Crackin' It Up!

Feeding her baby doll


Apron on and ready to bake with mommy! It is just isn't appropriate for mommy to dress like this ;)



Click HERE to view more pictures from November

Hang on Here I come....

"Clean, Clean"

I think it is sad when my two year old cries when I tell her there is nothing else to clean. ONE of her favorite tasks is Windex-ing the windows, TV and TV stand. I told her "all done", she then broke out in a tantrum while screaming (with the most pitiful voice/scream) "clean, clean. Help, help". Now she is onto sweeping...

I think my neighbors believe I run a child slave camp. Really I don't.

Happy Saturday everyone!

As Promised...

On The Move!

There is nothing that is going to keep this little girl still anymore! She is a fast little booger may I add. Olivia is really trying to keep up with her sister, she has started mastering her skills of pulling herself up. She is even walking from object to object while holding on to it. She is also trying to follower her sister up the stairs. Thank goodness she isn't quite tall enough to get her leg up the first step, otherwise she would already be going up them. Did I mention Olivia JUST turned 7 months!! oh and she is getting her first tooth/teeth (can't quite tell if two are coming or just one).
In comparison to what Evelynn did at what age (more for myself than anyone else I guess, but I will still share). Evelynn Started Crawling about 6 months. (Olivia, 4 months), Sitting about 7 months (Olivia, the same), Pulling herself up a few days shy of 8 months (Olivia, 6 1/2 almost 7 months), first tooth I think 7 months (Olivia, the same). So they are running neck and neck. I just think Olivia is trying to be mobile faster because of having Evelynn to try to keep up with.
Here are a few picture of Olivia in her mobile stage. I hope to get a video up of her cruising around, but with church and all tonight it might have to wait until tomorrow.

My little helpers!

Evee's Birthday In Pictures..

Evelynn turned two on October 4. We had a party planned for her, but because of illness and the doctor saying Olivia was still contagious, we had to cancel the party. So instead of the party on Saturday, we just hung out at home with the sicklings. Then that evening, we went over to my parents house, because I did not feel like cooking dinner after nights of not much sleep. So I made her a cake, and we sang to her at my parents house.




Checking out her puzzles and bike from Grandma and Grandpa Edwards.

On Sunday, her actual Birthday, we spent a part of the day with the youth at our annual Harvest Fest.


Helping daddy put together the kitchen Grandma and Grandpa Pauls got her.


Olivia trying to get in there and help too. :)


I have many more pictures of her birthday, but this is getting long. So there was a glimpse of her birthday. Sorry there was no party Evelynn!

Flower Fun

What started off as this...



Turned into this...


I love to do flowers for the church altar, even though I have never been taught how. So for my Grandma's memorial I was honored to be able to do the floral wreaths. I was a bit nervous, seeing as how I had never done wreaths, but i think they turned out nice- at least for my first time.

Little Momma...

When I watch Evelynn play, it amazes me how much of her "motherly" traits are already showing in her. Yes she watches me with Olivia, but I can't help but believe that those are ones that she already had. Like a seed, the more you water it the more it grows. Which also is a constant reminder that I need to watch how I "mother".
So many times I look over and she is trying to put a diaper on her baby doll, wiping it, rocking it, walking around and humming to it, trying to walk it, and the newest thing she is doing today is feeding it her morning cereal which happened to be cheerios.

My Sick Lil Boo...

(this was after we got home from the doctors)

Little Olivia has be stricken with her "first illness" (actual illness not just and upset tummy). Boy has it hit her hard too. Friday morning around 4am, she woke me up screaming. She was burning up! I have given her Tylenol all day and her temperature has not been below 101.7. At the doctors she was up to 103. They tested her for strep, but that came back negative. So we don't really know what she has except for some type of infection. I guess nothing that a little amoxicillin and cuddle time can't cure.I will admit I love the extra cuddle time! I have had a full day of non stop cuddling-pure joy.
Remember that yummy pink medicine you got when you were young? yeah she got that one! Why can't they make that for adults?
Here is to hoping she feels better soon.

Already?!

HAPPY SIX MONTHS OLIVIA ROSE!

"O-de- O-de- O"

So I am a little late posting, but Olivia is crawling now and has been since she was 4 months old. She is getting faster and faster everyday, trying desperately to keep up with her sister(of whom she adores!).
Here is a video of her crawling. In the background you will here Evelynn say "Olivia". We keep trying to get her to say it for the camera but she won't, so I got her to say it in the background. We just love how she says her little sisters name!
Anyway here it is...

Olivia is also working on her motor skills, and has become almost a pro at the pitch E. She loves to hear herself ALL day long. She does have her quiet moments too, where she just plays with her toys on her own. She really is an easy content baby. She is also working on sitting up. She is almost there, but still tends to lean a little too far forward.
Today she crawled to the stairs, I guess that is a sign of what is right around the corner.

This is What Happens When You Do Laundry...

Well atleast if you don't do it in the same room as the naughty, sassy, miss independent, clean freak, almost two year old, Evelynn.

It could have and has been worse, luckily this time it was just wipes.

Time to call it a lunch break..

She Approves of the grean beans! So much so she thought she should feed herself!

And So It Begins...

For the record, when deciding to have another child not only do you want the older one out of diapers, but you also want the older one done with teething. I am not enjoying having two little ones that are teething. Evelynn, is getting her two year molars. Well at least this is the only thing that I could think of that has been keeping her up screaming the last few nights. It also explains the poodles of drool she leaves behind, almost more than Olivia!
Can I say for the record, I miss my sleep. I know it will come back soon enough, but could it come before I loose my sanity? Please...
And so it begins... Evelynn is two (in 3 weeks) and she is the reason I am up typing this at 5:45AM. I know there are many that get up this early, I am not one of them. I have no need to and no desire to, so thus I SHOULD be in bed. However, her *insert whiny voice* "NO", drove me to my wits end at 5:30. After being up and down with her AGAIN tonight, Ryan went to go lay with her this morning. The only thing I was hearing from the monitor was her NO, NO, NO,NO! So I said that is IT, she already has most of the family up (thankfully Olivia still slept through it) we might as well start the day. She will stay up until her normal nap time today, so she understands what getting up all through the night and then getting up at 5:30 does to a person. And not to mention days in a row. I am very determined to teach her! SHE WILL LEARN!
Can I also say for the record, I hate the word NO!
She can turn back into her little angel self anytime soon, I wouldn't stop her. She can also turn back into the great sleeper that she is and has been for most of her life. She can also start talking actual words, and not just no. If someone finds her please bring her back to me....Thanks in advance!

Stacy

They Take After Ryan :)

She kept rolling to the wall, every time I would pull her away a few minutes later she would be right back at the wall. Totally not interested in her toys that she passed on the way there.
Oh yeah, I haven't posted to tell everyone She is crawling!! She is getting quite fast at it too. She is trying so hard to keep up with her sister.

Here is a picture of her sister being silly too...



Yup they take after their Father. lol

Bare with me..

Please bare with me as I am trying to give my blog a new look. What was thought to be an easy task, is everything but....
Thank you!

Day 2...

WE HAVE PEE IN THE POTTY!! I am not sure what happened in her sleep Thursday night, but whatever it was, caused her potty training to click with her. She went 6 times and one true accident. I was anticipating having another rough day, but I was in the kitchen cleaning and I started singing the potty song that her toilet sings to her. "Toilet paper, toilet paper, on a roll, next to me, i could use a few squares maybe one or two how about three, hurray for me"... Wondering why that song popped in my head, I glanced over at Evelynn and sure enough she was dancing along with the toilet singing to her. I was so excited and so proud of Evelynn.

Day 1...

We are back at trying to potty train again. She has been telling us when she goes, and can't stand it if she has tinkled in her diaper even once. SO....we are back at it again.
This is how I feel about it and how it is going... It wouldn't be acceptable to put a picture of me, so I will use Olivia :). She sums it up for me!

She was listening!

We always point to things and tell Evee what they are. We ask her to repeat it, and nope, NOTHING. OVER AND OVER we tried. Don't get me wrong she does talk, I just want her to expand her vocabulary. Lets face it, you can't get by with only momma, dadda, sippy and movie. Today a light bulb turned on for her. She kept going to things and saying what they were and asking for things by their actual name. I am still blown away as I am typing. It is so funny the things that create excitement as parents. So here is what she can say at 22 months..
Momma
Dadda
Kitty
Olivia
Grandpa
Grandma
Jacob
Jon
Lex
Bread
Juice
Pretty please
drink
thirsty
bike
cracker
cookie
amen
outside
sippy
binky
blanky
close door
bath
eye
nose
football
ball
There are probably more, I am drawing a blank. I hope to get her to say these on video. I will post it when we get to it.
We will also be trying the potty training again.... I really hope she gets it soon! It can be so frustrating!!

Update on Olivia. She too is doing well with her milestones. We had her 4 month check up last week. She weighed 15lbs and 23 3/4in long. 90% for weight and 95% for length. We had the OK to start solid food for her, so that has been the new thing around here. She so far is liking rice cereal with smashed bananas in it. She is rolling over both ways. She loves Veggie Tales. If it was up to Evelynn she would have Veggie Tales on 24/7 even though she looses her interest 10minutes into it, but Olivia will sit and watch the whole thing. She laughs at Bob whenever he comes on the screen. I guess who wouldn't laugh at talking vegetables/fruit.

Of course I can't post without pictures.

Evelynn thinks the chest is her perfect seat to watch Veggie Tales. Silly girl!


Look at those dimples on her chubby cheeks!

FaMiLy

We were flooded with family at the end of July….
So growing up we went down to see my dad’s side of the family in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee every year. As I have gotten older, got jobs, then married, then children, I haven’t really made the opportunity to get down there. Then this past January, we were supposed to head down there, FINALLY, for a family reunion, but to my disappointment we were not able to get down there. It was a huge disappointment. 1) I haven’t seen them for so long, 2) Ryan hasn’t officially met them all yet 3) Evelynn hadn’t even met them yet! Well, at the end of July, two of my Aunts made it up for a visit. It was so nice to see them and have them meet the girls. Ryan had met these two aunts (Aunt Betty and Aunt Katie) at our wedding, but now he was able to spend some time with them and get to know them a little more. The time was way too short!!!
Here are a couple pictures of my Aunts and our time with them. We brought them downtown Saugatuck, which was CRAZY! We did not know that the Venetian Festival was going on. We were not prepared for a large crowd, with 15 of us trying to stay together. Needless to say, we all ended up on our own and trying to find each other. However we did come together for a nice dinner and time at the Holland Outlet Mall/Dutch Village. Anyway onto the pictures.


Out to dinner. Dad, Aunt Betty, and Aunt Katie


Evee loved riding the little car.



Here is a link for more pictures


The same week my Uncle Scott, from my mom’s side brought my grandma up for a visit and brought two of his kids with him. They moved down to Alabama back around 2005, and we haven’t really seen them since. Caleb and Caleigh (my two cousins), stayed with us for a couple weeks. It was great to get to know them; they had grown up so much! We had such a great time laughing, playing games (SETTLERS ROCKS!!), going to beach and just hanging out!! At the end of their stay we had a little family picnic at the beach for my mom side of the family.


Here are some pictures of my cousins. Unfortunately, the photographer slacked and didn’t really take pictures other than when we were downtown Saugatuck and at the family picnic. Sorry.


Aunt Tina and Olivia. It was supposed to be really warm that day, but it was so cold at the beach, so Olivia stayed wrapped up most of the day.


Cousin Cassey with Olivia


Cousin Caleb and Aunt Tina


Logan, Karma, and Evelynn


Karma and Evee :)


Karma with her Grandma Shelly


Evee enjoying the lake
Here is a link for more pictures

You can do it Evee!

Oh how I love my dear Evelynn but why does potty training have to be so hard. They have obedience and potty training classes for dogs. Why can't we have that for our children. Ah! I am pulling my hair out over here! We are only on day 2 and had ONE "tinkle" in the potty! I am sure you can guess where the other "tinkles" went...yup on the floor!
Well this isn't really that interesting of a topic,but I wanted to let you know the new milestone we are at here in the Pauls home... Oh it will be so nice to have only one in diapers again!
You can do it Evelynn!

God please answer mommy's prayer! ;)

Catch Up in Pictures...

Evelynn and Daddy watching the balloon launch in Battle Creek


Lexi and I


Olivia is getting SO big!




Mommy and Olivia


Evelynn riding her first coaster with Daddy


Sparkler Fun!




Here are a couple more links for more pictures of the girls..
Evelynn
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109502&id=525980811&l=03d7463075
Olivia
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109508&id=525980811&l=3dceff2bc4