February Pictures

My little kids are growing up so fast. It is finally getting easier these days. They can almost play together. They are definitely siblings, you can tell by looking at them, but in many ways they act a lot alike. Although they definitely have personalities unique to them. Take Bella for instance. She loves to eat, she used to be a great eater, she still loves to eat, but she doesn't seem to eat as much anymore because her stubborn independence gets in the way. She refuses any type of assistance. If you come at her with a spoon she starts flapping her arms in distress. She hasn't mastered the spoon yet either, so I've learned if it isn't finger food, don't bother, cause she wont let you feed her. She also has a tendency to cram her mouth completely full of food before she starts chewing and swallowing.

The other day I bought bowls that suction to the table in hopes to teach her how to eat with a spoon, but she was smarter than me cause she ate the spaghetti O's with her fingers, and then picked up the bowl and dumped it when she was done. So much for suction!
She makes such a mess when she eats, and then she puts her hands all over her face and hair. Look how sticky her hair is in this picture taken right after breakfast. Todd says we need to put a helmet on her when she eats, and it's best to strip her down first too, otherwise the whole outfit has to be dunked in shout before washing.
Tony always sits like this when he plays.
Bella is such a happy girl, just like her brother. They both also loved this toy, Tony still gets in it sometimes. Mostly whenever Bella is in it, he wants her to get out so he can get in.
Bella doesn't suck her thumb, I don't know why she is in the picture but it's so cute!
In case anyone was wondering, cribs are strong enough to hold adults too.
One day, I was busy doing something and Tony wanted my attention, so to distract him, I handed him the bag of trail mix and told him to pick out some M&M's. He quietly disappeared and I forgot about it until a few minutes later when I hear him in Bella's room (who was supposed to be napping). Oh and you can't see it in the picture, but Bella had chocolate all over her face, so he must have been feeding her M&M's too.
How could you be mad at this face though? He was only doing what I told him to do. And he was sharing with his sister!
His grandpa got him a new John Deere hat at a farm show... Looks like he will need to grow into it a bit.
They play together almost, more like side by side play.
They finally got too big to put in the kitchen sink. Bella started trying to stand up and it was getting to be to hard to contain them, so they now get to bathed like normal kids... in a tub.

They like to be in each others cribs together too.
And yes, Tony still has his pacifier, but only in the bed. It's a lot harder to get rid of than I thought. I'm just glad I took it away during the day early on before he could talk, I should have just gotten rid of it all together then. Oh well. Bella doesn't use one, so I only have to break one kid of the habit.
"Mom what happened to my cake???"

Katya was not happy when she found out that while she and her friends were busy playing at her birthday party, Tony spotted the cake, pulled up a chair and then demanded a fork. "Fork mama!" he yelled louder and louder and more persistently each time. Finally Rachael decided we could sneak a piece from the back that wouldn't show in the pictures when Katya blew out her candles.
Here he is getting his way.
Bella in the foam pit with me. Katya's birthday party was at a gymnastics gym.
Bella looking at herself in the mirror.
Monkey see, Monkey do.

Today I did something crazy. I woke up at 5:00 am to go to an early morning step class at the YMCA. With Bella's upcoming first birthday and me still having a few or more pregnancy pounds to lose (which I am determined to do before she turns one) drastic measures have to be taken. I am not a morning person, but on the bright side, I got home shortly after 7 and the whole house was still asleep. Ahh, some quality quiet time to myself. What to do... well I really should have cleaned out the fridge cause something in there stinks, but I could probably do that later with kids awake, computer time is much more difficult with awake kids. Plus it's my mom's birthday, and she loves it when we (my sisters and I) blog, and since I didn't get her birthday gift to her on time, this will might brighten her day. Happy Birthday Mom!

I'm back (for now)

Well it's been a while since I've blogged, but blogging should not be a chore, so if I don't have time to do it, I'm just not going to. But tonight I just got the kids to bed, Todd is watching football and I just sat myself down in front of the TV with my laptop to watch Grey's Anatomy and yes blog.

Here is a little of what's been going on around here:

For Halloween we had the cutest little girl bunny and a boy without a costume. Well sort of, I actually bought him an Elmo costume because he's almost as popular as Barny is around here, (I actually looked for a Barny costume but couldn't find one) unfortunately as much as Tony loves Elmo, he apparently doesn't like the idea of being Elmo! Every time I put it on him he screamed, so he wore an Elmo sweatshirt instead and it was good enough to get him lots of "CANNY". In fact, we have so much CANNY that it has taken over the house. It is constantly on his mind and he never forgets where it is and asks for his CANNY many many many times a day. Seriously, I can't wait till the CANNY is gone.

In other new, my dad went home a week and a half ago, so that means that the patio is finally done. I am really looking forward to using it next summer. I think that once I get to use and enjoy the patio a little bit, I wont mind as much about the expense of it all. Well truth be told there is one set of steps left to do, but that will have to wait till next year, or maybe even 2 years. My brother has been harrassing me for pictures, but since it is dark out, I can't take them right now, but will try to add them tomorrow.

My business is slowly getting going, finally getting some work, but it's so much harder than I thought, and there have been days I've wanted to just quit and give up before I put anymore money into it. But since the insurance is the biggest expense of it thus far, and I'm committed to a year for that, I decided to stick it out for a year and see what happens. I'm so glad I have a partner in this, she keeps me motivated.

Farm work is slowing down drastically for Todd, which is really good timing, cause Todd's parents just left today for Australia for 3 1/2 weeks. So that means I no longer have a babysitter readily available. It's going to be a long month, cause not only does Todd's mom watch the kids when Todd and I are both working, but she also gives me lots of breaks for shopping, errands and the occasional dinner sans kids for Todd and I. Thankfully though it just so happens that my mom is coming tomorrow to watch my sisters kids for a week while Rachael and her husband are on a "medical conference" in London!

And speaking of kids, Bella is growing like a weed, she eats so good. I am making all her baby food from scratch instead of going the Gerber route. She eats everything I give her! So far she has had zucchini, butternut squash, acorn squash, pumpkin, peas, potatoes, apples, peaches, banana and cereal. Feeding her is really enjoyable cause she actually enjoys it. Tony on the other hand is so frustrating to feed, he eats about as much as a bird. Lately his diet primarily consists of fruit loops, yogurt, pretzels, peanuts, nutella sandwiches and chocolate milk. Oh and CANNY. Hopefully he outgrows this stage soon.

He is also suddenly very clingy and jealous of any attention NOT given to him, and bedtime is a nightly struggle, so I have a feeling this might be the start of the "terrible two's". Bella is constantly on the move, rolling all over the place. I don't think it will be long before she's crawling, time to get the baby gates back out!

Yep, things are hectic around here and these two kids are certainly the cause, but they are so worth every bit of it!