You'll love it.

So Ellee has been going through that phase of Im-gonna-do-what-i-wanna-do-no-matter-what-you-say-even-if-your-gonna-discipline-me phase.
Do you know this phase?
Have you been acquainted?
I am acquainted. My hubs is acquainted.
And frankly, we're frenemies with it. You know, like friends but actually enemies.
Thats how I am trying to look at it. Its Ellee's sinful nature coming to the forefront. Thankfully I've been told it is JUST a phase and should disappear soon enough. In the meantime I am battling myself as to why she is behaving like so, and what, if anything can I do to tackle it.
Stick to my guns is what I've been trying to keep in mind. Don't back down. I figure if I am consistent and I actually do what I say I am gonna do, she wont doubt me and think she can possibly get away with something. So far it's been a losing battle and she either
A. Thinks she can run fast enough to avoid discipline
B. Think she get her own vengeance on me with disciplining me back :-o

Everyone always says being a mom is hard. It is. It can be really hard. And there are days when I just want to rip my hair out, or take an uninterrupted nap, or actually enjoy each bite of my meals, or...what does it matter? It doesnt :)
Everyone says being a mom is hard,  but no one ever says how much you'll love it.
You'll love it.

Now let me tell you how the past couple days have been going.

AVOID THIS SEGMENT IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE WEAK STOMACHS. 


Thursday Matt was sick and stayed home from work.
Friday I was acquainted with the bug and Matt was getting over it.
Saturday we had to cancel plans with friends since I was sick. :( Matt also put mulch in the gardens and the backyard resulting in Ellee's new favorite thing to do. pick up handfuls of mulch and sit and throw it down the window well. Officially, I HATE MULCH. 
Sunday I stayed home for church to lessen the spread of germs. Sunday afternoon Ellee Scarlett had a poop flinging party. Sunday afternoon we Mommy got to clean it up. Daddy was off the premises which we were thankful for. He doesn't do well with poop.
Monday......Ellee emptied all contents of her stomach for absolutely no reason other then the fact that she didnt want to eat her dinner. Mommy sat there freaking out and has learned in moments as such you must react as quickly as possible to lessen the damage. Daddy was ON the premises and was not impressed and spent much time leaving rooms to avoid having his own issues. However he did carry the entire highchair with Ellee in it upstairs to the bathroom to help with cleanup, but Mommy did all the raunchy hosing down. blugh!
This was quickly followed by Peyton emptying her stomach all over mommy. This resulted in mommy taking 30 and running errands...solo.  :)

I just realized that this is all TMI (too much information). I'll be sure to put a note at the beginning to help those with the weak stomachs to avoid reading.

Oh and just so you know. I STILL love being mama :)

Battles with Babies

My husband is stubborn.
I would say I'm pretty strong willed....
Ellee, however, is the queen of stubbornness. If she doesn't wanna do it. Good luck.

But ah, we cracked her. And boy oh boy, did it ever feel good.
She sat at the dinner table with two bites, literally two, for over 2 hours. I went to the store after dinner and came back and she was still there.
I shouldn't have been surprised because
1. I shouldn't doubt my hubs
2. I left her with the second most stubborn person I know :)
Finally, somewhere close to 2.5 hours we started the bribing process.
"Bubbles?"
"Wan boobles. Yes! Yes!"
"Okay, take a bite then bubbles."
"Boobles, boobles!"
"Take a bite."
"No, no, nooooo."
And the process continued in circles.
Then Matt shoveled sweet potato in her mouth.
That's when I proceeded to clap and cheer as she almost spit it out and then said 'yay bubbles!!'
She managed to swallow before reaching for the bubbles and shouting with excitement.
We had to shove the next one in and then after that she ate the rest without any forcing, just a lot of bubbles post bites. I'll have to keep a stock pile of bubbles, but hey, at least we know she's not unbreakable!

Peyton decided today she wouldn't nap. I worked hard all morning to make the girls naps align but of course she decided to not cooperate. It was fine though. We all survived.
She did get her first taste of solids tonight. It was some oatmeal and she seemed to take it fine, we'll see how her night goes :)
She's been spitting up like crazy. The doctor prescribed some Zantac for acid reflux but it doesn't seem to be helping a tonne. We'll see if the solids help.

Snow, and CO

A 17 hour drive with 2 kids less than 2, in 2 days = cray cray!

But it went well and we survived. There were no accidents, tickets, or major meltdowns.(There's always some kind of meltdown!) 

We had a blast and everything went awesome! There was awesome powder for us to board on and it just over all was time well spent! 

I wish I had taken more pictures! I never take enough. There was delicious food made by many people and I wish I'd taken more pictures of what we were chowing down on! 

My souvenir from Breck? The most comfiest slouchiest pair of sweat pants ever. :) 

 Doing some sort of indian tribal dance??

 Mountains you say..where are these mountains?

 Papa and El.

 Condo.

 The view

 HOW DO I EAT THIS HOTDOG!!!?!?!

 Cousin kindle time. Theres was definitely no lack of electronics...

 ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS PICTURE AND THESE TWO BEAUTS.

 With great grandma Delma

 With Great Aunt Jane!

 Of course all my flowers blossomed while we were gone.

Happy to be home....

Pardon and prayer

Oh goodness.
We leave Saturday morning bright and early for our longgggggg drive to Colorado.
Ironically, tonight, we find Matt's license is expired. No way.
For almost six months. No. Way.

Thank goodness the DMV is open on Fridays !!

The crazy part:
He hasn't been pulled over in the last 6 months (Let's not talk about the last 7)
He flew to Belgium with an expire license.
He rented a foreign car with an expired license.
He drove all over Europe...with an expired license.

Oh that's crazy.


On another note, I love answered prayers!!!
I don't know this sweet girl personally but I was ready to weep joyously when I read this.

http://cheyennefaithdegraaf.blogspot.com/

Our God is an awesome God.

Sunny days, and play days

 Ellee bug has been rockin it out at swimming lessons. My fish!

 I really don't know if her eyes will be blue or not! Maybeee!!!

 There was a gorgeous saturday and we took advantage of it. This girl went flying down the slide. She owned it!! No fear.

 Oh my sweet ellee. I was loving her bed head.

 Bubbles....

 Bubbles....

 And more bubbles!!!! 

And of course I can't let you go without some good videos :)