THE ROTH-HURST FAMILY

Video- The kids having a screaming match

2012-01-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

Ella has been a yeller since birth and we have decided to make a game out of it. When she hollers, we just holler back. It's always a guaranteed way of getting her to laugh, so Jaycoby will do this with her any chance he gets.

Video- Ella's emotional rollercoaster

2012-01-27T13:43:00.000-08:00

This is a typical night at our house, before bedtime. Ella's emotions are all over the place and it can be pretty entertaining. I took this video on my phone, so the picture isn't very clear. I wish you could see her expressions better, because they were priceless. She goes from the saddest cry, to playing with Jaycoby and laughing, to total devastation in a very short time period.

Video from Jaycoby's Surprise Party

2012-01-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

Oops...I meant to post this a while ago....

Ella's "18-month" check-up

2012-01-20T16:32:00.001-08:00

I was a little late in scheduling Ella's 18-month wellness check, so we had to do it at 19-months. It happens :)

Weight: 22 lbs. 10 oz. (10-25%)
Jaycoby was 25 lbs. 11.5 oz. (52%)
Height: 32 inches (50%)
Jaycoby was 35 1/3 inches (99%)
Head: 47 1/2 cm (50-75%)
Jaycoby's head was 99%

She is one tough, little girl. She only cried for a minute when she got her shots. Once I picked her up, she settled down quickly. She had a harder time when the nurse was measuring her head and the doctor was checking her over. She did not like them looking at her.

And to make the appointment even more memorable, she had a blowout and got poop all over her clothes in the doctors office. That's my girl!

Jaycoby January

2012-01-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

Last night as a 5-year old...

At Pietro's with mom & Mike at his school friends party...

Helping mom make cinnamon rolls...

I walked into the room and found Jaycoby and Diego like this...

Playing their games in a more comfortable spot...

He was so excited that he FINALLY got to be "one of the big kids who plays their DS at the gym".

Ella's PT band doubles and a ninja headband...

Helping us clean the house (this only lasted a couple of minutes and then he bailed)...

Mike says that all of the sleeping pictures I take look the same. I think they all tell a story and that Jaycoby looks adorable in all of them :). In this particular picture, I was trying to wake him up from nap, so he could go to a friends house. He didn't want to wake up even though he had been sleeping for over an hour....

When you can eat a whole box of mac 'n cheese, there is really no point in dirtying an extra bowl. I just let him eat it out of the pot now...

He was so excited to finally get his 3DS...

Two yankee fans....

We tried our hardest to beat Jaycoby at Connect Four Launchers, but Jaycoby won five games in row...

Ella- 19 months old

2012-01-16T19:21:00.000-08:00

*Words: Mama, Mommy, Ma-me (Grammie), Bapa (Grandpa), Dada, Buh-bye, hi-eeeee, May-may (Meghan), Day-day (Diego), Woo woo (what a doggy says), Ya Ya (Ella), Baby, Yaya or Nana (Banana).
*Taking some steps with a lot of encouragement. Still not showing any desire to be walking on her own, but she is doing a lot of cruising around the furniture right now, which is great. She loves to walk with her fire truck toy!
*She loves to laugh with her Bro Bro!
*Tooth tally: twelve
*She isn’t too interested in eating vegetables, unless they are in baby food form. When I give her fresh, or cooked, veggies she just throws them on the floor. Awesome!
*She is finally drinking out of the sippy cup on a more regular basis. It is still so much easier to give her a bottle, because she can drink six ounces in less than a minute. She just isn’t as quick with the sippy cup and refuses is quite often, but she will take it if she is thirsty enough. Now we give her a bottle in the morning and before bedtime. Oh, and she definitely loves our soda. We have to keep her away from it or she will chug it down.

OSU Cheerleader

PT is hard work.

Texting and driving? She's trouble.

Bro Bro likes to help give you a bottle at bed time, even though you can do this all by yourself.

This is where I found her when Jaycoby was gone to school: sitting in a corner just staring at his picture. She kept hugging and kissing the picture.

Jaycoby Quotes

2012-01-16T17:24:00.000-08:00

Spring 2011
J: Just crossing my legs, because that's what boys do when they play Wii, and Xbox and Nintendo DS's.

While playing Wii…
J: You’re going down, CatWoman. I was talking to the Wii, not you mom.
I don’t usually go by that nickname, so I thought it was funny that he thought he needed to clarify.

J: Mom, you need to get dressed to take me to school.
Me: I thought I would take you like this.
J: UH, WHAT? Mom, people would think you were like....gross.

Me: "Consequences aren't supposed to be fun."
J: "NEVER? I really thought you would give me a fun consequence one time."

J: Sometimes my dad laughs when I get hurt and I just say ' don't laugh when I get hurt. Only laugh at America's Funniest Videos'. Lol

At nap time…
J: Mom, can I have ice water.
Me: No, it is just time for you to go to sleep.
J: Well then that means you don’t want me to be healfy because you won’t let me have water.
Me: Go to sleep now!

Me: Buddy, you got a stain on your brand new shirt.
J: Well, mom, don’t you have some like Oxiclean stain fighter that will remove the stain with one squirt?
Me: I might have something like that.
J: It is the only thing that will work. It will!

Fall/Winter 2011
Me: you had a sleepover with that friend a long, long time ago.
J: was it in the 90's?

Me: SpongeBob loves to work. Are you going to be like him?
Jaycoby: No.

Jaycoby: Mom, I really want to marry Ella. She is so cute and perfect.
And then we had the discussion about why we can't marry our sister.....AGAIN.

Set down Jaycoby's dinner plate and he says "is this my appetizer or my dinner?".
I didn't realize I had to do multiple courses.

After tossing a toy to Ella…
J: Here you go, Sport. Get your game face on.

Jaycoby’s friend: Why is your baby crying?
J: Because she is sad and she wants my mom.
Friend: That is kind of funny.
J: No, it isn’t funny. It makes me sad when she cries.

J: Do I have to go to school today?
Me: Yes
J: Well, I'm sick.
Me: Well then you are too sick to go trick or treating.
J: Okay, I'm not sick. I'm not sick at all.

J: Mom, what can I have to drink? You know what? Surprise me.

Taking down some Halloween decorations that had been hanging from the ceiling in your room:
J: Bye bye creepy Halloween things. You really did scare me sometimes.

Literally two seconds after swallowing his last bite of breakfast, Jaycoby looks at me and says: "What's for lunch, mom?".

I walked into the bathroom and Jaycoby says: “You better get outta here. It smells gross.”

J: Can I have another glass of milk?
Me: Are you serious? A third glass?
J: I’ll be healthy. I’ll be healthier than Tim-buk-too.

J: Mom, can I have......strawberries?
It was December. Sorry kiddo. Wrong time of year.

J: When I'm older, can you have another baby and give Ella to me?
Mike: When you're older, Ella will be older too.
J: Well, she'll still be cute.

Jaycoby is 6!

2012-01-16T14:51:00.001-08:00

Here are some things we remember about you from the last year:
*When you try to talk back, I always make you say “Yes, Mom. I love you, Mom. You’re the best, Mom”. You always laugh when you are saying it.
*Your favorite cartoons are Beyblades, Sponge Bob and Scooby Doo. But NOTHING on Sprout or Nick Jr. You are way too mature for that nonsense now. And your all-time favorite T.V. show is Mythbusters. We have this set to record on the DVR and you watch a couple of episodes every morning before school. You prefer this to any of the cartoon shows. You also like watching shows on the Food Network with mom and Mike. Your favorites are Cupcake Wars and Cake Boss. Your favorite shows to watch with Mike are Gun Smoke, Pawn Stars and Gold Rush.
*You are a gamer through and through. Your favorite games this year have been Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. (all of the different games), Plants vs. Zombies, Angry Birds, UNO, Monopoly (even though you have a hard time convincing any of us to play it with you), Mario Kart 7, Sonic and the Just Dance games.
*You have definitely developed more of a will and a personality this year, but we are constantly told how “sweet” and “polite” you are. You are such a good boy and you are definitely worried about doing the right thing. It has been really important to you that you have never had to miss recess for being naughty and you remind us often that you listen to your teacher in class. You also tell us when the whole class has to put their heads down, because Mrs. Dacar was displeased with everyone’s behavior. We love it that you still feel the need to report your behavior to us and you don’t hide it if you are naughty. Whenever I ask you if you did something naughty you always fess up quickly and apologize. Occasionally you will insist on putting yourself in time out, if mommy gets upset, even if mommy doesn’t think you need a time out. You aren’t perfect, but you make it really easy to handle the situation and move on. You do not like disappointing us and will cry and say you are sorry. You just want to get it over with, so you can hug us and tell us how much you love us. If you do get in trouble, it usually ends with us laughing with you (or at you, because you say the silliest things when you are upset). But your classic phrase, when I ask you about anything is “am I going to get in trouble?”. You never just answer us right away.
*You are such a loving and sweet older brother. Almost every day, you will kiss Ella on your way out of the car when we drop you off for school. And you make sure to kiss her again when we pick you up. You talk in a high-pitched tone when you speak to Ella and you are always so concerned about her well-being. You also love to make her laugh and she is the perfect audience for your silly tricks. She loves to laugh at you and with you. She also likes to “attack your face”. Whenever you get in her face to give her kisses, she reaches out and grabs your cheeks are swats her hands at you. You never give up though. You are always right back in there, saying “ouch” and loving on her even if she doesn’t want you to. You have also been Ella’s biggest cheerleader at her physical therapy appointments. You sit on the sidelines, playing Angry Birds on my cell phone, and will randomly shout out “Ella you are doing so good”, “Ella I’m so proud of you” and “you are such a good girl”.
*When we ask you a question, you will make the sound of the first letter of your response and make us guess what you are trying to say. For example:
Mike: How was school today?
You: G-g-g-g-g
Mike: Good?
You: Yep.
OR
Me: What do you want for dinner? Pizza or spaghetti?
You: Puh- puh-puh puh
Me: Pizza?
You: Uh-huh
*You like to “smell like a man” and use Mike’s Old Spice body wash and deodorant. Mommy acts like this is a big deal and that she wants you to smell like her “little kid” and not a man. You think this is hilarious and will try to sneak the body wash when you think I’m not paying attention.
*You have a stack of five blankets that we have to place on you every time you go to bed. The order that they are put in is VERY important and it changes every time. If mom or Mike picks the order, you say that you can’t go to sleep. You have a silky blanket (this one is always first and always silky-side down), sports blanket, truck blanket, Thomas the train blanket and a red, fluffy blanket. When we go in to check on you, after you’ve gone to sleep, you are usually on top of all of your covers.
*You still bounce your legs uncontrollably when you are playing Wii, excited about anything or when you are "patiently" waiting for something.
*You talk A LOT!!! I don’t know where you get it . Even Grammie made a comment after a recent outing to the mall with you. She nicely said, “man, he chatted from the second we left until the second we were done”. Mom has to tell you to just be quiet sometimes and you have said “I just want to talk to my friends, because that is what friends do”. Cute. Really cute. But you are still told to be quiet.
*You LOVE it when Ella has no socks on and only wearing a white onesie. I’m not sure why, but you regularly request that I have her wear only a onesies with no socks. You also ask regularly say this: “Can I take of her socks? I haven’t seen her tootsies all day.” To you, this is how she is the cutest.
*Words you still say incorrectly: Prentzel (pretzel), renember (remember), emenies (enemies), buzzonya (lasagna), barveque (bbq).
*Your favorite songs this year were: Taoi Cruz “Dynamite”, Awolnation “Sail”, Kesha “Tik Tok”, Chris Brown “Forever”, CeLo Green “Forget You”, Katy Perry “California Girls”, LMFAO “Party Rock Anthem”.
*You are still a very healthy eater. You love your fruits (apples, oranges and bananas are the regulars) and vegetables (carrots, cucumbers, celery, any color pepper- as long as none of these are cooked). Just this past weekend, after all of your birthday parties, Mike made up a bowl of ice cream for your dessert after dinner. You turned it away and said “I’ve had enough sweets for today”. Mommy wishes she had that kind of good sense sometimes.
*You told me that if you had your own baby boy, you would name him “Chester”. If you had your own baby girl, you would name her “Migeah” (mih-gay-uh). Interesting choices.
*You are a great sleeper! You still take naps most days. You usually nap for an hour and a half, but will sometimes sleep longer than two hours. Your bedtime is 8:00 p.m., but sometimes you stay up until 8:30 if you have had a nap. You wake up around 6:45, when Mike gets in the shower for work. On the weekends, you sleep until 7 or 7:30.
*You absolutely HATE to play by yourself. When mom needs a break from all of your different games that you are constantly wanting to play, I will send you back to your room. I honestly think you would choose a spanking over this. You will come up with ANY excuse not to have to play in your room by yourself. You will offer to cuddle with mom or you will go and get disinfectant wipes and start cleaning “just to help mom out”. You are usually okay with playing in your room, if I say that Ella can be in there with you, but this doesn’t always help. It takes you about thirty minutes until you get into a groove with your toys and then you can play really well. *You saved up your money, all year long, and you bought your own 3DS. This was something that you asked for Christmas 2010, but we just didn’t think you were old enough to operate it yet. So mom, Mike and dad agreed that we would help you earn the money to buy one for yourself. It took a whole year, but you earned enough to buy it yourself and you are so proud of it. You should be because you worked hard for it!
*As I sat here typing this, you came up and hugged me and told me you love me TWICE. Oh, make that three times. That is what I love most about you :).

You thought it would be funny to put Ella's diaper on your head.

Silly string fight with Mike. You <3 silly string!

Easter 2011 with your cousins (or as you call them, your "friends"...both are true).

You had fun doing gymnastics for a few months. Your favorite was the trampoline.

You were screaming the whole time I was watching you. The water was so cold, but you were determined to go in.

You in front of Old Faithful. You had so much fun on our trip to Yellowstone and Colorado. Water World was your favorite part and you keep asking when we get to go back.

You love to go bike riding to the local parks in the summer. You would ride on the tag-a-long, behind Mike, and always wanted to race mom and Ella.

Every night, mom and Mike would check on you. We find you in some funny positions, but this particular one was sweet.

Batman & Batgirl. You were excited to have Ella matching you.

This was your second season on the slopes. You really love to ski!

You are such a sweet and loving, older brother! When you saw this picture, you asked me "is that when we first got the baby buns?".

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2012-01-02T17:59:00.001-08:00

Roth Christmas

2012-01-02T15:12:00.001-08:00

Beaver Squad. And no, we didn't plan thier outfits.

Ella liked Grandma's dancing doggy.

Beaver boys.

Present time!

Reed Christmas

2012-01-02T15:07:00.001-08:00

Tutu Christmas Baby.

Some of the Reed grandkids.

He was so excited about all of his gifts. He kept cheering.

Ella's turn to open one.

Two nerds in a pod. That's how the saying goes, right?

Our little Christmas

2012-01-02T15:00:00.001-08:00

Classic tree photo

Ella loved the candy canes that came in their stockings.

Ella gave the baby some kisses.

Squealing with joy when he got his Wii.
J: "This Wii was a really great present after all of those clothes". LOL

Physical Therapy Update

2012-01-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

Ella is finishing up her most intense run of physical therapy yet. We committed to doing two visits per week for a total of four weeks. We only have one week left and the progress she has made has been unbelievable. As a parent, it is common to question certain decisions you make for your children (especially when they cost a lot of money). But each week Ella goes to therapy, I have more peace about our decision to send her. From the outside looking in, she is a very happy, well-adjusted baby. We do realize this, I promise. But she continues to fall behind in the area of motor development and we are simply trying to encourage her in this area. I frequently as myself "how much further behind would she be if we weren't doing this therapy at all?". My personal goal, and the goal of the physical therapist, has been to see her walking by 20-months. She is definitely making strides in that direction, but we have a few more weeks to see if it will happen.
Here is a glimpse of how every physical therapy session goes:

She cries. And cries. And cries a lot more. It is actually a HUGE step that she will now stop crying when I pick her up to comfort her and give her a little break at therapy. It seems small, but it is a huge victory. The second Trent (the PT) reaches for her, to make her start walking again, the tears start right back up again.
What you also might notice in that video is that, despite all of her efforts to get out of that terrible place, our daughter is standing without any assistance. Trent was prompting her to take some steps and she did. This was a really big deal! No matter how stressed out, or upset she can be, she will do the work for him and that is worth every pretty penny. When we are at home, she will giggle and sit right down if we try to get her to stand by herself.
This past week, we finally felt that Ella would cooperate enough to try some treadmill therapy. Earlier on in her PT, she wouldn't even straighten her legs for Trent. She would keep them drawn up toward her body when he would try to make her stand up in the walker. I would have to put her in the walker, since she would stand up for me, and then he would come up behind her to make her move. Trent would have liked to have done the treadmill therapy a long time ago, but he feared she would just draw her legs up and not actually walk. Now that her confidence is going up, when it comes to taking some steps, we gave the treadmill a shot. She did AMAZING! She walked two hundred feet. Watch:

We plan to finish out our week and then take a little break. We need to see if Ella can figure some of this out on her own. She is already cruising more and less fearful to let go when she is standing with support. As long as she doesn't regress, we will just move forward with her once-a-month PT appointments through Willamette ESD.

Jaycoby went Skiing

2012-01-02T14:35:00.001-08:00

Jaycoby spent the first half of Christmas break at his dad's house. Three of those days were spent up at Timberline going to a ski school. This is his second season on the slopes and Jaycoby is a natural. This year he even got to go on the ski lift. We are very proud of him for being so brave and for taking to this sport so quickly.

Videos to come!!!

Jaycoby singing Plants vs. Zombies

2011-12-14T13:57:00.001-08:00

Ella- 18 months old

2011-12-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

*She can pull to stand and sit back down. She has been pulling to stand since Thanksgiving, but she couldn't get herself back down. Just this past weekend, she got the confidence to try it after she pulled herself up on the ottoman.
*She does this downward dog/bear crawl thing as she cruises around the room. When she pops up into this push-up-like position, Mike will peek between her legs and say "boo". She loves that game with daddy.
*She will go to a tall kneel and reach up when she wants someone to pick her up. This requires more balance than she has had in the past. It seems like such a small thing to many, but it was a big deal that she finally figured this out.
*She is pointing at things now.
*She is attempting to be more vocal. She will say “bro bro”, “daddy” and “hi” on command (or when she feels like it).
*She had her first Happy Meal. We normally just share off of our plates when we go out, but Grammie and Grandpa got Ella her very own Happy Meal, along with the rest of her older cousins. *She finally has enough hair for some styling. She had her first French braids this past month. Anyone who knows me understands that this is a big deal. And, yes, she will sit there and let me do it. Some days it requires a good cartoon or Jaycoby singing her a song, but she is getting used to it.
*She can point to her nose and tongue, but mostly points to her tongue when you tell her to point out any body part.
*She makes a smacking noise with her mouth when she sees food or drink that she wants. And she also smacks her mouth a lot when she is eating. Horrible table manners, I know, but it is kind of funny (for now).
*We have a sensor nightlight in the hallway and she cannot crawl past it without pulling it out of the socket. She has been told “no” several times and has had her hand flicked over and over. She still pulls that darn light out of the socket.
*When we tell her “no no”, she gets mad and cries hard, but it doesn’t stop her. She will just do the “no no” all over again.
*She is finally becoming more familiar with the animal noises. She doesn’t imitate any of them at this point, but she laughs when we make the animal sounds. The “piggy” is her favorite and she will point to her noise when we say “oink oink”. Often times, I push her nose up like a piggy and she loves it.
*She no longer gives open-mouth kisses. That sounds like a good thing, right? But it’s kind of a sad thing for us. Those open-mouth kisses were sometimes slobbery (and awkward for extended family members and friends), but we loved them.
*She loves to crawl under the dining room table and usually gets stuck. She loves the challenge of trying to squeeze through the legs of the table and chairs, but she ends up in tears and finds it’s harder to get out than it is to get in.

Stuck under the table.

Downward dog/bear crawl move.

She loves to play in the water. This was her first time at the Kroc Center since she has started crawling and she had so much fun exploring.

First ride at Chuck E. Cheese. She cried.

Fabulous French braids.

Video: The first day she was saying "bro bro"

Video: Ella doing downward dog.

The Tooth Fairy came!

2011-12-01T07:22:00.000-08:00

I need to preface this story by explaining that I had a VERY tired 5-year old on my hands. He was trying to recover from an action-packed week at dad's house, with no naps, and a late night at the Portland Zoo lights. See those dark circles under his eyes?

This is not a picture of a well-rested child.

Jaycoby was just finishing up his lunch and I heard him say, I think my tooth is going to come out. He came around the corner and I could see that he was tugging on his tooth. I asked to take a look and sure enough...it was ready! I gave it my best shot (even though I swore this was the grossest thing ever), but I've been cursed with chubby fingers and long nails. I couldn't get a good grip and couldn't pull the tooth out. So, I grabbed my camera and told Jaycoby to give it another try. Watch what happened:

From here, I spent another twenty minutes with a panicked child. He was seriously beside himself. He swore he would never go to school again, because his friends would think he looked weird. He sobbed "I look weird!" over and over. He also said he wouldn't open his mouth again until his new tooth came in. And then he suggested using super glue to put his tooth back in.

Here is a video of me trying to talk Jaycoby off the ledge. It is over five minutes long, but you can see how upset he was. My favorite part is when I ask him if he thought it would be cool when his tooth came out and he said "well it's not".

By later that evening, Jaycoby was over the shock and embarassment; he'd had a nap and recovered. The next day, he was excited to go to school to show his teacher and his friends. He even said, "I thought for a minute that my tooth looked weird, well, now it is cool".

OPERATION TOOTH FAIRY
Sleeping boy...

Tooth retrieval...

Dollar delivery...

Ella- 17 months

2011-11-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

Our little princess is growing too quickly. I'm embarassed to admit that I missed her "17-month" milestone by a few days. It zipped by without me even realizing. Here is what she has been up to lately:

*Ella is still working with physical therapy. She has progressed to a lot of tall kneeling, but still needs to progress to "kneel-to-stand". Every once in a while, she will look as though she really wants to pull herself up, but mostly she is content on her knees or bottom. We are also working on her gaining some confidence while she is in the standing position.
*Ella finally got herself to the seated position in her crib. Normally, when we would go in to get her out of bed, she would be laying on her back. For the first time, when I went in to get her up for the day, she was sitting in her crib. We finally had to put the side of the crib up....at 16 months :). This was a big "first" for her.
*Ella can bit hit-or-miss with her sleeping as far as naps go, but she is still a great sleeper. She consistenly goes to bed at 7 p.m. (unless we are out and about somewhere), but can wake up anywhere from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. And her naps range from 1.5-4.5 hours, depending on the day. No matter what the pattern, she does really well with scattered naps and a good, long night of sleep.
*Just like her brother, Ella still needs her silky blanket and pacifier when it is time to go to sleep. She is perfectly content to play without them, but when it is "night night time", these are what she needs to settle down. She loves to cuddle her silkies.
*Ella is a pretty good eater. Honestly, we haven't given her a lot of variety (a little bit of laziness on my part), but she wolfs down what we give her.
Food she doesn’t like: broccoli and cheese soup, corn, peas (she will eat the baby food, but not frozen peas). Food she does like: cheese, turkey, bananas, oatmeal, pizza, tortillas, scrambled eggs, toast with butter, greek yogurt, crackers.
*You know she is done with her food when she starts pulling the food off of her tray and dropping it on the ground. It doesn't matter how many times we tell her "NO!", or swat her hand, she will do this with a smile on her face every time.
*Ella has nine teeth: top four and bottom four + one molar on the bottom.
*She is really starting to use her sign language skills. She has only learned the basics, like “more”, “all done” and “please”. We are working on “thank you” and “nice” also.
*Ella waved and said “hi” for the first time this month. She has come a long way with her verbal skills in the last four weeks.
*She grinds her teeth all day long. It is a noise I would rather not hear. At all. It is disgusting.
*She loves looking at pictures with daddy. They stand in front of the refrigerator and talk about all of our friends and family who are in the pictures. They also walk up and down the hall and look at our wedding pictures.
*She loves to look at her books. What’s that? Will one of my kids actually like reading? Who knew! Her favorite book is the musical book that Jaycoby gave her, but she loves looking at all of them. She really enjoys the books about animals and laughs whenever we go over the animal noises with the pictures.

Riding with Bro Bro in the Costco shopping cart. Silly Jaycoby!

She was a little sensitive at the beginning of PT, so we got her distracted with a box of tissues. This is normally a "no no", so she was having a blast tearing through the box.

Sleeping Beauty!

Pretty girl with her mama

Caged in the playroom with Logan.

The first time I found her sitting up in her crib. You can see that the side of the crib is down. We are lucky she couldn't pull herself up, because she could have fallen out.

Puffy coat + restrictive chest straps= screaming baby. She got over it pretty quick though.

Classic spaghetti pic

Ella's explosion of hair

Saying "ohhhhh" when I caught her with a tissue she wasn't supposed to have.

Ella visits the doctor

2011-11-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

Doesn't this look like a sick, little girl? :)

Ella was all smiles as we waited for the doctor to come and check her out. After her fever and vomiting had passed, she had a whole day of being "fine". A full 36 hours later, she woke up with hives all over her scalp and face, a needle-point rash on her back and tummy and a burn-rash in her diaper area. I decided to have her checked out, just because there were so many different things going on with her body. The doctor confirmed that it was "just a virus" and that she would be fine in another day or two. What a relief!

Ella's first bout with the flu

2011-11-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

It started last Friday....I was changing Ella's diaper around 10 a.m. and she started to fuss. Then she started to cry. I thought it was weird and decided that maybe I should give her some Tylenol, in case her moler was bothering her, but I got distracted and forgot. Yup, it was one of those "mother of the year" moments. Awesome.
We went to Grammie's house for the afternoon. Just as it was nearing her nap time, we noticed that she seemed a little warm. I gave her some Tylenol and put her down for nap. When she woke up, she had a temp of 102.9, but seemed happier. We decided to risk it and take her up to Portland anyways.
After we dropped off Jaycoby, we headed to Mary & Jeff's house for dinner. We warned them that she wasn't feeling too great, but we weren't expecting her to get sick at the dinner table. She gagged on some of her dinner and then we got to see the rest of it all over again. Gross! Zach fled from the room because, naturally, he has an aversion to vomit. Can't say I blame the guy. Mary helped me get everything cleaned up, we visited a few minutes longer while Ella tried her hardest to be happy, but then we had to go so she could rest. She fell asleep in the car around 9 p.m. and slept the next morning until 9:30 a.m. Whoa!
We spent Saturday at the house and took it easy. She was feverish all day, but didn't show any more flu-like sypmtoms. Then when I went to her crib on Sunday morning we discovered she had thrown up in the night. Poor, sweet girl had to take two baths to get the smell off of her and had another easy day at home. She took two naps- 10:30-11:45 and 1:45-5:45.

Sunday pictures-
Post-bath #1

Nap #1 on daddy

She really wanted to play, but she kept laying down.

Nap #2 with daddy.

As you can tell, she is definitely a daddy's girl when she is sick. She hasn't taken naps on us since she was tiny. She would cry for Mike any time he was in the room and, as you can see in the photos, she would fall asleep on him when he would cuddle with her.

Ella's Picture Routine

2011-11-10T15:59:00.001-08:00

Every night, when Mike gets home from work, Ella insists on looking at all of the pictures around the house. She will crawl up to Mike, lift her arms to be held and then start pointing at the walls and saying "ooohhh ooohhh". He knows exactly what she wants. She could do this all night long. Her favorites are Logan, Diego and a picture of mommy and daddy that was taken at a friend's wedding.

Pointing at Diego.

Favorite picture on the mantel of mommy and daddy.

Jaycoby's Kindergarten School Photo

2011-11-10T15:53:00.001-08:00

Halloween- Part Deux

2011-11-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

On Halloween night, we went up to Portland. We started the night with dinner at Jaycoby's favorite pizza place...

Jaycoby with his dad. Wait...who is dressing up as Batman?

Ella was hardcore. You can see her nose is red, but she wouldn't let us put her in the stroller. She wanted to be in on every bit of the action.

Here comes the gang....

This neighborhood is awesome and has all kinds of Halloween decorations. I love the way Ella is looking up at the Frankensteing like "what the heck is that thing?".

Batgirl and Batman by the Bat-pumpkin

The infamous "creepy babies" from 2010. Jaycoby got scared at this house, last year, and ran off the porch screaming and crying. They weren't very nice. They could tell he was timid and they scared him on purpose. We tried to sneak up this year, without letting him know that it was "the house", but he figured it out pretty quickly. We had to take Ella up to get some candy, so he could see that it wasn't too scary. He thought the picture of Ella with the creepy babies was pretty cool, but not cool enough to go and trick or treat there.

He went up to a "creepy house" just before we were done for the night. He was so pr0ud of himself and we were so proud of him. The man at the house was really nice about it.

Ella LOVED this family of apes.

Our final stop was at Aunt Mary & Uncle Jeff's house.

This picture is kind of a big deal. Ella is usually afraid of Uncle Jeff (for some strange reason), so it was really sweet that she sat with him and let him read her a story.

Halloween- Part One

2011-11-08T15:07:00.001-08:00

It has become our tradition to do two nights of trick or treating. The first night, we go around to all of the grandma and grandpas houses. This is like Christmas in October for our kiddos. They love showing off their costumes and the grandparents love getting to see them. Win-win.

First stop: Grandma & Gramps house

Grandpa put together a hay ride for the grandkids. It was so cool!

This is Ella's favorite toy at Grandma's. Can you tell?

Second stop: Great Grandpa & Grandma Roth

Ella was having so much fun looking at pictures with Grandma & Grandpa and she was all smiles.

Third stop: Grandpa & Grammie's

Pumpkin Carving 2011

2011-11-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

Step 1: Mom draws faces on the pumpkins.
Step 2: Jaycoby "cleans out the guts".
Step 3: Mike carves the faces.
Step 4: Ella eats the newspaper. We couldn't leave her out!

You know you're a mom when...

2011-11-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

...you're headed into your dentist appointment and you realize you have a princess bracelet on your wrist. A BIG, puffy princess.

Jaycoby- drawing

2011-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Occasionally, Jaycoby will sneak off and work on a "project" and I'm not allowed to look. This is what he came back with when he was done. He said: "you always love the drawings of my hands and I am holding candy I was going to share with you". I was impressed that he traced his hands all by himself.

MOMS Club Halloween Party

2011-11-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

Pictures from our Annual MOMS Club Halloween Party.

Ella was diggin' the treats.

Batgirl with her BFF, Meghan. How ridiculously cute is that smile? She kills me with her cuteness.

Kellen, Zach & Jaycoby

At the party, the kids got to...

Walk in a parade to show off their costumes....

Make mummies using toilet paper...
Jaycoby spent AT LEAST fifteen minutes doing this. He was having a blast!

Ate donuts out of a tree...

Pumpkin Patch with Jaycoby's Kindergarten Class

2011-11-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

This is the reason that Jaycoby was excited about the field trip: he got to ride the bus. Finally!

Running off of the bus...

They went on a tractor ride...

Got to pick a pumpkin...

Got to pick an apple...

Got to run through the corn maze...

Jaycoby told his group to follow him because he is a "corn maze expert".

Snacked on apple cider and donuts...

And throw the lasso!

Ella was excited to go to the pumpkin patch with big brother...

And Grammie got to come too!

Bauman Farms

2011-10-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ella's Physical Therapy Update

2011-10-19T13:57:00.001-07:00

Ella has been making huge strides in her motor development. Most of the work has been on her confidence, because that seems to be the biggest issue. The therapist has said that he doesn't see any neurological issues with Ella and that "she has a lot of anxiety about not being in control". I have a feeling that won't be the last time we hear that about our little girl. Anyway, she has continued going to PT once a week and is gaining some confidence. She does not like doing the work, so she cries the second the therapist comes near her. He will give her little breaks, but giving her toys and walking away and she calms down. The second he takes steps towards her, she is sobbing all over again. This truly is a workout for her, because she is being pushed to do movements she isn't used to and using muscles that need strengthening. By the end of her appointment, she is always hot and sweaty.
Some goals Ella has reached:
*Pulling herself up to her knees and even putting one foot up (kneeling position) for support.
*Rolling to both sides.
*Being able to get herself to the seated position.
Some goals for Ella:
*Pulling herself to a standing position. She is extremely timid about being on her on her feet.
*Learning to get back to a seated position once she is standing.
*Confidence in crawling over uneven surfaces.

Here is a picture of Ella using the itty-bitty walker. It is the perfect height for helping Ella get the feeling of moving up on her feet.

Ella- 16 months old

2011-10-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

*When she is crawling a long distance, she always has her mouth open.
*She is crawling around and getting into everything she's not supposed to. Her favorite route is:
1. Pull the dvd's out of the entertainment center, then crawl to
2. Pull the chords out from underneath the computer, then crawl to
3. The hallway where she pulls the night light out of the socket, then crawl to
4. The kitchen to pull out all of the paper bags stored by the refrigerator.
And if she can tear up some papers, knock over some pictures, grab a cell phone or remote on the way then she is lovin' life.
*She loves shutting doors. If we go out to the garage and leave the door open, you better believe she will shut the door behind you. This isn't a good combination with her older brothers recent fear of the garage. He MUST have the door open to the house, or he screams and cries because it is scary out there. He thinks Ella is being mean and doing it on purpose.
*She loves to wave “hi” and “bye” to everyone. Often times, she will do it with both hands.
*She totally cracks herself up. On a typical car ride, we will hear Ella doing this: “Ba ba ba ba ra ra ra da da- haha haha haha” , “ma ma ma ba ba ba ma da ra ra- haha haha haha” .
*She has her daddy’s sense of humor. They are like two peas in a pod. He will look at her, make babbling noises and laugh. She does the same thing right back. This can go on for several minutes.
*She has seven teeth- four on the top and three on the bottom. There is one more that will probably pop through any day now.
*She is moving around in her crib and pulling herself up to her knees. This is making nap time and bed time a little more of a challenge, because now she knows she can play in her crib. She is still sleeping good most of the time though.
*If she falls asleep in her car seat, she must be left there. She does not go back to sleep if I get her out of the car and put her in the crib. I have a feeling she is going to have a lot of naps in the garage.
*She is turning into "that kid". Yep, she is the baby that I have to tell the older children to watch out for. She sits so still, waiting for her prey, and when they bend down to admire the sweet baby, she clobbers their face. Two-handed. Full force. With a huge grin on her face. I am constantly clipping her nails, because I don't want her to draw blood. I have always had a low tolerance for "that kid" and now I live with her. Let the good times roll!
*She got her first spanking. Refer to the previous comment :)

Gorgeous baby. Gorgeous view.

Shopping with Logan.

She has the best smile.

Wearing Bro Bro's clothes.

Cutest. Baby. Ever. No, you can't have her.

We did a little shopping for Halloween- Bat antlers.

I get a lot of comments that she looks like Pebbles, because of the way I fix her hair. So I had her wear her Pebbles t-shirt with her Pebble ponytail. She looked adorable, of course.

First time I found her sitting up in her crib in the morning.

She LOVES animals.

"I love you more than..."

2011-10-11T10:59:00.003-07:00

Jaycoby brought Ella a special gift from his dad's house. I'm assuming it is a gift that was originally from Jaycoby to his dad, but he has regifted it to his baby sister. I thought it was so sweet that he wanted to bring this to our house to give to Ella. When you open the book, it plays music as you read. This is the perfect book for her. She has been really into her books lately and having the music with her reading is an awesome combination.

Jaycoby's First Jog-a-thon

2011-10-10T11:05:00.001-07:00

Jaycoby's first Jog-a-thon was a huge success. He was eager to get pledges for the event and he did an awesome job running. He completed five laps and actually jogged the whole time. I was so impressed! This kid complains about having to walk "all the way" down the hall to his bedroom, so my expectations weren't high. They had ten minutes to run as many laps as they could and he gave it all the entire time. And he looked like he was having fun while he was doing it.

Jaycoby's class before the race

I LOVE the look of determination on his face in this picture.

Running hard

Oh ya, that's my kid! Look at his form. So long to the days when he would flap his arms while he ran. This kid looks like a runner!

Jaycoby goes to school with other kids from our MOMS Club. Here he is with Tiana and Regan after the race.

This is Jaycoby's new "best friend", Caleb S. There is another Caleb in his class, but Jaycoby said "I don't play with the other Caleb. Not even at all, mom." Okay then.

Side sleepers

2011-09-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we go in every night and check on the kids while they are sleeping. Often times, we they are sleeping in this position: rolled on to their side with their arms fully extended together. These were the best pictures we could get.

Not an ounce of baby left in my sweet, little boy

2011-09-28T08:23:00.003-07:00

Every night, before we head to our bedroom, we go in and look at the kids while they are sleeping. Jaycoby still looks precious, and peaceful, when he sleeps, but Mike and I finally agree that he looks bigger. The other night, Mike said "when did he turn into a kid?". I hate to admit it, but he is all kid now. This is such a fun stage that he is at. And Jaycoby is still small enough to be called "cute" and "adorable" (when he is out of earshot), but we are finally embracing the fact that our boy is getting bigger.

"We just need your money, money, money".....for Kalapuya Jogathon

2011-09-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Jaycoby's school is having a Jogathon Fundraiser on October 6th. Pledges can be done per lap (with a maximum noted) or a flat donation. Jaycoby will be jogging for 15 minutes. Laps are tallied and recorded and then the students receive a certificate with the number of laps they completed. Then they collect their pledge money and turn it in by October 13th. There are some small prizes that students are eligible to win when they turn in their pledge money. Jaycoby is hoping to win the Jamba Juice or Olive Garden gift card.
He gave me specific instructions when we were discussing how he could ask for his pledges. This is what he said: "Mom, I will do a video of music or something. I don't want you to send it to the workers at the berry farm though. Just Grammie, Mema, dad and Grandma." Got it. I promise. I won't be sending this to the workers at the berry farm :-)
It took several tries, but Jaycoby finally got the song the way he wanted it. Putting his school name into the song was far too hard, so he had to leave it out.
This is his song for the Kalapuya Jogathon. IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN PLEDGING MONEY, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

His song is his own remake of Jessie J's song "Price Tag"-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxX-QOV9tI
Actual Lyrics:
It's not about the money, money, money,
We don't need your money, money, money.
We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the price tag.
Ain't about the (ha!) cha-ching cha-ching.
Ain't about the (yeah!) ba-bling ba-bling,
Wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the price tag.

Ella's first pedicure

2011-09-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

I took the kids with me to my nail appointment this past weekend. The nail technicians kept admiring Ella while they were working on their clients. They happened to get a break between clients and they asked me if they could paint her toes. They didn't have to ask me twice. OF COURSE!
Ella sat still while they painted her right foot. She just kept looking at them like "who are you and what are you doing?". When they painted her left foot, she started to wiggle. This child wiggles and cries whenever I have to clip her toenails, so I was shocked that the wiggling didn't begin sooner. Still, she never got upset. They painted her toes bright pink and they even put white polka dots on as well. They wanted to give her a flower on her big toe, but her nail was just too tiny. She still left with super, fancy toes and it just looks too darn cute on her chubby little feet. I'm hoping for many more pedicures with my little girl in the future (Mike I hope you aren't reading this).

I love my kids!

2011-09-26T14:09:00.001-07:00

This photo is the perfect snapshot of me with the kids. Ella sitting perfectly still, yet grabbing a handful of Jaycoby's hair. Jaycoby snuggling in by his sister and getting attacked...with a smile on his face. These two are so funny together. I never would have thought that my one-year old and five-year old could be "best friends", but they definitely have an unbreakable bond. They play so well together, get excited whenever they see each other after time apart and they make each other laugh. I hope this bond that they share lasts forever.

Family Photos with Elise

2011-09-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post these when we got them back. Here are the family pictures we took out at Willamette Valley Vineyard this summer. There are also some pictures of Ella for her one-year pics.

Beyblades Song

2011-09-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Beyblades are the "it thing" in our house lately. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, do not feel bad. We just recently learned what these things are. I have to say, they have become one of my favorites of Jaycoby's toys. Basically, they are a fancy version of the "tops" we played with when we were kids. Mike and I have done several "battles" with Jaycoby and it is a lot of fun.

Here is Jaycoby singing the Beyblades theme song:

First time rolling over by herself at home

2011-09-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

Ella has been able to roll from her tummy to back for a long time, but hasn't been able to roll from back to tummy. She is so funny though, because she wants me to put my hand next to her like I am going to push her over before she will roll. I don't even have to touch her and she will roll. Funny kid.

Physical Therapy @ Salem Hospital Rehabilitation

2011-09-19T18:47:00.003-07:00

Here are some pictures of Ella's appointment today. I haven't been able to take any pictures of her appointments through ESD, because I have been more actively involved in the therapy. I was able to participate today, but sometimes it is more beneficial if I sit back and watch. When she gets upset, and has her eyes locked on mommy, it isn't going to be productive if I am within reach.
What we learned today: Ella lacks a connection in motor planning. She is physically strong enough to do what needs to be done, but she isn't figuring out what she needs to do on her own.

She has play time as a transition. She cries when she has to work, but she does a great job of settling back down during the transition times.

Starting her out on the "wedge". She didn't know that she was going to have to roll down this thing. Here she is playing catch with her therapist.

The yoga ball is used to help her get familiar with certaim movements. She doesn't like this activity and started fussing immediately when he set her on the ball.

The yoga ball is hard work :-(

Rolling down the wedge is even harder. But after doing this in this same direction, three times, she showed us that she can do it all on her own.

Jaycoby's first time shooting a BB Gun

2011-09-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Father-son bonding at it's finest. There is nothing like shooting a gun to bring a couple of boy's together. Jaycoby was so excited to "go shootin' with Mike" out at my parents house last night. They set up a pyramid of cans and hung a 2-litre from a branch for targets. Mike had to hold the gun and cock it and Jaycoby did the trigger. Every time that Mike would cock the gun, Jaycoby would dance the beat of the cocking noise. He couldn't contain his excitement.

Ella’s journey through Physical Therapy…

2011-09-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

I went into Ella’s 9-month appointment with one main concern: she wasn’t sitting up on her own. In fact, she wasn’t even close to trying. She was still a limp noodle. I know you aren’t supposed to compare your children and that “all children move at their own pace”. I knew those things. I really did. I wouldn’t even say I was “concerned”. I was just ready to do something about it. Still, when I left her doctor’s appointment with a referral for Early Intervention, my heart was broken. I knew that Ella needed some extra help, but having that fact confirmed by the pediatrician made it real. I didn’t want to play the game of denial AT ALL, but having a professional tell me what I already knew still hurt. So, I set aside my motherly pride and I made an appointment with Early Intervention. The process has been long and drawn out, and we still have a ways to go, but here is what we have done so far:
March 30th- 9-month check-up. Received referral to Early Intervention.
May 11th- Ella’s evaluation appointment with ESD. By this time, she was sitting up on her own, but she wasn’t steady. They did several tests with her to see how she scored. She ended up qualifying for Early Intervention services for gross motor skills and scored “normal” in the other areas. They wrote up her IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan) to include two physical therapy appointments per month.
June 23rd- Ella’s first appointment with Early Intervention and Physical Therapy. At this point, Ella was still really struggling with her social anxiety. She would fixate on a specific person and be totally terrified by them. She was practically inconsolable. This is what happened when she would look at the EI specialist. It made the appointment challenging, but thankfully, she was okay with the PT. That is who we needed her to like, because that is who needed to work with her more. The EI mostly helped us set goals and just tried to avoid making eye-contact with Ella.
Goals set after her appt: rotate her on both sides to her belly; teach her to tuck her arm under so she can roll from tummy to back; when she is sitting in place, put her toys on her right side so she has to reach and rotate her upper body.
June 29th- Goals set after her appt: encourage rotation when she is sitting and to come up from the floor; when she is on her belly, pull her back to her knees and let her shift weight to her side so she can sit; have her practice sitting in a tall knee sit, tilt her forward so she comes down to her arms in the creep position.
July 12th- If I remember correctly, this appointment was a disaster. She cried the whole time and it was just an “off day”.
Goals set after her appointment: Sit to floor- when she starts over to the side, help her to the floor by bringing her down with her arms and let her figure out how to get her leg out. Floor to sit- from hands and knees, help shift hips under her and counterbalance her upper hip.
August 5th- Goals set after her appointment: assist her in freeing up the left leg that gets stuck when she is going from sit to creep; place her toys all around her instead of right in front of her, so she has to move to them; help her by bending one leg up, then moving the other one to help her move her body forward; have her sit on your knee with her feet flat on the floor then offer her toys so she has to reach and practice balance.
August 11th- Goals set after her appointment: have her go over to her right side going from sit to floor and from floor to sit; start with her on her belly with her legs wedged between your legs and bring her back to her heels so she can practice leaning forward and catching herself (ending in crawl position).
Speed Bump: Unfortunately, the physical therapist that had been helping us through the ESD retired at the end of August. The ESD was going through a lot of cutbacks, so we weren’t sure if the services would continue. We decided to look into private therapy. Ella’s PT, Eileen (who I LOVED), had told us that the coveted therapist in town was Trent, at Salem Hospital Rehabilitation. I made a phone call and got an appointment with him and decided to wait to hear from ESD. A week later, ESD called and said they did, in fact, hire on a new PT and they scheduled two appointments for Ella in September. She is going to be a busy girl.
September 15th- PT evaluation at Salem Hospital Rehab. We spent an hour talking and “playing” with the PT, while he evaluated Ella. Aside from the part when she threw up all over the floor mat, and he had to clean it up, she did really well with him. He did lots of tests with her to see where she was at. She even showed off her newest skill of crawling, whenever he would put his laptop down on the ground. She would only crawl to the things we didn’t want her to touch. At the end of the appointment, I was feeling like she had done really well. And then he told me that she scored at the age of a “9-10 month old”. Insert dagger to my heart. There is no ignoring the progress she has made, but I was hoping for better than that. The biggest hang up right now is that she cannot get off her back. She cannot roll to the side and pull herself up and that is a major step in mobility. When she falls to her back she is stuck, and we need to get her beyond this point.
What is the plan? Four to six weeks of physical therapy at Salem Hospital. We could skip this, since she will be receiving in-home therapy from the ESD again, but Salem Hospital has more tools and equipment to get her where she needs to be. Hopefully the combination of all of these appointments will get her there faster.
Future appointments: September 19th @ SH, September 23rd w/ ESD, September 23rd @SH, September 29th w/ ESD, September 30th @ SH. And then we will plan six more in October (two with ESD and four with SH).

Jaycoby changed Ella's diaper

2011-09-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here is proof, for Jaycoby's future wife, that he is capable of changing a diaper. If he can do it at the age of five, he can do it when he has children of his own.
He is always so helpful and patient with his baby sister. She is never going to have to worry about anyone messing with her. "Bro bro" (what he calls himself when he talks to Ella) is always going to be watching out for his "little goo-goo-ga-ga" (not sure how that nickname stuck, but he refers to her as this a lot).

Here is the video of the diaper change. I love it when I ask him if she is going to crawl out of the diaper and he starts laughing and says "Maybe".

Ella- 15 months old

2011-09-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

*Ella can crawl! This is a milestone that we have been hoping we would see for a while now. It has taken her a lot of practice, a lot of physical therapy and a lot of bribery, but she did it. My friend, Elizabeth, brought me a Passion Tea Lemonade from Starbucks and Ella decided she was going to come and get it. She crawled a few “steps” and took a drink and then crawled a little more. It was precious.
In the last month she has made so much progress. She finally figured out these stages of mobility:
-Getting to her hands and knees from her tummy. And then she can move from her hands/knees back into a seated position.
-Getting from a seated position to her knees by pulling herself up. Then she can lower herself back to her bottom.
-Using her upper body to scoot herself backward, in order to get to things.
-Using her hands to pivot her body, in order to get to toys she wants to play with.
-Synchronizing her arm and knee movement so she can crawl a couple of “steps”.
* We are finally seeing some top teeth. The two that have cut through are not right next to each other, so she is going to look like she has a missing tooth for a while. She got one of her left central incisor and her right lateral incisor.
*Her favorite toy is her dinosaur ball maze thing. I don’t know what to call it. She has mastered putting the balls in the holes and she favors the hole on the right, which makes the balls go out of the dinosaur’s mouth. She will laugh when the ball rolls out on to the floor.
*She is eating like a champ. We have heard comments from people on what a great eater she is. I guess we take it for granted that she will eat almost anything we offer her. We keep trying new items all of the time and she seems to enjoy the variety.
*She was in her first wedding. She got to be the flower girl in my sisters wedding and she did a great job. Okay, well, I carried her down the aisle and handed her off to Mike, who kept her in the back the whole time. But she looked gorgeous and everyone loved her in her frilly dress.
*She is protective of Jaycoby. If we wrestle with him, or tickle him, she will start to fuss or cry. She doesn't like it when she thinks he is getting hurt.
*She's our "little monster". Since she is mobile, she is getting into everything she isn't supposed to. Papers, the magazine basket, the laptop and my cell phone are her favorites.

Ella gets a lot of soda. She is able to sneak a drink here and there and I'm sure she is getting a lot more soda than we would like to know about.

Melinda, Matt and flower girl, Ella.

Cuddles with her favorite uncle.

Ella got to see a lot of family that came out for Aunt Melin's wedding.

Bottle time with her Buddy, Logan.

Sittin' pretty, as always.

Pulling herself up and getting more confident on her knees. This was a big deal.

She is a mommy's girl. On this particular day, she would cry if I moved away from her. So we sat on the floor together an watched tv. She kept her hand on my knee, so I couldn't move.

Playing with her favorite dinosaur toy.

Jaycoby's First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

Jaycoby was really excited for his first day of Kindergarten. When I asked him if he wanted me to drop him at the curb, or walk him in, he said "hmmmm, let me think about it .....walk me in".
Me: "Okay, but if I walk you in, you cannot cry or get upset when I leave. Is that okay?"
Jaycoby: "I'm not sure. We will see."
He hadn't acted nervous at all, but I wasn't 100% sure that I would be leaving without any tears. The tears that were shed ended up being my own. He did GREAT! He just walked in, took his seat and was ready to rock. I couldn't have been more proud.

First day of school shot

When we first walked into his classroom, he was taking it all in.

Tossing his stuff in his cubby.

We found his chair with his folder.

He went straight to work on the worksheets in his folder.

Class is in session.

Walking out of school after his first day and ready for pick up.

Kindergarten Open House

2011-09-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

We went to Jaycoby's kindergarten open house at his brand new school, Kalapuya. Jaycoby had minimal interest in meeting his teacher and seeing his teacher, but couldn't get enough of the awesome playground. I don't blame him though. The playground is pretty amazing.

Mike, Ella & Jaycoby in Jaycoby's classrom.

Jaycoby with his dad, Jonny. They were checking out the cool computers.

The spider web was Jaycoby's favorite part of the playground.

Jaycoby can tie his shoes

2011-09-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ella is crawling!

2011-09-13T17:18:00.000-07:00

I was unable to upload the video that I took on my phone of Ella's first crawling. But here is the next best thing: her first time crawling across the room. She was crawling to a stack of papers that I did not want her getting into, of course. In the last week, Ella has practiced her crawling very little. And then, today, she crawled across the room. She has it all figured out.

Who do they look like?

2011-09-03T17:50:00.001-07:00

It is so funny to hear opinions about who our children look like. I think it is safe to say that it changes all of the time. There have been times when I've thought both Jaycoby and Ella had "more of me", but then there is no denying that they can look "just like daddy". I love it that they both have a mix of mom and dad.

Jaycoby @ 2 months old
We used to hear that he looks "just like Mindy", "just like Michael" and "he is Hurst through and through".

Ella @ 3 months old
We have heard "she has Mindy's eyes and mouth", "she is the girl version of Mike" and "she looks a lot like Jaycoby".

Mike @ 6 months old (???)

Me (not sure of my age, but this pic reminded me of Ella a little bit....it's probably the wet head of hair and the expression)

Ella- 14 months old

2011-08-22T14:54:00.001-07:00

*She got on a new routine after our trip. She is still going to bed at 7 p.m. (and sometimes as early as 6:30 p.m.), but she will wake up for a bottle at 6:30 a.m. or 7 a.m., have a bottle and then go back to sleep for a couple of hourse. I LOVE it! But all of that time in the car, on our trip, got her used to two naps a day. She hasn't adjusted back to one nap as easily as I would have liked (hence, the 6:30 bed time).
*She has been battling a cough since the weekend of July 4th. She has had a couple of rounds of antibiotics, but nothing seems to get rid of it entirely. After seeing the doctor recently, they are trying to treat it as asthma, just to see if the medication will help. So far, we aren't noticing a difference, but we need to give it some time. Poor little girl just can't stop coughing.
*She is working on getting her four top teeth, but nothing has broken through yet.
*She has gotten to where she can rock on to all fours and go back to a seated position pretty comfortably. She has also gotten to where she can scoot around on her tummy, but once she flips to her back she is stuck. This month we are working on using both sides of her body for stability and support and trying to teach her to roll all the way over (tummy to back and back to tummy).
*She is starting to wave "bye bye" on occasion and will do the sign language for "more" while eating.
*Her fussy time is still in the evening. She is usually fine if we go out and do something to entertain her, but she is pretty cranky if we are just at home (she must get that from me).
*She is our little dancer. She still dances to any music she hears. We call it her "rocka rocka", because she rocks back and forth anytime she hears music.
*She LOVES food! I'd love to share her favorite foods, but she basically eats what we are eating. She does eat a lot of fruit (bananas, oranges, strawberries, cantaloupe), veggies (I still give her veggies in baby food form, because I still have a lot in the cupboard), applesauce, yogurt, chicken, turkey and cheese.
*When she is in her car seat, she has gotten in the habit of playing with her sandals. She will pull her feet all the way up to her face and chew on her shoes. FLEXY girl! And when her feet are bare, she crosses her ankles and her feet look so sweet as they rest on her seat.
*She gives the best kisses. When we say "kiss", she opens her mouth, sticks out her tongue and leans in. They are the best, WET kisses ever.
*Right now I am loving the white lines she has in the creases of her skin. Tan lines in fat rolls are the cutest thing on a baby.
*She still despises getting dressed. There are always some tears shed during some part of the process. It isn't awesome.
*She is bashful. When I am holding her, and people come up and say hi to her, she will turn her head into my chest and lay her head down. At least she always gives them a smile :).
*She has a funny way of showing her excitement when she sees her favorite people. She throws up her arms, arches her back and starts saying "Ehhhh...ehhhh...ehhhhh" when she sees Grammie, Grandma or Meghan. She does this because she can't go running into their arms and she wants them to come pick her up. It is pretty funny to watch. You might almost guess that she was scared of them, by the way she looks, but it is the exact opposite.

Gorgeous Girl

Ella pulled herself to this position almost entirely by herself. It is huge progress that she was even trying. And she was kind of in a tight spot, so I just offered my finger and she used it to balance herself and push up. Then she let go! Big, big girl!

Future OSU cheerleader

Her hair is getting thicker all of the time.

I love the way her hair flips out on the sides and curls in the back.

Ella and daddy have both been coughing a lot this past month. Here they are cuddling on the couch on a lazy day at home.

Denver, Colorado

2011-08-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

We spent six days in Denver. While we were there we.....

Spent a day at Water World with Jaycoby...

Ate out at lots of restaurants....

We went to Miyama's for my cousin, Kristen's, birthday. This is her son CJ (10 months) with Ella (13 months).

Hazel Jean (4), Jaycoby (5 1/2) and Julia Rachel (9).

Hazel Jean and Jaycoby in front of Casa Bonita.

Jaycoby just saw that I posted this picture. He gave me a shy look and said "MOM!....she was nice". He just adored JR.

Mike and I got away for a date one night and had an amazing dinner at Osteria Marco.

The whole family went to White Fence Farm restaurant after church on Sunday. They have a fun area for the kids to play outside.

Hazel Jean and Jaycoby climbing in the tree house.

And, of course, we had to visit one of my uncles McDonald's. My cousin, Tommy, was nice enough to treat us to lunch and even let Jaycoby make his own milkshake. He still talks about how it was the "best milkshake ever".

Spent a day hiking around Red Rocks Park....

And spent lots of quality time with Papa and Granny!

To see the rest of the photos of our trip, look here: https://picasaweb.google.com/mindylou14/August20201102#

Yellowstone National Park

2011-08-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

On our way to Colorado, we made a stop at Yellowstone National Park. We didn't have a lot of time to spend there, but we were fortunate enough to have our own personal tour guide. My Uncle John works at the park from May through October every year and knows all of the hot spots. We spent a few hours driving around with him to all of the "must see" places. He even gave Jaycoby a "Junior Ranger" hat that he wore the rest of the day (all of the pictures that he doesn't have a hat on were taken before we met up with Uncle John). Jaycoby even took a nap in the hat.
Even though we had less than a day at the park, we really enjoyed our time there. We got to see the original hotel that was built, where President Roosevelt once stayed, Old Faithful (or as Jaycoby refers to as "that geyser"), Yellowstone Lake, a mama bear with her two cubs and lots of bison. Lots and lots of bison. The landscape was beautiful at Yellowstone. We would have loved to have spent more time there, done some hiking of the trails, and more sightseeing, but we had to get back on the road.

Uncle John & Junior Ranger Jaycoby

Sulfur pools ("toot pools")

Yellowstone Lake

It was a little windy by the lake. There was no trying to hold down my hair.

Pretty waterfall

To view all of our Yellowstone pictures, go here: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/webUpload?uname=mindylou14

First family road trip

2011-08-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Mike and I decided last year that we were going to plan a trip to Denver, Colorado in 2011. The part of the trip planning that held us up was how we were going to get there. I wanted to fly. Mike wanted to drive. And neither one of us had much interest in what the other wanted to do. After several discussions, and a couple of standoffs, I finally gave in. Please....hold the applause. I was still really negative (hopeful....but negative) about the whole "road trip" idea. But Mike made some valid points to why this could be the "vacation full of great memories". I was certain that he was going to regret choosing to spend five, long days in a car with two small children, but I agreed to the proposed plan of traveling in the minivan.
Once we made the decision to drive, I embraced the idea and set out to make the long trip as successful as possible. Tons of snacks. All the Gatorade that a kid could want. Two bags of Ella's favorite toys. Gifts for Jaycoby to open at every pitstop (worked like a charm, by the way- thank you Target $1 spot). Portable dvd player with twenty different videos to watch. And, we waited to turn Ella's car seat around until the morning of the trip, so that she could have something new to do as well- plenty of new things to look at when you are forward-facing in the car for the first time.

Some memories from this road trip:
-Turns out, Ella liked her car seat facing forward a little too much. She was so excited that she could see both of us and was really happy about it.....for the first ten minutes. Then she decided that if she could see us, that we should be playing with her, or holding her, so she began to fuss. Every time it would get to the point that we would say "at the next exit, we are going to turn the car seat back around" she would settle down. Then, five minutes after passing the exit, she would begin to fuss again. It was a fun game...for her. But after the first day, she figured it out and she did a lot better on our way home. We made sure to do a lot of stops, so that helped a lot as well.

-"The chocolate milk incident". We made a pitstop at Starbucks on our way back to Oregon and Mike got Jaycoby a chocolate milk. Let's just ignore the fact that I tell Jaycoby that he can't have certain foods, or drinks (uhem, chocolate milk), in the car "because Mike said it is the rule". That is neither here nor there. So we head out on the road. I glanced back and saw that Jaycoby was carefully sipping his chocolate milk and holding it with two hands, because he KNOWS the rule. He knows that mommy is a nervous-wreck, because we do NOT have chocolate milk in the new car. Ever. I reminded him that he needed to be extra careful and he said "okay mom". Not two minutes later, I turn around and see the chocolate milk cup turned upside down and Jaycoby is playing a video game. I think to myself "there is no way he drank it that fast". I told him to pick up his cup and he says "oh no". This is when the steam starting coming out of my ears and nose. I quickly climbed into the back seat, while we are driving, and discovered that the whole cup had poured out under the seat. THANKFULLY, the majority poured into some cupholders and the damage was minimal. But I was fuming. I was so mad that I was being quiet. Very, VERY quiet. Jaycoby was trembling and just kept saying "I'm so sorry. Am I in trouble? I'm so sorry. Am I going to get a spanking?". I couldn't even answer him. I was beyond ticked off. So then Jaycoby puts his hands in his lap, starts crying and says "I'm just going to put myself in time out". By this time, Mike had found a spot to pull over and we were attempting to clean up the mess. Jaycoby had been moved to the driver's seat (still in time out) and by the end of the clean up we were laughing. I don't think I would have been able to recover so quickly if all of that milk had gotten on the carpet, but if the milk was going to spill, it couldn't have happened in a better spot. Jaycoby knows his bottom was spared that day. If we mention "chocolate milk" he says "I don't want to talk about it".

Obviously, this picture was taken before "the spill".

-Ella learned how to drink out of a straw while we were on our trip.

-One of our favorite channels on tv is the Food Network and one of our favorite shows is Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We were able to stop at two of the restaurants that have been featured on that show while we were on our trip. It was just another fun element to add to the drive.

Waddell's- Spokane, WA

Bar Gernika- Boise, ID

-I got to clean a diaper-changing station at a rest-stop. Ella decided to pee while I was changing her diaper (she has done this since birth) and completely filled the whole thing. I stood her up, to get her out of the mess, and she kept going, and going, and going. I cleaned up what I could and then took her out to the car in just her diaper. Then I had to go back into the restroom, with my Kirkland disinfectant wipes (how did I know I was going to need those?), and wiped down the whole station. I will never look at those stations the same. As if we don't think they are gross enough. Now I know how gross those things can really be and I'm sure not everyone is as worried about the next occupant as I was. Bleh!

-We did several pitstops at the park. These were usually no longer than twenty minutes, but it worked great for getting the wiggles out.

This last picture shows how hot it was when we were outside. It was really hot on those stops!

-We tried to find pretty places to stop and eat. Here is a picture we took in Hood River, when we stopped for lunch at Taco Del Mar.

At this restaurant, we were sitting next to a mother and her two girls. All of the sudden, one of her daughters said "ew mommy, there is a bug on my shoe". I glance under the table at the same time as the mom and we both saw this huge, beetle sitting on her daughters sandal. It was so gross! Just a random, funny memory.

-We stayed at a few hotels on this trip, but we never got too settled. We drove late into the night mostly and the kids would be asleep in the car when we arrived. Jaycoby was so excited to be able to stay in hotels, because he knew they had pools, but it never worked out for us to take him swimming. He did so great and never asked about it or complained once. The picture below is of Jaycoby trying to teach Ella how to crawl in our hotel room.

While we were on the road, I had lots of time to read. I stumbled on to a new blog and read a post on Traveling with Kids. I just wanted to share a snipit that I really liked and found to be completely true after this experience (I've changed some parts to include our memories):

There have certainly been times when the effort, energy and expense have seemed greater than the returns. However through the highs and despite the lows, I have become convinced of the importance of traveling with our children. There is a special bond that forms through experiencing new sights and places together. Lacking the familiar comforts and schedule of home, we unite to create a new rhythm. Family closeness is fostered. When else, but on a five-day car ride do my children have my undivided attention for 13 hours at a time? Often parents think travelling is about children making memories, but I am so very thankful for my memories. I am able to remember the age and stage of my children by thinking back on vacations. Those memories stand out vibrantly against the landscape of everyday life. I will forever remember what Ella was like at 13 months and Jaycoby at 5½ by thinking back over our trip to Colorado. And while Ella may not have memories of her 1-year old self in Denver, I will never forget the special bond that she formed with her great-grandmother in such a short amount of time together. My children are helping to shape me on this journey from unfettered traveler to mother of two who desires to show them the world.

Ella- 13 months old

2011-07-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

*She is officially a one-nap a day kid. In the past 4-5 months, she has gone with the flow and has been woken up from her naps over and over again. Because of this, there have been many times that she only took one nap. She can blame her older brother for that. It was always because of a schedule-conflict and not for lack of being tired. She just got one nap because that is all we had time for. But now, she is doing it all on her own and manages to stay awake (most of the time) even if we are driving in the car. But her car seat is still a favorite place to fall asleep.
*She has been doing really well with her physical therapy and is making progress every day. She still has low muscle tone, but she is getting stronger and we can tell she is ready to be moving. There are just a couple of steps she still has to master.
*She went from the crawling position to the seated position all on her own this month. That was a BIG deal!
*She still only has her two bottom teeth, but she is getting better with solids and is making do with what she has. She uses those little teethers as best she can. She loves yogurt with fruit chunks, chicken, cooked carrots, rice biscuits, etc.
*She definitely has a sweet tooth. She is happy to eat any sweet treat that is offered to her (and her daddy offers them to her any chance he gets).
*She loves to clap and is slowly learning the "How big is Ella?" game. She usually just claps for herself instead of raising her arms when we say "soooo big".

She likes to sit on the fire truck and is learning to push the buttons for the music. She would much rather sit and dance to the music than move the truck around.

BFF's.

Logan crawled into Ella's lap and then they started swapping pacifiers.

I took this when she was watching Logan crawl around. She kept clapping for him.

She wanted to keep up with Logan so bad, but she isn't quite ready. I put her in the crawling position so she could practice though. She can hold this position for a couple of minutes now and she will rock back and forth on her knees.

Potty training, already? I don't think so. My mom took this picture when we were shopping at Target.

Lunch time with Grammie is always so much fun.

Future crime fighter.

Unfolding the laundry. Little trouble-maker.

Fourth of July

2011-07-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

We went to Independence for the fourth of July. It was totally ghetto, but we still had fun. It was so fun watching Jaycoby run around and act so excited about all of the games, rides and food. We all shared the BEST elelphant ear we have ever tasted. It was the highlight of the night (for me). After we blasted through the booths, we stopped at the live music so Jaycoby could do some dancing. He found a hoola hoop and was having so much fun twirling it around, "jumping rope" with it and showing off his killer moves. It was pretty hilarious. That boy has no shame and I love it! Unfortunately, he wanted me to dance with him and I am not as carefree as he is. I tried to be. I really did. But it is hard when there are hundreds of people watching you. Anyway, then we found our way up to our seats and watched the fireworks. They put on a really great show! It lasts 30-45 minutes and they do a really good job. Ella even stayed awake and was clapping. It was a great night.

Playing at the park while we wait for the fireworks to begin.

I loved how Ella was the only clear part of the picture (and I took that on my phone...crazy).

Jaycoby was scared at first, but eventually got up in the ambulance and was able to ask the paramedic some questions. Well, one question: "If I call 911, will an ambulance take me to Portland so I can watch the Timbers?".

You have to go on at least one creepy, fair ride, right?

He loves the games!

Dancing with his hula hoop.

We also did some fireworks at home. That's my boy! He is still concerned about the volume of the fireworks and has to have his ears plugged. And thanks to Uncle Steve's firework stand, he now knows what volume level he is comfortable with. He would pick up the fireworks and say "this is a level four, so it is probably too noisy for me...I like a level two".

He loved the smoke bombs this year. Pretty to watch and they don't make any noise.

Best seat in the house.

This was taken at Uncle Steve's firework stand. Jaycoby wanted Mike to buy this package for him. Yah right!

Ella- One Year Check-up

2011-06-29T13:35:00.003-07:00

Height: 29 inches (25-50%)
J: 33 inches (above 95%)
Weight: 19 lbs. 2 oz. (10-25%)
J: 22 lbs. (40%)
Head: 46 cm (75%)
J: 19.5 inches (95%)

It's genetic. I promise.

2011-06-29T13:14:00.001-07:00

Ella had to have an ultrasound on her head this morning. Unfortunately, this has become routine with my kids. Jaycoby had to have this done as well. The reason? Their heads are really big! I was actually surprised that Ella was having to get one done, because her head was only in the seventy-fifth percentile. I thought that sounded normal (which shows that we are used to the BIG numbers in our house). But no, both of my kids were sent for ultrasounds on their big melons. And keep in mind they had two different pediatricians, so this isn't just something our doctor recommends.
If you haven't experienced an ultrasound with an infant, you are not missing out. They smear goop all over their hair and expect that your baby will lay motionless for several minutes while they get the pictures they need. We were lucky this time around and had a really friendly technician. She didn't say a word and didn't seem to mind that Ella cried every time she looked at her. I tried keeping Ella as still as possible by singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABC's and Jesus Loves the Little Children. It kind of worked. And then she would turn her head, look at this stranger who was sitting right next to her and she would start to cry all over again. I also had to hold her hands by her sides, so that she would rub her hands through the goo in her hair. She wasn't too happy about it, but the test didn't take too long. Thank goodness! When I went with Jaycoby, the technician wasn't as friendly and he asked if I could "just make my child lie still". Um....no. Not going to happen mister. I tried pinning down his arms, torso and legs, while my mom had her hands on each side of his head. He was still able to wiggle and he was crying uncontrollably the whole time. We were all a sweaty mess by the end of the test. I am just glad we didn't have the same experience with Ella.

Post ultrasound hair goo pic: Ella

Post ultrasound hair goo pic: Jaycoby

Volcanoes Game and a Sleepover

2011-06-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Jaycoby went and had his first sleepover at a friends house with Kellen last night. But before they had their sleepover, we took the boys to a Volcanoes game. Kellen loves baseball, so we thought this would help keep Jaycoby interested in the game. Wrong. The boys were more interested in the Dairy Queen they were promised after the game than what was going on out in the field. And you know what Kellen loves even more than baseball? Baby Ella. LOL Neither of the boys could give a rip what was going on in the game, but they were having all sorts of fun playing with Baby Ella. We stayed until the end of the fourth inning and then took off for some ice cream. Apparently, DQ is the "bestest thing ever...even better than Volcanoes".

Our seats were right behind the dugout of the visiting team, so the boys would say hi to them every time they came in from the field.

After the third inning, one of the players gave Kellen a ball. The boys thought this was "so cool".

Ella playing with daddy during the game.

Jaycoby's First Soccer Camp

2011-06-23T15:57:00.001-07:00

Jaycoby is doing a soccer camp in Portland while he is staying at his dad's house. Ella and I stopped by to see how he was doing.

Running over to say hi to us when it was time for water break.

Cutest soccer player I have ever seen!

He is on the far left.

Goal! He is the one with his hands in the air.

Saying hi to baby sister at water break.

Jaycoby was more worried about playing with his blue penny than where the soccer ball was. And he kept telling me what the score was also. He seemed to be having fun in his own way out on the field ;-) Watch this video:

Public Works Day

2011-06-23T15:51:00.003-07:00

Salem had it's annual "Public Works Day" at the riverfront, so we stopped by to check out the booths, displays and hot dog lunch. It was a day that I had Logan, so I dropped Jaycoby off with my friend, Melissa, as I unloaded the babies into the double-stroller. When I caught up to Jaycoby and the Sommers, he was getting his face painted. He has NEVER wanted to get his face painted before. I don't know why it has been such a big deal to him (or me), but this was a huge milestone. He picked "the Beavers for Mike".

Ella's First Birthday Party

2011-06-23T15:26:00.001-07:00

We had Ella's party at Salem's Riverfront Park. We were praying for sunshine and no wind, but we didn't get the latter. It was still a fun party. We had good food, lots of family, a few close friends, cupcakes and presents! Then we all ran to our cars before we blew away :)

Ella- ONE Year Old

2011-06-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

*She made the switch to whole milk from formula without any issues. Hallelujah!
*She loves oatmeal, yogurt, carrots, peas and anything we will give her off of our plate.
*She has had some serious constipation issues, just like her older brother. Miralax is a staple in the Roth home.
*She goes to bed around 7 p.m. and sleeps straight through til about 7 a.m. Evening is not her happy time (still!), so we have considered moving her bed time even earlier. Never thought I would have a kid that went to bed at 6:30, but we are seriously considering it.
*Her bedtime routine has remained the same for the entire first year: bottle, kisses, lay her down, throw her silky blanket over her face (yes, I said OVER her face), turn on her music and shut the door. And we rarely hear a peep after that.
*She still isn't crawling, but we are so excited about the rapid progress we are seeing toward motion. She is moving more and more every day and has started to attempt to pull herself into the crawling position.
*She still loves music. She will start rocking back and forth anytime she hears a good tune. We can be in the store, she can hear a cell phone ringing or any musical toy really get her dancing.
*She thinks it is hilarious to grab our cheeks and mouth. Now that she is a little bit older, we are not finding it as funny as she is. This is a habit we are trying to break, but she thinks we are playing a game with her when we tell her “no”.
*She is famous for her silly expressions. Not all of her expressions are pleasant. In fact, most of them are not. Often times, she looks like she is going to cry, going to growl at you or ready to scream. But she is just showing her emotions through her expressions. She is really easy to read, because of the looks that she gives. Our favorite face is her "OH!" face. She makes her mouth into this tiny little "o", as if she is going to whistle or something. It's a show stopper every time.
*She loves the water! Bath time is a treat for her every morning. And now she has figured out how to scoot around the tub by using her hands, so she will slide back and forth on her bottom. She also loves going to the pool. I have never had to leave the pool because she was too tired or crabby (and we always seem to go during her afternoon nap time). She has lasted for over two hours.
*She is saying "Ma ma ma ma", "Ga ga ga ga", "Ra ra ra ra", "Da da da da". And she has the sweetest, softest voice.
*She gives kisses. When we say "kiss", she will open her mouth, stick out her tongue and lean in for a kiss. It's super slobbery and we love it!
*“Itsy Bitsy Spider” is her favorite song.
*Her Fisher Price mini-kitchen is her favorite toy.
*Nicknames: Gaga, Baby Gaga (Daddy), Goo Goo Gaga Girl (Jaycoby), Elle Belle, Elle Belle Michelle, Little Bip, Pretty Pretty Princess (Mommy), Little Girl Girl, Baby

Happy birthday, Ella!

She LOVES dog's. Sigh ;)

She loves to swing.

I wanna be like bro bro.

Bounced herself to sleep.

Some days she isn't too excited to see daddy when he gets home. Lol This picture was taken in the evening time. 4-7 p.m. can be pretty rough for her.

Starting to look more and more like she wants to move.

She isn't quite old enough to go on rides (too noisy), but we can pretend.

She loves to shop!

Sunriver 2011

2011-06-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

http://

Preschool Graduation

2011-06-17T13:14:00.002-07:00

Jaycoby's preschool did an adorable graduation ceremony. They said something nice about each of the kids as they walked down the aisle and I was so busy trying to get the perfect picture (which isn't so perfect) that I didn't really hear what they had to say. I'm sure it was something along the lines of "outstanding student of the year" ;-).
After the little ceremony, we got to visit with one of the high school students that was assigned to do some observation of Jaycoby. When he pointed this teacher out to us, he told us that she "made him work". It was really interesting to see where Jaycoby is at in his learning. He did great in matching items, greater than/less than, addition, subtraction and writing his letters. Areas that he needed to work on were writing his numbers, holding his pencil correctly and better knowledge of his upper case/lower case.

Preschool buddies...

Mason & Jaycoby. Mason is so sweet and Jaycoby loves having playdates with him.

Jaycoby & Cade- These two share a passion for Wii like none other.

Tyler, Jaycoby & Zach. These three have been Awana buddies for the past year and they are all three hardcore Beaver Believers.

Preschool Class Picture: 2010-2011

2011-06-17T13:14:00.001-07:00

I had two choices of pictures and Jaycoby was laughing in both of them. I asked him what was so funny and he said "the man who took the pictures was HILarious".

Mr. Man is beautiful (yes, beautiful) in blue

2011-06-02T13:25:00.001-07:00

Jaycoby's Last Preschool Share Day

2011-06-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

Jaycoby has been talking about his "Share Day" for weeks now. He had picked his stuffed Luigi to take several weeks ago and then decided to take the new Luigi figurine instead. But then he got a really cool Timbers scarf while he was at his dad's house and he was officially torn. Hmmmmm. Decisions. Decisions. What is a boy to do?
Jaycoby: "Well, mom, I better ask Cade (preschool BFF) what he wants me to bring. I know that Cade really likes Super Mario and so he might want to see my Luigi guy."
Decision made. Cade wanted to see Luigi, so that is what he took. It is funny to see that his friends opinions already carry so much weight in his decision-making process. It was also sweet that he was more concerned about what his friend would want to see than what he wanted to take and share (he is in love with the Timbers scarf and was leaning in that direction).

Bike ridin' & backyard fun

2011-06-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

We had another small break in the weather, so we spent our Sunday evening outside. The kids had fun playing in the bounce house. This was Ella's first time and she was as happy as can be watching Jaycoby bounce around her.

Crawling 101

2011-06-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that Ella is a little behind in the motor skills department. I'm not going to lie though- I. Love. It. We have had nearly a full year of a child that just stays put. It is totally AWESOME!
We have been practicing getting Ella used to the idea of being mobile little by little. She has been really stiff and wouldn't even let us put her in the crawling position at all. Lately, she has made some progress in her seated position and is actually turning and reaching more. It looks like there might be some movement in the future, so I want her to be prepared.
Below are the pictures of our crawling lesson today. I was shocked that I was able to get her to stay up in this position. She didn't cry right away (a small victory), but she was grunting and obviously displeased. She held the position for close to three minutes, but she was upset with me by the end.

"Ah. Help!"

"MOM!!!"

Yes, that is drool hanging from her mouth.

"That's better, mommy."

One of our favorite expressions.

Ella's first bike ride

2011-05-24T14:02:00.001-07:00

Since we finally had a break in the weather, we decided it was time for our first family bike ride for the year. I was excited, and nervous, to try out our new bike seat we bought for Ella. Let me just say, it is terrifying riding a bike with your baby strapped to the back of you. I have never felt so unsteady on my bike. At least I was able to sweat off some calories, because I was so nervous.
Anyway, Ella loved the bike ride. She hummed the whole trip. I kept stopping to try and fix her helmet that was sliding down over her face, but it didn't seem to phase her one bit. She would cry when I would stop, not when the helmet slid down. So I did my best to ignore the helmet situation (that was difficult for me) and just keep riding.

Getting strapped in was a little awkward. She was unsure about it at first.

Then she was excited and ready to go!

And then she was ticked that we made her wear a dorky hat :)

Ready, set, ride!

Keizer Iris Festival Parade

2011-05-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

Jaycoby got to walk in the Keizer Parade with my parents. They were a part of Extreme Home Makeover Volunteer Team that was featured in the parade. They even got to walk behind Johnny Littlefield and had their picture taken with him as well.
Jaycoby had a lot of fun handing out candy to the spectators and "walking down the middle of the street for a long, long ways with Grammie and Grandpa".

Ready to walk in the parade.

Cutest kid in the parade.

Looking back to make sure we were still watching him. He was smiling from ear to ear.

His first "brush with fame" so to speak- Johnny Littlefield. Jaycoby was clueless, of course, but Grandpa thought it was pretty cool.

Ella got settled in to watch the parade. She loved seeing the horses. We told her they were big "dog dog's".

Ella took a little nap during the parade.

"Carnable" with the grandparents

2011-05-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

While we were out to dinner for our anniversary, Grammie and Grandpa took the kids to the Iris Festival "Carnable" (this is what Jaycoby calls it). As you can see from the photos, he had a ton of fun.

Everything he won for the night. You can tell he is a happy camper!

Our 3rd Anniversary

2011-05-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

We just celebrated our anniversary this past week. Grammie and Grandpa were nice enough to keep the kiddos overnight, so we could go out and enjoy a lovely evening of dinner and a movie. We had a delicious dinner at Caruso's and then we went and saw the movie "Bridesmaids". It sounds like a chick-flick, I know, but we were both laughing our heads off. It was great night!

Ella- 11 months old

2011-05-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

*She has gotten a little shy. When we are holding her, she will tuck her head into our chest. She will also start to cry (with the saddest, most pathetic looking pouty face) when people look at her. It is kind of funny though, because she will stare at a person and really examine them before she gets upset.
*She had her first baby playgroup with MOMS Club. Of course, there wasn't a whole lot of "playing" going on. The babies sat on the activity blanket and played with the baby toys while the mom's did all of the talking. Ella would cry when she would look at the other mom's, so I had to turn her away from the group and keep her in my lap. Silly girl.
*She has started "Baby Led Weaning". This is what I have just started this past month, but was recently given a name for it (thank you, McKenzie). This is a method of gradually weaning a baby from a milk diet onto solid foods. It allows a baby to control their solid food intake by self-feeding from the very beginning of the weaning process. My motivation: CONVENIENCE. Who wants to deal with baby food when they are out and about? Not this second-time mommy. That is something you do when you only have one child. So we have just started giving her nibbles from what we are eating and have mostly ditched the pureed baby food (until we use up what we have). Up until now, she hasn't had much interest in food, but she is figuring it out quickly. She knows what we are eating tastes way better than that bottle and she wants it all to herself. She never eats that much, but she is doing a little more each day.
*Her sleeping schedule has been off. She has missed a few morning naps and is having a harder time going to sleep any earlier than 10 p.m. This has only been a couple of days, randomly spread out through the month, but we are trying to keep her on a schedule as best we can. This has proven to be difficult with the nicer weather in the evenings and our busy schedule in the day time.
*She is hilarious! She has taken a while to embrace her laughter. Up until now, I would have described her giggle more like a grunt. It was pretty forced and would take a lot of work to get it out of her. This past month she has started actually laughing and for no reason at all. And she will keep laughing. It is wonderful! Jaycoby gets her best laughs. She just thinks her big brother is the funniest kid in town.

Family Dinner with Ella on the table.

One of Ella's classic funny faces.

Playing with her Ella Dog.

Little Nakey Nakey.

She had to ride home from the gym in a diaper only, because she pooped all over her clothes while mommy was working out. Jaycoby was concerned that the police man would give her a ticket "because you can't ride in a car seat without any clothes" apparently.

Ella's playgroup. Conrad & Corryn.

Two beauty queens.

I thought this picture was hilarious. Logan's dad (Greg) described it best:
Ella: "Hey did you hear what I said?? I'm TALKING to you!!!"
Logan: "Please girl... I'm over it... HEY, hold the photos please!!"

Pretty girl with her HUGE bow.

AWANA Awards Night

2011-05-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Originally, we weren't going to be able to make it to the Awards Night. Mike was flying back home, from Chicago, and his flight got in at 7:30. But since his flight was delayed, we were able to rush over to the church, get Jaycoby's certificate and then head out to the airport. I did not think Jaycoby would want to watch the two-hour award ceremony, but he kept talking about the "rewards" and saying it wouldn't be boring to watch all of the kids receive them. This is why I decided to take him at the very last minute. I had no interest in going, but he could not wait to be a part of it.
When the Cubbies went on to the stage, Jaycoby turned around and loudly gasped when he saw that mom, Ella, Grammie and Grandpa were standing in the back. He was grinning and waving. And as our precious blonde-haired boy stood about a head taller than all of the other Cubbies, he did such a great job singing his Cubby theme song and saying his theme verse. Then they gave him his certificate and we took off.

All of my pictures came out really dark, because I couldn't figure out the right setting in time. BOO! This is the best one, because he is waving.

Waving to mom. Priceless!

Checking out his award.

So proud of himself.

Preschool Pictures

2011-05-13T09:45:00.001-07:00

Jaycoby had his school pictures taken a week ago. I was under the impression that he was supposed to wear his "Titan Tots" t-shirt, so that is why he is dressed so casual. Turns out, it was LAST year that they did the t-shirt thing (the year that I didn't know about it) and this year he could have worn whatever I wanted. Oh well. His adorable face makes up for the dorky t-shirt.

I apologize for the low-quality photos. I scanned the proofs that they gave me, because there were so many that I liked.

Mother's Day- School Project

2011-05-09T15:40:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of the gift Jaycoby brought home from school:

Bath salts and a flower in a hand-painted pot.

I took advantage of the gift and made a bath for myself the other night, while the boys were golfing out in the yard. I made sure I locked the door, because I knew they would be coming inside soon. I was right. Within five minutes, I heardd lots of knocking at the bathroom door. Jaycoby full on tried to bust the door down and then Mike was sure I might be too lonely in a room all by myself. Nope. I was just fine in the tub, reading my Oprah book and not being bothered (but still close enough that I could hear them if they really needed me). It was twenty minutes of awesomeness.
Thanks for the bath salts, Jaycoby! Mommy really enjoyed using them ;-)

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T15:25:00.001-07:00

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. We started the day off with my gifts, which included an Olive Garden gift card and a hand-painted jewelry box. Then, we went to church as a family (something we don't get to do all that often as the four of us), had lunch with my family to celebrate my awesome mom, stopped by the inlaws and visited with Mike's mom and then had a relaxing evening at home.

Mommy & Mr. Man

Jaycoby wanted to paint my nails, because it was Mother's Day. Then he requested that I paint his fingernails and toenails as well. This was not my idea. In fact, I didn't even suggest it jokingly. He sat on the couch for a half hour with his hands and feet flexed in the air while they were drying (this was not necessary). He looked hilarious. Oh, and don't worry, I took the polish off this morning before we left the house.

Who painted the little feet and who painted the big feet? Hard to tell :)

Drying his nails.

Poor Ella slept a total of twenty minutes between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. She did SO good all day long and then fell asleep before we were out of my inlaws driveway. We let her nap until 6 p.m., but then we had to wake her up. You can tell by the pictures below that she was not very happy when we woke her up, but she just looked so cute that we had to snap a couple of pictures.

She gave us some smiles after she had a bottle.

She was all done smiling. Here it is....Mother's Day 2011. LOL!

Jaycoby Quotes 2010-2011

2011-05-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a long post, but I need to have all of these things on record. Jaycoby is so funny and I want him to be able to read all of this some day. Thanks for making us laugh, buddy!
SUMMER 2010
J: “Mom, when are you going to go to college?”
Me: “I already went to college.”
J: “Oh, then you growed up to be a mom?”

Me: “What did you have for snack at school?”
J: “I don’t want to tell you. It’s not a good situation.”
He was displeased that they served him hot applesauce instead of cold. And he thought he might get in trouble with mom, because he didn’t eat it.

“What if I had three fingers like Transformer? Then I would shake peoples hands and they would think it was weird.”

After a discussion about how we should be nice to everyone, it led to how God made everyone different- big, small, short and tall. J then said, ”Mom, God made me naughty, good, and wanting lots of toys. That’s just how He made me.”

“You don’t even have to worry about it mom. I won’t watch Phineas and Ferb, because I’m a good kid. You said that sometimes.”

After lifting him into the shopping cart at Target, Jaycoby said “Mom, you’re as strong as a superhero.”

J: “This is my baby sister. “
Little girl: “Oh. What’s her name?”
J: “Ella.”
Little girl: “Why?”
J: “Because my mom picked it. Isn’t it a pretty name? I think so.”

Jaycoby (talking in his baby-talk voice to Ella): "Hello, my little Alicia Keys".
Me: Where did you hear that?
J: On the Backyardigans.

J: "Mom, I don't want to get in trouble ever again. I want to move to 'I don't care land' so you will just say to me 'I don't care, Jaycoby'?". This was a totally random comment that he blurted out after I thanked him for being such a helpful big brother. Not really sure where it came from, but I thought it was pretty clever.

"Oh, hi sweetheart. You are so beautiful today."- talking to Ella

"Mom, you can change the hair on my wii guy. I'm pretending it's Mother's Day, so I'll let you."-after telling me he'd rather I just watch him play wii than attempt to play with him.

J: "Mom, you're stomach is shrinking."
Me: "Well thank you."
…conversation should've stopped there...
J: "But is Ella still in your tummy? Because it looks like it."
Sigh.

"I have the perfect nickname for Ella: Ella Cinderella Love Michelle Roff (Roth)." Perfect!

Eating lunch at Costco and Jaycoby keeps poking holes in his pizza with his finger, while taking bites:
Mike: "Jaycoby, stop playing with your food."
Jaycoby: "Mike, I am just eating it like they do in Mexico."

I was sitting in the glider and rocking Ella. Jaycoby was rocking along with us on the glider foot stool:
Jaycoby: "Mom, you look like a grandma with blonde hair rocking Ella. It's so sweet."
My hair is dyed a really dark brown right now.

FALL/WINTER 2010

J: Awww, she looks just like a girl.

Me: J, don't correct me.
J: But you do it to me.
Me: I'm the mom!
J: Ooooohhhhh. Well then good job, mom.

After going to bed at night, he shouts out to us:
“Call me if you need me…or if I have a phone call.”

Getting out of the car to go to Awana:
“Lets Cubby it up!”

After encouraging Jaycoby to play with his toys, in his bedroom, he asked if he could bring his toys out to the family room to play with them. I told him he could and he said "Okay, thanks. Then I can give you kisses whenever I want to while I am playing with my toys."

We were playing hide and seek. Jaycoby told me to hide first, so I hid in my bathroom shower. He called out for me for a while and finally started crying because he thought I was gone. I quickly ran to him and told him I was just hiding. On my next hiding turn he said: "Okay mom, these are the rules. You can't hide too far away from me or I will freak out."

J: "I didn't tell you about our theme today...how we are different."
Me: "So how are you different?"
J: "Well....I'm like tan."

His new excuse at nap time...
"I'm getting too much dreams when I sleep, so I just can't sleep for a little bit."

J: "What are we doing after swim lessons?"
Me: "We are going to run some errands."
J: "Oh, that sounds boring. I don't really want to do boring stuff today."

SPRING 2011

Instead of saying “you crack me up” he says “you crack my nuds”.

J: Ewwww….ewwww….I just tooted.

Me: You need to brush your teeth.
J: I wish I was the dad, so I wasn't ruled.
Obviously Mike has told J who is really in charge around here.

J: Me and Ella know everything and mom knows nothing.
Me: Where did that come from?
J: Ella. I’m dead serious. She said that.

J: What happens if you get a belly button infection? Does the doctor give you drops?
This was shortly after he was given eye drops for his pink eye infection.

Mike: Hey buddy, how was your day?
J: Oh Mike, you are going to die laughing when you hear about this....

J: Mom, for my next birthday, I want a surprise party.

J: Mom, I love you so much.
Me: Aww, I love you too, sweetie. Do you love me more than Wii?
J: I love you more than vacuuming.

Jaycoby is playing Wii and looks over at Mike, who is sitting beside him on the couch:
J: Mike you look bored. Do you want me to turn off the Wii and play a board game with you or somefin?

He requested that I add this to the list of funny things he says:
“Milk in the milkshake” (he will say this while playing Wii)

While playing house with Callie,
J: We need to watch Cake Boss. I have it recorded for you, honey, and I didn’t delete it yet.

Callie: I got a new tv.
J: Do you have Direct TV like us?

While riding in our friends car, he told Meghan:
If Diego gets dirty you won’t be able to see it, because he is brown.
AND
When I grow up, I want to be hairy all over, like Mike.

Playing Wii
J: Take a looooong look in the mirror today.

Playing Wii
Me: Are you rollerblading?
J: No. We are wearing inline skates.

J’s Friend: Where does your dad work?
J: My dad works at the boring McDonald’s where they don’t make any food and just work on computers and stuff.

WINTER 2011

Me: "You ate your whole pancake? Oh my goodness."
J: "That's what big kids do. They eat all of their stuff. I'm so proud of myself."

"I need a nightcap."
He was referring to wearing his stocking cap to bed at night while he sleeps.

"It would be awesome if you would clean this up for me, mom."

J: I washed my hands until my eyes balled out.
WHAT???

J: Mom, can you buy the ‘nudder’ kind of cream cheese. Sometimes this one like tastes like….lemon.

J:If only you were a blind person, you could see in the dark.

Sick with a bad cold.
J: Mom, can you take lots of care of me?

At nap time:
J: What day is it?
Me: Wednesday.
J: Oh, Luigi (his stuffed Mario guy) doesn’t take naps on Wednesdays. Here you go. Take good care of him.

J: Mom, can you make my breakfast?
Me: Sure. What do you want?
J: What is something that takes a long time to make? Hmmm…pancakes. I’ll have that.

J: I am going to invent underwears that will scratch my bottom for me. You can push a bottom and ‘bloop’ your bottom is being scratched.

Watching morning cartoons and one of the characters calls the other one a dork.
J gasps and looks at me.
Another character says the word stupid.
J gasps again, grabs the remote and says “I’ll turn it down, mom, so we can’t hear the bad words”.
We changed the channel instead.

Mike is reading his book.
Jaycoby: What are you reading about? God? Jesus? Precious little babies?

J: I want to go to Panda Express.
Me: No, we aren’t going there.
J: Why?
Me: Because we need to save our dollars and mommy needs to lose weight.
J: But mom you are the perfect skinny.

I caught J picking his nose in the car.
Me: Jaycoby, you don’t want to pick your nose. What if you were doing that at school? Your friends might tease you and that would make you feel bad.
J: But mom, I would never do it at school. I’m really serious. I never would.

Silly String Easter

2011-04-29T11:52:00.001-07:00

The Easter Bunny brought Jaycoby and Ella some silly string in their Easter baskets. Jaycoby got yellow and Ella got pink- their favorite colors (Jaycoby says this is Ella's favorite color). Mike stood in for Ella so that "she wouldn't get sprayed in her eyes or her mouf". The boys stripped down to their skivvies and duked it out on the back deck. Nothing like a silly string fight, outdoors, in your underwear. It was male-bonding at its finest.
Jaycoby was laughing hysterically the whole time. He would walk up to Mike and say "I want to give you a friendly handshake...it's just a friendly handshake" and then he would stick out his can and spray Mike's hand. He thought it was really clever and that he was tricking Mike every time.

You can't even tell that he was having a good time...

Easter 2011

2011-04-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday was a jam-packed day for us. We went to early service, came home to give Ella a nap, had lunch at Dick & Sue's with the Roth family, went to my parents for an Easter egg hunt and then celebrated my dad's birthday.

Brandon, Sydnie, Jaycoby and Emilie- ready to go on their egg hunt

Reach Sydnie!

Brandon was quick.

Emilie was trying to get Uncle Mike to tell her if she was "hot or cold".

They found all 120 eggs...we hope.

Grandpa got caught giving Ella some frosting.

Mike and Ella

2011-04-22T13:18:00.001-07:00

"I want to be in heaven with Jesus when I die..."

2011-04-22T08:18:00.001-07:00

I got to share a really special time with Jaycoby yesterday. This is something I have been praying would happen since before he was even born. If I could ask for one thing, it would be that my children would have their own personal relationship with their Maker.
Jaycoby has been asking more questions lately and talking about how much he loves Jesus. The topic seems to come up in the car a lot when he is staring out the window and daydreaming. It happened again yesterday and I wish I would have just pulled the car to the side of the road and prayed with him right there. He wanted to "tell Jesus to be in my heart", but there wasn't a good place to do it, so we just kept driving and headed to lunch. This is not something I ever wanted to suggest, or force on him, but it broke my heart to pass up an amazing opportunity. So, when we got to my mom's house after lunch, I brought it up again. I'm going to be honest, he was a little distracted, because Grammie had told him we were going to dye some Easter eggs. But I decided to bring up our earlier conversation, where we had already had covered: 1) When we have Jesus in our hearts, we go to heaven to be with Him when we die. When we don't have Jesus in our hearts, we go to hell where Satan is. And, no, they don't give you a drink when you are thirsty or really hot. And Satan is mean and plays bad tricks on us, 2) If we want Jesus to be with us all of the time, we need to pray to Him and ask him to be in our hearts. We are never alone when we have Jesus in our heart. He is there to heal us when we are sick, to help us when we don't know what to do, to comfort us when we are sad and to be happy with us when we are excited about our new Wii game, 3) When we have Jesus in our hearts, He helps us to know when things are right and wrong. And because we know that it makes Jesus happy to do what it is right, our friends and family will say, "hey, I want to be like Jaycoby, because he makes good choices and always listens to his mom and dad" (had to slip in some things to help a mommy out ;-) and 4) Why did Jesus die on the cross? To forgive all of our sins. And we celebrate Easter because Jesus rose from the dead. And because Jesus did those things we get to celebrate His life and love in heaven forever. So we went over some of these things again and then he said a short prayer: "Jesus, I want you to be in my heart, because I love you so much". Nuff said. Perfect prayer. And then we dyed Easter eggs. Because that is where is mind was mostly.
I was questioning if I had "forced the issue" and then Jaycoby put me at ease on our weekly drive to Portland. He asked me if he could "call Mike at 5 p.m. to tell him I putted Jesus in my heart". Also, when we got to his dad's house, we were able to come up with some connections to all of our salvation stories. Jonny got saved when he was 5-years old, on Easter Sunay at his grandma's church. I got saved when I was 4-years old and prayed with my mom in her bedroom. Jaycoby got saved when he was 5-years old, just before Easter weekend and he got to pray with Grammie too. He was excited that we each had a similar detail in our stories of when we had asked Jesus into our hearts too.
There is nothing better than knowing I will be spending eternity in heaven with my Savior and my son.

"Jesus is the goodest guy,
And he loves others and I.
He does really good stuff.
And he gives away our sins."
-Jaycoby's Easter song
(he will tell you that there are other parts to this song too, but I couldn't remember all of them)

Ella- 10 months old

2011-04-14T12:34:00.003-07:00

Little Bip is 10 months old!
*She got two teeth this past month. They are still working their way through, but you can definitely see white on her lower-gumline.
*She is sitting up by herself. She has been a little behind in this area, because sitting up is not something she loves to do. She CAN do it, but she tires quickly and would rather be standing or jumping.
*She is saying "dada". The talking is starting to finally click. Up until now, she hadn't made any sound besides "ahhhhhh", but she is finally making "gaga" and "dada" noises.
*She constantly chews on her chubby, little fingers. She gets little red marks because of doing this so much.
*She loves her elephant that plays The Temptations song "Sugarpie Honey Bunch" and her "Ella Dog". She will sit and play with both of these musical toys and rock side to side. She loves rockin' to her music.
*She has started to make a goofy grin a lot. It is hard to describe, but she will open her mouth wide, flare her nostrils and smile with her eyes. It is hilarious! She looks like she is surprised, scared, excited and ready to scream, all at the same time.
*She shakes her head back and forth for "no" when we ask her questions. She does it the most when we say "can you say dada?". She will shake her head no and grin.
*She is eating great. So far veggies are her favorite (grean beans and peas....atta girl), but she loves her bananas and applesauce too. If she doesn't like it, she will let us know. One thing she hasn't warmed up to are cheerios or "puffs". She flares her nostrils and pushes them right out of her mouth. Oh well.
*I know it is a blessing to have a baby that sleeps well through the night, so I need to recognize each month that this actually happens. It may not last forever. Ella regularly goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 p.m. and sleeps through until 6:30-7 a.m. Can I get an AMEN?

Babysitting Natalie

2011-04-01T11:06:00.003-07:00

I have taken on another babysitting job. I am watching Natalie (18 mos.) every Friday for the next couple of months. Today is her first day here and everything has gone smoothly. She is so sweet, quiet and well-behaved. It makes me look forward to this stage with Ella. Natalie is walking, talking and really into playing with all of the baby dolls and toys. She keeps singing her "ABC's" and "Happy Bootday ti yooooou".

Ella- 9-month check up

2011-04-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

Weight: 17 lbs. 5 oz. (10-25%)
J: 19 lb. 6 oz.
Height: 27 inches (25-50%)
Head: 45 cm (75%)
J: 19.5 inches

Ella- 9 months photo shoot

2011-03-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Man Night

2011-03-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

It is spring break and we have actually been taking it pretty easy. Jaycoby's schedule has been jam-packed lately, so he really needed his break to be relaxing. He has been going to bed on time and taking a nap every day. But we had to throw in something special into the mix.

Last night, Mike and Jaycoby had their first "Man Night". They do a lot of things together around the house, and will occasionally run an errand together, but they have never done anything special for just the two of them. Jaycoby was so excited. You have no idea how many times I heard the words "Man Night" leading up to the actual event (and we only told him about it the night before).

Jaycoby insisted that they take the truck, since it is a good "man car". Then he shouted out the window, as they were pulling out of the driveway, "have fun on your ladies night not doing anyfing". Rude! :)

ONE day without a nap and my child looks like a zombie. This was taken on their way.

Wunderland

He bought a Whoopee Cushion and a giant gumball with his tickets.

Then they went to Baskin Robbins

Playdate with Callie

2011-03-25T11:02:00.001-07:00

I am starting to wonder why my parents ever said no when I asked if I could have a friend over. I LOVE it when Jaycoby has a friend over. He plays with his toys and can be entertained for HOURS. It is awesome!
After a morning at NW Kids Club with some MOMS Club friends, Jaycoby invited Callie over for lunch and playtime. They ended up playing house for the majority of the time and it was hilarious listening to them. Jaycoby had his "house" (his bedroom) and Callie had her "house" (the playroom). They would meet up in Callie's house for bedtime.

Bedtime...

Here are two things I heard while they were playing house:

Jaycoby (pretending to be the husband): We need to watch Cake Boss. I have it recorded for you, honey, and I didn’t delete it yet.

Callie: I got a new tv.
J: Do you have Direct TV like us?

Sunday shoot 'em up!

2011-03-25T09:50:00.001-07:00

In an effort to get our husbands acquainted, Meghan and I were trying to come up with something more than just dinner. Meghan had the perfect idea....shooting guns! Typically, getting together with new couples isn't something that Mike is all that excited about, but this time he couldn't wait.
First, we went to La Hacienda for lunch and then we headed to Albany Rifle & Pistol Club. Eddie is a trained instructor, so I knew we were in good hands. And once Mike saw all of the cool guns that Eddie has, he was ready to rock. There was lots nervousness (that was me), laughing and gunsmoke. It was actually a lot of fun. The things we do for our husbands :)

Hair cut @ Bishop's

2011-03-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

I have been cutting Jaycoby's hair since he was 4-months old and it is not my favorite thing to do....but it is FREE! I did take him to my hairdresser one time, just for fun, but ultimately couldn't bring myself to spend $15 every 3-4 weeks when I am (sort of) capable of cutting it myself.
This past week, his hair was starting to cover his ears, so I knew the time had come. I told him that maybe he and dad should go and get their hair cut (I may have told him three or four times to "tell dad you need a hair cut"). VOILA...he came home with a hair cut. It is the best hair cut he has ever had. Jonny and I both like Jaycoby's hair the same way- longer on the top and short in the back. Whoever did the cutting did an awesome job and they are now hired and his hairdresser. His hair looks perfect!

Dad even took pictures!!!

Jaycoby kept sticking out his tongue to try and catch the hairs. Gross!

Shamrock Run 2011

2011-03-25T09:26:00.001-07:00

I participated in Portland's Shamrock run this year for the first time. It was a rainy day, but it felt really good during my run. And I really enjoyed the course. Running through downtown was pretty cool. There is something to be said for running in the middle of the streets, in the rain and looking up at the tall buildings. It felt like a scene from a movie or something.
Originally I had signed up for the 15k, but I haven't been focusing on mileage lately, so I switched to the 8k. This was perfect! Since I have only been doing 2-3 mile runs on the treadmill, I didn't have any lofty goals for time. In fact, I am trying not to focus on time as much as I did in the past and just concentrate on doing some sort of activity. Period. I am not sure if I am capable of forgetting about my time, but I am trying. I had a rough goal of 10 minute miles, but didn't know if that was realistic, since there were hills involved. I ended up having a pace of 9:21 so I was pleased.

Ella talking to Grammie

2011-03-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

Ella loves to talk and sing. Here is a short video clip of her singing with Grammie, at Olive Garden. We welcome the noisier restaurants, so that Ella can "contribute to the conversation". We have been to quieter restaurants, when she has done this, and it is kind of embarrassing.

The Berenstain Bears

2011-03-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

My sister told me that there was going to be a Berenstain Bears production at the Elsinore Theatre, so I decided to take Jaycoby. It was a play/musical and it was really cute. They crammed a lot of story into a 45-minute show. They definitely knew their audience, because Jaycoby started losing interest after about 30 minutes. He was able to hang in there though. I was happy to sit there for as long as they wanted us too, because Jaycoby insisted on sitting in my lap and was cuddling with me the whole time. That was money well spent!

Look who we ran into! Sydnie is the little girl in the white shirt.
The usher seated us and all of the sudden I hear (in a squealing voice) "JAYCOBY". The kids were climbing over the poor woman, who happened to be seated in between us, just to give each other a hug. They were really excited to see each other.

This was the stage before the program started....

Ella- 9 months old

2011-03-13T15:43:00.000-07:00

*She is really close to sitting up on her own, but still throws her weight backward, so she can’t be trusted if left alone.
*She still loves to talk/sing. We aren’t sure what to call it, but whenever she starts, everyone joins in with her. It’s too loud to talk over, so kids and adults, alike, will just start to copy her.
*She reaches for us when we go to pick her up.
*She waves hi and bye-bye. It isn’t consistent, but she is doing it more often.
*She is easy to manage. If she starts to fuss, she is either hungry or tired. And she goes to bed without a fight, which is something I try not to take for granted.
*She is ready to eat now. She has had little bites of bread and will swallow it without hesitation. Her days of spitting out baby food are over. It’s time to give this girl some real food!
*We had a couple of weeks where getting her dressed wasn’t an issue, but she is back to hating it. She is fine with pants and socks, but does not enjoy the process of her shirt being put over her head or her arms tucked into her sleeves.
*She can wear pigtails now. They are itty bitty, but oh so cute.
*She was left at the gym and the church nursery for the first time this past month.
-Her first time at the gym was traumatic for both of us, because they had to come and get me. I was totally fine with them getting me, but they had let her cry to the point where she couldn’t catch her breath. I felt so bad for her when I saw her. She had snot running down her face and her shirt was drenched with tears. She had been crying because it was her nap time. The next time we were, she went right to sleep and I had to wake her up so we could leave.
(*Another funny gym story….Mike and I went on a Friday night and Ella was the only baby. The gym employee ended up holding her for the majority of the time, because she didn’t have a lot of other kids to watch. She said that Ella seemed like she was getting tired, so she tried singing to her. She said, “the second I started singing, her lips turned downward and she looked so sad. She was starting to cry, so I stopped singing and then she smiled at me. I didn’t know I was that bad of a singer, but I promise I won’t sing to your baby ever again”. )
-She did great at the church nursery as well, but she did cry when I came in to mix up a bottle. I had forgotten to do it before we left and she started to cry when she saw me. I won’t be making that mistake again. Thankfully, she was easily distracted with a toy. The nursery worker said “she loved the bouncer (they had one just like we have at home, which is so nice), she was talking really loud and she is a back archer”. That’s our girl!
*She is cuddly, but when she is tired she likes her space. She is a lot like her mommy  Although, we can still get her to fall asleep on us when we are out and about if we need to, which is really nice.
*She is a pincher. She loves to grab and squeeze our necks, lips, cheeks and noses (she pulled out my nose ring once and that is not easy). I have started to say “gentle, gentle” when she is doing it, but that just makes her smile.
*She isn’t saying any words, but she loves it when I try to get her to say “Mama”. It’s a guaranteed smile every time. She doesn’t smile when Mike tries to get her to say “Dada”. Just sayin’! :)
*She will giggle when we dip her backwards and let her head hang. Not really sure why, but she loves this.

Look at this precious face...

Showing off her pigtails....

Playing with Logan. They were waving at each other....

Helping mommy in the kitchen....