Little Mommy AG

Some people say that girls and boys really aren't all that different inherently; they just adapt to their environment, and since we train them to be different they are.  Well, I don't know what planet those people come from or what species they are, but I know my God had an absolutely perfect design in mind when He created Elijah and Auburn Grace to be distinctly boy and distinctly girl, and it was good, perfectly good.  And no matter how many cars we put into AG's hand or how many dollies we give Elijah, he will still choose to make everything a racetrack with all kinds of vehicular noises, and AG will still choose to nurture everything, including the little ladybug she found on our balcony today. 

 

So here's to the uniqueness of being a girl: sassy, sweet, comforting, bossy, nurturing, loving, and all that's in between.  Mommy loves you so much Auburn Grace.  You are going to make an incredible mommy someday!

 

 

The Box House

So a long while back, we bought a new washing machine, and the box was just the perfect size to make a little house for the kids.  So when David's parents came for a visit, they made a cute house equipped with two windows, a door, and a hole in the roof for Elijah to poke his head out of. 

 

The kids loved it!  Then recently we decided to cover it with some white paper and let the kids color all over it, and they had the best time ever.  They both love the house, and if I can't find either of them, I know exactly where to look.  AG often drags her little kitchen in there, and Elijah drags just about everything else in there (I think my pilates mat is in there as I type this)!  I love how much fun they (and we) have had with this box house!

 

 

 

Easter Celebrations

We had lots of fun celebrating Easter this year! 

 

We started our celebration by going through the Resurrection Eggs with our kids which they really loved.  Elijah really got into the story this year, and truly seemed to empathize with Jesus more than ever before.  His conversation with his Sunday School teacher that week went something like this:

 

Miss R: "So kids, today we are going to be talking more about Jesus' death on the cross and what that means for us."

Elijah (in all seriousness): "Miss R, you know I died on the cross one time." 

 

I have no idea what he was talking about, and when I asked him, he repeated the conversation without hesitation and didn't seemed phased by it even a little bit.  Okay, so maybe we need to go back through those eggs again:-). 

 

We decorated eggs with friends, and the kids had such a great time.  Elijah loved using the dipper to dunk the eggs in dye, and Auburn Grace loved sprinkling glitter on her dyed eggs.

 

 

Then on Easter Sunday, we had a potluck barbeque lunch and an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  This was AG's first hunt, and though she was slow, she was quite deliberate and ended up with lots of fun prizes!

 

 

 

 

Elijah had so much fun too running all over looking high and low for those last few eggs.

His absolute favorite prize that he found inside one of his eggs was a whistle- and for the rest of the day we heard all about it, literally.  He blew that whistle the entire rest of the egg hunt, the entire time the older kids had their egg hunt, the entire ride home, the entire afternoon, and then finally, we said the whistle was tired and was ready to go to bed!  And he still blows it every single day! 

Mommy and AG

The Bike

When I was talking to my mom recently I realized that I have gotten so very far behind on blogging, and that I really wanted to back-blog a bit just to document some of the significant events in our lives over the past 6 months or so- Nana coming to visit, Thanksgiving, Gigi and Pops coming to visit, Christmas- it's crazy how much I have missed. 

 

Even though it is definitely going to take me a while to get caught up, I promised Nana and Papa that I would post about Elijah's favorite riding toy to date- the "Beemer Bike".  We call it the "Beemer Bike" becuase it has a "BMW" logo on it, and because Elijah says it is a racing bike (be sure to watch the videos below to see one our infamous races together).

 

These videos were taken the first day he started riding the bike.  It took him a little while to get the hang of the handlebar brakes, but now he can zip around everywhere carrying Auburn Grace in tow.  He asks to ride his bike every single day and he never gets tired of it.  He loves carrying all kinds of things in his basket, and he loves to ride like the wind (Don't worry grandparents. He does have a super cool helmet that matches his bike that he rides with.)

 

Definitely. All. Boy.



 

 

 

 

 

 

Mini Photo Shoot

For any of you who have little ones or have every had little ones, you definitely know how difficult it can be to get a great shot of them; but it was such a beautiful afternoon, and the kids were wearing complimenting colors, and they were not filthy yet, so I decided to give it a go.  Each of them did smile for many of the pictures, however getting both of them to look directly into the camera and smile at the same time proved to be quite the challenge.

 

They both said "cheese" every single time, but they were often saying it while looking off into the distance, poking the other one, or trying to get down!

 

They did some really sweet kisses, but due to the speed of the camera I could never get them at the right moment (note to self- bring big SLR to every photo opportunity!). 

 

In the end, I did get some fun ones, some sweet ones, and some super cute ones too!  Enjoy!

 

Bouncy!

Our kids love to jump on things- couches, beds, mommies and daddies.  Recently in trying to curb their indoor jumping addiction we decided to take them out to a nearby park to try out this fun bungy jumping contraption for kids.  They absolutely loved it, and did not want to have to stop.  It is a great way to get all their jumping energy out and share a lot of laughs while we're at it!

 

To the Beach in January

This January, to escape the cold weather for a bit, we took a little family vacation to a little island in China that has warm weather and nice beaches.  Though the kids definitely loved the pool, they absolutely went nuts over the beach.  They loved being able to play in the sand (read "get dirty without getting scolded by mommy"), jump the waves, and swim out to sea with daddy.  As you can see from the pictures, AG is our messy girl, and Elijah is our boy who always wants to keep his hands clean.  They are really so funny about this!

 

We stayed at a nice hotel, ate hamburgers for lunch, and had stir-fried ice cream for dessert at nights.  We didn't check e-mail, and we had no agenda.  It really was one of the most relaxing things we've done together as a family so far, and we will definitely do it again!

 

AG sporting her new hairstyle!



Notice Elijah's hands- he hates for them to be dirty and here he
is trying to brush the sand off at the beach.  Good luck buddy!

Lijah and Daddy! (again notice his hand)

AG scooping and shoveling

One more time for keeping the hands clean!

Bathing beauty and her mommy!

Out to sea with Daddy!

Still agitated about the sand on his hands!  He is cracking me up!

"Ride a ride!" - AG's new favorite phrase

Where's Lijah?

A couple of years ago, I bought these Imaginarium "bricks" for Elijah at a Toys 'R Us in Thailand when were on vacation.  Though David was not thrilled about lugging he huge box back home, he went along with my notion that Elijah would love them.  So when we got home, I was eager to get them out and get them all shaped into the different sizes so Elijah could get to playing.  We got them all ready and guess what?  Elijah did not play with them AT ALL.  It wasn't like he was just disinterested; it was like he actually loathed the blocks.  I was sad, but not completely defeated, and I stored the blocks in our IKEA footstool/storage box in hopes that he might open it up one day and think he had just discovered a treasure inside.

Well, that day has finally come, and not only does Elijah love the "bricks", but Auburn Grace and he play with them together ALL. DAY. LONG.  They throw them all out of the footstool, and then climb in the footstool prentending it is a boat.  They bury each other in the blocks, build towers and then crash them down, build roads, airplanes, you name it.  They are definitely the toy love right now for both of the kids. 

So the moral of this story is that if you have a hunch about a toy that you know your kids are just going to love, don't let their apparent first hate of the thing knock you off your game.  They'll eventually come around:-).

Can you see who's hiding in the blocks?

 

Hold Your Horses!

One of my goals for learning time with the kids this year is to do a better job keeping up with their "lessons" in the book Slow and Steady Get Me Ready.  This book gives a little weekly learning time lesson for the exact age each child is at so that you can be sure they are developing on the right track.  The activities are engaging, smart, and lots of fun too.  This past week we did Elijah and Auburn Grace's lessons all together as I knew both of the kids would enjoy doing the other's lesson this time around.

So for Elijah's lesson, he needed to learn how to gallop, and what better way to do that than with his very own sock horse.  So we grabbed a pair of daddy's socks (sorry daddy) and got to work.  First we stuffed the horses with bubble wrap (by the way, did you know that jumping on bubble wrap is one of the simplest and most fun activities that has held my kids attention in a long time?).  I cut out ears, eyes, a mouth, and nose in the colors each child chose, and they started gluing them on.  Then we glued on some twine for the main, stuck in a "stick" in the neck, tied it all up and got to galloping.  Though making the horse was definitely fun, the races that ensued afterwards were the best part!

 

For AG's lesson, we stamped and painted- with vegetables!  We got out the carrots, celery, grape tomatos, and even broccoli and jumped right in.  Both of the kids really enjoyed painting in this creative way, and we talked about the vegetables (color, texure, shape, etc.) as we worked.  So fun!

 

Elijah really got into his painting. You can see how
much he loves the color brown.

"Hands." AG really did not like the paint to stay on her hands so
 she kept asking me to wipe them; hence, the washcloth beside her.