Blossomed

Today Nate, Elyse and I went to celebrate a good friend's graduation. While there Nate and I were saying how in no time we will be throwing Elyse her graduation party. Then tonight while Nate and I were playing with Elyse, I sat back to watch her. I watched her interact in ways I have never seen, heard her say sentences I have never heard and saw not a 20 month old, but a 3 year old. Just recently Elyse has blossomed into a little girl. I love her even more today than when we brought her home, but just feel she is growing up way too fast. I'm under the assumption I am not the only parent that feels this way, but inside my heart aches a little knowing how fast time really goes.

Remodeling is Complete

After many days of hard work by my husband (and his friends), waiting on furniture and miscellaneous stuff to get completed, the home remodeling project is complete. There are minor things that still need to be done, but overall, it's finished and perfect! A special thanks to my amazing husband for doing such great work and making our nice house and beautiful home!

By the way, any suggestions on what color to paint the brown wall now that we have a great brown couch? Only other color for the couch was red, and didn't know how that would go in the future, paint is an easy fix.

BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

Memorial Weekend

Nate, Elyse, my mom and I packed up our car and headed east this Memorial weekend to go visit my brother and sister-in-law in Michigan. Besides getting a flat tire in the first 45 minutes of the 11 hour car ride, everything went really smoothly. We spent our time going on walks, being outside, visiting with Kim's family, going to a parade, playing cards, and celebrating the upcoming arrival of our new niece/nephew in September. Even though I have only been away a day, I miss them already and look forward to seeing them again real soon.

Elyse spent quite sometime riding Papa John's (Kim's dad) tractor.
Thanks for such a great vacation you two! Love you both lots.

Gender Roles

I think it's very important for parents to prevent gender role stereotyping from occurring. For instance, I like Elyse wanting to work with Nate's tools or play sports. I will encourage my son to be interested in cooking and playing house/dolls with Elyse. Well so far so good as you can tell in the video. Our neighbor boy, Cole is one of Elyse's favorite people to be around. A few days ago she got one of his laser weapons and LOVES it. She carries it around and constantly says, "Bam". I don't know where she got the "bam" thing, but as long as she doesn't hit people with it, then I think it's great.

Just Under a Year Later

What does just under one year mean?
-Toddlers replace babies
-Hair replaces baldness (or lack of hair)
-English words replace words like, "Baba"
-Sippy cups replace bottles
-Friendships are even closer!
The kiddos in birth order: Aiden, Willow, Mariana, Elyse and Mason


I don't know who gets more excited, Elyse or me when it comes to hanging out with our friends. Well today, we were invited to Ms. Willow's house to play and we had a wonderful time. It was great seeing the kids interact and I look forward to many more play dates this summer. Love ya ladies!

Overcame Her Phobia

Another 90 degree day, so I thought nothing better than to play with water. I know Elyse is not a fan of sprinklers, and I didn't want to fill up her big swimming pool. So I found a bucket and thought we could give her babies a bath. I got us in our swimsuits, just in case she went overboard with splashing. Put some toys in the bucket for her babies, and realized I forgot the babies. I went in the house to grab them, ran back out, and came to find Elyse in the bucket. She had a blast! She was playing in and out of the bucket tub for over thirty minutes. Guess she's healed of her water phobia :)

Hydrophobia

Today hit 89 with tons of humidity. Therefore, Nate and I thought Elyse would enjoy playing in the cool sprinklers. She loved watching Nate go through. While her attempt to walk through them to get to Nate started strong, it ended in tears. She tends to cry a lot when in the tub and now sprinklers, guess Elyse may have a hydrophobia (fear of water), only time will tell. By the way, there was no child neglect or harm in the making of these videos. She was completely tear free as soon as the camera was turned off.