Guess who's walking??? Yup big man Jack decided to take his first step on April 7th, now he is up to 4 or 5 at a time! Then he gets down cause he realizes how much quicker crawling is! Jack is on the move, watch out! He also figured out how to turn around on the steps so he gets to play on them a little more often now! Less then 2 weeks till he turns the big 1!

Well I guess I can say it now, spring is here! I do believe the actual first day of spring was like 30 degrees, and we had some snow since then, but the weather has broke! The last few days have been close to 70 degrees, the kids are enjoying the outdoors (and mom) finally! We try to go for a walk each day if it isn't raining. The swingset is really getting a workout! They are on it every day! Daddy just filled up the sandbox so Ella can finally use the new shovel I bought her! She loves that sandbox!
Saturday was the kids' bowling party!! I can't say it went smooth, but they did have a blast! And that is what matters, right? When we got home daddy and I ripped out 5 overgrown shrubs and 3 not so hot looking trees from the backyard. Looks great! We just have 4 stumps left to dig out, wish us luck on that! We have a lot more room in the backyard, and big plans for it! Now to get the $ to go with those plans hehe!

Now I guess Ella doesn't believe me that it is warm out, cause she insisted she had to wear her scarf and hat, she is such a goofball! She went on the whole walk with them! She let me take them off when it was time to play though hehe!! And Jack, I've been trying to capture this smile forever!! And there it is!!!! And this is Cam at age 9, he got his favorite haircut and looked so cute in his new shirt, that I finally got an opportunity for some pictures! Now to talk the teenager into some...

Sometimes I don't think that Ella realizes Jack now weighs more then her. In fact she still asks me to hold him, or to put him on her lap. It is so sweet that she sometimes loves her baby brother. So here she is trying to hold big Jack on her lap, and then deciding she was going to take a turn on his lap next! Jack was cracking up when Ella sat on his lap, guess he was quite amused by his big little sister!

Well it is official, Jack is now 11 months old. In less then a month my baby will be 1, I can not believe it! So here are my 11 month old pics of Jack! And Ella wanted to wear her dress that I totally forgot to bring to Easter, so here is Ella's pretty Easter dress!

Tay is doing great on the pump. The specialist is amazing and is working closely with Tay. We call her everyday for adjustments, so far NO ketones, which is awesome, cause she was having such a rough time with them! Soon it will all be figured out! I'm loving how easy this pump thing is! We went to dinner the other day and I caught myself asking Tay if she had her insulin, log, test kit. Hey we don't need to bring all of that now! Just the test kit, wohoooo!! I guess I need some pics of Tay and her pump for a scrap page now, that is if she will let me hehe!

That hair! How in the world did Jack get that white blonde hair??? And those big blue eyes? I know it isn't a mix up, he never left my side at the hospital, that and he looks so much like my other kids, but aren't genetics funny? Mom with light brown hair, daddy with dark brown hair, both of us with brown eyes, then there is Jack, blonde hair, blue eyes. People always do a double take, look at me, then Jamie, then Jack, then me and Jamie again with a stumped look on their face!

Hair so light it sometimes is hard to get pictures of! The sun bouncing off it makes it disappear!

Oooh the dollhouse! The nicest lady at my moms work thought of us when she needed to find a good home for her dollhouse! Apparently they were cleaning house and it needed to go! It has always been a dream of mine to own a dollhouse, and I can't believe we get to do this for our little girl. Some of the electrical was done already, but Jamie added to it. Now to paint, wallpaper, carpet, shingle... just like a real house!!! Here are some pics of Ella playing with it, even before we did anything to it, and another of it painted. Jamie plans on putting the shingles on this week!

Could there be a more perfect shirt for poor Cam? I saw this and knew he had to have it! Some days Ella is just plain mean to Cam, taking stuff from him, and just plain being a pain. I know he would never think of taping his baby sister to the wall, but he sure was amused at the shirt I got him for his birthday! Oooh and he made me feel so special the other day, I told him how much I miss him when he goes to his dads and asked him if he felt he needed a break from me? He told me it wasn't me he needed a break from, but Ella! Nice to know he still loves me hehe!

Just a few things to add to the funny things Ella says...
Now how could I forget her "lapstick"? All chapsticks and lipsticks are referred to as lapsticks.
Today she told me her name is Annie Rose Chomas. I asked her what her daddy's name was, and she didn't know. I told her it is Jamie Troublemaker Chomas, she said no it is Annie Rose Chomas maker. Of course she is right, hehe!

While these silly things are running through my head, Ella's words for some things...
Instead of calling my contacts, well contacts, she calls them my eye tacs
When we were decorating the Christmas tree she called it the palm tree
The headphones in the mini van, well she calls them ear muffins
Her backpack doesn't say Hola Amigos, but Hola meatballs
All tv's are referred to as TiVo's (yes we have a Tivo addict in the house) and she doesn't understand why they all can't pause and play the shows she wants!
And it is always so sweet when we tell her not to do something and she says "I will not"

The famous hair twirl... I do it, my sister does it, my mom does it, she says her mom did it, so passed down for generations. As soon as Ella gets a drink in her sippy cup, her fingers immediately start twirling her hair! So sweet, but it is causing some tangling problems, and she has even gotten her finger stuck a few times, OUCH!

And just a cute Jack!! He adds so much joy to our days, and he is such a fun loving little nut! Gotta love him!

Well it is official, Ella is 2 1/2! And the best news that comes with being that age? She learned to use the potty! Oooh yeah, cha-ching! Only 1 in diapers at our house now, can you tell we are really excited about this? Overjoyed whooohooo!

And now Jack is 10 months old! He has figured out how to walk with furniture and with his push toy. It won't be long now! Oh and the Cheerio in his mouth? That is to bribe him to sit still for just one minute, cause he is a baby on a mission, and sitting still for mommy is not on his list of things to do!

Maybe I'll work on making this a yearly thing... I know I have a pic of Taylor and Cameron with me at my birthday when I was pregnant with Ella, but I can't recall doing it again after that? Look how beautiful all my kids are, but so big? Why do they grow so fast?
So here is me at 33, Taylor is almost 13, Cameron is almost 9, Ella is 2 1/2, and Jack at a big 9 months!

Anyone in need of a fashion coordinator? Ella is looking for a part time position to revolve around her nap and crabby time schedule.

Some days are better then others!!
Generally Ella is a good big sister and takes good care of her baby brother. Like today, he was crying, she went and gave him a hug, I told her that was so sweet, she told me he feels better now. I love these days....
Of course there are the days when she pushes him over for no reason, takes everything away from him, stuff like that as well.....

I was straightening out all of the kids' toys last week and put together a basketful of Ella's dress up clothes. She found them today and put almost everything on all by herself and told me to come look! Isn't she sweet? Note the 3 purses!!! What a princess!

I love my little, ok, so people say he isn't so little, Jack! He lights up every day of my life, and everyone' s around him. He is such a good baby, that is all there is to it! Content to play by himself, but even happier when he has someone to play with, laughing all the time, full of giggles and smiles, not complaining too much when the teeth pop through, he is every mommy's dream. And how can you resist them rolls! Hope next week the doc doesn't say he is too fluffy? We'll see....

Ok, so we are Wii crazy! The whole family is addicted! Cam creates tons of Cam's to play with, trying to build each one up to pro. Ella digs boxing (look at the pic) and cracks me up! Jack crawls around all day with controllers in his hands. Jamie keeps playing to try to beat me, to no avail, HAHA!
Ella kept yelling at me not to take her pictures, and telling me to take some of Jack instead, but hey, you know me, I don't listen hehe!

Geeez I look at these and he looks so old! I see him every day though, how did I miss it? He is such a fun loving kid!!! Gotta love him, he is always up for his picture taken, no complaints! Even got all dressed up for me in his fav shirt and sweater hehe!
He'll be the big 9 next month!!!

Well it is wednesday and I'm just not getting to an about my weekend post!! Didn't know if plans were going to fall through or work out, but it ended up working out in my favor! Got to visit EVERYONE! We all got together for an early 88th celebration for Gramp's bday, and had an awesome turkey dinner thanks to mom! Man can that woman cook, I drool just thinking about it hehe!
So first stop on saturday was Krisser's, for more pictures of the sweet Addison. She decided she really didn't want to curl up like I wanted her to, or sleep any, but I got some cute ones!
Then to mom's for dinner, and some late night shopping with Taylor. I sure miss having Lakeside mall around, so big and so many stores to choose from, oooh the good ole days....
Sunday we spent all day cooking and getting ready for Gramp's bday, that big turkey dinner! Kris, Mic, Cole, Aubrey and Addison, Jay, Sheila, and Jase, Gramps and Mary, of course Mom and Tony, and all whole brood were all there! The big family get together, crazy, loud, super busy, but I enjoyed every minute of it! I got a picture of Gramps and Ella, Ella didn't get to help blow out the candles, so Gramps lifted her up, relit one, and let her try! Ella couldn't figure out how to get it to blow out and needed some assistance though, hehe! Of course I can't load it, no idea why I have such a hard time getting this to work!
We went down also to get a new minivan, but that fell through, going to do it next month instead. I can't believe we get a better deal on getting a brand new one than keeping the old one, but hey, who doesn't want a brand new, fresh smelling vehicle???

Wii are the proud owners of a Wii! Cameron's Christmas gift was finally found, was really hard to get ahold of, but he got one now! I'll have to take some pictures of them all playing it, Jamie is the funniest, the faces he makes!!! I did video tape it for awhile though lol!

Well Jack figured out how to pull himself up onto everything, nothing is stopping that little guy now! He figured this out on January 14th, and has worked on perfecting it all week! The 21st he even tried taking a step holding onto the furniture, but fell down shortly after! His poor little forehead is all bruised up from learning this new feat!

The new windows are in!!! Well not all the way in, Jamie still has some drywall to put up, and painting to do. They look so awesome, and CLEAN! You can see through them, wahooo! I can't wait to see my gas bill drop!

Baby Addison is here! Ha, faster than a speeding bullet... She is so sweet, I can't wait to see the little peanut again! She was born Friday at 1:56, just 11 minutes after my sis got to the hospital!!!


New windows are coming! Finally! After getting Nov/Dec bill we decided instead of throwing money out the window, literally, we would put that money into new windows! So how suprised was I when they asked if they could come today? Ok, more like overwhelmed! But 3 are almost in, lots more to go. Hey those are some big window holes to fill!

Jack is starting to pull himself up onto everything (pictures to come soon with his latest accomplishment)! Of course that means lots of falling down. It was so sweet today, I was cleaning with some Clorox wipes, and he fell backwards (ok, that isn't the cute part), well I couldn't just grab him with that stuff on my hands, so I was rinsing them, well apparently I was taking too long, so Ella went and started hugging him, rubbing his head, telling him he was ok!!! How sweet!

Everyone went sledding today! We finally got snow in Michigan yesterday! We couldn't get Ella out of it! She started begging me to go outside the minute she saw all that snow! Lucky for her Cam was home from school because of teacher in service, so she was out before 10 am, and for quite awhile! There were snow angels to be made, a slide to go down fast, and snow to eat! She was so cute out there!

I'm sooo bad, I know it has been too long, the holidays were crazy and so am I hehe!!!
But I'm back now and plan to be updating regularly!!! So stay tuned hehe!
I'll start with Jack cause he has been the busiest! Around 7 months he... get this... learned to army crawl, learned to sit up, and popped out 2 teeth, all in less then a week!!!! I didn't even know he was getting teeth, he didn't get all crabby like Ella always did. He was on a roll! Right before Christmas he figured out how to sit himself up, so now he crawls everywhere and when he finds something he wants to get into, he sits up and plays with it! Smart kid! He is also starting to crawl on all 4's, but gets frustrated and drops back down for his army crawl! And what a temper on the little guy, don't even try to take something away from him, he kicks his chubby legs, pounds his hands on the ground and buries his head on the floor! Very amusing!
Ella is her usual trouble making self. She had quite the Christmas, got everything she wanted, she asked Santa for 3 presents, so she got that and more! She is having fun playing with it all every day! And has become a Game Boy addict as Taylor got a new one and handed hers down!
Cameron got a Game Boy DS, so he can't take his hands off that! He used all his gift cards from Christmas on games for it! When school starts we'll have to limit his time on it, but for now I'm letting him wear out his thumbs! He also got Guitar Hero that he has been asking for forever and has to fight with daddy for turns! And the Fast Action Football he wanted gets played even, but takes up a lot of his room! Fun game!
Taylor ended up with over $600 in gift cards this year! And a bunch of clothes on top of that from her fav American Eagle. She had a blast shopping, woulnd't that be nice?? A whole new wardrobe! She also invested in a DS and doesn't have to fight with her brother over it anymore!
The whole family got a nice Lionel train for Christmas as well. Everyone takes turns checking it out, even Jack, who always seems to derail the train. Sometimes I wonder if daddy got it more for himself then the kids though...