Potty Training...

This morning we were all well rested and have nothing to do but stay inside and enjoy looking out into the back yard and seeing the snow that came last night.  So we decided we were going to give a go at potty training, really give a go, not just play around with it like we have in the past.  Caraline is doing great.  Well if you count at least just sitting on the potty, which in the past has been difficult to get her to do.  She has not pee pee'd on the potty yet today but she has gone by herself and sat on the potty to try without me having to aske her to.  We started around 630 this morning and so far are on our 5th pair of panties.  But we are not giving up like we usually do, there will be no diapers worn in this house today (with the exception of naptime)!  And I must brag on little miss Elleanor too.  She slept 11 straight hours last night without making a move and this mommy got so rested I was able to get up, go to the gym and start my day right, giving me the energy to want to do this potty business!  She has also made it easy this morning for me to give Caraline the attention she needs for pottying seeing as she has now been in her bed napping for and hour and a half!

so enough potty talk, I leave you with these blue eyed beautiful girlies!

Happy Thursday!!!

Christmas 2011 - part 2

Christmas day.
our little family spent Christmas morning at our home with Memaw here to watch the little girlies open their presents.
they were both so much fun.

so I hear she looks like me, but here I see a whole lotta daddy!

this gal definitely knew what to do with the presents this year.

she was pretty into it too.

Ellie's little kitchen from Santa.

Caraline's big girl kitchen from Santa.

another one of this girl's favorites, she loves her some coloring!

we then went to the hubby's parents house for brunch.
and not just any brunch.
we are talking the best brunch ever!
with the most amazing homemade cinnamon rolls made by y mother in law! (they cant be beat!)

uncle adam feeding ellie her brunch.

the kiddie table.

we then had some playtime after lunch.

ledger and his curls:)

caraline playing with her new counting cookies, great gift!

cousin mel taking care of e.

uncle james has a way with making the babes smile and giggle.

santa zac.

after playtime, naps, other Christmas get togethers, everyone came back for dinner.

another yumm-o meal!

Tim's parents do some unbelievable cooking!!

then it was present time.

unfortunately our 2 year old was being exactly that, 2, and I didn't get any pictures of this time because I was taking care of Ellie and the hubby was 'trying' to control Caraline between her trying to open others presents, screaming and crying, and throwing toys/taking toys away from the other kiddos.

it was flat out, embarrassing! but it was late, she was on overload, and like I mentioned before she is now '2'!

(which this whole 2 year old fit thing is a whole other post in itself)

so no pics of presents and I didn't get pics of all the family members but fortunately Tim's cousin Alicia got lots of super cute pics of everyone, definitely making copies!

somehow in all the chaos I did end up with a cute pic of  mommy and E!

it was a wonderful holiday weekend.

even with all the sickness, surgery, etc.

we enjoyed celebrating Christmas and just being with our family so so so much!

can't wait to do it again next year!

 I'll end my Christmas posts with Dr. Caraline playing with her American girl babydoll she got from Nana and Papa! (this has been a daily thing since Christmas)



sisters

sister love.
nothing better than seeing the bond that is forming right before our eyes!

Christmas 2011 - part 1

celebrating with the Iott's.
Jennifer Iott started as one of my co-workers but quickly became one of my very best friends and a part of my family.
our kiddos exchange gifts every year.
it is usually just kind of a fly by thing, because everyone is so busy this time of year.
but we finally set aside a time for our families to eat and spend time together for Christmas.
it was a fun couple of hours, eating pizza and watching the kids play, just enjoying each others company.
wish we could get more time to enjoy evenings like this together but we all know just how busy life is.
(we did get together to celebrate New Year's though, and it was a good time, even though I was up way past my bed time!)
here are a couple of pics from our evening.

loving some of Mason's toys!

such a cutie!

pretty girl just got done showing us some of her fancy dance moves!

love this girl!

then Christmas Eve was spent at our home with my side of our family.
mom, my 2 sisters, sis's boyfriend, nieces and nephew, plus a cousin and her family.
my sister's and their fams came early for lunch so we could spend the whole day together.
it was so nice because I do not get to see my nieces and nephew near as much as I would like to and when we do we rarely get the whole day all together.
for lunch we had the best ever 'White Chicken Chili' (we have this about once a week in our house), thanks Alicia and Stacy!!
then my kiddos napped while I got to spend time with the other kiddos.
after naps, came the presents.
just ridiculousness!, Memaw (Santa) goes way overboard, but it makes her happy and we all appreciate it so so much!
best surprise present ever:  our kindle fire!!! had no idea! my mom knows this girl loves her some reading!! Thanks mom, your the bestest!
then my mom and my sister Sam fixed almost all of Christmas dinner by themselves!
Sam's first year to make homemade dressing and she did awesome!
my sis Danielle pretty much took care of Ellie for me the entire day.  she loves her some babies!
then for dinner my cousin Jamie, her hubby and their 2 cute girls arrived!
the kids had a blast and dinner was fabulous.  my heart was so full!

fun stuff his aunt sam got him!

 my pretty sis and her cute kiddos!

 so excited about his new sneakers!

 you better believe he's getting put to work with that, thanks mom!

Caraline had to get in on the transformer action.

so into her new puppy!

Olivia lovers her some lalaloopsy!

Natalie's our little artist in the family.

Can't wait to do it all again next year!

1/2 birthday time!



that's right.
Ellie girl turned 6 months old on Dec. 20th.
I almost had forgot about it because the hubby had surgery this day and things were just crazy with him being laid up and the 2 girls being sick.
yes, sick.
both at the same time and when the hubs couldn't help me with them.
this last week has been extremely challenging but ok, on with our 6 month old!

poor thing got her first ear infection for her 6 month birthday.
this experience was horrible.
all new for us because at almost 2 1/2 Caraline has never had one.
add in teething at the same time for E and sleep had become a thing of the past.
but I can say now that everyone is on the mend and things are getting much less chaotic.
we did have to revisit 'cry it out' at night because the little girl had become spoiled to someone holding her again, so we are getting back on track with the sleeping!

we went yesterday for her 6 month well check, which really turned into a sick visit because I was still concerned about her ear.
the ped said her ear looked just fine but decided that we would wait on shots until she was done with her abx so back in 2 weeks for shots.

stats on this girl:
weight 15lb 10.5oz, 50th%
length 26.5in, 90th%
head 16 1/2in , 50th%

please excuse the seat, she likes to get messy when she eats!

about Ellie,
she smiles and giggles tons.
she also still can go from 0 to 100 in a split second when she is not happy.
eyes still big and blue (who would have thought I would ever have 2 blue eyes babes!)
just waiting for her bottom teeth to pop through, seems like they've been on their way forever.
she loves loves loves to look at her daddy and smile.
and her momma is pretty much her favorite person these days.
she rolls all over the floor, back to belly, belly to back, she gets around!
working on sitting up but her balance just isn't the greatest yet.
she is starting to sing herself to sleep when she is getting tired, cutest thing ever.
this girl loves her food.
she has had sweet potatoes, avocado, green beans, sweet peas, and butternut squash (all homemade).
she was a little finicky with the avocado at first but by the second attempt she was a fan.
this month we will move on to some fruits!

schedule hasn't changed much.
still 4 bottles a day (about every 4 hours)
she gets meals 3 times a day (cereal for breakfast, veggies for lunch and dinner)
2 naps a day (morning is still good, afternoon is still a struggle)
sleeping at night, before this whole ear infection, sickness mess she went down at 730is and got up at 7 most of the time.

love our life.

love our girls.

can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring for sweet Elleanor!

Veggie Time for E!

Elleanor has been getting cereal for a few weeks now.
We intended on starting some veggies at 5 months but we've been a little busy and have had a hard time getting around to doing it.
Finally we went and got some organic sweet potatoes at Reasor's last night.
Baked them, pureed them, put some in the frig and the rest in the freezer.
We made all of C's baby food and had a good time doing it, plus felt so much better about what we were feeding her as we were making it ourselves!
I intend on doing the same for Ellie, making her baby food specially for her makes me feel a little more at peace about the whole breastfeeding situation (which I still struggle with).
Plus it's super duper easy and saves some money so Tim is very on board and even makes it himself sometimes too.

(please excuse the yucky stained bib, it's a hand me down from big sis)

Sweet potatoes, it was what was for breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday.
She LOVED it!!
Can't wait to make more food for my sweetie!

Thanksgiving Day 2011

this Thanksgiving I was originally scheduled to work.
luckily there weren't very many babies being born and I was able to stay home and be with my family.
we first went over to the hubster's parents to celebrate and have lunch.
the food was delish!
the kiddos were entertaining as always.
and Caraline was her little 2 year fit throwing self she has been lately but we managed to get a couple of photos.

after we went down to Utica Square for the lights on.
love this.
we had a great time seeing all the other families there and enjoyed the Christmas singing and seeing Santa.
Caraline's favorite part was the hot chocolate, this girl LOVES her some hot cocoa:)

after lights on we then came back to our home for another delish meal made by momma!
we ate way way TOO MUCH, but it was all so good we couldn't help ourselves.
then it was off to bed as it was an early black Friday shopping morning for me, the hubs, and my sister.