1/3 of the way there!!

After Eli was born, I never lost the last 10 pounds... then with Dora, I gained the same amount of weight!! Curses! So, at my 6 week exam, I had 30 pounds to lose... Now I have finally lost 10 of that 30... Just 20 pounds to go! Gah!! At least I finally lost the first 10.

New Camera and Sunday fun

Clinsey and Angela both have the same sweet digital camera--and I have been coveting theirs for a while now. With kids, it's so hard to get a good photo because of the delay between pressing the button and the photo actually being taken. Their cameras take the photo almost instantaneously. I guess my parents took my whining to heart. Last week, over a week early, I actually received a "Mother's Day" present in the mail...from my mom! (And dad.) It was a combined Mother's Day, Birthday and Christmas present for this year (it's a seriously nice camera!) I called my mom to see if I should open it early and she said yes, to open it immediately.

As you can see, my mom wrapped it up three times, with a card she made to accompany each layer. Here was the Happy Mother's Day layer.

Here's the birthday layer...

And you can see the Christmas wrap and the fancy camera itself! I ordered a 4 gig memory card online, so in a few more days, I will have amazing photos to put up of the kiddos... Maybe! It may take me a while to learn how to really use it...I am currently a point and click kinda girl.

The title, "Sunday fun" is a bad joke. My kids are always tired and grumpy after church on Sunday and Stake Conference notwithstanding, today was no exception... I wanted to take some photos of Dora in her little lemon tree dress, but Eli was eager to get some attention (and therefore photos), too. He has been anxious since the hairspray incident to "do his hair", so we put pomade in it today. Ha. He was so proud of it! You can also sort of tell in this photo that he has two more teeth coming in on the bottom. (eye teeth) Once they are in (they have already broken through), he will have all his baby teeth, excepting the two year molars. Hooray!

Dora was NOT happy about being awoken from her nap when we got home. (I didn't wake her up--I am not mean! It was the jostling in getting out of the car and into the house.) I could NOT get her to smile. It was the most I could do to get a photo where she wasn't screaming! I wanted to take some though, because my mom found me this whole ensemble because I said I really liked it. It is an old Gymboree line, some things of which I received from Linsey that Hayley wore. I loved the lemon tree stuff! You can't tell, but the blanket matches the outfit. In addition to those little socks, there is also a lemon headband, but it's a little big for her tiny head still.

Sharpies and Hairspray!

This morning while I was taking a nap, (long night with Dora...) Whit watched the kiddos. He has been working nights lately. Eli managed to get his hands on a black sharpie. In his defense, he was trying to write on paper, but the sharpie is pretty strong and went straight through... all over the much abused white leather chair in the office. We were using hairspray to try to get it off and Eli wanted some hairspray. I gave in to his demands, which is why he has a mohawk! You will also notice he touched the sharpie to his mouth, and gave himself the charlie chaplin look... I thought the whole ordeal was funny, so I snapped a few shots. Pretty fake smile, though, eh?



I figured I could get upset or just roll with it. I rolled with it--they're kids, what can you do!? It is really our fault for having nice things! He needs a haircut, eh?!

I also took a few shots of Dora--another new outfit today. It's really too big, as is the pattern with shirts. The pants are supposed to be capris! Oh well! It's the turtle line from Gymboree.

Linsey noted that she smiles a lot--which she definitely does. She is a VERY Happy little thing. She has a very different personality than her brother Eli had as a tiny guy, that's for sure.

One last thing for all you moms out there... Amazon has its Britax carseats on sale right now (they put them on sale once a year.) So, the Marathon is what Eli has, and it's $60 off. I went ahead and bought one for Dora now, instead of waiting for 7 months until she needs it and having to pay full price. Isn't it pretty?! The Roundabout (what the twins have) makes you buy covers if you want some fancy print, but the Marathon just comes in various print options. I loved the butterflies! So here is Dora's new carseat--get yours today! :P

Gymbucks and Water Table

As most of you moms out there probably already knew, Gymboree just allowed us all to redeem our accumulated Gymbucks. Eli and Dora made out like bandits, thanks in major part to Grandma Stuckey. Here is one of Eli's outfits I snapped a shot of because he was on his Mader truck--and the shirt says backseat driver. I thought that was funny for some reason. I also love the patchwork seersucker shorts!!



Here is one of the new outfits Grandma Stuckey got Dora (and cousin Jocelyn) when they were all out here at the Gymboree outlet. It was so cute that we bought it even though it wasn't on sale! (That never happens with me--I refuse to ever pay full price...) It was perfect for a hot day!

In case you can't tell, that Dora is one HAPPY baby all the time!! We really lucked out to have such an amiable baby this time around.

Here's Eli's face when he first saw the water table. It's technically a birthday present from Lerdle and Papa (Grandma and Grandpa Stuckey), but it was getting warm here so my mom told me to go ahead and get it early! Cousin Hayley has one too, just like this. And Joc and Jes had one Eli played with last May/June in Dallas.

Here he is enjoying dumping water out. He loved the arctic slide, too. The ducks just barely fit through.

It took about 5 minutes before he decided it would be fun to climb up into it. He didn't even see the photo of Hayley standing in hers to inspire him. Kids must think along the same lines at this age!

As a conclusion to this post, I thought I would highlight two things with videos. First, Eli is finally starting to say things that are intelligible--like duck. He has understood me for a long time and said his own words for things, but now he's learning, well, real words!

Secondly, as much fun as he had with the water table, check out what ensued when he was naughty and didn't listen and I had to bring him inside!! He was one unhappy camper. Incidentally, he has never used those shoes before, so he was grabbing the shoe because he now associates the shoes with playing with the water table. I know this because he carried them around the rest of tonight trying to get me to let him put them on again and go to play "Duck".

My little May Flower

Spring showers bring May flowers, right? Well here is mine, a bit early!

Professor Baker??

Ladies and Gentlemen, the future Professor Baker:

He found the glasses that we think Papa Baker left and loved them!

Monkeys

Eli's recent fascination with monkeys has led us to these three cute videos...

This one makes him really laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZn5nWIj_g

This one Whit and I enjoyed, and were surprised by how much work went into it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBFhvrAOFqY

and a slightly sillier, more kiddie one from veggie tales... Beware, Whit and I can't get this song out of our heads!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--szrOHtR6U