Saturday, October 31, 2009

Fall Update!

Wow! This is a long overdue update, which accounts for the length. If you are not related or an "Auntie," I apologize for posting so many pictures -- hard to choose! The first set is from our 2nd annual trip to a really fun pumpkin patch. The second set is from trick-or-treating night (yes, we do not trick-or-treat on Halloween - Hume's traditional night is the Wednesday of Halloween week to correspond with one of our conferences). The others are an assortment of fall events. The kids are growing so quickly (Ellie is already in preschool!) and are so much fun, individually and together! We are thoroughly enjoying the busy pace of life with little ones, which accounts for lots of pictures with little time to post to the blog! :) I still need to add photos from our September trip to Washington, but alas, another day and another post...

Pumpkin Patch


This one above is my new favorite of Thomas!


Ellie loves her baby brother!

Thomas playing with the flowers...

Thomas grabbing the flower (nothing gentle about this!) for a closer look...

Thomas eating the flower!

Our pretty girl! :)

Ellie and Ellie Mae having a blast on the suspension bridge!

Ellie Mae's favorite part of the pumpkin patch for two years running - the train!

Papa and Tommy

Love that baby laughter!

Ellie adored the miniature tractor!

Big stuff!

This year's kiddo crew: Thomas, Ellie Mae, Ellie, Jaron, Peter and Elyse


Chillin' in the pumpkins...

Trick-or-Treat Night!

Princess Ellie Mae (her costume is very similar to last year's, but she loves to dress up as a princess and dance to her Barbie ballet movies, so we figured she wouldn't want to be anything else for trick-or-treating!)


Our little lion!

Tommy loves to be with his Papa! He recently said his first word -- he looked right at Joel and said, "Papa"! Joel is pretty much his favorite these days! :)

Getting ready to trick-or-treat: Kai (as a butterfly princess -- her extremely talented parents actually made her entire costume!), Hannah (as a fairy princess), Ellie (as a kitty princess!) and Ellie Mae (as a princess). Definitely a theme...

The girls heading out with Ellie Mae in her princess heels (she switched to tennis shoes at the first house when she looked up the 17 stairs to the front door!).

For the second year in a row, we took the girls in the same car to the different neighborhoods and let them sit in the very back together...they *love* this tradition! They seem to feel so big!

Very intent knockers! They definitely got the hang of the whole trick-or-treating thing this year -- knock loudly on a door and someone magically appears to give you candy -- good deal!


The girls at one of our stops...

Tommy's version of trick-or-treating: stay in the warm car with Daddy and "drive" with gusto!

First Day of Preschool

The first day tradition for preschool is for the school bus to come to each neighborhood to pick up the kids. Ellie Mae, Ellie and Hannah were *so* excited when Mr. Jon pulled up to let them aboard!

The girls were giddy on the bus during the entire ride (we were the first stop, which meant that the girls got the longest ride and were able to welcome their friends as they boarded the bus)!

With completed papers and craft in hand, we officially have a preschooler...where did the time go?! Ellie Mae absolutely loves going to preschool (twice a week for two hours each day, and Sunday school with the same teacher in the same room) and seems to be learning quite a bit. Last week, she was so proud to report that she was the helper for the day -- I'm not sure what other duties she had, but the highlight was passing out napkins for snack time! :) She chats all about the comings and goings of classroom life when we pick her up...so fun to her narrate her days and articulate her thoughts, especially as her vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds!

Crawling!

Tommy moves all around the house now with impressive speed! He loves to explore new things, but his very favorite target is shoes of any kind! I found him a couple weeks ago alone in Ellie's room -- without other shoes in site, he had zeroed in on her doll's shoe!


Our cuddly bath time boy!



Asuncion Family Vacation at Lake Tahoe

We had a fantastic time vacationing with my Mom, Rupert and two step-brothers' families (Rob, Lori & Morgan and Stew, Ree & Reese) at Tahoe in early October! It snowed immediately after we arrived, leaving a foot of the white stuff on the ground! By the end of the week, though, we were enjoying beautiful sunshine and nice fall temperatures. Fun extremes!

Ellie on a walk to the lake trailing Grandpa Rupert...

Grammy Gayle and Ellie Mae playing in the snow! They also played quite a bit on our balcony and made an adorable snowman that lasted for three or four days.

Grammy Gayle laughing at the kids! I love this picture!

Grandpa Rupert, Ellie Mae, Grammy Gayle and Thomas

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Rice Cereal for Tommy & a couple of Ellie pics

Tommy turned 6 months old on Sunday! To celebrate, we fed him his first solid food on Monday for lunch - delicious, super flavorful (ha!) rice cereal. He seemed to enjoy it, and big sister Ellie Mae had a terrific time feeding him! His head, though more controlled by the day, is still a bit wobbly when he sits upright, so the combination of him bobbing around and trying to grab the spoon made for a messy adventure! It's hard to believe that he is already old enough for real food...time sure flies!




This one is for Grammy Gayle -- Ellie in her new butterfly dress.


Cool Aunt Beth stayed with us about a month ago and Ellie watched her put on makeup in the morning. Beth and I ate our breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls shortly after and noticed that Ellie was mysteriously missing from such a treat. Upon investigation, I found her through the closed door of our bedroom, though the closed door of our bathroom and in the very back corner behind the toilet with my makeup bag and all of my makeup surrounding her. She said that she wanted to be pretty like "Cool Beff"! She chose my mascaras, eyeliner, and an old container of cream eyeshadows, specifically the dark brown and dark purple colors, to accomplish this goal. So funny!



Monday, June 1, 2009

Ridiculously Late Update with Tommy pictures!


Wow! Four months has flown by, which is exactly how long it has been since we last posted any pictures of our new Tommy, who is now four months and one week old (or 18 weeks)! (Thank you, Auntie Sarah, for the good reminder! ;) ) Ellie loves her little brother and being a big sister -- she is both helpful and "helpful"! Tommy, or Baby Brother, as he is most often called, adores his sister. Ellie still gets excited every time he wakes up ("Mama, he's awake!") and he usually greets her with big smiles. Tommy is a very happy baby -- we often see huge smiles and he has taken to giggling a lot, complete with shoulder shakes! He has been such a tremendous blessing to all of us! Here are a few (well, 29) photos in chronological order to play catch up for the last several months, including Ellie's first ballet recital and many growing Tommy pictures to give the long distance Aunties a good fix. :) We hope you enjoy!

Ellie smiling sweetly!

Ellie in her pink throne (her own armchair with "Ellie" embroidered across the back)

Fancy Ellie

Tommy at 5 weeks.

Morning Time!

Tommy in his bath around 5 1/2 weeks.

Tommy and Grandpa Mark. Tommy has this effect on lots of us!

Tommy at 7 weeks.

Tommy (7 weeks) and Ellie - the diapered duo! Ellie wanted to lay down next to him, so she stripped down to her diaper first to be like him!

Wow! What a difference in size!

Ellie and Tommy (2 months) at Great-Grandpa Collins' house in LA

Great-Grandpa Collins and his four great-grandkids: Ellie Mae (2 1/2), Thomas (2 months), Trent (7 1/2 months), Ezekiel (14 months).

Great-Grandpa Collins and Ellie Mae

Our family with Grandpa Collins

Grandpa Rupert with his four grandkids at Easter: Morgan (8 1/2 months), Reese (8 months), Thomas (2 1/2 months), Ellie Mae.

Morning Time Again

Thomas - 3 months

Our sweet sleeper

First ballet recital! The girls were adorable! Ellie was a bit shy both of her times on stage, but she did dance and looked really sweet the whole time!


Our princess also likes to play in the dirt -- as soon as we arrived at home after the recital, Ellie took off her ballet shoes, donned her snow boots and ran back outside to grab the last bit of daylight!


Tommy learned to talk on the phone a bit early! He's almost 3 1/2 months old here with our Pause guys Tom, Jake & Will (they call themselves Tommy & Ellie's Pause brothers!).

The Cool Ellies - Ellie Ferreira and Ellie Mae!

Tommy - 3 1/2 months

Tommy and sweet big sis, Ellie!

Tommy & Grammy Gayle

Our smiley baby boy!