Update

This is Ellie with her Starbucks treat for going poo in the potty all by herself. I can't beleive she is doing so well! Good job Ellie!

These girls have been playing so cute together lately. It's been fun to watch them get older and play together...I spoke too soon. As I am writing this, Ellie is taking every toy away from Scout and Scout is now whining to me non-stop. WOW!!! Although there are rough times, it has been so fun and I am enjoying these two little monsters ;) I mean angels! Sometimes I wonder why I want more. This blog is a taking a different turn than what I was expecting to write about. Maybe that is why I change my mind EVERY DAY about stopping at two or entering into a family of 5!

Scout had a birthday! She is the big 2 now. She is still my little sweetheart, cuddler that lets everything slide. I love her to death! Ellie also had a birthday and I'm so bad for not posting anything for either of them. Maybe at the end of the year, I'll just do a big birthday post. haha!


These girls are the love of my life and I wouldn't trade them for the world. As a tribute to Mother's Day being this Sunday I would just like to say that I'm so grateful to be a mother. I have experienced things I never thought I could. My love for my kids is so great and I know that this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing right now in my life. I am clearly not the best mom but I hope to become better and better as the years go by.
I look forward to our future and what it brings. I also want to give a shout out to my mom. We have become so close the past few years and she is such a big help to me with my kids. If I am bored, she will drop everything she's doing and come meet us for lunch or shopping etc. I know she is doing all she can to be a fun grandma-she is even re-doing her whole backyard to make it more fun for the kids. I love you mom and thanks for everything you do for Jake and I!!!

Help Me!!!

So, everyone posts stuff about their new babies,
and the baby's nursery etc. and I figured I don't
have a new baby but I'm redecorating my girls'
room. Does that count? I actually need help on colors.
We just painted the beadboard white and
the top is a very pale pinkish tanish venetian plaster. I want to add more color and they have some of that hot pink as you can see and their curtains are the green of this message that I just made them ( it's not quite done yet). I want to paint diamonds on top but the question is do we do hot pink diamonds or green diamonds? The color samples are above the pink tin frame. I chose hot pink and Jake chose green. Please, help a girl out and vote. Thanks!

















Also, little side note, we ended up selling our puppy. I know, so sad. It was for the better and my advice to anyone with little kids who don't already have a puppy... don't do it.

Hawaii

Are you ready? Here are a bunch of pics from our Hawaii trip. It was so much fun and so nice to get a break. Jake and I haven't really been on a vacation without our kids in a long time so it was well needed. The original reason this whole trip was planned was because my cousin Alli was getting married and she married my new brother-in-law's really good friend so Jason was actually in the wedding party. We thought we'd show our support and sacrifice leaving home to go to Hawaii. Thanks Chase and Alli! Maui airport waiting for our car. The tree branches in the background look like they a part of Jake's spikey hair. :)

Us girls already getting bored still waiting for the car.

The wedding luncheon was held at Outback the day after we arrived. Who can beat a free meal at Outback in Hawaii? mmmm!!!

We stayed on Ka'anapali beach and this was at one of the restaurants by the boardwalk Hula Grill

More food! You can't go to Maui and not eat at Bubba Gump in Lahaina!


At Bubba's with the fam and my aunt and uncle Nancy and Terry. It was so fun to see them. (They were there for the wedding.)

What tourists?

This was on our way in to go to the wedding. We planned a scooba diving day and that is why Jake is so clean shaven (not for the wedding). I guess the hairs in his mustache makes his mask not tight to his face and lets water in. Doesn't he look cute?

This was the location of the wedding. It was on the beautiful cliff/mountain side looking over Molikini. It was amazing!


If you look at the mountains in the background and go to very middle of the pic and a little to the right, you can see Molikini. That is where we went scuba diving and it's a hot spot for snorkeling.

Mal and I waiting for the Bride to walk down the aisle.



All three of us girls brought black dresses to the wedding. Random!


That wedding was so beautiful. It was so small and intimate on that little hillside and looking over the ocean...amazing!

We found a fun little restaurant called "Cool Cats" in Lahaina. We spent like 3 hours booking our scuba trip and the luau so we were starving and it was really yummy food. We got amazing deals on all the stuff we did but we had to sit through our first dreaded time share meeting. That sucked but I think we saved all together about $800.00. Well worthe it!


Aren't Jake's legs sexy?!? This was at our resort which just opened in January called Honua Kai. It was super nice. Because it was brand new, we got an awesome deal but they weren't finished building so we would be laying out and we would hear cranes, saws, back up beeping noises, trucks, more saws, etc... It was still really fun though.


Jake holding the umbrella pole while Jason tries to hold his body out parallel to the ground

The last night of our trip was our luau. It was really fun. It rained a lot while we were in Hawaii and it rained that night so they were handing out ponchos. It was pretty funny to see everyone sitting there with ponchos on.



The guys with one of the luau dancers


The girls and some luau dancers

Mallory getting frisked by security at the airport. She was so mad, it was really funny!

There you have it. That was our wonderful trip. Hopefully it won't take us as long to get away together again. We did take some underwater pics when we went scuba diving but we haven't developed the film yet. Probably won't ever see those. I'm too used to digital ya know?

Filling you in

Surprise! We got a puppy. Jake has been begging for one since...forever. I surprised Jake and the girls on Valentine's Day and picked up our little Shih-tzu. Her name is Coco. She is a cutie! The girls love her (probably cuz they don't have to clean up after her) Jake liked her at first but now, he wouldn't care if we got rid of her. He is sick of picking up her crap etc. I don't know the first thing about potty training a dog. I have a three year old human that isn't even potty trained.

I know, I know. That is so sad that Ellie isn't potty trained. I have been getting so much crap for it lately. I'm sick of hearing people tell me what a horrible mom I am. We just got back from Hawaii (which was fun but I will post about that later) and so I just started her yesterday. It actually has been going farely well. She gets embarassed and doesn't tell me she has to go so she'll just go by herself and pull off her panties and go. Which I guess for the second day, is pretty good. However, sometimes she goes pee while she's just standing there and realizes she's not a wearing a diaper and run to the bathroom so half makes in the potty and the other half has made a pee trail to the bathroom. I have prepared myself for the worste so to me, that is great if a drop makes in the potty. Anyway, I will keep you updated on whether or not we still have Coco in a few months. : )

Coco taking a bath in my salon sink

Then New Year's, My Birthday, & Jake's Birthday

As you can see, we have a very busy December and January. My birthday was January 3rd and Jake's was January 7th. I don't have pics of my birthday other than this beautiful cake my very good friend Kari made for me. This sparkler we put on it stayed lit for like 10 minutes. It was so fun. As we were walking out the door, our babysitter canceled but Kari came to the rescue and offered to let our girls come play with her kids. Thanks Kari, you are such a sweet friend and I'm so glad I can come to you for anything. (And thanks for my yummy cake and cute necklace!) Here we are on Jake's birthday and if you'll notice, that is not a glove to keep his hands warm. That's right, Jake broke his hand the night before his birthday. We spent that night until almost 2:00 in the morning of his birthday in the hospital getting x-rays. I'm embarassed to say that this was the cause of him being a stupid boy and punching the garage door. Not cool! I won't go into any more detail but everything is fine and he only has to wear the cast for three weeks. I'm already sick of his whining.

Buddha, Jake, and Jake's stupid cast.

Jake blowing out candles on his birthday cake that once again our dear friend Kari made. All Jake wanted for his birthday was a great meal made by Kari and he undeservingly got it. I'm just kidding but I sure hope he learned his lesson. He also got Les Miserables tickets from yours truly which we are so excited for.

Happy Birthday Jake!!! I love you despite ALL your imperfections. I know this year started a little rocky but I'm glad we are getting through these times together. I'm so proud of all your hard work and what a great dad and husband you are. Thanks and I love you sugar!!! Hopefully we'll get a break here pretty soon.

Then there was our anniversary...4 years!

We had our 4th Anniversary on December 29th at Maggiano's. I would reccomend it to everyone. Delicioso! When Jake made reservations for us to eat there, they asked all these questions and when we got there, they sat us right away and this menu of the day. At the bottom is said "Happy Anniversary Jake and Kelsey". It was so cute. The best Tiramasu ever! Gone in seconds.

Jake trying to be funny with our Maggiano cookies. Those were delish too! You have to go!

First there was Christmas

Here we are on Christmas Day. We spent Christmas Eve with at the Jensens and had a lot of fun! Afterwards, we had a slumber party with Jake's family and stayed up to put out presents and play games. The girls got this awesome rocking carousel horse. Jake faux painted this rich old couple's house and they had this horse so Jake asked if we could do a trade for it and all their kids and grand kids were grown so they agreed to it. It is so fun and the girls love it!

It was the Banners' year for Christmas dinner but with Jakes' parents getting a divorce and all the craziness, we decided to just do our own thing. It was good for us to just be together and do whatever we wanted and not have to please everyone else. We ate at T.G.I.Fridays. It was the only place open and it was packed but it so fun just the four of us.

These are just cute chairs we got the girls. We have to two of the exact same matching thing so they don't fight over everything. We have learned our lesson about trying to get them different things.