Fluffy Butts

We are so lucky to have an awesome cloth diaper store that is local. It has had three owners now and each one has been super knowledgeable. EcoBuns recently celebrated one year with its current owners, a mother and her two daughters. We attended a birthday celebration where the two littles had their pics taken by the super talented Felicia Holland.

We did this last year and used Easton's pictures as his one year photos. They were adorable! This year he decided to make sure every penny was earned for his smile. I had hoped to get pictures of the two of them together, but Easton had other plans. We sat around for two hours just trying to get him off my lap...

After a few selfies together, he got up and started playing around with the balloons.

Felicia was still able to get some gems. I just wish I'd put him in a cuter diaper! I originally picked the gray one so he would coordinate with his sister. Still adorable though!

Easton's Second Birthday

Last Sunday we celebrated Easton's second birthday with our family. I was originally thinking of doing a John Deere theme, but decided that I would pick something fun and different because he still doesn't care what we do. Pretty soon I won't have a say :)

I mustache (must ask) you to a birthday party

 

 I went super simple for food again and ordered subs from the Wal-Mart deli. They were reasonably priced and tasted great. With the baptism and party back-to-back I needed something easy.

 Opening his new Cars backpack from Grandma Jen and Papa Joe

 His new hat that will fit him for many years to come :)

 We got him a helmet and a new scooter.

 Papa Spence got him a new pedal bike.

 Getting ready to cut the cake. Easton may be traumatized for life because he got too close to the cake when he was getting ready to blow out the candles. Now every time we sing the happy birthday song to him, he touches his lips and says, "Hot?".

Emma sporting a chocolate mustache.

 

We had such a great time! Can't believe you are two years old sweet, sweet boy!

Easton is TWO!

Happy birthday big boy! So hard to believe you are two already!

Last year, I was worried about how fast you could crawl, now it's concerning how quickly you can run. And empty cupboards at lightening speed. And climb on top of the table. You are into.every.thing! You even figured out how to open the fridge this past week. Currently considering investing in a lock. I finally caved and bought a door knob cover so you couldn't disappear into the basement and try to escape outside any more. So different than your sister was at this age... Except for asking 'Why?'. That has also just started.

You typically sleep about 10 hours at night and take a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. you are usually up too early for your mama, but thankfully you are content to hang in your crib for 30 minutes or so until I can drag my butt out of bed :)

Food can be hit or miss for you most days. One day you will have a gigantic appetite and others you are not too interested in food. You love dairy, fruit and veggies. Sometimes carbs. You also love condiments and often choose to eat them straight up with a spoon. Not a big fan of meat  though, which worries your daddy :P I think you would just snack all day instead of eating three meals if I let you. You currently weigh 27 lbs 2 oz, in the 55%.

Still wearing cloth diapers, although you've tested the waters on the potty as well. It's just too hard to be consistent when we have a preschool itinerary and your baby sister's schedule to work around right now. I'm happy to let you use it when you ask, but not pushing the issue. You typically wear a size 4, sometimes a 5 when you are in disposables. Clothing is mostly 24 month or 2T at this point.

We are currently working on colors and counting to 10. You have a large vocabulary and can string 2-3 words together. Anything on wheels fascinates you- mommy is quickly learning the technical names for all sorts of tractors and construction vehicles! You love to read. Current favorite book is 'Little Blue Truck'. You also love to watch a show on Netflix that stars Mater from the movie 'Cars'. it consists of about 6 five minute short videos. That's about all the attention span you have.

You love to imitate your big sister and constantly follow her lead. You also love to shower you little sister with love and affection. You are so full of laughter and life sweet boy! I love listening to your giggles. You have so much to say and have learned how to be heard in our chaotic house. I pray that sweet smile I see so often and twinkle in your eye never leaves, that you grow into a tender young man who loves and cares for others. May you always look to God for wisdom and strength. We love you little man!

Elissa's Baptism

Today we gathered with family and friends at our church to have Elissa baptized. The service was different from both of the ones we experienced with our other children. Some aspects were nice, but a few of the changes I didn't care for. Like standing on the stage for 15 minutes with all our kiddos while they baptized multiple kids. Have they not met my children?!? Asking them to stand quietly on stage for any given amount of time is preposterous.

Amazingly enough, Emma and Easton did great. Elissa struggled the most because she needed a nap. Then ask everyone to take family photos- as you can tell many were not a fan. These are the only shots I have, hopefully someone else in the family got better ones!

Afterwards we had everyone over to our house to celebrate her baptism along with Easton's second birthday (more to come on that in a later post). We are so grateful for a supportive family! Thank you to everyone who made the trek to be a part of this special day and the thoughts and prayers sent from those who were unable to join us.

Daddy-Daughter Date

So I goofed. Before we left for our vacay I intended to sign Emma and Jason up for the daddy daughter dance again this year. Jason expressed his sheer (lack of) joy while Emma can't sit still for the thought of it.

However, packing and sickness ensued. Add a blizzard to the mix and I just plain forgot. So you can imagine little miss' disappointment when we return home and find out that the dance is sold out. Such a bummer.

So I suggested that they go out for dinner together instead. Emma jumped for joy and then immediately inquired whether she could still wear her 'fancy' dress. Of course! She looks so much older this year compared to last...

Jason was much happier with this alternative since dancing isn't his favorite activity. They settled on Wendy's and even swung by Meijer afterwards to bring mommy home some flowers, so sweet. Love the time they can spend together!

No Longer a Wonderland

I have to say I'm sick of all this white stuff on the ground. And I got to miss an entire week of it! While we were gone the schools were closed all but one day due to the conditions outside and there was a winter warning or advisory every.single.day.

Jason spent several hours the day we returned trying to manage the snow piles around our house. He had to get a loader tractor with tire chains just to clear our main driveway! Not to mention the path he dug to the mink barn.

We've been home for almost a week now and it continues to snow and blow everyday. The temperatures don't even break 30 degrees around here. It wasn't until this past Wednesday that many of the back roads became two lanes again. The county had a loader out working every day to open roads up.

I'm ready for the snow machine to shut off and the sunshine to return. On the other hand, I'm afraid of all the flooding we'll have when it finally melts!

Final Florida Chapter

While we had a few rain showers off and on, Saturday turned out to be beautiful! It was mid-70s and overcast so we were able to check a few more things we wanted to do off our list. We started the day with an air boat ride to look for alligators and other wildlife. I even had a nice lady take a pictur of our family in front of the boat so I'd be in at least one of our vacay pics, but I guess she wasn't familiar with camera operation. When I looked through the pictures later that day there wasn't a single one to be found!

We were able to see an alligator, some turtles and lots of native birds during our boat ride. Emma loved it, Elissa was unsure of the noise and required life jacket and Easton took a nap. I swear, that not falls asleep in the funniest places! It was a really neat experience. I'm so glad we did it. Emma was able to hold a little alligator after the ride too.

From there we had lunch at Checkers where we were able to eat outside. It was right by an amusement park of sorts so our lunch entertainment was watching people get strapped into their seats and getting sling shot into the air. Super fun to watch, but you couldn't pay me to ride!

Our last stop of the day was a local orange farm. Jason finally felt in his element out of the city. Of course Elissa had another blowout diaper when we arrived and I had no spare clothes for her. Thankfully it was warm enough out that I was able to wrap her in the Moby and carry her around. We rode a monster school bus for a tour of the farm, fed the cattle some oranges and went back to the shop for refreshments and orange samples. They had a large playground for the kids to play on so we hung out for a little before heading back. It was nice to take it easy without a big agenda.

They even let Easton drive

We headed back to the hotel that evening to pack our bags and get to bed early since we needed to leave for the airport at 6:00 the next morning. After some confusion dropping off our rental car, finding where we needed to be, checking our bags (which involved moving things around since they were both over the weight limit) and getting 5 people plus car seats, bags and strollers through security and a stinky diaper we barely made the final boarding call. Thank goodness I didn't have the flu this time around!

Thrilled to be in the picture again

The kids were well behaved again, so grateful for that! Our landing was a bit exciting though. After we started to descend, Jason said he thought he saw the landing gear going back up. Sure enough we were ascending a few minutes later. Turns out the flaps were not all working properly, but the pilot assured us we would have a normal landing. Also, we shouldn't worry about the rescue vehicles down on the tarmac, that's 'just for kicks'. This was followed by an announcement from the flight attendant telling everyone to be sure your seatbelt was properly fastened and tight. It was an exciting landing to say the least. Thankful for a safe, successful family vacation even if it didn't quite go as we planned!

6 Months

Half a year baby girl, the time just continues to fly by!

The past month has been busy. We had our final Christmas party (which I failed to take pictures of) had a few amazingly snowy days and took a family trip to Florida. I was nervous how you'd do for your first airplane ride, but as usual you did awesome! As soon as we got home I had to move your car seat straps from the smallest setting to the middle setting. Made this mama get a little misty eyed...

Your schedule continues to be all over the place, but I hope to get it nailed back down when we get home from vacation. We've been busy running around to be sure you have clothes for the warmer weather we hoped to have on vacay and lots of other activites have kept us very busy. Plus you didn't have any nap schedule while we were gone. You basically had to sneak in a nap where ever you could.

Most of your diapers are still on the smallest setting with the exception of our Thursties size ones which are on the largest setting. You wore size 2 sposies while we were on vacation. Most of your 3-6 month clothes have been put away because the pants are now floods on you. You still wear the few 3-6 month sleepers we have along with the 6 month ones. It's nice to have a change in wardrobe again, although I'm sad to put away the clothes for the last time. At least we are able to pass on most of them to baby Molly so we will see them again!

You continue to take in the world around you. Anyone who is willing to take the time to say hello to you will be graced with your sweet smile. You are such a good natured baby. In the next few days I hope to start introducing solid foods, another big step for our sweet girl. Still not sitting up, but a lot of that could be due to the fact that you don't get a ton of free time on the floor. Mommy prefers to keep you in the swing, bouncer or exersaucer so you don't get trampled by your siblings.

So blessed to watch you grow precious babe!