Things are changing around here. It is graduation time, so a lot of our friends are moving away. We've been busy trying to spend time with those who are leaving. It is hard. Our friends have been like our family here while we are away from home. They have made these last 2 years so much fun. We wish them all well.
Katelyn:
Katelyn has become my sweet little helper. She gets the stool to stand by me when I do the dishes and cook. She also gets things for Elyse to play with. She has been getting up early-6:00am. I am not ready to get up quite yet, so I have made a little bed on the floor of our room for her. She brings a few of her toys in and plays until about 6:30. She is patient most of the time, which is all I can ask from my almost three year old. We have been getting ready for Elyse's birthday which is making Katelyn excited for her own birthday. At Joann's today, we were getting our fabric cut and Katelyn had the following conversation with the lady helping us:
K: On my birthday, I will be three.
Lady: When is you birthday? Do you know?
K: July 21st.
L: Really! My baby was born on July 21st!
K: On my birthday! How many numbers is your baby going to be?
L:Too many to count!
K: Really. My baby Elyse is going to be 1.
L: What are you going to do for your baby's birthday?
K: Uh...I don't know, but on my birthday my daddy is taking me to ride the bus. (something we've been talking about for 6 months)
The lady was so sweet with Katelyn. They talked the entire time she cut our fabric. It is crazy that she is so big.
 |
Elyse:
Elyse will be O-N-E on Saturday. I cannot believe it! She is in a very sweet stage. She gives me (not Devin) lots of kisses and she hugs us both all the time. She HATES Devin's whiskers, so it is a nightly routine for him to try and get her to kiss his cheeks. She still cries and is needy for babysitters. She has yet to take a bottle at the babysitter. She cruises around furniture and I have caught her standing holding on to nothing a few times. She doesn't seem to have much interest in walking, but she is very good a crawling and climbing. When I am not watching, she crawls over to the stairs and starts climbing. As she ascends, she chants, "Elyse, Elyse, Elyse, Elyse...." It is such a fun game for her to climb half way up and then have me come and get her. She can say mom, dad, Elyse, please, cheese, thank you, love you, woof, moo, out, up, down, night night, and can imitate other sounds and inflections. She giggles a lot and thinks lots of things I say and do are funny. I think everything she does is funny. She can blow, fold her arms, clap and play so big on demand. But I really don't want her to be so big. I want to keep her little.
Here are some random pictures.
Elyse uses this travel Yahtzee as a phone. She puts it up to her ears and says "Hi." She will also do that with just her hand. But if I try and get her to talk to my mom on the real phone, she is silent.
Elyse is saying "cheese" in this one.
Katelyn had a little accident at a friends house and we didn't have any extra clothes, so she came home in boy's clothes. She thought it was fun. I couldn't believe how much she looked like a little tomboy. It was funniest when she put on her heels with the boy clothes!
Elyse has been doing a lot of this lately...chewing. On everything. She just got one molar and has 3 other and her canines all trying to come in right now. I guess when they come through, we'll be done teething until 2 year-old molars. Whew! Way to get them all at once!
Big blue eyes. I hope her mouth stops hurting soon!
I love that these sweet girls are mine! Life is busy, but I often think of this quote from Marjorie Pay Hinckley:
“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”
I try to think of these wise words every time something doesn't go quite right or get cleaned perfectly. When I keep Katelyn up a half hour past bedtime because we are having so much fun coloring or when I come home from the grocery store and realize I had stuff all over my shirt the whole trip, it is okay. Right now, I am a mom. And I am living it up!
