A Smile! It does exist....

It is so hard to get a picture of Walker smiling. He sees the camera and gets real serious. I am not sure how I captured this picture but he is actually smiling.  He loves this horse bouncy thing that my parents got him for Christmas so maybe that is the magic place to get a picture of him with a grin on his face.

 

You can almost see his two bottom teeth in this picture!

Profile! Don't you just love that chubby cheeks??

His hair is getting lighter! He might actually be my toe head!!!

Bouncy! Bouncy! Bouncy!

My favorite morning routine

This is my favorite thing in the morning. Lately Ellie and Walker have been sleeping a little later in the morning, you know, until 7:45 AM! I usually get up and get Walker's bottle and Ellie's sippy cup (YES!!  Sippy Cup) of milk ready and bring them in the bedroom. Then I go get everyone out of bed. Ellie first then Walker.  It is a bit of a challenge to get them down stairs now. You have to put Ellie in Walker's bed, get him in you arms on one side then have Ellie stand up and get her on the other side. And my heavens don't forget Ellie's blankie.  Now you have to get down the stairs with both of them in  you arms and Walker immediately is trying to get at Ellie.  Ellie weighs about 26 lbs and Walker is a good 20 lbs if not more.  Then we all pile in the bed. The second Walker spots his bottle he goes crazy!  He loves that bottle. It is really amazing that I was able to get these pictures because usually when they are this close Walker had a big handful of Ellie's hair and then the screaming begins.  We don't quite understand that pulling hair hurts and it really makes your sister mad when you do it.  Ellie likes to help Walker with the bottle. I am not sure how much he likes it but he really tolerates a lot from his big sister.

Ellie attempting to hold the bottle for Walker

When I got the camera out Ellie started saying "smile!"

Still helping her brother

Not quite awake yet. 

It usually doesn't take Ellie long to start smiling for the camera but this morning she was pretty sleepy. 

A little comment about why it is really exciting about Ellie taking a sippy cup now.  She is 19 months and it has taken me forever to get her off the bottle. She was 10 1/2 months old when Walker was born so not off the bottle yet. The bottle was obviously a security thing for her (along with her blanket.)  I tried when she was a year old to get her away from the bottle but she kept seeing Walker with is bottle and would cry until she got one also.  I must admit I wasn't as strong about not giving her one as I should be. I did take my sister's advise on this (much like I have on a lot of other things.) She kept telling me it is not that big of a deal. That is wasn't like she was going to go to college with a bottle in her mouth. I knew that was true but everything I had been reading and hearing was that they should be off the bottle by a year and definitely by 15 months.  So now she was 18 months and still getting two bottle of milk a day.  I finally one day just decided I was going to give her the sippy cup  of milk and if she drank it that was great and if she didn't it wasn't that big of a deal.  She actually didn't fuss that much about it and went a lot smoother than I thought.  She still drinks her milk and now just wants to help Walker out with his bottle. Hopefully it won't be as hard and a long to get Walker off the bottle when he turns a year old.

A visit with Grandma Jean

Grandma Jean came over on Saturday night. We had a really nice time with her and she was able to see the grandkids. Dwayne and Deena and their kids came over as well.  It was a house full of kids and poor Walker was outnumbered with all the girls.  I made my famous lasagna, apple crisp and homemade rolls.  That is one of our favorite meals and I know it is a sure way to get Dwayne and Deena to come over.  

Jason showing Grandma Jean our blog site.

Ellie, Walker and Grandma Jean

Ellie, Walker and Grandma Jean

Hamming it up for the camera!!

Guess who loves the camera???  Walker was laughing so hard before I got the camera out. It was so funny. Ellie loves the camera. She will always give you the best smile when the cameras come out. Walker gets, as usual, really serious.  I wish you guys could have seen and heard him laughing and smiling. It is the best thing ever!!!  He is getting pretty mobile. Not quite crawling yet but he can roll anywhere.  We are working on standing up by ourself and he is doing a really good job.  Ellie likes to "help" him whenever possible. He tolerates it for the most part. He is just so laid back. 

One of my most favorite pictures!!

My little guy is usually really serious all the time. I just love this picture where he is hanging out with his Aunt Sarah.  He loves her and just laughs all the time when she holds him.  He was just a little baby when he was born (5lbs 7oz) and now he a little chunk!! He is so stinking cute with all his fat rolls.  

Ellie in Daddy's Boots

Ellie loves to get in our shoes when we take them off after work. I try not to let her get in mine since I am in hospitals all day long.  She loves Jason's boots!!! My parents have a picture of my sister, naked, in my Dad's boots when she was about Ellie's age. I am hoping to get a picture similar to that soon.  For now, here is Ellie in her Dad's boots, with clothes on!

We LOVE Boxes!!!

I have noticed over the last 19 months that little kids loves BOXES!!! So needless to say we have pictures of our kids in a box. Ellie and Walker's friend Georgia comes over during the day to play and it just so happens this day we got a big box full of Christmas gifts from Jason's parents. Ellie right now is really big into pointing out when people are naked. Walker and Georgia had both gotten their shirts wet from milk so I took their shirts off. When Ellie came down stairs from her nap she immediately noticed they were naked and wanted to get naked also. So we took her shirt off then everyone piled into the box. We got some pretty good "blackmail" pictures for later.