A day at the park

We took Gavin to the park for his first time. It was a little chilly but the sun was out and shining as you can tell by the first picture we were all soaking it in. ;)

Haylee was playing ice cream shop.....that is a must for any park with this under area.

Little man chillin' in the stroller looking quite cute I must say.

Then Haylee wanted to take some pictures, this one's okay......

Nope....try again,

we're up here.......

GRACE!!!
Little blurry but good enough!

Grace has finally mastered the monkey bars this year.

He looks thrilled....
weeeee
He was a little cold by this point and not so thrilled anymore.

The park we were at is called Whatcom Falls park and it has water falls that run through the middle of it. After all of the rain and run off it was a crazy amount of water running over them. (this is the "creek turned river" that caused most of the flooding in parts of town)

This picture is a taste of what sunny days are like here.......you can see it but can't quite get IN it. Can you see how the days could get very dreary??? ;) It's a beautiful place to live though for sure.

Can I still say "newborn" at 8 months?????

I don't know why but I still assume that I have a newborn and this weekend marked 8 months for this big boy.At what point are they not a newborn anymore but a sort of toddler/baby??? He is so much fun and with NO attempt to crawl it's wonderful that he is still so content all the time. His sisters can not get enough of him and he could really care less what the do TO him. He is still not sleeping through the night and it's getting a little tiring.....I can get past the 11:30 crying but in the middle of the night when I am tired it's another story. I keep telling myself that it won't last forever but chances are I am creating a monster and it will not get better any time soon.......I guess we saved the hardest for last. ;) I did hear however that if you create some sort of "comfort" for the baby to sleep with the transition can be a little easier. So Haylee and I headed off to Build a Bear and got him a very cute new monkey. I don't know what my obsession is with monkeys and this boy but they are just so cute together. :)

Other than sleeping he is super sweet and happy most of the time. He loves to eat and has done really well with all the things we have tried so far. He drinks out of his little sippy cup and has started picking up his little cereal pieces and getting them to his mouth. :) I know this stuff is not that exciting to someone other than his parents but since this is sort of like a family journal it helps me keep track.

This is him clapping and giving kisses, we don't have sound on our camera though.....too bad because then we could hear what Haylee is whining about. ;)

The girls are doing great! Grace is FINALLY back to school (just to have today off again) and she is enjoying being back with her friends and a routine. She is getting into a bit harder school work now and has really had to focus so the break was nice but the weather made the break TOO long and now we are really scrambling to get her caught back up. She is a trooper though and Justin and I both have had to back off a little bit and remember that it's only first grade......she isn't studying for SATs or anything. ;) She has lost two more teethe down on the bottom and her top ones are about to be gone any day.

She is such a great big sister and loves to help out with Gavin. She watches him for me while I get things done and will just sit and play with him forever. It's nice that she does it with a good attitude and not like she HAS to. Even when we are having issues with listening (which is happening often lately) she is still very happy to be a big sister.

Haylee is getting so independent and so grown up. She is a little mom and loves to help me around the house, it's funny how girly she is and loves to be dressed up all the time. She is very particular about how she wears her hair and outfit, and is always asking for dresses and skirts. It's fun though to have a girly girl who is also not afraid to get dirty and play.

So that is the update on us. Have a great week!

Christmas and 2009

Christmas was very nice this year and we kept it fairly simple which was nice. We drove down to Seattle Christmas day and stayed in a hotel so we could fly out early the next morning for Boise. The girls were so excited this year and as a parent this just gets to be so much fun when the kids get old enough to really know what's going on and grasp the concept of time a little better. They were very happy with what they received and were very sweet about having to leave it all behind while we travelled. Haylee was most excited about her new pj's....she had been asking for months to have jammies with feet and I can not count how many times she reminded me that is what she wanted. Grace went for the older look this year and just got some new pants instead of the set, they are the cutest pants though she did good.


Here is the Santa lay out.

We did a small family exchange this year between the five of us and that was Gavins only present this year, a piano from big sister Grace. :)

He was so sick, but was still bangin' away.

Christmas morning came EARLY!!!!

I found these little handheld racing games at Walmart for $1.00 and I swear that is what they played with the longest. (isn't that always how it goes?)

Haylee got her cupcake party set that is SO cute and she has already busted it out and made muffins.

She is so girly and so much fun.

This is a hit so far, they have played it every day.

After cleaning and packing up we made the trip to the car..........yes to the CAR!!!

This is looking back up at our house from down the street.

Going through the houses down to the main road.

Almost there.................

I think I see it...whew, we made it!

The flight was on time the next morning.....bright and early at 6:15 we were on our way.

These kids love to fly.

They were so good.

We made it to Grandmas for Christmas #2, Grace was really excited about he legos if you can't tell.

A drum for the little man.

I think just about every picture I took Haylee had her jammies on......I told you she was excited.

Gavin with hair..........nice!

We met with my family for the first time in a LONG time and it was really great to see everyone all in one place. My brothers got permission for us to use their church building and it was a perfect spot for the kids to run crazy upstairs while the adults got to sit and visit downstairs. My sister Sarah was the only one that did not make it this year and she was REALLY MISSED!!! (yes she reads my blog) This picture is (from left) my sister Heather who lives in Colorado, my brother in law Rodney who is married to Heidi (in the red) and then my sister on law Renee who is married to my brother KC who has his back turned. I really did a poor job this year overall of getting pictures and I am a bit bummed about that. Heather is holding our newest nephew Porter.

This is my niece Kelley with Gavin.
Porter

Grace and Collin......it has been a while since we have seen him and she was SO excited!! We spent so much time with him and my sister Gretchen when the kids were little and we were still in Boise and it was hard to leave them. :( He is such a sweet boy. This is my nephew John and his wonderful girlfriend Liz, they are holding Gavin so no babies of their own....YET! ;)

Haylee, Tekyiah, and Grace

We played some mean games of BINGO and this was the contribution to the white elephant prizes from Justin and I, what a steal huh????? I'm sure they will love it for their dining room table.

Every year since Grace was little we have gone to the Botanical Gardens to look at the Christmas lights. It really does get better every year and we have always managed to go when the weather is decent and the kids always have a ball. This year we saw carolers for the first time and that was fun.
All the kiddos......the littlest ones are attached. ;)
Wendy you are such a wonderful Mom, this little peanut really is just the sweetest tempered little thing.

Grace and Miley Addie bug The kids were singing carols of their own.

He loved the lights, and of course had to touch them.

We had a very fun girls day and went to lunch then off to get pedicures and manicures.Two pretty ladies.

Peyton getting her first taste of spa life.

Gavin really wanted that water You are beautiful my sweet sister. This is the babies getting very tired and bored after a while.
Gavin thought he would try and eat her headband...........Her face is priceless..........

We got to meet my brother Isaiah's fiance Liz for the first time and her daughter Providence, they are super sweet and Isaiah seems very happy. "Congratulations you guys!!"

We attempted to take some pictures of all the Ellersick grandkids and with the ages being what they are I think we can't really complain.

The girls got to go with Grandma and have their fingernails painted which was so fun for them...Grace is already asking when she will be old enough for pedicures. ;(

We went to my sisters one night for prime rib and Wii, that was a lot of fun. We even got my Dad up to bowl, it was pretty funny. Gavin loved Molly (the lab) and she was so good natured she just layed there while Gavin loved on her. This is big cousin Collin, there are very few boys in this next generation of grandkids for both sides of the family so it's fun to see them together.

The girls are already asking for a Wii......great!

My Dad played in a bowling league for a long time so he was taking it all pretty serious. This is the kids' really big cousin Mark who everyone says Gavin takes after....I'm okay with that though because he's pretty great! ;)

Gotta love this little guy!

We did New Years at my Moms this year and had a BALL!! The game we played was so much fun and by the end we were all hysterical. We had to go back to Mike and Bonnies the next night and teach everyone, and of course by the end we were all laughing again. :) It was so nice to see all of our family and let the kids catch up with their cousins and grandparents. Thank you Mike, Bonnie, Mom, Mark, and Dad for all your help and letting us invade for the week. Thank you to all of you who had us over and Heidi for keeping Grace for the night....it was the highlight of her trip. :) We love you all and hopefully will get to see most of you this summer. Happy New Year!!!!!