Red Ribbon Week

It's Red Ribbon Week, and Joseph's school is having them wear silly stuff each day. Yesterday, he wore his shirt backwards. Today was crazy sock day. I pulled out my Halloween socks, but he didn't want to pick just one pair, so he came up with the idea to where one of each. It was early, so the 

light was poor, but I got a picture before we had to run out to the bus.

4th Birthday Interview

I'm trying to start a tradition where I interview the kids each year when they have their birthday. I've only done it with Annabelle so far, and this is her second year. I made these videos the day after her birthday. Once we are able to get some printer ink, I'll print out a cute form to put her answers on as well as her hand print and a picture.

Annabelle is 4!

Annabelle's birthday was this Wednesday. She had a pretty fun and special day. She received generous amounts of money from some family members, which we were able to use to get her presents and things. She started out the day nice and early, opening her the presents we'd gotten her before Joseph got on the bus. She got the Little People Disney Princess Klip Klop Stable and Klip Klop Ariel.

She and Charlie played with the Little People set for a long time. We finally got them dressed and ready, and we headed out for the day. We went to Walmart where she bought an Elsa dress, which she'd been wanting for quite a while. Then we drove up to the mall. We browsed the Disney Store for a long time before she settled on Elsa and Anna dolls. We found her an Olaf at this awesome store called 2nd and Charles, it's like FYE on crack. We went to McDonald's for lunch, her pick, and Amber came to meet us there. She and Charlie spent a long time playing on the playground, and she got a nice cream to finish off her Happy Meal. We finally went home and she got to watch Frozen with her new dolls.

Soon, we got 3 boxes in the mail, 2 of which were for her! She opened her box from Grammy Ellis while Grammy was on FaceTime. She got lots of beautiful clothes and a pair of pretty Sunday shoes that she says are Elsa shoes. She put the polka-dotted pajamas on and wore them for over 24 hours.

After Joseph was home, we opened the other box from Grandpa and Grandma Brugger. She got Elsa slippers, two more Klip Klop Princesses, and lots of Color Wonder drawing stuff. She also got a much needed pack of panties. She spent almost the rest of the evening coloring with her new stuff. I was so tired from all the activity, plus I caught a respiratory virus, so I went to lay down. Her neighbor friend, Janina, came to play, and they colored, watched Frozen twice more, and just had too much fun while I was resting. Her dinner request was pizza, so we got a Papa John's pizza and breadsticks.she barely ate half her dinner before passing out in bed with her new dolls.

Annabelle's 4th Birthday Party

We had Annabelle's birthday party on Saturday. Mitchell had to work, so he wasn't able to be there, but we had a few guests there. Annabelle's friend, Alaina, the neighbor girl, Janina, Grandpa Ellis, Grandma Sally, and Aunt Cami were all at the party. Sadly, I was so busy wrangling kids that I didn't get very many pictures.

This is her opening her present from Grandpa, Sally, and Cami. It was the DVD of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

This is the dessert table. I made candied apples with white chocolate dyed green to look like the poison apple from the movie. There were miniature berry and cherry pies. And the apple cake. I wish I'd had the chance to get a better picture of the cake because it was really cute.

This was the food table. We had chicken and dumplings, which was Annabelle's request, as well as an apple-walnut salad with a red wine vinaigrette, mini baguettes, and fruit.

This was the drink table, with water, apple Izze, and apple juice for the kids.

Annabelle, Janina, and Charlie loved watching Snow White. You can see Annabelle's huge smile because she enjoyed the movie so much.

I'm glad everything went pretty well. I was a little too ambitious (again...) and had planned to do way more stuff, but I ran out of time. It was fun for Annabelle, though. and that's what was most important.

 

Scary Charlie

It's just me and Charlie awake now that Joseph is at school. After Joseph got on the bus, we came inside. I walked down the hallway to tell Mitchell something, even though he was mostly asleep. It's pretty dark, quiet, and cozy in the house right now. As I walked back down the hallway to find Charlie, he jumped out behind me from the hallway bathroom and yelled. I screamed and laughed at the same time. How is this little guy old enough to know how to scare people?

Family Night

For FHE, we talked about how Heavenly Father is the King of everything and, since we are His children, we are princes and princesses. And when our spirits "grow up," we can be like him. So then we decorated crowns that said "I am a Child of GOD."

People in my family like to make cool faces...

Sunday Dinner

We had the missionaries over for dinner today. We've been having them over a lot lately. We are one of the families in the ward closer to their area, and we like their company. Their names are Elder Harding and Elder Luckhoo, and they are both fun guys to talk with. We had a fun conversation about Harry Potter, movies, and all that stuff. We used to always have people over for dinner in Utah, so it's been lonely here because we weren't able to do that for a while. I'm glad we have food stamps, and generous ward members, so that we can share our time and dinner with the elders.

Good Stuff

I had a great birthday yesterday, but I'll have to elaborate later because Mitchell and I are in the middle of an "at-home" date. I just had to take a break to send the content for the RS Newsletter that I work on, and I didn't want to take a hit for not blogging today.

Charlie's Words

Today, I'm going to try to keep a running list of all the words that I hear Charlie say, and what they mean.
The ones with the star are words he learned today; he's at the point now where he will repeat a lot of what we say, so his vocabulary is growing really quickly.

"ah bee-bee" = one of the things he calls himself
apple = used to refer to all round-ish fruits
"back-back" = backpack
"bah guy" = anyone who looks "bad" to him or who fights good guys, usually said kind of growl-y
"bah-bah" or "bah-boo" or just "bah" = bottle
*"bayn-bow" = rainbow
ball
"bay-nkie" = blanket
"bay-ps" = grapes
"beh-gs" = eggs
"bi-pahd" = iPad
"bi-per" = diaper
"bi-psh" = wipes
bite
"boe-ch" or "woe-ch" = roach, 'cause we have had a lot of them here...
"Boh" = Annabelle
"boke" = broken
book
"boop" = poop
"doe-sh" = toes
bug
*"bum" = plum
*"bunchies" = Honey Bunches of Oats, he learned this from Annabelle
"Dah" or Daddy = Mitchell
"daht dog" = hot dog
"day doo" = thank you
*"dee-yahs" = tortillas
"dhoys" = toys
"dosh" = trash
hey
Mama or Mommy
"Maht-mahn" = Joseph, Batman, himself, or all other "good guys"/superheroes, depending on context
money
"nah" = banana, which is his favorite food
"nigh-night"
oh
on
ugh = usually growled in frustration
"unh-unh" = usually the only way he says "no", although he will say it occasionally
uh-oh
"yite" or "wite" = light


In addition to his words, he growls and grunts a lot, but it's all on purpose because he's being a monster or a bad guy or something like that. He can make several different animal sounds. He also has a few different "stage" laughs, depending on how silly he wants to be or what's going on. And he has a full range of sound effects, from guns to lightsabers. He can also sing "Twinkle, Twinkle," the "Imperial March," and the Tim Burton "Batman Theme" well enough that they are recognizable.

As I've been compiling this list all day, I'm kind of amazed by the number of words he knows; this is a list of mostly what he said today, so there are many more words that he has in his vocabulary. I'm just so amazed by how intelligent and "mature" this little guy can be!

Annabelle's Prayer

I helped Annabelle say a personal prayer before she went to bed. She asked for help, but she didn't need too much prompting. It went something like this:

"Father in Heaven...."
"Thank..."
"Thank you for the day. Thank you for cleaning our room. Thank you that I can be with my mom and dad forever. Thank you for the missionaries coming over two days."
"Please..."
"Please bless it."
"Please help.."
"Please help me to be a good girl to my mom. Please help Charlie to be good to mom, too. Please help Joseph to play his video games when he cleans his room. Please........................... okay, that's all. Amen."
"You have to say 'In the name of Jesus Christ.'"
"In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

I might have forgotten a few things she said because it was a pretty long prayer. But it was just so cute! And I'm glad she's learning things in Primary and Family Home Evening.

A Day to Relax

I sort of took the day off today. I've been doing so many important things as well as a lot if housework this week, so I had earned a lot of gold on HabitRPG. I did use the morning to find out what stage our Food Stamps application is in, and to go over the budget for July and begin August's budget. We went to Kroger and got some WIC things. Then we decided to treat ourselves to Zaxby's for lunch. Sometimes it's just nice to do something a little special. I took a nice, long nap with Charlie after lunch. And we had breakfast for dinner with scrambled eggs, homemade turkey sausage, and Peanut-Butter-and-Banana pancakes. I did clean up the kitchen completely, and I put in two more job applications. So I didn't waste the day, I enjoyed it. 

We have a little hope right now with the freelance job Mitchell has been working on. If the game is picked up to be developed, he will have full-time employment with them. I'll be praying really hard for this, but I'm always keeping in mind that we follow whatever path The Lord shows to us.

Vacation

Yesterday, we got home from a week-and-a-half in Virginia visiting Mitchell's family. The main reason we went up was so Mitchell could attend his grandfather's funeral with his mom. We ended up staying longer than we originally planned and enjoyed some nice time relaxing and hanging out with family. The kids and I stayed with Mitchell's brother, Sam, and his family, while Mitchell, his mom, and his brother, Grant, were in Indiana for the funeral. Joseph and Annabelle got to meet and spend time with all of their Ellis cousins for the first time ever. And they loved it! Joseph loved playing with Sam's two boys, who are both older than him. And Annabelle enjoyed playing girly things with her only girl Ellis cousin, Celina, who is only 2 months younger than her. Mitchell and I took advantage of the time to relax, enjoy ourselves, and not worry about the future too much. We were able to go to Busch Gardens and watch the show London Rocks, which Mitchell's brother, Ross, is the lead guitarist in. I also rode a roller coaster for the first time in about 7 years. I was so anxious right before getting on, but I loved it just as much as I used to. I'm really grateful that we had that time to rejuvenate before getting into the stress of trying to figure out what's going to happen next. 

         From left to right: Back Row - Mitchell, Ross, Grant, Eden, Joseph. 

Front Row - Zeke, Annabelle, Charlie, Julian, Celena, Ben.

Annabelle, Celina, and Charlie playing with Disney Princess Little People!

Charlie playing in the hose with Grammy.

Sunday?

I missed a day again. And it's because I was playing video games too much...

The Annoying:
I LOVE video games. I just love playing games, especially when they have goals and such that I'm working towards. The problem is that I'm easily addicted to them. Mitchell and I have a new game that we've been playing together this weekend, and we played the whole weekend, literally. It's just frustrating to try to "fight" against my desire to play games.

The Nice:
Church was good. We made it in time for the sacrament and stayed for the whole time, which is pretty good considering our track record. We have a really great ward and I enjoy getting to know the people more.

The Healthy:
Mitchell and I have been sort of doing this diet thing, where we replace two meals a day with these health shakes. So we did that today, plus I ended up walking about 1.5-2 miles trying to get a good shot of the sunset for my other blog. Maybe I'll start losing weight, even though it seems like I've been steadily gaining.

Frustration, but Fun, too.

The Frustrating:

I spent most of the morning on the phone with various people trying to sort out the problem with my Cymbalta. And I'm still not sure if I made progress. Hopefully, the doctor will just put in the Prior Authorization, but the message that came across to me is that she would rather just switch my medication. I'm worried about switching without regular medication management. Normally, if your meds are switched, you go in every 2-3 weeks until you are stable, but my insurance ends on the 30th, so I don't have long. It is true that I've done really well this week on the Prozac, so maybe that's a sign...

The Blessing:

I'm so grateful that I haven't been sick from missing my Cymbalta. Usually, I my muscles are really sore, my head hurts continually, and I'm nauseated like I have a stomach bug. I've just been continuously amazed and grateful that I'm not suffering like that.

The Fun:

It's Friday night, so Mitchell and I could just hang out with worrying about work tomorrow. We were able to play a video game together for a couple hours and just have fun.

Play Group and Too Much Sun

The Stupid:
So, I read this article in Psychology Today that talked about the link between depression and vitamin D deficiency. And it said that sunscreen prevents the body from absorbing vitamin D. So, like the smart woman I am, I decided to not wear any sunscreen while we were at play group today. Play group was 3 hours at the pool. My back, shoulders, and upper arms are completely pink and sore. It's annoying, but it's really my own fault.

The Awesome:
I have been feeling surprisingly great this week. I thought I'd be bed-ridden with the "discontinuation syndrome" that usually comes if I miss my Cymbalta. But the Prozac and Wellbutrin have helped me get past any problems. I'm just so grateful for how well I've been dealing with this.

The Fun: 
The kids and I went to play group today. It was hosted at the neighborhood pool of a friend in the ward. It was SO much fun! I didn't take a single picture because I was too busy having fun and enjoying the kids. There were a couple times that I thought about getting the iPad out, but I felt like it would have ruined the special moment that we were having. It took all three of the kids a while to warm up to the water, but that was expected seeing that the last time they were in a pool Joseph was only 2 1/2 and Annabelle was about 9 months; Charlie wasn't even a thought in our minds! Eventually they all got very comfortable in the water and had tons of fun playing. Joseph ended up loving it the most, which I totally wasn't expecting. He's normally very cautious and he doesn't like water very much, so it was a surprise when he stayed in the longest and played the most. My absolute favorite part was the giggles and pure joy that came out when he was using arm floaties for the first time in the deeper water. He just loved that he could be in the water like that. I'm planning on getting them each their own floaties so they can play more next week.

Splurge

On Friday, Mitchell's phone just stopped working. So on Saturday, we went to the AT&T store to get him a new one. They have it now so that you can do monthly payments instead of paying everything at once. While there, the sales girl convinced us to get an iPad. We've been talking about getting one for over a year now, so we decided to just do it. Even though Mitchell was the one who really wanted to get one, I am the one who uses it the most. I love having it! I'm using to it to type this blog post. It's nice because I can just sit in bed and do it. So now I have another reason why blogging should be easier. But I always say that and I still never blog... But I can always hope I'll do better, right?

I have an idea in the works, but I haven't started yet. It would be a project for my other blog that ai haven't gotten on images. Hopefully, I can find time to get started soon.

The Square

So we live about half a mile from downtown Marietta, which is called The Square. There's a big park in the middle and it's surrounded by little shops and restaurants. It's such an awesome place! 

The kids and I walked there yesterday afternoon to play and look around. There is a little playground with a train and little ticket house. The kids love playing there. 

I love Joseph in this one; he looks like Superman about to take off in flight

(which is what he was pretending).

I love her smile in this one!

This one just cracks me up.

Isn't he beautiful?! He learned how to climb up and go down the slide all by himself. He would turn around at the top so he could slide feet-first on his belly. Because it's a metal slide, it's pretty fast; so he'd always get a little shock at the bottom, but he'd just stand up with a huge smile and clap his hands.

We had so much fun playing at the Train Park, and I'm excited that we live so close to it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a great birthday today. Mitchell brought me donuts when he came home from work, and then he did the dishes for me! We went to Denny's for breakfast, which was really nice. Later, we went to the mall and I got 3 amazing smelling lotions from Bath and Body Works; they were having a sale, which is why I got 3. We spent some time in the afternoon watching Season 2 of Adventure Time, which Mitchell bought with a birthday card his brother gave him. Then for dinner, we went to Mimi's Cafe. We were really disappointed there to find out they no longer have their beignets, which were the best part about Mimi's. It was all still really delicious, though. I got to Skype with my mom for a while, and then my really good friend, Kaydee, brought me a present! It's a book that I'm just starting to read. I got so many birthday messages on Facebook, text messages, emails, and phone calls today, which made today even more special. I think this has been one of the best birthdays I've ever had! Now, if Charlie will just go to sleep so it can end well, too... ;)

Making Friends

Joseph and Annabelle have finally made friends in the neighborhood. It took longer here than at Wymount; probably because we never went outside when we first moved here because I was uncomfortably pregnant,and then it was winter. Now, the kids beg to go outside as soon as they wake up. I think it's because they think their friends will be out there all the time, or something like that. So we go outside a lot, and, when their friends actually are out there, they get so excited. Today, when Joseph saw his friend, Daniel, he ran up to him saying, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" 

Last week, Joseph And Annabelle had a play date with their friends at the new splash pad. They had so much fun playing, and it was great for me to get a chance to hang out with other moms.

From left to right: Annabelle, Oliver, Joseph, Leah, Daniel, and Aislin. 

We were really trying to get some cute photos, but my camera is just too slow at taking pictures and the kids were too restless. It's hilarious that Joseph looks so bored, too. They are such a fun bunch of kids, and I'm excited for the fun they will have together this summer.

Oils

I've recently gotten into doTERRA essential oils; I bought a kit of my first oils on Saturday. The kids think it's pretty awesome and they love smelling the oils. The have even started asking for Lavender when they get a scrape or bruise. I don't have much experience with the oils yet, but I'm definitely having fun learning.