Howdy! I know, it's been forever but I have a good excuse this time! Last Wed night Colton woke up around 10:30 and threw up, Andrew brought him to our bed and not 30 mins later Ellyana was throwing up. So we all migrated to our huge couch and TRIED to sleep out there. Colton finally stopped around 3am and was able to get some sleep but poor Ellyana threw up all day long. I think she threw up for close to 24 hours now I that I think about it. Poor baby. Then Sat Andrew came home from work early and threw up that evening. He was sick all night and rested Sunday. Then Sunday evening Kaili threw up and she threw up close to 16 hours. I never did throw up but I felt like poo. Sat night my stomach hurt so bad, I could hardly sleep. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that I don't throw up...there's nothing I hate more!!!

Ok, enough vomit talk! How about some photos?!
I got these cute ones of Andrew and Elly today. (All the photos are edited with Candice Wong's Lightroom Presets)LOL This is her "I'm Cute, Scrunch Face!" And see that hand? She's waving!!!

Daddy being tough!

AWE!

Here's Ellyana and Charly last night. Agian...waving!

And some of my sweet boy!

I told him to make a funny face!

I made some more hair pretties. Elly can't wear any of these just yet so I think these will be gifts. They are super fun to make!

And some LOs
{Discover}

{I Love You}

{Charly}

{Mad Face}

Well, that's all I have! Have a great evening!

I've been tagged!

Shawna Taylor tagged me last Sat!

*The rules are to link the person who sent this to you…and leave a comment on their blog.. so their readers can visit yours.
*post the rules on your blog
*Share 7 strange/weird facts about you on your blog
*Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, linking their blog
*Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blog…

So 7 random things about me…

1. I love water. I drink it all day long. I used to drink Ruby Red Squirt but stopped when I got preg (although every now and then I'll have one!). But now I hardly drink anything but water.

2. I've never broken a bone. Well, I'm pretty sure I broke my pinky toe when I was 15 but I tell people that and I look like a wuss!

3. I would love to give birth again! No, I don't plan on having anymore children but giving birth was such an amazing and fulfilling feeling. I just want to savor it! I think that's why I'm so passionate about natural childbirth.

4. I hate wearing socks and shoes. First thing I do when I come inside is take off my shoes and socks! Even if I'm cold, I'll layer on clothes but never put on some socks.

5. Our kid's middle names are family names. Colton James is after my dad, grandpa, poppa and brother. And Ellyana Violet is after Andrew's grandma. If Madison hadn't been so common that would have been Elly's name. It's my maiden name.

6. If I scrap 3 pages of Elly, I have to scrap 3 of Colton and visa versa! It must be even!!

7. I like my french toast, waffles and pancakes with butter, peanut butter and syrup. Andrew thinks it's the craziest thing ever but that's that way my grandma and grandpa ate it when we were little!!

Ok, I don't know 7 people who read my blog....how sad! So I'll tag....
Andrea
Rebecca
and anyone one else who wants to do it!!

Happy Tuesday!

How was your weekend? Ours was nice. Slow...we didn't do much at all. I had a WIC appt on Friday and Arlet stayed with her foster sister. Colton weighs 30 lbs and Ellyana weighs 16 lbs. And they are perfect...not that we didn't already know that, huh?! Saturday Kaili got a puppy (keep reading for more about that). Sunday we all just lazed around the house. Monday was Kaili's birthday and Andrew had to work. And today Arlet is here with the kids and me.

Here are some recent Layouts: (click for credits)
{capture}

I used a lightroom preset by Candice Wong (who's preset CT I'm on now!!!) for the photo in this one.
{new hair pretty}
{mohawk lady}

My new favorite LO!

{love}

Then some photos from the last couple days.

I made her this hair pretty! They are so fun to make. I can't wait till she has more hair so we can use clips! (all these are edited with Candice's presets as well)

And lastly, the puppy! Meet Charley. She's 1/4 Husky and 3/4 Australian Shepard and almost 10 weeks old. Colton's kinda scared of her if she's next to him but if he's on the couch then he's fine. Ellyana loves her! She's like a giant moving stuffed animal!

Ok, gotta run! Have a nice evening!

Playing Catch Up

Hope you had a great week. We did! Arlet had her first day with us on Tuesday. She did great. Her and Colton and best buds. On Wed. Ellyana woke up and was sick. I don't think she had the flu though. Her nose was runny and she's still working on that tooth. She slept a lot that day but was her normal happy self. Then Thur poor Arlet is sick. So she stayed home and went to the DR. She had a double ear infection, which caused her vomiting. Fri we all went to story time at the library. Boy that was crazy! Crazy good though. 3 children under 3! I get looks all the time with my two since I look much younger than I am and with 3 little ones people probably thought I was nuts!

Speaking of younger, my 23rd birthday was on Sat. Hard to believe I'm 23...that just sounds wrong! It was a nice birthday though. Andrew had to work but Colton and I made me a cake and when Andrew got home we lounged around and watched some movies. Then on Sunday we went to the mall and used the gift cards we had got for Christmas. It was a fun day. Just the 4 of us. We both got some pants, I got a new bra, Colton got a game, Andrew got some socks. I think Elly was the only one who didn't get something.

I was super excited though. My pants were on sale and they were a size THREE!!! YAY!! That's my pre Ellyana size. I still have 5 lbs to lose before I'm pre Colton weight but I figure that's in my chest...all that breastfeeding! Anyhow, here's a pic showing off my new pants!!!
Colton took that! He's become the little photographer lately.

Ok, how about some layouts?
{Crocodile Lake}

{Ellyana 8 months}

{Hat Like Elly}

{Mohawk Lady}

{Snow Run}

{Snow Princess}

{Sweet Dreams Ellyana}

{Those Lashes}

{Snow Girls}

Well, I better run! Have a great day!

Hives, blind racing, snow and baths!

Boy I have a packed post today!! Grab a drink cause it's gonna be a long one!!

First, Friday evening Colton breaks out with these horrible hives. We have no idea what was causing them. He had outbreaks all day Sat and Sun and so far is good today. Andrew and I think it's something viral. And this is the way his body is reacting to it. It's not an allergy and he's acting perfectly fine. Just bizarre!
Here's a photo of his leg Friday night...If you'd like to see a video of Elly crawling, you can visit this link to our DropShots page
http://www.dropshots.com/ShawnaMama#date/2004-02-06/19:56:36

We went to Larry's race on Sat. Larry, in case you don't know, is the owner of a mechanic shop in town and lost his vision in an automobile accident about 6 years ago. He, Andrew and Mark (MIL's BF) are all good friends. So Larry drove while Mark sat in the passenger seat and spotted. It was GREAT!! I haven't had that much fun in so long! The first heat Larry was doing great till the 3rd corner and the radio that they were using to communicate shorted out. So he scrapped the wall. I about wet my pants!! It was very intense. But he pulled out of it and did awesome the rest of the race. Poor Mark was horse from yelling directions to him! Larry raced in 3 races and didn't come in last in any! Pretty flippin good for a blind guy if you ask me!!

Sat night on our way home from the race it snowed. It snowed all the way up to our house. But we were the only place without snow on the ground! We were mad! So Sun we got up and got in Andrew's 4Runner and went to find us some snow! We had a blast!
Here are the photos

My little marshmallow!

Down the road

Up the road

The Toy!

Here we go!

Oh no!!!

Ah! Colton's face right into the snow!!!

He thought it was hilarious!

Having so much fun!

Here goes Colton

Haha! Daddy just got stuck! So tubing for him!

There goes Oma!

Little Snow Princess

Snow flakes hitting her lashes!!

Elly's snow angel! AWE!

A branch fell behind us!

There it is!

Blankenship family

Silly Oma!

Ready to go home....Colton's mad!

Art time!

The kids always take baths together now but I've never taken photos of them. So I did last night. They are so funny!

Check out those lashes!

He wanted a "hat" like Elly!

I was going to start watching another little one today but with the snow they delayed the teacher inservice so tomorrow is our first day...if all goes as planned! I'm excited. She's very cute!

Well, I better run. I just realized that it's 3pm and I've yet to have lunch! Have a good one!

Well hello!!

It's been forever...again! I swear! I hate it when I'm behind cause I have to upload a gazillion photos and LOs all at once...but I just can't seem to post regularly!

Anyhow, hope everyone had a nice new year. Hard to believe it's 2008 already. Lets see, what's new in our home......Last weekend we went and met with Andrew's dad, step mom, sister and grandparents. It was very nice. We meet halfway so it was easy on all of us. The kids had a blast seeing everyone again. It's been too long.

Today we went to story time at the library (we are doing that on Fridays now instead of Gymboree. The weather is too yucky to drive all that way. Besides, I got a library card for Xmas! Thanks mom!!!). Colton loves story time...even though he rarley sits and listens to the story. He has a new little friend who is 2 months older than him and they play so well together. The little girl's dad brings her (he's the stay at home parent) and we are both always shocked that they are sharing and play nice! Since they ARE both so close to 3!! Ellyana also has a buddy there. She's 10 I believe and just adores Elly! She's on Xmas break so she gets to go to story time for awhile till school starts back up. She always wants to hold Elly and try and teach her new things...like walking! LOL

After story time we went to Juli's (my MIL) hair salon so she could die my hair. She did Kaili's (my SIL) last week and it turned out so cute! Here are some photos I took of her...it's she beautiful?!So here are my before and afters. Not the best since I'm doing it myself and too lazy to set up the tripod! LOL

Boring brown....

Fun high lights!!!

I'm going to try and get better ones when there's another adult home. Don't think Colton can do any better than me....maybe!

In other news....Ellyana is crawling now! She JUST started yesterday. She's progressed so much in just the last couple days. I'm going to try and get a video of her. Hopefully she'll co-operate!

I pulled out this toy that was Colton's when he was younger for them to play with. After I washed it all up...it was so gross from being stored in the container (our semi truck trailer that all our stuff is in). I was so surprised that Elly would just stand there with no help! I didn't know she could do that!!!

How cute is she!! Look at those thighs!

How about some layouts?!

Ellyana and Grandma Violet. Elly's middle name is Violet.

LOL! So Andrew's dad got Colton this awesome track for Christmas. It has cars that run on batteries and they drive all around this track. I'll have to get a pic. Anyhow, this is Colton's reaction after Andrew put it together and turned it on. He loves it!!

Tomorrow we are going to watch Andrew's friend who happens to be blind race a car! We are very excited. So is Larry!!! I hope to get some photos from that.

Better get dinner started! Have a great evening!!!