Easter weekend

We made a quick trip to the valley and it happened to be Easter weekend. My youngest brother ended up in the hospital with seizures (first time) and the funny thing is that the next day was to be his Eagle scout project. Well, so we went down to help out with the project while he was in the hospital. The project was successful and he was fine, new diagnosis of epilepsy, but fine. The girls looked super cute in their Easter dresses. I had bought their dresses even before Addie was born. Hallelujah they both fit at the same time and were appropriate for Easter! We also ran by our house while in town. We decided we wanted to sell it instead of renting it out. The neighborhood just didn't give us a warm fuzzy and seeing the broken window in the house next door, the trampled on plant in our yard and all the trash in our yard, we knew pretty much instantly that we wanted to be done with it. Fortunately, we know a good realtor so now we are in the process of doing the short sale. Now, instead of me working so we can pay 2 mortgages (ours and our current landlords), the money I earn can be put towards finally paying down my student loans. Nate will have his loans paid off by the IHS loan repayment program, yippee. Hopefully in 2 years we will be free of student loans! What a thought to be completely debt free! So exciting.

Ellie lately

For some reason pics won't upload right now...soon
-Ellie loves her Elmo backpack & she loves playing peek a boo. Every night at dinner she says "where's daddy?" so then nate hides his eyes with his hands, then when he removes his hands she says "peek a boo!" then it's mommy's turn and then Ellie's turn. Seriously, every night!
-She looked like a midget in her snow clothes!
-She loves playing on our bed
-She's knew to play dough, but seems to get the hang of it
-Ellie hasn't watched any tv/movies in a month! She is doing great with it too, and we love the lack of whining about the tv
-Ellie was feverish and very somnolent for one day at the beginning of March. Fortunately, it passed quickly and we got to cuddle with her a lot
-She loves wearing my apron. One night for dinner I had her clean the potatoes while standing on a chair at the kitchen sink wearing my apron. Several times later during the week she grabbed the bag of potatoes, grabbed my apron and started to push the chair to the sink!
-Ellie loves kissing Addie on the head and rubbing her hands on her head and saying "soft."
-She also gets annoyed sometimes when Addie's feet will touch her. I can just hear it now "mom, she's touching me!" I'm sure they'll be best friends!
-Ellie loves saying that everything is "heavy." Nate and I sat on the couch and heard her saying "It's so heavy" as she dragged her 4 1/2 foot bear out from her room! But even something small she will say is heavy.

Addie 5 months

-loves eating her feet and gnawing on her fingers
-can roll from her back to her belly, has maybe gone from her belly to her back one time
-cries when we leave the room
-loves smiling at Ellie, loves watching Ellie, LOVES ELLIE!
-loves grabbing anything and everything with her hands. Boy she has really long fingers. Future piano player?!
-has been sleeping a lot longer than her typical 3 hours at a time. Like a lot longer. She has been going to bed around 6pm, up around 9 or 10pm to eat and then not up again until 7am. That's happened a few times, but she's consistently sleeping about 5-7 hours during the middle of the night. LOVELY!

Addie 4 months, already

It seems as though everytime I need to sit down and write about another month gone by I have a hard time remembering all the "milestones" that this little girl goes through. But this time I know what to write!
-She just weigned in at 15 pounds 8 oz (85%) and is 25 inches long (75%). She is almost exactly the same weight and is the same height as Ellie at this point. Ellie's head however was 1/2 inch bigger.
-Addie just found her feet! She hasn't pulled them up to her mouth yet, but she likes grabbing them
-She is wearing 3-6 mo clothes, but I don't see them lasting long because of her height.
-She had her first cold, which she acquired from her big sister, right during our big move north. Luckily I had the lovely blue bulb syringe. Sometimes she even laughs when I stick that thing in her nose!
-She still loves sitting up, I really need to get a bumbo chair
-She now sleeps in her own room, Yippee! She's still in the swing or her car seat though. Soon I will put her in the portable crib, since Ellie is still in the big crib and I don't want to buy another one if I don't have to (and since Ellie discovered how to get out of the portable crib while we were in Mesa last weekend I don't know how much longer until she figures out the real crib)
-She has great grip strength.
-She is working on rolling over. She can get on her side but her arm still gets in the way. She enjoys laying on the floor and being very loud.
-She is sooooo loud! Her cackling continues and it's so funny. She loves to hear herself squeal already.
-She still likes her baths, but does not like getting out and being cold.
-Addie is great at letting pretty much anyone hold her
-Her sleep is still sporadic. Some nights it's up every 3 hours, others it's every 4 hours. I'm getting closer to "training" her, hopefully it goes well

Happy Birthday Ellie!

February 25
We celebrated Ellie's 2nd birthday with my family in Mesa on her birthday! Before the big day I taught her to say "I'm 2" while holding up her two fingers. However, she's not coordinated enough so she holds up all 5 fingers, but at least she can say it! She had fun running around with her cousins and Debbie's two girls. She wasn't really into her Dora birthday cake but loved her ice cream. It's her favorite dessert, well it's her favorite food, she'd eat it all day long, just like we would. Nate helped Ellie open all her gifts, she still doesn't quite get it or care much. But she does love all her presents, she's been playing with them ever since. And her cousin Beckett enjoyed playing with them too!
We love you Ellie, Happy birthday!

February catch up, starting backwards!

This has been a very busy month for us. We said goodbye to our family,friends and home in the valley and moved up to Pinetop. Fortunately, the snow waited until a few days after we moved in to come! It was so nice having movers, one big perk of Nate now working for the government. And only a few minors things were broken. We had a successful garage sale before moving that included "getting caught" by our HOA, still waiting for that fine. Ellie loves going outside and gets super dirty with all the mud and snow still on the ground. Nate likes his job on the reservation. Good thing since we're kind of in it for the long haul now! I'm waiting to hear back about a very part time job at the Show Low hospital. We are settling in little by little. Still have some boxes but since this house is significantly smaller we might have to keep things in boxes. Our new ward seems cool, several "young" families moved in right around when we did. So on Valentines day we celebrated by Nate locking himself out of the car during a snow storm, which required me to shovel our walk (with a yard shovel since Nate was on his way to buy a snow shovel, oh the irony), pack up the girls in the van, and drive two minutes away to rescue him. Seriously. But at least I will remember this Vday!
Here are some of my favorite February pictures!

chunky baby!