Well, we are having trouble keeping up with these two lately! Now that they are both mobile, we are even more exhausted, but amazed at how much they are learning and growing. We have had so many fun things going on in the past month....where do we start?? Well, Ellie is moving all over the place, trying to pull up, and starting to be more and more dramatic and sensitive! She has the beginning signs of some separation anxiety when she is away from mom and dad- let's hope this is a short phase! She has been so mild mannered and such a sweetie since she was born, and now her stubborn and LOUD side is beginning to show! She loves to laugh, giggle, scream, clap (with her hands and feet)....and she starting saying "HI!". It is her very first real word! It's so so cute, she waves her hand and says "HI!!". She is also saying her own version of "all done" and does the sign language to go along with it.

Caleb is still a great big brother and very protective, but he is beginning to notice that Ellie can now get in his space and play with his toys. She admires her older brother so much and always wants to be doing what he is doing. She crawls over to where he is and tries to play with this cars, trucks, blocks, etc....Sometimes, we will be in the kitchen and we hear her little pitter patter, then Caleb yells, "ELLIE! NO TOUCH my (insert: leg/truck/toy/book/)" It is only just beginning :)

Caleb's new fave toy is his red car that he can drive.

It has a little key and he puts it in the ignition and drives all over the place. Since he graduated to the big car, Ellie has inherited his old push car, and she loves it almost as much as he did!

He is also enjoying being the king of the castle that Grandpa Fred put together. (thanks to Nate and Natalie for handing this down!).

He also enjoys "cooking" with mom. By that, I mean......

Congrats to Uncle Ryan for graduating from highschool!

We are so proud of him- a star student and a star athlete, too! He will do great in college. We went to Wichita for his graduation and grad party, and had a great time. Caleb had alot of time with the boys, and Ellie got lots of attention, too.

Here are some pics of my latest project- a pink "tutu" bedskirt for Ellie's bed- 20 yards of tulle, people!

Ellie was overwhelmed, and so was I! But it turned out cute!

I got the idea from a friend at work who is having a baby this week (who will be named Ellie, too)!

We have been taking advantage of the sun these past few weeks!

We went outside in the sprinkler first:

And then to Shawnee Mission Lake on Saturday to play at the swim beach!

Caleb took a little while to warm up to the idea of getting in the water (when we first got there he was like "NO SWIM! No water...") But by the end he was sitting in the water, building sand castles and splashing around with Daddy. He has never been a fan of swimming, so this was a big improvement! Ellie and I just played on the beach and relaxed :) I was a little nervous when I noticed two hawks circling around right above our heads, though- Ellie was the smallest thing around...and she looks like such a sweet little morsel....haha.....daniel just laughed, but I kept my eye on them ;)

We had a nice visit with Grandpa Mike last weekend, too.

We had fun playing, eating, and catching up with Dad, Grandma, Aunt Jan, Uncle Don, Kimberly & Dustin.

Caleb really loved Kim and Dustin's dog: a HUGE doberman named Memphis. Caleb was not afraid at all, and even helped take him on a walk. The kids were so exhausted afterwards that they both crashed within 2 minutes of getting in the car:

Last week when Daniel had night class, I decided to take the kids to Chick-fil-a for "fire safety night". They had a huge fire truck and firemen there for the kids to see, and a K-love booth. I thought C would be SO excited because he LOVES fire trucks.....BUT he wanted nothing to do with the fire truck!

This is about as close as he would get, even after I tried to bribe him with candy. hah! You just never know! But Ellie really loved the fireman hat she got, and Caleb had a great time playing on the slide.

The whole eating-dinner-out-by-myself-with-both-kids thing was a little challenging, especially since Caleb was being wild and I was carrying about 531.6 pounds of baby/diaper bag/food/high chair/my massive purse/camera/ and other various necessary accessories, while trying to keep an eye on my 2 year old who was catapaulting over the backs of the padded booth seats and saying "Hi!" to everyone. Exhausting! I think the manager noticed that I was struggling a bit, so she came over and whispered in my ear, "can I give him some ice cream, on me???" I thought for a second (he really didn't deserve any ice cream!) and said "sure!". So she took Caleb back to the back where they make the food and let him make is own ice cream sundae!! He felt so special, and it really helped me regain my sanity!! It was so sweet and really made my day- I am even more of a chick-fil-a fan now!!

Oh, and I must share, we have had yet another of our "we-must-me-horrible-parents" moments. We were driving to church on Sunday night, and we heard Ellie start to squeel, and Caleb started yelling: "No, Ellie!!", so I looked back and she was upside down in her carseat, crawling OUT! We didn't even buckle her in, and she was making a break for it. I freaked out and grabbed her and eventually got her buckled in....Dan and I just looked at each other and had to laugh....sometimes I think I have gone crazy...

Caleb started his "Me and Mini Me" Baseball Camp on Friday.

I must admit, our hopes were a little too high- his favorite part was getting to use his new green water bottle. For the most part, it was a lot of pandamonium with 40 little 2-4 year olds running around and throwing balls in various directions. However, there were a few families there that were super serious about the whole thing- there were some kids that were like pro's in training or something- there were 2 year olds with perfect swings, hitting REAL pitches and one kid that could throw the ball from the mound to the plate (yes, I am not exaggerating, he was only 2!) Soooo....with that being said, we realized C is not a child prodigy when it comes to baseball, and he will not be entering the major leagues at age 10, but hopefully the weeks to come will be a lot of fun.

Have a wondeful week!

PS. I entered Ellie in a photo contest <--click to see :)