Oh boy!

Not even for a moment would I consider Orion to be a girl. He has no desire to sit in one spot and play quietly, or use small motor skills for anything else but eating. Yesterday we went to play out front and the big kids were outside, Orion was in Heaven! Our next door neighbors Cooper and Chance are "big boys" with "big boy toys". He followed them everywhere and wanted to do exactly what they were doing. Now that he's walking he thinks he's a big guy, slow down little man... you're not even ONE yet! He loves saying "ball" and chases after any ball of any shape or size, can kick a ball while walking and throws fairly well. The boys on our block are collectors of all things wheels... skateboards, scooters, bikes, mini 4-wheelers, you name it they own it. Orion is coming to the undstanding that to be a big boy you have to have wheels. So, here he is on Chance's skateboard... I am in TROUBLE! Looks like we will be out front with the "big boys" more often... sigh... he's growing up sooo fast!

Halloween!

Halloween was fun for the kiddos this year! Leilani was Strawberry Shortcake, well ... because she looks like Strawberry Shortcake of course! Orion was a farmer since he refused to wear a big puffy costume with a hat or hood. Trick or treating was fun, we went with all the neighbor kids. Leilani adores the big kids on our little "park" block. She actually held out for quite a while. This year Leilani traded in all but 5 pieces of candy for a talking Dora doll. (Mommy regrets that choice... but Leilani LOVES it).

Leilani met Rainbow FOR THE FIRST TIME!! Mom was at the Lifetime Fitness Halloween Carnival doing balloon animals... so Leilani got to meet her. She loves that Grandma's a clown. She saw this picture and said "Look! A rainbow!" how cute is she?!


Leilani's first pony ride! The Good Earth Day School (where the kids get to go Tues and Thurs) had a fantastic Fall Festival the same day as the Lifetime Carnival (busy weekend!). We had LOTS of fun! Pony ride, hayride, games, and FUN!

The Elephant Song - Cool Tunes for Kids by Eric Herman

This is Leilani's new favorite song on You Tube!

Fall... so far

Wow! I haven't updated the kids' blog since July, yikes! I guess both blogs have joined together. I have so many photos of the kids to share... so I'll put them here! We have had a BUSY September and early October. Here's a handful of pics from the beginning of fall..

The baby eating toy box!!!

Leilani playing on the swingset at G-ma and G-Pa's house with Natlaie and Patrick, Yeah for cousins!

Our baby pianist !

Cool Orion, awsome shades dude!

Life without naps at our house... at dinner and on the swing.

Pics from Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls, TX. SO MUCH PUMPKIN FUN!

"Tickle Me Orion"

So, the kids are having a rough day, make it a rough week since thier Daddy is in Ohio until Friday, and O has an ear infection and is teething. Since they are not feeling up to par today, I thought I'd post something that makes me smile... laughing babies. I filmed this a couple weeks ago, I LOVE Orion's belly laugh! Any time I need a pick me up, I watch a video like this. :) There is no music for this post, since you have to hear the laughter. :) I dare you not to smile. ;)

side note... while waiting for this video to upload Orion and I spun around in the computer chair, he thought that was GREAT fun! SO we did have some fun today. :)

We are fam-i-ly... I've got all my cousins with me!!!

Maybe not all her cousins, but our trip rocked for Leilani because she got to play with her oldest cousin Isabella for a WEEK! Our family spent a week in Snowmass, Colorado with Russell's parents, his brother's and one of his nieces. It was gorgeous!! We did a lot of sightseeing, lots of mountains and trees, and hung out with the fam! Leilani doesn't get to spend much time with her cousins on her daddy's side, even though they only live in the Arboretum. We see them maybe once a week (when the inlaws are in town) and only for a couple hours. So it was wonderful for our kiddos to have some bonding time with their cousin Isabella (5 and 1/2 years old), their uncles and their Abuela and Grandpa Jim. I know that Leilani and Isabella's relationship will be forever changed by this vacation, that's a great thing! Their other cousin Amelia (almost 2) stayed home with her mama this trip. Orion had a good time trying to keep everybody on their toes.. eating anything related to electricity he could find, plugs, outlets, cameras, laptops, cell phones, whatever. Lets just say a 1962 ski chalet is not built to be baby proofed. The altitude made him sleepy, but he had a great time watching the girls. :) Here's some photos of the kiddos...

At the Aspen playground.. wheeee!!

Wearing Daddy's hat, on the bus to The Maroon Bells

Gettin' some love from Papa, top of Mt. Aspen

Isabella and Leilani in the wildflowers

Spin Art

How cool is this... I found this link to this idea via a many blogs for salad spinner / spin art. It is awesome. My sweet, and fabulous friend Tanya bought me this salad spinner yesterday at my favorite Goodwill store, and I had to try it out right away. Leilani loved helping me squeeze the paint in and then turn the crank, and ... TA DA!!! Spin Art! Way cool! Tanya and I are going to host an O'mama playdate devoted just to this neato idea!!

Hangin' with the C-man!

Tuesday, Leilani and Orion got to hang out with the totally awesome C-man for a morning while his mommy had an appointment. They had so much fun!!! Leilani has decided that C is her new beau and won't stop "calling" him on her cell phone, too cute! They wanted to jump on my couch, so I piled all of the cushions and pillows on the floor and let them jump from stools. They had a blast. They even let Orion play (around them), how sweet. Hope C-man can come play again soon!!

I wondered what the world looks like from Orion's perspective. :)

Playdates galore!

We have had two wonderful playdates already this week with our lovely O'mama ladies and kiddos. The first was at Andrea's house, "float your boat" was the theme de jour. It was so laid back, it was wonderful! Even though Leilani did not get in the water, she had a great time drinking the floats Andrea made (sparkling water and sorbet, yummy). Orion was spending his morning eating grass and playing with little baby Mia's toys, delightful! ALL of the pics were taken by the beautiful mama Tanya, Thank you Tanya!

The second was The "Pollack Art Playdate". The kids (and moms...) splatter painted a huge canvas, it was awesome! What a great idea! Leilani even got into it. I love this photo that Tanya took of Leilani's friend Z's back. Who is the canvas??

Say Cheese!

Stock cartoon

Today we had the beautiful and uber-talented Bonnie Berry take our extended family photos. Russell's entire fam lives here and we get together every Sunday for dinner. So we needed shots of the entire family, now that we have what will probably be our last baby in the family and Russell's parents are not getting any younger. My inlaws have a great house, but terrible lighting for photos, but I am sure Bonnie got some great shots regardless of the light. Leilani took a while to warm up since she is a bit camera shy, but she did fairly well all considering.
When we got home, Russ took her clothes off to get ready for bath. She jumped up onto the couch in her diaper, bent over, head on the couch... butt in the air (facing me of course) and yells out "MOMMY! TAKE MY PICTURE!" Where is my camera when I really need it?! That gave us a good laugh!
I have no pictures from this holiday weekend to share... I might get some from family.. I'll add later!

Welcome home Grandpa!

stock image, Wikipedia, Wrangell AK

Grandpa came home today! Hooray! He's been in Alaska with Great Grandpa for over a week. Leilani was so excited to see him, she always misses G-pa when he leaves. We met G-ma and G-pa at "Chuy's House" for dinner. Leilani is convinced that it's called "Chuy's House, not Chuy's" she fight ya over it. This is the second time we've had Chuy's this week, ugh I feel like a giant tortilla chip drenched in creamy jalapeno. Please no more Chuy's for a while! My dad had a great time in Alaska for his family reunion in Wrangell. We'd love to take the kids to Alaska someday! He even brought back t-shirts for the big people (and kid) and a book for Orion. I still feel like a kid when my dad brings stuff back from his trips for us, I love it. So, thanks for the t-shirts Dad, and thanks for dinner at Chuy's House, we loved it!! Welcome home!

My evenings look like this....

Typical evening in the Ballard house... Leilani spins around like the Tazmanian Devil, Orion tries to follow. I can't figure out my camera inside, its driving me nuts! Enjoy my babies!
Orion prefers playing with the toys standing on the outside rather than stuck in the middle


O climbed up my arm, then Leilani followed, the pic is over my shoulder


They love each other so much!


Hey, milk is milk, even if its FAKE!


"Leilani is SOOOO funny" - Orion


Constant motion


Taking 5 seconds to rest with Daddy

Is this not the sexiest thing a husband can do??? It is in my house!