Siblings

Ellie is becoming much more interactive and aware of her surroundings. Due to this she is watching Graham a LOT more. She is always keeping an eye on him, trying to see what he's up to. She really loves her big brother. Graham is also showing more interest in Ellie. Sometimes he still gets jealous if his Mommy has to spend a lot of time caring for Ellie, but overall he really likes her! The other day when asked where his sister should sleep for the night (she had still been in the pack n play in our room), he marched into his room and pointed to her crib. So, we decided it was time and she has been sleeping in there the past few nights. They've both done great with that transition. Here are a couple of pictures taken the other day. The kids were enjoying playing on Ellie's blanket. Graham was showing her his cars and Ellie was enjoying the attention!

Don't mind the pacifier in Graham's mouth. I promise you he never really took one as a baby, but now things it's funny to take it and put it in his mouth. We're packing them up anyways as Ellie has not really shown much interest either!

Baby Boots!

A couple weeks back, my best friend Laura had told me that she was mailing me a package. She had a gift for Ellie and knew she wasn't going to be able to visit before the arrival of their new baby boy. So, the package arrived in the mail a few days later and in it was this adorable pink polka dot dress and little baby boots that she had knitted. They are precious! We wasted no time in putting them on Ellie and she looks super cute wearing them. The same day they arrived Laura delivered Isaac, their third child and first son! Congrats Adam & Laura and Thank You for the very nice gift!

Big Smile

You can't help but love this little boy when he smiles like this!! ;) He's too cute sometimes!

She's Mobile!!!

This past Tuesday, August 23rd, Ellie decided to roll over for the first time. She hadn't acted like she was really trying to for more than a day or so, so this took us a little by surprise. Since her initial rolling over from her back to her belly she has done it many times. She's pretty quick and only takes a second or two to roll. She has also rolled across the floor multiple times...I guess it's time to make sure the baby gates are back in place!!

Untitled from Willa Armstrong on Vimeo.

Fun in the Sun!

The weather has been beautiful recently and we've been taking advantage of that by spending lots of time outside. We have been enjoying playing with sticks, stones, using our sidewalk chalk and trying out Graham's tricycle. We even made friends with some neighborhood kids. It was rather cute, they came while we were out one morning playing. They were a brother and sister, ages 8 & 6. We played until it was time for us to go in. Shortly after lunch our doorbell rings, guess what? It was Graham's new buddies wanting him to come out and play. Unfortunately he was napping then, but not to worry they returned a couple hours later. Graham enjoyed playing with their remote control cars and their child sized mustang that he got to sit in. (The battery was dead so they didn't ask to take him on a drive down the street...not sure how I would've felt about that!).

Here are a few pictures I took the other day:

Bathtime!

Bathtime has always been such a fun time at our house. Graham absolutely loves his bath...or maybe I should say loved. Sometime in the past week he has become deathly afraid of baths. We think this occurred one time when he got into some soap at the end of his bath and Eric turned the shower on to rinse him off. He's been in a shower before, but we think this scared him. Ever since then it's been a battle to get him in the bathtub. He screams, cries, kicks...and it's not just out of disobedience. He's literally trembling at the idea of going into the bathtub. We're working through that and slowly it's getting better....very slowly. We have to cover the shower head to even get him near the tub! :) Oh well...someday he'll love to splish and splash again!

Here are a couple of pictures before the change of heart. Ellie is enjoying her baths more and more as well.

Quite the funny face!

Happy boy!

Learning Made FUN!

I am always keeping my eyes open for educational things that would be fun for Graham. We go to the library regularly and check out gobs of books (we currently have close to 30 books at home from our most recent trip with another 15 or so on hold for me to pick up!). We love to read and education is so important. On a recent trip to the library I saw this book, Wee Sing & Learn 1 2 3. It was a fun counting book that had adorable pictures as well as a CD of music. Graham loved just looking at the book, then I pulled out the CD. It was VERY well done and made the book even more fun! We listened to this many times over the couple of weeks that we had it home and will definitely be picking it up again sometime in the not too distant future. I highly recommend the Wee Sing series....if you can handle having songs stuck in your head (they are cute songs though)....such as, squirt along the floor squid, four squid four squid, squirt along the floor squid all day long! :)

Pretty Girl

We love this little girl! She's a doll! :)

Happy Anniversary!

This year we celebrated our 5th Anniversary! In some ways it seems like it couldn't possibly be 5 years already, in other ways it seems like we've been married for much longer. So many things have changed in the past five years. We've had a lot of fun, grown a lot and our family looks a lot different today...makes us wonder what will happen in the next five years! It's been a great 5 years of marriage and we look forward to many more to come! I have to say that I'm so much more in love with Eric today than I was when we married and I pray that love continues to grow each and every year!

For our Anniversary we decided to do something fun. Eric took the day off of work and we packed up the kids and headed down to Kentucky to the Creation Museum. It was a great way to spend the day. The Museum was very interesting and we hope to go back again sometime when we can look even more. There's so much there that it's a lot to take in with just one visit. The kids did great! Graham enjoyed the dinosaurs, many of the exhibits and the petting zoo. Although it was really hot outside that day! We were even able to stay for a show at the planetarium! Graham sat on his Daddy's lap and did so well! The kids were both super tired and slept all the way back to Mason. It was a good thing because we dropped them off at some friends' house and went out on a date!

We had a great time relaxing on our date! We went to Dewey's for salad & pizza and then to Chammp's for their Mile High Ice Cream Pie...delicious! ;) We had fun browsing through some stores and just spending time together! All in all it was a great Anniversary!

Here are some pictures we took inside the museum:

Getting Bigger!

Ellie continues to grow and grow. We have recently stopped swaddling her at nights as she no longer needs that to fall asleep. She sleeps usually a 9-10 hour stretch and has gone as long as 11.5hrs! She also continues to take decent naps each day. She has a laid back personality and is much more flexible than her older brother (maybe by necessity!). She laughed for the first time today, August 8th, and it was precious! I love the sound of baby laughter! She enjoys sitting in the bumbo seat, although we only put her in that for a minute here and there. She also likes having her mommy carry her in the baby carrier. She's such a pleasant baby and we love her dearly!

Flower Power