Pictures and updates Galore!

I am trying to give the masses what they ask for: MORE PICTURES!!! I am going to try and take more pictures this year and do more with the pictures I take. This means more emailing out pictures, printing off pictures, hanging pictures around the house, getting professional pictures done regularly and putting together photo books for each child once a year. I think this is a goal I can achieve since I enjoy taking pictures and I think that Owen and Ellie (as well as subsequent children) will appreciate it!!

This first picture is of my two men! Aren't they handsome. Owen was on a smiling kick so I was trying to get a picture of it, but of course my flash takes forever so he always gets more of a constipated look rather than a smile.

This second picture is of my little sweetheart, Owen, having tummy time. I don't know if he likes it all that much, but Ellie loves it! We have a little song that we sing while he is having his tummy time. It goes like this, "tummy time, tummy time, tum-my time! Come along 'O' baby it's tummy-tummy time!" Ellie LOVES singing along and often requests tummy time by name and has even started spreading out a blanket for Owen.

This third picture is a personal favorite. I can't help but laugh when I look at it! I was trying to get a nice picture of Ellie but instead she came running after the camera. She looks like a pirate. Cute pirate.

Potty Training: Stage 1: We tried a meager attempt at potty training on Saturday. It ended abruptly after we realized Ellie was afraid to sit on the toilet. She is also afraid of her pull-up underpants and putting on her regular diaper while the fasteners are fastened (we tried to use the diaper as a pull up to see if she would transition a little better... didn't work). But she is SOOOO ready!!! Today I checked her diaper and she was clean, then she ran into the room and climbed on top of the changing table and a minute later she starts yelling, "poo! poo!" and sure enough, she needed her diaper changed, she had done her business!!! I think we just need a different strategy. Tuesday is our next attempt since we will be home all day. I just don't think I had all the materials we needed.

This fourth picture is of Ellie and Owen having tummy time again. Just thought it was cute and should include it. I am still working on getting a really good picture of the two of them together. It is seriously like pulling teeth. We took the kids to JC Penney yesterday for professional pictures and it was either one kid or the other screaming bloody murder. We ended up only getting one of them together. Oh well, I guess we will have to attempt it again soon. Ellie was mostly just scared. She is a wuss.

And lastly, this is another picture of my darling Owen. He is such a sweet baby!!! He looks pretty Weber in this picture I think. You can't really tell that he is a pudge in it either. He is so good natured. We are still working on him having alone time without someone holding him, but we are progressing in that and it has already gotten much better. He is a really noisy sleeper and eater. So much so that we decided that we need to move over to the noisy Sunday School class because we got a lot of stares in the adult class today. Well, it was a good couple of weeks in a quiet Sunday School class.

Hope everyone enjoyed the pictures. I am really going to try and be diligent about it especially since Brent and Carolee will be so far away for so long. It might even get a little annoying, so I won't feel bad if you delete my blogs. :)