Shot Gun 4-H

At the beginning of the year Ryan joined our local Shot Gun 4-H.  Every other Sunday after church and some Saturday's find us at our local gun range watching him shoot- I saw the word 'trap' shooting and 'skeet' shooting on the side of the gun club wall and I have heard Ry, Matt, and Eli talk about the fact that Ry is 'Trap' Shooting so we will go with that- Several other kids from our church are also in the group.....Katie, Tyler, and Alex- I was hoping to get a picture of Katie and Tyler (they are cousins) shooting but have not yet- Alex is in the stripped shirt and Ry is in the black and camo jacket.

Today the boys were shooting doubles (meaning 2 clay disks were thrown from a machine into the air- going opposite directions and the person shooting would try to hit both moving targets before they hit the ground)

A beautiful sunny day here in Oregon to be out at the gun range watching the kids shoot- They all did great!

 

Good Job Alex!!

A sucker and ear muffs............fashion at it's finest :)

TBT and A Congratulations!

Throw Back Thursday finds us in 2006.....staying in a cabin on a lake..... (trying to roast but actually starting on fire) roasting marshmallows :)

I LOVE MY BOYS!

 

p.s. Congratulations to:

My cousin Molly, my sis in law Erika, Brittany (it's a boy!!!), and my friends Tonya and Delaine.....all who have announced recently that they are pregnant!! Whoo Hoo...You go girls ;)

 

The Little Lady And Her Incident Report

On Thursday's my Ellie spends the day with my mom.  Since Ellie started Pre School a few weeks back my mom picks her up on Thursdays when she get's out.  Elle's school is one town over from where my mom lives and about a 10 minute drive away.  I was headed into town this morning right around when she was getting out of school so I called my mom to see if she wanted me to do the pick up.............'Oh No, I am going to be over by her school anyway because sissy (my sister's daughter) and I got pedicures this morning' was my mom's reply- My sister lives very close to the school and my mom needed to drop Sienna off at home.  I decided to drop by my sister's house so that I could say hi to her and her family and see Ellie when my mom dropped Sienna off..........
When it comes to adoption one of the big questions asked is what is genetic and what is environment- If an adopted child exhibits a certain behavior or symptom that is not typical of their adopted family statistics will dub it genetic (a peanut allergy would be genetic and not environment)...life choices inconsistent with the birth family's history could be credited to environment...etc. 
One of the things I appreciate most about our birth mom Heather is that she has a spunky spark to her- She's going to call life like it is and not take guff off of others- I knew this attribute would fit perfectly into our family if Ellie inherited it (from what I have heard Elle's birth father Arthur was a bit more laid back)....Ellie is being raised with 2 older brothers that are hilariously rowdy- Her daddy is a tell it like it is kind of guy and her mommy is the same.......... the Genetic and environment lined up for the perfect match when it comes to spunk, spark, and calling life like it is for our Ellie....At a little over 2 and a half we have already had to tone it down in Elle's just a bit (she has taken up spitting, pushing, and even biting for awhile).
When my mom's van pulled up to Jodi's house and I saw Ellie jump out I went out to give her a hug.  My mom pointed out a small bruise on the left side of her forehead and handed me a piece of paper.  The paper was titled 'Incident Report' with an explanation following:
'She (Ellie) went to take a toy from another child, they then smacked her with another toy which left a mark on her forehead'
I immediately cringed inside as I asked the next question...
'Oh my gosh mom what did Ellie do after the child hit her with the toy???'
I know our Ellie- she don't take no guff......I've seen her in action- she get's pushed and the other poor child gets both of her petite hands laid on their chest with a power house shove
'It doesn't sound like she did anything- I guess she shook her head at the child and just kind of walked away'

Maybe in her mind she is starting to do checks and balances- She went to take the toy away and the child defended his toy...she would have defended her toy in the same way.....or maybe she is absorbing when we tell her that she may not hit (scratch, bite, push)- Whatever the case it was a big sigh of relief knowing that she handled herself like the little lady she is :)

Good Job Elle's!!

Valentine's For Ellie's Class

Ellie came home on Friday from pre school with a 'News Letter' in her back pack-   Miss Lauren and Miss Amy (Elle's Teachers) send out classroom news Monthly to let the parents know what is going on during the month.  The month of February finds the class working on the letters G, V, and T.  They are also learning about the five senses.....This month also finds most of us celebrating Valentines Day- Miss Amy and Miss Lauren are embracing this with a party (whoop whoop!!)....as parents we were told the following:

'We will be having a  Valentine's Day Party!  Be sure and wear either pink or red that day (Love that Ellie will be wearing the Valentine Heart Decorated Hannah Anderson Tights passed down from J.).  We will be exchanging Valentine's and attached to this letter I have written up a class list that you may use to address your Valentine's if you would like (uuuummmmm LOVE THIS).'

 



I knew this week was going to be busy so we set to work making the Valentines right away....both Saturday and today found Ellie and I sitting at the table working on them.  It was so fun to dig through our craft supplies and gather the Valentine making goodies...........As Ellie and I were making each Valentine we would go over the names of the kids in her class.....I would say them and she would repeat their names after me....'Alex, Ava, Braylee, Brynn, Carl, Ethan, Henry, Michael, William, Jayme, Bode Jaycee, Juno, Avery, Morgan'..........

Making the Valentine's for Ellie's class was so much fun- Watching her put the 'special' stickers and paint on each one was precious- Hearing her say the names of her class mates was adorable!!

Just us...being us

no make up
no re takes
no pretense
no hype

Still trying
Still growing
Still dating
Still absolutely in love

Here we are.....Just us...being 20 years of us

Pre School and Pink Princess Pull Ups

This blog post is all about 'pull ups'....if you don't know what a pull up is, it's a toddler version of a diaper- the toddler version comes about because instead of two sticky tabs that attach from back to front holding the diaper on- the diaper pulls up and down like big girl/boy under ware...It's claim to fame is that it helps the toddler transition out of a diaper and into underwear all the while still having the protection of being made out of diaper material...........

I had the chance to use pull up's 16 years ago when my almost 2 year old Eli was potty training....My brain could not wrap around paying almost twice as much for the pull up's as his diapers when they were just a glorified diaper anyway- While most of Eli's peers were proudly sporting their pull ups my Eli was sporting his size 3 Huggies with his determined mommy proclaiming what a waste of money those glorified diaper pull ups were....
13 years ago when almost two year old Ryan started potty training I had the same bend on pull ups....no thanks, I'll pass on those money pits and stick with the Huggies.  A friend left a pull up at our house during Ryan's potty training- after much consideration about whether I should save it and give it to her the next time we saw each other OR give the pull up a try, I decided to go with the latter.....It went beyond my notice that the sides of the pull up's literally tear apart if you want to get it off so when Ryan went #2 in it, it seemed a no brainer that it needed to be pulled off just like big boy underwear............Pulling it off sent #2 from his back all the way down to his feet.......My opposing pull up voice became louder after that incident...not only were they over priced BUT they were completely impractical....

Ellie started pre school early last week- It has been the cutest thing seeing her go to 'class' (she refuses to let us call it school- it must be called 'class')...On our school shopping trip a few weeks ago she was able to pick out a back pack (she choose a small soft blue back pack with a butterfly on it....I was thinking a bit more pink with some sparkles and she was a determined blue- we went with the blue).  Yesterday when she got home from class I was getting ready to change her so that she could take her nap- As I was taking off her pants she looks at me with a sparkle in her eyes and a big smile on her face and says 'I'm wearing princess panties'..................Somehow at school, when she was changed she had a pull up put on her- The pull up was pink and had a princess on it- I could tell she felt like such a big girl in it and was fascinated with the fact that it had a princess on it........

Matt and I had a date afternoon today- one of our stops was Costco....As we made our way around the store I told him we had to go get some diapers- Ellie is making her way beautifully through potty training but I knew that we would need at least one more box of diapers to see us completely through the training- The princess pull ups caught my eye....
I annoyingly noticed that they are almost two times as much as diapers
I glared at the box
I shook my head at the box
I also saw that they are $6 off a box right now

When I put 2 boxes into our cart Matt immediately spoke up 'I thought we weren't doing those'

'I thought we weren't either BUT you should have seen the look on Ellie's face when she told me she was wearing them...' I then went on to tell Matt about how excited she was to have them on  yesterday......

Here's to raising the most adorable, precious, princess pull up wearing little girl :) :) :)

First Day of Pre School

Ryan's Winter Semi-Formal

Ryan went to the Winter Semi-Formal at School last night!
He went with Karli- Ryan and Karli met several years ago when her family started attending our church.  We were able to all meet up for pizza before the Formal (very fun), get some cute pictures, and then drop Ryan and Karli off at the dance.