THIRTEEN

June 12, 2015

Madison and Ellie in a "Matching Updo Photoshoot" for Ellie's 13th B-day Fun!

 Ellie

Madison

Best Friends.

Two Beautiful Girls Inside and Out.

Jumpin' For Joy...

And that's a Wrap!

 The Girls Sippin' Strawberry Lemonades.

 Out to Dinner at Claim Jumper.

 

 Back home for cake, icecream and presents.

 

For Ellie's Birthday this year, she decided to choose one special friend (Madison Lee) to come over for a sleepover. After school, I picked the girls up and dropped them off at Yetti Yogurt in town and then met up with them at Fred Meyer where we picked up the cake and the girls were able to pick out matching outfits for a photoshoot the next morning. Later in the evening, we went out to eat then back to the house for cake, ice cream and presents. For her B-day, Ellie wanted to upgrade her phone and then we were at Marshalls the other night and she saw these cool chairs (pictured that she is sitting in opening presents, they swivel and go up and down, they are for her desk/table in her bed room.) The other night after she saw them and a vanity/mirror that opened to a jewelry case organizer inside that you could lock with a key, she wanted them and reminded me frequently (upon which each time I told her, no...I don't think so, someone probably already bought them, ha ha.) When of course they were already hiding in the garage. The night before her b-day and sleep over, she was cleaning her room and madly looking for her big blanket that goes on her bed all over the house. She was in a frenzie looking for it (uh oh, I had found it downstairs and had used it to put over and hide her presents in the garage when I had brought them home to keep secret for a few days.) Not wanting her to decided to go look out in the garage, I just told her, "don't worry I will find it in the morning when I clean the house and I will put it on your bed for you." Of course she had forgotten all about it the next day and after the festivities of the party, when the girls were headed out to the pool and hot tub to take a late night swim. We go, "Oh Ellie, that's right...we saw your blanket out in the garage for some reason, you or some one must have left it out there." So, her and Madison go out and find the mirror hiding under the blanket, Surprise, Surprise- one last gift! Happy Birthday Miss Ellie, our 3rd official teenager in the home :) The next morning bright and early (after a good slumbers nights rest) I took the girls to their updo hair appointments at the Beauty College out in Federal Way. They had found pictures online that morning for the stylists to go by and they did an amazing job, the both looked so beautiful! I took them down the street from our home and took the pictures of the girls in the early afternoon, not the best lighting since the sunshine was so bright (being a gorgeous day) but the girls both looked so cute so it was all good. A fun birthday for sure!!! We love Ellie so much and had fun celebrating her special day with her. Middle school years aren't always the easiest as Ellie has learned. Her really close best friend moved away in the middle of the year and many of her other friends had changed quite a bit as they discover who they are and what decisions they want to make as teenagers so it was tough for awhile as many of Ellie's friends didn't share the same standards and values as her. We prayed as parents that Ellie would make another close friend like Haley (who had moved) that Ellie could trust so she could establish another close and true friendship and we know Madison was an answer to our prayers. As talking to Madison's mom and grandma, Madison had been through similar situations with her friends as well that I was completely unaware of and having a very trying year until the girls became close friends. I didn't mention Ellie's situation to them but they couldn't be happier and feel more blessed that the girls had became good friends. It was nice to find out that Heavenly Father was watching after both of our girls and he had heard and answered our prayers.  They girls are great friends now and although they have many different interests, they have a lot in common and share common values, standards and many of the same interests and hobbies. They are both very sweet girls!  Have a great year Ellie, now you are an 8th grader at the top of your class~

Saydee at Six Months and Journaling

June 2, 2015

Saydee is such a big girl, she can sit up on her own now!

Hanging out with the little ones. Saydee likes to be right in the middle of  the action.

Saydee with her wee lil' fingers in her mouthie.

 Big little sis Brooke holding Saydee like a "Big Helper Pro."

Saydee and Mommy on Mother's Day, she was wanting to grab for the flowers.  Everything she can grab or get her little hands on- she will or at least try these days.

Saydee was more interested in trying her best to put her dress in her mouth than smiling for a picture :)

Saydee loves to go on walks and the outdoors, there's so much for her to see and enjoy! We went on a walk around the Puyallup River with the family and the cottonwood was flying everywhere, it looked like it was and had snowed- you can kind of see it on the side in the background of this picture.

Could it be we have a possible future Pianist on our hands?

 Our big helper is assisting Daddy to help in open one of his b-day presents on his 41st B-day this past month.

At the doctor's this month on 5/14/15 Saydee weighed: 14 pounds 9 oz, (30%), height: 2' 1.98"  (72%),  head circumference: 42 cm (16.54") (58%). This was actually her four month check up that we ended up postponing until 5.5 month- so she was due for three shots and one oral immunization. The oral immunization never agrees with her sensitive tummy (I believe it was the rotavirus vaccine), it makes her SO GASSY- poor little girl...whatever is in there does not agree with her at all. 

 Hands off...these toys are MINE! Even if I am sleeping :)

 Swimmin' Saydee at the Great Wolf this month.

 This little one L..O. V. E. S her daddy, she loves to play and smile and giggle with him!

 Tickle, tickle, tickle...

Saydee's first time in the high chair.

 We tried solids this month, both bananas and apples on separate days of two different weeks this month. We didn't give Saydee much of either but apparently a little bit goes a long ways..that is in the  no sleeping fussy all night department.  Uuugggghhh, we will try again in a month or so.

 Both Brooke and Ellie were anxious to spoon feed her. From experience, I know the rice cereal is the worst on our kids tummies so we X-ed that out from the beginning and decided bananas may be a good place to start. The day we fed her bananas, Ellie was at school and after she found out when she got home that we had fed Saydee bananas, Ellie begged to feed Saydee again every day there after. So after a mom tired of listening to the begging, I let Ellie try again a week later this time with applesauce on a Saturday. Saydee was super fussy, gassy and uncomfortable all day long which equalled to a family tired of listening to screaming and crying (and Saydee does have a set of lungs may I add :) and trying to console our poor little baby who didn't feel good. After that, Ellie got it and was like, "ok, I'm not doing that again!" Like I said, we will try again after giving her underdeveloped digestive system some more time. With our kids it always comes, just quite a bit later...

 Saydee actually ate the bananas quite well, we only started with about five little bites to see how they would settle in the tummy which was fine with Saydee since she just wanted to play with the spoon anyways.

Lovin' the spoon.

Saydee at the park with her little friend Nora Fern.

We are enjoying watching Saydee learn and grow through her first year of life, it's been a lot of fun and we are oddly somehow half way to the year mark already! She gets around quite well now, she will roll and maneuver her self all over the room in no time at all and she loves to play with toys or whatever she can get her little hands or maybe I should say mouth on since that is where everything ends up these days :) It is due time to baby proof the home because it's just a matter of days before she masters this crawling thing... 

 We are all caught up in the journaling department (tangible versions that is.) Ever since I was eight years old and my grandma and grandpa Noble gave me and my other cousins a journal for our Christmas presents, I have diligently kept a journal through my years . I have always enjoyed writing notes, letters, doodling, fancy lettering in my own style what you may so I guess you could say it has been a side outlet for me and something that I enjoy doing. I am absolutely no writer nor proper English (whatever you would call it gal) but I journal about life on my own note in it's fullness. Over the years with kids and life, sitting down to write has became more complicated with the extra time department- so with the blessing of today's digital world with photos which I love to take of our family (did you notice?) there's busy times where I write little but post many pictures to tell the story and then there are times where I write too much and keep those more personal posts private (which I don't publish for the whole blogger world to see but to use them when I print out our blog for our family journaling purposes.) Blogging to many has became a thing of the past especially when facebook became more popular. While blogging can be used as a great way to keep on top of freinds and family close and far, the real reason I blog is for me and my family and my journaling. It has been a true lifesaver and blessing for me to simplify my journaling to keep it going. A great talk on the Importance of Personal Journals by President Spencer W Kimball, one of my all time favorite Prophets of our church is found at the link below.

https://www.lds.org/new-era/1980/12/president-kimball-speaks-out-on-personal-journals?lang=eng

 2013 and 2014 Blog Journals just arrived in the mail yesterday. Fun stuff!

I started a blog just for Saydee well before she was born with her story and how she became part of our family and the inspiration behind all of that (an easy fix for her baby book) and I decided to post her six month mark post on our family blog as well since it's kind of a big mark so some of the photos in this post will be duplicates but who can get enough pictures of their cute bubbly baby right?!