Eleri Cate @ 6 months

Eleri Cate at 6 months old

Eleri was not much for smiling today, but I thought she looked cute anyway!  I always have each girl's professional portrait taken on big months as well as their birthdays so that we have a nice portrait of each one in the house.  I always use coupons or get them for free, that is the only way to go!

Eleri Cate is 6 months old

Today Eleri is 6 months old. It has been half of a year since she was born, and again, I just can not believe it. We have really enjoyed her sweetness. At 6 months old, Eleri enjoys blowing raspberries and growling. Eric is very proud of the fact that he taught her to growl, and they growl back and forth at each other. It can be pretty funny! Eleri also likes to move and move. Right now she is rolling from place to place or scooting on her back. Sometimes she even "poses" on her side. She seems to have the strength to sit up, but would rather be on the move. She isn't crawling or sitting up yet, but that is okay with us. Mali sat up late so I'm not worried. I just think our girls would rather be moving than sitting!:) Eleri has started baby food too. So far she has had avocados and sweet potatoes. So far I'm making all of her baby food because she seems to enjoy eating it. She really gobbled up her sweet potatoes. We are going to go to the Farmer's Market later this week to get more vegetables for her food. Eleri also now has a sippy cup. Right now she enjoys chewing on the spout, but does not enjoy when she hits herself in the head with it. Which brings me to her sensitive little personality. Eleri DOES NOT like to get hurt and will let us know. She screams and cries over her injuries! However, she is still a pretty happy little girl. She has made many a person's day by giving them a big, loving smile. I really love that even at a young age, my girls are ministering to people by giving them a smile. It seems that nothing can make someone's day quite like Eleri's innocent, warm and full of love smiles can...especially my day!:) Eleri had started to extend her napping period-right before our Austin trip. That was so nice. I actually felt like I could accomplish something. However, since our trip, she is not napping well or sleeping well at night right now. Oh well, what do I have, 6 more months of this? I would rather be up at night than the alternative of not having our sweet baby girl. Eleri loves to play with her big sister; toys that are not really toys like paper, phones etc.; and in her excersaucer. While we visited the McCulloughs, Eleri tried out a jumper-roo, She LOVED it! We are going to borrow one from the Dallas family so she can have more fun! I think that is a good summary of sweet Eleri Cate at 6 months, as always, I'm sure my sleep deprived brain will think of more later!
I have had the awesome privilege of borrowing two excellent cameras since mine stopped working after our Austin trip. I have Brandon's Canon EOS and Terry's Nikon COOLPIX...so enjoy the better quality pictures that I got to take!

My Sweet Daisies!

While we were at the cabin over the 4th of July, we came across a beautiful grove (if that is the appropriate word) of daisies! Brandon took our family pictures and pictures of the girls. It was beautiful. I could have stayed there all day!

This is my prayer for my girls, that they would honor the King and know Him as Lord, who has created their beauty:
"The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord". Psalm 45:11

First Veggies

Eleri is on the cusp of 6 months old, so while we were on our trip to Austin we decided that we would try out her first vegetables....avocados.  She really seemed to like it.  So when we came home I took new pictures (since my camera and cartridge are not working any longer) of her eating avocados.  She eats about half of an avocado for dinner and is doing great with it.  However, I just realized that avocados are actually a fruit, oh well!  Tonight we are going to try sweet potatoes...I think they are really vegetables.

Coaching School

This last week we traveled with Eric to coaching school in Austin.  This is an annual conference for Texas High School Coaches. I have gone one time with Eric, last time it was in Austin, and he prefers to take me with him. This year since I was nursing Eleri, she had to come, and then he felt bad leaving Mali so we all just came along.  Here is a summary of our trip, and unfortunately I have NO pictures to capture the moments in time.

People we Saw (or happened to run into):

• Carrie, Dan, Luke, and Claire McCullough
• Andrea and Matt
• John, Katie, Ashlyn, and Paige Bimmerlee
• Kisha and Josh (MiMi and Papa too)
• Amarillo High Coaching Staff (of course)
• Brittany, Dan and Teague Arlitt (Sad we missed seeing Troy)
• Kathryn Bixler (She was in Brandon's grade in Ouray and we ran into her at the bridge on Congress and watched the bats with her)
• Aaron McNeely (nine30 alum and bass player; I ran into him in our hotel lobby the last morning)

Great food we ate:

• Joe T Garcia's in Ft. Worth
• America's Best Coffee
• Spaghetti Warehouse
• Chuy's!!!!!
• Rio Grande
• Rio Grande
• Eddie V's Riverside Grill (that was an experience that wasn't so great)

Things we lost:

• My camera (hence no pictures of the trip)
• Eric's credit card that all expenses were going on since the school reimburses them
• Mali's 1 hour old stuffed animal

Miles traveled:

• Amarillo to McCullough's home in Arlington, TX  359 miles
• McCullough home to Joe T's in Ft. Worth-30 miles round trip
• McCullough home to PGA superstore in Frisco-36.9 miles
• Frisco to downtown Austin-220 miles
• Hotel to outlets in Round Rock, lunch at Chuy's and back to hotel-42 miles round trip
• Austin to Amarillo- 513 miles

Things that we saw or experienced (some numbers may be an estimation):

• 1001 bats
• 26 wind mills
• 3 dead animals
• 30 outlets stores
• 127 cows, horses, goats, and sheep
• 1 golf course
• 1 4ft swimming pool
• 2 cozy queen beds
• 3 poopy diapers
• 1 new DVD player
• 3-times we watched/heard "Tinkerbell"
• 4-times we watched/heard "Horton Hears a Who"
• 6 spankings and 7 time outs 
• 16-ounces of Starbuck's decaf Cinnamon Dolce Latte's that I enjoyed each morning in our lobby!
• $5-cost of two buttons created by a deaf artist depicting the bats at Congress bridge.
• 21-average minutes of Eleri's naps during our trip.
• $21.65-cost of a new blankie for Mali
• 0 minutes of crying and complaining....way to go sweet girls!!!
• $$$ amount of money spent on a good family trip with lots of memories, although I need to add some dollar signs now that my lost, but found, camera is officially inoperable!

Little Fish

This week Mali had swim lessons for the first time.  She really had fun and looked forward to her 30 minute daily lessons.  I think she was also excited that Mr. Andrew was her swim instructor.    We were so proud of Mali and how much learned.  Today we got to watch her on her last day.  She did great!  I got a little nervous at one point when she was underwater for a while. I did notice this week that she was pretty much the only child that DID NOT stop moving!  The only down side was that Mali cried and cried about going down the water slide. I'm hoping her new skills will come in handy while we are in Austin this coming week. 

What Mali learned:

Move through the water independent of adult support using a Power Swimmer Floatation device

Go underwater and come up fro air-breath holding and control

Front float

Back Float

Kicking on the front or back

Paddle stroke

Ask permission to go into the water

Pool and Class Rules

Hold on to the side of the pool

Enter and exit the pool safely and independently 

Here are video clips of swim lessons!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

From the mouths of babes...or one at least

Mali and I have spent a lot of time talking about Jesus in the last few months and she has asked a lot of questions, and hopefully I've answered them with wisdom.  Out of those conversations have come the following cute sayings:

We went to the doctor with Eric for his checkup the other day, and there was a cross section model of a heart.  She brought it to me and asked "So where is Jesus?" I tried to explain you couldn't see him in your heart, just feel Him in your heart. She then said "I think he's there is the web part."

The other night, her and Eric were reading, and she said "Know what my favorite book is?  It's the Bible." (Said very matter-of-fact.  And I wish that were really true for me and her!).

I won't include the OTHER sayings Mali has come up, I'd rather forget those.  But lets just say she repeats what she hears and is very honest!  It just reminds me that we can not take credit for the good in our kids, or we have to take credit for the bad too!  Everything good in both of my girls is through God and His great mercy!  And, honestly, the bad is probably my fault, or at least some kind of reaping what you sow from when I was a child!:) (Not really, I DO NOT believe God works that way.)

Home

Two years ago today, Amarillo became our home.  We packed up all of our belongings in our first home, closed on that house and made the drive to Amarillo.  It certainly was bittersweet.  But now Amarillo does feel like home, it doesn't feel like only two years that we have lived here!

 So in honor of our anniversary in Amarillo, here is what I like about Amarillo:

1. Quick drive to the cabin, which means we can go more frequently AND that we don't have to leave at 10am to come home.

2. Our neighborhood

3. Our house....we drove past our house in Lubbock last time we were there, and I have to say I don't miss what they neighborhood had become.  We are so blessed to live where we do!

4. Our flowerbeds in the front.

5. Hillside Christian Church and the kids ministry there (where we go to church).

6. Amarillo High Football

7.  The work that I get to do and how God has blessed me tremendously through it!

8.  BSA and my OB who was wonderful for Eleri's birth, and who also diagnosed my molar pregnancy and cared for me so well during that time.

9. Being so close to Brandon that we get to hang out with him nearly every weekend or just an evening visit.

10.  Dinners with Chris and Megan and how great they are to our girls.

11. ChickFilA (I think it is a better environment here than in Lubbock).

12.  Amarillo College kids classes...ballet is only about $40/semester....SOOO affordable.

13.  Although I don't have a plethora of friends here yet, I am thankful for those that God has brought into my life.  And quite honestly, I'm not sure I have all that much time for lots of friends!  

There may be more, but I think a list of 13 things is pretty good for a place that I thought I would hate!

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Eleri is rolling all over the place...well except the wood floor.  She loves to roll to her sister and to roll to her crib and even under it (where Mali usually is playing).

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Diapers

When we had Mali, I remember how much of a struggle it was to be able to pay for diapers. I spent time asking God to provide for us and learning what His provision meant. We were even provided for by our wonderful friends the Dallas family who just dropped off an extra box of diapers one time. Honestly, I'm thankful for that time in our lives, it was hard and I didn't always trust God. I also felt like I had to be careful to not "use" God as our genie, but I felt that He had showed me that staying at home with Mali was best, so I believed that He would provide the needs we couldn't because of me not having an income. This time around, we can afford diapers, its still a big purchase and not easy to just find that money, but we can do it, but again, I'm thankful for learning how to rely on God for our provisions and trusting Him that early with our sweet baby Mali! I'm learning in news ways to trust God this time around...like with Eleri's safety or that she is getting enough attention or stimulation since I have to split my time between the girls/housework/and being a wife.

So, this time around I've become more thrifty as well. My friend Carrie taught me about CVS and the great deals there. I buy the pampers when they are on sale ($8.99/jumbo package and I usually get two) and use a pamper's coupon, plus scan my extra care card to get bonus bucks. One time I got two packages of diapers for $5!!! At Wal-Mart that would be about $19.00 for a box. For all of those interested in being thritfy and saving try out this website! I feel very proud of my accomplishments when I score a great deal. It takes more effort than running into Wal-Mart but it is more rewarding!:)

http://iheartcvs.com/2008/03/cvs-for-newbies.html

Let Freedom Ring

We celebrated the 4th of July at the cabin again this year. It really is one of my favorite traditions, because I love the cabin and because we've been celebrating there for at least the last 18 years. Not many holidays were consistent for me growing up, but 4th of July was one that was, and I love it! Anyway, we drove up Thursday afternoon and stopped at Cougar Canyon Golf Resort in Trinidad, CO. It is a links course designed by Jack Nicklaus and Eric played as his Father's Day gift. We rode along with him and enjoyed watching him play. He will have to go back when he can play by himself and not worry about his 3 girls. We got the cabin late that night.

Friday, we enjoyed hiking around the resort and enjoying the cool mountain air. Brandon took some pictures of us and the girls in a beautiful daisy patch we stumbled upon. I'm hoping pictures in the daisies will become a new tradition as well. We got to eat lunch at the Dog Bar, another one of our new traditions. After that, the guys prepared for their annual entry in the parade. Again, Eric and Brandon dressed up, this time with the added moustaches, and Brandon pulled Eric on his skis. They were a hit again, and we enjoyed the parade. I heard several people commenting on their entry being their favorite! It is funny to see! I made the girls matching tutus, but of course Mali wouldn't wear hers to the parade! Eleri slept in my arms and Mali caught plenty of candy, especially from her Daddy. Mali was a little sad to not be in the parade this year, but we may have Grandpa convinced to enter with all his grandkids (something we used to joke-ingly talk about doing, and now there are 6 grandkids!) We enjoyed some time outdoors; playing in the stream, swinging in the hammock, and just taking in the beauty. Eleri did not sleep good at the cabin, or since we've returned for that matter, so I look forward to next year when she is a little older!
Lastly, this year, for some reason, I just realized that 4th of July is a time to celebrate freedom. I'm thankful for freedom as an American, but more importantly freedom as a Christian. I spent many years not walking in freedom and am so very thankful for the freedom that I have through Christ! I try to walk in this freedom each day!
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Corinthians 3:17




the above pictures were Terry's To see more pictures, look on my facebook.

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"Clean up, clean up, every body every where.."

Clean up clean up, every body every where, clean up clean up, every body do your share! Well, Mali has not been doing her share of cleaning up her room. It has been a battle for a long time. I've tried spanking her, sitting in there with her, and even promising a large reward (AND following through on it). I've taken things away like going swimming, not playing with friends, and not going to the movie theatre. We've tried not allowing her to do anything until her room is clean and spanking her if she comes out. None of this has worked, and when it has worked it has only been temporary and has not motivated her to keep it clean. When I give her tokens for each item she picks up, that works, but I have to be in there and have to stay on top of her...not always possible between feedings and putting Eleri down for naps. I also tried making it a game of see how fast you can go, how much you can pick up in 15 minutes, and beat Mommy...none of these worked. Positive reinforcement definitely works better with Mali and I can tell that she gets so overwhelmed with how much she has to do, so she just lays around and cries. BUT, I want her to be intrinsically motivated to clean her room, but maybe that won't happen until SHE is 29!:) Yesterday, Eleri was taking a good nap and I was in picking up Mali's room with her and she wasn't helping, so I decided to heed the advice of several friends, and my dad, and take away all of her toys. I put some in the attic but most in their baskets in our closet. I took Eric's shoes down so the toys could fit. I thought that if they were visible to her, it could be continued motivation to keep her room clean to get them back. So in the process of me taking up the toys, Mali said "thats okay you can take them away and give them to kids that don't have toys", and "I don't want them anyway" and "here's this one, I don't like it anyway." AND, she scavenged the toys she liked and hid them in the living room. However, I took those away too. She was allowed to keep 4 toys...three stuffed animals and a Littlest Pet shop toy that was actually where it was supposed to be. So it pretty much didn't phase her. At one point she asked for Big Bunny because she needed to marry him, and I explained to her when she could keep her room picked up she could have him back first. She had a few tears, but that has been it so far. Eric asked if her room was now spotless, the answer is NO. She is also making a mess with clothes and is changing several times a day. While I was working, Mali changed outfits 6 times and got out a lot of books too. I'm trying to follow the advice of a friend...Mali gets two tokens to change clothes and once she uses the tokens she can't change anymore. I hope it works, but I'm sure when I go to work or feed Eleri she will sneak in a clothes changes.

So today we are headed to the movie theatre without drama, and I ask myself, "wouldn't it just be easier if she took the 10 minutes to pick up her room?"

Sorry grandparents for all the toys you've given her, they are taking a much needed vacation and will hopefully return soon!