LONG Overdue...

Well, I apologize for how overdue this update is. I've been battling the blog site about uploading photos again, so after a couple months things have kind of built up for a LONG session of reading and photo viewing for you all. Our days are busy and our nights are sacred so there hasn’t been a lot of typing time of late. We’ve all been staying pretty busy and the Holiday season certainly was no exception around here.

Sycely continues to learn new Bible stories and has started incorporating Biblical characters into her dramatic play. I no longer find it unusual for her to say things like, “Mommy, you be Lizabeff and I’ll be Zechariah.” Her tenderness and love for Ella richly blesses me on a daily basis. She loves to hold her hand (though loves it a little less when Ella tries to “eat” her hand!) and is still quick to include Ella in any activity. I’ve been trying to set aside times for “Mommy dates” where Sycely and I do something special, just the two of us, but often when I propose a “Mommy date” she’ll want Ella to come along too. She doesn’t want to do anything without her. She constantly asks if Ella can “stay in for books” at bedtime and ensures that Ella always gets a good night hug and kiss from her big sister. She likes to try to include Ella in her play, often building a bed or “tent” around Ella’s play area on the floor and bringing pillows, blankets, animals and sometimes whole tea parties to share with Ella. Sycely is starting to recognize lowercase letters now, in addition to the uppercase letters and numbers she already knows. She's really gotten the knack of letter-sound associations and is starting to read some words as well. She’s really into writing and has tried her hand at some inventive spelling, writing “DADE” (daddy) and other such things. She’s mastered writing her name, and Ella’s and has produced some pretty adorable portraits of our family of late.

Ella's 4 month picture

Ella's 5 month picture

Ella's 6 month picture

Ella has an appointment next week, but was weighing in at just over 15 pounds and measured over 25 inches long now. She’s still on the tiny side compared to all her big baby friends at church, but that certainly isn't stopping her from trying to get around. Dr. Willow warned us she'll likely be "prematurely mobile"- just what Mommy wants to hear, that she'll be up and all over the place before too much longer. She’s finally grown into some 3 months shirts but is still lacking when it comes to filling out a waistband. She’s quite proficient at rolling over both ways and spends absolutely no time on her back before rolling to her tummy. She is "frogging" her way around quite regularly and is able to gain quite a bit of ground. She's started pulling up onto her knees and scooting forward that way too. She’s got quite an infections giggle-even if we’re not exactly sure WHAT she’s laughing at sometimes-things like Mommy saying “Hi” and the cat walking by are apparently a real hoot. Most important in the development department, Ella started sucking her thumb a couple months ago. It’s just about the most endearing thing I’ve ever seen and it’s made her sleeping quite delightful. I just snuggle her in, she gets settled with her thumb and that’s that!

Ella's first bite...

Lem is plugging away with sthe new semester at school. He’s working really hard to stay on top of his grading. He had teams compete at the local Model United Nations and state We the People competitions. Now his kids are gearing up for the state Model UN competition.

Our Special Olympics skating season started up in November as well. I did lots of extra planning and prepping this year and had a pre-season meeting for both parents and volunteers so I’m hoping we have a smooth, low-stress, enjoyable season this year. We practice once a week with local games this weekend and state games in March. Additionally, I’ve got my other two special O girls for private lessons once a week, one of which leaves this week for World Games!

The Holidays were marvelous! It was sad without Aunti Eris here, but it was delicious nonetheless! I kept real strict with my workout so that I wouldn’t feel quite as guilty about indulging in all the Holiday treats. We enjoyed a scrumptious traditional dinner at Nanny and Papas on Thanksgiving, followed up with a traditional English trifle (minus the peas and onions for those of you thinking Rachel on Friends right now!), and game playing. Sycely got a stomach bug a few days before Christmas so she was pretty down and out for a few days. Then of course, I got it so it was kind of low key heading into Christmas around here. We did squeeze in our annual light tour with Alaina though. Christmas Eve we attended the candlelight service at church and Lem's family joined us. We had our annual Christmas morning here at our house followed by a full day of presents, food and games at Nanny and Papa's. We’re so very blessed to have family so close to spend our holidays with (and to cook yummy meals for us!) Ella has a wonderful first Christmas, getting especially excited about all the shiny bows to suck on! Sycely even had her own pink Christmas tree in her room this year.

Lem and I had a fancy overnight date in early Decemeber to celebrate being together 10 years. Truly it was a week long celebration as Lem had left daily memories hidden for me around the house every day for a week leading up to December 7th, even soliciting the involvement of our friend Alaina in Porland to write about the memory that involved her. It was so fun to read about the memorable moments leading up to the beginning of our relationship. Saturday night the girls went to Nanny and Papas and we enjoyed a tasty, fancy dinner complete with rose petals on the table, a view and crème Brulee "on the house." After dinner we made a stop at Dimond’s winter formal, Crystal Ball. It was neat to be all dressed up right back where it all started for us 10 years earlier. We even had Scott, the photographer, take pictures of us. We picked Ella up (Sycely was having a “sleepover party”) and checked into our hotel for the night. We had a gorgeous suite that allowed Ella to have her own room so Mommy actually got some sleep instead of spending the night awake listening to all her rustling! There were more rose petals scattered throughout the room and scented candles as well. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast in the morning and then put Ella (and Mommy) down for a little nap before we had to pack up and check out. It was a very memorable and refreshing, romantic weekend celebration.

With Nanny and Papa gone over the break we didn't get any dates in, but our second week of break was much better than the first-for the most part. A few days after Christmas Lem accidently ingested some nuts so that made for yet another evening of me playing the role of nurse. We managed to avoid a trip to the ER this time, but that didn't make it any more enjoyable for any of us!

January brought lots of business around here. We had a miniature New Year's celebration with Uncle Ian. We wanted Sycely to be able to enjoy some festivities so we had some party snacks, decorations, poppers, noisemakers, etc and counted down LIVE with New York, so at our house the ball dropped and the New Year rung in at 8:00, in time for Sycely to get to bed almost on time.

We were able to have a visit with my older sister Heather and her family as they came through town from Soldotna to join her family for a New Year's celebration. We hadn't seen her or her kids for years so it was great to get to catch up with them. Sycely had a real blast playing with her cousin Sissy. She's often played with imaginary (or a dedicated stuffed animal) cousins so to have the real deal here was a real treat for her!

Ella was dedicated, with a few friends, at church. Uncle Ian was able to represent the fam since Lem's parents were in Arizona visiting Eris. It was very special to have some of our closest family friends standing with us as we prayed for all our new "church babies." I am contunially so grateful for the church family we have. We are so richly blessed to have such wonderful friends to share our lives with-we genuinely cherish them so much!

Ella during her dedication at church

January also brought us some seriously crazy weather. Our first two weeks of the year brought record breaking cold temperatures. We actually saw -30 at our house. So, needless to say, we did a lot of staying snuggled up inside for a couple weeks! Then, for some crazy reason, we saw a 50 degree temperature change literally overnight. One day is was in the teens BELOW zero the next it was in the mid 30s ABOVE zero! That wreaked serious havock causing it to rain, melt snow, oh and of course, the accompanying 80-100 mile an hour winds! All that combined to make a freshly zammed skating rink out of all the roads. School was cancelled for an unheard of THREE days!!! And that came before a 3 day holiday weekend. Lem enjoyed 6 days off! Unfortunately, as is apparently customary, we spent his time off tending a sick kid. Ella got her first cold and spent a couple nights' sleep interrupted by a yucky nose and a cough. She coped pretty well (though Mommy got NO sleep) and is through it now and back to her normal self. But, it didn't make for a very fun unexpected vacation for Daddy.

Now everyone is back at work for a mostly regular week. The temperature is back to normal, the roads are recovered for the most part, school's back in, skating's back on and I'm just finished with presenting two workshops at last weekend's Early Childhood Conference. Ella got to start having some solid foods last week-mmmmmm...rice cereal! She's actually been spacing out her feedings these days so it's been a little easier to leave her for dates and skating and such, but I will be much more relaxed knowing she'll be able to eat if she's hungry if I'm not around for whatever reason. It definitely gives Lem and I some more freedom with planning our dates.

I reached my weight loss goal right before Christmas and somehow managed not to gain half that baby weight back over the holidays! I'm now a couple pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight which is aweseome. I'm making some wardrobe replinishing funds by unloading all my too big clothes-which is ALOT-on craigslist. I figure every $5 I get is $5 I didn't have before to put toward replacing my wardrobe (with some much smaller items!)

We’ve just about got all the details worked out for our upcoming vacation in two weeks. We’ve got our hotels reserved for both San Diego and Anaheim. We found a great vacation rental right on Mission Beach (500 feet from the amuzement park) in San Diego. We have only told Sycely about the San Diego part of the trip. We decided we'll just tell her about San Diego, get her excited about seeing Aunti Eris, the zoo, the beach, etc. That’s exciting enough in its own right; we decided it might spoil the San Diego fun (since we’re spending 4 days there first) if we tell her we’re going to the “Magic Kingdom”. I think she may be like, “beach, yeah that’s fun…giraffes, sure, let’s just get to Cinderella already!” So our plan is to wait until we’ve left San Diego and are heading to Anaheim before we tell her we’re going to Disneyland. That way she won't be anxious to get to Disneyland and miss out on all the pre-Disneyland fun San Diego has to offer. My mom and her hubby will be driving down from Northern California to join us for three days at the “happiest place on earth.” It will be so great to have some extra hands to help with the girls-have the option to let Ella nap at the hotel or whatever, as well as maybe get in a date or two for Mommy and Daddy. We found a perfect hotel suite that gives us three bedrooms, two bathrooms (and everyone has their own door!), fridge, microwave, crib, pool, breakfast-all a 5 minute walk from Disneyland’s maingate, for little more than a regular room would cost us. Lem and I are both totally overwhelmed by the prospect of managing our route at the parks but are completely excited to get the chance to go and to take Sycely on what we know will be our best family vacation yet! Only 10 days until we leave!