Four Months of Sweetness

Look at those cheeks!

Ellie loves to smile :) She is such a happy baby...Mommy's angel!

My little angel is 4 months old! She has gotten big way too fast. She weighs 17.2 lbs and is 25 1/2 in long. She has lots of chubbers that I just can't get enough of! She is so much fun to play with right now, always cooing and giggling. I love to walk in her room right after she's woken up and see her face light up and her excitement to see me...it melts my heart! Ben and Cole are smitten as well. We all love her so much! Ellie is such a sweet angel and we are so blessed to have her in our family!!

Ice Storm

Where the heck did we move to? I would say it's just a little south of the North Pole. We woke up this morning to freezing rain. I thought that rain would be a nice break from the snow, but I didn't realize that because it's so cold here the rain immediately turns to ice. Ben's school was closed, again, because everything here is covered in ice.

Our apartment was covered in a layer of ice:

Even the bushes looked like ice sculptures

Our car was one big car-shaped sheet of ice

I'm not complaining though, because we got an unexpected day with Ben! And he was home to see Ellie role over from her stomach to her back for the very first time! Thank you Iowa.

Ridin' his Motorcycle

One of the many doctors that Cole gets to see regularly is his opthomologist. We got to drive 2 hrs on Thursday to see Dr. Olsen again. Cole was a big boy and climbed up in the chair without mommy this time.

This is the one doctor that Cole likes to see, probably because there are no needles and he likes the fun toys the assistants use to check his vision

He especially likes the moving animals on the wall. While waiting for the doc, Cole decided to sneak a chair over to pet the doggy. He's pretty smart when it comes to getting something he wants

He knew exactly what to do with the "motorcycle"

The appointment was super fast and easy as usual. When Dr. Olsen pulled out his "motorcycle", as he calls it, Cole knew to put his chin on the chin rest and look into the machine. He didn't need any help at all. He is an awesome patient and such a big boy!

Underpants

Cole got Thomas underwear for Christmas. He has asked to wear his "underpants" every day since, but refused to go to the bathroom on the toilet. We finally had a breakthrough today and Cole got to wear his underpants! One pair wasn't good enough though, he had to wear all 3. He chose to wear them on his head and his arm, I had nothing to do with that.

Here is the brief version of our potty training morning:

10:00 Peed on the bathroom rug

10:03 Peed on the carpet

10:10 Peed on the toilet

10:11 Refused his diaper

10:15 Peed on the toilet again

10:17 Got his Thomas underwear!!

10:20 Got his "Susan" movie

10:22 Peed his pants

10:24 Bath #2

10:30 Peed in the toilet

10:33 Got his Tractor pullups

10:45 Tractors disappeared (peed in pullup)

10:50 Peed on toilet

10:52 Asked for regular diaper (I would want a diaper too if I peed 8 times an hour!)

I thought we had a break through today, but I guess it was just practice. I'm not sure I'm ready for him to be potty trained anyway. We'll wait until his bladder gets a little bigger and try again.

Utah

We were able to spend almost three weeks in Utah with our families. The kids and I flew into Utah December 14 and spent a week with family while Ben had finals. Ellie and I did a lot of shopping and Cole did a lot of playing.

Maryn and her girls took Cole sledding for the very first time! (We didn't bring his snow clothes so he had to borrow them from his girl cousins, hence the pink and purple attire):

Ben finally joined us on December 19. We had a party with the entire green family that night...all 34 of us! It was a full house and a lot of fun. Since this was the only time we would all be together for Christmas, the kids got to open their cousin gifts. Cole was excited to get a garbage truck from Tessa! And Ellie got adorable huggalugs and a bow from Emersyn.

The next day, December 20, both of our families got together for Ellie's blessing and a dinner:

The next day, December 21, was the Santa Lucia party with the Coombs fam:

We had "Christmas Eve" with the Coombs fam on December 23. We ate prime rib, acted out the nativity (Cole was a shephard and wouldn't take his costume off the whole night), opened a present from the Swedish Santa, and sang songs:

Christmas Eve with the Green fam was the usual: dinner and chocolate fountain, Grandpa told a story, acted out nativity (Cole was a wiseman this time and wore his costume the rest of the night again, and Ellie was baby Jesus), "The game" otherwise known as "Rip, stick and roll", and new jammies for the kiddos. And as usual, Cole was sporting a few bandaids. This time he had one big owie on each cheek so he looked like a football player:

The new additions to the Green Christmas Eve was Dan the Man returned for some singing, we saw Santa's sleigh in the sky, and we had drunk carolers at 11 pm. It was an eventful night!

Christmas morning we opened presents at GG and Grandpa Greens. Cole and Ellie both got quite the stash:

After breakfast we packed up all of our loot and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Coombs house, where we got spoiled with a ton more presents. Cole was worn out from Christmas Eve and took a LONG nap through opening presents, so he got to open his later all at once:

Once all the celebrations were over we did a lot of sleeping and hanging out with family and friends:

Cole snuck in at least one bubble bath a day in Grandmas fun jet tub:

We couldn't miss the carousel at the mall:

Maryn did a photoshoot for us. It started out as a photoshoot for Ellie in her blessing dress, but ended up being a family one. Thanks Mar!

Our last party was New Years Eve at the Coombs. We had family pictures, ate a ton, and played ping pong and Band Hero. It was a fun way to end our vacation...and somehow the camera disappeared in the diaper bag and was lost for a week so we didn't get any pics. Go figure.

We had to fly home on a busy New Years Day, but we had Ben with us this time so things went smoothly. We had a great time in Utah with our family and friends. We love you all!! But now it's time to unpack and get back to real life in Iowa.