NeW tHiNgS

Aliana as you know has been pulling herself up on things since the day she learned how to sit up. She has now taught herself how to stand up in the middle of the room without anything around her. I cannot believe this. She is growing too fast. She sticks her butt in the air and one leg up and then the other...and pulls her body up. She tries to walk after she stands up and she's gotten down one step but tumbles as soon as she tries to walk more.

Funny story about her is that the other night I put her and Ethan in the bathtub while I was getting together some laundry and the bathroom is right there so I can see them quite a bit while I'm doing it. When I'd look at her she'd get all excited and clap and fall back into the water. Well I went around the corner to get something and all of a sudden I hear her talking and it's getting closer and closer and I look up and there she is crawling on the carpet naked! She got herself out of the bathtub!! I did not think any of my kids at 8 months would be so active but she is! It's starting to scare me because I know they will both be big handfulls once they are walking everywhere together. Let me mention that our bathtub in the apartment is pretty low so it's not that hard to get in and out of just didn't think she'd do it!

I know I have complained about my kid not talking in the past but I think I was too soon to speak because he's really trying now and he's doing animal sounds! I just love it because it's so cute! Everytime I look at Ethan I get a little sad because I remember him when he was just a little baby! He's such a good brother ...most of the time..when he's not pulling Ali around by her arm.

Also I got Ethan to fall asleep in his bed. I was so happy. It was a little sad to have him cry so much but he did such a good job and kept laying down everytime I told him to. I knew he was extremely tired too because he didn't take a nap yesterday and I know he did a lot of playing in nursery. I love that when he wants something he gives me kisses and says please in sign language.

Soccer Season

Soccer season has begun so we took some of the little teams' pictures last week. We took the kids with us and just had my sister watch them at the fields so they could be outside playing. Aliana loves the grass. She was so cute with the soccer ball! I love this first picture because she looks like a diva, little miss priss with her hand out. Her smile makes me melt. She's got one dimple just like her momma.

Ethan would not look at the camera. He was too focused on everyone else around him.
Ethan loves to go down the slides but he has to climb up them first in order to go down.

My mom wanted to take a picture of me and the kids. I was so not feeling it...but I let her.
Me and my cuties!

Kaitlin

I have been a second "shooter" with my mom for weddings for over a year and I love to take pictures of my kids so I talked my sister into being my guinea pig today and letting me get some photos of her. I'm sure she'll love the pictures my mom takes of her more for her senior pictures but these are a few I have edited so far. I hope you all enjoy.

Fair

I know the fair was over a month ago, but I had to post these cute pictures of Ethan. He had so much fun on the carousel with Roger.

The whole time he was on the carousel he kept reaching out to try to give my dad high five. It was super cute and he'd get really excited.

My mom suggested Ethan go on the slide and so she took him down for his first time and he loved it and wanted to go again so Roger took him again. It was so fun to see my own kid enjoy something so much when once long ago I enjoyed the same things. I love E so much. He makes me smile all day long...even when he's making a mess.

Our Apartment

Okay so my grandma has been asking to see pictures of my apartment for a while now and I took some back in July but haven't had time to get them posted!
This is our living room. You can see my kids in these pictures. Ethan was sleeping on the couch and Ali was crawling/rolling around. These were taken right before I was headed back to Moses to work for my mom.












I love it that we have a bar even though we don't eat at it since it's so high, but it's nice to look into the living room and watch the kids while I'm cleaning/cooking.

Don't we all wish our kitchens were clean all of the time.




I want to post pictures of our bedrooms, but will wait until they are completely decorated.

She did it!!

Earlier today Aliana took a bottle with half formula and half breast milk!! I was so excited. So I just gave her a formula bottle and she drank most of it! I am so extactic because this weekend we're going to Portland for the So You Think You Can Dance tour and I'm leaving the kids with my parents so I was worried it would be hard even for her to take a bottle, but now that she'll take formula it's going to be awesome. I'm so happy I won't have anyone biting on me much longer!! YAY!! Thanks for all of your advice that was so much needed!!

It's 2AM!!!

Why am I awake? Well my 8 month old has decided she wants to be awake right now. Since she sleeps in our room in her crib she wakes up a lot easier. It's so much nicer when I stay at my parents to have her in her own room because she'll sleep right through the night. I put her in bed with us, but she just wasn't having it so I gave up and came out to the living room and decided to let her play while I catch up on some blogs. I've been so busy working for my mom lately that I haven't had time to read what everyone else is up to. Aliana keeps on insisting that she needs to type on the keyboard. She keeps pulling herself up and lunging for it. She is so strong now. She will pull herself up on anything. She even tries to stand up in the middle of the floor but when she goes to grab something to pull herself up all the way she falls. I cannot believe how fast she is growing. Since she has been able to sit up all by herself she started pulling herself up and she is so daring because she'll just let go of anything and try and walk. She is so not like her brother. He didn't pull himself up for a while and he was afraid to let go. Once she gets her balance she tries to let go of whatever and walk. It's so weird to see her trying to walk around because she's so petite and tiny. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for it either. She gets into enough as it is just crawling around...and I know her and her brother will be even more of a handful once they can get into things together. Oh the joys I have to look forward to. You all need to remind me that I am waiting a while to have another one. Every time I see a newborn I get so baby hungry. I don't know why since neither of my two are that old!! Aww...but they are so sweet....I love being a mother. And yet I am awake at 2AM!!

I'm having difficulties...

with the fact that my son can't talk! Oh my heck it drives me crazy when he just cries and I have no idea what he's crying about. I've been spending more time with him lately trying to teach him words and he tries but he just doesn't know how to say whole words. Will this ever end? He's going to be two in two months!! He does watch sign language videos and has gotten really good at please but I feel the signs only help with some things and not everything.

and Ali on the other hand has two teeth! She is biting me now when she eats so I'm going to try to wean but she really hates formula. Everytime I try to give it to her, which is quite often now, she just gags herself and won't eat it! Anyone have any suggestions on how to get her used to it? I'm thinking I'll start pumping more and get her used to the bottle and then maybe she won't realize as much but we'll see. She's going to be 8 months and I really wanted to breast feed her until she was 9 months since that's how long I did with Ethan but the biting hurts so bad and then she pulls afterwards.....yep it's a killer.

Cars...

is a favorite at our place...

Ethan loves cars, but he loves the movie even more. It's on all the time at our apartment...you can tell in these pictures!
He loves to play with his cars all over.
He also loves his car couch!
Here he is watching Cars.
Ali has started to eat cereal and baby foods and loves it.
Ethan loves Cheerios!
Watching Cars again.

My kids play together! :)

And I can't complain! It's so fun to watch them interact together. Well Ali finally started army crawling about two months ago and since has mastered the crawl. These pictures were about a month and a half ago. Ali's hair almost looks fake. It's thinned out a lot so it's not as thick as it used to be, but growing long. Ethan loves to play with his sister. He is always trying to pick her up and since she's so petite he can which is scary.
I love this little girl!!
I thought this was cute how I got Ethan in the background! He needs a haircut here!

I love that she thinks he is so funny even when he's hurting her! She is so tough. In fact the other night Ethan head butted her and he said, "OUCH, OUCH!" and Ali looked at him all funny and guess who ended up with a bruise? Yes, Ali did!!

Family Picture

Okay so I know I've been lacking on the blogging life in the last couple months so I will just put this quick post up! We had family pictures done...well my mom just set us all up and my grandpa took the pictures. It was fun! It was right before Ben left for his mission. We wanted to make sure to get pictures before he left since we haven't had family pictures since I think...yeah it's been a LONG time. It's already outdated because Brandi Kisler will be joining our family sometime in November. Yes, Robbie is getting married and we're all so happy for him! I want to get some more posts up of the pictures of the kids but I need to edit the pictures first! So much is going on in our lives lately!! It's been crazy busy!!