He's going to kill me for posting this!

My husband can totally take you!

A couple of potty mouths

So ... I feel pretty confident that this bad language wasn't from listening to me or Billy. We are very diligent about not swearing in front of the kids. We only get in trouble for saying "stupid" sometimes. I suppose between school, friends and tv - they are bound to pick up some naughty words. Part of life, I guess.

A couple of funny stories -- that Billy witnessed - but I missed firsthand. He said it was hard to control his laughter on the first one. The kids were both corrected and told that these were not nice words and to not use them again. We'll see ...

Billy took all the kids down to Sportsman's Warehouse last Friday while I was at work. He needed to get a few supplies before taking Jack out in the boat the next day. Somewhere inside, at some point - they passed a large, mounted fish. Jack shouts out, "Holy shit, Daddy, that's a big fish!"

Then, two days later on Sunday morning, as they were getting out of the van for church, Ellie told Jack to leave his jacket in the van because otherwise he'd forget it inside. Billy said, "Well, you have your jacket on. Why don't you leave yours in the car too?" She replied, "No, I'm wearing mine because it's freezing damn cold out here!"

Oh my --

Remember this?

This is what our view looked like when we moved in!

Now we are getting to see bulldozers, dirt movers, and excavators!

This is a full shot today of one dirt hill. Such a wonderful sound that occupies my ears all day long! Actually, it is fun to see the work done, and it will be neat to watch how it all changes over the next two years. The new high school is due to open Fall of 2011.

And another one's gone ...

Top tooth #2 fell out during school yesterday. And uh-oh - the tooth fairy didn't come last night! Ellie said she tried to wait up to see if it would come and then she fell asleep. But she still didn't come. I told her that that was why. Because 1. she tried to stay up to see her, and 2. she didn't have the tooth in a container for the tooth fairy to put any money in.

Always, always have a back up plan!

Later note: the Tooth Fairy did make it. She paid extra and left a nice note.

Evelyn biffed it

Evelyn is getting very close to crawling! She's going from the sitting position to moving forward to being on all fours. It won't be long. Yipes! I've got to baby proof the new house - which includes the new stairwell.

The other day I had her sitting by the front door - so she could play with her toys and look outside. She decided she wanted to get closer to the door, and fell on her face on the threshold. This was the mark it left. Oops! A couple days later it's all gone - no harm done.

Potty Training

One of the worst jobs of a parent is potty training. It's time consuming and whether you are working with a kid that wants to do it or not, it's messy! Amelia has been doing extremely well, I really shouldn't complain. Well, and I'm not really complaining. She probably would have been done if I would have started working with her 6 months ago, but with a newborn, that was nearly impossible!

Funny story today - she was supposed to be napping in my bed, but I heard her foot stool being pushed around upstairs. I went up to find her getting a washrag. I asked if she peed in my bed, and she said no. And I turned around and she had peed on the floor (the wood floor, thank goodness). I missed the puddle when I walked by by like inches! And she also had a turd in her panties (a hard one and easy to dump and flush, thank goodness). I'm SO grateful that this was not done in my bed! And I'm just giggling because this is not the first time she's peed on the floor and taken it upon herself to clean it up. What 2-yr old cleans up their own mess?!

I can't wait until this task is done. But only a few months rest before the next one starts.

Little Sisters

Amelia lovin' on Evelyn

Evelyn's Bathtime

Evelyn loves bath time!

Trying out sports

Am I old enough to have a kid this big?

Ballard Varsity Squad - here I come!

Ellie & Ali - BFF

Ellie is continuing to try out some sports this year. The only way I could get her to do either was to make sure that our neighbor, Ali - who is her best friend right now - was doing them too. They both did the Ballard Cheer Camp the first week of school and they are on the same U8 soccer team too (which I maybe played a small role in setting up). Too bad I don't know a lick about soccer!

It's working out great so that Ali's mom, Sara and I can help each other out with the girls and carpooling. Cool neighbors rock!

Learning to build

Jack has now reached the age of Legos! I remember my brother being so big into Legos and building stuff all the time. I bought Jack a set of small K'nex on clearance last week to see if he liked them. He's had some bigger building stuff and had always done well, but I was really happy to see how well he did with this smaller set and making his own stuff. I'm the type that always just makes what that pictures show -- he was much more creative. Thank goodness!

And another one bites the dust

Ellie has now lost tooth number 3 -- it's her first top tooth. Our neighbor actually pulled the nasty thing out for her after soccer practice. It was just hanging by a thread. Thanks, Sara! I'm not sure if I could have done it. Ironically, Evelyn seems to be getting the teeth in as Ellie is losing them. I need to have a talk with the Tooth Fairy about this.

A Little Southern

Amelia spent a week in Oklahoma a little over a month ago. We didn't see many significant changes, except this!

I love you

We have a little thing we do here at our house with the kids ... we say,

"Guess what?"
They respond, "What?"
"I love you."

And they've started catching on. So sometimes now, when we say, "Guess what?" they just respond, "I love you." We don't get the "What?" in there much anymore. It melts your heart, and it's fun to see Amelia catching on already too. Oh, and she's our little comedian - here's a glimpse at her funny faces and being silly. This is ALL her too -- she's not mimicking me.

Amelia loves Pork Butt

Do you think we like to barbecue 'round here?