Titus, Our Elf on the Shelf, and other things

Happy December! We have been having fun, especially since our Elf on the Shelf, Titus, showed up! He's a funny little thing that will be getting more mischievous, or so my gut tells me. :) This morning he was found on a shelf in Milo's room, sitting on top of the Snoopy that Milo sleeps with every night...Milo LOVES to find him every morning and laughs when Titus is doing something funny.

Lena is such a girl! She loves to put on necklaces and shoes, she cracks us up! She is also developing a temper, if Milo is in her way or doing something she wants to do she yells and tries to move him out of her way.

Her hair is also getting long, when she gets out of the bathtub, it's actually past her shoulders! Well, the back of her hair is, the top is growing s.l.o.w.l.y.

Here are the pictures!

Lena this morning, wearing her necklace, and playing with Milo's pinwheel.

My Uncle Gary refinished this rocking chair from when he was small and gave it to Lena for her birthday! She loves it (probably even happier since Milo's too big for it!) and rocks away, sitting forward and backwards. This is also her new face whenever I pull out the camera...thanks, Target Portrait Studio.

Milo started his soccer lessons last week and this is an action shot of him kicking the ball. I love how the instructors have them play "Simon Says" once they show them a few techniques!

Milo is showing where Titus was on the 4th morning! He laughed so hard when he found him and kept asking how he got up there. We also have him tell Titus one good thing that he did during the day before he goes to bed.

Once again we went to Hensler's Tree Farm in Hamlet to get our "beautiful" tree. Milo being a big guy and pulling cart (it was raining this year, but it wasn't too cold).

Milo actually cutting down the tree!!! He's the one that keeps calling it our "beautiful tree". Milo and Lena also got to help decorate three trees this year-Grandma and Grandpa's, Grandma and PawPaw's, and ours!

Lena making funny faces while Daddy and Milo decorated a gingerbread house.

Decorating the gingerbread house! It takes a lot of concentration, apparently.

I'm sure that Hanukkah and Christmas will come a lot faster than I'm ready for, so bring it on, December!!!

We have a walker!!!

Yes, we FINALLY have a walker!!! Two weeks ago Lena decided to just take off and walk across her bedroom! We were very excited and later that morning I was doing a "tooth check" and discovered 2 molars! Holy cow! We realized there had been one night earlier that week where she didn't sleep well, and that might've been the cause. Then earlier this week I stuck my finger in her mouth again, and found ANOTHER molar! That might explain her poor sleeping habits while we were in Cleveland last weekend, we had just thought it was because we were in a different environment and in the room with her. Oh well, I'm not complaining if that's how she teethes!

I have a lot of pictures, so I'll just get right to it!

Lena LOVES her baths! This is at my cousin's baby shower, Lena walked right over to it, climbed in, and played. She's actually doing the sign for "bath" in this picture.

Our little scientist! While we were in Cleveland we went to Lake Farmpark. It was really neat, they had over 50 animals and this was an exhibit on growing tomatoes hydroponically.

Lena trying to fit through the hole in the fence to get to Jesse.

This scene is common in our house, Jesse "craning" Milo around!

Playing in the leaves!

Our little firefighter! It looks like Jesse has a feed bag.

Lena sitting in the same high chair using the same sippy cup that I used as a child at my grandma's house!

Milo having a campout in his room! He slept in there for two nights and would probably still be sleeping in there if we'd let him!

Beware the dresser monster!! If you leave Lena's bottom drawer open for too long, this is what you'll discover!

Halloween! A fireman and his dalmatian!

Playing in Milo's tent.

Lena coloring. I keep all crayons out of her reach, otherwise I'd have colorful walls!

Lena in the race outfit!

Milo WANTING to paint! This rarely happens! And it hasn't happened since...

Silly Lena! When she took down the strainer there was a noodle on her forehead!

Milo and Lena playing play-doh together outside on a nice day.

I have no idea how the quality of this will be, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it!

Milo is taking seven weeks of soccer lessons (Thanks, Groupon!) that start this week! Every day he tells me that he has soccer tomorrow. We even have a countdown on the calendar. Wednesday will be a very busy day for us, he has soccer at 11:00 and swimming at 4:45. He will definitely sleep well that night! Oh, and I'm going to see the new Muppet move while he's at swimming on Wednesday!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Lena's First Birthday and Other Things

Well, our Sweet Little Lena has turned ONE!!! She had a great birthday and we just had her party yesterday. I have a lot of pictures to show, so I won't write much now.

Lena went for her one year check-up on Thursday and she's 31 inches and 22.5 lbs. According to Baby Center's growth chart she's 90-95% for height and 50-75% for weight. She also received 6 shots. She did great, only cried for a few seconds. I probably would've cried longer!

Lena can walk between furniture but she won't walk across a room. We think she's just taking her time (aka being lazy). :)

That was a good party! Jesse laid her down and started rubbing her head and she passed out!

I got a cash register just like Maizie's from Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Playing outside during the party!

This is on her actual birthday, she's sitting on the car holding her new baby, both from Grandma and Papa.

We got Lena a xylophone for her birthday, and she was very happy. I love the expression, and the closed eyes crack me up!

Back to the party-the kids going for the candy from the piñata!

Milo and Maizie enjoying the owl cake pops!

We went to Leininger Farm's last weekend to do their corn maze and this is our family photo. Not the best but it'll do until the kid's yearly pictures in a few weeks.

Milo and Lena on a tractor at the Farm.

Milo taking a break in the corn maze. This year's shape was the state of Indiana. They also put questions throughout, we missed five of the 20. Not too bad considering all the guessing we had to do... :)

Lena enjoying her cupcake on her birthday!

We bought a new climber a few weeks ago and the kids love it!

This is the shirt that I modified for Lena's party! It's supposed to look ragged.

Have a great week! I'm partied out, good thing we have about 10 months until the next one...

Quick Update

Happy first day of Fall!! I love wearing jeans and sweatshirts, so this is perfect weather for me!

We've been playing outside and Milo loves to kick around a soccer ball! He does this funny little jump when he goes to kick the ball and I'm amazed he doesn't fall down each time! Yesterday he had a really good kick so Lena and I clapped for him. The next thing I know, Milo stops and does a bow! So cute!

I picked up this climbing toy/slide at a garage sale over 2 years ago and we've recently discovered that Lena loves to play on it. Well, once Lena enjoys something, Milo has to play with it, too. I think he's too big for it, especially since when he stands on the ground he's as tall (if not taller!) than it!

It was a heart attack in the making, but I was brave enough to let Lena climb up it and go down the slide by herself! The first few times I lunged with every move she made, but lately she climbs up and just sits at the top of the slide.

Is this the cutest alien ever??

I found Lena sitting IN the dump truck! And no, she's not leaning against the couch!

Isn't this how we all sleep??

Lena has FINALLY started to use more signs! In the span of a week she started doing: drink, eat, more (randomly), and milk. Lena can also take about 8-10 steps before she loses her balance!!

I also think she's teething because she is super crabby, which isn't like her at all. y.e.a.h.

September and Fabulous Weather!

Wow, am I IN LOVE with the weather we are having right now! Why can't northern Indiana have weather like this all the time? I would be in heaven!

Milo turned 4 on August 21 and we can't believe how quickly time has flown! Yesterday he was our 10 pound 4 ounce itty-bitty baby! Ha! He has a very active imagination and makes us laugh, along with wanting to pull our hair out at his stubbornness (which he totally gets from his dad!).

Lena is almost 11 months old and is trying to walk! She will randomly take 3 sturdy steps and then fall, but she's getting better about balance and will even let go of the couch to take one step and then fall. At least she's trying, we don't remember Milo being this determined.

Over Labor Day weekend we went grocery shopping (fun, I know), to the zoo, a cookout, peach and apple picking, and to a birthday party! What a busy time we had! We had a good time and that's all that matters!

These pictures are not in order and range anywhere from August 11 through today.

We went to a local splash pad and this is our bathing beauty! Boy, when she's done playing in the water (or hot tub), she lets you know! The average is about 20 minutes.

Lena's new face, which Jesse claims I make. whatever. He says I make it when I think he's said something that doesn't make sense. No, I give him the "duh" look when that happens. Geesh.

Milo in an apple tree! We're lucky we didn't get caught with him up in it, they have signs posted that say if they catch you, you get kicked out and charged double! We ended up with 4 lbs of very hard peaches and 20 lbs of gala apples! I've just finished my first batch of homemade apple butter and if there are enough apples left after a caramel apple pie, I'll be making more! I gave our neighbor and my brother's girlfriend a few pounds of apples each, so they are running out!

Lena debuting her "Pebbles" hair do! (leave me alone, mom, I'm eating!)

Milo rolling around the yard in one of Jesse's old tires.

Milo's first dental cleaning! He did GREAT! Next time we might even let him go back by himself!

I started making pumpkin hats! This is actually the second one I've made in a week! The first one was too small for Lena's head so it's going to be in a raffle for my Mother's & More group. I still have 4 more to make! AAAHHHH!!!!

I have this cool "lava" lamp that has no lava in it, it's the colored static instead. This is the first time I've pulled it out since Milo was a baby and he and Lena loved it!

My hillbilly boy. How red-necked does he look???

This was adorable! One night Milo was having ice cream and decided to lick the bowl. He puts down his bowl and says, "Mommy, do I have a mustache?" This is seriously what he looked like, I didn't do anything! I think he looks like a puppy!

I WILL be putting up my Halloween decorations sometime this week! YEAH!!! Milo has decided that he wants to be a firefighter, so Lena's going to be the dalmatian to go with him! Luckily Kohl's has tops and bottoms in that print, so I've already bought them, I may just add some ears onto the jacket hood.

Have a great week! Time for me to go bottle up the apple butter!!!!