Little Blessings Has Moved

Just a reminder to change your readers to our new blog if you want to continue to see what we are up to!  Thanks for reading and we LOVE to hear from you!

Changes

So, it is time for some changes. I have been considering changing my blog to Wordpress for a while now and then my blog made it an easy decision for me as I ran out of space. So, the plan is to try this out and see how I like it. It is definitely different from what I am used to but I will play around with it as I have time.

This blog will still be here and I will probably link it to the new blog so, it will be easy to look at past posts. In a way, I hate to leave this blog but I think it will be okay...at least that is what I am telling myself!

So, go ahead and check out Ella's 11 month post on the new Little Blessings blog!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jack!

Yesterday, Jack turned 3!  This year has flown by and I can hardly believe I have a 3 year old now.  He brings so much joy to my day with his growing imagination, questions (oh my, the questions), easy sense of humor (he told me the other day, "I crack myself up!") and loving gestures.  I don't think a day goes by where he doesn't tell all of us "I love you". He continues to be so sweet to his sister and helps me all the time with her.  He could probably tell you the name of every construction vehicle and for that matter, every vehicle!  I'm so thankful for my little guy. He stretches me as I learn to be the best mom that I can be for him. We love our little buddy!

 We did a green and yellow truck and tractor theme.

 He liked his cupcake topper more than the cupcake. 

He did however, ask for more ice cream...such a Luerssen!

Of course, he did enjoy blowing out the candle!

He opened up one gift after breakfast, a set of unit blocks.

We headed to the park after Ella's morning nap and he had a blast.

He has never been too excited about swings and slides but I guess he decided he was 3 now so, it was time to conquer the slide! He went down it over and over again!

Ella rode on my back and she was as happy as can be too!

My best attempt at getting a picture of her blindly. :-)

These Lincoln Logs were a great garage sale find for $2.50!

My sister's family got him a bunch of much needed art supplies!

He loved it all but the clear favorite was from my parents...a tractor and wagon!

We had a really fun day together and he still gets to celebrate with Seth's parents this weekend.

We are SO thankful that God gave us you.
We love you!
Happy 3rd Birthday Jack!!!

Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch the other week.  It was a beautiful day and we practically had the place to ourselves.  Which is good since Jack wanted to try out every wagon and wheelbarrow there!  We allowed him to pick our pumpkin and gourds this year but he wasn't very choosy. I think he was just on a mission to see how much he could load into his wagons!

Fall 2012

Jack found this pumpkin all by himself and somehow got it back to his wheelbarrow!

Pumpkin #1

Pumpkin #2

Taking his gourds for a ride.

It was a bit heavy for the little guy!  I can still hear him grunting. :-)

Ella seemed to like her 1st visit to the pumpkin patch.

Well, she was along for the ride last year too!

We sure have been enjoying Fall!

10 Months

I know I was just here posting on Ella being 9 months but on Saturday she turned 10 months!  She hasn't changed much since last time but she is still our little sweetie.  She also can be quite funny and a bit of a thrill seeker.  She likes to fling herself backwards when we hold her a certain way so we always need to be ready for these sudden urges...crazy girl!

More teeth are on the way!

Jack was having fun putting playsilks on his sister.

Happy baby!

She really likes when we go places!

Our little wild child!

Active Jack

The past few months have proven to me that Jack is growing up. He will be 3 next month. How did that happen?!  He has initiated the need for more learning activities.  So I have been searching for ways to keep his hands and brain busy. Isn't Pinterest great?!

He has been busy practicing some fine motor activities. There are the obvious reasons for participating in these activities but it has also been helpful in strengthening his finger that got injured over the summer.  He hasn't been very willing to use it since then but there has been improvement.  By the way, his finger is healing really well.  He lost his nail and it is almost all grown back and he has only a very tiny scar.  We were very blessed.

He helped sand the little book shelf I got from a garage sale for $.25! 

He built his own helicopter from start to finish.

He used a glue stick for the 1st time with some punched out circles.

Friends of ours gave us a couple grocery bags of peppers from their garden.

He was a big helper!

He probably cut 1/4 of a pepper with a butter spreader and really enjoyed it!

Using a wheelbarrow was definitely well received!

Of course, toddlers need to be active and we have plenty of that going on too!

He always has time for snuggles though. ♥

He gave me 2 thumbs up (unprompted)!

I just noticed the close up of his belt...we were in need of a belt for Mr. Skinny but certain ones are hard for potty time.  I found this one at Goodwill for $1. I cut it down, removed the buckle and sewed on some velcro. This tutorial was helpful. It works great!

So, we have been busy and I am enjoying this new learning phase full of numbers, letters and crafts!

9 Months

Ella turned 9 months almost 2 weeks ago...oops! I did take her pictures on the 20th but I just didn't get around to posting them.  She is definitely our little Ella Bear. She is a sweet and cuddly little bear when she isn't teething and has had enough sleep but when she hasn't, watch out because a different kind of bear emerges!

The poor girl's teeth have shown her no mercy.  They seem to come in sets of 2 right on top of the last set!  She has almost 6 now.  She also has a new cheesy grin that she likes to give us (especially her Dad) to show off her new pearly whites!  Kind of cute ♥

She was very interested in all the mulch.

Then she was intent on getting her shoes off.

 I was playing around with the manual settings on my camera and captured this shot.

For some reason both of my babies have liked pickles.

They make nice teethers!

One day, the big bro wanted to help feed his sister!

"Here Ella, this will help it all go down."

She seems to be on a bit of a food strike.  Bananas are really all she wants right now.

And here we have the new grin!

Girls like trucks too.

Happy 9 Months Ella!