Evie with Aunties

My kids don't get to see their Aunts nearly enough! These pictures are of Nikki holding her and playing with her and trying to get a picture with her smiling. She would not crack a single smile! But we all got a good laugh when Evie spit up ALL OVER poor Nikki! It was pretty funny.

That is a LOT of spit up. Nikki was pretty grossed out but as you can see she was still able to keep texting.

And Mandy "posing" for the camera.

Nana wanted to hold her once she was all cleaned up and naked!

Evie has spit up a lot since day 1. It's so frustrating. I do think she has gotten a little better in the last few weeks so I hope she gets over this soon!

Little Hands

I thought this was cute of Evie holding a toy for the first time. She was just hugging it and eating it and talking in her crib. I am so sick of her growing up! It is going by way too fast. She grabs at everything, I think her favorite is my hair unfortunately. When she is in the bath she can grab the faucet and pulls it towards her so the water will run right in her face. It drives my crazy. It is fun to watch her eye something and then put so much effort into touching it, grabbing a hold of it, and putting it straight in her mouth.
I was telling Matt that I don't remember not wanting Ella and Kash to grow up; I needed them to grow up. For my sanity. But with Evie it breaks my heart that she is getting so big, so it must be because perhaps she is my last??? This really ticks Matt off when I say this! He has already been talking about baby #4 for months!

Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day the kids got these presents and a special breakfast. They thought it was pretty fun! I love that they think I'm cool, I wonder how long that will last?

I love these morning faces.

This is as creative as I get: heart toast, pinkish eggs, strawberries, and pink milk.

Ella all ready for school in her Valentine outfit. She loved her heart shirt and necklaces.

We made a "heart" poke cake. They loved the strawberries and the pink inside.

Kash loving licking the beater.
I love this boys' eyes.

Being silly.

And these are of Evie, just because she is cute.

Creepy one-eyed Mandy...

Mandy really makes it difficult to take a picture of my child!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kash's accessories

I was getting ready in the morning and I was having the kids help me pick out a necklace to wear. Kash asked which necklace he was going to wear. I told him boys don't wear necklaces, just girls. He left the room but the next time I saw him he was wearing this long gold heart necklace! I suddenly pictured him with gold chains, baggy pants....it was scary. But he is cute.

Hello Ladies

I told Ella to put a jacket on if she wanted to go jump on the tramp but she couldn't find hers. She yelled from the other room, "I can only find Kash's!" So of course I yelled back, "that's fine! I don't care!" So she came around the corner in Kash's jacket that is WAY too big for her, had this smug little look on her face, and her arms folded across her chest. Then in a deep, drawn out voice (almost sexy?!), she said, "Hellloooo Laadies."
Seriously where does she get this stuff from? She cracks me up.

Don't want to forget...

Conversations with Mandy:

1)Mandy was holding Evie and she kept saying"Oh i love my baby" and the kids were saying "shes not your baby!" Then they started asking her where her baby was, and she told them that she didn't have a baby because she didn't have a husband, and you have to have a husband before you have a baby. So then of course they asked her where her husband was and she said she didn't have one. They asked, "Why?" She said, "Because no one will marry me." And sweet Kash replies, "I'll be your huband Manny, ill be your huband foreber!"



2)Sitting at the dinner table they once again got on the topic of Mandy not having a husband. (She is only 20 by the way, but still I think they were starting to give her a complex!)

Mandy: (slightly frustrated by this time) I don't know why I don't have a husband Ella.
Ella: (Thinks for a moment, looks at Mandy, then replies) I know why! Because Jesus didn't make you a husband!
Kash: (quickly chiming in) Its okay, ill be your huband manny.


A random Ella story:

For about a week Ella was no longer Ella. She insisted her name was Alicia and she was from Mexico. She would not respond to Ella, she would tell me that was not her name. It was funny because she would never forget, she would always correct me if I called her Ella. She would ring the doorbell and say, "Hello I'm Alicia from Mexico, can I stay with you for a while? When I picked her up from school one day her teacher said, "We sure missed Ella today." She explained to me that Ella had been Alicia all day at school! This girl doesn't quit! As we were leaving her teacher said, "Goodbye Alicia! Tell Ella I missed her and hope she comes back soon!" I made sure to write this story down because her teacher told me I'd better or I would forget. She said I was going to miss these kinds of things!

Dad is Back

Matt goes out of town for three weeks for work every year and is finally back! The kids absolutely adore him and I am so thankful that he is such a hands-on Dad. He loves to play with them, wrestle, build forts, read to them, chase them, etc. He is always doing such fun things with them and I on the other hand am just plain boring! So it didn't surprise me the first day he gets back I find them all in this fort.

I was a bit concerned for my light fixture but he assured me it was okay. And seriously why is my family always naked?

Valentine cookies

Aunt Gina had us over to make Valentine cookies. It was the usual fun mess that always occurs when we get our kids together and let them dig into the frosting, sprinkles, cookies, etc.







The best part was when I noticed little Emily with frosting on her fingers. I was thinking, hmm I didn't know Gina made that color of frosting....kind of brownish green? Not very Valentine-ish but.....Yikes! Gina! Come get your baby! lol hope she doesn't mind me sharing this...

Evie at 4 months

I swear I don't even take pictures anymore. It is really sad. I need to be better but I don't know if I see that happening any time soon. These are random pictures of Evie at around 4 months old....
This is what happens when you leave Cody alone with the baby....I found him pushing her around in this doll stroller! haha he is a good babysitter.

She absolutely LOVES her baths. She could stay in there all day. We have a nice routine in the morning, I put her in the bath and do the dishes and clean up the kitchen while she sits and plays. Don't call child services, I always have an eye on her and stay close to her I promise.

I hate that she is losing her hair! She has the biggest bald spot on the back of her head, it is so sad. Then the rest is thinning and lightening up so it looks almost bald! She is kind of in that old man looking stage, poor thing. Nothing that a big fat headband can't fix though!

As you can tell she is CHUBBY. The creases in her thighs are at least an inch deep! I love all of her rolls and chew on them daily. She is still such a good baby.

Our California Trip

The kids and I went to California for Whitney's baby shower at the end of January. I didn't take very many pictures of our trip but here are a few.

They love to climb up on Papa's lap and watch tv with him. I have so many pictures of them like this!

They decided they needed pillows and blankets to be extra comfy. I love Kash's arms behind his head.

Whitney's shower was beautiful and she really got so many great things! I wanted to take a lot of pics but Evie was fussy so this is all I got:(
Here she is opening gifts.

I think Mandy got a hold of my camera because the next two are 1) creepy picture of Nikki

and 2) glamor shot of the one and only, Mandy Craft

Papa loves to make his famous smoothies and here are Ella and Kash helping him out!

It worked out perfectly that we were in town for our cousin Ty's 5th birthday party. Ella and Ty are a bit obsessed with each other and although we can't get together very often, they act like the best of friends. It was funny because Ty Ty wouldn't do anything without Ella by his side. He wanted her to sit by him and share his candy with her and seemed to care less about his other friends! It was a dinosaur theme and this picture is of the kids digging for bones and fossils and other prizes.

Ella showing off her winnings.

They dyed dinosaur eggs.

Kash and Ella loved riding around on the four wheeler. I was surprised how good they were on it, I thought for sure they would run into the wall but they both knew how to work it without any help.

They also loved this merry-go-round that got going really really fast.

Mandy, Whitney, and Dobo

Nikki, Mandy and Evie

It was a fun trip and I was SO lucky to have Mandy drive back with me to help me with the kids. Matt was gone for 3 weeks and I never would have survived without her. I was nervous for him to leave me because it was the first time I had 3 kids by myself. It was actually the easiest year yet with Mandy here and it went by really fast! Poor Kash kept asking, "Is my dad gone forever?" We all missed him so much and are so happy to have him back. But I really am ready for Mandy to move in and be my full time nanny!