joy

early thursday morning our very good friends, bianca and steve, welcomed their baby boy, shepard, into the world. we are so thrilled for them and rejoice in the miracle that has taken place! we are thrilled for us too because someday in the future we expect that he will be our son-in-law! :) will he match with our dark-haired, exotic ellory or our fresh-faced blue-eyed blonde marin???? only time will tell.

grace

as soon as the kids are seated at the table townsend says, "pay, pay." so we fold our hands, close our eyes and sing our song to the Lord. lately townsend has started moving his plate to the side while we pray. maybe so he won't be tempted to eat while we pray? who knows? but it's very cute. also, ellory didn't seem to understand what it meant to "close your eyes" so sometimes daddy would put his hands on her eyes so she wouldn't be looking over at townsend and giggling. and now when we pray she goes ahead and puts her hand over her eyes. again, very cute.

townsend's 2nd birthday-3 months ago

townsend celebrated his 2nd birthday at preschool on july 15, 2008. since pinatas are popular at birthdays in guatemala, we decided to do one for his class. of course the thought of 2 year olds swinging a bat did not sit well so we found a bull pinata that had ribbons hanging down to pull. one of the ribbons held a piece of cardboard over the opening so when that ribbon was pulled all the goodies would fall out. i also decided that parents would probably not appreciate us loading their kids up with candy right before pick up time so i filled the pinata with balls, cars, etc. i think it went over pretty well. the kids liked pulling the ribbons and i had a clue as to "the" ribbon and made sure that one was not pulled until the very end. townsend pulled the last ribbon and we started shaking out the toys. one little boy got a horrified look and started yelling, "no! stop!" i don't know if he thought the bull was real and we were ripping it apart or what. but it was kinda funny. also, after everyone had grabbed all the toys another little guy came up and asked me, "where's the cake?" a kid after my own heart. :) we love you townsend and we are so thankful that you are our son.

what happened???

last week marin got herself to standing. i wrote about it. well, since that day she has not stopped in her quest to be standing at all times. no matter where i sit her she immediately crawls for the coffee table, a chair, the couch, a box, anything that she can get her hands on to help her pull up. it's driving me bananas. the most pitiful part has been when we've put her down for a nap. she stands right up and cries. sometimes we've gone in her room and she's standing up at the back of her crib facing the wall just crying. almost like she is being punished. i just don't remember this with townsend and ellory. where did our little baby go??

so proud

this morning townsend and i were getting ready to go to the store. i was upstairs and when i came down he was so proud of himself. he had put on shoes all by himself! we praised him appropriately and clapped and cheered. then we had to tell him that the shiny brown and pink shoes were his sister's. :)

just some pics

big boy

well, it's not the exact first time that he has gone on the potty but this time it was more than just a few piddles. we haven't really started hard core potty training but we talk alot about it and ellory will poop and pee if you sit her on the potty. townsend hasn't really cared too much about it. he has started telling us, "wet" or "foo-foo" but sometimes he's right and sometimes he's wrong. today he indicated that he needed to go peepee so i sat him on the potty and left him with some books. after about 10 minutes i started hearing him say, "no, no, no, no." i went in there and he had gone peepee! i still don't know why he was saying, "no."

mornings

earlier this week a friend emailed on my birthday and asked if i had been allowed to "sleep in." i had to write back, "no." not because norton didn't say i could, but i just love seeing the kids first thing in the morning. now by 7pm i'm ready for them all to go to bed, but when one of them starts calling out at 6:30am i am ready to get up and go to their rooms. marin is usually on her tummy with her hands on the rails trying to pull up. she is so happy when we get her out of bed. ellory usually jumps right up when the door opens still looking a bit sleepy with her hair going every which way. yesterday she had one arm out of her shirt and i wondered how long she had been that way. townsend also usually jumps up when the door opens. then he quickly bends down to grab his whale, baby whale, and blankie. they are just so especially cute in the mornings.

the library

our wednesday routine is that after the girls get up from their morning nap we pack up and go to the library. it probably takes about 30-45 minutes to get everyone's diaper changed, shoes on, books gathered and buckled into carseats. once we get to the library i have to unload the girls in to the stroller and make sure townsend is holding onto my hand or the stroller. we are in the library for oh, about 10 minutes. :) townsend goes straight to the 2 purple bins that hold the board books. he picks out a few and likes holding them under the scanner at the self service checkout station. some of the librarians are very nice and say how cute they all are. then we load up the van and head back home. it's a nice change of pace for us. since it was raining on wednesday we went today. and ellory was doing her usual, "since you want me to look at the camera and smile i'm not going to." silly girl.

the bouncer

norton was getting onto me for not posting something just about ellory. today when i picked her up from preschool ms. kiki said that ellory had gotten the girls together under the table. kinda like a club. and ellory would yell at any boy who tried to get under with them. apparently she is the "boss" of the class. fortunately she is also very cute and the teachers adore her.

love me

townsend is just like his dad-he LOVES to have his back scratched. sometimes he will lay on his tummy across norton's lap getting scratched for minutes and minutes. ("hours and hours" sounds better but it's not quite that long.)

o's

this was taken about a month ago. it was marin's first try at cheerios. unlike the other 2 kids, she didn't choke and give her mom a heart attack. thank you marin.

i've heard of this

it seems like everyone has a bathroom toilet paper story and i was somewhat glad that my children didn't seem interested in the toilet paper. but i guess it was inevitable. ellory was the culprit. my main concern was, "what do i do with the toilet paper? can we reuse it? it's been on the ground in the bathroom which seems kinda gross." i threw it away.

the cul-de-sac

ever since the weather has gotten a bit cooler and ellory has started walking independently we have been going outside to play in the cul-de-sac. we have quite a few elementary age kids who live near us and they LOVE our children. in fact, everyday around 4pm we hear a knock at the door-"can the kids come out to play?" townsend loves to ride around on his truck or motorcycle and ellory seems to be content to just plop herself down at the end of the driveway and crush dead leaves. i can see right now that physical exercise may not be her passion. marin sits in her stroller or we hold her. one of the neighbors has a wagon and sometimes they give the kids rides. unfortunately, 2 of the little girls who adore ellory went a bit overboard one day-picking her up, giving her hugs, etc. now ellory cries as soon as they come near. i feel bad for them because they want to play with her and she just runs to mama.

a marin milestone

this morning marin crawled over to the toybox, reached up her hands to the top and started pulling herself up to her knees. she had never done this before so i ran to get the camera. as i started taking pictures she got all the way up to standing! yea, marin! our big girl!

for T, E, and M

well, i have yet to make a baby book for each of our children and feel bad about that every so often. since i get on the computer much more often than i get out the scrapbooking stuff, i decided to start this blog to chronicle our lives-mainly the kiddos. their development, funny things they say and do-so when they get older they can have a little history to read about themselves.
townsend is almost 27 months. ellory is 18 months and marin is 8 months old.
townsend-he's our little happy boy. we love his smile and his generally upbeat attitude. every day lately he has been saying more and more words. i wish i could write how he says words but i'm not quite sure i could pull it off. his main substitution is he makes the "h" sound for any word that starts with a "k" sound. so he loves his "hars" and always wants to "hum" with mommy when she goes upstairs. and sometimes he asks to "holor" with his crayons. we love how he puckers up his lips so much when he goes to give a kiss.
ellory-she is definitely her own person. we say she is meloncholy because she goes from being perfectly happy to perfectly sad in about a split second. we still have a hard time figuring out what her triggers are for causing those mood swings. she is our cautious one. she just started walking a month ago and will still be stopped in her tracks if there is any kind of "obstacle" in her way. she is also our snuggly one. she will come up to me(mom) and just fall into my lap for a long hug. i love that.
marin-our baby. after many months of reflux and not getting much sleep she is finally a happy baby. when we go to get her up in the morning she gives us a big smile and starts flapping her arms and legs. she is her daddy's mini-me and he loves that. :) she started army crawling 1-2 months ago and now rocks back and forth on her knees. we expect her to do regular crawling any day now.
it's hard to stop writing about each of the kids since there is so much to tell about them and i feel like i have alot to catch up on. but i'll mostly start with the present and maybe as i remember things from the past i'll add those in.