Miss Elle

Ellaria is 3 months now.  Time is flying by and she's so big.  I love this stage because they're still little babies but they interact and a little personality starts peeping through the newborn eat, sleep, coma.

She continues to chub out, and everyone always comments on her cheeks, then occasionally her blue eyes.

RJ  is still her biggest fan. Sometimes I call her "little sis" and RJ always corrects me and says: "she's MY sister!"

I made this little brown dress the summer I got pregnant with RJ.  He ended up being a boy, but I did put him in the dress when he was 3 months old.  He's on the right.

Seeing both babies in the same clothes at the same age, Ellaria doesn't look like his clone much anymore to me.  Both have the chubby cheeks and look like family though.

I love her huge flared nose smile...I had to get her dad in order to get her to smile.  She's already a total daddy's girl and smiles the most for Rhett. 

She is a good little sleeper.  I put both kids to bed between 8 and 9pm and she sleeps until 5 or 6am to be fed, then goes back to sleep until 10 to 11 am.  So sleeping well is making such a big difference for me. 

We love this chubby girl!

Random

I read in an Ensign article about reading scriptures with little kids. It suggested to have the toddler repeat one verse a night.  We've been doing this for months now and I've been surprised how well RJ stays interested and follows the stories and reminds us if we forget.   So far he's actually really  liked it, I hope I can continue this as that's always something that was hard to keep going when I was growing up.

After we found out Rhett's dad passed away, we spent the week in Delta preparing for the funeral.  Here's our niece sleeping in with Ellie. 

Another niece holding Ellie.  The babies were hot commodities among the tween girls and caused a lot of fights about who's turn it was to hold them. 

RJ actually had a pretty great week with the boys.  Since he was a baby he's loved the boy cousins and tries to fit in and be one of the boys.  They're all really close and always let RJ cuddle with them while they watch shows.  It always surprises me how RJ will just waltz up and snuggle on one of the boy's shoulders and they just scoop him up and let him get cozy.  Even the older teenagers are really nice to his unexpected affection.  

Ellaria sleeps with her hands totally sprawled like RJ would.

It's rare lately to get a picture of RJ's real smile, he always just does a fake grin.

Thomas

Since Christmas RJ has loved Thomas the train.  He got the train set for Christmas and watches episodes on Netflix.  They have an actual Thomas fake engine that tours the country in the summer, and it came to Utah for Memorial weekend and we took RJ for his birthday present.

We thought the day would blow his mind, but all his pictures he insisted on wearing his hood and never smiled.  I think he loved it because he talked about it for a long time, but just didn't show any excitement while we were there.

He had to wait in line for a while to meet Sir Topham Hat.  RJ was excited, but when he got up there, just like Santa Claus, he didn't want to be there and the guy in the suit tried to touch his shoulder and RJ wriggled away and left.  He looks like he's being forced to be there. 

Finally it was our turn to ride the train.  RJ liked getting his own ticket torn by the conductor.

The cars were super old, one corner had a coal stove in it and the paint was peeling off the ceiling. 

RJ loved being on the train.  The ride was pretty lame, slowly creeping along for about a mile seeing people's backyards, then creeping back. 

But RJ thought it was great.

This is the only picture of Ellaria from the day.  She was good and slept most of the time. 

Rhett bought RJ a glob of cotton candy.  If we ever went to things when I was a kid, we never got concessions, so if I'd just been there RJ wouldn't have been so spoiled.  I'm the mean mom. 

He even got to play a round of mini-golf. 

 RJ loved the Thomas tatoo on his cheek.  He just pouted the whole time in the tub when I had to scrub it off nearly a week later.

Red Ripe Strawberry

RJ has always liked strawberries.

But after we read this book about a mouse picking, hiding, and finally eating a strawberry he calls them "red, ripe, strawberry" every time.  It's pretty cute.

So we didn't get our garden planted with seeds due to the crazy weather and unexpected events in May.

So we just went and bought small plants with the whole family.  Rhett suggested a strawberry plant and I said I wasn't planning on it, in my memories growing up garden strawberries were always gross.  But little RJ and Rhett both wanted it and we bought this larger strawberry plant.  It had little baby green strawberries starting on it, so it was the only plant we got that RJ could recognize what it would grow.

He loved the plant.  We didn't plant them right off, but just put all our plants in the garage for the night.  He kissed the plant and said: "goodnight red ripe strawberry" and put it on the table.  I was surprised he was so attached to a strawberry plant.

But it became his baby.

The next morning he woke me up and immediately told me we had to go plant his red ripe strawberry.

So we got it settled in the back yard and he gave it a drink with the watering can.

Later that afternoon he ran out and checked the plant and came to me to ask why it wasn't red yet.  I told him it takes lots of days to grow a red, ripe, strawberry.

So each morning we go and check his strawberries and he likes to give them a drink of water.

But this morning one was finally ready.

He was really excited, despite the fake smile face. 

We washed it off and I was curious to see if he'd like it, thinking it might be sour. 

But he seemed to like it. 

Pretty darn good. 

Hopefully he'll like gardening.  He helped me plant corn the other day and I was digging the little holes and he was putting the kernel seeds in.  But a few got a whole chubby handful of seeds and he spilled a bunch in the watering trench.  So we'll see how the corn ends up.  Last year he tromped on a ton of my plants, but maybe he's better and can understand now.