Labor Day Weekend in Montana

Maddi REALLY wanted to touch the water so Uncle Pat was nice enough to indulge her.

Uncle Pat + Maddi the Daredevil = Slightly Scary combination!

Mia kept telling us she didn't think she could "climb a mountain" as we were driving up to our hiking spot and we tried to reassure her that she would be perfectly capable of hiking. When she kept expressing her concern we questioned her a little more and finally realized that she thought she would litterally have to climb up the side of a mountain wall rather then walk on paved path! Haha the things you ASSUME they understand.

Last time we were in Montana Mia helped Aunt Linda plant her Garden and she just LOVED it, so it was a lot of fun to come back and see the Vegetables that had grown. The Browns called the Beans "Mia Beans" because she had helped plant them. Very cute.

And here is Maddi helping Aunt Linda make Zucchini cookies

We spent Labor Day weekend in Montana visiting Lance's sister Linda and her family. Our families are quite the combination us with our 3 girls ages 5 months- 4 years and the Browns with their 3 boys ages 9-16 but somehow it all works and we always have a blast with them. We ate lots of yummy food, I've become convinced that I want to have a garden, we played games, went hiking, roasted marshmallows, stayed up way too late just talking, and on our last day at the park Lance, Pat and the boys took turns spinning each other in a tire swing until they were ready to throw up... litterally...boys are funny! They were so nice to let us come and bring lots of drama in tow! There's nothing like hanging out with a family full of boys to make you realize how girly your world is. :) I think it was nice outlet for Lance to get to play catch and hang out with the guys! As we were driving away Mia burst into tears because she didn't want to leave Montana! We can't wait to do it again.

Ella Update 5 Months Old

I love this picture of Ella in the laundry basket (see below) because when Mia was about the same age we were living with Lance's parents right before moving to Indiana and one day Mia was hanging out with Grandma Nelson while she was doing laundry and when she had to bring some Laundry upstairs she just put Mia in the basket and carried her up and I thought it was so cute that I took a picture (surprise surprise huh) and so when I was doing laundry the other day and had Ella downstairs with me, I thought of this old picture I have as I carried Ella up in the basket of laundry and of course HAD to take a picture.

It's hard to believe that Ella is 5 months already! She is now 12 lbs. She has discovered her voice and we enjoyed about a week of her cute little screeching and then she moved on to her current interest of getting her hands in her mouth and chewing or sucking on her fingers. She smiles all the time, and is starting to love any attention she can get. She is a pretty happy baby sitting wherever we put her as long as she can see someone. She LOVES her big sisters and especially enjoys it when they climb in her crib in the morning to entertain her before Mommy can get there. She can almost roll over when she is on her tummy and is getting much better at lifting her head up. She had lots of joy to our home and its so fun getting to see her bet bigger. Now if we could just work on giving Mommy a little more time to sleep at night life would be perfect! :)

Swim Lessons

We signed the girls up for a 2 week session of swim lessons. Mia took a regular swim class in the morning and Maddi and I took a Mom and Me class in the evening. It was really fun for me to get to do something with just Maddi by herself and great for Mia to have a chance to sit and watch Maddi do something for once. She was a great supporter. We had a ton of fun and the girls learned a lot. But WOW I don't think I will EVER sign my kids up for an every day class like that when one is in the morning and one is in the evening. It was pretty intense having to drive down to the pool twice a day EVERY day for 2 weeks straight. Not to mention that after Maddi's class in the evening we usually stayed for the open swim time which again was lots of fun but by the end of those two weeks our whole family was pretty trashed! I think next time we'll space the classes out a little bit more! Lesson learned!

Yard Work and the Ice Cream Man

We had a fun evening a week or so ago when Lance was working in the yard and the girls were playing. Maddi found Lance's running shoes and socks lying by the door and decided to try them on. She was pretty funny trying to walk around in them. While we were out we heard the ice cream man coming around and decided to scrounge up some change from our change jar and let the girls get a Popsicle. It's like one of those experiences that you have as a kid that just brings back so many memories. I remember just riding my bike ALL through the neighborhood trying to "catch" the ice cream man. It was fun introducing the girls to this for the first time (and maybe last...holy cow the prices have gone up ALOT in the last few years...it took me quite some time to dig up all the coins to pay for all the Popsicles in change) and the ice cream man was really nice because he heard Lance saying that he wanted a "choco taco" but I think I was like a dollar short so rather then head back to the change jar (I'm sure the poor man was sick of waiting on me) I was gonna get him something else and he said "here I'll surprise him" and gave me a choco taco for Lance. It just made Lance's day! Haha.

DISCLAIMER: On Maddi's "Attire". I do normally try and dress my children in slightly coordinating if at least not more modest clothing however Maddi is going through a very interesting phase of her little 2 year old independent life and has extremely STRONG opinions about what she will and will not wear each day. Right now she she will wear Skirts and will not wear anything else. And she is particularly fond of 1 or 2 skirts and 1 or 2 shirts. The outfit you see in these pictures is a perfect example of one of these outfits. It must have something to do with wanting to be a "Ballalina" or "Pincess" but she feels most like "herself" when wearing these outfits. So we have had some interesting battles/conversations about why we don't wear the same outfit 2 days in a row or why we put pajamas on at night rather then go to bed in the outfit we wore that day, or why it's just not appropriate to wear a spaghetti strap tank top (anytime really) but especially when it's 50 degrees outside. We have been able to compromise though and she will concede and let me have some say on what she wears when we go out in public but most days the second we get home she changes right back into one of her favorite outfits, and usually by the end of the day I'm done battling hence the pictures you see here! :) Mia never went through a phase like this so it's all new to me but completely reminds me of one of our favorite friends who lived down the street from us in Indiana. She went through a phase where she had to wear the same pair of shoes every day and even to bed at night and it always made Lance and I laugh to see how opinionated she was about her shoes! Maybe it's a second child thing but sometimes I feel like she's 2 going on 13! Funny little girl.

Mia's New Look

Waking up in the morning. Mia was very excited to be "TWINS" with Daddy. This is also a RARE pic. of Lance with HIS glasses on. :)

So Mia's glasses came in last Friday and she has been working on getting used to wearing them. The Day she found out she got to go with Daddy to pick them up she was jumping up and down and SO excited. I guess that's a good sign, although she keeps telling us that she doesn't want a patch. :( We are really hoping glasses will do the trick. We told her that she needs to wear them as much as possible so that they can help her eyes which MIGHT help her to not have a patch. And she has been such a good sport about it, but something I didn't realize (having never worn glasses myself) was that you get headaches a lot of times when your eyes are getting used to the glasses and so she had to take a few breaks from her glasses at the end of every day because her little head would start hurting (so sad!). And when we told her she could take them off she would always ask, "Am I gonna have to have a patch?" A little heartbreaking but I think she's handling it all really well and it's not phasing her too much.