Oh Brother

Estie: "Will they always be like this?"
Mama: "Yes, I'm afraid so. Even when they are 40. Trust me, I know."

"But the good outweighs the bad. They will be fun to build forts with, play soccer, climb trees with and so much more. Just be sure to hide your favorite dolls. And never, I repeat, NEVER, go outside when they are playing air soft guns with their friends or you might end up being the target. Eventually, however, you will all grow up and chances are you will really enjoy each others company, and you can laugh together about the "good old days", because brothers really are fun. Trust me, I know that from experience as well:) ".

And now a note to my own brother:
Love you John! I'm so thankful you're my brother and I'm so glad we are friends as adults. I always looked up to you (even when you had me in tickle mode) and I still do, and not just in height! Thanks for having us over so often and I especially appreciate how much you and your family love on my boys and now little Estie too. Thank you!!!
Love, your littlest sister

Estella is 5 Months Old!

How can it be that she is already 5 months old?! That is way too close to half a year old and I haven't even done her little footprints in clay or in her first stepping stone. Nuts!

She is now about 15 pounds and is fitting into her 3-6 months clothes well, most of which have come from my cousin, Chelsea. Thanks so much, Chels!

She has just learned how to roll from her back to her front. Good job Estie!

She needs a little help moving her arm in front of her once she is on her belly, though. Once on her belly, she will keep her head up a little while and then she buries it in the floor and starts pushing on the floor with her little feet which sends her little bottom up into the air. It's pretty funny.

I can't even imagine her crawling as it seems so far into the future, but I know it will happen sooner than I expect. I probably should go throughout the house searching for all the little "treasures" that her big brother, Nikolas, has hidden everywhere. You know, buttons, coins, screws, staples, marbles, legos, tiny pieces he finds on the floor at Target under the shelves.....the kid has an eagle eye for all things little and I'm sure his little sister will too and then vrooomp! into her mouth they'll go.

Estella has some pretty adoring big brothers. They hug her and kiss her and want to hold her and are always cheering her on when she goes to roll over. I'm so thankful for their love for each other:)

First time in a baby swing

I think we'll be seeing some teeth soon!

For the past month Estella has been sleeping from around 8:30 until 5 or 6 in the morning, which, seeing as I go to bed around 1:30 to 2AM gives me a whole 3 or 4 hours of sleep in a row.

Hmmm, that could be why my brain doesn't work anymore.....but when else am I supposed to blog??!!!! and balance my checkbook, clean the kitchen, sort my coupons, plan my menus. I can't imagine how late I'd be up if I watched TV or did Facebook!

At any rate, Estella is a perfect baby. I remember saying that Lukas was a perfect baby, and he was quite easy and wonderful, but I think Estie is just a bit easier. She really does not make a fuss hardly ever when I put her down. Whether it is for a nap, bedtime or when I need my hands free she just goes with the flow and hangs out sucking on her lower lip. (Yes, her lower lip. No thumb suckers or binky addicts in my household, they just suck on their lower lips!)
Now, this will probably all change since I am posting about it. Especially since she'll be getting teeth soon. I'll enjoy it while I can, though I should probably start getting some sleep soon.

........I keep saying that.

Estella's First 4th of July!

Our little American girl. Really, she couldn't be any cuter. Of course, I think that every month, and then every month she gets cuter:)


My friend, Lorri, gave this darling little sailor dress to Estie for the 4th of July. It is from the Cracker Barrell! (My favorite restaurant, too bad the closest one is over 7 hours away!) Thank you Lorri!!!!!


We had dinner at our friends, Dave and Kate's house before going over to Happy Valley to watch the fireworks. I took a mango quinoa salad (delicious), a regular salad, watermelon, cherries and a bunch of condiments and such for the burgers and salad. Kate, however, did the hard part of the dinner and made burgers, rocket dogs, a superb potato chive salad, star sugar cookies and the most cool looking and yummy red velvet cake plus cupcakes. We were, to say the least, happily stuffed.

Isn't that the coolest looking cake?

Before dinner, seeing as it was in the 80's, we spent the afternoon at some friends house swimming in there pool. AAAhhhhhhh, it was so nice. Nikolas is getting braver about putting his face under water. Lukas is too, but only if he is attached at the hip to me. Not fun.

Estella went into to a pool for the very first time!

She hated it.

Isn't she darling in her little strawberry suit??!!! My good friend, Melinda, gave it to her.
The suit is cute. Estie is cute. The two combined are too much for words. I just can't handle all this cuteness, not to mention all the pink!

TIMBERRRRRR!!!!

Okay, that was totally corny, but I had to do it.

Tone' and I went to a Portland Timbers soccer game a couple weeks ago compliments of my sister, Kellie. (Okay, Chad actually earned the money, but Kellie ordered us the tickets:) )
(((Oh wait, I ordered the tickets and Kellie sent me the check....))) Anyway, moving on...

We left the boys with Grandpa and Grandma Graham and took little Estie with us. We rode the MAX to the game which makes this her third train trip since she has been born. Pretty impressive for a five month old.

I just realized that Tone' was wearing a Blazers hat at a soccer game. Is that legal?

Estie did amazingly wonderful. She didn't make a peep the whole time, even though we were sitting directly above the Timbers band and everyone was chanting and yelling the ENTIRE TIME. At one point Tone' left to get me water and while he was gone these two very drunk guys looked up from a couple seats down, saw Estie and said, "Look at that baby! She's beautiful! I want to hold that baby!" To which I replied; "Uh, NO." They kept persisting and I kept saying no and then one of them wanted to know if I was Irish.
Drunk people are very random.
And, by the way, I am part Irish. And Scottish, Dutch, German, English and Native American. Now Estie is all those plus Italian, French-Canadian and Russian.

America: the land of Mutts. :) (You know, mutts are a very hardy breed, just ask a veterinarian)

Back to the game:
Since we arrived just after kickoff the only available seats were here:

Behind this pole.

At least we could see one of the goal posts:)

It was a pretty good game and we had fun, though I don't actually know what the score ended up being as we left 15 minutes early. Oh well, it was nice to get out by ourselves.... sort of by ourselves that is. Thanks Chad and Kellie for a fun birthday present to us both!