B & B Beginnings: January 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Baths, hair, and books

It's so fun to be able to put both boys in the tub together now. They have such a fun time together playing with toys!

Only when you are 5 months old can you get away with having hair like this and it is still cute!

They love reading books together

Attempting rice cereal. This face captures his feelings on the stuff.

Oh look, more reading books!

Monday, January 27, 2014

When Elliot turned 2 earlier this month, he wasn't the only one that got presents. My mom put together a Terrible Two Survival Kit for me full of supplies to keep little hands and attention spans busy. It was based off of ideas from this website

It has been great to have a whole bag of ideas especially since I am not naturally a creative mom full of good ideas like this. I forget how simple activities can be to keep a 2 year old entertained. We've tried out a few ideas and so far they have been a big hit!!

Dropping pom poms down a toilet paper tube into a bowl. When he got bored with this we added more to make fun tunnels for the balls to fall through

Threading pipe cleaners through a colander. (Preston wasn't involved in this project, but Elliot staged the picture so it looked like it. They were promptly removed from his grasp after the picture)

Just this morning we placed contact paper, sticky side up, on the floor and made pictures with pom poms, pipe cleaner pieces, and googly eyes. Even though Preston can't participate he sure enjoyed watching his brother, so it was a win-win!

So thanks mom for keeping us all entertained!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Elliot is Two!!

I have a two year old! It seems so weird to me. Elliot seems to be just changing daily and growing up so fast. He is just starting to say "Love you" which is heart melting every single time. He loves to blow kisses and have dance parties. He is such a toddler, can be having fun playing games and then in the next breath is on the floor throwing a tantrum. He is very protective of his little brother, and makes sure he has a blanket and stuffed animal. When Elliot wants to dance, he makes sure someone is helping Preston dance too. He has such a big heart, and I can't wait to watch that grow.

It was sort of a weird day, knowing that it is a birthday but not having that mean anything to Elliot. It was just an ordinary day. But this evening we had all the family that lives in our town over for a low key pizza party. It was so fun to celebrate with family. Elliot got some fun new toys, but the clear favorite was the card that play the Chicken Dance. I didn't think we were going to get to any of the other gifts after he opened that card and started dancing! But we eventually did get them opened and he sure got spoiled by his grandparents!

The day started out with a brother hang out session in his crib. They were holding hands and Elliot was reading to him and singing "Happy" (his own version of You Are My Sunshine) It was so incredibly sweet!

We practiced all day saying "I'm 2!"

Showing off his cool new tool belt!

Bryce got in on the tool action too!

Love you so much Elliot! Thanks for being such a joy

Monday, January 6, 2014

Everything In between

There are lots of random pictures that I love, but have no clear category. So here are some of the things I've captured in the last month or so, that have nothing to do with each other!

Elliot tucked his bear into bed and brought the Kindle over to him so he could watch Veggie Tales

Cooking with Mom

Boy's only picnic

Always taking care of his stuffed animals!

Meeting Santa

Showing off his 2 teeth. That's right, my 4 month old has 2 teeth!! He's determined to be a big boy by 6 months!!

Helping Dad shovel the back deck

Just hanging out together

There really are no words to describe how hilarious I find this!

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we celebrated at home with just our little family. I love spending this time with just us. Having caramel rolls and coffee by the tree and just taking it easy. It is so nice that the kids don't really know what's going on so we can just take our time and give them a gift here and there.

The rest of the family has Vikings gear and Bryce didn't want me to feel left out, so I now own my very first piece of Vikings apparel.

I am going to miss being able to hide Elliot's gifts in plain sight. We had this put together in a closet that he can open up but it didn't matter, he had no clue what he was getting!

But he loves his new tool bench. Now he can really help daddy on all his projects!

Preston was just content to hang out with us and enjoy Elliot running around!

For the afternoon we ventured out to my parents house to celebrate with my family. I apparently didn't think taking pictures was necessary so I only have a few.

Elliot enjoyed playing with his new train set with Auntie Liv.

What more could a little boy ask for, cookies, Ipad, and grandma... life is good!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Haugen Family Christmas

A few days before Christmas we got together with Bryce's family to celebrate Christmas together. Unfortunately his brother and family live too far away to join in the festivities but we had a fun evening with mildly controlled kid/gift chaos.