9 Months (+ a few days)

This is a few days late and you'd think she'd be about the same anyway, but its crazy how much she grows and learns daily. She's a FUN kid!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel... YOU CUT YOUR HAIR!

Since the special day of getting to see "Tangled", Miss Elyette has been quit obsessed with playing Rapunzel (naturally).

She put her hair in a pony tail and tied a long ribbon or cord to it to pretend it was hair.

She draped it down the stairs for Jack to "climb" and prance about the house...

she'd whip it ever direction, knock things over, and scold us for stepping on it :)...

I was getting pretty weary of this game. Can you tell?

Come last Monday evening, this game just went too far. Thanks to her wild morning hair I didn't even notice until I was doing her hair for school. She had chopped a large portion just under her left ear and a chunk right near the scalp.

I was SHOCKED. Now I realize I've been quite lucky to not have experienced this parental right of passage at all yet, but I didn't think Elyette was going to be the one to grant me that at this point. I was pretty confident we had passed that danger phase with her... apparently not.

Tuesday evening I trimmed it all up. 'Bout 7 inches or so off. Thank goodness for those curls- they hide the scalp chunk pretty well. ( you see it?)

She just look so darn cute no matter what. I quite love this way and thought she was nervous, Elyette really likes it too.

8 Months

She's really that old. Crazy.

And won't sit still anymore.

EAT THE CAMERA!!!

The boy I married:

and the man I love:more than ever!
(beard and all ;))

HAPPY 6th, LOVE!!!

A Day of Luxury

What else would you expect for your 5th Birthday...Breakfast in bed, (pumpkin spice pancakes with cinnamon syrup and bananas, YUM!)

a bubble bath, (in my bath, no less)

she did her share of work too :).

Happy Birthday to My Ely Rae.

The Costume Post

Wicked Witch of the West
I think she mostly wanted to be this particular witch so she could have a green face. Too bad the lame make-up we got ended up being more of a baby poop green and really gooey the whole time. Oh well, she was still thrilled.She already tells me she wants to be a skeleton next year... I'll have to get on that:).

Guitar Boy

Or so he called it. Man, did we nail this one when we decided to go with a 80's hair band costume. SO dude... He's really feeling the music

And I got to recycle Elyette's corpse bride leggings, so the only thing I made for him was the metallic shirt.

SpiderHer name (Charlotte) decided her costume for me. This one probably took the most time but TOTALLY worth it and it turned out! I hope it washes well because she spit up all over it MANY times... of course. Thats what she does, so I guess I should say she was Charlotte the Barfing Spider.
So then can you guess what I am?
In case its been a while since you've read the book, let me help: Charlotte's Web.

Wolverine
The hair and side burns he's always trying to get away with just made this a natural choice. Didn't take much to shape his hair (too bad we didn't get a better pic of it). For a more "snug" fit he wore my T-shirt and jeans. Perhaps I should be embarrassed that my husband can fit into my clothes...meh... he looked good ;). And I thought his spoons were a nice touch. Much more kid-friendly than blades.

Oh and of course our "Haunted Honda" for the Trunk-or-Treat:
Good way to showcase our Creepy Portraits:

Happy Halloween!

Candy Corn Dresses

I've never been a big fan of candy corn... 'til now!

I'll take 'em this way any day.

7 months

And look what she has now! (Look closely in that little mouth)
Two new chompers, and chomp she does.

Stink Stats

Can I just say, I LOVE THIS AGE! Seriously, she is soooo stinking fun. The best part is that she learned how to sit on her own without support (or pillow behind her) a few weeks ago, which makes life bliss! :)- She can sit and play happily for quite sometime, WITHOUT wondering off and getting into stuff.

AND it makes from some pretty cute pics:

I could eat her!

So here's the 6 month check up stats:

Weight: 15lbs 1 oz (25-50%)
Height: 25 3/4 inches (50%)
Head: 43 1/2 cm (75%)

Summer Recap

You might think this post is WAY too late, but considering its 102^F here today, I'm still feeling summer... without all the perks though (vacation, swimming,), sigh.

Anyway, enough about that blasted heat. Here's the good stuff:

May- DISNEYLAND!

June- Swimming Lessons
Jack and Elyette got took 6 private lesson at the Jan Thomas Swim school. Its a pretty awesome method of teaching that first teaches kids how to basically "survive" in the water and then learn strokes. The kids learn to roll over to get a breathe when they need it and swim to the wall, etc.

They did great! Jack has always been really comfortable in the water and willing dunks himself, so he loved it but we didn't do the full 10 lessons they reccomend, which ultimately resulted in him being WAY to comfortable and confident in the water. More than once he had to be "saved"- twice his rescuers were fully clothed (His uncle Luke once and myself another time)
July-The Beach! We'll have to work on that...

Elyette was a pro. She had the technique swimming and getting a breath down in 4 lessons. She was pretty awesome to watch this summer. We honestly and truly didn't have to worry about her in the water at all. Of course we kept an eye on her, as with any age swimmer, but she would just jump into the deep end, play around, get a breath with ease and swim to the wall when ready to do it all again. It's been great!

July- Beach trip Santa Cruz-- ALWAYS relaxing and fun!


August- Smith Family Reunion (My family).
Got to see my parents, my 8 siblings and their families (minus my oldest nephew, Nate). Thus I got to meet nephew, Lazarus (Jacob's newest, who was almost a year old) and my niece, Sarah (2 months- Jennie's newest). It was also everyone's first time meeting Charlotte (aside from my parents). Boy, was she held and spoiled constantly.

(Mom and Dad and their posterity)

We went to Heber Vally Camp in Utah. Its a pretty new girls camp spot that was really cool. We we're really roughing it at all. The "yurts" we're cool, and we did obstacle course. Boz, Jack, Elyette and I did the "giant swing". They harness you up and pull you up to the tree tops and let you fly. It was pretty cool (and a good tummy tosser).

It was a GREAT end to our summer!

So playing in the ocean and sand, swimming, camping, seeing LOTS of family, swimming, Disneyland, watching free movies at theater weekly, eating otter pops, swimming, staying up late, making chocolate dipped frozen bananas (a LOT of them, mmm), visiting the library and reading books, and let see.... SWIMMING. It was a great summer.

And now I'm ready for some "fall" weather...

Happy Half Birthday

6 months old today!

How she's grown:

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month