Silly Girl

I always think that I should blog when Layla says things that make me laugh, but then by the time I remember to blog, I can't remember what funny things she's said lately:). So I'm trying to get better at writing them down! One thing lately was in the car she said, "Mommy, I broke my leg again." I just said, "Oh, okay," having no idea what she meant, but then I looked and she was pointing to her jeans that have a slight rip in them. Leg, pant leg, same difference, right? :)

So I started this post like a month ago and since then when she has said funny things, I of course still haven't remembered to write any down:(. I love the age she's at and love how creative their little minds are becoming. So while a couple of things are fresh in my mind I thought I'd quick share them mainly for my own memory:). This afternoon I was vacuuming and she took her socks off. When I finished vacuuming she made sure to tell me that she had taken her socks off. When I asked why she had taken them off, she said, "Because it dangerous to leave them on when you vacuum!!". And then yesterday she had shut the door to Gibson's room when he was in there so I told her that she knows not to shut doors when Gibson is in the room and she responded excitedly with, "But then the butterflies will get out!! Not real butterflies, Mom, just pretend." Not sure where she gets some of her silly ideas! She sure loves pretending!

I'm adding this a bit later b/c I remembered something else not really that funny, but just shows her personality with how concerned with things she gets. I had some "me time" yesterday going to get a pedicure and as I was leaving Joe told me that the car didn't have any gas. Layla then watched me leave out the window and saw that I was taking the car so I guess she was all concerned that I took the car without any gas in it, so Joe told her that it'd be okay and that'd I'd get gas. Well, when I returned home a few hours later one of the first things Layla said to me was about how it was nice that I got Daddy gas in his car. Also, the other week she made Joe a Valentine's Day card and was really excited to give it to him when he got home, but once she gave it to him she started apologizing for not making him 2 cards and to me for not making me a card:). She sometimes apologizes for such silly things!

Sledding and then some

Gibson is TERRIBLE with going in my cupboards and he knows just what he wants to pull out, he really likes these Saran Wrap cover things...

He fell asleep on Joe the other week when he was sick so I thought I'd take a pic since it's so rare that he falls asleep on us!

Since many of my pics I post are of Layla and Gibson I thought Elv should get his own pic too:). He was only slightly embarrased to be wearing Layla's tutu:). The Valentines Day shirt he's wearing (which I finally just just took off of him today!) reminds me that the other week I found a tiny red sequin on our floor and said to myself/Layla, "Huh, I have no idea what this is from" and Layla goes, "That's from Elvis' shirt", and so I was like, "Wow, Layla, that was really good that you knew that!" and then she said, "I pulled it off". :)

As long as he's in a good mood, he doesn't mind when Layla lays on him:)...Layla on the other hand pretty much never appreciates him laying on/getting too close to her (or anyone else for that matter). She must have gotten that from her mama:).

Layla thought it'd be a good idea this morning to take the laundry out of the laundry basket so that they could go for a ride in it:). We stayed home from church today b/c the ear doctor said that if he got a bad cold before surgery he we'd have to reschedule and we want it done as soon as possible so we didn't want to risk him getting sick in nursery (like he always does!).

We had lunch at Joe's parents today and got there a little early so the kids could do some sledding. Both kids seemed to love it! Don't mind Gibs' pink mittens, he had brown along and I couldn't find them once we got there and had extra for Layla that he then wore. We later found his mittens in Joe's pocket:).

Auntie Rachael and Layla...

Sledding down the driveway...

They both love Grandma's little table she got for them. Gibs thought he was pretty big stuff sitting there! Too bad he just wants to stick Crayons in his mouth instead of coloring:).

Layla also enjoyed eating her angel food cake...with her hands:). Typically she's a pretty neat eater but apparently the frosting on her face didn't bother her today:)...

Uncle Steve and Auntie Heidi hanging out with Gibs. He doesn't just sit and play on the couch by people very often, but he was pretty tired! He's been extra sleepy/grumpy/drooly lately so I think a tooth must be coming (about time seeing that he only has 2!). However, seeing as how grumpy/sleepy he's been lately, he didn't do too bad after all the sledding and lunch, he just likes attention:)...

Gibson Walking

Gibson's walking has really been taking off! He still crawls at times if he falls down while walking, but for the most part mainly walks. I didn't get video of his first moves b/c I forgot:(, but here is him walking tonight. Layla has finally gotten over the excitement of him walking. For the past month, or however long it's been that he's been taking steps, when she's see him walk when I wasn't looking at him she'd be sure to yell, "Mom! Look! Gibson's walking!! What a big boy!". She's a proud big sister:). Today she decided it was more fun to try to walk like him so she often wobbles around after him or at times it's him chasing her which she then doesn't always appreciate when he then catches up to her and hugs/tackles her:).

Ear Update

Gibson had his appointment at the ENT this morning and the doctor said that he does indeed need tubes. Not surprisingly, he still had fluid in both ears, so in order to make sure it doesn't cause any damage to his ears (since it's been 5 months and hasn't cleared on its own), they recommend doing tubes. He has his surgery scheduled for next Friday. Hopefully he appreciates being able to hear good after the surgery! I know it's just minor surgery and really doesn't take very long, but I'm sure I'll still be a little nervous for him!

Trouble

Ever since Gibson has been on the move he has been getting into trouble. He just somehow always finds the naughtiest thing to play with and does not like to listen to "no". Joe likes to call him Captain Destructo:). It's just hard to watch EVERY single thing he does. Well, last night we were at church (we left quite early b/c I was in nursery and wanted to run some copies for nursery stuff b/f I had to be in nursery and then didn't find out church was cancelled until we were almost there) and I was running copies in our office at church and Gibs was in there for just a minute with me before Joe was going to take the kids to the nursery to wait for me. All of a sudden I noticed the tray that catches the paper was lying on the ground. I picked it up and tried to put it back on the copier when I realized that it was missing a couple of pieces that had cracked off. We looked on the ground for the little pieces and didn't see them so we figured that Gibs must not have broken it--that it must have been broken before and had just been setting on the copy machine instead of being attached. Well, then Joe took the kids out of the room to go play in the nursery so I could finish up making copies and putting them in mailboxes. Joe came back to me like 10 minutes later to show me what he had found in Gibs' mouth--two hard sharp plastic pieces, from the copy machine!! So obviously we knew that Gibson was the one that broke the tray off and that's scary that he had been moving all around with those sharp little pieces in his mouth!! So anyway, just another example of how quick things can happen to your kids!! I'm so glad that with all of Gibs' "naughty" things, he hasn't ever been hurt! Oh, and yes, I did contact the church to let them know what happened:).

Also, as an update on his walking for my own records, he's been taking a lot more steps recently. He's been doing about 10-15 max for what feels like awhile and then just in the past couple of days it seems like he walks about half of the time. Although it's always varied a lot by the day--when he was sick a couple of weeks ago he barely walked at all. He now can do I'd guess more like 20 steps at a time before falling (or arriving at something since our house isn't very big:D) and has gotten better at standing still without holding onto anything (otherwise he didn't really do that--I still have only seen him stand up without pulling up on anything once and that was a few weeks ago). Maybe one of these days he'll drop the crawling!

Madison's First Birthday Party

Saturday we celebrated Madison's first birthday with a Minnie Mouse themed party. And all our friends could make it! Lindsey (and Darrell I guess too:D) threw a very nice Minnie party for Maddy and Maddy seemed to enjoy her party:).

Enjoying her cake...

Lindsey's cute Minnie cake and cupcakes she made!

Singing to Madison...while we sang, Maddy's grandparents watched vie Skype. Skyping was a new experience for Layla so she basically stood infront of the computer the whole time:). Hopefully she wasn't blocking their view of Maddy too badly:).

Trying to get a group shot of 10 kids 4 and under (all but one are under 3--and Kali, Mason's older sister was at a friend's house) is not an easy task! I consider it success if you can at least see all their faces:). Gibs never would have sat still for the picture if Layla wasn't holding onto him!

From L to R: Rex, Alden, Kipton, Ella, Maddy, Mason, Gibson, Layla, Jonathan and Caleb in the front row:).

Mason did not appreciate Gibs picking on him by pulling his hair! Naughty Gibs!

Maddy's birthday is actually tomorrow, Happy Birthday Madison!!

1 Year Pics

A few weeks back we had Gibson's one year pictures taken by Marc Photography. Gibson did TERRIBLE! Seriously, I don' t think he could have been any crabbier! But despite his hatred for the studio they got a few pics of him smiling and that's enough for me! :) Here's a link to his pics...

http://photos.marc-photography.net/p989614456

Gibson's Appointment

Gibson went to the doctor today to get his ears checked. He had an ear infection in October, was on antibiotics for it, then went back for a follow up appointment in November and still had fluid in his ears. Then at his one year appointment in early January he had fluid on his ears and again today he still had fluid on his ears. Around his one year appointment and today he also has a cold, so it's hard to know if it's from his colds (he's had MANY this winter) or if there's really been fluid in his ears this whole time. His dr. said he was waiting it out to see if the fluid would go away on it's own, but since it's still there today, he's referring Gibs to an ENT. So sometime coming up we'll have to go see the ENT to see what they recommend. Because of the fluid, Gibson might not be hearing well which affects speech development and could be part of the reason why Gibson doesn't say many words yet.
It was also good to go in today too because Gibson has a pretty nasty cough, so it was good they could check him and hear that his lungs are clear. Gibson has been very grumpy this week from not feeling well and has been sleeping lots and not eating much. Although even with not eating much, he was 21 lbs 15 oz which I think the nurse said was up like 10 oz since a little over a month ago. With how grumpy he has been I thought he'd be a mess at his appointment, but he actually did really well and didn't even mind the ear pressure test thing or the doctor checking him out. I dropped Layla off to play at "Auntie" Mandi's with Caleb and Natalie which worked great to just have to deal with one kid at the appointment:). Thank you Mandi:).

A Day Away (plus some randoms)

Last Saturday we headed over to Auburn Hills with the Heukers to go to the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets. It was a nice day away, the kids did great and we found some pretty good shopping deals (mainly for the kids of course!).

I was surprised that both my kids fell asleep in the stroller! I had really hoped that Gibs would or he would have been a mess without a nap, but I didn't expect that Layla would also fall asleep! They were amazing shoppers when they were asleep:).

We took turns a bit with the guys watching the kids. We started out with lunch when we got there, then we all hit the Disney Store together (since we are all big Disney fans:D). Then the guys took the kids to the play land so that Lindsey and I could shop by ourselves for a bit. While in the playland there was a lady dressed up as Cinderella handing out cards for some princess encounter something or other. I guess Layla was SUPER excited about the princess and Joe said that the princess paid quite a bit of attention to Layla--probably b/c Layla was the only kid in the play area that really cared at all about who she was:). Layla was very excited to tell me about seeing Cinderella and still talks about the little card the princess gave her. Makes me anxious to see how excited Layla will get from seeing the princesses at Disney World! After that Lindsey and I walked the kids around to get them to sleep and then did some more shopping while the guys walked around Bass Pro for a long time (well technically, we didn't have all the kids--Jonathan shopped with Joe and Darrell). For dinner we went to the Rainforest Cafe and the kids all enjoyed the many sounds, lights and animals to look at. Again, all the kids did great, especially for having such a big day with minimal napping! I asked Layla what her favorite part of the trip was and she said the princess and the snake:). Not sure why she was so excited about the snake hanging on the ceiling of Rainforest Cafe, but she loved him! She got a little nervous when it would "storm" during dinner, saying she didn't like it, but she didn't cry, so that's hopefully a good sign that she'll do okay with dark noisy things at Disney. And Gibs liked it too, although with him it's hard to know what he'll be like in a few months. When we took Layla to Disney when she was 10 months we thought she'd be fine on rides b/c not much scared her, but darkness and loud noises combined with minimal sleep made her not so happy on some of the rides! Hopefully it's different this time! It ended up being kind of a late night by the time we got done with dinner and drove home, but at least that way the kids slept on the ride home (well, Gibs slept basically the whole way, but Layla for some reason took a bit to fall asleep--she was singing "Happy Birthday" to Heidi and the Dora song for quite awhile:D).

Layla and Jonathan checking out the fishes while we waited to get seated...

Posing by the Rainforest Cafe sign...

We both agreed that "International Night" this week barely qualified as "International":-). We had Bahama-mama chicken with rice and pineapple, lemon bread, starfruit, brocciflour, and cottage cheese jello salad (at least it was pineapple flavor:D). So yeah, really nothing was unique and half of it wasn't really Bahamian. It was good though:). Oh, and we did have a baked banana pudding that was a Bahamian recipe for dessert. This was Layla's portion and she ate it all but lately she's just been eating SO slow and will want me to feed some of it to her?? She used to be a good eater (sometimes not always feeling like eating a ton, but overall ate good), but lately has gotten worse. Lately she'll sometimes complain about not liking things, which b/f recently she's hardly found anything she didn't like, but now she'll say she doesn't like it and then two minutes later say it's delicious. Who knows. Hopefully it's just a phase!

Poor Gibs had a run in with the Minnie shopping cart and this was the result:(. There's one cut in his hairline too. Poor buddy:(. He's also had a cold and fever this week and has been super grumpy. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor for yet another ear check up, so hopefully they're clear, but with having another cold this week, they probably have fluid in them.

The kids were having fun trying on their new hats from our shopping trip:)...

I caught Gibs having a moment with Elmo:). He seriously LOVES this annoying singing guitar playing Elmo! Elmo's in desperate need of new batteries, but Gibson doesn't mind! He loves giving hugs to people and just recently was when I started noticing him hugging Elmo at times too:). Makes me laugh:).

Gavin came over last week and the kids were playing for a long time in Gibson's room and this was what I found...I should have known they were being too quiet! Poor Gibs...

They also took all the blankets and toys off of his shelves and put them behind his kitchen. They said it was their bedroom. Clearly Gibs wasn't happy about it:)...

Layla LOVES doing puzzles and will work on them for hours doing the same ones over and over. I need to get her some new ones! This one I just brought upstairs the other day, but it's a little too hard and she has to ask for help, I'd rather she just keep doing ones that don't require my help:).

Being silly with their Mickey spoons:)...

International Night Kickoff

When we were first married I told Joe that when we had kids I wanted to have "International Night" once a week to teach our kids about different cultures. I had forgotten about that idea until Joe brought it up recently. Sounds a little dorky:), but I thought that it too would help me be more creative in what we have for dinner. We like trying new things and typically I make new recipes most nights, but I still often stick to the same types of recipes--so hopefully this will help me branch out a bit!

Last week we started with "Guatemalan Night". Layla and I made a Guatemalan flag and everything:). You can't tell from the pic, but the little things in the food are flags too--they're just backwards:). We had chili relleno casserole, rice with chayote fritanga (except I worked with what I had in the house and used yellow squash instead), and broccoli with a dijon sauce (not Guatemalan but I found it on the same site I found the other stuff and others served it with the rice:D). In the future, I need to plan our international meals out better so they can have more unique ingrediants, but it was a good start:). Everything was really good too. I got the idea to do Guatemala b/c I noticed El Norte on our list of movies this month On Demand--anyone else remember that from high school Spanish? :) We actually started watching it too and it's not too bad--we get a lot of indepedent films on random movie channels and On Demand so we watch a lot of strange movies and I actually like quite a few of them:).

Last night was "French Night". I decided on it very last minute, so I just quick found some recipes and again, nothing was too crazy. We had a curry chicken with rice recipe (that was a little heavy on the curry for me, but not too bad, Joe liked it and Layla first was eating it and then said she didn't like it, but still ate it), a cold French carrot salad and rice pudding for dessert. Poor Gibson has missed out on the International Nights b/c he goes to bed right when we eat dinner, but he always gets our meals the next day as leftovers so really, he's not missing out:). He just often gets hungry for dinner around 5:30 and we normally don't eat until 6:30/7 when Joe gets home.

Oh, and this is unrelated to "International Night", but Elv had a seizure a couple of nights ago:(. Poor buddy. He's now had two pretty closet together--otherwise they were pretty spread out. When he first had one the doctor said it was not normal for a dog of his age to have seizures, but that medicating him could cause other problems, I'm not sure now if they'll want to put him on something or not. I just hope they don't start getting worse:(. We love our little buddy!

Happy Birthday Auntie Heidi!

We celebrated Auntie Heidi's birthday this weekend with dinner at Famous Daves followed by cake and presents at our house. It worked out well to go back to our house so that Gibson could go to bed:). Happy Birthday Heidi!