What's New?

  So, I've been slacking on our blog lately... and meanwhile our kiddos have been growing by leaps and bounds! Here's what we've been up to since Christmas.

So, mostly normal life has been happening and we've been trying to keep up.
We did take a quick trip to the Insectarium in New Orleans before the semester started and Mike got busy. It was pretty neat. O loved all the different kinds of bugs and we all enjoyed the butterfly garden at the end, it was so cool!

 O and the termite...

O being a termite...

 O wrestling the alligator...

O in the bug armor with Elliott in the background. Sheesh, you'd think O was the only one at the Insectarium, poor Elliott! He did enjoy it, too. He likes following brother around and trying to do everything he does.

Elliott has been getting more and more mobile. I'm pretty sure he's checked out every corner of the house he can reach now! Here he is in the pantry trying out some smores stuff.

He's a quick crawler now and likes to try to climb, too!

Mike took a trip to the Dentist several weeks ago for his jaw. He's been having TMJ so bad he hasn't been able to play since last semester. The dentist took molds for a splint and he got it two weeks ago. So far it seems to be doing the trick, he was finally able to start practicing again this week! Yay! Also, he only had 3 cavities after not seeing a dentist for 11 years. I know right, pretty impressive! We feel very grateful, we were trying to prepare ourselves for much worse. Plus, they didn't find the third cavity until the dentist was filling the other two, so he filled it for free which was really nice!(Maybe less so for Mike... lol)

Meanwhile, he's been on a soft-foods diet, so we've been eating a lot of rice and pasta and such. He's really missing his potato chips, so to try to make up for the absence of his favorite foods, we made Baked Mac and Cheese a couple weeks ago. It's a really yummy recipe we got from Piper awhile back and he was in Mac and Cheese heaven for a whole week!

Here's a random pic of me from Mike's phone. You can't really see it, but I'm feeding Elliott. Due to his big appetite, this is pretty much my position a big chunk of the time. Sometimes I cook dinner, or clean up the kitchen, or chase crazy boys around the house and try to teach them new things. I think they call all this craziness Motherhood, and I really love it! ...I do sometimes wish it came with more sleep...haha!

We took a fun trip to the zoo last month with playgroup. The weather was perfect and both boys loved it!

We even got to ride the train with some of our friends at the end. O was in heaven because he's been asking to do this forever!

Elliott's started getting pretty good at feeding himself...

It's so cute to watch!

O is so animated with his stories and non-stop questions now, I love it! He is also becoming quite the dancer... or something...

Then O had his first day at Sunbeams. He was looking so dapper and was very excited to start "Big Boy Class" at church. He did great!

Here he is with his friend Leah. He made sure to bring his special scriptures that Aunt Lindsay gave him!

One week for playgroup we went to a place called Pretend Play. It's so cute! They had all sorts of different stations where the kids could pretend in different ways, like a grocery store with a register, food, and a cart, a castle, a sandbox with fake sand and sand toys, a fire truck with sirens and firemen outfits, and so much more. O had a blast! They even had a special play area for babies which Elliott loved!

 Here's O and his friend Ian playing firemen.

Last month we had to move Elliott's mattress down, since he started pulling himself up in his crib.

He loves doing anything brother's doing, so when we set up the tent, they have so much fun together inside!

He's getting more and more animated and we can start to see his little personality coming out. We love it! Here he is talking to his reflection in the oven door.

Since we couldn't make it playgroup last week because Dad was using the car to go to the dentist, we had our own Mardi Gras party at home. We made a mask, ate king cake, and watched "The Princess and the Frog." It was so fun!

On Sunday, we had fun playing Hide and Seek after dinner with O. Elliott was having fun showing off his clapping. He's been clapping for a couple weeks, but I just got a video of it Sunday.

Here's another cute video of his clapping...

Dad was off for a couple days for Mardi Gras this week, so we went to Bass Pro Shops on Tuesday to check out the fish again and let Dad drool over, I mean, check out the fishing stuff. We love it!

Here's Dad and O up looking through the bubble in the top of the tank.

It was Elliott's first time actually noticing there were fish in the tank, so he thought it was awesome!
O has decided he wants his own 4-wheeler...

The boys have been loving all the awesome Valentine's they've received this week. Thank you everyone! O thinks they're like a little book written just for him, so we have to read them over and over during reading time. Elliott has tasted them all and thinks they taste pretty good. I have to put them up a little higher so he can't reach them!

The most exciting thing happening now is our little E starting to stand. Check him out!