18 Months Old!

Yes, thats right.  Ellie has reached 18 months!  With this age we have a walking, talking toddler that keeps herself busy!  Ellie is really starting to show us who she is...a spunky little mess with a sweet personality.  She loves to get right in the middle of whatever her brother and sister are doing and is learning how to stand up for herself.  If somebody takes away a toy or keeps her from doing something she wants to do, she lets you know right away how she feels about it!  Overall though she is still the happiest little thing and still so easy to be around.  (Occasionally the approaching "terrible twos" rears its head, but mostly she's just so good!)  We all just love our little Ellie Boo!

At 18 months, Ellie:

• Weighed in at 21.8 lbs and is 30.75 inches long.  We have quite the sweet little peanut! We had a happy visit with the doctor...no shots and no crying!
• Is my little sleeper!  We are on a very consistent sleep routine, which is indescribably awesome.  She goes to bed around 8 p.m. every night without any fanfare and wakes up in the morning around 7 or 7:30 a.m.  She is down to one nap in the afternoon that usually lasts around two  hours though sometimes longer.
• Is apparently going to follow her brother and sister into the realm of picky eating.  (Grrrr)  She likes what she likes and will completely ignore any new food on her tray that she either doesn't recognize or doesn't like. (I guess that is an improvement from throwing the offending food on the floor.)  Mama continues the fight to find nutritious things for her to eat.
• Loves music!  If we turn the radio up she will stop what she's doing to hear or break out into a little dance.  She is always very interested if any of us sing and recently she has really gotten into "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes."
• Has a growing vocabulary.  She speaks in what sounds like sentences but we can't really understand her a lot of the time.  Words that stand out include ball, bubba (cooper), mama, dada, whos (shoes), suse me (excuse me), pease (please), uh-oh, something that sounds like "violet" (the dog), co-co (popcorn), chu-chu (chickens), bah (bath) and bye bye!
• Loves books!  Many times during the day I can find Ellie curled up in the chair in her room looking through one of her books all by herself.  Of course she loves it when Mama or Penny sit and read books with her.  
• Is a a little water baby!  Ellie loves to play in the bath with her sister and has just figured out how to sort of move around the pool when she is wearing her float suit.  Yesterday she even managed to climb into one of the big kids big floats and motor around the pool a little.  
• Loves my phone!  If she manages to get a hold of it, (like digging it of my purse when I don't notice) she will forcefully put it in my hand and say  "Uh!"  Like, Mom, I want my "where's the water" game! Sometimes (read rarely) she will settle for her play phone.  

Ready for bed and reading with Penny.

Happy Father's Day in Houston

The summer fun continues!  This weekend we traveled to Houston so we could visit Nonnie and Mama could attend a cousin's baby shower.  We had such fun just hanging around with family and relaxing.  We made sure to show our appreciation for our Daddy for Father's Day, and spent a little bit of time at Nonnie's neighborhood park.  Life is so fun when we get to be with these cute, crazy kids!

Sisters having fun together.

These two minions...

And this face!

Cooper...always having fun!

Super Cooper!

This little sweetie pie had big fun!

Ellie...big enough to do the slide by herself!

Canyon Lake Weekend

Over the past weekend we got to spend some time with friends at Canyon Lake.  After all the Memorial Day weekend rains the lake was really up and we wanted to take advantage.  We just don't seem to get to the lake house as often as we'd like anymore so it was a real treat to spend the weekend AND utilize the lake.  The kids (and adults) fell right into the rhythm of playing with their old friends and we all had a blast.  A few pictures:

The boys contemplate the lake...rather they tried to be patient for the adults to give the go-ahead.

Ellie!  Ready for  her first real lake experience. 

The kids LOVED the peddle boat Daddy insisted on bringing.  We were impressed on how well they managed it all by themselves.

What can I say, Cooper is a natural!

The big wow for us for the weekend was Penny!  She LOVED the lake swimming and kayaking!  We were thrilled at how much of a trooper she was.

Talk about troopers!  Such a little lake baby!

School Year Parting Shots

Penny and Daddy after her end of year performance at preschool.

Penny during the performance...Who's in charge here?

My little school year buddy.  Ellie is glad to have her big brother and sister home!

Mama got to go on Cooper's end of year field trip to the San Antonio zoo with him! 

Over the moon because he got to ride the Brackenridge Park train!

Summer fun posts coming up next!

Summer is Here!

Another school year has blown by!  After what seemed like a looooong May, the last day of school finally arrived!  We are so ready for summer we could hardly stand it!  Goodbye waking up to an alarm, homework, and keeping up with who needs what on which day!  (Can you tell Mama is excited for the loosening of the routine?)  On Wednesday, Penny's last day of school, we got to attend both Penny and Cooper's school performances.  Penny sang sweet songs with her classmates...it was so sweet that this mother got just a little choked up.  Later that day we got to watch Cooper perform a parody of "Summer Nights" which was hysterical.  Afterwards we got to back to his classroom so that he could read us the book that HE wrote about camels.  On Thursday, Cooper's last day of school, we got to pick him up early and we celebrated with Daddy by having lunch out!  All in all, it has been a great start to our favorite time of year!

Penny on the first day of Pre-K...our funny little spitfire!

Penny, on her last day of Pre-K!  She has grown up so much! Several months back we weren't sure about sending her to kindergarten.  It seems obvious now that this little lady is ready!

Cooper, on the first day of Kindergarten.

Cooper on the last day of Kindergarten!  It's hard to swallow that we now have a 1st grader!