Fun at Grandmas

With it being Christmas Vacation, Emily has been home from school, which means Ashtyn has been having even more fun when she is over at Grandma's house and of course Eli does too!  Every grandchild including Emily has had their picture taken in this little shopping cart. Now it was Eli's turn!  He was very content just sitting in it and of course gave us a BIG smile like always...

Emily dressed Ashtyn up in one of her past flower girl dresses, curled her hair and added a crown - PRETTY LITTLE PRINCESS!

 (how Emily gets Ashtyn to pose amazes me - I am always trying to trick her into looking at the camera!)

It looks like they had a GREAT time!  I am so thankful my kids are so loved by their grandparents and the best Auntie ever!  No wonder Ashtyn never wants to go home - all the attention is on her when she visits Grandmas!

More cookie making...

All the cousins got together to make more COOKIES days before Christmas!  But this time we made the fun cut out cookies and then the kids got to decorate them with frosting, sprinkles, hot tamales, peppermints, m&m's, chocolate chips and so much more...

Ashyn did great again being very detailed with every decoration she put on...The sprinkles were definitely her favorite - some cookies had a TON of sprinkles, still finding them all over the house!  We decorated snowman, candy canes, Christmas trees and Ashtyn's favorite - Gingerbread Men!  She thought they looked so cute when they were done!

Nana bought Ashtyn her own baking set complete with measuring cups, spatula and her own apron - so cute!  She wanted to wear her apron so she could match Nana...

By the end Ashtyn was over decorating but found the icing jar to be quite yummy!  She had frosting all over face and was on quite a sugar high!  Once she scrapped that clean she starting licking the icing and sprinkles off all of her cookies - what a COOKIE Monster!  We ended up keeping all the cookies for ourselves after she decided to leave her mark on each one.  I find her slobber precious, but I am sure others do not...

It was quite the hectic, cooking making day - but still so fun and a great way for Ashtyn to enjoy time with her cousins and continue the fun and excitement of Christmas Vacation!

WinterSlam 2010

Every year Louisville Middle School hosts "WinterSlam" where the LMS teachers and Police Officers play against the 8th grade girls and boys basketball teams, and your ticket into the game is an unwrapped toy.  All the toys they collect are then given to the families in need who attend LMS.  It's always fun to attend the game and watch my husband along with his fellow coworkers play the game of basketball...(which is quite humorous in itself, especially Logan!)

It's amazing the amount of support the event gets and the kids have such a great spirit!  The students pulled out a win this year, but only by 2 points!  I guess that gives a year of bragging rights, until the next face off!

 Ashtyn really did enjoy herself, cheering on her daddy, although here she looks rather bored...

Payton and Ashtyn are only 4 months apart and already such good friends - they play so well together!  Hopefully we will have many years to hang out with the Haymores...

It was a fun afternoon watching basketball and of course supporting a great cause!  It definitely kicked off the start to Christmas Vacation!

Top-Torn!

"Top-Torn!"  This is how Ashtyn pronounces "popcorn" - a-dor-able!  Ashtyn definitely takes after her Grandma Sandy with her love for popcorn.  She is always asking someone to make it for her and wants it for breakfast, lunch and dinner - but she only likes the popcorn made from the popper not the microwave - I don't blame her!  Hands down, Grandma Sandy does make the best popcorn ever.  One night we were hanging out watching a movie and Ashtyn says "How 'bout some top torn?"  and of course without hesitation Grandma Sandy gets up and makes it for her.  Ashtyn likes to be involved in the process, as most 2 year olds do, and she probably - if we let her - could do it all by herself...

 Making sure it tastes just right...

 Sandy bought these cute popcorn cups, which Ashtyn just LOVES...

I wish I had taken a picture of the floor after we were done eating our popcorn - it was literally all over the place - I guess we had a good time!  What a great moment that was...

Bubba is 6 months OLD!

My sweet baby boy is now 6 months old!  Time is just flying by and Eli is becoming quite the handful with each passing day.  His stats at six months are:

Weight: 13 pounds, 15 ounces - 2%

Height: 26 1/4 inches - 40%

Head: 16 1/2 - 56%

EATING:

Eating has remained a challenge - still!  To his defense he was eating really well and then got the horrible flu, which caused him to throw up and have diarrhea for a week straight, which caused him to lose about a pound.  So we had another set back, hence the low weight again.  But on the bright side he did gain a pound in two weeks - when we were at Children's Hospital for the flu he weighed just under 13 pounds and at his check up today we were close to 14 pounds.  The doctor was still concerned about his weight and would like to see him bigger, but he is consistently gaining the same weight every two months, so I guess he is just setting his own growth curve - so typical of this little boy.  Now, that he is eating oatmeal the doctor said to feed it to him 3 times a day and too start introducing as much FATTY foods as possible.  She told me to add butter to everything.  So maybe I will just have him suck on a stick of butter - so GROSS, but whatever works.  We have to go back at 8 months, because the doctor wants to keep a close eye on this little issue of weight.  I am bound and determined to get this boy chunky - so I am hoping the string of bad luck is over for a while in regards to his eating.  Only time will tell...

 PERSONALITY:

Eli is still such a happy baby, until about late afternoon and then he falls apart.  Smiles all the time - even when he was throwing up, he would smile right afterwards - it was hilarious!  He is definitely starting to become attached to people he knows and no longer likes unfamiliar faces - separation anxiety had kicked in for sure.  He always wants to be held, which has definitely been an issue lately, so sometimes we just let him sit there and scream, because we just can't hold him every second of the day.  I am hoping this is just a phase and we get through it quickly. I think when he starts to get more mobile, he won't be so clingy.  He LOVES his sister and is always reaching for her and kicking his legs when he sees her.  Ashtyn is getting better about paying a little bit more attention to him and will sometimes even share her toys with him.  She does give him lots of kisses though - such a precious moment to witness!

 TRICKS:

Everything goes in the mouth these days - EVERYTHING!  He is getting better at playing with toys, but still will only occupy himself for 10 minutes at the most.  He loves mirrors.  He is getting better at sitting and can almost sit unsupported.  He likes to lean over and suck on his toes while he sitting up - looks like a monkey!  He can "back crawl" not sure if that is even a milestone, but he scoots everywhere on his back.  He has fallen off the couch a couple times - so he is no longer allowed to be unattended while laying on a bed or couch.  He is great at finding his pacifier with his eyes closed and getting it back into his mouth.  And, he has started sucking his thumb if he doesn't have his paci - so when I see this I immediately remove his thumb and offer something different - my past may come back to haunt me!

 SLEEPING:

Sleeping is still going well.  He mostly sleeps through the night - going to bed at 8 pm and waking up around 7am - but will occasionally have a week where he wakes up at 2am and wants to eat - I guess those are his growth spurts.  With the Oatmeal though he has been sleeping very well - taking a long morning nap and then a little nap right after dinner before bath time.  But I will say he is very picky when it comes to his sleeping arrangement - he has to sleep on 2 down pillows with a light blanket and his head must touch something - top of crib, pillow or he will scoot up until it does so - weird?  I know babies shouldn't being sleeping in any kind of condition as I just explained, but it works for him and we all get a good night sleep!

 Being so small Eli can fit into Ashtyn's baby doll things - the other day we were cleaning the toy area and put him in the baby doll high chair - he fit perfectly!  It was so cute and he enjoyed it for quite awhile.  I guess being little has its FUN!  I hope this next month Eli gets better at eating, gains some weight and maybe becomes a bit more mobile.  He so far has been a great baby - definitely has a preference for wanting things a certain way, but once you figure it out he is a happy camper - before 4pm anyway!  Christmas is right around the corner, so that should be a fun 1st for him to enjoy!

Love you Bubba - you keep us all on our TOES!

...and its GOOD!

FINALLY!  Eli ate Oatmeal - YEAH!  I was so proud of him.  After he recovered from the flu, I decided we should try again since we are in desperate need of weight gain, and once I figured out the perfect recipe he LOVED it!  He has to have it with 2 ounces of formula, not to thick but not too soupy, served HOT!  Very picky, but at least solids are now going into his belly!  Now off to try veggies, fruits and whatever else I can get into his mouth, without making him gag...

 Isn't he so precious!  Mama is so proud of you...hopefully we can see some fat rolls on you soon...

Christmas Traditions

We had a weekend full of Christmas traditions.  We finally got the tree up on Friday morning.  It took me all morning to get it out of the box, straighten the branches and get the lights in working order - but it's up!  Ashtyn LOVED the Christmas tree- she's been asking me for days now - "When we have Christmas tree?"  She hung out under the tree the rest of the morning...

Eli even thought the tree was pretty cool.  I had him laying on the couch so he could watch me and he scooted all the way to the end and then reached out to the branches and proceeded to shake them.  It's a good thing he's not mobile yet or I don't think we would have a tree up this year.

Eli was fussy on that morning - what's new though!  So I thought the only way to finish getting the tree up was to put him in the baby carrier, which seemed to suffice until I bent over and one of the tree branches stuck him in the eye - Whoops! But once the tree was in working order I put him in front of it and it kept him content for quite a while.  He sat there and just screamed at the tree - happy screaming though!

I finished decorating the tree Friday night after the kids went to bed - I wanted to enjoy this part and I am neurotic when it comes to the placement of ornaments and so on...So when Ashtyn came down the stairs Saturday morning she was very surprised.  She said "Oh, that look so pretty mommy - good job!"  She was so memorized by the tree.  She just sat there and looked at it for a good 20 minutes.  Then she starting playing with the ornaments, so we had to have a little chat about not touching, just looking!  Hopefully all the ornaments will stay in one piece...

On Sunday we went over to Mimi's house to make Christmas cookies with all the Aunts and Cousins - another Christmas tradition.  Ashtyn once again was the "sprinkle" girl!  Brooke and Ashtyn did great at adding the sprinkles to the sugar cookies - I think Mimi approved, except when we did orange sprinkles, that didn't go over that well.  Apparently orange is not an approved Christmas color! 

We made a ton of cookies as usual - and by "We" I mean my aunts (I was on baby duty the whole time) so the credit is all to them.  It was different this year though with Pam and the girls in Mexico.  I am sure they were having fun, but we definitely missed their company.  The cookies are delicious and beautiful as always - YUM!