Elsie Lane is 1!

Elsie Lane Thompson just turned 1! Its pretty amazing. She is pretty amazing. She has like a 20 work vocabulary including some compound words such as hot dog, back pack and peek-a-boo. She loves to say baby and loves saying it with several different kinds of inflections. BAYby, baBEEE and so on. She has incredibly blue eyes and she only cries if you take food away from her. She loves food. Any food and all food. Im amazed she only weighs 21 lbs. She doesn't know the sensation of fullness.

This was the very first time we got to see her. She was so cute. She cried when only her head was out. I was a little worried but she is totally not a crier. She is such a happy girl. She adores her big sister and is pretty much up for anything. She is very social, which is difficult for sleeping when she would rather be hanging out.

She is so stunning!

 What else do I want to remember about Elsie at one? She does sign language and LOVES the Baby Signing Time dvd we have. She just started walking this week and does it with ease. she has 5 teeth and several thigh rolls. se is in the 50% percentile for height and weight and 93% for her head, brains and beauty, amazing. She will do anything Emolyn does. Did I mention she loves to eat? Hasn't met a food she didn't like. She has way more hair than Emolyn did and its super blonde but still not enough to do anything with but a barrette. She loves saying hi and blowing kisses and giving open mouth kisses and patting your back while you hold her. She is so good natured and fun. Oh and of course she is going to be a big sister. Im sure she is very excited especially with loving babies so much. Two babies should be joining the family in April 2012 if everything goes according to plan. Of course since having anymore babies wasn't in the plan originally Im not super confident in any more plans.

 Elsie at her 1st birthday party! 

Elsie's 6 month photo shoot

Im finally posting the pictures fro Elsies photo shoot because I was waiting to give them as mothers day gift. So here they are. Awesome Tracey at En Love Photography did an amazing job capturing my happy little lady.

Emolyn 9 months

Elsie 6 months

 I saw this planter and just thought what a cute idea! I think Tracey thought I was nuts but isnt it fun! I was standing right there and Elsie was totally cool with it. She is so easy going.

 Look at those matching eyes!

 I like seeing their arms next to each other. Its so funny how Emolyn totally has my coloring and Elsie is so fair. Bring on the sun screen!

 We had to get some pictures of Elsie in this sweet sailor outfit from my aunt Marianne. Isn't it adorable!
Elsie update: Not crawling yet but starting to rock on all 4's. She loves being in her bumbo and loves to eat. She weights 16 lbs. She has amazing fine motor skills and loves to grab anything in her reach. She prefers her mom to anyone and loves singing/talking with her favorite sound being "ma ma ma ma". She sits up and her favorite toys make noise, she loves her "sheep book". She laughs at Emolyn all the time. Emolyns favorite thing is to tell Elsie "a boo!" and it really makes her laugh. Emolyn is a great sharer and wishes she could carry elsie but at only 10 lbs different its not going to happen anytime soon.

Our spring garden

Our winter/spring garden has come to its end. Its time to plant some summer food but we sure enjoyed the broccoli, cabbage, turnips, carrots, basil, thyme, red leaf lettuce and are still waiting on the green bell peppers to ripen (we got 3!)

 When you plant things from seed with a 3 year old some times the drop a few too many seeds in the little hole and you end up with 50 tiny carrots! But they were delicious. She saved the biggest one for daddy because "he is a big man"

 She treated the turnips like they were her babies. Emolyn talks alot about "her" family, which is not us, its her husband Daniel Thompson and her kids, whch are constanly changing. Daniel works at a place called "donation" and its by the zoo. He is frequently at work or taking their kids to the "hostibul" (hospital) because they are sick. And some times they die, but then they are all better again :)

 She does make an excellent little mommy. I heard her telling Elsie in the other room 2 days ago "hold still Elsie", so I quickly came in to find Emolyn changing Elsie's clothes. Apparently changing her own clothes 8 times a day is not enough.

I loved that these turnips looked married to each other.

Here are my beautiful ladies!

My girly girls

Well my sweet Elsie girl has been with us for half a year now, amazing! She is so fun and happy I just lover her! And she has an awesome big sister! Emolyn is the best helper ever. She is so helpful and kind and hilarious and tender. She found these dress-up teeth with a sucker attached, i dont know which part was her favorite :) Emoyln is also the best eater ever, i mean turnips, beats, chocolate milk, raisins, she devoured a blood orange yesterday to the point that i think she ingested some rind.

Elsie has learned how to zerbert. i love it! She has started eating sweet potatoes and zucchini and seems to have an insatiable appetite, as is evident by looking at her thighs!

 She also loves her delicious fat feet!

And she has the most incredible laugh! She has been ticklish since the minute she came out and tickling her is so much fun! But I always stop when she wants, no tickle abuse here! I will see if shawn can get the video on here for you all to enjoy.

And I am humbled as I had a shocking realization yesterday, I am a slave to my to-do list. It can sometimes determine my mood, always directs my day, if things don't go according to the list I am upset/disappointed. So I need to find a balance because I think no list=insanity. Maybe some sort of rough list, like a "if I get around to it" list. Who knows, anyway its my cross to bear :)

since we last saw each other...

My Elsie Lane is almost 6 months old. What happened? It has gone so fast. She is so beautiful and plump i love it! We just took her 6 month photos yesterday sop I should have those within a few weeks to show off.

Elsie is super chatty, babbling with some pretty hilarious facial expression. And he talks much more in the evenings than the morning. She sits up by herself for some extended periods of time and loves grabbing toys and shoving them in her mouth. She loves rice cereal which is the only food she has had so far. And of course she loves her mommas food, never refuses it!

 She has the sweetest personality and loves to laugh. She is very ticklish! And is currently very into the sound and feeling of scratching things. She also loves to cuddle and smash her cheek against yours, its pretty great.  She has turned the corned on car rides and now usually sleep through the whole thing, finally.

 Emolyn turned 3! She is so funny and caring and says the greatest stuff. She is always trying to put concepts together of things she doesn't really know about but it usually sounds like she is a genius.

 She got a doctor bag for her birthday and is either a doctor or a nurse almost every day. She loves taking care of her babies and stuffed animals. Sometimes they fall off their bikes but sometimes they are dead. To which she follows "but its ok" and then she fixes them. A lot of them have babies in their tummies which she, as the doctor, cuts out (because thats how all babies are born right?).

 Emolyn also loves clothes. she changes approximately 12 times a day. And the combinations are always very fashion forward. church yesterday was silver shoes pink tights a purple skirt with a yellow shirt on backwards. I try to capture some of these outfits but who has the time with them always changing.

 Emolyn told me the other day she loved me this much and spread her arms out. I said "you love me more than anyone else huh?" and she said "No. I love daddy most" well now at least i can stop guessing, i know for sure, she is a daddys girl. And how could you not be. He is an awesome dad. The play robot together using robot voices and he takes her out on her tricycle.

 We have been fortunate enough to go to prescott, az twice within 6 weeks and it was so much fun each time. Snow the first time and sun the 2nd. I love being together as a family and going out of town, even if its just an hour away is such a treat.

So here we are. I am working 6 shifts a month and LOVING being at home all the other days. I have noticed I have been jamming too much into these days and am finding all 3 of us frazzled and going from one place to the next so I am trying to slow down a bit and not commit to so much. Shawn is looking for a new job since tiny prints isn't turning out to be what they hired him for. If he didn't have such a sensitive gag reflex i would send him to nursing school :)

life in the bumbo

Elsie is finally in the bumbo and for the most part she loves it! Wanted to give you a quick look at what life with the bumbo looks like at our house. First is painting outside last week before it got cold, so i guess a week and a half ago.

Who are you?

Oh yeah now I remember, you feed me

I like food

 Well sometimes the bumbo can be exhausting, and so can putting away clean clothes which is what I was doing in the girls room when I looked over and saw this

Whoops, guess we blew through nap time :)

Today at the dr 4 month old Elsie Lane was almost 13 lbs! She is 50th percentile for height and weight. What a perfectally average baby! I love it! She is talking and laughing and doing so much better having independent play time (as I write this she is totally crying, why does she make me a lier? Sign of things to come? I hope not)

All that to be said staying at home and being a mom is so awesome! Elsie is a great sleeper and eater and Emolyn is the most special caring giving sweet girl. She woke me up sunday morning to give me a foot massage :) I couldn't be more blessed. I just have to remember that during the crying. When all 3 of us are crying it can get a little tough.

January plus

Emolyn wants me to let you know her birthday is coming up soon. She says "Its twenty wherey second" or february twenty second :) She says "lets blog about it".

And I wanted to show you some awesome pictures my sweet friend Sarah took of Elsie last friday. These havent even seen editing yet!

Also wanted to declare my 2011 theme. Salt and Light. We had Cynthia Heald author of Becoming a Woman of Simplicity speak at our bible study last tuesday and someone asked her "what do you do about friends or family that arent saved?" And I think this is applicable in all areas of life but her response was so awesome, "We should be salt and light". Now Im paraphrasing, as I didn't record the presentation, but she went on to say when people are in the dark and they need light they turn a light on, when something is not salty enough we add salt to it. But too much light and too much salt is never good and always off putting. So read Matt 5:13-16 and see that I can be available to people, being light and salt when they want it. Listening and being able to speak truth when its asked for and not feeling that I have to be all things to all people all the time. So freeing and encouraging and im totally into it. And im also encouraged to keep myself salty (which I feel comes naturally for me wink wink). But not being too busy to focus on me a little bit.

We spent a super fun weekend up in Prescott that I have some great pictures from. Hopefully there will be a nap time this week that will accommodate another post

Goodbye Christmas

As with every year this Christmas had a huge build up and an abrupt stop. I have decided I will start decorating earlier so we get to enjoy all the holiday stuff for longer. All that to be said we did have an awesome Christmas. Elsie was a dream sitting in Aunt Miranda's lap for all of present opening at the Thompsons and napping through present opening at the Ellis-Rhodes. And Emolyn enjoyed every minute all all things holiday. She loved cookie decorating and seeing christmas lights and was so thankful for all of her gifts. Santa got her some light up Sketchers which were and still are a huge hit. Shawn did an awesome gift giving job this year which I have to point out since it is such a challenge for him. He had a mothers necklace made for me with the girls names. I will include a photo next time. I also got some new trees for my collection. Here is what it looked like at the end of the season. I need a bigger place to display them for next year.

We have been enjoying the cooler weather, you know 60 degrees :) We were a scarf family for our trip out to the Mozingos compound this last saturday.

ANd Elsie is getting huge! She has these great thunder thighs! She is rolling over and cooing and trying so hard to laugh! She loves to talk and watch tv :) She is becoming so laid back, liking to hang out and watch whats going on around her. she slept all night in Emolyn's room last night! Its officially the girls room now! Elsie wore an outfit the other day that Emolyn wore in this 9 month old photo shoot! Remember how tiny she was!
I just love being at home with these sweet girls. I am so thankful for Shawns job at Tiny Prints so I can be a momma at home. Even if Emolyn did say this morning she wants to go live with cousin Nate in New York :)
Here are just a few shots from Christmas time that you might enjoy

Such a performer

Now you see where she gets it...

Sisters

We love Papa John, yes like the pizza 

Photo by Emolyn, mostly you contort your body to fit into where she is pointing the camera

Hope you had as fantastic a holiday season as we did. We plan on visiting the zoo soon and me trying to finish the advent calendar I started making. I made a ton of holiday treats this year for "Edible Christmas". In an attempt at forward thinking I decided to make our christmas gifts so I wouldnt have to leave the house to shop with a newborn. Well I dont know if it kept me in the house more but it was totally fun. I made 3 kinds of beef jerky, peach jam, apple butter, coconut macaroons, raspberry and almond truffles with sprinkles (Emolyns contribution), I dried apples pears and bananas, a kumquat cinnamon and clove syrup for tea, hot fudge, caramel sauce (which is so great in coffee), cinnamon apple sauce, pickled red onions, flavored butters (italian herb, basil, blue cheese, and lemon garlic) and banana nut bread. Maybe we can draw names next year :)