What is new with Kaleb and Sophie

The last couple of weeks, we have all had colds and this is the two "sickies" hanging out on the couch together. I am very glad that we are all well!

Clifton claims that by age 5, he was having coffee every morning before kindergarten. His mother has the real story, he had warm milk with a tiny splash of coffee for color. This is Kaleb having his first "coffee" ( milk with tiny bit of coffee)

Kaleb continues to "nurse" his little toys from time to time. This is him nursing "baby wendy" Can she drink milk? Yes she can!

In the great tradition of cute sophie faces. She is playing with her new favorite toy; A rattle ! She loves anything that makes noise these days. Notice the snot!

Sophie is sitting up well, so they can play blocks together. Kaleb is 'fixing' a house for his bear. He just bashes it with his hammer! Sophie just eats the building materials.

Walmart doesn't have anymore jackets???

Yes, this is true. My poor little baby doesn't have a thick winter jacket, so I decided that I was going to go to Walmart and get him one. I went back to the children's area and there were no jackets. I asked the lady that was back there and she said quoting, " They went on clearance and they are gone already." WHAT?!? I reminded her that it was January and that there was "supposedly" a big snow/ice coming and my baby needs a jacket. She said they had to get rid of them because they had to make room for the spring clothes. I couldn't believe it! Eli's got a zip-up-hoodie and some other sweaters, so he'll be fine if I can't find a jacket for him, but come on, clearance! So, before I run to a bunch of different stores, does anybody know where they are STILL selling jackets?


UPDATE: MICHELLE FOUND ME A JACKET AT SEARS. THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S HELP!

Exploring and Beating up Daddy

Eli explores all over now. He doesn't sit in one spot anymore.

Matt was working out last Saturday and I took Eli downstairs to see him. When we came back up, I put him in the living room to play with his toys and as soon as I put him down he crawled to the gate and sat there and waited for Matt. It was TOO CUTE!

Eli was playing with Matt and he pinned him. He was proud of himself.

Abigail's First Ballet Class

Abigail took her first ballet lesson yesterday. A lady at our church is kind enough to teach a ballet class for 3-5 year olds. She had a blast! Here are a few pictures...Abigail is on the far left in the first picture!

They make a circle and each girl gets to take a turn dancing around the circle. Here is Abigail during her turn!

He likes the gate!

Baby proofing, random shots of Eli, & cute little Sophie and Ella Reese

Last Saturday Matt went over to help Clifton build a dog house for Lamar (They found him!!!). Ryan had some of Clifton's tools, so he came with Ella Reese in hand. Oh my goodness she is so cute! And Sophie was just adorable in her little hat. It's amazing how much she looks like Steph.

Well, my boy loves to look upside down when you are holding him. Got to be prepared, he'll jump back with no notice! I had just fed him and he grabbed the spoon and peas went every where, so I just took his shirt off. I think Eli looks just like Matt now a days!

Eli now pulls up on everything, so when he wakes up now and I go and get him, this is what I find.

We have hardwood floors in the living room and kitchen, so it's just easier some times to take off his pants and let him go. We have rugs, but there is no way he will stay on the rug the whole time.

Me and my cute little baby playing with his medicine. He's teething and when we give him medicine I let him play with it. It seems to help him every time take his mind off of it and he stops crying. I watch him closely with it, don't worry! I don't think he can get into the Tylenol.

Well, I decided to put him in his lego truck. I drove him around the whole house. He really seemed to enjoy it, though you can't really tell in this picture.

Eli and I went to play in his room the other day. He had a blast. The first picture is the books all nice and neat and they second picture he has destroyed the books. He loved it. He was trying to get to the fish thing on top.

We have been in the process of baby proofing the house these past couple of weeks. I went to babies-r-us looking for a baby gate and they had one gate left. We have a 4ft. opening on our stairs, so it's hard to find a gate that will fit. Anyways, brought the gate home and it didn't have any instructions with it. I had to return it and we bought this one online. I love it. It matches our floors great. Matt and Michael put it up yesterday. Now I can run to the bathroom and feel like Eli won't roll down the stairs.

Such a cheese ball!

He still doesn't know how to drink out of a cup yet. We take the little thing out inside and just help him. I put ice in with the water and I think it was too cold for him. And I think that is why he is making that face.

He looks like such a big boy in this picture. Man, they grow up FAST!

He loves his pooh bear that crawls. Thanks again Nanny and Poppy.

IT'S SNOWING!!!

OK. I LOVE SNOW! I had to take a picture of me in the first snow of the new year. VERY EXCITING! The other two pictures are about 15 min apart. It's really coming down here in Clinton and also in Oak Ridge. Michelle just called and Luke's got a doctors appointment and she's out in this mess. Abigails with Pop's and lets pray that Michelle makes it home safe!

Sophie's 6 month check-up

Sophie is officially a thumb sucker! She loves to find her thumb and snuggle up to me! She turned 6 months on Jan 5th and weighs 14 pounds and 11 ounces. She is 25 3/4 " tall.

She finally started eating solid foods recently, but is still not very good at it. I found that she will only eat if I present the food to her sideways and let her lap it up. She eats cereal and squash and green beans so far, but only 1-2 Tablespoons. She always seems to favor a silver spoon! I like to call her 'little princess' .

Chandra let us borrow this neat bath seat so sophie can take a bath with Kubby at night. Too cute! It is very easy and she seems to really like it. Kubby likes having her in the tub with him, but he would like to be in the seat.

Sophie and Kaleb are starting to play together more. He is very sweet to her and she smiles at him. He brings her toys and always says, "hi sophie". Sophie attacks his train and chews on all his toys and so far he doesn't seem to mind.

She is on the move! This is her signature move and it resembles something from the Matrix. She started by scooting backwards, then rolled around and now she army crawls and sometimes moves on hands and knees anywhere she wants to go. She is wild! Always moving! Now if we can just get her to sleep!

Sluss family Christmas

We spent Christmas eve with Cliftons' family. We ate with his Grandma Sluss and then spent the evening with his mother and step father. Here is Kaleb with some of his gifts. He calls the monkey: Jammies george and will hardly take off the boots :)

The next morning we were able to spend a few hours at home. Kaleb got a train set and loves it! While Sophie got a walker. We decided to buy her a present even though she had no idea what was happening.

We spent the next day (Christmas) with my side of the family as follows: Ruthie and Grandpa's at 11:30 am, My dad's at 1:00 pm and my Nanny and Poppy's at around 4 pm. We celebrated Christmas with my Mom and Sam on Dec 27th and then Celebrated with Clifton's dad on New Year's day! The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and did really well. For so much action, it was even relaxing. Our families were extremely generous. I do not have time to post all of the gifts, there were too many. We are very thankful! Kaleb got so much practice saying thank you, that he says it all the time now!

A little Break

Girls, I need to take breather from the memory verses and get caught up. What do you say about taking a break until we can get them all down well? I think we should have 14 verses memorized. When would be a good date to start back in full force?

Zoo Animals

I forgot to add these in the last post.

What a mean looking penguin.

Big elephants. They eat whole Christmas trees. CRAZY!

Jeremy... oh, I mean a gorilla :)

Resting zebra's.

Happy New Year!

Dad and Ashley watched the kids while we got to go out with our husbands last night. Thanks so much!!! We had a great time! They bought them all New Year's hats, but with 5 kids it was kind of hard to take their pictures, so when Matt and I got back we took some pictures. Abigail was reading a book and Sophie was asleep, so that is why they didn't get their pictures taken. Thanks again Dad and Ashley!

This is Abigail reading. It is a big people's book, so she wasn't reading it, but it sure did look like it. She was even using her finger to follow the words. Who am I kiding, she probably can read it :)