Ella's 2012 Milestones & Memories (3.5 years - 4.5 years)

•  Graduated to level 5 swim lessons at Aqua tots - Oct. 2012

•  Picky about her food touching...doesn't even like to use the same fork for spaghettie and salad. Often eats her food one at a time (all meat, then all veggies, then all rice for example) - 4 years 4 months

•  Me: "Ella, are you sad that you didn't have soccer shots today?" Ella: "No, because I don't really like balls. I only like pretty things."

•  "I only like ballet best because you get to dress up in pretty clothes." - 4 years 1 month when discussing ballet and soccer shots

•  Completely swimming by herself! Learned how to jump in, turn around under water, swim back to ledge, then get out all on her own while wearing goggles. Swam 2 feet shy of the width of the pool. Still needs to work on "big arms" but is moving her arms underwater. - exactly 4 years and 1 month

•  Really starting to see swim lessons pay off...wears her goggles regularly and loves to go under water. Can swim a short distance kicking her feet but still needs to work on using her arms. Can get dive sticks from bottom of pool about 3.5 feet deep, getting very comfortable in the water! It also helps that we have a pool and a hot tub and she wants to swim as often as possible. - 4 years

•  Started soccer shots once a week at school. She enjoys it but still says ballet is her favorite!! - March 2012

•  Started swim lessons once a week at Aquatots - March 2012

•  "Mommy, you don't have princess clothes, right? ...But you still look pretty! But I look prettier because I have this dress on. And when I wear this headband I look SO beautiful!" - 1 week shy of 4 years old

•  Started a new school after we moved. Has met some great friends, loves her teachers and did awesome with the transition - feb 2012

•  Calls Taco Cabana "Taco Banana" - Jan 2012, 3.5 years

•  Noticed at Christmas time that she was much more open and affectionate with family. Maybe she is slowly coming out of her shell - 3 1/2

  

Easton's 2012 Milestones & Memories (20 months - 32 months)

•  Potty trained at 32 months - Dec 2012

•  When he looks in the mirror in the mornings he says "Mommy, my hair is broken." - 29 months

•  What he always wants to be doing more than anything: riding his four-wheeler or watching "The Lorax" - 28 months

•  "I'm not stinker boy, I Easton boy!" - 28 months

•  "Ella, get a diaper for Easton boy!"

•  "Mommy, there's my diaper change! Hi Easton's diaper change, Hiii!" - 28 months

•  Says blue like "bee-yoo"

•  Knows well his primary colors - 27 months

•  Always uses the words "probably" and "because" - 26 months

•  Has become SUCH a Daddy's boy and wants daddy all the time - 26 months

•  If he does something to hurt you, immediately responds with "I'm sorry Mommy!" and a big hug - 2 years

•  "What happened mommy? I hear something." - 25 months

•  "You hurt yourself, Ella?" - 25 months

•  Still amazes me with his complete sentences and how much he talks. For example this morning he asked me for some milk, then immediately followed up with, "Mommy, my milk at the table. I'm gonna go get it, okay?" - 2 years

•  Loves wearing his rainboots and wants to put them on when he gets home from school - 2 years

•  Broke the first thing in our house from kicking a ball inside....the glass on a picture frame in his room. It's probably time to try our best to keep him from kicking balls in the house! - 25 months

•  Got another bad cough and started wheezing again. We started the albuterol inhaler at home and will be more consistent now with the preventative inhaler - 25 months

•  The day after his bay party, he had a bad cough and started wheezing horribly. Urgent care said his wheezing was a 9 on a scale of 1-10. Said he may have asthma. After 2 breathing treatments he was sent to the hospital for chest x-rays. All was clear so he was sent home with an inhaler, antibiotic, and a steroid. We were advised to start a preventative inhaler and watch him over the next several weeks. - 2 years

•  Obsessed with Super Why!! Constantly tells me Why" when he wants to watch it. - around 20 months

•  Started slowing down when he talks and adding more pronuncation to his words - 20 months

Says SO MANY words, and I have been horrible at tracking them. He will repeat almost anything and says tons of words! - 18 months

Christmas morning

Christmas morning had a typical start...Ella came in our bed about 6:30am and went back to sleep, then Easton woke up calling for me around 7:30am.  I brought him into our bed for a minute to wake up Daddy and Ella.  

The kids weren't overly excited about the presents, they seemed to be just taking it all in at first.  But Ella quickly started opening the ones with her name on them. 

It was great having my parents there with us.

Easton was a little grumpy in the morning and complaining about his tummy hurting.  Half way through opening gifts, he got a little sick but after a quick shower he felt better and seemed fine the rest of the day.

Below, Ella was opening her spaceship.  A last minute gift she asked for in her letter to Santa.  I don't think she was even sure what a spaceship was when she asked for it, but I found a small model spaceship for her and when she opened it she said, "Mommy, this one has my name on it, but it's not really pretty."  She thought she was opening someone else's gift!

Ella got her "Purple watering can"

And Easton got his "Blue umbrella"

Santa even got Mommy her own watering can too.

But at the end of the morning, Ella said this pillow pet was her favorite gift.  Even though it wasn't even on her list.

Later in the day, the Hefner's arrived.  We opened gifts with them, played, had a yummy Italian dinner, and then all the kids finished the chilly evening in the hot tub!

It was a Merry Christmas and fun to host everyone in our house!

Hosting Christmas Eve

After 9.5 years of marriage, Michael and I finally hosted our first Jaeger family Christmas Eve dinner.  We were excited about the first Christmas in our new house!  Luckily it's always a pot-luck style Mexican Feast and I didn't have to cook anything so that made hosting so much easier!!

The Jaeger family includes Michael's granny, plus her 5 kids, and their kids and all of their kids.  Some couldn't make it, but we still had 40 people at our house!

My dad found some mistletoe that we hung at the front door, so we started our evening with a couple of Christmas kisses.

I barely picked up my camera throughout the evening, just grabbed a couple of shots late in the evening.

A couple of the games included guess how many m&m's, family feud and left, right center.  The funny thing about the jar of m&m's...Ella had been asking for a couple of days if she could play "the m&m game".   Michael and I counted them out a couple of days before so she had seen the jar and wanted to play.

As soon as people started arriving, she asked me again, Mommy can I PLEASE play the m&m game.  Finally, I said, okay Ella, come here.  I wrote her name down on the paper and told her to give me a number.  I explained how you play the game, by simply guessing the number of m&m's in the jar.  So she threw out a number "20-62".  The crazy thing is, there were 2,067 m&m's in the jar.  She was right on and by far the closest person, so she won the game!  The next closest guess was 2,013.

Ella came close to winning left, right, center as well, but Michael actually pulled it out in the end.  He passed on his winnings to the youngest in the house, a 7 month old boy, Grayson.

As the evening was wrapping up and our family and guests were leaving I let the kids settle down with Polar Express.  They were so tired they could barely keep their eyes open.  

After everyone was gone and our furniture was back, we read The Night Before Christmas, put out cookies for Santa, said a final goodbye to our elf, Ryan, and then at 10:30pm it was finally time to get our kids to bed so Santa could come!!!

Christmas Traditions: Baking for Santa

On Christmas Eve, we made sure to have time for our baking and icing of Santa's favorite...christmas sugar cookies!  Earlier in the Christmas season, Ella told me this was her favorite part of Christmas. 

A couple of days earlier, Ella spent some time with her Granny baking as well and I hope that continues as one of her Christmas traditions!!

Christmas at Granny & Grandpa's 12.23.12

We celebrated Christmas at Granny & Grandpa's a couple of days early this year, and as always we had  so much fun!  After an incredible dinner cooked by Brigitte, everyone gathered together and opened gifts.  

It's always so fun to have the whole family together with lots and lots of good cousin time!