Bounce House

Every fall our church puts on a fall festival party and always has a bounce house/castle. This year Ellie, Siri and Gabe got to try it out before hand! :)

Weeks of Siri

First let's look back at a few pictures throughout Siri's life to get a feel for how much she's changed!

Sept. 29- Week 1

Dec. 8- Week 11

Feb 17- Week 21

Apr. 27- Week 31

And here are the most recent pics of Siri:

Aug. 3th- Week 45

Aug. 10th-Week 46

Aug. 17- Week 47

Do you believe how close we are to week 52!?!

Paint...Siri...Summer ,

Well we did it. We finally painted our apartment! After being renters for 5 years we finally decided this was the year that we would spice up our lives and our walls with paint! YAY! We love it! We only painted the main floor mostly due to the fact that we have to paint it all back when we leave next spring...I mean when we leave LORD WILLING, next spring! Instead of full explanations just take a look:

We didn't take a picture of the kitchen but we also painted one wall yellow. Very fun! :)

And now Siri...Siri is getting SOO big so fast! Though I think she's actually thinning out a bit, she's still growing. She's now fully saying, "hi", "mama", "dada", "eat" which sounds like "deat" and "done" which sounds like "da". Occasionally she will say "ellie" and "bye". She started signing a bit at the beginning of July though she's fairly inconsistent. She does do the signs for "milk" and "play" but mostly I think the signing has taught her that she can communicate her desires; she just chooses to speak them, which is fine by us! :) We're very excited to watch her grow.

She is also getting everywhere she needs to! She's crawling most everywhere though occasionally gives a power boost with her foot. She is also pulling herself up to standing position so she can see all the interesting things we try to hide from her on the coffee table, couch etc. Baby proofing has been taken to a whole new level!

And can that girl eat!! WOW! Most days Joey and I are beside ourselves with how much she has eaten. She is now only nursing 2-3 times a day and eating regular food for her meals! She does still eat pureed veggies occasionally, but most everything she has is in pieces big enough for her to grab and feed herself. It's AWESOME! :) Siri is a bit messier than Ellie was though at 11 months what baby isn't!?

And I just love this picture of Ellie and Joey. Joey tried to be intentional with Ellie a bit this summer in having some mini school lessons with her. We used flash cards to help her learn the sounds of the letters. I wouldn't say it was totally unfruitful but as you saw in our last blog, one week of the letter factory DVD and she had it!

Around mid-July Joey's parents came to visit. We were hosting Joey's brother Jesse for three weeks while he studied at SLU so they were able to see him also. :)

Here's our trip to the zoo (Jesse was in the library which explains why he isn't in any of these pictures):

Ellie's first merry-go-round experience:

The boys took Ellie on the train and we stayed behind:

We also enjoyed some time at the park while they were here:

And here are some fun pictures of the girls this summer: