Ellsie Turning 2!

Monkey See Monkey Do!!!

It is crazy to think back to when Ellsie was first born, I thought she was such a little CHRIS. Now I feel as though I have a little mini me constantly following me around. As Ellsie approaches 2 years of age she has really started to look like myself when I was her age. Some of the pictures are identical:) But even beyond that, her temperament and actions are a constant reminder of how much she WATCHES and IMITATES me. I will do some small action once and then the rest of the week I see Ellsie copying that very thing. I think I first started noticing it after Nixon was born. I would pump a few times a week and Ellsie was often around. One afternoon Ellsie was being quiet which means she is in to something. Sure enough I found her in a corner where I keep my pump tools and she has her shirt lifted up and the shield over her belly button. So since then she often pumps (just like me) and then brings me a bottle to pour it in. As a mother of 2 kids UNDER the age of 2, you learn to get resourceful to accomplish things. For whatever reason, brushing teeth times always seems to fall right around the time Nixon wants to be held. So with Nixon in one arm and Ellsie hoisted on my knee to reach the sink (yes a step stool would make sense but just haven't gotten to it yet), opening the toothpaste cap is quit difficult. So a few weeks ago I used my teeth to open the cap. Ever since then Ellsie wants to hold anything with a cap and tries to open it with her TEETH!!! Ugh! I mean can't she pick up on some of my positive habits??? I am not a huge phone talker so most of the time I am on the phone, it is with Chris. Ellsie quickly picked up on the fact that I was talking to Dada. Throughout the day she find my phone and brings it to me and just repeats over and over again "Dada Dada Dada!" So we call dad about 3 times a day.  Ellsie loves to call her dad. And when Chris doesn't answer she gets very frustrated and just repeats "Mor Mor Mor." 

Ellsie's Chores:)

I guess it is never too early to learn chores. Ellsie has 2 main chores she likes to do. The first is feeding my parents dog, Little Bear. A few months ago she needed help holding his bowl. Now she walks right up to it and carries it to the dog food bin, we load it up and then she carries it back. All by herself!!! Her other nightly chore is taking Nixon to his bath. We have a little routine around bath time. Chris gets the bath started and I take the kids in the room to get undressed. Ellsie and I first start with Nixon and then it is Ellsie's job to take Nixon to Dada. She grabs his hand and leads him directly to Chris. Then we head back to Ellsie's room and get her undressed where she ten proceeds to streak through the house before she joins Nixon in the bath:)

Birthday Fun!

In true Ellsie fashion, we had 2 celebrations for turning 2:) David and Debby were out the week before her birthday so we had a small family dinner while they were here. Ellsie's true LOVE at the moment is Mickey and Minnie. So we decided to go with a Mickey/Minnie theme. My mom made this fabulous cake and Grammy and Pops got Ellsie these balloons. I think she liked the balloons more than anything. She didn't let them go all night. We also had a play date at the park with a few of her friends on her actual birthday. The first year and a half of your child's life you want to take them to the park but really it is more of a work out for you than them. They are not yet coordinated to go down the slid by themselves or  climb up the steps. It was so fun watching Ellsie play with her friends and be able to do things on her own.

Ellsie and her 3 best buddies:) 

Elisabeth Grace Bury 2-28-09

From the moment Ellsie was born she brought Chris and I more JOY than we could have imagined. I can remember holding all 5lbs of her and feeling like she would NEVER be 2! It just seemed so far away. But here we are 2 years later, and I have NO idea where the time has gone. What I can say is that we have enjoyed every minute with her:) From the time she was born Ellsie had this sweet loving side to her mixed in with a feisty stubborn little trouble maker. That stands true today. One minute I am teaching Ellsie that the ENTIRE playground does not belong to her and that she cannot hit the other kids to get them to leave and the next I am listening to her say "Tank yuuuu" for every little thing I do for her:) She has really embraced saying thank you. Last week we got Ellsie a new toy box. I was trying to teach her how to put her toys away and with every toy I put in the box she said THANK YOU MAMA. I got like 10 thank you in a row:) Sometimes I feel like she best expresses herself when playing with her toys. Her favorite friends are Mickey, Minnie, and Abby. She is always sharing her snacks with them, takes them on walks and she squeezes them so tight to smother them with hugs and kisses. Chris and I are for sure a little jealous that Mickey gets more kisses than we do:)

Ellsie is also very much a DADDY'S girl. She loves to call him on the phone and have special dates with him. She never hesitates to leave me behind. Chris will tell her he is taking her somewhere and she just jumps up and say's "bye bye mama." I love seeing them together and feel so BLESSED that Chris has invested so much into our kids lives. There is something so special about seeing a little girl interact with her dad. Perhaps my most special time with Ellsie is just before or after naps. When Nixon is sleeping and we are alone together when she is a bit tired, I get snuggles and laughs that re-energize me for the rest of the day. Today before I put her down I told her that mama needed some love. She threw her arms around my neck and gave me the biggest HUG EVER. This is monumental because Ellsie usually can't sit still for 5 seconds to hug me. I get this half hug before she is on to the next thing. I think she gets her business from her father:) Even now as nap time is over I am listening to her on the monitor kissing Minnie, calling my name and jumping up and down:) So I must go to entertain this little person.

Surviving all the CRAZY!

The holiday's are officially over and we are now getting ready to tackle the big move to Laguna Niguel. But I will get to the move details later:) First Christmas!!!!

Christmas in Tucson

We spent Christmas in Tucson this year and had such a wonderful time! Our Bury family has gotten quite large. Mandy has 3 kids (Abby, Brandon and Ryan), Jordan and Sommer have 2 kids (Silas and Jewel), and then there are of course our 2 (Ellsie and Nixon). This is a picture of all the kids in their Christmas best:) Ellsie is finally at an age where she is really interacting with her cousins. She had so much fun because there was always someone around to entertain her and steal food from:) 

Tucson had incredible weather while we were out there. It has been a pretty cold winter in Socal so far and we have had lots of rain. But over Christmas Tucson gave us some great sunny 70 degree days. Which was so nice because  with 7 kids in the house we could just toss them all outside to run around and play. And as always, we took a lot of walks. Ellsie was just set on walking Mickey and Minnie everyday in this doll stroller. The boys would ride their striders and Ellsie would push her stroller. 

Christmas morning was so much fun! The first present Ellsie opened was her new Abby doll. Well, she loved it so much that she wouldn't open any other gifts!!! We were literally trying to show her other things and I think she thought that if she opened another gift Abby would go away because she wanted nothing to do with anything else. After about an hour she noticed all the other kids opening gifts and she finally got into it herself. Nixon of course was just entertained by all the chaos going on. Somewhere in the middle of the chaos, Ellsie got her hands on a candy cane. We have been reading a ton of Christmas books and every-time she points out the candy canes. She was very excited to get one in her stocking:) 

While being in Tucson was so much fun, the drive there was not so much. However, we did SURVIVE! On the way out we decided to leave in the evening and drive through the night. Hoping that the kids would sleep because it was their bedtime. The first hour wasn't so bad and then Nixon fell asleep for good but Ellsie was just WIDE AWAKE. She was not going to sleep!!! I thought surely she will give in and eventually fall asleep. Well, this is one determined little girl because by midnight she was still up. And for the rest of the trip she maybe took two 20 minute naps. I had to basically try and calm her down and entertain her for the entire 8 hours!!! Makes me wish I would have been on driving duty. Nixon did great on the way out there. He fell asleep and NEVER woke up. Thank God, because not sure how I would have handled 2 fussy kids for 8 hours. The way home was about the same. Only we decided to leave in the afternoon. Neither kid slept well but we made it home and looking back it wasn't so awful. Like I said, we SURVIVED and ended up having such a wonderful time in Tucson. 

Ellsie and Nixon

Ellsie and Nixon continue to bring us more joy than we could have ever imagined. At first Ellsie took a little time to fully understand her little brother and why he was ALWAYS with me. She had a hard time when I would nurse him and would always ask me to put him down. But just a few month into his life and she has fully accepted him as part of our family. She is so sweet with Nixon and includes him on everything we do. Ellsie loves to make him laugh, give him kisses and take him on "walks". She often will stop in the middle of playing and just head towards Nixon to give him a hug or a kiss. Nixon just adores Ellsie. I have a hard time nursing him when she is around because all he wants to do is watch her. The other day, Ellsie was dancing and making Nixon laugh and it hit me... my kids are going to be great friends. They are so young and have already formed such a bond.

Nixon is now 4 months old and he weighs 18lbs 3oz!!! How on earth can this be? I guess just cuz he has small parents doesn't mean he has to be small:) Unfortunately, this big baby comes with a BIG appetite. I am still getting up 2 times in the night to feed him. I am looking forward to getting settled in the new house and getting Nixon to sleep through the night. Most days the lack of sleep doesn't effect me too much and most of the time I can SURVIVE on little sleep.But I am still counting down until Nixon sleeps through the night:) Other than that, Nixon is such an easy baby. He is very laid back and enjoys being around people.

Laguna Niguel

It looks like we will soon be calling Laguna Niguel our new home town. We bought a house and closed last week. We are going to do a few maintenance things before we move in but hope to be in within the next few weeks:) The process of buying a house here in S. California was so different from our experience in Colorado. We moved to California in May thinking we would be in a place within 3 months. Flash forward 8 months and we are just getting the house. Talk about a crazy ride we have been on. We had put about 6 different offers on houses and then this house was such a pain to finally get, I am just so happy this is OVER. I have absolutely NO desire to ever go through a short sale process ever again!!! But, we SURVIVED it and now we will be in our own place in a few weeks. My dad and Chris have been hard at work getting the house ready. It will be so nice to see the house once it has had a little love:)