Where Does Time Go?

I guess I really have been neglecting our family blog. Between writing on two sections of Babble and keeping up my own website I realize this one really has fallen behind. I apologize to our family for being lazy with pictures!

I promise over the next couple months I will update far more than I have! I am going to start with pictures from our Easter!

The Easter Bunny left the kids baskets on the back deck after hiding all the eggs around our back yard for them to find. A grand total of 17. The boys broke one in the dying phase. Addison sat that one out... she was sleepy.

Addie with her copy of Runaway Bunny which she absolutely loves. Looks like we are going to have a third reader on our hands which is not a bad thing at all!!!!

Ben was so cute finding all the eggs in the back yard. He needed a little help, so mommy joined his team to help beat his brother. In the end Camden still ended up with one more egg than us! at least they were a little more fair though!

Camden found an egg in his "tree house" as he calls the top of the swing set.



I just loved snapping this one because this kind of wrapped up the mood of the whole day. Most of it with them doing their own thing. It is so interesting to see as they grow how different they are becoming and how some days they just want to be left alone from the other.

It was like pulling teeth to get them to sit for a couple minutes and try to take a couple pictures of them with their eggs. This was the best out of a half dozen pictures I took in this pose. I guess I have to just cut my losses sometimes and make the best with the pictures I get of them.

By the time we got back inside... Addie had successfully emptied her entire basket and was playing. She loves her My Little Pony Baby she got from the Easter Bunny.

I will put a separate post up with pictures from Mom & Dad's house for Easter dinner. I took a lot of pictures since I have been using my camera way more.

So Long Helmet! - Almost!

Today Addison had her helmet check up and they did measurements of her head to see what kind of progress she has made.

We got awesome news that she is probably going to be getting the helmet off a month early! I know the numbers will just confuse you guys, but to put things into a bit of perspective.

She started off at 96.4%

She is currently at 90.6%

She needs to be at or under 86%

Don't ask... just smile and nod. LOL!

I am really happy it is doing exactly what it needs to, and so quickly. Her specialist was extremely impressed with her progress, even though we lost some wear time in the past month with her two bouts with fevers.

Overall I am so happy for my baby girl and honestly I will not be sad to see it go. Because I know she secretly hates it.

Happy 9 Months Addie!

I know I have been slacking big time lately, but life is crazy in the Elwood Household.

Today Addie turned 9 months old. It made me wonder where all the time has gone... but I took some great pictures of her. With, and without clothes since she isn't a huge fan of getting dressed these days.

She also thought the owl sticker for her shirt was something to eat.

It seems like whenever I sit down to do photos with her, she always starts out with a picture looking up, and I know when she does this she is saying I love you to her Auntie Dawn.

I love baby feet!

Example of Addie trying to eat her owl sticker.

Celebrating Christmas

I know I posted a hand full of pictures that I took with my cell phone on Christmas day, but I wanted to share all the pictures I took of our family, while celebrating with our extended family on Christmas Day.

It was a quiet day overall, which was nice. The weeks leading up to Christmas were just way too crazy for us!

This was the best picture I could get of the kids first thing in the morning. Camden wasn't too happy to be awake, even though Santa came. It also didn't help that Will and I were like little kids and woke them all up. Well... Ben and Camden at least.

Ben was showing Grandpa Mo Mo his InnoTab and new Dora the Explorer book. I think my Dad was completely fascinated by it. Maybe he will get an InnoTab next Christmas? LOL!

We were all extremely thankful Will didn't have to work on Christmas day. He was originally put into a "lottery" and was 9th on the list to work that day. Oh the joys of being a Supervisor now right?

I love these pictures... it really shows what a character Camden is. Can you tell where he gets it from?

Daddy and Addie... I wish you could see her big glittery bow on the front of her dress!

I love this picture too... My mom looks so happy, and so do the kids. Well, this is Camden's "shy" face that he has when you put him on the spot.

On Mom's Christmas tree... The Angel with Dawn's name on it I found for her, and my baby ornament. Sisters together... forever.

It was extremely hard to get through Christmas without Dawn. The day included a lot of tears all the way around, mainly my mother and I.

Ben loves Grandma, but hates taking pictures... I think this is the best picture we got of him all day besides the one with Grandpa when he wasn't paying attention! They all go through that stage right?

Addie and "Auntie" Courtney, she is really my cousin making her their second cousin, but we call her Auntie... and she loves it!

I tried to get the boys to take a picture with me... lost cause. So I got Addison since she is the only one who can't say no...yet!

For once I got in front of the camera for the holidays.

Here is to a beautiful, successful, and happy 2012 from our family to yours!

Christmas 2011

2011 has been a really hard year for everyone in our family, and if it wasn't for the birth of our daughter, I could probably say not much good has come from the year. BUT! She is here, and we are heading into 2012 and hoping for a great year!

We celebrated Christmas with my parents, aunt, cousin, and friends of our family like we do every year. I got some really great pictures of the kids I wanted to share. I still have to upload my full stash from my camera though!

Addie and Grandma

Ben and Grandpa reading Dora on his InnoTab.

I think Grandpa was most interested in the book!

Finally a holiday I got a good picture with my husband!

I will update with more pictures once the craziness settles down a little bit and I am able to actually sit down with my camera and upload some of the pictures I took.

I am also going to really try and go out of my way to keep our family blog current for 2012. I really fell off the family blog bandwagon when Dawn got sick, and I still want to be able to share with our family who isn't local to us.

Grandma and the Playground

I have been going to visit my mother a lot since we lost my sister. I know it is hard for her, and I know the kids are a nice momentary distraction, of course until they start trying to kill each other. LOL!

We went to visit grandma today and head to the playground they just put in by her house. It is actually the playground I used to play on as a child, but they put up a whole new playground. New equipment that is. It is amazing, and the boys can do almost everything on it all by

themselves.

It was beautiful out, and probably one of the last park days we are going to have before the weather starts to get harsh. Another reason I hate New England... Long winters INSIDE!

Anyway! We had a blast, and so did Grandma! I am sure she is going to kill me for sharing these pictures, but it was great to see her let down her hair a bit and have fun with the kids!

I got stuck on top of one of the playscapes you can climb to the top of... LOL

Halloween

I love Halloween! It is my second favorite holiday of the year, so of course I got all into it with the kids this year. We made a Mr. Frankenstein Head Pumpkin, decorated the front, and of course come Halloween morning, I made Halloween Baskets... no joke!

Despite a giant snow storm where we ended up with 8... yes EIGHT inches of snow in our yard, Halloween went on without a delay on Monday night. Camden decided to be a clown this year, after he first decided to be a cow, then a fireman, and changed his mind in the Halloween store itself.

Ben was a little bit different, he was undecided all along. He wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, then Scooby Doo, then he wanted to be a Piggy when Camden decided to be a cow. Well in the end, Elmo it was. He wanted to be Elmo somewhere along the line, and I just picked it and went with it. It was a warm costume too!

Addie was an Owl, and I am sure no one was surprised by that. LOL!

I got a couple pictures of the boys first. They were anxious to get going, and Addie was snoozing in her swing. She fell asleep right after I got her into her costume. My luck right?

See! How cute is she there?

Thankfully I finally got him to let go of his collar and convinced him the sweat shirt under his costume was not going to wipe his face paint off. I was actually intimidated by the whole face paint thing. I have never done it before and I was planning on pawning the task off on Will, but he got stuck at work.

Yes, I was solo with these three...

But I survived... I was stressed but we survived, and went to our local Trick-Or-Trunk instead of going door to door. It worked out well, and both of the boys were content with it.