Happy Halloween - and Happy 7 months!

First of all, Happy Halloween everyone. Here is a little Halloween craft the boys did.

No costumes for us this year. Just cute little onesies. We'll save the dressing up for next year!

Second of all, Happy 7 months to the boys. Here is what they've been up to this past month:

• They are moving -- and fast! Logan was first to master the army crawl, and now Ellis is moving right along with him. I can only imagine how quick I'm going to have to move when they really crawl, and of course go in opposite directions! Time to babyproof too. Ellis has already made his way over to the wall socket and reached uptowards it. Not good! They also like to meet us in the kitchen or hang out by the front door. The only dilemma with that is that since the floor is hard, they tend to spit up a little more when they are moving around on their belly. Yesterday, we put their carseats in the way so they couldn't get by. Well, Ellis is smarter than we thought... He couldn't get by on the side, so he tried the middle...
• We've been experimenting with some new foods. This month we've added a special dinner (chicken, sweet potato, and apple) in the mix. Their new fruit is pear and a new veggie is carrot. We did add in some yogurt, but throughout the first week that we gave it, Ellis and Logan both developed a little bit of a rash, so although we aren't positive that the yogurt caused it, we decided to stop giving it to them to see if the rash went away, and most of it did. Ellis seems to have some dry skin in general, maybe eczema, so it's possible the yogurt made it worse. Hopefully later this week we can try some more new foods.
• Speaking of eating, Ellis is so funny when he eats. He definitely loves food. When the spoon is coming towards his mouth, he opens his mouth so wide and lifts his chin up. My mom said he looked like a little bird opening its mouth for a worm and I totally see that too. So cute...
• Logan is getting pretty good with sitting on his own, although he still topples after a while. Ellis, on the other hand, has quite the round butt. He leans back quite a bit when he is propped to sit up, but then when he is laying down on the boppy, in his car seat or high chair, he leans forward and tries to sit up, so who knows what's going on with him.
• They LOVE their puffs. When we put them in their high chair, we give them a few puffs either before or after they eat, for them to practice eating finger foods. They are definitely getting better with getting them in their mouth,or should I say towards their mouth, but I think that since they dissolve so quickly, they get a littlemushy in their wet fingers and even though they try to put them in their mouth, they usually stick to their hand (or face) and don't quite make it in to stay.
• Now that it's chilly in the morning, it's time to bust out the little hoodies we got them.
• We had a little fall photo shoot this past weekend. Ellis was such a trooper, but Logan did NOT like it for some reason. Not sure if it was the fact of sitting in the leaves, being by big pumpkins, or what. We tried twice and we're lucky we got the pictures we did!
• Some other pictures from this month that haven't been posted yet!

Ellis

Logan

Logan

Ellis

Ellis is on the move

A little video of Ellis on the move:

WE make the rules

Tonight, Troy was throwing one of the boy's balls against the wall, and I told him not to, thinking the noise of it hitting the wall would upset them..not that it was loud, but sometimes all-of-a-sudden noises scare them. Well, he sure got Ellis's attention, but in a good way, because he started laughing as Troy threw it. Then Troy went into this little rant with Ellis about how "WE run the house. WE make the rules" (WE meaning Ellis and Troy) and how they don't have to listen to mom. It was the funniest thing..

On the move

I finally got a short clip of Logan army crawling. Unfortunately after I downloaded it, I realized how poor the quality is...sorry! I'll have to use the Flip camera next time instead of my regular camera.

Ellis is just starting to be a little more deliberate in his movements. He's been watching Logan a bit more the past few days and he's slowly picking up the army crawl too. Looks like we could be in trouble soon.. =)

Our big boys

Today Troy was home with the boys and among all the other work he got done, he also put together the high chair. Another positive for the day -- the boys decided to have really good naps!

We also gave them a few puffs to try after dinner. I gave each of them one myself, so that they knew they were supposed to eat them, and then I put a few on their tray. Surprisingly, Ellis grabbed one quickly and stuck it in his mouth like it was no big deal. Logan liked studying them and seemed to enjoy playing with it instead of getting it in his mouth.

Our past week - and a birthday wish!

I am still trying to figure out how to make time to update the blog more often, so it kind of seems like I do weekly updates instead. Anyways, here goes --

Last Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa Bush came by one last time before heading out of town for the next couple years. They have been spending their winters RV-ing as work campers in California for the past couple years, and have now decided to not only head out their for winter, but next summer they plan on going to Alaska instead of heading back this way. Then they'll go back to California for the following winter, so it will be a while before we see them again. Thank goodness for Google chat so they can see the boys every so often! Safe travels to Grandma and Grandpa Bush (and take LOTS of pictures!)

Another visitor we had, today actually, was Kelly. She was in town for the weekend and we were lucky to catch up with her. She was able to meet the boys for the first time too. I always say I wish we lived closer, and days like today remind me even more of why I wish that. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking fast enough to get a group picture, but hopefully we'll be able to see each other again soon...

The latest news with the boys -

• They are currently refusing to nap -- NOT cool! Last Friday my mom mentioned that they didn't take their normal morning nap and took a rather short afternoon nap. Well, yesterday, I spent the day scrapbooking with my mom and Nicole, and Troy said they napped for maybe 1.5 hours all day long. Today, same thing. They took about a 2 hour nap today and that was all. They haven't been extremely fussy or anything, but dang! I told them that I would take their nap for them, but I'm not sure they would stay out of trouble for me to do that! =)
• Logan has mastered the army crawl. His favorite place to crawl to is the fireplace. Whenever we are in the living room, regardless of the toys we have out for him to play with, he is just drawn to the fireplace. Looks like we'll have to find a way to deter him from that, especially when we start to actually have fires in the winter. Ellis is pretty good with scooting around, but hasn't actually mastered it like Logan has. I will try to put a video up of this soon -- whenever Logan sees me filming him, he stops and stares at the camera..
• Speaking of which, Logan and Ellis are completely mesmerized with technology. Whenever I have my iPad around, Logan especially (since he has conquered the army crawl) is very good at crawling to it and grabbing it. They both will grab for the remote control or any other accessory nearby -- phones, cameras, etc. You name it, they want it. Looks like they got their dad's desire to play with the latest and greatest technology!
• Today I made them a new recipe for dinner. Usually they had been getting rice cereal with some sort of vegetable, but thanks to Nicole and a book she is letting me borrow, I found an actual "dinner" for them. It consists of pureed chicken, sweet potatoes, and apple. YUMMY! They seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, so it looks like it was a hit!
• Tonight, we finally got to try out their little "Twilight Turtle". We got it at our shower (thanks to Grandpa Frahm!), but since it had been so light in the summer when we put them to bed, there was not much use for it. Well, tonight, Ellis didn't appear interested in going to bed and was fussing quite a bit, so I turned the bedroom lights off, and the turtle on, and he immediately quieted down. It was crazy, in a good way! We laid him in his crib and he was completely content. Looks like the turtle was a hit!

And last but not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA FRAHM (okay, so I'm about 3 hours early, but I couldn't risk not having time tomorrow to post this!) Have a great birthday!!! We love you!

a to z - Troy's turn

a: age - 36

b: bedsize - queen, but I really want a king

c: chore I hate - folding laundry, which is why it sits out for 4 days after it's washed

d: dog - little Bella, best thing out of Deckerville

e: essential start to the day - bowl of cereal and a glass of OJ

f: favorite color - brown or dark blue

g: gold or silver - silver

h: height - 5'11"

i: instrument you play - Alvarez Guitar

j: job title - Case Manager, LLC

k: kids - Lo Lo and Ellis mania (aka Logan and Ellis)

l: live - The Hills, baby - Rochester Hills, that is

m: mother's name - Rosa

n: nicknames - Polamalu (after Troy Polamalu), cute boy

o: overnight hospital stay - when the kids were born, age 7 or 8 after being attacked by a cat

p: pet peeves - people that drive lower than the speed limit

q: quote from a movie - from the movie Apocalypse Now "I love the smell of napalm in the morning, you know one time we had a hill bomb, 12 hours. When it was all over I walked up, we didn't find one of them, not one stinking dink body. Smell, that gasoline smell, smells like...victory."

r: right or left-handed - right

s: siblings - 2 brothers (Sky and Shaun), 1 sister (April), and 2 step-brothers (Scott and Brian)

t: time you wake up - 6:20am, to get the kids ready to go to granny's

u: underwear - boxer briefs

v: vegetable you hate - sweet potatoes, squash

w: what makes you run late - my procrastination

x: x-rays you've had - teeth

y: yummy food you make - lemon poppyseed chicken and no-bake pumpkin cheesecake

z: zoo animal - snakes