BFFs in the making

I love my kids, they are fabulous.    

Teagan was chatting with me the other day and told me "Mom, I have fallen in love with Ellie, I think I will marry her."  Then he started cracking up, "no, I can't marry her, she is my sister, but I am in love with her."

He is the BEST big brother, he always tries to make her happy and loves to play with her.  She is completely obsessed with everything he does.  She laughs at him all the time and recognizes him as the silly little boy that he is.  These pictures were from a week or two ago.

 Eloise thinks it's hilarious when she stands and he holds her hands, she just giggles and thinks it's so silly.

 I catch him kissing and hugging her and telling her she is so cute.  This is probably not going to be cute forever, like when he's 20 and she's 16, but for now it is my favorite part of the day.

 Sliding on the pillow across the kitchen proved to be a very effective form of entertainment for both kids.  They were both cracking up.

 This last week Ellie had a fever for several days (and nights, let us not forget those blessed feverish nights).  I was trying to make dinner and she just wanted to be cuddled, but when she wants to be cuddled ALL day I have to put her down eventually.  I asked Teagan to keep her company and she was content just to have him sitting there by her.  She kept putting her foot on Teagan's forehead and cheeks and he would move it and she'd put it right back up.  It was the cutest thing, I wish I had a video.

This is our Chevy Chase Christmas house, Zac has worked tirelessly to get all the lights to work without flipping the breaker.  It's been a rather comical week with the lights flipping on and off.  haha

Happy Holidays everyone!

My Sweet Girl

This little girl is growing and changing so fast.  She is such a wonderful part of our family.  Any of the other 3 of us can be intolerably grouchy and she comes into the room and just melts all of the grouchiness away with her smile.  When she sees us for the first time when she wakes up she smiles with her whole body.  Her face and eyes smile, she crunches up her body and she waves her arms like crazy.  

If Zac has a rough day at work he'll come in and I can tell he is discouraged or just exhausted and Eloise sees him and she does her whole body smile and you can see his rough day fading away and after a quick snuggle he's happy as a lark.  She really has the sweetest little spirit and there is something about her that just brightens life.  I have no idea what we would do without her!  

Her favorite toys are the lego train tracks, she chews on them and drools until she's soaked. 

 She is getting eerily close to crawling.  I'm really excited, but also nervous about the fact that we have little stuff all over the place that she could choke on.  Time to baby proof!

She's started doing pushups...seriously I think she is stronger than I am!

We love her to pieces, she is such a darling!

Other items of importance that I want to remember:

-She does the sign for milk when she wants milk and while she's having a bottle or nursing, it is so sweet.

-She got has two teeth that are all the way in, love them.

-She loves solids, especially peas, bananas, tomatoes (crazy!), celery sticks (thanks Shelly for introducing her!), and ice cream (shocker).  

-Teagan is her favorite person still.  He walks in and she is already jumping and laughing to see him.

I love to see the Temple

We decided to pack up and head to the Brigham City, Utah Temple open house last weekend.  When our church builds temples they have a few weeks when anybody can go in and take a tour.  Then they dedicate the temple and you can only go in if you are an adult member of our church.  It's pretty rare to be close enough to a temple being built to actually go inside with our kids.   Zac called on Monday and said he felt like it would be a good thing for our family to go, so we went (love having a man who plans!).  It was really fun.  Although, 5 hours in the car in one afternoon wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

Teagan thought the slippers they put over our shoes were awesome.  He really wanted to take them home.  

He was so sweet, he was so curious and had tons of questions as we walked through the rooms.  He wanted to know who the people in the paintings were and the scripture stories they were about.  He was really excited about he baptismal font.  "Mom, is that a hot tub?  Is the water warm?  Do you think I can go swimming in there?"  We told them that if he was quiet and reverent that he would be able to feel a special feeling and spirit while we were in the temple.  At one point he put his hand on his heart and told me he felt a special feeling right then.  I hope he remembers forever how special the temple is!

Eloise was very well behaved, but I think her neck might have been sore from that huge flower.  :)

 Teagan was enthralled about the gates around the temple and how they work.

It was a great Friday afternoon to spend as a family.  It was fun to teach Teagan more about temples and why they are so important.  I'm so grateful that I will be with my family forever, they are amazing!

Six Month Sweetie

We are in love with this tiny little lady.  She is so good natured and sweet!  She was 6 months on Sept 11th, I didn't even think about her half birthday being 9-11 until the day of.  

 She loves to see what's going on around her so anytime I lay her down she flips over to her tummy to keep an eye on us.  She's started scooting backwards and in a circle, I'm worried that full on mobility isn't too far around the corner.

 She also has started sitting up which is really fun.  she face plants on occasion and prefers her belly still, but I'm loving this new phase!  She is just sweet.

 This is her look when she really wants something, she was diving for my camera in this one.  :)  I love the look of intensity!

Yesterday I looked in her mouth to see if any teeth were coming and I noticed that one has already popped through.  I was shocked because with Teagan there was a lot more fussiness around the time he'd get a new tooth and she's been as pleasant as a peach.  I seriously have no idea how I got so lucky to have such an easy going, mellow tempered little girl.  I'm blessed!

These first six months have been so fun, I've loved having her in our family, she adds so much to our happiness!

Soccer Star!

Teagan Started playing soccer and had his first game Saturday.  He was so cute!  They are the "Purple People Eaters."

It was so hot Saturday!  

Teagan does AWESOME when he is just playing uncompetitively.  He can pass, dribble, do fabulous throw ins and he appears and claims that he has a lot of fun during practice.  They practice right before the games which means that he was totally exhausted and bored by the time the game came around.  

This video is during the practice.

I'd be lying if I didn't say watching the game was a little painful. Teagan was tired and is just so darn sweet he didn't want to steal the ball, so he ended up watching a lot.  lol  We were really good about staying positive and cheering him on anyway.  My favorite was on the way home when Zac said, "looked like you were having fun, but we have some things we can work on, like being more aggressive."  

I've been looking forward to putting my kids in soccer since I was a teenager watching little 4 year olds play, it's just so cute to watch the mob run around the field.  I'll be curious to see if Teagan wants to play again next year.

Teagan's First Day of Preschool

Today was Teagan's first day of Preschool.  I didn't have time to shed a tear because it was a CRAZY morning!  I did have time to attempt to take some pictures, attempt being the key word.  Teagan was even more uncooperative than usual as it turns out.  But I have to admit that all his silly and crazy faces do make me laugh and I LOVE his personality and how much it shows in the pictures.  He's just not a sit and smile kind of kid, much too busy for that nonsense.

  I would just like one picture with a normal smile, just one...

 Finally, I resorted to saying "poopy pants" to get him to smile, worked like a charm.

 I took Kai to preschool this morning too, what a cutie.

 Getting 4 little kids buckled and over to preschool takes a while, but we made it!

So on the way home I kept getting this feeling that I needed to go back and help.  (It's my aunt's preschool and she was doing the first day alone, eek!).  I got all the way to my driveway before it wasn't a prompting to go back, it was a demand.  So I turned around and went back, unloaded Jax and Eloise and went inside.

I went downstairs and who should I meet, but a dancing little Teagan.  He was doing one heck of a potty dance and was almost to the point of tears.  "Moooom, someone's been in the bathroom forever and I can't find the lights in the upstairs bathroom."  I opened the door and nobody was in there and he went in and took care of business.  I asked if my aunt needed help, and she said, "oh no, these children are being wonderful, thank you."

Back home we headed and on the way there I realized that maybe the reason I was supposed to go back was to help prevent an accident for Teagan on his first day of school.  Dodged a bullet there!  I'm so grateful for the Holy Ghost and promptings I receive every day that, if I follow, help my family to be happier.

And if you go back and look at the pictures I took at our house, you can tell that he needed to go, lol!  Maybe that's why he wouldn't sit still for the pictures.   :)

We're excited for fall, I LOVE this time of year.  Teagan had a wonderful time at preschool and I think it'll be a great year.

Sibling Love

I love my two kiddos.  Eloise LOVES Teagan, he loves her too.  If she hears his voice she lights up and tries to find him.  Here are a few pictures/videos or their cuteness.  

Some favorite things:

-When I bring Eloise out in the morning after I've gotten her dressed, Teagan always says, "OH!  Eloise you look so beautiful!"

-If Teagan has been playing with friends for a while and he come inside he'll run up to Eloise, "I want to play with you, I just haven't gotten to see you ALL DAY!"

-Teagan is a talker and he'll be chatting away to Zac and I and Eloise will watch him with a big smile on her face.

-Eloise loves watching Teagan on the swing and giggles so cute when she watches, so of course Teagan is constantly asking if we can go swing with Eloise.  The last few nights we've been eating dinner out in our yard (because our house is over 80 degrees EVERY NIGHT) and then playing on the swings.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer!

-A couple weeks ago Zac and I were doing yard work and Teagan didn't want to help so we let him "babysit" Eloise inside so we could keep working.  We just told him to come get us if she cried.  When Zac went inside to check on them, they were no longer in Teagan's room...or anywhere upstairs.  Zac found them downstairs inside of a fort Teagan had built with a babysitter playing house.  I have no idea how he carried her downstairs without dropping her or tripping, we are convinced that some guardian angels must have been helping.  He dragged her out of the fort by her legs and she had a big smile...I guess we'll wait a few more years to have him babysit.  lol