Torture

To my fellow Canadian readers.....I PROMISE I'M NOT TRYING TORTURE YOU!!!!!

But it stopped raining for a minute yesterday so I packed up the kids and the stroller and raced down to the local park/walkway. Let's pause to talk about the stroller for a minute. We drive a Camry. I have a Graco tandem double stroller. These two do not go together. I don't mind our stroller (especially since someone gave it to us for free) but it is HEAVY, like beastly heavy! And it does not fit easily into our trunk. I got it in ok, I got it out ok too but getting it back in....well that wasn't pretty. Let me continue with my story though...

So we get to the park and I'm so excited to see this:

Mark is ready to rock n roll, he takes his stroller rides kind of seriously!

Elizabeth is definitely ready to go, pointing at me to hurry up!

We lasted 6 minutes until it started spitting rain. I thought to myself, we have lived in the Northwest for a while now, we can handle a little rain....well 3 minutes later it started getting windy, cold windy. And then it started really raining. So our walk lasted 10 minutes. On one hand I was sad it was cut short but at the same time I was at least happy to have gotten out of the house (this is also the part where I was thinking of all my freezing family members and friends in Canada!). I think Mark was sad too, well mostly tired but sad:

Now is the part where I had to put the stroller back in the trunk. Ya know the beastly heavy one whose wheels were now covered in mud?! All while I was currently getting poured on! It took me a good 5 minutes, luckily no one was around to here my ranting and kicking and shaking the dang thing! I may have broken something on it, but I got it in there somehow. I then proceeded to leave Mark a nasty message at work about how I will NEVER use the stroller again in the car and that he either buys me a new stroller or a minivan all while using a burp cloth to dry myself off. The truth is, I'll be desperate enough to leave the house today that I'll use it again, he knows me too well!

The good news is the kids were still happy to get in the car which meant that I could stop for a milkshake at Dairy Queen, it just happened to be 2:00 pm: Happy hour! So it was half price! I figured my 10 minutes of walking and 5 minutes of shoving around a 40 pound stroller helped me burn off enough calories for a small one, and it was really good! And it made me not so mad at mother nature when we got home and the sun came out again! Don't worry, it starting raining 10 minutes later, crazy weather!!

Circus Act Part 1

Elizabeth is getting to be quite the copy cat these days. They love watching Mark throw food up and catch it in his mouth. She thought maybe it was time for her to start practicing too!

She is doing good at shaking her head yes and no. Yesterday when I was changing Little Mark's diaper she came over and wanted to open the wipes container to empty it and when I said ' no touch' she started shaking her head no and stopped! We did this about 5 more times and surprisingly she never got into the wipes!

Birthday Presents

We are going to be posting a few birthday things this month since we are slow at getting pictures. Mark has a special something he put together but then our computer crashed and he didn't lose his project but he has to reload the program, which is in storage...so we'll try to get that done soon.

Anyways, here is Little Mark relaxing in his crib one day while I was feeding Elizabeth her bottle. The picture is a little blurry, I was trying to be sneaky! He just laid there and tried to turn pages and look at books, it was soooo cute and now he does it all the time. This book is one that Grandma B got him:

She also went in with me to get this for them:

And guess who figured out how to climb to the top less than 5 minutes after getting it?

This is another fun one they got from us:

They weren't sure what to do with the sticks at first! Now they love to bang on everything, not each other yet thank goodness!

Elizabeth learns something new!

The other day at breakfast Elizabeth learned something new and as you will see she is quite proud of herself! I couldn't edit the video because our program isn't working, so it's a little longer than I wanted and I was the one doing the head motions (obviously) and it was too hard to try and hold the camera still while doing it! Little Mark was so cute at the end cheering her on!

Chocolate and laundry.

We partied Saturday night with Jake and his family, so hard that half a mini egg was spilled and left behind for someone to find the next morning, I'll give you 2 guesses:

See that chocolate stain on his nice clean white church shirt? Ya, he refused to let me in to retrieve the chocolate and by the time Mark had gotten over to try he had already dissolved most of it in his mouth, little stinker! I knew he would find it and love it. I guess if it's his first time experiencing chocolate at least it was the good stuff!

As for Elizabeth, she was happy as can be after a crazy morning at church, I love this girls smile and curled up eyelashes!

Even when she does things like this:

Saturday.

I can't believe that we hung out with Jake and his kids, had soooo much fun and only took 1 picture the entire day! What is wrong with us?! Mark and Elizabeth LOVE playing with their cousins, it doesn't even matter what they are doing, they love to watch Jena and Shay jump around! Kayla fits right in with these two and they all loved playing with the toys, there wasn't even that much fighting!

We rented Megaminds and Shay cuddled up on the couch with me and in a matter of about 10 seconds I watched her eyes close and her head fall to my shoulder! It was so cute! After a while I moved her so that she was laying down and then she turned on her side, nuzzled her face in to my side and put her hand on my belly...oh I love this girl!!

I had fun playing with Jena and the animal puppets Grandma T got us. No matter how hard we tried to convince Jena that we are having a girl, she refused to believe us, she just tells me that I need to go to the dr tomorrow and have them look again because it's a boy!

Guilty.

It was so cold outside and we were itching to get out of the house so I broke down and did something I have never done before, something I swore I would never do.... well let me just show you exhibit A and see if you can figure it out:

I know, I know!!!! Wait, did you figure it out, need another clue?

That's right, I took my kids out in public....in their pajamas!! Sorry Mark and Elizabeth! I'm a little ashamed but at the same time I just didn't have the energy to get them dressed (it takes super powers to get Little Mark dressed these days, he doesn't hold still for a second!) and it was SO cold out, I thought they would be nice and warm in their pj's. I'm only kidding around here, I'm not that embarrassed, besides it's not like I was in pajamas! And we only went to one store!

And I did get cute pictures of Mark playing peek a boo with me, check it out:

PEEK A BOO!!!!

1 year.

I'm a little behind but here is what our cuties are up to at 1 years old!!

Mark

Height: 29 inches (25%)

Weight: 18 lbs. 10 oz (10%, wahoo, an increase!)

Little Mark....you are a busy and very curious baby! We love trying to keep up with you and we love watching what you will discover and learn next. This is a very fun stage and it seems like you are learning something new everyday! To our surprise you have learned to walk a few steps already and everyday you stand on your own in the middle of the room and practice. You mostly pivot in a circle and it's really helping you gain control when you start wobbling. You love to play under the table for some reason, you will play peek a boo with me or Elizabeth by ducking under a chair or going behind the blinds. You and Elizabeth get under there and play and laugh together all the time, you love crawling over and in between the chairs.

You also LOVE balls and books. You can throw the ball with pretty good accuracy most of the time and throw it far too. You love to empty things, the recycle bin, the bookshelf, the laundry baskets, the toy bin...you will throw things as far as you can but check them first to see if they are interesting to you or not! Someday I hope you will be as excited to put things back in their place! You always laugh when Daddy throws you around and makes you do flips and spins in the air, it's one of your favorite things. As of right now you are really into playing with the learning table again because you have discovered new things on it. You can click the button so it changes from music to Spanish or English or just noise and you can now figure out if you push certain things they will make a sound and you will do it over and over. You love to climb on the bouncer and jump, I think it makes you feel like you are on a trampoline...or you just like being up higher!

You do some really funny and cute things. At dinner the other night you were making funny noises with your mouth and you would look at me like 'mom, that was funny right?!' and then start laughing at yourself! I think you are going to be our little comedian. You love to wrestle and tease your sister and usually it makes both of you laugh really hard. You talk and talk all day long, sometimes really loudly too! It's usually a lot of dadadada's but you also like to make ssss and shhh sounds too. We have a peek a boo book where the baby is trying to find his mommy and at the end when he finally finds her you always start clapping, it's so cute!!

You love to eat the following: spaghetti, string cheese, peas, rice cakes, pears, cantaloupe, pineapple, grilled cheese, blueberry waffles, puffs, pasta, and well, most anything....so far I can't get you to like cottage cheese though. You usually eat really good and are getting better at drinking straight from the cup or a straw, although today you got too much and squirted it out like a fire hose right at me! You always have such good aim! About 10 days ago we switched you from Alimentum to regular formula and even though you haven't been drinking as much...you haven't been sick or upset by it so we think that it might just take some time to get used to it and then hopefully you will be able to continue on it. We are praying that you have grown out of this protein sensitivity or whatever it is that has been causing you problems! When it's time for you bottle and you see your blankie you start smacking your lips and you love to play with the tag on your blanket. Some of your favorite songs right now are, Take me out to the Ballgame, Popcorn popping, Give said the Little Stream, Itsy Bitsy and pretty much anything else I can think of to sing to you!

You can wave at people, give high 5's, clap, sign 'all done', and every day you are getting to be a better walker. Your dance move has evolved from a two hand high in the air wave to a standing bounce. You are obsessed with mouths, any mouth, especially teeth! And you can point to my nose, mouth and teeth. You love to stand in the bathtub and then do a bum drop! You can moo like a cow and sometimes do a monkey. You LOVE your sister! Just now I put you two in the crib together and you walked over to her (without holding on to anything) then layed your head in her lap and starting laughing and wrestling (even if she was trying to stick her finger down your throat and make you gag!). She is your favorite person to play peek a boo with. Somehow you still sleep through all her midnight jabberings. You are a really good sleeper! Sleep and a schedule is really, really important to you. In fact, if you aren't sleeping well we always know that something is wrong with you because you don't let anything keep you from it! You still love your blue blankie and usually still sleep on your stomach although lately I have seen you sleep a little more on your side and back. You wake up between 7 and 7:15 almost every morning and are a happy morning baby, especially after you have a big breakfast!

We love you so much and just don't know how we lived without you for so long! You are sweet and make us laugh and are not afraid of anything...all qualities that we love and admire. Happy 1st Birthday buddy!!!!

Elizabeth:

Height: 28 inches (10%)

Weight: 18 lbs. 14 oz (30%)

Oh Elizabeth...you are so fun!!! You smile ALL the time and we love it! You are a happy, happy girl. You usually wake up happy, and have a hard time going to bed because you are so happy! You still prefer sleeping on your tummy with your pink blankie, well actually you would love to fall asleep with Mommy holding you all the time! We don't let you watch it often but you love watching anything on the Ipod, TV or computer, at least for a good 5 or 10 minutes! You LOVE, LOVE, LOVE books!!!! In fact lately you would rather look at the book yourself than have me read it to you! You love the learning table and are really good at pushing the buttons and especially playing the little piano. When you talk it's a lot of dadada's and mamamama's but you like doing ssss and shhh sounds too. Mark is definitely your little buddy and you seem to have a lot of fun when he's around, sometimes I feel like you just aren't as happy until he wakes up and starts playing with you!

We just got you a wooden push toy and you LOVE pushing it around, in fact tonight when it got stuck and you couldn't get it to go you sat on your bottom and jumped back about 4 times because you were so mad! Just like your brother you love to empty things, the recycle bin, the laundry basket, the bookshelf, the toy bins...only you stop to look at things a lot more closely and usually it takes you longer to get through emptying something! You love music and will dance to almost anything, especially anything that Grandma T sings to you on skype. The other day you were in your crib waiting for me to finish feeding Mark and even though you were crying I started to sing ' I looked out the window...' and you would rock back and forth, but still kept crying!

You do love your brother but are getting feisty with him too. You like to use your head a lot to defend yourself, mostly to push him out of the way! Most of the time you love it when he wrestles and plays peek a boo with you, no one can make you laugh as much as your brother. Lately you have started to give just me kisses at night and they are so funny! You just sit there with your mouth on my cheek (sometimes I think trying to bite me) and then after about 10 seconds you start laughing! You finally got 2 more teeth up top so you have a total of 6.

Ever since you had the stomach flu and couldn't have much of a bottle for a couple days you have been a great solid food eater! It really helped you transition and some of your favorite foods are: string cheese, peas, blueberry waffles, rice cakes, puffs, yogurt, spaghetti, pineapple and you will pretty much eat everything else, just not in the capacity as your above listed favorites! You can drink out a cup a little bit but you can't really use a straw yet. When we give you a sippy cup you love to play with it but will only take tiny sips every once in a while. You still love your bottle/mommy cuddle time before naps and bedtime. Right now some of your favorite songs are Mother tell me the Story, or most any Primary song and Give said the little stream.

I think you will be walking within a month, hopefully once you see Mark do it that will help you! You can nod your head yes and sometimes no, you can give high 5's, wave bye, point to things, clap, and when you dance it's usually back and forth. You love to do bum drops in the bath too! Lately you keep putting your face in the water and then acting surprised every time, we're not sure what you're thinking! You can bark like a dog and you just started making a monkey sound, sometimes you can moooo like a cow too!

We sure love everything about you! You light up the room and make us so happy all the time, you are a good girl that we just love to squeeze and cuddle with! Happy 1st Birthday princess!!!!

Family pictures: