The one year old

Just like that, Elsie is one.  Things you should know about her: she does whatever she wants whenever she wants and she eats pretty much everything.  I love her.  A lot.  She won't let me put a damn thing in her hair and every time I give her a bath, the water is pretty brown afterward.  She's just that kind of girl I guess.  Deep down, I admit, I would LOVE it if she stayed sort of tom-boyish.  But alas, I know there will be a princess phase.  Anyway, here's some pics!  Enjoy!

One year pics of Elsie Jean.  Thanks to Aunt JoDee for snapping away!

This is my favorite!  She was being SUCH A STINKER, which is how you know it's really picture day.

Cheeky older brother refused to take pictures with his sister.  Cooperation=Mendenhall kids.

Actual birthday party.  She was dyed red for a few days.

Just a few pictures that I love

So these first few pictures are from our Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine!  What better way to spend Memorial Day?

My kids' first drum circle.  I'm part hippy so it makes sense.

Elsie and Grandpa playing the hell out of the tambourine.

Cheekiest monkey that I know...loving life on his Thomas the Tank Engine ride!

 Okay, the next few pictures are from our annual family camp out at the end of June.  Lots of dirt, lots of bugs and lots of fun.

My girl from the hills.  I'd like to note that the week after this picture was taken, her other front tooth finally made it through.   Just when I was getting used to the Jack-o-lantern look...

A very patient cousin, Brody, enduring one of Elsie's favorite pastimes (pounding on people's heads). 

I'm not really sure what Van's doing here, but he's pretty intense.  And his hair cut looks like it's a shout out to the 90's bowl cut.  

Apologies

I know I don't have a million readers out there or anything, but to the two of you who come to this website seeking witty remarks and brilliant insight, I am sorry.  I have not been good at blogging.  Lots has been going on for example, I have a CRAWLER now! Van never crawled so this is a whole new experience for us.  Speaking of Van, he's THREE!  Here's my favorite conversation I heard him have on his birthday: Matt: Hey Van, you're 3 today!  Van:  I know.  Tell me about it.  Me: Awesome.

Here's how I'm going to make it up to you two readers.  New family pictures!  Exciting, fun, lovely.  Elsie is almost 7 months old in these pics, so they really are only a month late.  Van is nearing 3 and you can see that cheeky gleam in his eye. 

 



Let me just say, they were both very done with pictures at this point.  I'm surprised that this is half way decent.



So much behind this little smile...



Typical Elsie.  These fingers have been sucked on since she was born.  I hope it ends before she gets buck teeth.



These two little devils melt my heart.

5 months of Elsie Jean!

I can't believe it's already been 5 whole months since this baby girl arrived!  A wise friend once told me that when you go from one kid, to two kids, the workload doesn't double, it quadruples.  To that I say, you are correct, my dear.  You know those moments when both kids are screaming, you have to pee, your phone rings and you still haven't started dinner?  Well, that is pretty much  my life.  Luckily, those moments are balanced with cute things like this picture:

 Sure they both have stains on their shirts, but the point of this picture is they are both holding still for 3 seconds so I could take a picture!  I actually had both of the laughing, that's how damn good I am. 

Tip your head sideways and this one will be lots cuter. 



She's just SO CUTE I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF HER!!!




Blurry, but I took this one before I left for work.  It's hard to leave this cuteness.  Please note the darling hat, compliments of my mom's crocheting hands.




I think we can all agree that there isn't a time when a baby is cuter than fresh out of the bath.  Also, she still loves those two middle fingers.  Other interesting things about Elsie are she enjoys her 3 am feedings, peek-a-boo with her brother and eating my hair.

So that's us right now.  I love being home with my kids more, but I'll tell you this for free: it is a HELL of a lot of work.  I'm not one of those people who pretend it's 100% amazing all the time.  But the amazing parts are, well, amazing.  And the frustrating parts aren't so pretty.  Motherhood is the hardest thing I've ever done, but I absolutely love being a mom.  



'Tis the season...

For a cute family Christmas picture or two or three...

Lots of excitement here. 

 Merry Christmas, as a terrifying T-Rex threatens your life.

Yeah for all of us semi looking at the camera!  Merry Christmas from us!

August and everything after...

I promise I had a darling baby girl in August. We love her so much! So much that I'm just now getting around to posting because I've been spending all of my time with these two crazy kids.  Van loves her(most of the time).  She's the sweetest thing I've ever laid eyes on. 

Van's been full of saying funny, slightly inappropriate things to his wee sis.  She's fascinated by him, and about 2 months ago, she was staring at him, bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Van looked over at her and said, "What are you looking at, fat boy?"  I've been laughing about that for, oh, about two months. 
Elsie is the best baby.  I used to hate when people said that about their babies because Van was NOT a 'best baby.'  In fact, I feel like he cried solid for the first two months of his life.  I didn't realize how exhausting that was until I had Elsie.  And now I realize, hey! I can shower!  I can make meals!  I can go grocery shopping with her!  All of these little life functions end up being a pretty big deal. 

Since I've missed the first 3 months of her life in this blog, I'll catch ya up in pictures.  These are in the hospital on the day we went home.  Hooray!  She was born August 5 via c-section because she was laying like a rainbow in my belly.  Funny enough, in the hospital she started flipping on her side!  She still does this and I'm convinced it's because she was sideways inside the womb. 




She has also been a professional thumb sucker from the get go.  I'm hoping she grows out of this!  But I have to admit, it's nice she can soothe herself.  (3 days old)






Here are her angry eyes aka Carson eyes.  For those of you who know my brother Carson, this is a look he perfected, and somehow, both of my kids do it!  She's about 4 weeks old in this.

Elsie is about 6 weeks old in this picture.  Yes, I put a bow in her hair.  Yes, it felt weird, but I did it anyway.  Yes, I guess I will have to figure out this girl thing, one hair bow at a time.

This picture was a spontaneous nose picking by Van.  Which lets me know that Van is right on the big brother track.  Elsie is about 2 months old in this one.

How could you not love this one?  Elsie is almost 3 months old in this picture and obviously loves being held by Van.  And in case you didn't notice, she's gotten CHUBBY.  I love chubby babies!  I really, really do.  I'm so glad both of them have been chunks. 

This is the picture taken a few days before I went back to work.  Her smile melts my heart! Lucky for me, I'm only working part time now, she her smile can melt my heart more often than not. 

Some of my favorite Van-isms...

 I love this photographer!  Her website is http://www.clipsandclicks.com/.  Anyway, she did Van's one year pictures so I had her do his 2 yr as well.  I just love how well she captures him! 

Life with Van is so busy and fun!  I've always loved how well he's been able to talk and, I admit, I was even a bit prideful of how well he talked.  That was until he started saying things like, 'No.  I said no.'  Sure it was a direct quote from me, but I don't like my own power to be used against me.

 Some of my other favorites are as follows:

"I need water, dad.  Go dad go!"
"The Church of Jesus Christ Amen."
During a prayer, "Please bless Blake and Carson and Blake and Carson and Blake."  Which is actually pretty wise of him, since my little brothers always live on a the wild side of things.
"Good job getting dressed mom!" We all need some encouragement.
"I like these now!" When discovering that he couldn't eat a cookie until he ate his veggies. 
"Can't mom.  I busy." 

I've noticed most of these sayings of his have to do with telling me no.  It seems like no matter how hard I tried to come up with alternative ways of saying 'no' it slipped through.  But would he really qualify as a toddler if he didn't say no?

I think he's really starting to catch on that he's going to have a baby sister.  On Mother's Day, he came up to my belly and kissed it and said, "Hi baby sister! How you doing?  Hold you?"  I admit, it melted my heart.  It was the best Mother's Day present I could have asked for.  We'll see how he feels once she's really here though...because later that week, he told me he was a baby.  And he wouldn't walk anywhere.  He would only crawl and told me he wanted a bottle.  So I get the feeling we are in for interesting times ahead!

I used to think Van looked so much like me and acted so much like me, but as he gets older, I can see he definately pulled some Matt on both of those fronts.  Which is especially good for the personality part.  We can't have two people in the house being bossy.

Again, I have to say how much I love this photographer.  I liked this picture a lot.  Mostly because he looks so reverant!  Not sure how she captured it (just really quick on the draw, I guess.)  It just reminds me how fast time is flying by.  Two years ago, I had a newborn baby in my arms and now I'm lucky if I can catch the toddler to get a little cuddle.