Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful holiday weekend. Our friends Shaun, Rebecca, and Ella came to visit from D.C. We all had Thanksgiving dinner together, we went on a sleigh ride, picked up our Christmas tree, and played at Pullen Park- train ride, carousel, boat ride, and swings and slides of course! It was a beautiful weekend. The girls had a lot of fun playing together, and everyone helped out so much. It was so much fun, and we have so much to be thankful for this year. We are really excited for the Christmas season, and the birth of our second daughter Lily!

Happy Halloween!

Well, October has been a fun month of craziness! We had so much fun at the County Fair, the Renaissance Fair, the pumpkin patch, the ward party, Holly Springs Festival, Adam's Fall Festival at school, and trick-or-treating! It has been so much fun, especially watching Ellie enjoy it all so much! She is having trouble moving on from Halloween, and still wants to watch pumpkin movies and draw ghosts and monsters- lol. She was a darling cupcake though, and we had fun dressing up for music makers! Here is Ellie, Quinn and Kai (the twin boys I watch), Aiden, and Cali all dressed up. They are so cute together!

Ellie won 3rd place in the town Halloween contest! There were around 100 kids competing, so it was pretty cool! She had a blast, and is still enjoying the little toys they gave her :)

This is a pic with some glasses she won- she loved wearing them and didn't take them off! Such a cutie pie.

Ellie the cupcake with Daddy the chef- I think it is so cool that Adam made his own hat!

There were so many fun things to do at the festival, and Ellie enjoyed the puppet show, painting pumpkins, the bouncy houses, and the petting zoo. Here is a great shot Adam got of her in the park painting her "baby punkin"

She had a lot of fun trick or treating, and thanked everyone repeatedly for the candy :) She kept saying more houses, but when her bag was full we called it a night! She has loved all the fall festivities, and I am really looking forward to celebrating Christmas with her :) With her talking so much and understanding so much more this year, I think it will be so much more fun! I just hope I am not in the hospital delivering this baby! I am 31 weeks today!! So exciting! There is still so much to do before this little girl gets here, but I am so excited to see her, and pretty excited to not be pregnant anymore :) Well, happy holiday season to everyone!

My Big Girl!

I love fall! We have been having so much fun enjoying this North Carolina fall with the cooler weather, pumpkins and getting ready for Halloween! I have just been realizing how fast time is passing- Ellie is growing up so much! I can hardly believe it! Her memory is amazing, and after we took her to Pullen Park (in pic above) she is still asking for trains and ducks weeks later. She is talking so well now and knows all of her colors and is learning her letters and can count to two! She is such a friendly little girl and loves to talk to everyone wherever we go. She is so fun! We took her to the pumpkin patch, corn maze and hay ride last Saturday and she had a blast! She loved seeing the "mean mean monsters" and riding on the "truck" (tractor) and she LOVED getting "punkins'" from the "punkin' patch"!

But time seems to pass too quickly. She is sleeping on a big girl bed now, and is starting to use the potty, and now the pacifier is gone forever. We have been letting her use it only when it is time to go to sleep since her first birthday, and now we have said bye-bye for good. Ellie threw it in the garbage so she could be a big girl. Daddy rewarded her with a big girl bike! When she is really sad and misses it, she tells me "wassy (pacifier) bye bye, threw away, bike!" and calms herself down to go to sleep. I love her so much! It is so fun to see her grow up, but it happens too fast!

Hello Fall!

Hello friends! It has been a really long time! So, I finally have uploaded pictures on my picasa, and I thought it was time to update my blog :) Life has been busy, as always! I have taken on a part time temporary nanny position with a family who's nanny is on maternity leave. These are the twin 2 year old boys and 4 year old girl I watch during the week. Ellie loves having friends to play with! They have one more son, but he is older and I only watch him for an hour or so 3 times a week. I am so grateful for the work, and even though I am 6 months pregnant, I am enjoying keeping up with all of these super cute kids!
Work is going great for Adam, he started a creative writing class a few times a week after school that the kids just love! He has a great class this year, and some really sweet and bright kids.
We have finally finished Ellie's new room and setting up Lily's nursery. Yay! I was so proud of Adam. He painted Ellie's new room all by himself, and it took days! We did flat on gloss stripes of a light purple- it is beautiful! Adam did an amazing job :) And, Ellie has been sleeping in a big girl bed for a whole week now without any problems! I am so so so happy!
We are so excited to have our friends the Calderwoods come for Thanksgiving and my family at Christmas. I can't believe that Christmas, our baby being born, and Ellie's birthday all will happen within weeks of eachother! Aaah! I'm trying not to panic :) Here are a few more pics of our going-ons, but for more you can visit my picasa at picasaweb.google.com/tawniewest

New York, New York!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have wanted to go to New York my whole life! I have always wanted to go since I read a certain Babysitter's Club book... well, that's embarassing enough :) Well, I finaly got to go! Josh and Stacy took me along when they went to visit Stacy's parents who are mission Presidents in NY, NY. We all squished into a ar and took off for a seven day long trip! It was amazing. I had so much fun!!! The city was beautiful in all of it's constant buzz of energy and towering buildings. I even loved the freaky looking pigeons, the long rides on the subways, and the mobs of people everywhere we went. Times Square was so cool, and Grand Central Station was beautiful! I still can hardly believe I got to see a show on Broadway... The Phantom of the Opera! It was so amazing. Stacy and I went one night, and my wonderful older brother watched the kids.
Ellie and I had a wonderful time. We had a few crazy adventures, of course, but overall it was just so fun. Some of the more memorable moments might be when Ellie peed on me on the Subway and I had to change her diaper on the bench, a bird pooped on me in Central Park, due to Subway construction we sat an extra hour and a half taking alternate routes (ugh!), or the bright fire engine red pt cruiser thing we parked in the Bronx under a church building, or the one time I got on a different subway car than Josh and Stacy and thought I was lost...
Those moments are what make great memories later! I also had a very positive experience with the amazing kindness and helpfulness of New Yorkers, suprising and beautiful old buildings in the middle of skyscrapers, and the beautiful peacefulness of central park.
I love NY! But I am so glad to be home :)

Craft it Forward!

The first 5 people to leave a comment on this blog will receive something made by me. However there are some limitations:
1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year.
4. You have not a clue what it is going to be; poetry, shoes, bags or a little invention of my own. I may even bake something and mail it you! Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. It may blow your mind!
Here's the catch... if you choose to do this, you must post this on your blog and be ready to make something for five people too. This will be fun! And, when you receive the fabulous item I make you, you must post a picture of it on your blog. Or if you don't have a blog, send me a photo and I will post it! Ready....Set....Comment!

Pretty in Pink for Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! We had a wonderful day. Ellie hunted for eggs, wore a pretty pink dress, we went to church, and shared a ham dinner with Josh and Stacy. It was a beautiful day here, and I had so much fun watching Ellie really enjoy Easter this year. She loves jelly beans! And chocolate, of course, and hard boiled eggs, as you can see here...
This is her Easter basket and Elmo egg, which was easily her favorite egg :)

Daddy showed Ellie how to dye eggs. We didn't let her help this year, but maybe next?

This isthe classic Easter morning shot. Pajamas and crazy hair, gotta love it!

Here is Ellie in her Easter dress from Grandma and Grandpa Sailsbery. I made her a little bunny bow to go with- it is so much fun having a little girl! She really loved Easter, and we really enjoyed making it special for her. We had so much fun!

Spring Break with the Calderwoods :)

For Adam's Spring break, we went to Washington, D.C. and saw our friends Shaun, Rebecca and Ella. We had a wonderful time! We went to the D. C. temple, we walked around downtown Washington D.C., and we finished the weekend off at Colonial Williamsburg, VA. We had a lot of adventures, and ended our trip in laughter close to tears at our exhausted state. Having children does change everything, including how much can get done and how much energy it takes to do it. But it does also make it that much more fun! Watching Ella and Ellie have fun was the best part of my trip :) Here are some shots of our adventures...

Shaun at the temple, and all of our reflections in his glasses

Our family in front of the Jefferson Memorial

Ellie :)
Ella

The D.C. temple

Ellie and the Cherry Blossoms. We missed the peak season, but they were still so beautiful.

Ellie's Daddy feels shoes are optional at all times...

Dinner at a tavern in Colonial Williamsburg with our whole crew

We really do feel blessed to have such good friends close by, and to be able to visit with them! The girls played so well together, and were such good sports the whole trip! With only several leaky diapers, many late mealtimes, miles and miles walked, and all kinds of weather, we definitely pushed them to the max! This was so much fun, and I can't wait for more family adventures in the years to come!

Spring is Here!

Spring is finally here! Yay! Ellie, Adam and I have been eagerly waiting the warmer weather. We have been outside almost every day playing, walking, hiking, jogging- whatever we can think of! We love it here in North Carolina, it is so gorgeous!

Ellie loves being outside too :) She loves to pick Mommy flowers and brings them to me with such a big happy smile- I love it! She has also recently learned ring around the rosy- and likes to play it over, and over, and over, and over, well, you get the point! Between that and her new games like tickle the parents or hide and go seek, we have quite an active little toddler these days! We have been having a lot of fun lately, and here are some of my favorite shots of Ellie.

We had some fun at Marbles Children's Museum and dressed Ellie up as a princess ballerina butterfly- gotta love a girl with ambition!

This is shortly before church one Sunday. This is Ellie's "silly Mommy!" face :)

Also at the Children's museum, we dressed Ellie up as a firewoman. We thought we should support at least one occupation that did not require a pink tutu :)

And, last but not least, a devil pic. Because she was being such a stinker one day, I thought her hair should reflect the demon inside...

Videos

I know that there are several people who wish they could be around Ellie and Aiden a liitle more often, so I am posting a few little videos to share a little bit of daily life with these rugrats. Enjoy!

I know I'm just a proud papa, but I have proof that my daughter is smarter than a captive adult gorilla. Check out the proof!

Every parent alive has gloated about their child's intelligence and I swore I would never be the one to blog about it, but here I am, doing exactly that.
Last night as I was giving Eliana a bath, I was reminded of a time I was at the Salt Lake City Zoo. While I was there I witnessed what I thought to be a remarkable display of animal intelligence. I looked on as a gorilla picked up a water bottle, carried it to a stream, filled it up, and drank from it.
I went home that day thinking that I had witnessed an evolutionary miracle.
I have since learned that the real miracles are part of every day as a parent. Thankfully Ellie is always into some kind of miraculous monkey business that keeps me laughing in amazement. I enjoy every second of my life with her.

Circus :)

Ellie and I went to the Circus! It was so much fun :) Although, I must say, the circus is not quite what I remember... It is a lot more like a show on the strip in Vegas than I thought it would be! With lights, a diva singer with a full back up, and a constant overwhelming assault on all of our senses, it was a lot for my little one year old! But all in a ll, she loved the animals and seeing all of her little friends, so it was great :)

We went with Stacy and Aiden, and Liz and the two kids she nannies for, Dane and Cali. All of the kids were really great, and the only really uh-oh moment was when Aiden dropped his sippy cup from the balcony onto the ground floor! Luckily it was intermission, or he may have taken out some poor little child...

And Ellie in the laundry... just thought I would throw this one in for kicks and giggles. Adam and Ellie are always getting into mischief and and then calling me in to see what they have come up with now! I know I am in trouble when I hear "Mommy, bring the camera!"

Ellie is One!!!

So we celebrated Ellie's first birthday this month. We had a wonderful time! On the fifteenth, her actual birthday, we had her pics taken. Follow this link to see them- too cute! http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=b37b72f1-5ef4-4b9d-a134-7b981c1bd1f4

After that we went to Olive Garden for lunch. She loved them singing to her! The Saturday following we had a party at home for her and invited our friends and family. I made Ellie a giant birthday cupcake, but she showed much more enthusiasm for the blueberries :) To see more pics of the big day, visit our family photo album link or click here:

www.picasaweb.google.com/adamwestfamily