Imagination...

Elsie loves to go shopping...her favorite store in Target...lately one of her favorite things to do is set up a little shoe store in the house so she and her baby can go shopping together...she lines some shoes up under the computer desk...others behind the end table in the living room...she puts her baby in the stroller and shopping they go. She uses a little deck of cards for money, and "beeps" the things she buying and says "thank you, have a nice day" after putting the shoes in a bag...
I love watching Elsie play...she has such a great imagination! Her little shoe stores can keep her busy all afternoon...the only downside is not knowing where her shoes are when we need to find a pair!

Faces Of Elsie...

Elsie is quite a girl...some days I think all she does is talk, talk, talk....in her cute high-pitched squeaky little voice! She never misses a beat...sometimes we have to be careful about what we say because it will be repeated by her!
A very crazy and wild little girl...tongue sticking out just like daddy!

Elsie cannot wait to be big sister...she loves to sit on my lap and have little conversations with baby James...and give him lots of kisses through my tummy! Elsie has a "Big Sister" shirt to wear when James is born...and James has a "Little Brother" shirt to match!

As innocent as Elsie might look she has quite an attitude...and is quite sassy at times...her favorite sayings lately is "Ding-Dong-Duh"... I think you can tell she hangs out with teenage aunties!

Happy, happy girl...

Little Helper...

Elsie is my little shadow...she is always more that willing to help me out in any way...even if I don't really need the help! A few nights ago I was making dinner and Elsie really, really needed to help...so she pulled out an apron for us each to wear and pulled her little chair up to the counter...
I cut up the onions to saute and Elsie put them in the pan and dumped the mushrooms in...yummy!

As I finished making dinner Elsie worked on setting the table...we keep the summer plates low in the pantry so Elsie can set the table easily by herself...She always set the table complete with cloth napkins! ( Elsie seems to think that the summer plates need to have paper plates over them...goofy!)

What a tasty dinner...hamburgers (without mushroom and onions for Elsie), mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies...I think I just might enjoy the freedom of cooking again now that bedrest is over! I have a feeling that Elsie and Jon will be quite happy also!

Chore Time...

No child is too young for a chore...right? It seems the younger the child the more they enjoy doing a chore! I think sometimes Elsie is a bit envious of her aunties because they have chores...so now Elsie has her own chore to do at Grammie and Papa Wayne's...she pulls a chair up to the silverware drawer and gets to put all the clean ones away! She is always more than happy to do her chore...just look at that smile!
If it is a "slow day" in the kitchen (meaning only 10 placesettings!) she gets to help put the dishes in the dishwasher! What a lucky girl!

I love the look on her face...she is truly one proud girl! At home her chores consist of putting her Pj's away, helping to set the table and picking up toys...but for some reason doing chores at Grammie and Papa Wayne's is a little better...

Columbine...

Elsie loves to pick and eat the wild Columbine growing at Grammie and Papa Wayne's house...it seems there is always one auntie or another who is bringing Elsie outside to pick a Columbine, Chives or Cherries to munch on...(the kids have also been known to feed her edible leaves off the tree and dandelion greens!)
Elsie knows just how to carefully tear the ends off and suck the sweet flavor of nectar out of the flower...it is such a lovely snack...nectar from a wild Columbine...

Pool Time...

With all the hot weather we have been spending lots of time swimming in the pool at my parents house...Elsie loves to sit in her floaty and float around the pool...or just sit in her little pool on the deck by the big pool and watch the kids...

The kids begin to beg to go swimming early in the morning...we can usually hold them off until after lunch...and they swim until supper time!

So happy to be outside...swimming in the pool...eating watermelon...all while working on perfecting that already dark tan!

After getting out of the pool Elsie is always "freezin' cold!"...so a quick cuddle with Auntie Lisa always does the trick!

Ice-Cream Treat...

This last week it was super hot outside...and that calls for one thing only...Ice-Cream treats! We normally make our own dairy-free ice-cream...but thanks to being on bedrest we had some store bought dairy-free treats! We have discovered that the SO brand of Coconut ice-cream is the best! I think Elsie LOVED her treat...and I just love her innocent expression...like "really...I have chocolate on my face?!"
Yum, yum! Since the kids had sprinkles on their dishes of ice-cream she felt that she needed sprinkles on her ice-cream bar...

New Shoes...

These little shoes are just far to cute not to share! Elsie has a "thing" for shoes...and when she saw these she begged to "please, please buy them for me!" Since she needed new shoes so bad...what girl can survive with only 5 pairs of shoes?...and since they were on clearance for only $4...Daddy told her yes she could have them! Talk about one happy little girl! If only they came in my size...I think Elsie may have gotten her "thing" for shoes from her mommy!

Getting the Sand...

Since Jon had a few extra days off this week he was finally able to go and get 2 pick-up loads of sand for the sandbox...Elsie was so excited! Jon put the booster in the pick-up so she was even able to go with to the gravel pit and get the sand!
When they got home Elsie ran to find her little gardening shovel so she could help daddy scoop all the sand out of the box...

As soon as they finished unloading all the sand it started to rain out...so Elsie had to wait to play in the sandbox...today the sand was still quite wet but between rain showers she was finally able to put on some play clothes and try out that new sandbox! I think Elsie and her aunties will have lots of fun playing in the sandbox...and next year James will be learning about the joys of playing with sand and dirt!

Sleeping Beauty...

I just had to post these pictures...I love the softness of the photos. Elsie was feeling a little wore out on the first few days of getting chickenpox and fell asleep while going on a car ride with Daddy to feed Papa Wayne's pigs...the only bed thing about the nap was that it was around 7pm...we woke her up half and hour later so she would still sleep at night...but she was so sleepy she fell back to sleep! She finally woke up all bright eyed at 9pm...and asked for some breakfast and why it was getting dark out in the morning! (I think she only a little confused!)

She finally fell to sleep for the night around 11:30 or so...and slept in until almost 11am the next morning! Jon and I certainly enjoyed being able to sleep in a bit also...though we are spoiled by Elsie since she rarely wakes up before 9am every morning! Hopefully James will follow the same sleeping pattern as his sister!

Don't you just love her funky outfit? She was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt...but soon decided to take her jeans off and wear just her fancy star tights with the long sleeved shirt! What I love the most is that Jon never bats an eye at bring her places with him dressed her funky ways! The other day he brought her up town with mismatched shoes...another day her dress up shoes! I don't let her have quite that much independence when I bring her places with me...I am probably squashing her creativity and independence!

Chicken Pox...

Elsie finally broke out with Chickenpox last Friday...She seems to have a pretty light case...I think I counted only 40 spots on her body and face...the Dr. told me that an average case has about 300 spots!! On the second day of her breaking out the spots were super itchy for her and I didn't really want to give her medicine to help with the itching...but I ready online that a little breast milk will do the trick to take the itches away! I called up my breastfeeding sister and got a little milk from her...we rubbed the milk on Elsie with cotton balls...and it worked wonders! By the 3rd time of rubbing it on the spots were looking better and not so itchy! So...if you get chickenpox find someone with a little breast milk! As of today most of the spots are scabbed over...and she is not itchy at all...by next weekend she should be back to her normal self!

The Way It Is...

This is what happens when you have an auntie who is about to go school for hair design! I love this picture...it looks like Elsie is being forced to sit there and have her hair done! In truth Elsie begged to have her hair curled by auntie Ceara...she even sat at the table and waited and waited for Ceara to get done talking on the phone so she could do her hair!
Elsie firmly believes that when she has curly hair she looks just like her favorite singer, Taylor Swift!

See how lovely those curls are!? In the end she only let Ceara curl half of her head...but Elsie still looked beautiful and felt just like "Tayla Swift""...what a girl!

beads...

I am not really sure what this craft project is called...we always call it " the little beads in the bucket thing"...I am sure there is a better name for it! These beads can keep all the kids quite and busy all afternoon! Elsie loves to create funky shapes and colour schemes on the little template...the kids sometimes use tweezers to get the beads just perfect...Elsie prefers to use her fingers! This project is good eye-hand coordination!
The only way to find just the right colours is to dump the entire bucket of hundreds of little beads out on the floor...

So far Elsie is quite happy to make a shape, dump it off the template and start again on another shape...I don't think she quite understands the concept of ironing the beads...and I am not about to tell her...otherwise our house will soon be over run with little beaded coasters and what-not!

Campfire Night...

Last weekend we had a little campfire at my parents house...it was fun while it lasted...but all too soon the rain showers chased us indoors for an evening of popcorn and visiting...
Looks like Elsie had a great time laughing and playing outside after dark! And eating smores! Smores are a rare thing for Elsie...I think she tried one last year and didn't like it...this year she LOVED them!

Good stuff! We will need to keep some GF Graham Crackers on hand for all the summer campfires we will be having! If only I could find some sugar free marshmallows! Oh well...Elsie doesn't seem to mind eating lots of sugar packed marshmallows!

What a fun evening...

Inside Swing...

Last weekend Jon brought one of the swings inside for Elsie to swing on...since having a broken leg it is rather difficult on her to just look out the window at her swingset...but I just don't think going down the slide and swinging is a good idea at this point! So she can use the swing in the house on her belly...and what fun she has!
Every child needs a swing in the house...and I think it will be just a matter of time before she will be wanting a trapeze in the doorway just like her aunties!

A happy girl with a leg that is almost all better!

* She normally wears her splint or at least an ace bandage when playing...but sometimes she needs a break from being confined!

Chives...

Elsie has a love affair with Chives...the aunties have some growing by the pool and it is always a favorite thing of hers to pick a little to eat! One day while discussing what kind of new plants we should get for the flower bed she said we needed Chives because they are her favorite!
When we went shopping for some flowers last week, we found a little container of Chives and just had to buy it! Elsie was so happy that she had to hold the container on her lap...I caught her bringing the entire container up to her mouth so she could chew a bit of Chive off! Elsie wants to plant the Chives by her swingset...but I think for now we have talked her into using a planter and having them on the deck...What a little gardener!

The Closet...

A few weeks ago we finally finished the closet in Elsie's room...Jon and my dad put new doors on...and Jon added the new closet organizer...and I finally got all of Elsie's and James's clothes put away...

I realize I enjoy buying children's clothes far to much... Elsie had so many jeans (like 13 pairs!) that we used some to make cut off shorts! And now that James's clothes are all organized I think we have more than enough little clothes for him...including 20 0-3 and NB onsies! Having an obsession with children's clothes is a good thing though since they grow so fast...I think Elsie will be wearing a size 4T shirts for this winter since her 3T are getting a bit short on her long torso!

A Reminder and a Rant...

I began this blog a couple of years ago with the intention of it being on online journal of our life…something fun to look back on and enjoy…to celebrate life and all the magical little moments we might otherwise forget.

Recently I have found it hard to post because I realize that at least one of my blog readers is abusing the purpose of my blog. I have a couple tracking devices that allow me to keep track of my readers as well as which pages are being read…so I know that when you read this you will know who you are. (I’m not naming names, but I do know who you are.) I would like my blog to be a source of enjoyment for my readers…it is not meant to be a place to gather information for personal reasons (and your petty jealousies.) Just because you read something on my blog about our life does not mean that you can jump to conclusions, gossip and repeat to others on the happenings in our life. When you jump to conclusions and make assumptions (and gossip to others) about things you really have no clue about (or very little information about) it only causes conflict. Honestly, I’m getting tired of having to defend our lifestyle choices to a few others…we live our life the way that works best for us and makes us most happy. It may be different than what you choose, and if you don’t like our choices, then please stop reading the blog!

In the past I had a similar problem with a reader lifting some of my photos. After a gentle reminder of the courtesies of blogging it stopped. And now hopefully this message will also serve as a reminder to please show more respect and restraint.

I understand that when blogging I am publicly opening our life to others…but I would hate to have to put a password on my blog since I do have many readers who understand the blogging courtesies and truly enjoy reading about the simple joys of our life.