commercial filming

Penny got to shoot an internet commercial for a Bissell vacuum cleaner this morning. She did a great job and the producers want to have her back again! The commercial should be finished within the next two weeks so I'll be sure to post a copy of it. Here are a few pictures that I was able to snap in between scenes.

not in the commercial, but this guy got to hang out in a fancy living room

pictures from the week 5/13-5/19

rock wall

The rock wall that we built last spring has grown up! It's amazing to see how much everything has grown in a year!

today

last July

meat pickup

For a few months now, we've been ordering our grass-fed meat from a farm in eastern Washington. Every Friday they deliver orders to our community center three blocks away. How convenient! They've even dropped them off at my house before too, when I didn't feel like packing the kids up. Today we were a bit early so Oliver played at the playground and Elliott, Penny and I hung out in the grass. I just wish my phone took better pictures!

little helper

Just one of the reasons that I have a hard time taking as many pictures as I used to:

raspberries

I taught Elliott how to blow raspberries today! He's been trying ever since.

Elliott - month 5 clips

Happy Mother's Day!

planter box

The pictures of Oliver below pretty much sum up his day!

First time riding in the dump truck AND facing forward in his car seat. Lucky Oliver.

The hat was a souvenir from the dirt and rock yard.

He wears it well!

Might as well bring out my own tractors with all this fresh dirt to play in!

Loading dirt and rocks into his wheelbarrow.

I'm not sure who was supervising here!

now we just need some vegetables!

carrot

We haven't started baby led weaning just yet with Elliott, but he is loving this "new" teether! He has also enjoyed sucking on a a slice of bell pepper.

5 months

Two days after Cinco de Mayo, our little man turned 5 months! Elliott continues to be such a happy and easy going baby. His hair is finally starting to grow in, and it's brown! I didn't think he would turn blond like his older brother. He's learning to sit up and can do so, unsupported for a few seconds. He is also constantly on the move. I can't leave him anywhere and expect to find him in the same spot when I return. I used to be able to leave him with the boppy pillow behind him on our bed, but now, within seconds, he flings himself out of sitting position and will roll over a few times before stopping at the very edge of the bed. He loves to watch his brother and Penny, and he always gets the biggest smile on his face when his daddy comes home. He also just learned how to sign "milk"! We did a lot of sign language with Oliver and I'm trying to teach Elliott, too, but I'm having a hard time remembering to sign. Hopefully it will come back to me. Here are a few pictures of our sweet, sweet baby! We love him to pieces!

Yum! about to eat his brother's arm

they're sharing secrets already!

he's getting pretty good at sitting!

And here are some of the many, many Elliott expressions:

Penny's TV debut

Penny and I were on a local morning talk show this morning!

shower

We let Oliver take his first shower by himself this week. You can see he enjoyed himself quite a lot!

photographer

As a parent, I'm starting to realize how good our children are at mimicking us! For instance, Nick never knew that he slept on his back with both hands behind his head until Oliver started doing it and said he was sleeping like Daddy. Oliver also likes to get his own camera out and take many, many pictures of baby Elliott.

downstairs bathroom, part 2

Nick and Oliver made a little bit of progress on the bathroom over the weekend. They worked on gluing the floor tiles down. You can see Oliver was a big help by stacking spacers on top of individual tiles :)

balance bike

Oliver started riding his balance bike this week! He couldn't be happier and had been waiting almost a year to grow tall enough to use it. He already can get going pretty fast and pretty soon I'll be running to catch up to him.

interview with Oliver (2 1/2 years)

A short interview with Oliver! I plan to repeat something like this on his birthday every year.

Penny's birthday video

Here's a little clip from Penny's birthday last week. I was mostly playing with the manual video settings on our new camera and I learned two things: 1, it is nearly impossible to shoot in manual while holding a baby in one hand, and 2, a baby in a bouncer is very hard to focus manually.