Did you miss me?

Yes...I've neglected you all. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me.

I must admit the reason why. One word.

Facebook.

I am now on Facebook and have become addicted and forgotten my first love, the Backlund Brief.

We've had a tough last month and a half. The kids have been sick a couple times and Jason and I have been struggling with getting some good sleep. So the days are a bit of a blurr...but we're coming out of it I think. The kids are healthy and we're hopeful for some good sleep to come. The pictures below share some of our highlights.

Another "highlight" for me personally is that I've started to run. Yes, run, as in outside. :) It's not really a run but more a jog. I've gotten up every morning the past week and have jogged a mile. I don't think I've ever run a mile-ever! Sad, huh? It's gotten easier that's for sure but it's still a challenge. I feel pretty good for the rest of the day after the mile. It's quite an accomplishment for me. I'm hoping to add to the ONE mile...but we'll see.

Well, I've spent the last few hours being intimate with my blog...so now it's time for me to hit the pillow. Thanks for sticking with me...and enjoy the many pictures.

Getting Bigger!

Ethan has been doing real well! He is such a happy baby...smiling all the time and wanting to play. He's begun to roll over all the time from both his back and his belly. Elijah and Alia think this is great. I can't wait for him to sit! Now that Ethan is more interactive Elijah is much more interested. My favorite is when we go to Target. I put Ethan's car seat in the basket and Elijah in the seat of the shopping cart. As Ethan has gotten bigger his little feet hit Elijah in the back. Elijah tells me all the time "Mommy, Ethan's kicking me!" So funny. :)
I took Ethan in for a weight check (he'd only gained 1 pound from 2mo to 4mo) and he now weight 14 pounds 9 ounces. He's gained almost 3/4 of a pound. It was exactly what the Dr wanted to see but he's not overly concerned. It seems Ethan is falling into the same growth pattern as the other two kiddos. We just have small kids, that's all. :) Good things come in small packages, right?


Tonight we gave Ethan his first rice cereal. This face says it all! :) Really though...he did have this face but he kept eating! We're hoping for a good sleep night! Teeheehee.

Can you see the little smile he's giving me behind the toys? Ethan loves his little high chair. He sits in it all the time-every time we eat a meal. It's like he's at the table with us. So fun.

Here's a little video of Ethan eating his yummy dinner.

Random Pics

Here's the final product of my wall. Despite the minor issue...I am very pleased.


We took this picture a few weeks ago. This is the mountains that are near our city. It's incredibly beautiful when we can see them. It looked even more amazing today.

Ohh..my little peanut! I thought he looked so cute holding this bottle. Makes mom a bit sad though :) He doesn't get a bottle too much-mostly on Fridays when I am working and occasionally when I go out. He mostly gets my milk but has had some bottles of formula. He takes the bottle with no problem, as you can see.

Happy Birthday daddy!!! I surprised Jason on his birthday by having a small party at our place. I baked him this cake. It was a fun time. We went to Big Bubba's earlier for dinner. Yum. Yep-he's the big 3-5!

St Patty's Day

We had a Build a Bear birthday to go to on St Patty's Day! It was so much fun!!!! Here's Alia deciding between which ear bow she wanted for her bear. Her's in the one on the right, with the pink robe on.

Elijah decided his bear needed another washing. He dressed his bear in a Spider Man outfit! Sooo cute! He sleeps with it every night now.

Our day started out with green pancakes. Please excuse Alia's hair in this picture. We hadn't brushed it yet :)

Cheese!

Disneyland!

After 3 tries we finally made it to Disneyland! We missed having Gramma and Grampa Jim with us but we had a fabulous time. It sure was a lot of work though. And we did learn that next time we need to take another stroller...our kids are just too little not to be able to sit when they want. We ended up carrying Ethan most of the time. Boy were we tired. :)




Since we went on a Monday Disneyland didn't have a parade. California Adventures did so we went over there for the parade there. It was great! The kids knew all of the characters and movies that came by us. Here's Elijah and Lightening McQueen! Ka Chow!



Handy Manny! So fun!

Alia was fascinated with the caracters this time. (Which means Elijah was too) We ended up getting them autograph books and they got autographs from Handy Manny, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy...hmm...I can't think of the rest. Here we are with Minnie in front of her house.

Yep. I went on the Orbiter with the kids. Boy...that's when I realized how old I am. Jason really missed out! :) We also went on Tea Cups (that was for you, Dad!), Alice in Wonderland, the Train, Buzz Lightyear, Finding Nemo...hmm. It was fun cause we went on rides we hadn't ever been on.

And of course, we stood in line to see Tinkerbell! Too cute! Elijah also got a pic with Tinkerbell. :)

You can't see it very well in this picture, but Elijah has a big shiner underneath his right eye. The day after this pic was taken it got worse...poor guy. Well, he fell off the toilet. Yep. :) He was sitting on the potty and he reached for a book. He lost his balance and went down to the floor-hitting his eye on the corner of the trash can. Jason was sitting right next to him but it all happened so fast that daddy couldn't save him. Needless to say our potty training efforts have come to a screeching halt. BUMMER! He even brought this even up at the breakfast table the other day. It sure made an impact on him.
Alia is signed up for Kindergarten!!! Is it possible that we can really have a grade schooler in our house? Man...time sure flies. This is the school she will go to. She is way excited but insists that she doesn't want to get shots. Anyways..I can't wait to take her to her first day of Kindergarten. She is going to be so proud. Mommy and Daddy probably will be too.

Potty Pride!

Watch out world!!!!!!!! Here comes Elijah!

SOMETHING HAS CLICKED!!! I can't believe it!!!!!!!!!!! Pinch me because it's too good to be true!!

The past 2 days Elijah has worn underwears with NO accidents!! We are still a bit weary but have no basis to be weary, really...just our unbelief. He's telling us throughout the day that he has "to go pee pee". We take him to the potty and pee he does! Today he went to the gym with Jason and they were gone for maybe 1.5 hours..he came home with a dry diaper and went straight to the potty and peed! We did put a diaper on him at naptime and night time.

But holy cow!! I just can't believe it. We are so excited and proud of him and he's definitely proud of himself. I think we're going to have him wear underwears to church tomorrow...just to see what happens. I'll take a change of clothes, of course.

Praise the Lord, I say...praise the Lord! :)

Just some pics

CUTE CUTE baby Ethan!! Puts a smile in my heart! How about yours??



I put on my EB down vest the other day and the kids insisted they wear their vests, too. So...here's a pic of us in our vests. Elijah was too enamored by his mommy to look at the camera :) teehee




The Backlund boys!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mommy and Ethank enjoying each other. I just love this little baby!


Here's a pic of our pancakes. Yum Yum.

Tonight's dinner-our heart pizza. Alia & Elijah loved this! :) (the picture is sideways)


Mommy and Ethan. Ethan's cute Valentine's day outfit says "My heart belongs to mommy".


Alia this morning eating breakfast-heart pancakes.



The boys!

I went to work on Friday morning and in the midst of a rush the UPS guys buzzed the back door. My manager came out from the back with a smile on her face and a flower box in her hand. :) Isn't my hubby sweet? They smell great, too.

Is this not the cutest thing you've seen??? My friend Stephanie made these for her son's classroom and Elijah and Alia were blessed with one too! Inside were a little baggie of cookies and a bookmark. TOO CUTE! I love them! They were made with a painted soup can. Ideas for next year!

Valentine's Day fun!

Here's your typical tissue paper heart. Do you remember making these when you were little?? I sure do. I loved making them! Since the kids are little we just had them crumble up little 2 inch squares of tissue paper. Then they glued them onto the hearts I drew. And now they are taped above our TV center. Elijah likes to look at them and is proud that he made them.




This is a cute little candle I made. Well...I didn't make the candle but I decorated it. At our first MOPS of January we made these types of candles. It was so easy! I loved the idea so I came home and made more! :) How do you do it? 1) get a candle 2)cut a piece of tissue paper the size of the outside of the candle 3) using any type of stamps & ink stamp your images onto the tissue paper-put a piece of paper underneath the tissue paper because it will go through 4) wrap the tissue paper around the candle 5) using an embossing heater heat the candle so that the wax melts just a tad...the tissue paper will "disappear" into the wax and all you will see is the image.



And here's our crayon shaving hearts that are hanging on our kitchen chandelier. This was mostly my project since it involved a hot iron. Click HERE to see how to make these.

Here are Elijah and I making yummy Valentine's treats. I bought some chocolate, pink & white candy melts at JoAnn's and some pretzels at Target. I melted the candy melts in the microwave for 30 seconde intervals until it was all melted. Then...away we dipped...and sprinkled!

TaDa! All done!
FYI: look here for the step by step tutorial from Make and Takes

Tidbit

Just a funny tidbit of information for you.
Ethan weighs as much as Alia did when she was 6 months old.
teeheehee

Wall Hangings!

We've had this wall in our family room that has been empty since we moved in. I didn't know what to put on it or where to put it until I ran accross this idea on a blog I follow. I gathered my picture frames with some of our Christmas money and then this week gathered the black paint. Yesterday I went to work collecting handprints. I was a bit concerned about Ethan's handprint-because his hands are still in a tight fist most of the time. But he did real well! :) Jason put the pictures up this morning and we really like them! It won't be complete until I order an Uppercase Living quote to put above it...so stick around to check that out in a a few weeks.

From top to bottom: Ethan, Alia, Elijah, Trish, Jason

He's growing up!

Man...it's amazing how fast babies grow up. Ethan sure has lost his newborn look. He now is an official baby, if you ask me. He's doing real well...he likes to talk with people and smiles all the time. He's a real good eater-still about every 3 hours or so. He is definately a morning person. He wakes up, eats, plays, then takes a 30 minute nap. Then he's usually up until about noon-ish when he usually will sleep the afternoon away. Believe it or not it doesn't affect his night sleeping. He eats his last meal about 8pm and for the most part wakes up about 2-ish to eat again. Then he'll eat again about 6:30am. So...it's a fairly decent schedule. We are still tired though.
Enjoy these snapshots I took. Too cute, I say!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Get ready...

...for a TON of pictures! I've been behind on my blogging, so I decided to catch up tonight. So, grab a seat on the couch and enjoy the pictures.

We've had quite a month...we had a church open house, friends over for dinner, took a trip to Long Beach, hosted Christmas for our parents and grandmother, hosted my friends, the Browns for an overnighter and had a New Years day party. Wheew! And it doesn't end there-this week we're hosting about 6 InterVarsity staff for a chili dinner! We've been busy but have felt blessed by all of it!

But...now on to my birthday! (it's Jan 5th for those of you who don't know) :) :) Until then...

Happy New Year!

We had our first Annual New Years Day breakfast this morning. Last year I decided we were going to start that tradition-in place of a New Years Eve event. It's hard for us to actually "do" New Years Eve since we have kids...so I figured the morning would be better! We had our friends bring a breakfast side dish, while we made our savory breakfast casserole. The kids had a good time playing and the parents had a good time talking. A win win situation. We also had the Rose Parade showing.
Here's all the kids eating breakfast. Most of them had pancakes.

And the breakfast: casserole, potatoes o brian, cheesy potato casserole, fresh picked oranges, coffee cake & taquitos. Boy, were we all stuffed!

2 months

On Tuesday Ethan had his 2 month appointment. It's hard to believe he's already 2 months! Time has flown-perhaps it's cause we're in a cloud of sleepiness :) He's growing great, weighing in at 12 pounts 10 ounces! And he's 24 inches long, too! He is already outgrowing his 0-3 month clothes. He did get 4 shots-poor guy. He cried his little heart out at first, but was soothed with...well, I'll just say his milk :) After he ate he went right to sleep.