Water Fun

We spent the afternoon at Grammie's house with cousin James.

The kiddos were having fun with the water (one of James' favorite things to do) and Gabriella was having a little trouble keeping her skirt up (panties are quite a bit thinner than cloth diapers!). Luckily James was helping her out.

I love watching the kids play together, they are so cute!!

Potty Training

I am determined not to have two littles in diapers at the same time, so yesterday was our first day of potty training. We went to the store last week and picked out panties (Gabriella saw the Dora ones and screamed, "Dora!" so that's what we got!)

We started after naptime (I had a couple appointments in the morning I couldn't change) and she was so excited to put on her panties and to take a picture to send to Daddy at work.

The picture is a little blurry, but you get the idea, she was totally excited!

By the time Daddy got home she only wanted him to take her potty each time. She loves him so much!

We went and sat on the toilet every 30 minutes from 4:15 until 8:45. During that time she didn't go in the toilet once, but she did manage to pee twice in our chair (luckily I had covered it with a towel first, and she let me know she had peed by saying, "uh-oh") and three times on the floor (saying, "Ewwwwww!").

We decided on a diaper overnight and now that breakfast is over its time for a bath and day 2 of panties. I hope she hits the toilet at least once today :)

21 Week Ultrasound

We had our 21 week ultrasound today. It is always fun to me to watch babies in an ultrasound. We got to see Reuben yawn, make faces with his lips, swallow, rub his eyes and fall asleep. He is such an animated and active little guy!

This is a profile shot in 4D. Right before this he had been yawning like crazy and rubbing his eyes. In this shot he is asleep. So precious!

His little feet, I just love this picture!

A hand and foot. He is pointing his little finger up.

And in case there was any question about it, he is still very obviously a little boy!

We can't wait to meet our little guy! His body is measuring one week ahead but his head is measuring two weeks ahead of schedule. I am praying for a delivery just before Christmas (2 weeks early) so that his head isn't gigantic!

Harris Beach Family Campout

This past weekend we headed out to Harris Beach for our annual family campout with my family. Gabriella slept half the way there and then entertained us by singing the rest of the way. We set up our tent quickly and then headed down to the beach with my parents, brother, his kiddo, finance and our little Munch!

James proceeded to drag April out into the ocean where they were both instantly soaked. Gabriella went squealing after them so out I went as well. The weather was great, about 70 degrees and the water was actually warm so we let the kids play as long as they wanted. Gabriella kept getting picked up by the waves (I was holding her by both hands so she just bobbed along in them) and James liked to lay down in them. Every time the waves came Gabriella would scream, "weeeeeee!" as she jumped up and down (or bobbed) in them.

Matt enjoyed lounging in his sand bed that he had made before the kids came back to play in the sand and took it over. After about an hour and a half of playing we headed back to camp to shower and get ready for dinner. Dad said that he saw Leonard Nemoy (he was talking to his body guard) and we spotted a little hobbit named Gabriella Baggins!

After dinner we headed over to the playground with the guys and kids. Mom got them each a little lantern at the dollar store so they had fun running around in the dark with them. Matt and Jonathan had fun playing too!

My mom's favorite thing to do at the beach is go to the tide pools so we headed down at low tide Saturday morning.

The kids had lots of fun poking around at things, Gabriella even held a crab that was bigger than her hand. Matt caught it for her and she picked it up right out of his hand and held it for a minute before throwing it down on the sand and then laughing as it scurried away.

Jonathan made him and James some little wooden boats and the raced them in the little river on the north side of the beach. They raced them about 5 times and we all had a ton of fun watching them get stuck on logs, sand bars, in whirlpools and seaweed.

After lunch Mom, Dad, April and I headed into town to yard sale and walk around while the guys stayed at camp with the kiddos and took naps. We stopped at a little candy shop and brought back treats for everyone.

James had a great time licking Pop Rocks out of the package.

I got Matt and hot chili pepper sucker with an actual chili pepper and seeds inside. He had trouble getting it away from Gabriella long enough to have some.

We headed back down to the beach again, but it was a lot colder Saturday than it was on Friday. The kids only played in the water a little bit, the boys raced their boats some more, and we had lots of fun burying people in the sand.

 

James ended up with a sand-bikini and Gabriella got a little Hitler-stache somehow. Dad spent most of his time at the beach using his metal detector.

Jonathan and Matt decided they wanted to go in the ocean so off they went.

We had some good laughs and then headed back to camp for hot showers and a snack before dinner because we were all freezing! We had hamburgers for dinner and then smores and popcorn for a snack. Everyone headed to bed early that night.

Sunday morning after breakfast we started packing up. James and Gabriella wanted to help too. So we let them play in our tent while Matt was loading up all the other stuff.

They had fun pretending to sleep on my mountain of pillows I took (camping in a tent at 20 weeks pregnant isn't exactly comfortable....)

We had one last trip to the playground with Gramma and then it was time to load up. We stopped at the wharf to look at all the boats and have some fresh seafood (gross!) then it was on the road to head back home and start in on the mountain of camping laundry....

Birdie Rescue

Gabriella has trouble not sticking her Little People toys into her Elephant toy that shoots balls up in the air.

I guess she thinks they would enjoy the ride. Normally we keep the elephant toy out of reach and only let her play with it when she is being supervised. This morning she wanted it down to play with. I got it down and looked inside it, after fishing out two people, I saw a bird wedged tightly inside where my fingers and cooking tongs (my usual method of extraction) would not reach.

So, out came the screwdrivers (one for me and one for my helper of course) and we set to taking the toy apart.

About 15 screws later we were able to rescue the birdie that had been trapped inside. Gabriella couldn't wait long enough for me to take the picture before she wanted to play with it.

I would like to think she has learned her lesson, but I am thinking that the elephant will need more "surgical extractions" in the future....

More Hair Clippies

I am loving making hair clippies!!!  Here are the ones that I have finished in the last 24 hours.

Most of them are made from fake flowers bought at the Dollar Store and some old buttons.

 This is my new favorite one! I made two of them so I can keep one!

 

 My sweet little model!

Cousin Fun!

We headed over to my mom's tonight to hang out with cousin James while Daddy stayed home to work on his homework. When James got into the house, Gabriella screamed to get away from Jonathan (who was holding her) and ran over to James. She gave him a giant hug and kiss and then shoved him with both hands. The two of them ran off into the livingroom and started into an all out wrestling match. James does a good job being gentle with her but I would like to note that she did manage to full on body slam him to the ground. I'm so proud of my tomboy princess!

After polishing off two bowls of lasagna, they were off playing again.

They have so much fun playing doctor with the little playset my mom got them at a garage sale. James ran around the table giving everyone "shots" and Gabriella enjoyed listening to people's heartbeats say "beep!"

Next it was time to play under the table in James' "car". Gabriella stepped on his head a few times and he was giving the car shots while they were driving. I love having kids at the same time as my siblings so that we can watch them play and laugh together!

Hair Bands!

I have a new obsession, making hair do-dads! My friend Rebecca (click to check out her blog with pics of her creations) came over and we made some hair clippies and headbands while our two little ones ran around the livingroom.

This is a giant maroon pompom flower I made from my husband's old T-shirts. Then I glued it to a headband I bought in a 21 pack at the Dollar Store. I followed the tutorial by Little Miss Momma  to make it.

Gabriella pointing at the pretty flower on her head!

A rolled fabric flower attatched to a ponytail band. I followed the tutorial on Prudent Baby to make this one. It was also super easy, just a scrap of fabric, ponytail band (bought in the same bundle with the headbands from the Dollar Store) and some hot glue.  

Here's another giant pompom on a head band and a rolled flower on a hair clippie.

Two more

pompom clippies.

And my little helper!

Gabriella loves to "help" me make them. She stands on a chair in the kitchen at the counter with me and plays with scrap fabric. Then she gets very excited when I put them on her head to model them. I love my little helper!

Us Handy Girls!

Our vacuum cleaner has been smelling really bad lately so I used Google to see what could be causing it. The easiest answer was a belt problem. Gabriella and I inspected the underside of the vacuum cleaner (much to her delight) and found the code for the belt we needed. Then it was off for a trip to the vacuum store for a new one.

We got home and I laid the vacuum on top of the coffee table so I could see underneath it. Gabriella laughed with delight as she poked at it. We removed the faceplate and a HUGE pile of caked dust and dirt fell out all over the floor. Gabriella poked at it very carefully and then looked up at me and said, "bleh!"

Off came the old belt, we cleaned the spinner and then put the new belt on.

Gabriella was very helpful, she even managed to get one of the screws in the faceplate back into the same spot it came out of (she was watching very intently when I got daddy's screwdriver and took them out).  We turned it on and it worked like a champ, without the burning rubber smell! Hooray for handy-girls!!