Ellie girl is 3!!!

Can't believe my little squish is 3 years old!!! 

She is quite the girl, let me tell you. She has two volumes. Loud and LOUDER. She loves to play with her toys. Her favorites are her new Palace Pet mini figurines (thanks Disney for another mini figurine toy in my life...), she loves to build with Lego and Duplo, she loves to play kitchen and make me "food" and be my mommy, she loves to pretend she is Brinley while Brinley is at school (mama, I be Brinley and you be Ellie and we will play with Brinley's toys, okay?), and Ellie loves to be outside.

For her birthday, it fell on a typical Thursday, so I tried to make the most of it even though we still had our normal routine to do. First thing before Brinley left for school, we opened the present from Grandma Steele because I knew what it was and I knew it would keep her busy all day. It was new LEGO! They came out with a new set called Lego Junior and it has bigger building pieces, but still complies with normal Lego. It was a 2 story house filled with a sink and a toilet, a couch, a bed, an oven, places to sit, 3 Lego people, a swimming pool, and even a BIKE! She played with it alllllll day. It was amazing. 

We decided to meet Ryan down for lunch at Chick Fil A. It was so cute, she was telling everyone there that it was her birthday. There was a gentleman there who was kind of helping us get situated and he asked her how old she was and she said, "Its my birthday, today!" and he went back to the registers and came back with a free kids meal card and a free ice cream cone card, just for her! It was amazing! I love that place. It was fun spending an hour with daddy and then we left for back home to get Brinley from school.

After school, we played with endless Lego again. I had to make her cupcakes and per her request for dinner, my famous chicken alfredo, so I had them play in their room for the afternoon. They play so well with each other (most of the time) and when they do, they just giggle and imagine and really have fun together. 

We spent the rest of the night opening present, skyping/face timing with family, and having fun with Ellie's new toys. 

We love Ellie so much. She makes us laugh all day long. She has the cutest little chipmunk voice and loves to be expressive. She loves making absolute statements like, if you don't listen to me right now you'll be in trouble!! and Ellie loves to yell and scream and basically do anything on a loud level. She looks up to her big sister Brinley so much. She loves to play with her and to just be around her. But, we've also noticed that Ellie is fine being alone and playing by herself. She is graduating from the "parallel playing" that 2 year olds typically do and is playing well with other kids. Ellie doesn't pay much attention to Owen, and lets be honest...he's okay with that. haha. Ellie is just a little rougher than Brinley when it comes to how she plays with Owen and I think it makes me nervous when she is close to him.

We love you, sweet Ellie girl!! So happy to have you in our family!

Fun Labor Day

A week into school, and we already had a day off to celebrate Labor Day! Not bad, not bad! We decided to be productive and head out early to one of our favorite spots, the Oceanographic Society! We just love this place. We always have such a fun time. Feeding the sting rays and playing in the touch pools are always the highlight. We were dodging a big rain storm that had just hit, so unfortunately, we had to make our adventure short. 

Ryan is so brave (and manly ;-)) while feeding the sting rays. Him and Brin have a system, he feeds them and then Brin follows behind and touches the back of the sting ray. 

But me, ummmmmmm I'm bit of a WIMP. I kick and scream the entire time. I only fed one and I think I dropped the piece of fish before he even got it haha 

I think my reaction to the stink rays rubbed off on Ellie because this was her face the entire time we were feeding them!!

We finished the day off with eating 5 Guys for lunch and going to Target later as a family. Always a good time!

Kindergarten!

Brinley started kindergarten 3 weeks ago! Even though I am way behind on journaling our family on this blog, I did want to wait a few weeks before writing this post just to make sure everything was smooth sailing.

she put her backpack and shoes at the door the night before :-)

Brinley is absolutely in love with school. On the first day, she jumped in the car from car line and I asked, "how was it!?" Her response, so serious and so Brinley, "Mom, It. Was. Amazing!" And every day since, she has come home with the same enthusiasm. I thought we would both have a hard time being away from each other, but she hasn't had any regression starting school. Obviously, if she was having a hard time being away from me, I would have a hard time as well. But it has been so wonderful seeing her blossom. I think a lot has to do with her age and being older starting kindergarten, but I also think it is her personality just to be excited for new things and new adventures.

Sending your child off to full-day kindergarten is hard because well, they are gone for the full day! She leaves with daddy (yes, that's right...Ryan drives Brinley to school almost every single morning. Hello amazing husband/father to make my mornings easy!) around 7:15am and Ellie, Owen and I pick her up at the front gate of the school at 1:50pm. We tried picking her up through the car line but that dang line was the worst! We were all crabby in the car and it took roughly 40 minutes to get Brin. Obviously, if it's raining we need to sit in the line, but we live so close to her school that I can leave 10 minutes before she gets out, park, and then walk to the front gate. She loves seeing us waiting for her at the gate! We are then home right around 2pm. Easy! The only downside is that at 2pm, the weather tends to be around 100 degrees, so we are all pretty sweaty and miserable when we get home. 

One of the mornings I did drive her to school, she jumped out to walk to class and as I was in the car slowly inching through the car line, she was walking almost parallel to me and I just couldn't stop watching her. She is such a big kid! Wearing her cute Pottery Barn backpack (best purchase ever!) and walking to class by herself! And then one morning when Ryan dropped her off, he was doing the same thing and watching her walk to class when she stopped and turned around because a friend called her name and they walked to class together holding hands. Ah! Sometimes my heart just can't take her growing up!

I am so proud of my girl! She just amazes me. I love how independent she is and how excited she is about school. She seriously can't get enough! She loves learning. She has a wonderful teacher who happens to be a huge FSU fan. She loves it when Brinley wears her FSU shirt to school. Brinley reminds me that she "always listens" and "when you get a yellow slip sent home, that isn't good." I really haven't worried much about her transitioning because she is such a rule follower. She loves making her teacher happy and getting those reward stickers for good behavior. The biggest challenge has been getting information out of her about what they do all day! She remembers bits and pieces of her day and it makes me laugh when she tells me. We do her "homework" and read through books together everyday. 

School lunches have been going well! I try and do my best to prepare Sunday night, at least my plans for lunches for the week ie. what produce to include in her lunch. She loves turkey sandwiches, but without anything else. She hates cheese, so sometimes I do saltines and pepperoni with a veggie and fruit. Last week I included Pirate's Booty and she came home just freaking out how awesome her lunch was haha! The first week she didn't finish her lunches and was pretty crabby and hungry at school so I kept asking her why she wasn't finishing her lunch. It wasn't because she didn't like what I included, but because, in her words "lunch is really short, Mom and I really like talking with my friends and I run out of time to eat." haha! Like mother, like daughter. I better get used to hearing "talks too much!" from her teachers. She is getting better and she rarely ever leaves anything left.

daddy leaves a note every single day!

I miss her during the day! She is such a huge help for me and I really do miss just being around her and having someone to talk to. Brinley reminds me that she is still my "bigger helper" and that she can still help me when she is home. When she finishes her lunch, we have a special after school treat. The first day of school, I made homemade chocolate chip cookies, and that is our new tradition for the start of the school year. I wanted to have a cookie ready for her every single day, but lets be real...those cookies lasted 2 days!

My days now with just Ellie and Owen at home have been pretty amazing! It is still a challenge going places because of Ellie's big personality, but it has been great reconnecting with her. She had a bit of the "new baby' and "middle child" syndrome happen this summer, but I have really tried to focus on her when Owen naps. Ellie's love language is quality time and it is my goal every day during one of Owen's nap to only focus on her and play with her. She loves reading books, and it seems like that is the only time (besides sleeping!) when she sits still and focuses. More on Ellie when I write her big 3rd Birthday post in a few weeks!

OWEN: 4 months

4 month stats:

weight: 14.5 lbs

length: 27 in.

head circ: 17 in.

So many amazing pictures of this cutie. But first, a video:

forgive my mom voice! yikes.

and one video of Owen and Brinley:

At 4 months, Owen has started rolling side to side, but not completely over yet. Which I'm fine with. Once he starts moving, there is no turning back! Ellie took a bit to roll and crawl and it was nice. She took her time and I can see Owen doing that too. He is so happy laying on the carpet just watching his big sisters run around him.

mid sneeze!!!! 

Owen is such a sweet boy. I love this next age range, the 4-6 month phase. They get stronger and more interactive. He loves to stand and sit with someone supporting him. He always has jumpy kicky leggies and I love watching him get so excited when he jumps. He hasn't yet discovered his toes, but I'm thinking that is coming soon.

Owen looks SO much like Brinley. Everyone tells us that it is his eyes. He has similar serious eyebrows like Ellie. He loves to smile and laugh. Brinley blows raspberries on his belly any chance she gets and he just laughs and laughs. It really is the best sound in the world!

Owen took about a 6 week break of sleeping more than 3 hours at night. He has been doing better in the last week though which I appreciate a lot! His longest stretch has been 10pm-5pm and that was AMAZING. He has yet to repeat it, though :-( His consistent night is 10pm-3am, 3am-5am, 6-8am. He just loves to eat and he loves to cuddle. Night time sleep training is in the works.

OWEN! You are such a ham. 

I MEAN, COME ON! 

the back of his cute bald head. We trimmed his hair down on top and it is more of a buzz with a big patch in the back.

baby burrito about to go to bed!

look mama, I have long hair!

3 baby burritos!

first real swim in his cute suit his Auntie Julie and Uncle Stu got for him.

always cudding and kissing!

Sophie has become his new bff

The bumbo isn't his favorite, but he doesn't hate it. 

smooshy little face!