Christmas 2011

Yes it's almost Easter, but I thought I should wrap up my updates for 2011 with some pictures from Christmas.  We had our best Christmas yet as a family.  It was Paige's first Christmas, which made it all the more special, and we had so much fun hanging out as a family and enjoying some time off work and school.  Autumn was so excited for Christmas this year and it was awesome to see her reactions to all the traditions of the season.  We felt very blessed to have made some wonderful memories as a family, and we even managed to all stay healthy through the holidays.


Family trip to the lights at the Columbus Zoo. 

Three tired girls - Autumn, Paige, and Macy.  Relaxing over Christmas break.
                                       

That is a fine looking gingerbread train if I do say so myself.  I think it's clear by Autumn's expression that she may have eaten a little too much of the candy. Can you say sugar high?!                                                                             

All dressed up for Christmas Eve church.  Fancy shmancy!

They must have been pretty good girls because Santa made it to our house!  Autumn's Christmas list wishes were fulfilled and Paige was happy just ripping off the wrapping paper :)

Santa brought Paige a matching sled and Autumn a Scout dog to match Paige's Voilet dog.  I think we only got to use the sleds one time this year though.  What a strange, warm winter.

 I love Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Opening presents with cousins Madde and Jacob.  Santa brought them all yo-yo's so Grandpa Latta can teach them some tricks!

 ...And more presents with our other cousins Brady and Riley.  Talk about some lucky little girls.  Their grandparents and aunts and uncles sure were nice to them this year.

Fall 2011

So here we are - one month away from Paige's 1st birthday already.  It's amazing how quickly 2011 has gone and we only have one month left.  We've continued to have so much fun with the girls, especially as Paige is getting older and her personality is really developing.  It's hard to keep track of all the new things she has done since August, but some of the highlights include crawling, getting 3 more teeth, started so say a few words like "hi", "mama" and "dada", feeding herself, and just tonight pulled herself up to a stand.  She's constantly on the go, never wanting to sit still for very long, and cracks us up with all of her hilarious facial expressions.

Autumn is still amazing us all the time with the things she learns, says and does.  I keep telling myself to start a quote book so I can remember more of what comes out of her mouth.  This holiday season has been so fun with her as it's the first year that she remembers what Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all about.  Last year she didn't really anticipate them much, but this year was a different story and she's already very excited for Christmas and for Santa to come.  Every day we listen to Christmas music in the car and she loves it.

We are looking forward to celebrating our first Christmas as a family of four, and had a wonderful first Thanksgiving for Paige as both sides of the family came to our place to hang out.  We hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the year and I'm sure you'll hear from us again after Christmas and Paige's birthday in January.  


The first of so many school pictures.  She looks so "grown up" and, honestly, it scares me.

Grandpa Latta set up all of their trains in the the basement.  They found little conductor hats for the kids and Autumn loved controlling the trains.  And...all you kids from the 80's....notice the popple Autumn is holding?  Ah, brings back memories. 

And the presidential infatuation continues.  She stood there for a good 10 minutes watching it very intently. Paige, on the other hand, was busy pulling on the dog's tail :)

A big day for Paige...she was baptized on September 11th.  Thanks to all of our family for coming to support her.  Great Grandma Lucy even made the trip, which meant a lot to us, and somehow we made it through the service without any of Paige's typical screeches, grunts, or squeaks!  She did such a great job during the ceremony too, even giving the pastor a big smile after he got her head all wet.

Paige with her Godparents...she and Autumn are both very lucky.

Here are some pictures from Fall/Halloween.  We had a great time this fall....went to a pumpkin patch, fall festival (note the face painting), carved pumpkins and of course trick-or-treating!

One of Paige's many faces....and there are many :)

It took all season, but we finally got Paige in her Buckeye gear.  We had some Michigan fans in our house so we had to represent OSU as best we could!

Our attempt to comb and part Paige's hair after her bath.  Within about 10 minutes it was back to the light socket look :) 

Summer 2011

As always time is moving so quickly, and I can't believe summer is almost over.  We've had a great summer, getting to relax some weekends and spend others catching up with family and friends.  After 5 years we were able to get together with Nick's college roommate and his family, along with a few other guys from the college days.  We also spent our annual weekend at Indian Bear Lodge with the whole Latta family.  For us it was the best year yet.  Autumn was in absolute heaven with her cousins and we are happy to report that Paige is sleeping through the night and did so both nights there! That was a big relief for us so we are more comfortable taking weekend trips as a family now.  Nick and I also had the opportunity to get away for a few days in June/July in Florida.  Grandma Latta got some quality time with the girls and we got some quality time with the beach and ice cold drinks, so everyone was happy!

Paige is getting too big too fast and we are having a lot of fun watching her experience all of her firsts (teeth, eating rice and vegetables/fruits, swinging, swimming, going to the zoo, sitting up, etc).  She has been trying really hard to crawl for the past few weeks, so we're expecting that any day now.  The girl just wants to move and is not happy sitting still.

Autumn has also had a few firsts this summer, like riding her tricycle by herself and riding a pony, both which she's very proud of.  A big first coming up for her next week is pre-school.  I can hardly believe she's starting already, but so far she is very excited.  Let's hope that is the case come Aug 29th.

Overall the girls are doing great and seem to adore each other more every day.  Again, I know this may come to a screeching halt when Paige starts having opinions of her own, but for now it's fun to watch and we are choosing to live in our happy state of ignorance :)



Our first family trip to the zoo with Paige.  Our friends Brian and Michelle came down to visit with their daughter Hannah and it was so nice to see them.  It was a hot day but all the little ones did great.

Grandma and Grandpa Church with all four of the grandkids.  Hmm, can you tell which two are half Italian?! By the way, that cute tiny one that Verna is holding is the newest member of the family - Riley Grace Young!  Riley was born on May 4th and she is absolutely adorable.  From what we hear Brady is an excellent big brother too.     

Paige at about 5 months old....still looking like a mini female version of my Grandpa Flynn.

We went to downtown Westerville at the end of June for their street fair.  They have it the 4th Friday of every month during the summer.  Autumn got her face painted for the first time and has been asking when she can get it done again.  She talks about the girl who painted her face like they are old friends :)

Paige's first time in a pool.  Hard to tell from the picture but she loved it! 

Paige at almost 6 months old...making silly faces and making Mommy smile on her birthday :)

 Move over Doogie Howser!! Autumn loves playing doctor and giving us all check ups.  According to my last check up I weighed 6 lbs.  I like this doctor!!

Macy and Autumn have become best buddies in the past few months.  This new relationship is primarily based on Autumn chasing Macy around the house with whatever torture method she chooses that night....the vacuum, baby stroller, toy leaf blower (which she does while dressed in a catepillar costume), etc.  We tried to make her stop for a while until we realized that Macy kind of likes it and it's good exercise for them both.  We can tell Macy approves because she used to go into our bedroom during storms, but now she goes right into Autumn's room.  So cute....

Just chillin' on the 4th of July.  Hey...where's my margarita guys?!

We stayed home for the 4th of July weekend and had a nice little family cookout.  When we explained to Autumn why we celebrate the 4th of July, she asked us how old America is.  When we told her she thought it would be a good idea to make a cake like we do for our birthdays.  Notice the cupcakes in the background with the 235... 

Paige's first time swinging.  Hilarious to watch her smile and snort for 15 minutes straight.  And although it's a little tough to see, she's also showing off her first two teeth on the bottom!

Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, boouunce, booouuunnnccee, and I'm out.  Goodnight.

Smiley girl at 7 months old.  Her hair is getting more awesome every day.  Love the spike!

Last weekend Nick's company had a big celebration for their 60th Anniversary.  It was nice to see Autumn be so fearless on the huge bouncy slides and have a blast.  That evening she also got to experience her first concert as the company had Blake Shelton perform.  She was showing us her best dance moves that night! 

   

Autumn's 3rd Birthday and Easter

Autumn turned 3 on April 4th and we pretty much celebrated her birthday for an entire week starting with her party on March 26th. We did something a little different this year and, rather than having the party at home, we had it at a kids gym called The Little Gym. It was SO much fun for her and we were able to invite so many kids who seemed to have a great time too. It was really nice to be able to do something big for her this year and give her a special day since so much of our time has been devoted to Paige lately. I have to say that we have been very impressed with what an amazing big sister she has been to Paige. She loves on her and is right there any time she needs a pacifier, needs snot wiped off her nose, needs help getting rolled back off her tummy when she gets mad, etc. We know the sibling rivalry will kick in when Paige starts stealing toys but so far I have to say that Paige hit the jackpot when it comes to big sisters.

Autumn starts preschool this August and she's so excited about it. She can see her school from her bedroom window which she thinks is so awesome! She continues to amaze us with what she learns every day. She's got her alphabet down pat, is spelling words, counting to 30, and writing her name. She has a memory like a steel trap...that can be good and bad. We have to be VERY careful about what we promise or threaten because the girl doesn't forget anything!

We know this year will be interesting since she's 3 and acts more like a 13 year old, but she has become quite the little girl and is a blast to be around.

Theme for the birthday this year...Minnie Mouse! Of course she picked out her clothes for the party :)

We had about 14 kids at her party and they all helped make it a very special day for her.

On her actual birthday we had a low key celebration at home. We made cupcakes in the shape of a #3 and she got to help decorate them to take to her friends the next day.

We had a great Easter and were able to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa Latta, Shannon, Brian, Maddie and Jacob. All the "big" kids hunted for eggs at Shannon's house and had lots of fun at Sunday school together.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get together with Nick's family, but there was a very good reason for that. Sara has been on bedrest for the past 7 weeks and just yesterday gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Riley Grace! She was 4-5 weeks early, but weighed in at 5 lbs 10oz, 19 in long, and is completely healthy! More pics to come once we can get up there and see her in person!!

Paige's first 4 months

I told myself not to do it again, but here we are four months in already and I'm just getting around to an update. Paige will be four months old this Sunday and I can hardly believe it. Time has flown and, other than the first 6 weeks which are always tough, she has been a very laid back baby. She's always happy and smiling, even at midnight, 2am, 4am, etc when we wish she was sleeping instead :). If we could get the sleeping thing taken care of, she would pretty much be the easist baby in the world!

At 5.5 weeks of age she gave us her first smile, which was such a great reward and so cool to see the first glimpse of her little personality. Then when she was just over three months old we got to hear her laugh for the first time. Her timing couldn't have been more perfect as she saved her first laugh for daddy just three days after Nick's dad very unexpectedly passed away. It was just what he needed that day and I believe she knew that. Her latest milestone happened just last weekend when she started rolling over! We just can't believe she's doing some of these things already. I remember saying every month from 4 months on with Autumn that I wish we could've stopped the clock at that age because it was so fun, and we have begun saying the same thing with Paige.

Probably by our next update she will be sitting up all by herself, and I HOPE sleeping through the night too :)

I don't know what is with our children but they like to smile with a wink. Autumn still does it and it looks like Paige got that gene too!

Most people have said she looks like me, my mom, or my grandpa Flynn (my mom's dad). Sometimes we think she and Autumn look so much alike and other days they look totally different. We can't wait to see how she continues to change as she grows.

Well, I was hoping to be able to call her my little peanut but as you can see she's not such a little peanut. She actually weighs more than Autumn did at the same age. Hopefully this means she'll be a good eater when it comes time for vegetables!

I must confess, she is watching Mickey Mouse in this picture. We do our best to keep her away from the TV while her big sis is watching Mickey, but when she gets a glimpse of it she gets so flippin excited....scary!

Welcome Paige Ellyson!

We are officially a family of four now!! Paige Ellyson was born on January 8th - 8 days early. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Everthing went very well and everyone is healthy so far, so we feel very blessed. Quite different from Autumn, Paige didn't waste much time once she decided she was ready to join the world. We got to the hospital at 2:30pm and she was born at 5:40pm. It took us a while that morning to decide whether it was the real deal, and looking back we're sure glad we went to the hospital when we did. Things progressed very quickly once we got there. Nick had to leave the room while I got my epidural and by the time it was done I was fully dilated. I actually had to call him to get back so he didn't miss anything. At that point we were basically waiting for the doctor to get to the hospital to deliver her, so it was a pretty interesting 30 minutes.

It was a wonderful experience and now we're home and adjusting to the balancing act of having two kids. Autumn has been a great big sister so far which has been a big help. Of course we've had our moments, but overall our biggest issue is helping her understand what she can help with and what Mom and Dad need to take care of.

Getting warm after her first bath at home...