Open Wide

In an attempt to get more sleep for both Ella and mom and dad, we started baby food this weekend. We started with carrots. Ella ate them like a pro, only an occasional shiver of dislike! We have been trying rice cereal for a few weeks. Before she got sick, Ella was eating her cereal great, now she just spits it out. After a few succesul spoonfuls, I added the cereal to it, that little stinker started spitting it out!! Guess she hates the cereal!! Oh, and she is on a nusring strike! Mom is not liking this!!!

An Usually Nice Day

We spent Thursday outside for most of the afternoon, enjoying the usually warm 55 degree weather. In case you are wondering, we have about 2 1/2 inches of snow on the ground today! The girls were so excited to run around in the backyard, swing and just blow off some of their pent up energy. Addison recieved some outside games from school this week. We attempted to play jacks. That was a disater, and I spent the first couple of trys, chasing after the ball. We moved to a different area and just practiced, dropping and catching the ball! The girls enjoyed chasing each other, and attempting to jump rope. We have lots to learn this spring!! Including riding the bike! Addison gets so distracted and hates to peddle.

Tony and the girls have all been sick with colds. I think both the girls started with croup and then turned into nasty colds. It hung around for a little awhile, and then Tony and Ella got sick. Tony was home from work for 3 days with fevers. For him to miss work is a big deal, he hates missing work. Addison and Liv are feeling much better, despite the coughing in the evening and the sometimes stuffy nose. We can't give anything to Ella, so we basically just had to let her suffer. We cleaned out her nose a lot, gave her tylenol and some baby vicks. She still has a nasty cold. I was afraid she was getting RSV, last week she was sounding very rattly. Never really wheezed though. Grammy, Bubba and Lou got the brunt of sleepness nights and hacking. They were kind enough to watch the girls for us while Tony and I had a work function in Omaha last weekend.

Happy New Year

We rang in the new year in great fashion...in bed by 10:45pm!!! What do you expect, we knew Ella would be up at midnight to celebrate! She was up at 12:23am!! Brian, Kristin, Blake and Keyara came over to help us celebrate with Grammy. The girls had a great time playing, minimal arguing, and lots of dancing and laughing! The girls were not happy to stop and take a picture for me! They all wore their pajama's and princess dresses while they partied and played!!

Olivia got some new "diamonds" for Christmas. For those of you who don't know what her diamonds are, shame on you...her diamonds are sometimes rocks (yes, the ones from outside), but are usually colored rocks that you use to decorate inside vases or use for something classy. Not Olivia, these are her diamonds, and don't you dare lose them, take them from her or in case of her mother, not go back to Hy-Vee to find them! She left them, wasn't listening and didn't tell me she didn't have them until I had all 3 girls buckled in their carseats and was buckling myself. I told her I wasn't going back in to get them! She has reminded me everyday since that they are still at Hy-Vee. In these pictures, her "diamonds" were sticky and she was puttin them on herself. She was talking to Michael Leo in this one...probably telling him about her diamonds, or mommy's tree and he was probably telling her about cars, trucks or maybe "Manlin". Toddler talk!!

We decided to bring out a new toy for Ella, the exersaucer. She is loving it, now if she could only love sleeping as much! I am fairly certain that when we went to York for Thanksgiving with Tony's family she must have had some kind of a talk with her cousin Sydney from Wichita. Sydney is a parent proclaimed sleeping nightmare!!! Sydney sleeps about 1-2 hours and then is awake to eat, play or simply get on her parents nerves! Now Sydney is only 14 months old, but is already trying to teach the youngins her tricks...here they are in cohots trying to devise the new sleeping plan for Ella..."Got to bed really good, then around 11:30 start waking up and be in an allout crying fit by 12:30am. Your mommy and daddy are gonna try to rock you back to sleep, but let them know you aren't having any of that...you want mommy's platinum milk and you want it now. Go back to sleep with that feeding and wake up exactly 2 hours later until morning! Your mommy and daddy will be so proud of you for sleeping!!" We have tried to reason with her and tell her Sydney has no idea what she is talking about, but apparently Ella is already telling us who is boss and who is gonna run the show around here, and it ain't gonna be mommy or daddy!!

Compare these all you smarty pants....

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It was harder than I thought to find pictures that did not have anything in them that

would give it away, like certain blankets or other people.

Comparisons...

As we start a new year, I always start the year with some great resolutions. This year, I hope to stick to ALL of them...#1 being, try not to be pregnant this year!! Ha ha - seriously though, I have been pregnant during some time of every year since 2003!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, it got me to thinking about how much our lives have changed since the girls and how awesome each and everyone of them is. I started looking back through some old pictures and wanted to share baby pictures of all the girls at almost 5 months of age...that is how old Ella is now. See if you can figure out who is who....

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A Pictoral Review of 2008

January - We started 2008 with a trip to Omaha to see Elmo Live at the Qwest Center. Mom was already starting to feel quesy - there was a little someone growing and making their home in mom's belly!

February - Cassie found the "perfect" dress for her flower girls for hers and Lou's wedding. Addison was really proud to hold the honor of flower girl. Took a trip to Wichita to celebrate Londyn's 2nd birthday and Sydney's dedication.

March - Started with Easter Egg hunts, Bampo's birthday, a trip to the Shrine Circus and Easter of course, man it was early and cold!!

April - Took the girls to see The Wiggles, Kevin, Jenny and Leo came to Nebraska for Cassie and Lou's wedding..it was freezing, snowing, but beautiful and warm inside!

May - Addison finished another year of gymnastics at the annual "Time to Shine" performance for family and friends. She "graduated" from her 1st year of preschool. We celebrated Mother's Day (in bed, mommy was sick)

June - We finally started playing outside, took trip to see Kevin, Jenny and Leo in Idaho. Yes, we drove, all of us and grammy took the 16 hour trip!

July - We tried to spend as much time swimming and at the Water Park as possible. We started preparing the house for the new arrival. Olivia moved to a "big girl" bed and got her 1st haircut!

August - Ella Catherine was born August 7th. She weighed in as the smallest Chapman girl 7lbs. 6 oz. She was born via c-section because she was breech. Tony and I were still "discussing" boys names right up to the doctor saying, "it's a another girl"!!!!!! Olivia turned 2, and Addison started her 2nd year of preschool.

September - Addison turned 4 and we spent lots of time adjusting to our new "normal". Jenny and Leo came for 2 weeks, and Kevin got to come and visit for 1 week!

Ocotber - Mommy went back to work part-time, and we got ready for Halloween! Addison was a clown and Olivia was a Barbie cheerleader!

November - We spent time in York for Thanksgiving and also had Christmas with Tony's family. The girls had lots of fun playing with their cousins from Wichita.

December - I took Addison and Olivia to Disney on Ice; Christmas, Santa, and lots of messes!

This took me way to long to post, so if you read this and got this far, at least make a comment!!