Just a few recent pictures...

Jeremy is so great with the kids and spends a lot of time with them...

Ella sitting in her baby doll's bed.

Ella with her babies in her sling...just like mommy!

Mommy and Caleb out at the park feeding the ducks.

Fireman and Firelady

Daddy brought home a fireman hat the other day for Ella from Firehouse Subs. It was very exciting and she of course talked about her uncle Cory the fireman and her Aunt Stephanie. Then she proceeded to point out fireman in books she has that are wearing their hat also. Caleb had to try it on too.

Caleb's Playtime

Well...it's official...16.5lbs! What a chunker! We weighed him when Ella went to the doctor yesterday...and he is still a week away from 4 months! He has just about outgrown 3-6 month clothes. We are going to have a big guy!

He has been doing well holding his head up lately and has even been trying to pull his knees up under him like he is trying to get out of having tummy time. His favorite toy is a face drawn on a paper plate (can see it barely in the picture). It was Ella's favorite toy at this age also. He definitely loves attention or being looked at/talked to, so he doesn't like to be left alone too long. He is a giggly guy and seems to enjoy most things, except the car. He can't seem to get enough of eating his hands/fingers. He always wants something in his mouth...except the pacifier! He is able to hold a few toys and bring them up to his mouth to chew on them, but not too long. We are enjoying him very much!

Ella's Playtime

Here are a few things Ella has been doing lately...Playdough! She can not get enough of playing with playdough. She generally likes to make pretend food and pretend to eat it. Here we have made spaghetti, peas, blueberries and of course, spelled her name.

Stickers are a big hit also.

A week or two ago, Ella and I went exploring in the back yard and found fall leaves. We then glued them to a tree I had drawn on a piece of paper. Ella was very interested in the glue! She wanted to keep going back outside to find more leaves just so she could use more glue.

Grandma Katherine

Grandma Katherine came to visit recently all the way from Albuquerque! One evening while she was here, Ella got a hold of grandma's reading glasses and her book and proceded to put the glasses on, climb up on the couch, cross her leggs and pretend she was reading the book...not just casually reading the book, but like she was deep into it! She was mumbling "Bible, Bible, read Bible" Although it did not happen to be the Bible at that time, that is one of Ella's favorite things to read - of course her kid version though!

A butterfly and a duck

For Halloween this year, Ella dressed up as a butterfly. It was a borrowed outfit, one of the antennas was broken and the tights came from a garage sale a few days before. So, she looks a little like a mismatched, fashion challenged butterfly, but she seemed to really like her outfit. She enjoyed going from house to house once she realized that she got candy at each place. Pretty soon she started running from house to house yelling "more candy, more candy". Although, she was very polite when she received the candy...she would often say "thank you". I found Caleb's duck outfit in a bunch of hand-me-down clothes for him. It was a 3-6mo outfit, so I thought perfect! But, as you can see here...it already didn't fit. We only kept him in it long enough for pictures!

Sumo Caleb

Here is our little sumo wrestler in his Bumbo seat to get a good picture of just how big he is! We think he is already about 15lbs and he is not even 31/2 months! To get perspective, Ella was only14 1/2lbs at 4 months!

Here is another recent sweet picture of him just after a bath. He really enjoys getting baths.

Play Bath

One of Ella's new fun things to do is to give her baby doll a bath. Sometimes it is a pretend bath and sometimes it is a real bath. She always likes to wrap the baby up in a bath towel at the end and walk around the house rocking and "shhing" her. She really enjoys rocking the baby if we sing "Rock-a-bye Baby" at the same time. We made a little baby bed for the baby out of a box and she likes to put the baby in there also and have us sing the song. Although, when it gets to "when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall and down will come baby...", she turns the bed over, the baby falls out and she gets very sad and picks up the baby, tells it she is sorry and wants us to give it kisses.

Farm Fun

We recently visited Crowe's Nest Farm with the kids. My sister, Chelsi and her husband Zach and little Cade went with us. It was a great farm and the kids were able to see so many animals up close. Here is Caleb ready for the big day!

Waiting to get in...

Ella and Cade looking at ducks.
Best picture we could get of both sitting on a pumpkin and smiling.

Sweet picture of Ella.

All of us...although Caleb is deep in sleep.