So, my birthday... Fortunately for me, Gilbert's van has been out of commision on days that are very convenient for me. One of those times being the day I was sent to the hospital to have Elise. Another time being my birthday. Someone bashed in one of his windows at a job site and I had to be home all day Monday to wait for it to be repaired. He was supposed to get a rental car but the rental car company took forever in tracking down a truck and having it cleaned. All of that to say, he ended up being home on my birthday.

Matthew always has been a rockstar









Me and my girl



One of my little craft projects. I made Elise this little head band because I was tired of battling clips and I wanted to put something girly on her head but I'm not a fan of the elastic head bands sold in most stores.



I was craving Chinese food on my birthday so we went to Pei Wei.

Elise and her "Mana"



Matthew and his rice



Jason's Asian pose. I think I caught my mom off guard.



Then I realized that I don't have a recent picture of just me and Gilbert. I think the last one was taken the day of my brother's wedding.







Then Matthew decided he wanted to rough house with Mana and he lost his pants somewhere along the way.













My mom bought me a sewing machine for my birthday. I've been able to do a basic hand stitch since I was in jr high but that's about it. I've been wanting to get crafty so my mom decided it was time to teach me how to really use a sewing machine. So I decided to take on my first project and I made a jingle ball for Elise using some scrap fabric I had lying around from some other projects I'd done. The hand stitching to close it up is a little rough and I think it needs more filling but I figure it's a learning process =). Oh, and she got another new headband.

Well, the weekend came and went pretty quickly, but not very quietly. I'll post about my birthday separately because there are a lot of pictures to share.

Matthew insisted on taking his daddy's Broncos hat to bed with him the other day. I managed to sneak into his room and snap this picture.



Elise hamming it up for the camera





Believe it or not, she has 3 top teeth but I think one of her front teeth is either taking its time coming in or it's not going to come in all the way.

Playing with Daddy



My mom got in on Thursday afternoon and the kids took to her really well and really quickly. We spent most of Friday morning running around and decided to just relax on Saturday. I think the kids had worn her out by then anyway.





Elise is very, very reluctant to bear weight on her feet. Her pediatrician suspects that it's some kind of balance issue because her feet are so tiny compared to the rest of her. She's definitely more petite than Matthew was at this age, even with all the chunk, but she's still wearing age appropriate clothes. Her feet still fit into size 1 or 0-3 month shoes. So because of her reluctance to stand and my lack of free time, my mom took it upon herself to get her to stand more. Elise loved looking out the front window.











Sundays are always busy and I'm pretty much always exhausted so Gilbert and my mom made me take a nap. Yes, I sometimes have to be forced to nap because I have a hard time accepting that it's okay for me to relinquish responsibility of my children every now and then. I'm just so used to being the one to watch them that it feels weird when someone else offers to do it.

Monday was fairly quiet, but that's a separate post.

Tuesday we just hung out for bit and Mason came over after school. He got picked up after nap time and Matthew and I took my mom to the airport. It was definitely harder for me to see her go than I thought it would be. Luckily she'll be back when this baby is born.

So, I have had time to update, but our computer died on us a few days ago. Lucky for me, I have a geek for a husband and he has our computer somewhat back up and running now. By somewhat I mean he's been trying to restore everything but his work schedule is getting in the way =). The kids' pictures were the first priority and everything else is just going to get done when he gets around to it. I'm ok with that. As long as I can transfer the kids' pictures onto the computer and get recipes, I'm good.

Things are warm here today. I liked it better when it was 50 degrees out.

It's fun watching Matthew try to mimic all of our mannerisms and stances. He wanted to watch TV with Jason.





Both kids were sick and poor Elise was pretty miserable.



I was told to turn the camera off



Snack time







We had a rather long play date yesterday and I'm still recovering from that and some other errands we ran yesterday. I'd like to go back to bed but I don't think the kids are going to let me. Bummer. Anyway, Matthew was given a fresh, warm chocolate chip cookie at our play date and I had to take a picture of the chocolate covered face.





First time riding in the cart together. I spent a lot of time reminding Matthew to be gentle with his sister, which is pretty much what I was expecting.



So, I went to the doctor on Friday and while I was there they offered to do an ultrasound just for fun. I was the last patient of the day and the nurse that was there is going to school to be an ultrasound tech so she wanted to play for a little bit. I agreed as long as they didn't tell me the sex because Gilbert wasn't there with me. She did take a peek to see if she could tell but she didn't try very hard and said that the umbilical cord was in the way. That's ok. We'll try harder in 3 weeks. Anyway, Baby looked great and s/he was moving around for us. Mouth opening and closing, arms waving, the whole bit. My belly really hasn't grown much although I'm feeling pretty large. I did take a picture of my belly today but I haven't uploaded it yet and there's really not much change.

It's been a long morning here. Matthew seems to be coming down with a cold and he's been running around like a maniac all morning. I finally decided I'd had enough of the grumpy energizer bunny and put him to bed. He was asleep a lot faster than I expected him to be. Poor kid. I hope he wakes up from his nap in a much better mood.

Last Saturday we were lazy and let the kids stay in their pj's for a while and let them play in the kitchen while their daddy made breakfast.





Then I decided that we needed to update the giant family picture we have in our laundry room. This was originally a sign at our church and when they updated the signs I couldn't bear to have it thrown away, so now we have this giant picture of our family that was taken about a week after we moved to Texas.





Matthew showing me where he is in the picture



I think Elise was trying to eat his hair





Getting some energy out on his horse



What is it with boys and cardboard boxes?





Elise loves listening to Daddy play the drums. Here she's enjoying them from a fairly safe distance. She was downstairs with me.

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

My silly boy

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Bumblebee bobblehead

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

No belly picture yet this week. 16 weeks. Woohoo! 4 weeks until we find out what we're having (if Baby cooperates). My ticker to the left says "Mommy should be feeling me kick soon if she hasn't already". Well, I've definitely felt a few pokes here and there. I guess that's one of the perks to baby #3 in a 3 year period.