. We spend all of our time laughing, eating, and relaxing...three things I enjoy most! This year Hylke brought his new mountain bike up, so he and Terry went out biking each day too. We had so much fun, and especially loved the cool weather!! Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures...sometimes relaxing means being too lazy to run downstairs to get your camera. ;) Here are a few fun pictures that I did manage to take:

Bananas!

Storytime with Bethany

So sweet

I just love this picture...they're watching Bob the Builder

On our way to the Monterey Bay Aquarium...hard to get them all looking at me :)

My adorable little girl. Can't get enough of her!

Noah's silly, but very cute, face

Noah checking out the Sea Horses

The really cool jellyfish at the Aquarium

Practice makes perfect

Enjoying the roses

When my mom was visiting last month she couldn't believe all the roses that were on my rose bush. But the problem was that they were on the rose bush, and not being enjoyed inside. They were the most beautiful, fragrant roses. We have gone a hundred miles an hour this summer and quite frankly, I hadn't even stopped to remember that I had rose bushes to be enjoyed. Well, my mom cut some roses for me, put them in a vase and set them out to be enjoyed. Ever since then, I have made an effort to go out and cut some fresh roses to enjoy. This morning I went out back and cut about 25 roses and set them out all over. Thanks, mom, for reminding me to slow down enough to enjoy the roses. :)

Elliana Laughing

Sea World

We just got back from a fun trip to San Diego. Noah loves Sea World, so we made sure to spend lots of time with Shamu and his friends. :) Besides being BLAZING hot (and terribly humid) we had a wonderful time. Here are some highlights:

Waiting for the dophin show to begin:

Feeding/touching the dolphins (mommy's favorite part):

Shamu!

Mommy and Noah on the Elmo Fish ride (notice Noah saying, "Cheese"):

So tired (and so hot!):

On the Oscar's Eel ride:

Elmo's Zebra Fish (I didn't even mean to flash the "I love you" sign to Hylke...but I do love him :)

long overdue

So sorry for my lack of posts. :( This won't be long, just a quick video of Noah, my little water baby...wait, I mean water toddler. :)

Busy Bees

We have stayed very busy this summer. However, it's the fun kind of busy...trips to the beach, grandma/grandpa's house, a couple days in palm springs, camping....you get the idea. This past week we decided to hit the beach again. It was such a beautiful day! Noah had so much fun building sand castles with daddy, and a large trench that he sat in as the ocean water came and filled it up. His very own sand pool!

On another note, my sweet Noah is getting SO big! I can't believe how quickly they grow up. He carries on conversations with us, and is putting together long sentences (he's been carrying on sentences for awhile, we just didn't always know what he was saying...haha). Here are few of the cute things he's been saying, "Mommy, Look!", "Mommy (or daddy), come play too?", "Elliana awake! Go get her?" "Hi, Mommy. How are you?" This morning while we were playing with his Thomas trains, I had the whole crew of trains go over the bridge and they all stayed on the track...Noah looked at me and said, "Good job, Mommy!" He's also mr. independent. Most things that we used to help him with he insists on doing by himself..."self, self!". I love that he is excited to do things on his own, even if it takes him awhile to do it.

Noah absolutely loves his sunday school class, and adores the teachers/helpers. He always remembers what they learn about and is sure to tell me on our way home. Today I asked him what he did in Sunday school and he said, "I sing".

ME: What songs did you sing?

NOAH: "Light Mine" (This little light of mine) and "Jesus loves" (Jesus Loves Me).

ME: What did you learn about today?

NOAH: "Camels!"

ME: You learned about camels?

NOAH: "Yes. And Joseph!"

We're getting ready to spend the week up at Hume Lake with some of our good friends. But first, there's a BBQ and swim party we must attend first. YAY for summer fun! I'm sure I'll have lots of fun things to update when we get home.

chickens, sleeping and a cutie

You may remember from this post how much fun Noah has with the chickens at Oma and Opa's house. The first thing that Noah talks about when we visit Hylke's parents is going to see the chickens. This past weekend we were there celebrating Opa's 60th birthday and since we were there a little early Noah got to go with Opa to get the eggs that the chickens had laid. Noah was so excited to get out to the coop that he didn't stay inside long enough for Hylke to put his shorts back on after his diaper change. It made for a pretty cute picture. :)

Getting ready to go to the chickens with Opa:

Looking super cute in his boots:

Heading down to the chickens with Opa:

Looking at the eggs they got from the chickens:

Onto some Elliana news.

Just a few days ago I peeked in on her napping and this is what I found:

She's always been a back sleeper...but now that she's rolling over, apparently she likes sleeping on her tummy better. She's been on her tummy in the mornings the past couple mornings, so I'm assuming this is her new favorite sleeping position. Noah didn't sleep on his tummy until he was 9 months, you may remember this post.

And, just because I think she's super cute, here are some pics of Elliana that I took just before bedtime tonight: