Best Cousins

We tell these two that they are best cousins... of course we usually say that to them in trying to get them to stop fighting. They have a love hate relationship... but when it is is full of love it is amazing. They love chasing each other, playing lions and tigers, racing cars, and wearing their cowboy boots, because they are "same, same"! (Uncle Jake bought them these cute little matching outfits, and it is William's favorite outfit and he always asks to wear it?

We are also still working on potty training, and William is learning to hold it longer instead of going every twenty minutes. Of course he has now started coming into our room about 4am to get his diaper changed (because he isn't quite ready to potty train at night).

It is amazing how much William is developing, I love seeing him, change, learn and grow. Although his vocabulary is growing, we are still working on pronunciation, because he can sometimes be difficult to understand. We love this little man and the relationships he is learning to develop with his cousins.

Gracie

Gracie will be 8 months old in 5 days! Where has the time gone? I think back to when William was this old, and it is definitely different. Gracie has a completely different temperament and personality. There is rarely a time that she is unhappy, and she is always full of smiles for everyone. Guaranteed if you are having a bad day, she will brighten it. Her eyes are seriously always alight and sparkling with love, excitement, and pure happiness.

Gracie isn't crawling or rolling around yet, she is simply happy to be put in one place roll over once or twice, scoot backwards a bit, and do a few push-ups, in an attempt to perhaps crawl. This totally reflects her personality of contentment; easy going, and happy.

Gracie is getting about 6 teeth in right now, her first ones. She it a total champ, and just a little more fussy. She is chewing on everything as a result, she loves sucking on her finger and toes, and prefers them to a pacifier, but I definitely try to put a pacifier in her mouth so she doesn't suck her thumb.

Gracie also started to clap this week. When others clap she watches for a few moments and then will clap. When you say "yea" she claps... it is so cute and you can see how excited and proud she is because she gets such a reaction from us. She is also saying "mama", "dada", and "baba". She started saying mama first, it made me so happy! She also loves sitting, and is starting to want to stand when I hold her. When she is laying on her back she wants to sit up and totally holds her head up and tries to sit up.

We love you Gracie Girl!

Our Christmas Vacation.

We were fortunate enough to go to my parents for Christmas and spend 10 days there. It was so relaxing and wonderful to be with all of my family. We had not all been together for Christmas in over 3 years... and since then there has been 3 new additions to the family.

My parents had the idea to build a little play room off of the main family room for grandkids. It was a total surprise for us when we got there, and William loved it. He had his own little door (which used to be smaller and lead to the wood pile), and he could open it and have people come play with him, or he would close it and quietly play by himself. It was so perfect because it kept William contained, we knew where he was, and it was close to the main part of the house so we could always hear him or keep an eye on him. The room is complete with a toy shelf, and even a small TV and DVD player that hangs in the corner. It is honestly so perfect and will be enjoyed for years to come by more and more grandkids. I am always amazed with my dad's ability to build and created things, and my mom's creative eye.

William loves his Papa, who introduced him to Donald Duck, and William couldn't get enough of him.

My oldest brother Nate and his wife, Carissa are expecting their first child at the beginning of April, and they are having a girl. It was fun to see them both interact and play with Gracie, you could see their excitement for their own baby. While home Carissa and I made bows and flowers for our girls and Gracie so wonderfully modeled them for us.

Every Christmas Eve we open PJs that my mom has made. She always does such a fun job, and this is just a shot of William in his enjoying some homemade Apple Juice that my mom had made.

Gracie and I took a break from running errands to eat, and decided to have a little picture time while we waited a few extra minutes.

Gracie got some good naps in with her Uncle Ryan.

William enjoyed snack time with Uncle Dallin

Gracie had some baths in the kitchen sink

We all went bowling and William enjoyed showing off.

My two older brothers and dad modeling their new PJs.

William loved bowling. He tried it a few times without the ramp and the ball still rolled... but very slowly.

We enjoyed some time in downtown Seattle and walked along Pike's Place Market and stopped to try a cup of some World's Famous Chowder... and it was sooo good.

More bowling, sorry these pictures are so scrambled.

We went out to eat at this amazing Asian cuisine buffet. It was so good!

A group shop at the restaurant, one with me in it, and the next one with my dad.

This was part of our Pike's Place Market walk. We stopped at the cheese shop where you can see them making it and try some samples. It was really good.

Window Shopping

Costco shopping, and Gracie's first time sitting in the actual seat.

More pictures of the amazing play room.

William loves his Nana and Papa... thanks for the amazing time!

Holy Rusted Metal Batman!

I am so behind on this blog... so there is just a random assortment of pictures in no particular order... and now the first batch of pictures

My father-in-law celebrated his 60th birthday on Dec. 19th.

William and Gracie had a doctors appointment and William was fascinated by it all and even practiced opening his mouth and saying, "aww"

Gracie started solids, which has resulted in many blowouts. So, if you are squeamish, quickly scroll down. One Sunday she had a wonderful blowout right at the very beginning of church, on a day that I just so happened to forget to pack extra clothes, and right before I needed to teach a lesson... it was a good combination and Gracie wore a diaper for the rest of church.

William enjoyed playing with his cousins. They loved the kitchen set and proceeded to pretend eat all the food. I love it when William plays pretend.

We enjoyed our ward Christmas party.

We decorated for Christmas and William loved the Santa hats and wore them to many places.

We learned a new game called "Quelf" that Kurt and Amy Shillig introduced to us... and Luke had to put on some stylish lipstick.

Amy had to put on a mask or something, and William wanted to try too... Can you notice how much fun the kids had while we played games?

4 Generations

On our way home from UT, we stopped by Luke's Grandpa's house for some dinner. It was also their first time meeting our kids. Of course we had to snap some pictures, it is four generations after all.

Top: William Edward Shillig Jr., Luke, William Thomas Shillig
Bottom: William Edwar Shillig Sr., Gracie, and Grandma Carolyn

An Attempt at Some Pictures

There were some fields near Larkie's (Luke's sister) house that I thought would look good for some family pictures. So we got ready and went over to take some, as soon as we got out of the car, William tripped and face planted into the sidewalk. Needless to say the pictures were practically over before they even started. We did get a couple of pictures, and I still need to play with some of the coloring, but it was quite difficult working with William so we tried to make it quick.

Family TImes

We went to UT for Thanksgiving this year and enjoyed spending time with family. My mom's side had their annual reunion at Bear Lake, and after we were able to visit my dad's side of the family and then we headed down to be with Luke's sister and parents.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures because my kids got sick, and then so did I... our vacations this year have not been super successful, but we have still enjoyed them, being with family, and we have made the most of them

We walked to the park and William was insistent about riding this trike, too bad he didn't know how to pedal.

This was up at Bear Lake, my kids crashed as we were packing up to leave, I guess it doesn't help when they were both sick.

Gracie enjoyed playing with her second cousin, who is about 3 or 4 months older than her.

Gracie and Grandpa Bill. I just love her crazy hair