Elise is 18 months old!

I can't believe Elise is already 18 months old!  It's going too fast!  I want my baby back--although she's at a really fun stage now too (except the stubbornness and defiance, "uh-uh," and the tantrums that are starting...).  At her 18 mo. check-up, she weighed 20 lbs 5 oz and was 30.5 in. (a peanut in the 18th and 12th percentile)

18 months is a big deal at church, because then she can start attending nursery and Mom can actually go to Sunday school and listen rather than chase/entertain a toddler!  Elise is enjoying it so far!

Elise walks and runs, she's a climber--always getting up on the table, she has a sweet tooth (she loved Halloween candy), she loves animals (her grandparents' dogs especially), she loves books (we go to story time at the library each week), she loves to dance and give kisses.

Video of Elise dancing (that I can't get to embed--but I guess you can click the link...)
http://youtu.be/WSpVHn7HROY

 

Her hair is long enough I can french braid it (hooray for having a girl!)--although that means I have to fix it each day too or she has crazy bed-head hair!

She thinks she's as old as her brothers--here she is doing Ethan's homework! 

She loves to draw and color--although, she's my first child (at least this early and often) to color all over her body, her clothes, furniture, the floor...

She is saying more and more words each day.  Her current list:

• nods her head for yes
• uh-uh (says this a lot--she's pretty stubborn and likes to do things her way and by herself)
• out
• up
• apple
• ball
• uh-oh
• baby ("baba")
• mama
• dada
• bubba (what she calls Ethan and Grant)
• grandpa ("apma")
• grandma ("amma")
• hot dog ("ot og")
• poo-poo
• banana ("nana")
• turtle
• Brody (g'pa and g'ma's dog--"bo-bo")
• Apollo (other g'pa and g'ma's dog--"pawo")
• more ("mo")
• doggy (it sounds a lot like dada--maybe a slight change in inflection, to her she's saying and meaning a different thing)
• bye-bye

She points at the fridge or pantry when she wants something out of it and will point at her mouth when she is hungry or wants more food! She's really interested in animal noises (when we read animal books/do puzzles, etc)--she blows air in and out for a dog barking, she also meows and moos!  She likes to wave hi and bye.  If I ask her where someone is (and she doesn't know), she'll put her hands up like 'I don't know'. 

She loves her baby dolls!  Here's a video of her rocking and singing to her baby:

She is such a daddy's girl!  She often cries when he leaves the house and totally lights up and runs to him when he returns home!

Elise is such a sweetheart!  We can't imagine our lives without her!

Halloween 2013

For Halloween this year, Ethan was Waldo (from the Where's Waldo books), Grant was a shark, and Elise was an ice cream cone! 

We trick or treated at the fire station the weekend before and had school parties & went to a family Halloween party on Halloween.  We went trick-or-treating with cousins which was fun--but the wind was bitter cold, so we didn't last very long!

Ready for trick or treating with cousins!

Ethan's Baptism

8 is a special age--it's when you can choose to be baptized into our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was something Ethan was really excited about.  Ethan was baptized at the beginning of the month.  It was a beautiful baptismal service.  We're thankful to our family and friends (and teachers--school teacher and swim instructor) who joined us for the special event!

Before his baptism

 

Family picture after

 

With family on my side

Ethan's 8th birthday

We were in Galveston on Ethan's actual birthday.  But were also able to celebrate having Space Parties with friends and family. 

This was such a fun party to do--I used pinterest for lots of great ideas!  The kids came to our "Astronaut Training"

Stomp Rockets!

 

Painting planets

Birthday Cake time (and yes if it looks familiar, I made him the same cake for a family party last year as a "trial run"!

We also created constellations using pretzel sticks and mini-marshmallows, took a space quiz, hunted for Moon rocks in the backyard, tossed meteors at plantets (like a bean bag toss) and practiced fixing space ship parts (wearing rubber gloves had to screw a nut and bolt together in a sink full of water--like how astronauts do training underwater). 

 

with their certificates after completing the astronaut training!

 

 

We had a pizza party and cupcakes with family!

Ethan opened a book from great-grandma and had to go look at it with her before he could open any more gifts!

Hugging Aunt Jojo

Some things about Ethan at age 8--
favorite color: gold (I know that's both boys' favorite--I think Grant copied Ethan)
favorite book: Magic Tree house books ("Jack and Annie" books)--he's read them in order through book 39 so far (started them in Kindergarten when I would read to him and now he reads to me)
favorite movie: Bugs Life (or a new favorite because we just let him watch it: Star Wars-A New Hope...he loves to play Lego Star Wars, so we thought we'd start with a couple of the older movies)
favorite tv show: Wild Kratts
favorite school subject: math
favorite foods: pizza and candy (super healthy--he is my pickiest eater, especially when it comes to fruits and veggies)
favorite thing to do: play games (board games, card games, or xbox), read, ride his bike.
when he grows up he wants to be: scientist
friends: Grant, Ethan B, and "a lot more people"

Ethan is a good big brother, most of the time he and Grant are the best of friends, he is mostly obedient, he is kind hearted, he loves to tell jokes, he is such a smart kid (above grade-level in most subjects), loves soccer and football (which Jon thinks is great to have a buddy for football watching or xbox Madden football playing) and he loves to read and learn. 

More Summer Fun...

I know it's fall--and month away from winter, but I was looking through pictures and realized I missed blogging about a few of our end of the summer adventures!

Like a water fight at Grandma and Grandpa's house

I think Elise was cold (from being wet)--which is why she looks sad, but I loved the colors of her dress, her bow and the marigolds!

And hiking with Uncle Joe and Preston

Going to a Rockies Game

And a hiking trip with Grandma and Grandpa (ending with playing in the cold mountain stream--my boys were a bit embarassed that we didn't bring swim suits, so their only choice was playing in their undies!  But they loved it!)

 

Some other kids who were playing up there were sliding along some of the slick rocks--and Ethan decided to give it a try.  This video shows his 2nd attempt--we missed getting the 1st one on video but it was so funny because he was going quite a bit faster and then when he finished, he tried getting up but stepped into a deep area where he went under and kind of flipped around and quick bobs up out of the water very surprised by the whole thing.  Thank goodness he was okay and he's a good swimmer/comfortable in the water (so being submerged didn't really bother him), but the whole thing was quite comical and the look on his face when he came up was priceless. 

 

And Grant had to try it too!

Fall Sports

This fall Ethan chose to play flag football and Grant played soccer through our city's Rec program.  

Jon coached Grant's team--the Pioneers!  Because he was coaching, a number of other kids we know requested to be on the same team.  The team did great and Grant especially was a soccer super star!  He really seemed to get the idea of getting the ball and taking it down to score.  I think he scored (at least once) in every game!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of him actually playing this season--maybe my mother-in-law did though!

Ethan's team was the Falcons and Jon was able to help as an assistant coach (a group of 4 guys from church all coached together--so it was a lot of fun, and made it easier with their work schedules).  Ethan's team also did great!  He is so into football--he understood all the plays, he was great at keeping track of the score (would add it up in his head), and even scored a touchdown this season on a trick play!

 

 Ethan is the boy in red on the left--I think he was playing defense here.

 

Fall Colors

Grant, Elise and I stopped at my parents' house on a weekday to pick  up something one day this fall and were happy to find my dad at home.  Grant convinced Grandpa that he needed to help rake up the leaves (and play in them)!  It was fun to take a quick break from our busy day and have some fun!  

Family Vacation: Galveston

We weren't necessarily planning on taking a family vacation this year...but then I found airfare for super cheap, so we visited Galveston for a few days in October. 

Our hotel was right on the beach--so perfect location!  But the weather happened to be on the cool side while we were there (except the day we left of course), so it wasn't quite what we were anticpating, but we made the best of it. 

The kids loved playing and digging in the sand, building a sand castle, searching for sea shells, splashing in the waves, and swimming in the hotel pool.

Starting on a sand castle

 

This is the sand castle Jon and the boys built

A lady on the beach wanted to take pics of our sand castle and then took a few of our family playing too (that she emailed to us)

We also rode on a ferry boat (and saw dolphins swimming alongside us)

lots of pelicans

And we visited a local aquarium--no pics, but it was fun.  Elise loved the penguins! 

We stopped to see the Houston temple while we were there too.

It was a nice get-away as a family!  I'm grateful we could go!