Eleanor Revisited

James and Charity brought this sweet dress back for Eleanor from Greece. I just think she looks adorable in it. She got lucky to be the newest West/Johansen arrival and therefore the one with the cool dress.

Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly

Gillian holding our second lavender harvest. It was 2/3 as much as we got last year.

Rockin' It Since '96

Well, '96 is when we met, not when we married, but '96 sounded better than '99--so there you go. We celebrated our 9 years as a family on June 11th. Tim took an hour study break to have dinner with us (he was still in the thick of studying for his medical boards).

We had...

Lavender Creme Brulee. This picture is of the best looking one of the four I made.

Tim's favorite dessert is a Lavender Creme Brulee he had at Sundance. Not able to find culinary lavender anywhere, I decided to grow my own. This is the first year I put it to use. The creme brulee came out absolutely delectable. Even I liked it. Normally creme brulee is too custardy for me. That is the advantage of making it yourself--you have complete control of the number of eggs used to thicken the cream.

Below are the pork chops and asparagus we made for dinner. You can tell I don't cook that often when I feel like a meal is worthy of a picture.
Tim and James grilling the pork chops. James dressed himself in his "play clothes." Notice the pant leg. He put his leg right through the knee hole.

Gillian doing what Gillian is always doing during family festivities. See Also: Blog 1 and Blog 2

It's a Bird, It's a Plane

Gillian finally deigned to wear the super hero cape I made for her and James for Christmas (Super Man on one side, Batman on the other). She and James have been playing Super Hero so cutely together for about a week now.

I tried to convince them a Chaos Monster was on the loose and that they needed to pick up all the toys to destroy him. They didn't buy it.

I love that she finally started wearing it because I personally think the capes are aDORable. I got the pattern from my friend Melissa Ashby (the famed Lissa maker).

(in this picture she is showing off her war wounds).

Eleanor at 2.5 Months (excessive, I know, but indulge me).

Notice the tired eyes. Poor little baby who won't sleep.

She just chunked up suddenly. She went from being my tiny newborn to being a baby in a weeks time. But all things considered, she is still just a teeny tiny baby.

Really Mom, I'm not a bit tired.

Just So Cute

Busted!

...studying for the boards?

The Baby Pool

We have a small wading pool Tim's friend/professor gave us last summer. We spend our early evenings before dinner outside in the pool.

James in the pool.

Gillian in the pool.

Splashing can be fun...

...and even more fun...

...but sometimes not so fun.

We have tons of low flying airplanes and Gillian despises the noise, but it never stops her fun.

Does Whatever a Spider Can

James and his predictably Spider-Man Birthday.

He actually was debating between Spider-Man and a Bionicle birthday. I kind of pushed him towards the Spider-Man because how do you make a Bionicle into a birthday cake?
We invited all his preschool friends and played water games all morning. We had squirt guns, water balloons, a Spider-Man sprinkler, and the baby pool full of water. I did not anticipate how wet I would get filling up all those water balloons or that 250 water balloons meant that we would have to clean up 500 little pieces of latex all over the yard. Worth it though. They had fun.
Gillian just liked playing on the swings. After outside play, we made individual pizzas, opened presents and had cake and ice cream cones. A fun, fun, day.

Eleanor is Two Months

I am currently taking recommendations on how to get a touchy baby to sleep. She fights sleep so hard even when I get her in her early "I'm getting tired" phase and it is incredibly worse when she is overtired, which she often is since I have two other kids to deal with. I need her to be able to sleep on her own and I need to be able to put her to sleep in 30 minutes or under preferrably. All the sleep books give no advice on what to do if you have two other children who have needs.

Kung Foo Panda

Practicing their moves.

Do You Remember?

Do you remember how much fun playing airplane on the swing use to be?

Hmmm...

I think maybe, just maybe, these are the reason I can't seem to lose any weight.

Totally Worth It!

Tim's sister, Jean, makes these beautiful flower clips. She gave a bunch to Gillian for her birthday.

New Lissa

Melissa Ashby (1/2 of "the Ashby's" --our college best friends) is the one who makes these beautiful Lissa blankets for our kids. I particularly like this new one. I love the bright colors (the back is all bright red) and it also looks like it can withstand the rigors my kids obviously put their Lissa's through.

Tim playing the "I wonder what it would be like if baby's were born walking" game.

Poor Little Third

It is like in Ender's Game where you are only allowed to have two children, so the Third (if you so dare) is seriously discriminated against. I love Eleanor, but no way I am putting up that crib again. It's too much work and takes up too much room. I have a sneaking suspicion that I am going to be pushing Eleanor through all her baby milestones like a Mary Kay rep pushes product.