Raising Elle, Lauren, & Ava

Lauren's Dolly Picnic Party

2011-09-09T13:51:00.003-05:00

As always there are a million things I need to update on this blog, but we had Lauren's 3rd birthday party this morning. I just added some pictures to facebook, so I figured I would link to it here. Can't believe my 4-pound preemie is now a big 3-year-old!

Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150796684250858.734557.904380857&l=75049ccfa0&type=1

I love it when she laughs...

2011-06-03T10:07:00.000-05:00

Because I never want to forget her two-year-old voice...

2011-06-02T07:58:00.002-05:00

This is what Lauren does when she's tired in the car--so cute!

She's on the move...

2011-05-26T13:08:00.003-05:00

Ava has been scooting/rolling/getting around the house for a while now, but in the past few weeks, she's started really crawling and is much faster. I've already had to pull multiple little toys out of her mouth, so I was hoping she would go straight to walking but no such luck! Ava is loving her new-found freedom, and her new favorite game is to pull on daddy's speaker wires or open the fireplace doors!

In addition to moving, she's been "talking" more and more clearly and says, "Mama" a lot, since she's gotten a bit of separation anxiety. She's usually pretty quiet in a group, but I've noticed that when we're at church now (or somewhere else where it's relatively quiet), she gets pretty loud and starts screeching and talking. I guess she figures it's the one time she can actually hear her own voice, since the other girls drown her out during the day! She is still the sweetest baby, and so easy-going most of the time. Perfect addition to our family!

And of course, since Elle saw me taking pictures, she wanted to get in on them, but it's tough to get Ava to stay still at this point!

So here's my first baby (when did she get so big?!?!):

And of course, we also needed a twirl...

Look at her sweet, little hands...such a cutie!

Pardon the excessive amount of pictures...Elle's first recital!

2011-05-16T13:58:00.006-05:00

Elle had her ballet/tap recital yesterday, and we were so proud of her. She got right up on stage and danced her whole routine; she wasn't shy at all! Her class did a tap dance ("Teach me How to Shimmy"), and they got a lot of cheering from the crowd, since it was in the midst of slower ballet dances, and her whole class really got into it. Both Elle and Lauren loved watching all the other dances as well, so I definitely think more dance classes are in our future. Kyle's mom came in town to see the recital, and Elle was so excited to have her Mimi there to watch.

When I asked Elle last night what her favorite part of the day was, she replied that it was getting her ballet trophy (all the dancers in the recital got one). I wondered why she didn't say dancing on stage, but she said she liked that too. She just liked getting the trophy more. Who knew that's all it took to impress her?!? She told me, "Mommy, I'm going to put this trophy right on the dresser in my room, so Lauren can see it!" There might be some dancing competition in our future as well between the sisters!

Anyway, here's the youtube video of Elle's dress rehearsal (we couldn't video tape during the actual recital), and excuse the camera jerks at certain points; I was holding Ava and she kept managing to get a hold of the camera strap!

Cleaning out my phone...again...and some stories...

2011-05-06T22:07:00.005-05:00

Elle was so cute about Mother's Day this year. I guess she really understood because of a project they did at school, so all week, she was planning what toy she would give me on Mother's Day. Then yesterday, she painted me a special picture, and all day to today, she was telling me "Happy Mother's Day!" She also said, "Mommy, it's your special day today, so you get to decide what we do all day...do you want to go to the park?!?" So funny!

Earlier in the week, when both Lauren and Ava were napping and I was on the phone, Elle told me I had to stay in the other room because she was getting a surprise ready. When she finally brought me in the playroom, she had gotten her princess table and chairs out of the closet, set them up, put a blanket over the table for the tablecloth, and set the table with pretend food, tea cups, etc. I told her that she had done such a lovely job and I loved it. Elle's reply was, "You know why I did it, Mommy? Because I wanted to do something special just for you because I love you!" How sweet is that?!?! It's moments like those that let me know every effort I put into doing special, little things for my girls is more than worth it. I hope Elle will always want to do special things for other just because she loves them! Elle joined me for a pedicure this afternoon and we stopped in Old Navy afterwards, and my sweet girl insisted on coloring this whole picture before we left:

And here's Lauren doing what she does best! Yesterday evening, we went outside to ride bikes, and Lauren tried to come out with no shoes on, so I told her she had to go back inside and couldn't come play until she had shoes. This is what she came out with (she was pretty proud of herself! And she ran up and down the driveway like those were her shoes!):

We have had a lot of rain this past month, so much so, that many areas of the city are flooded. Last week, I hosted a going-away party for a friend who is moving to Nashville, and it of course, started raining during the party. But as it ended and everyone started to leave, there was the most beautiful double rainbow across the sky. It was still raining though, so by the time I got my phone out to take a picture it had faded, but the girls were really excited, running up and down the sidewalk, asking if we could go find the treasure at the end!

Elle has insisted on picking out her own clothes lately, and some days, it's not a fight I'm willing to have, so I let her wear what she wants. I had to snap a picture this day because the pink and white striped shorts with the red, too-short leggings underneath were just too much!

And here's my baby girl taking her first ride on my back...she loved it!

A few more recent conversations/happenings:

--A conversation with Elle the other day, after a play-date with her friend, Kyle, "Kyle and I are going to get married because we love each other!" (This was on the way to dinner and her daddy was about to have a heart attack...the teenage years are going to be fun around our house!!).

--The next morning in the car again, Elle said, "Mommy, I'm going to laugh when daddy walks me down the aisle at my wedding. Are you going to be there too, Mommy? Because I'm going to be really sad because I'm going to miss you when I get married. And will you bring Gracie and Ava to my wedding because I think they might be a little nervous about me getting married." She is the sweetest! And when did she get old enough to know about getting married and weddings?!?

--A bird made a nest on our front porch and after one of the bad storms, the nest fell to the ground and eggs smashed on the porch. Elle said, "Mommy, did the baby birds die?" And after I explained that they did, she said, "Well, I got an idea...you can go to the store and get some new eggs to put in the nest!"

--During breakfast last week, Lauren said, "Mmmm Mommy, this is soo yummy! Thanks for making it for me!" And now she tells me that at most every meal...love that kid!

Looking forward to Easter...

2011-04-21T22:18:00.004-05:00

We had an Easter egg hunt with our playgroup today, and we are looking forward to a weekend filled with family time, jellybean trails, dyeing eggs, more Easter egg hunts, and of course, celebrating the real reason for the this season and thanking Jesus for making the ultimate sacrifice for us! And a certain four-year-old may or may not have started role-playing the Easter story....multiple times this week, I've been called to come in the playroom quickly because somebody "died on the cross." Not sure Elle really understands yet, but at least she's getting some of the story! I'm sure I'll be adding some pictures of our Easter celebrations this weekend or next week. And, if you want to see some more pictures from our playgroup today, here's a link to the facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150554468710858.657805.904380857&l=a357681c2f

Catching up

2011-04-14T09:21:00.007-05:00

We bought a house last weekend, so we have been busy, busy, trying to get everything in order! The house is under construction, so we aren't moving until August, but we are making a lot of selections now. Anyway, that explains why I haven't posted in a little while, and I wanted to get some cute pictures up of the girls. Today was career day at Elle's preschool, and at first she told me she wanted to be a teacher when she grows up, which I thought fit perfectly, since she loves to pretend she is the teacher all the time, and I explained to her that I used to be a teacher before I became a mommy. I almost thought she would pick a mommy as her career because her very favorite activity right now is what she calls "family". She plays it with her friends at school and with Lauren at home all the time. I've gotten concerned a few times that she's confusing Lauren because she will tell Lauren that she's her mommy. We were in Target a few weeks ago, and she said, "Gracie, I'm the real mommy; she's just the pretend mommy," pointing at me. She will even grab Lauren's hand and say, "Hold mommy's hand, Gracie," or if Lauren gets hurt, "It's ok, mommy will make it better!" all referring to herself. At least Gracie (Lauren) listens to her most of the time, so I'm just enjoying the help! Anyway back to the career day...After thinking about it for a day or two, Elle decided that teacher wasn't the career for her, "Mommy, I think I need to be a princess instead!" This is coming from the girl who has been telling us for months that she's going to princess school when she gets older, so it was very fitting. I'm not sure what they study at princess school, but Elle seems to think it's a viable career option, and I'm not going to burst her bubble yet! And since Elle was dressed as a princess, Lauren, of course, needed to be one too.

Elle at the dentist:

And after we left the dentist, Lauren quickly discovered the floss:

The weather has been beautiful lately, so we have spent a lot of time at the park and the girls have loved that. Ava got to enjoy the swings for the first time, and as you can see, she had fun. I love this girl's infectious smile!

And Elle has suddenly gotten brave on me...she used to be my very timid child and she wouldn't attempt to climb anything or do anything at the park that looked at all scary, but now, she likes to climb everything and she goes on this scary slide at one of the parks (it has no sides!) all by herself; I can't believe how much she's grown up these past few months! We started a reward jar a little while back, and these past few weeks, she has started making her bed every morning, usually without me even telling her, getting dressed in the morning and at night all on her own (although I'm not always a fan of her clothing selections!), brushing her teeth all by herself (and the dentist gave her a timer and told her to brush for the entire time the timer was going and my rule-following first-born brushes every second until the timer runs out!), and really being obedient on the first time I tell her something, at least most of the time!

Sweet Girls...

2011-03-31T14:07:00.002-05:00

Elle's Half-Birthday

2011-03-29T18:25:00.007-05:00

We celebrated Elle's half-birthday last night, and she was so excited because it happened to be the same day that the movie, Tangled, came out on DVD. So, we had a Tangled-themed celebration, complete with decorations (per the half-birthday girl's request! She even remembered that I had tied something around Lauren's chair on her half-birthday, so Elle, of course, needed a special decorated chair also!), her special meal request (quesadillas), a Rapunzel barbie present, and a game (pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider). We did have a little scare while she was blowing out her candles, and her hair caught on fire. Luckily, daddy saved the day--I'll have to post the video when I get a chance! Elle always loves her moment in the spotlight, so she was in heaven! I can't believe my little girl is 4 1/2. She even looks so much like a little girl now and not a baby!

Cleaning out my phone...

2011-03-26T16:17:00.009-05:00

Some of these are really old (like right when Ava was born), but I just cleaned all the pictures and videos out of my phone and there were some cute ones in there. I love my girls!

Ava laughing...

2011-03-20T13:13:00.000-05:00

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-19T08:10:00.003-05:00

St. Patrick's Day was always a fun holiday in our family growing up, and I miss the parade and all from Augusta, so I like to do a few fun things to celebrate with the girls. The week leading up to St. Patrick's Day we did a countdown and did crafts and discussed different things about the holiday each day (like information about Ireland, St. Patrick, shamrocks, leprechauns, etc.). Then, after our visit from a leprechaun in the morning, Elle and I made a rainbow cake to have for dessert after our Irish dinner, and as you can see, my little helper thoroughly enjoyed her job:

And here are a few pictures on my baby in her green, just because she's so cute and I can't get enough of her little chubby cheeks! This was at the end of the day, so she's a little sweaty (we had a beautiful, warm day here!) but still adorable as always:

We had a visit from a sneaky leprechaun this morning...

2011-03-17T07:48:00.000-05:00

Happy Half-Birthday to Lauren!

2011-03-15T08:41:00.006-05:00

We celebrated Lauren's half-birthday yesterday (she's 2 1/2). It was a couple of days late, since we were busy over the weekend, but she didn't notice, and since she's the middle child, I always love the opportunity to focus just on her. And, she certainly relishes the attention! I decorated the table while she was napping, and as soon as I told her what we were celebrating, she kept yelling, "It's MY happy-birthday!", especially any time Elle tried to steal a little bit of the attention. Ha! It was a perfect day to focus on Lauren because during craft time yesterday morning, she stood up on her chair at the kitchen table and proceeded to fall and use the side of her face to catch herself on the table! The poor girl! I was really worried that she had cut herself all the way through, but after a visit to daddy at work, we all calmed down. However, she was in pain the rest of the day and didn't eat much until it was time for her pink cupcakes! But, this is why her face is swollen/bruised/cut in all the pictures. My mom happened to send a headband with a cake on top and we got it in the mail today, which worked out great for Lauren to have a special half-birthday "hat". We had one of Lauren's favorite dinners, followed by a couple of presents (a princess shirt and a small Angelina Ballerina doll) and a game (we played pin the cupcake on Lauren's mouth!). Half-birthdays have become one of my favorite traditions. I don't spend much time at all preparing (I decorated with things I had in the house, used cupcakes I had in the freezer, and gave her a present from the gift closet), but the girls are always so excited about it, and I love that they get an evening all about them.

Here are some pictures from the evening (Oh, and Lauren only refers to herself as Gracie, so that's why it's on the sign. We said we would never start calling our kids only by their middle names, but then, Lauren decided she wanted to be Gracie and it's just stuck!):

Just some cute pictures and a story...

2011-03-08T07:44:00.004-05:00

My girls love to play dress-up, so it's pretty much a daily activity in our house, and they were being particularly goofy the other day, so I got some cute pictures. Elle and Lauren were being soo sweet to Ava too! She loves watching them, and though she's still a little unsure of Lauren sometimes (one too many whacks on the head!), she thinks Elle is hilarious!

Isn't she just the cutest?!? I know I'm biased, but she is the most adorable baby, and it doesn't hurt that she's happy and smiling almost all the time (well, except when I'm trying to take a picture, of course!).

And these pictures of Lauren are so funny because they really show her goofy personality! Kyle keeps saying that she's going to be like Jim Carey when she gets older because she's so good at the facial humor.

And I have to add one little story from yesterday because it really blessed me...Most every night before the girls go to bed, we read from a book called ABC Bible Verse. Basically, it has a short bible verse for the girls to repeat and try to learn and then there's a story that goes with the Bible verse to illustrate what it means. And while Elle is really good at repeating the verses after me, it often seems like she doesn't understand the story or that she's just not listening. Well yesterday, we were in the car driving home from running errands and Elle said, "Mommy, let's talk about our ABC Bible verses!" I told her that was a great idea, so I asked her which one she wanted to talk about (she's never said this before). She replied that she wanted to talk about the B verse. I could not remember what the B verse was and was going through the verses in my mind trying to remember with no luck, but before I could even ask Elle, she said, "Mommy, the B verse is 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'" I was so surprised that she remembered and told her how great that was and said, "Do you know what that verse means, Elle?" She immediately replied, "Yes, it means that if someone wants to play with your toy truck, you share it with them, even if you don't want to or even they're not being nice to you, you be nice to them because that's what God wants you to do." This was amazing to me because this was exactly the story in the book and it had been a while since we read that story! Sometimes, as a parent, you think your kids aren't listening or they're not learning any of the things you're trying to teach them, and it was just one of those moments where you think, "Yes, she's actually getting it!" And if I teach them anything, I want it to be about loving Jesus and following Him, so that definitely made my day.

Morning smoothie time

2011-03-02T10:32:00.003-05:00

And yes, Lauren desperately needs a haircut; the girls have all taken turns being sick, and we found out on Monday that Ava has RSV, so we haven't been out much. (Ava's actually been really good, just coughing a lot, especially at night.) And speaking of Lauren, she is at such a fun/maddening age. One minute, she's driving me crazy, getting into everything, and the next she's being really cute and saying the funniest things. Gotta love 2-year-olds! Here are a few of her recent comments:

"I want to go home!" (She says this ALL the time, while we are already at home!)

"Jigga-what!" (Her daddy taught her this and she will just randomly start saying it throughout the day.)

While she was "helping" me clean out the car, "Mommy, It's a hot mess in here!" (Also from her daddy)

While parked in front of a house under-construction on a rainy day, so there was a lot of dirt/mud, "Uh-oh, mommy, I think somebody pooped outside my window!"

Daddy-Daughter Date

2011-02-22T18:48:00.004-05:00

Kyle took the girls for a special dinner-date at Chick-fil-a this evening, and they couldn't have been more excited. I bathed them this afternoon, and they insisted on putting on "fancy dresses" immediately when they got out, even though it was over 2 hours before they were supposed to leave. Elle chose a fancy red dress and would not be persuaded to pick anything else, and since there was a matching dress for Lauren in the closet, she talked Lauren into picking the fancy red dress too. Once they were all dressed, Elle said, "Mommy, daddy's going to be soo happy when he sees us!" And I told her he certainly would. They twirled around and around and we talked about how fun it was that their dresses made swishing noises when they walked. How fun is it to be a little girl! When we were heading downstairs, I overheard Elle telling Lauren, "Lauren, look we have on the same dress! W'e're twinsies! This is the best day ever!" I love that girl's enthusiasm.

Since it was a special date, Elle informed me that she needed a purse, so we looked through the dress-up stuff and found each girl a purse and some jewelry to fill it. Lauren then told me, "Mommy, I need a phone for my purse!" So, we added that too. They, of course, also needed headgear, so Lauren added a crown and Elle added a flower headband. I love these pictures of them doing their best poses:

Once Daddy got home, I think they only asked him if it was time to go about a hundred times, and Lauren informed me, "Mommy, you and Ava stay here! It's just us!" But, they did make sure to give me multiple hugs and kisses before they left. I can't wait to hear all about their date, and I love that these girls adore their daddy!

My silly girls

2011-02-18T09:56:00.005-05:00

The girls both wanted pigtails this morning, so I wanted to get a cute picture of them. Lauren sweetly went and hugged Elle (unprompted--these girls LOVE each other!). Then, Elle started singing this song she learned at school ("Ice cream and cake! Ice cream and cake! Ice cream and cake!" and Lauren responded with "Chocolate! Chocolate!" Haha!) and they both started dancing. It was so cute and I just kept taking pictures. I'm glad I could capture a little of this because are the moments that make my day everyday!

Valentine Fun!

2011-02-15T08:18:00.005-05:00

I'll add captions later, but for now, here's the picture story of our Valentine's Day celebrations!

Some recent pictures...

2011-02-05T10:35:00.001-05:00

Happy 6 months to Ava!

2011-01-31T12:56:00.005-05:00

I'm a little late in getting this on the blog, but I wrote this for my baby girl to remember her at 6 months--love her!

My sweet, baby Ava,
You have been in our family for 6 months already, and still you amaze me every day. I have enjoyed each of my girls as babies, but you are my third little girl and I know in my heart how quickly these moments pass, how newborn grunts and stretches turn all too soon into baby screeches and gummy grins. And I know that you will be toddling and talking in what will seem like minutes, so I have been soaking every one of your easy and beautiful smiles, every cute laugh, and every single time you cry just because you want your mommy. We have called you sweet baby Ava from the beginning, and you have certainly lived up to this name; you are the sweetest baby, rarely crying unless you are tired or hungry (although you have just developed some separation anxiety, so you do want your mommy a lot, which is fine by me!) and smiling at everyone you meet. You have fit in with our family so well that I can barely remember a time without you here, even though it's only been 6 months since you arrived. You are babbling and screeching, though you are still our quietest baby so far, and you can already sit up for a few seconds on your own. You like to roll, but you spend very little time on the ground, so you are not on the move yet, and for that I am thankful. You are very grabby and very coordinated with your hands, which makes eating or cooking while holding you more difficult than it was with your sisters. And speaking of your sisters, they are two of your very favorite people. You love to watch them and Elle can almost always make your laugh or smile. You just started playing shy; when people talk to you, you bury your head in my shoulder or chest and then pop back up for a little smile, one of my very favorite phases of babyhood. We have frequently gotten the comment that you are the most beautiful baby people have seen, and I know I am biased, but you are beautiful! You are pretty much my constant companion, since you usually even accompany me and your daddy on date nights, and even then, you are (as we often call you), "the best baby ever". Though I know time passes too quickly, I look forward to watching you grow and seeing your personality develop, but you will always be my sweet baby Ava.
Love,
Mommy

My Disney Dancing Queen

2011-01-09T16:36:00.007-05:00

When Elle hears music, she can't help but dance. She has always been that way and I can remember commenting when she was really little about how much she loved live music and we worried she would grow up to be a groupie. So, Disney World was, of course, perfect for her. Our last day in Florida, we went to eat at a local restaurant with my parents and sister's family, and there was live music, so Elle, my mom, and my niece, Ashlyn, danced until they called us to our table. I went to ask Elle something at one point and she replied, "Mommy, be quiet please! I'm practicing my new dance moves!" Anyway, here are a few videos of Elle dancing on our recent trip:

Trip to Florida

2011-01-08T08:53:00.005-05:00

I'll have to write a little more about our trip when I get the chance, but we just got home last night from visiting family and going to Disney World. The girls had an absolute blast at Disney, and Lauren was already asking if we can go back on our drive home yesterday. We went to Magic Kingdom the first day and the girls got to meet Cinderella (Elle's favorite), Belle, and Aurora (Lauren's favorite), and they were in heaven. They loved every ride, and everything we did, and even after being at the park for over 10 hrs, they each only had one minor meltdown the whole day. The next day, we went to Hollywood Studios, and they were equally excited, especially with the Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid shows. Elle also loved that they had dancing/singing in the streets every hour or so, and she even got out in the middle with the dancers and tried to copy every move. When we were leaving the park, Elle said, "Mommy, I LOVE this day!" That makes it all the more worth it! She also asked me if the princesses were going to have their "happy ever after", and I said that I thought they were and asked her if she was going to have her "happy ever after." She replied, "When I get married, I will!" Guess we are going to have to do some Disney detox, since she now thinks she needs to be a princess and get married to live happily ever after! Oh well, at least it's a fun dream for a little girl!

We also visited my family in Florida, and the girls loved having so much time with their cousins. Every morning, they would wake up and ask me, "Can we go see our cousins now?!?!?" Anyway, click on the link below to see more pictures in my facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=591505&id=904380857&l=7edf5d0716

Some Conversations with Elle recently...

2010-12-27T14:14:00.004-05:00

"Mommy, why do we have to get old?"

"That's just the way God made our bodies, Elle. But as you get older, you get to do a lot of fun things that you can't do as a kid."

"No, I mean why do we have to get really old? I don't want to get really old! I want to be able to play on the floor and spin fast forever!"

.....................

"Mommy, I don't want to get old and die!"

"Well, Elle when you die, you get to go to heaven to be with Jesus, and you'll be really happy!"

This went back and forth for a little while and she started to cry, "But Mommy, I don't want to go to heaven! I just want to stay here with you and daddy and Lauren and baby Ava forever! Mommy, can we go to heaven together?"

..................

"Mommy, when we go to heaven to see baby Jesus, can we bring him a present?" "Sure we can, Elle." "Can I share one of the presents I got with him?" "Of course, Elle! Jesus would love it if you shared with him." "Well, he's a baby, so can I get one of baby Ava's toys out of her bin to bring to him?" "Yes, Elle, but remember that baby Jesus isn't a baby anymore; he grew up and died on the cross to save us. We just celebrate his birthday at Christmas, just like we do with your birthday." "Oh, well Mommy, I don't want to get old and die on the cross, so I'll just stay here and send baby Jesus a gift in heaven!"

.................

"Mommy, can we get a picture with baby Jesus? He can sit in the little chair like baby Ava and we can stand behind him and smile!"

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:00:00.005-05:00

A very Merry Christmas to anyone reading this!

At Christmas, we see Jesus as a

little babe— helpless and poor.

And He came to love and be loved.

How can we love Jesus in the world today?

By loving Him in

my husband, my wife, my children

my brothers and sisters, my parents,

my neighbours and the poor.

Let us gather around the poor crib in Bethlehem

and make a strong resolution that

we will love Jesus in all those we meet every day.

--Mother Teresa

For more Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pictures, here's a link to my facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=591505&id=904380857&l=7edf5d0716

Christmas Fun

2010-12-17T13:30:00.003-05:00

We had a Christmas playgroup this morning, and since the girls will only have a few opportunities to wear their various Christmas outfits, they were festive this morning! When I was putting Lauren's dress on her, Elle remembered that it was her dress/shirt last year, and we started talking about how she did indeed wear that dress for the past two years. And then when I pulled Ava's dress out, I explained that it was Elle's when she was as little as Ava. And as Elle always points out to me, "That was when it was just me, you, and daddy, right? Before baby Ava and Lauren!" Elle loves her sisters, but being the firstborn and a lover of attention, I know sometimes, she wishes she could have us all to herself! And, I can't believe just how quickly time goes and that just 4 years ago, my first born was wearing this dress, and that the dress is already being used by our 3rd girl! As I tell Elle all the time, these girls need to stop growing so fast! Although it's so fun to watch them grow at the same time.

We've had snow and ice this week, so Elle didn't get to have her Christmas program at school yesterday and she was really sad about that, especially since she's been practicing her songs a lot, but I got to watch her practice on Tuesday and it was pretty cute. She sang the first song and then spent the rest of the time on stage dancing, playing with a star she was holding, spinning in circles, and doing ballet moves. She definitely likes to put on a show!

We have been a little more minimal in our Christmas decorations/activities this year, mainly because it's just been crazy and I feel like I've had so much to do, but seeing the girls in these outfits certainly made it feel like Christmas time! I especially like Ava's face in the last few. She looks like she's saying, "Save me, mommy!" Hope you enjoy! (And no, these aren't our Christmas cards--those went in the mail yesterday!) Oh and I added a video at the bottom. There's not much to see on it, but Lauren took the video on my phone without me knowing it, and her voice is just so cute!

Elle the Ballerina

2010-12-12T15:08:00.005-05:00

Elle had her very first ballet recital today, and she did great! The pictures and video are not the best quality, since they wouldn't allow flash photography, and we actually weren't even allowed to videotape at all (but, I had Kyle sneak some iphone pictures/video because we did not want to spend $25 on the dvd they were trying to sell us!). It was a pretty short performance, but Elle did get to go on stage 3 times, and she got to lead her group out one of the times. As she told us when we got in the car after the show and asked her if she had fun, "Yes, and I even smiled!" It was adorable to see her and her friends on stage, and we're already looking forward to the big recital at the end of the year. Elle's been dancing all around the house since we got home; she really does love ballet so far. Not sure how easy it is to tell, but Elle is the 3rd one from the right in the pictures and in the video.

Some cuteness around our house these days...

2010-12-11T19:12:00.003-05:00

Elle and Lauren are loving making silly faces for the camera these days! We've still be really busy trying to get ready for Christmas, and tomorrow, Elle is in a performance of the Nutcracker with her ballet class, so I'm sure I'll be posting some pictures soon. She's been a bit of a diva about the whole thing and keeps asking when she gets to go on the big stage again so everyone can watch her. Lauren started singing something one day, and Elle yelled at her, "Lauren! You're not allowed to sing! Only I can sing because I'm in the Nutcracker!" Wow! The fame has already gone to her head--guess we'll have to work on that! And Ava has been just as happy and sweet as ever; even though it's hard to get a great smile in a picture, she laughs and smiles all the time. I've enjoyed her so much! Hope everyone reading this is having a wonderful holiday season so far!

Random

2010-12-03T08:09:00.002-05:00

Things have been a little crazy around here with Thanksgiving last week, the start of Advent, Christmas shopping, and add to that the fact that we found a house we really liked and put an offer on it this past Sunday (it didn't work out, since the seller didn't want to go as low as we were offering, but we had to work out mortgages and all before making the offer, so it was a time-consuming process!). But I'm just posting a few pictures of my two sweet babies. I often forget that Lauren just turned 2 a few months ago. She talks so much and so well that she seems older than she is and sometimes I expect more from her than is age appropriate. She's really gotten into singing the past few months, and she loves to sing songs from all the Disney movies. Her current favorite is Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty. It's pretty cute to watch her; she will spin in circles and sing really loudly. I'll have to post a video if I think of it. She still says, "Yeah, sure, Mommy" or "Yeah, sure, Elle" a lot when we ask her a question and also often says she's going to do something "right quick".

Some other comments from Elle recently:

My friend, Kelly, was leaving with her son, and Elle was sad because she wanted to play with him longer, so Kelly told her that next week she could come to her house to play, and Elle responded, "But I don't know how to drive!" When Kelly told her that I'm sure your mom would bring you, Elle said, "She doesn't know how to drive either!"

At school this week, one of the boys upset her, and she didn't want to play with him anymore, so he came up to her and said, "But I love you, Elle!" She turned away from him, crossed her arms emphatically, and said, "It doesn't matter!"

Advent Calendar for this Year

2010-12-02T10:35:00.002-05:00

Elfie (the name of our Elf on the Shelf) came to visit us for the Christmas season yesterday, and the girls are already eagerly anticipating the Christmas season! For the past few years, we have done an activity-based Advent calendar (here's a link to our countdown calendar with a list from the past few years), and Elle has loved it. I'm excited about Lauren getting involved this year too! We are trying something a little different this year; instead of just doing fun activities/crafts for ourselves, we are making an effort to focus on others this year, by doing an act of kindness each day until Christmas. I was inspired by this post, and I love the idea of spending the time leading up to Christmas giving to others, rather than focusing on presents and what we will get. Here's our list so far if you want to make one for yourself (I usually organize these in the envelopes before advent begins, but since our life has been so crazy lately, I'm just putting a piece of candy in each envelope, and then I will tell them the day's activity from the list):

Kind Deed Activities

Write a letter to someone you haven’t seen or talked to in a while to brighten their day.

Make and bring someone cookies.

Clean up litter in the park.

Do a chore for someone else in the family.

Look around the house for change and put it in the salvation army bucket.

Write a special thank you note to your teachers.

Make a card and treat or present to leave in the mailbox for the mail carrier.

Go through clothes/shoes and pick some to give away.

Go through toys and pick some to give away.

Gather canned goods to give away.

Make cards/craft kits to send to kids in the hospital.

Make a meal for another family and deliver it.

Write and mail thank you letters to soldiers overseas.

Buy a present for someone on the angel tree.

Put change in a soda machine for the next person to use or tape a card and change to a vending machine for the next person to use.

Buy and candy bar/gum for the grocery store clerk and bring one to the salvation army volunteer too!

Have a smiley face play-date and encourage everyone to distribute their smiley faces and give to others.

Make a new friend or reach out to a friend you haven't talked to in a while.

Offer to babysit for a friend to give her a break and give the kids a chance to play

Play secret Santa to a neighbor.

Makes snowflakes or cards to send to a nursing home.

Write thank you cards to the pediatrician and mail or deliver.

Go to the mall or a store or the post office and hand out candy canes with notes attached and wish strangers a Merry Christmas!

Go Christmas caroling and hand out holiday treats to the houses you visit.

Read the Christmas story in the Bible, and act out the nativity.

Our Thanksgiving Day 2010 in Pictures

2010-11-28T13:14:00.004-05:00

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

2010-11-21T14:06:00.007-05:00

We have been having some Thanksgiving fun the past couple of weeks! I feel like every store has completely skipped over this holiday, and I haven't seen any crafts, decorations, etc. for Thanksgiving; it's Christmas everywhere already. But, I like to make a point of celebrating Thanksgiving before we move on to the Christmas season. Thanksgiving is such a great holiday, not at all about presents or candy, just about being thankful and spending time with family and friends. Earlier in the month, I pulled a branch off of a tree and throughout the past few weeks, we have been adding leaves to our "thankfulness tree". Of course, the girls often name the same things over and over, which is why our tree doesn't have quite as many leaves as it should, but it's a great opportunity to talk to them about being grateful for everything we are blessed to have and to talk about how we can help those who are in need.

Elle in her Thanksgiving shirt, which I thought was perfect for her!

In addition to the "thankfulness tree", Elle and I found some really fun turkey-themed activities online, and we decided to have a couple of her friends over for a playdate. We didn't get to do all the activities we had planned, so I'm sure we will do some more this week, but the girls had a great time, especially since one of the games included a treasure hunt (basically, I took pictures of different things in the house, and they would find the spot in the picture to get their next clue) that ended with a scented chapstick for each girl. I didn't take pictures of everything we did at the playdate and this week, but we did some turkey math activities (inspiration for lots of great turkey activities found here), colored turkey pictures, made apple-turkeys (inspiration found here):

Lauren, holding her baby while making her turkey--this girl LOVES her baby dolls!

Elle told me she was making a porcupine with hers.

And played pin the feather on the turkey (printables for all the signs and this game found here):

And finally, a picture of Elle before Parents' Day Out on Thursday (they had a lunch date with their dads, hence the shirt, even though it's a little small, and she was soo excited. Elle loved having her daddy all to herself at lunch time, and when I asked her what it was like, she simply said "I gave daddy lots of kisses and hugs."):

A conversation today...

2010-11-16T20:23:00.002-05:00

We were in Michael's getting some craft supplies today, and I was looking for something on an aisle when Elle started screaming and crying. I told her to calm down and tell me what happened to make her so upset, and I finally determined that Lauren had bit Elle's finger....

Elle, still crying, yells, "Lauren bit me! She bit me with her teeth! Lauren's a dinosaur, Mommy! She's a dinosaur!"

And then turning to Lauren, "I'm not a snack! I am NOT a snack, Lauren! You can't eat me! No! I'm not dinosaur food!"

She rambled some other stuff off too and huffed off and stomped her feet, but I couldn't understand it all, and I was laughing too much as this point to pay attention. If Elle doesn't have some sort of future in drama, I'll certainly be surprised!

Snapshots of our Day

2010-11-09T14:21:00.003-05:00

Here are a few pictures from our day yesterday....

We started by playing post office. The girls each decorated their own mailboxes and made cards for each other that we placed into envelopes. We added addresses and stamps and then set up our post office. They took turns being the customer and dropping the letters off and paying for the postage with real money (their favorite part!) and being the postal worker and stamping the mail, putting it in the mailbag and then delivering it to the mailboxes. We used all random craft things I had on hand and it only took a few minutes to set up, but the girls loved it and each took a few turns as customer and postal worker. They are both very into pretend play so they love anything like this and I love watching their little minds work, especially Elle who, as the first-born, is a big rule follower. If I show them how to do something once, she will do it exactly that way every time, and if Lauren tries to do something differently when it is her turn, Elle will certainly let her know about it!

Dropping letters off to be mailed

I love Lauren's look of concentration as she counts out her money.

Delivering the mail

We got a bouncy house as a hand-me-down from one of my sisters and it has been a favorite activity recently. It's especially nice on days when we can't go outside and allows to girls to get some of their energy out. It had gotten a little colder and drier here, and the other night when Lauren got in the bouncy, she started crying and I asked her what was wrong, "My hair, Mommy! My hair!" She asked me to "fix it" because the bouncy was causing her hair to stand out because of all the static. I think she's gotten over it though now, as you can see in these pictures:

And here are some pictures of Ava just because she's adorable and still the best baby. She loves to talk still and has started laughing more, which is just about the cutest thing ever. Kyle took a quick video the other night, so I'll have to post it once he downloads it. She hasn't been rolling over much, but I think it's because she's so rarely on the ground because I'm worried her sisters will squash her!

Hanging out in her sister's chair

A little smile

Checking out her feet

Family Fun Night--Pajama Party

2010-11-04T07:10:00.006-05:00

The girls were soo excited about having a pajama party for family fun night. They couldn't wait to get their pjs on and for daddy to come home. We colored some pictures of moons and stars and set up the living room like a big bed with tons of pillows and all of their dolls and stuffed animals. Elle kept running around the house and singing, and telling me stories because she was too excited to sit still. We had breakfast for dinner, complete with pancakes with chocolate chips and whipped cream for dessert.

Loving their living room "bed"

Coloring their moon pictures

And Lauren decided to not nap yesterday, so she

spent the beginningof the night like this--fun times!

Elle was in a much better mood. Side note...since Ava was born, we've been having some issues with Elle, mostly her having a bad attitude and not being obedient, but the past few days, she's been really great. She's started having daily chores, and she does those and cleans up after herself pretty well. She's been a much better listener and just the really sweet Elle we remember. (As we have been going through this phase, Kyle would continually say, "Where's my nice Elle? What happened to nice Elle?" when she would have a bad attitude, and so one day, when I got frustrated with her, she said, "Where's my nice mommy? What happened to the nice mommy?" Nothing like kids being a big mirror to remind you what you need to work on!

We played a game of musical chairs with pillows, and the girls loved it! We played music and danced around the pillows until the music stopped and then each jumped on a pillow.

By the end, even Lauren got the concept and would dive for the pillow as fast as she could!

Then we had an old fashioned pillow fight, and the girls were in heaven, and of course, they did not want to stop for bed time! We ended the night with bed time stories by flashlight. The girls wanted to sleep on the floor in the living room, but we convinced them that the bed is much more comfortable, and then by Elle's request, we walked them to their rooms by flashlight too. Such a fun night, and I'm sure we'll be getting requests for another pajama party soon!

Some pictures from today...

2010-11-03T16:35:00.001-05:00

I especially like the one of Lauren showing me her "move"!

Halloween Week

2010-11-01T08:02:00.011-05:00

In anticipation of Halloween, we did some pumpkin-themed activities throughout the week. Last year, I had found a tutorial online to make pumpkin-decorating kits like the ones from Pottery Barn kids (can't remember where I found it though!), and we never got the chance to use it. So, Elle and I pulled them out this year and made pirate and kitty-cat pumpkins, which Elle loved! We did some other fun learning activities, including counting practice with candy corn. Then, on family night, Kyle helped the girls carve a pumpkin, while we at pumpkin risotto and had pumpkin ice cream for dessert, which ended up all over Lauren's hair; she is such a mess!. Then we played a few games with our "pumpkin" balloons, including getting them into the basket without using our hands, racing our balloons across the room using our noses to push them, and doing a balloon waddle race. The girls loved this and did not want to go to bed. Amazing how much entertainment balloons can provide!

On Friday morning, we had our annual playgroup Halloween party, and I forgot my camera, so this is the only picture I have, but the kids did a craft and played a few fun games, including being wrapped up like mummies:

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Lexington to visit some good friends. Elle was in heaven because we got to see her best friend, Coral. Coral and her family are moving back near Seattle in December, and we will miss them, but Elle especially will be so sad to not see Coral very often. We went to an orchard with the kids after we got to Lexington, and every time we would get in the car, Elle would start talking about how Coral was her best friend ever ever ever. I again didn't have my camera, so hopefully, my friend Amy will send some pictures soon, but the girls got to go down a big slide on burlap sacks, and Elle loved it! She would try and push herself faster and faster, and it was so cute to watch her and Coral sliding together. Elle borrowed one of her friend's costumes, so here she is as Rapunzel:

The girls woke up Halloween morning asking to go trick-or-treating right away, so they were very excited by the evening. They loved being princesses and it was so cute to hear Lauren tell everyone who asked us that day that she was going to be Snow White. I had a bunny-hooded jacket for Ava, but she was a asleep most of the trick-or-treating time, so I'll have to get a picture of her some time this week. We went to a friend's house for pizza and then trick-or-treating, and the girls loved having friends to run from house to house with. I had a talk with Elle earlier in the day, and explained to her that there would be pretend scary things at the houses we would go to and that she had to be brave and walk like a big girl if she wanted to trick-or-treat, since she tends to be scared of pretty much everything. It seemed that almost every house had a dog, which is one of her biggest fears, so she did scream a few times, but overall, she did really well loved getting all the candy. Amazingly enough, none of the kids ate any candy while we were trick-or-treating, so when we got back to our friends' house, we let the girls pick out 2 pieces of candy to eat, and Elle, of course, chose the whole Twix bar (some of the house were handing out actual whole candy bars!), and Lauren ate the pieces we had given her and then walked around getting other adults to give her more candy. All in all a very fun Halloween!

The whole group

Lauren and her friend, Claire

Princess Cinderella

Trick-or-treating

Tired Snow White

Celebrating that she went up by herself

Very happy about all the candy in their pumpkins!

Baby Ava Love

2010-10-21T08:28:00.003-05:00

Just because she's so cute, and I can't believe she's 3 1/2 months old!

Fall Fun 2010

2010-10-20T14:13:00.009-05:00

We have done a bunch of fun fall activities this year, and the girls have loved all of them! In mid-Septemeber, we went apple-picking at an orchard near our house with our playgroup. You were supposed to keep all the apples you picked, which meant we went home with more apples than we could possibly need and even after eating them for snacks, making apple pie and apple crisp, we still have some left! Here are a few pictures from our apple-outing:

Then, last weekend, we went pumpkin-picking with some good friends at the same farm. It was the perfect fall day, cool enough for a sweater, but still beautiful and sunny. We have had the best fall weather this year! And, since we went of a Friday afternoon/evening, the farm wasn't crowded at all, and we basically had the pumpkin patch to ourselves. As with apple-picking, they loved riding on the tractor best. The girls took the job of picking a pumpkin very seriously, and walked all around trying to find the perfect ones:

And finally, this past Sunday, we met some friends at the zoo for their annual Halloween celebration. We feared the night was ruined at the beginning, since they had the characters from the movie Shrek in costume, and Elle, my child who is afraid of everything, had a panic attack when she saw him. She wouldn't let Kyle put her down and kept screaming and pointing to the zoo entrance, "Take me home! I want to go home!" And we were at least 50 feet away from Shrek during this whole time! We kept moving and once she got her first piece of candy in her trick-or-treat bag, she decided this wasn't so bad and was okay the rest of the time. She even decided that she wanted to pose with Woody and Buzz and loved getting to meet the princesses at the end, although you can't tell from the pictures! After she took a picture with Cinderella, who she was also dressed as, I asked her if she was excited about meeting her, and she looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, I'm Cinderella too. We're both Cinderella." I forgot that this kid lives in make-believe land pretty much all the time. She also told her teacher at school that she's a real princess, not just a pretend one, and she's going to marry a prince and wear a real princess dress. Got to love the imagination of a child! Lauren also had a blast at the zoo, and I loved hearing her tell people she was Snow White (especially since I don't remember Elle being so aware at that age). She looked so adorable in her costume, and I can't wait to see the girls in their princess dresses again!

And a few funny/cute tidbits from the girls recently:

"Mommy, you look so cute!" from Lauren as I'm getting dressed.

"That's cool, Elle," from Lauren as Elle tells her we are going to the park.

"Yeah, sure, mommy," Lauren's response to me after almost any question I ask. How old is this kid?!?

"Elle Kafren! No run away! You listen!" from Lauren after Elle ran away when I told her we had to leave the park (apparently, I already only use Elle's middle name when she's in trouble!).

"Mommy, Lauren's the fairest of them all," Elle referring to Lauren being Snow White for Halloween.

"Mommy, me and Lauren are both going to be princesses. What are you going to be? I know, you can be the mean witch!" Thanks Elle.

"Mommy, I think I'm going to die!" from Elle after she got shots at the doctor. Later she told me, "I'm not brave, Mommy, I'm not! I'm just scared! And I'm never going to the doctor again, and now, my heart is broken!" Academy Award anyone? She is definitely our drama queen!

A conversation between me and Elle recently (She's been obsessed with getting married lately; I'm guessing it's all these Disney movies she's been watching, but it's so funny to me to hear my 4-year-old discuss who she's going to marry!):

"Mommy, when I get bigger, I'm going to marry daddy." (Elle)

"Well, you can't marry daddy because he's married to me." (Me)

"Okay, then I'll marry Papa." (Elle)

"Well, Papa's already married to Nana." (Me)

"Okay, then I'll marry Uncle Josh." (Elle)

"You can't marry Uncle Josh because you're related to him." (Me)

"Fine, then I'll marry Sam (a friend of Elle's)." (Elle)

"Okay, but what about your other friends, like Drew or Kyle or Peyton?" (Me)

"Well, they can come to the wedding and you and daddy can come too, and I'm going to wear a real princess dress!" (Elle)

Monsters and Make-up

2010-10-15T08:18:00.014-05:00

My three beautiful girls

Baby Ava at 12 weeks

Can't believe I haven't posted anything since March, but once I get behind on something, I tend to avoid it altogether because I don't know where to begin on getting caught up! I have so many things I could but may or may not post about Ava's birth and my letters to the girls on their birthdays (Lauren turned 2 and Elle turned 4 in September) and their joint Princesses and Pirates party, but I will start with a few pictures from this week...

I've started a tradition of having a themed family fun night once a week. I'm sure it will change over time, but I really wanted at least one night a week where we spend intentional fun time together as a family. I never thought we would be so busy when are kids are not even in school, but between Kyle's work schedule and dates nights for us and dinners with friends with the kids, there are plenty of nights where we are not all at home for dinner together, or even nights where we are home but tired in the evenings and not really up for doing activities/playing games before bedtime. I want to make sure we always set aside time where it is just us and time where we are doing something fun as a family. The girls have absolutely loved these nights so far, and Elle helps me plan for it during the day. Last week, we did an apple theme, and if I get a chance, I'll post those pictures too. This week was monster-themed, but as Elle said, "Not scary monsters, sweet monsters who don't roar!" We colored monster pictures and made monster masks before daddy got home, and decorated with some shape monsters we had made earlier in the week:

After dinner, we played Pin the Eye on the Monster:

We made monster marshmallows for dessert:

Then, the girls' favorite part of the night...we played monster tag, complete with some monster feet. Elle did not want to stop, of course, and I haven't heard the girls laugh so much in a while!

Then, to calm down before bed, we made playdough monsters:

We finished the night with a not-so-scary monster story. So simple, but so fun for all of us! And to end, here's a picture from this morning of Lauren putting make-up on her sister. I feel fortunate that they really do love each other...most of the time...and it's so sweet to see them become friends in addition to being sisters!

Elle is 3......and 1/2!

2010-03-29T19:35:00.006-05:00

Elle's half-birthday was today, and I think she thoroughly enjoyed her special day. I can't tell you how many time she told me she loved me or thanked me for everything today. It was soo sweet and definitely makes every effort I put into making things special for my girls worth it! We went to visit daddy at work during lunchtime, and then while she was napping (really she was just resting because she rarely naps anymore!), I decorated the table with lots of pink princess decorations I had around the house, mostly leftover from her third birthday in September. Since I spent her rest-time working on decorations, I thought I would just buy a small cake at the grocery store to celebrate that evening. I figured Elle would appreciate the decorations more than a homemade cake, even though I usually always make homemade.

Well, when Elle got up, I told her I had a surprise and showed her the table. She was so cute, and said, "Mommy, I think I love it!" But then after looking at the table she immediately said, "But we forgot to make the cake!" I told her that we could just buy one when we went to the store. She stared at me in disbelief and said, "Mommy, we can't buy a cake! We have to make it!" Who was I to think we could skip having a homemade cake for Elle's half-birthday?!?! Kyle informed me that I created that monster because my daughter has now become a cake snob! Anyway, Elle and I quickly made a cake before dinner and added pink icing and the half-birthday princess was very happy! Although please ignore how horribly the cake is frosted; I had to make and frost the cake as quickly as possibly since both Lauren and Elle were very excited and impatient! Here are some pictures from today:

Elle with her party decorations.

Princess crowns for everyone!

Blowing out the candles--always Elle's favorite part. When I was putting her to bed,

she said, "Mommy, thank you for letting me blow out my candles today!" So cute!

Present time! Elle had returned a few Christmas presents and picked out some things at Walmart in exchange, so I saved them for her half-birthday and it was like she had never seen them before!

Lauren, once the sugar rush hit:

With her favorite present:

After dinner tea party:

What we've been up to...

2010-03-26T12:08:00.009-05:00

I've had this really bad cold the past couple of weeks, and it's definitely slowed us down a little, but I thought I'd post a few pictures of the girls. I didn't get any pictures on this particular day, but on Wednesday, I took the girls to a local animal refuge, Henry's Ark, and it was amazing to see how different they are. When we arrives, there were llamas out that the kids could feed carrots, so Elle was immediately scared and insisted that I hold her (this lasted the entire time we were there!). Lauren, however, walked right up to the animals and fed them. There were also deer and large reindeer and a few other animals you could feed through a fence, and Lauren did not hesitate. She would walk right up by herself and feed every animal; she didn't even want my help (although I still helped some to insure she kept all of her fingers!). There were dogs, a goat, cats, and peacocks also roaming around free, and Lauren never once wanted me to hold her. She has no fear! It was just so interesting to watch, since she was the smallest kid there, and here I was with her older sister in my arms, clinging to me for dear life! Just shows me how much of their personality they are born with.

Elle is very into imaginative play right now, and she's gotten even more bossy (hard to believe!), so sometimes she's interested in doing projects with me and sometimes she's not. On St. Patrick's Day, we did a few rainbow-themed activities, and this was by far her favorite:

I can't remember where I saw the idea, but we used milk and basically did a color-mixing experiment (i.e. we started with just red, yellow and blue milk and then mixed combos of those colors to get the rest). She thought it was magic, and she loved drinking the purple milk at the end! Elle has also always enjoyed playing in the rain, so even though it was chilly last Sunday, she still insisted on going out. As you can see, Lauren wasn't as much of a fan!

Here are the girls with their new towels from Nana. When we pulled it out of the box, Elle immediately asked if I could help her put it on so she could be Super Elle--too cute!

And these are just a few more pictures of them being cute--Elle's obsessed with pigtails recently, so I finally convinced her to let me do "smaller" pigtails and not have all her hair up.

This is Lauren's "cheese" face!
And, I've been trying to catch Lauren on video singing one of her favorite songs ("Happy Birthday"). This is only a little bit of it, but it's still pretty cute. Elle still loves pretending it's everyone's birthday, so I'm sure that's why Lauren likes the song so much.

Lauren's Half-Birthday

2010-03-14T19:52:00.005-05:00

We celebrated Lauren's half-birthday this weekend (she's now 1 1/2--I can't believe it!), and the girls both loved it. It's a really fun tradition that my mom did with my siblings and I when we were younger, and I've enjoyed continuing it with my girls. Elle asked all week about making Lauren's half-cake, picked a couple dollar items for presents, and sang "Happy Birthday" to Lauren multiple times. Lauren also sang to herself, since the birthday song is the only one she really sings! It's amazing that my baby girl is already 18 months old. She has gotten so much personality these past few months, and that is everyone's comment about her--so much personality for such a little girl.

We know she fits right in the family because at 1, she has somehow picked up sarcasm. She will make fun of us or of Elle and then laugh hysterically at herself. When Elle was sick with a stomach virus a few weeks ago, Lauren grabbed the bowl Elle had next to her and started pretending to puke in it, making the sound and everything. Then, she put the bowl down and starting laughing at herself. She does this with Elle a lot if she makes a funny noise or coughs. It's too funny to watch and it's great to know Lauren already has a sense of humor! She's been talking more and more, saying "please" and "thank you" and now uses sentences (i.e. "I want milk!"). She's pretty easy to understand too.

Lauren's main obsession right now, though, is doing everything she's not supposed to do. In one morning alone, she dumped baking soda all over the pantry, an entire box of cereal on the kitchen floor, and smashed cheez-its into the great room carpet. She spends a lot of her time climbing anything she can, especially the kitchen table, and she always does a victory dance when she reaches the top! Lauren's definitely a tougher kid than Elle, and she doesn't cry much when she gets hurt (which being as small as she is, she tends to get beat up on by her sister and other kids). Lauren is also a morning person, and wakes up ready to go. It's so cute to hear her happy squeal as soon as she gets out of bed and as she yells for daddy, since she loves to watch him get ready in the morning (something Elle has never been awake to do!). It's so fun to see how different she is from her big sister. We can't imagine life without our babyzilla (one of Lauren's many nicknames--after Lauren Grace, Gracie, Gracester)! Happy half-birthday, Lauren!

Oh, and Elle was of course there too, being goofy as always--love that girl!

And here's the video:

Dress-up Time

2010-03-05T14:30:00.006-05:00

I have so many old things I want to post that I never end up posting at all, so I figure I'll just start with posting some new things, and we'll see if I ever make it back to the old posts! Elle has been really into dress-up and princesses for a while now and will always tell me that she needs "to get ready for the party" or "get ready for the ball." Because everyone knows that all little girls are princesses, right? Both she and Lauren refuse to dance to music, one of their favorite activities, until they are first in some sort of dress-up clothing. And a week or so ago, we were going to a friend's house for some birthday cake, not really a party, and Elle insisted that she needed her "party dress" before we could go. Luckily, she settled for a tutu. As long as we're not going to church, I usually let her pick what she wants to wear, and it's interesting to see what combination she puts together. Girls are so fun! Last Friday, she chose this outfit for playgroup:

And of course they had to fight over the purse:

We got a package in the mail from Nana the other day with some matching coats and shoes for the girls and Elle had to try it on right away. So here are the girls modeling their new coats (you can tell how Lauren feels about it all by the look on her face!):

And here are the girls dancing to their favorite "loud" song (it's the first song on the Swing Kids soundtrack). This is probably one of the most common scenes in our house these days. They love to get dressed up, turn on the loud music, and have me sit and watch them dance as they put on a "show" (if I don't sit down, Lauren will run to the chair, hit it with her hand and yell "Sit! Sit!" until I sit down--yes, I'm being bossed around by a one and three-year-old now!):

Pictures

2010-01-08T20:10:00.003-05:00

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T08:29:00.004-05:00

For more pictures, see my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=322762&id=904380857&l=27996446a0

Quick Visit from Nana and Papa

2009-10-27T10:13:00.003-05:00

My parents stopped in for a quick visit the past few days, and the girls loved seeing them and getting some extra attention! Here's a link to some pictures I posted on facebook:

And a video of Elle at Build-a-Bear with my mom (she loved it, and named her new Hello Kitty, Princess Kitty--too cute!):

A little update

2009-10-20T07:59:00.002-05:00

It feels like the girls have been growing faster and faster recently! I keep asking Elle if she could please stop growing and just stay little forever for me, and she always replies, "No, mama, I'm getting bigger and bigger everyday!" Kyle trimmed her hair last night, and I was commenting that it made it her look older, so much more like a little girl, rather than a baby, so when she jumped off the chair at the end, she said, "Look daddy! I'm bigger now!" Guess she'll be requesting a haircut more often!

And Lauren seems to be more of a toddler everyday. She's already started throwing full-blown tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants (I don't remember Elle doing this until she was at least 15 months!). Every single day, she rattles the gate at the bottom of the stairs multiple times and when she realizes it's not open and she can't climb up the stairs (one of her very favorite activities), she screams and throws herself on the ground. It's really pretty funny to watch, and it's amazing how quickly she can be set off by other things too, like anytime Elle gets something that Lauren can't have (it's so tough being the second kid!). Lauren's also been walking everywhere the past few weeks, and trying to copy more words. When the doctor asked me at her check-up if she was talking, I started naming off the words she can say, which includes, "mama; dada; no, no, no; yuck; whoa; and wow." He thought it was a very interesting combination of words, but these are certainly the ones she hears the most often, since she's into everything. Yesterday morning, Lauren was "helping" me with the dishes, and every time she would throw a piece of silverware on the floor, she would yell, "yuck!" Too funny!

My Georgia Girls!

2009-10-03T12:01:00.002-05:00

Elle has a number of different Georgia outfits, but she wants to wear the cheerleading outfit every week! She also insisted on bringing the "Georgia girl dolly" with her for nap time. Too cute! Hopefully we'll have a reason to cheer tonight during the LSU game!

In other news, I'm continually amazed by how different the two girls are and was reminded again at story time this morning. Curious George was visiting and Elle has been scared of dressed up characters for as long as I can remember, so she, of course, insisted on sitting in my lap, told me she did not want to see him, and told me that George was not going to say "hi" to her! Lauren, on the other hand, was soo excited to see Curious George. She kept waving at him, motioning for him to come here, trying to crawl toward him, and trying to talk to him in her 1-year-old gibberish. I left Elle with a friend while I took Lauren up to see him, and she loved petting him and had the biggest smile on her face. Too funny! It certainly makes being parent so interesting!

Happy Birthday to my Favorite 3-year-old!

2009-09-29T08:20:00.007-05:00

My dearest Elle,

Today you turn three--where did the year go?!?! Although as I look at pictures and remember you from a few months ago, you seem so much older now. You are no longer my little baby; you have become my beautiful little girl. Your personality has continued to blossom, and I still LOVE to be around you because you are SO MUCH FUN! Everything in life is exciting to you, from a roly-poly on the ground to the moon in the sky. It doesn't take much to convince you that anything we do is fun; you find joy in everything, which is always a great lesson for me. You love art projects, so of course, you get excited about any projects we do at home, but we can be cleaning up toys or washing the windows, and you will get just as excited about that.

You turn everything into a song these days, and I often feel like I live in a musical. We went to the mall the other day, and when we pulled in the parking lot, you started screaming and pointing, "The mall, Mommy; look, it's the mall!" Then, when we got out of the car, you made up a song that went, "I love the mall; I love the mall, I love it when mommy, Ellester, and Lauren go to the mall!" Yes, you now refer to yourself as Ellester on a regular basis (that's your daddy's influence). Dora is your favorite show right now, and she also comes into play during these songs and make believe time. The other day I told you we needed to get ready, so we could go to the gym, and you looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, first we have to help baby dino find his mommy!" You were determined to finish helping Dora, and you truly believe you're vital in her missions. We went on a hike with Daddy the other day (you were in a dress and Cinderella top, of course), and you were soo excited to be in the forest, like Dora, and you kept turning the hike into a Dora episode and singing about it (first, we have to go through the forest; then over the bridge; then we can find the playground!). It's been so fun to watch your mind and your imagination work, especially as you've become better able to communicate your thoughts with us.

You have definitely developed more of an opinion on your wardrobe the past few months, and at least half the time, you are walking around with a tutu or some other dress-up item on. I just let you choose what you want, although depending on where we're going, I do try to limit your choices. But, as one of your friend's moms said the other day, "I wish I could be like Elle and make a tutu look good with any outfit." You still love to sing and dance and will often treat us to "shows"; however, you have become a lot more shy around people you don't know and will be really quiet if you realize they're talking to you or watching you. You're still pretty bossy and you try to tell me exactly where to stand and what to do in the performance. I pray that as you grow, you will always use those God-given leadership skills to lead others in the right direction.

You have matured a lot over the past year when it comes to being obedient and to being kind to your sister and others. I rarely have to put you in time-out, and you will usually apologize for things without me even asking. You have become so polite, and you say, "Please, mama" and "Thank you, mama" all the time. You have become a great big sister to Lauren, and she thinks you're just about the funniest person she's ever seen. You love to help entertain her, feed her, and pick her up (which is not my favorite thing, since you usually do this on the tile floor!). It's been amazing to see how much you love Lauren, and I'm glad your daddy and I could give you the great gift of a sister. You have so much love for others, and you have become so generous. You constantly give me and your daddy spontaneous hugs, kisses, and "I love you"s. You have definitely developed a special relationship with your daddy and ask about him throughout the day. You told me yesterday, "Mommy, I want to hang out with daddy," and that's just what you did when he got home. You love to visit him at work, and now, any time you get hurt, you will start screaming, "My daddy's a doctor; my daddy's a doctor!" I think it makes you feel better, even when he's not there to help. You are still a mommy's girl in many ways though and will usually ask for mommy to hold you or for mommy to do something. You love to cuddle and usually want me to hold you when you first wake up. I'm glad you still need that because I'm not sure I'm ready for you to stop! You love your friends too and will usually give them "big hugs" when you see them. When we're going to meet friends, you will often ask to bring treats for them or to bring a toy to share with them. As we always tell you, "Elle, you're the sweetest!"

Speaking of friends, you still have a lot of them, although not too many girl friends that you see on a regular basis. Your best friend, Coral, moved away this summer, and you definitely miss her. You still ask if she'll be at play group, and you often ask to go see her. You've become a lot more overwhelmed sometimes with play group and do not always like big crowds of kids. You get along with your boy friends really well, but I can already tell that there are times when you prefer to play with another girl, since you like a lot of girly things. Recently, one of the little boys asked you to be his girlfriend, and you said, "No," (mostly because you have no idea what a girlfriend is, which I'm really glad about!). He came and told me you were being mean to him, so he repeated the story to explain why and I just told you, "Good job!" Another one of the little boys told his grandparents that he had a girlfriend named Elle, and "she's a princess." So cute! You are our little princess, although I'm not looking forward to the day when you can really have a boyfriend!

You are a very sensitive and cautious child still, and you remember and understand everything. You have a number of fears, including animals of any kind, the dark, being left, and monsters. We will talk about something one week and you will suddenly remember and worry about it a week later. You don't really like me to leave you, and will cry even if it's only for 30 minutes at the gym. One day, I dropped you off to the inside playroom at the gym, and the teachers decided to take you all to the outside playground. When I came back you were crying and they didn't know why, but you quickly explained it to me, "My mommy can't find me; I'm lost; my mommy can't find me!" You were worried that I wouldn't know where to pick you up, since they moved you, and I can understand how that would be scary. When we're going to a friend's house where there's a dog, you will ask me all morning to call and ask them to put the dog in the garage or outside, and even after I do that, you will want me to hold you when we get there because you are worried the dog will get you. I try to be really patient with your fears because I know to you they are very real! You are sensitive about other things too. You started Parents' Day Out this month, and you love "school"! You have learned a lot more about God, and it's been a great experience for you and your independence. The other day when we were in the car, you told me, "Mommy, when I don't share, it makes Jesus cry." So, we talked about that and about being nice to others, and throughout the week, you would say, "I'm going to be nice; I'm going to make Jesus happy." It's amazing to see what a wonderful heart you have for God and for others, and I am so proud to be your mommy!

Elle, I can't believe your 3rd birthday is actually here, although I'm sure you're more excited than me. You've had an obsession with birthdays for a long time now, and will often make me a pretend cake and sing to me and make me blow out the candles. We had your party a few weeks ago, and when I asked you what the best part was, you said, "When everyone sang to me and I got to blow the candles out." I know you had been waiting for that moment! So, I can't wait to do that again today. I'm so excited to see what this next year brings for you, my precious daughter!

Love,

Your Mommy

Birthday Parties

2009-09-18T15:23:00.006-05:00

I know I've been neglecting this blog, but hopefully, now that we're back in a routine, since summer's over, I'll get better about posting again. I'm working on a post about both of the girls' birthday parties, but until I get that up, here are links to the albums I posted on facebook. It was a wonderful weekend!

Lauren's Party:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=314148&id=904380857&l=388388e024

Elle's Party:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=314722&id=904380857&l=1f1cd4fb35

A LONG Update

2009-07-11T22:56:00.011-05:00

I'm soo behind on posting, so this post has A LOT of pictures (and I'm not even including our trip to Florida!). We've had a busy month, and I'll try to catch up on all that I can remember. I decided to stop watching Sam and Noah (I've had Sam since he was 2 1/2 months old), since it was just getting to be too much, so first up are a few pictures of the last few times I had the boys in June. Elle and Sam are still such good buddies and get really excited to see each other, and they definitely feed off each other and have more energy when they're around each other. Here's Elle being goofy as always!

Sam borrowing Elle's hat:

Playing at the water table:

Elle's new favorite activity, playing doctor--She's not too fond of being the patient, but she loves to pretend she's the doctor and especially to give shots! She loves the episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where Daisy is a pretend doctor and will sing the song to me, while she's giving me a "check-up" (i.e. "Does your knee hurt? Does your ear hurt? Then what's the matter?"). The other day, Elle fell and scraped her knee while we were taking a walk, and to help calm her down, Kyle said he would clean it up and put a bandaid on it when we got home. I told her that daddy would make it all feel better because he's a doctor. She replied, "Daddy, you're not a doctor; you're a boy!"

At the beginning of June, Kyle had his residency graduation (I'm still waiting for pictures, since I was a bad wife and forgot my camera! I was soo proud of Kyle--out of 7 awards total, he recieved 4 of them, including the award for Outstanding Resident of the Year.), so his mom and dad both came up for the ceremony. Kyle's mom even watched the girls on her birthday, so we could go to a graduation party that evening--thanks Mimi! We did have a little birthday celebration for her the next day, and Elle, of course, loved it. She's been all about birthdays for many months now and sings the birthday song to me at least a few times a week. She loves to pretend to make a cake, sing me "Happy Birthday", tell me to blow the candles out, cheer for me, cut the cake, and then have me eat it. It's a very elaborate process, and she gets really upset if you try to eat the cake before she cuts it! Anyway, the girls really enjoyed seeing Mimi and Grandpa Deano (Elle thinks he's just about the funniest person she's ever met!).

Elle's best buddy, Coral, moved away at the end of June, so we had a going-away party for her and her parents. It's only been a few weeks, but Elle asks about Coral a lot. They really were the best of friends, and I know Elle misses her, especially when we have weekly playgroups. It was sad to see her first friend leave!

My mom, grandma, and sister also came to visit at the end of June (Kyle was out-of-town at a board review course). Elle loved all the extra attention! She danced with Nana, played "wind storm" with Aunt Kaitlin, and stole jewlery from "my grandma", as she calls her. Nana even took Elle to have her nails painted at the salon and now she's hooked! As soon as her nail polish starts to come off, she will tell me that I NEED to paint them for her. She's certainly going to be a girly-girl!

These are a few random pictures from playing outside, visiting the zoo, craft-time, Lauren showing off her standing skills, the girls just being silly, and picnic time at the park. Lauren has been crawling since she was 8 1/2 months and is now into everything! She will pullup on anything she can and cruise and she's crawling fast. She already tries to reach things on Elle's highchair and even started opening cabinet doors. I'm definitely going to have to babyproof more, since Elle was never like this. Even when Elle was almost a year old, I could put her on her activity table to cruise and she would stay there--clearly, Lauren's a lot more ambitious! Elle's always been a big people person, so as long as she was being held and a part of the conversation, she was content. But, Lauren just wants to get down and explore her environment, even in places she can't do that. It's so fun to see how different these two little girls are!

And finally, here are a few shots from the 4th of July. It was a rainy day, so we didn't do much. Elle's still scared of fireworks and was even terrified of the sparklers I bought to do at home, so this was not her favorite holiday, but she sure looked cute in her red, white, and blue and as always loved to "match" Lauren. Well, there's a little update, and I'll add some videos when I get them on youtube.

My Dancing Queen

2009-06-04T15:29:00.003-05:00

I know I've been so bad about updating recently, and I plan to add a few posts soon, but I was just uploading pictures from both cameras and found this picture of the girls with nana and papa and some pictures and videos of an art festival we went to last weekend. Elle and her friend, Coral, had a blast dancing in front of this band. Elle truly cannot help but dance when she hears music, and every time the band would finish a song, she would ask if they would play another one. Needless to say, she was pretty sad when they played their last song!

An update (Lauren at 8 months--Elle at 2.5)

2009-05-18T21:20:00.011-05:00

I'm a little behind on posting, so I wanted to get a few things written down about the girls while I still remember! Elle's been saying so many cute things recently and she's been repeating EVERYTHING, which is really making me watch what I say even more closely! The funny thing is she won't repeat things immediately after they're said; she will wait a few days and try (key word here is "try") to use them in the correct context--so much fun to witness! One day a few weeks ago, I had a pretty frustrating day. Kyle was working; Lauren was being fussy; and Elle was being 2! So, at some point, after Kyle got home, I told him that I was really having a bad day. Well, a few days later, I was in line at the post office, trying to keep Elle from wandering off, and she looked up at me with the biggest smile and said, "Mommy, I'm having a bad day!" The lady behind us thought it was pretty funny, and I couldn't help but laugh because she thought she was being clever, but she clearly had no idea what that meant! Other things she's said recently:

"Mommy, I'm freaking out here!" while helping clean up her toys,

"You're being crazy!" said to one of her baby dolls

"Mommy, I really need to see my friends NOW," after being sick for a couple of days and not getting to see them (she is really a social butterfly--One other story...we were at the park recently, and Elle started following around a group of older girls, since she didn't have any friends with her, and since I'm not always enough of a playmate for her anymore. She would go up to the girls and say, "Come on guys, let's go on the slide together!" and they just kept ignoring her. It was really sad to watch my little girl get rejected (although I know this will happen again in her life, so I better get used to it!), but I understood them not wanting to play with her, since she's obviously younger. However, it didn't seem to faze Elle as she kept trying over and over. After a little while, we started to play one Elle's new favorite games: pretend ice cream shop, and as soon as the older girls heard us playing, they asked to join in. The huge smile on Elle's face was priceless! She was so excited to make some new friends, and I guess her persistence paid off!

Elle still loves to be the boss and I usually end up with more dress-up items on me (and those little heels are hard to walk in!) when we play pretend princess. She is also still a big drama queen and the life of the party. We went to Kyle's softball game last week, and Elle had a blast cheering him on, screaming, "Good job, Daddy!" over and over. She saw him slide into 2nd base on one of the first plays and decided to try sliding herself. So, she would throw the ball, run, and slide., then get up and say, "Yay! I did it! Good job!" Kyle said he could hear her cheering all the way in the outfield and when he looked at the stands, more people were watching her than the game.

Lauren still seems to have a mellower temperament than Elle, although she seems to have a little separation anxiety now and will cry if someone else holds her while she can see me in the room. She's been lunging forward and rocking on her hands and knees for a while now, but has yet to take off crawling. Her preferred method of moving right now is by scooting on her back, although that's usually only when she gets mad. She's been trying out some more syllables, but still prefers to say, "dadadada" and often gets really loud with her "talking" (I think she's just trying to steal a little of the spotlight from her sister!). She's such a sweet, happy baby and she does a lot of little things that remind me of Elle. She stares at strangers, or anyone really, until they'll look at her and then gives them the biggest smiles. Lauren loves to watch her sister run around and act crazy and I can't wait until they can really play together. Lauren's constantly getting comments from strangers that she's, "such a happy baby," and I think that's certainly true!

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks:

Elle's rainstick:

Sweet baby Lauren:

Princess Elle:

Playing dress-up (Elle's starting to have her own fashion sense, and I usually have to give her a few options to choose from or she refuses to wear what I pick. This particular day, she was adamant about wearing her butterfly halloween costume, but I told her I couldn't buckle her in the carseat with the wings on, so we compromised on this butterfly skirt. However, she just HAD to wear a belt with it, as you can see in the picture below, so that wasn't part of the dress-up; that's what she wore out all day!):

Trying on daddy's hat:

Eating dinner (Lauren's a much better eater than Elle so far):

Aunt Kaitlin's Visit and playtime

2009-05-04T11:36:00.004-05:00

My sister, Kaitlin, came for a short visit this weekend and Elle LOVED seeing her godmother. Whenever Kaitlin left, Elle kept asking, "Where did Aunt Kaitlin go? Where's my Aunt Kaitlin?" She loves any extra attention she can get!

Here are some shots of the girls playing and being silly this morning. Elle loves that Lauren can "play" more now, and Lauren thinks Elle is the silliest, most interesting thing she's ever seen, although she's still a little scared of her sometimes!

Lauren "talking" and Elle demonstrating some dance moves

2009-04-30T12:57:00.001-05:00

Spring Fever

2009-04-29T08:02:00.005-05:00

The weather has been soo nice the past week, so we've been spending a lot more time outdoors. Lauren got her first experience with grass (her hat's a little big, but all the ones that fit her provide very little protection from the sun--plus, it's Derby week here, so the hat is fitting!):

Sisterly love:

Spending lots of time with her buddy, Sam:

Learning how to play T-ball:

Eating some leftover Easter candy (pink peeps):

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T08:52:00.003-05:00

We've been doing a number of projects this week in honor of Earth Day today. I know I still need to update my Easter post, but I wanted to get these up in case someone else wants some ideas! We combined Earth Day week with the letter B, so we still have a lot of things left to do this week, including planting some herbs today and making dirt pudding, making homemade binoculars (with toilet paper rolls), and homemade birdfeeders, and going on a nature walk and doing some plant rubbings with the things we find. We're also going to a local animal sanctuary today, so we'll definitely spend some time enjoying the beautiful planet God gave us!

This was great scissor practice for Elle! We cut strips of blue and green paper into scraps and then glued them onto this Earth template. She loves using scissors, so this was great for her!

This has nothing to do with Earth Day, but Elle put this bowl on her head while eating dessert the other night and she thought she was being soo funny. She couldn't stop laughing!

This is also not an Earth Day activity, but here's Elle doing a transferring activity:

B is for Birds (with Elle's fingerprint birds):

The end product of this one doesn't look that much like an Earth, but Elle still had fun doing it. Basically, you color a coffee filter with blue and green washable markers:
Then, using a spray bottle or dropper, you sprinkle water all over the coffee filter to get this effect:

Easter 2009

2009-04-17T13:06:00.006-05:00

I'll update with details on Easter when I get the chance, but I thought I'd share some pictures since I got them uploaded finally!

Kyle's Vacation Week

2009-04-16T07:56:00.003-05:00

Sorry I've been so behind on updating, but we've been really busy these past few weeks. I'll try to put up Easter pictures later today also! Kyle had vacation the first full week in April and rather than go on a long trip, which with two kids usually ends up being exhausting, we went to Nashville for a few days and then did a few things around Louisville. It was much more relaxing and made Kyle's vacation seem much longer. So, below are some shots from our vacation week. We went to Bicentennial Park in downtown Nashville, and Elle LOVED this map of the world (mostly she just loved the water). The weather was beautiful, and since we knew it was supposed to be cold the next few days, we also checked out Music Row and ate at the Wildhorse Saloon, before heading to our hotel, the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Elle loved the resort too and would have been content just walking around inside, looking at the waterfalls, seeing the fish, and going up the escalator--I'm still not sure why we ever spend money to entertain her! There was a great outlet mall right next to the resort, so Elle got to ride the carousel and got some new tennis shoes at the Nike outlet (now when I put her other shoes on her, she looks confused/disappointed and says, "Where's the swoop, mommy?"), and we all enjoyed lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. If you've never been, I would highly recommend taking your children if there's one near you. Elle loved it! There were all kinds of animals to watch during lunch and there's even a thunderstorm every 30 minutes. Since it was cold, we spent a good bit of time at the resort, and Elle got to have a lot of daddy-time, swimming in the indoor pool and playing video games. Lauren had fun as well, although she wasn't fond of the car. She continues to be a very easygoing baby!

Once we were back in Louisville, we spent a day at the zoo, and it was so fun to watch Elle enjoy it even more, since she's older now, although she got just as excited about the random birds and squirrels we saw (which again, we did not pay to see) as she did about the real zoo animals. Elle's pretty scared of any animals close-up, so we were shocked when she wanted to go in and see the lorikeets (birds). The birds will land on you, especially if you have food, so we didn't buy any, knowing that Elle would probably freak out if that happened. So, she was fine at first and even wanted to touch the birds that the lady next to her was holding, but then some birds decided to land on daddy's shoulder, and Elle was pretty much done after that. She was mostly just concerned for Kyle though! On a side note, Elle's a pretty cautious child, which I'm sure she gets from me, since I always telling her to be careful. So, Kyle also decided to paint some in our great room on his vacation (I know; isn't he a great husband?), and he had to get on a ladder for some of it. I was out of the room when he first climbed up, so Elle took it upon hersself to warn him, "You better be careful, daddy; you're gonna get a big owie!"

2009-04-10T15:34:00.004-05:00

Elle's Half-Birthday

2009-03-30T08:13:00.002-05:00

When I was a kid, my mom always celebrated our half-birthdays with us, and it was such a fun tradition, I knew I wanted to do it with my kids. So, yesterday, we had a little party for Elle's half-birthday--my big girl is now 2 1/2!. We had her favorite meal, pizza, along with a half-pink-cake (she picked this out). She chose some Handy Manny plates, so we did a few things along that theme, and we also played two of her favorite games--Elefun and parachute. She has a few dollar store presents and some things sent from Nana. Her friend, Coral (and Coral's parents), joined us for the fun, and Elle absolutely loved it! She was a lot more excited about this than her actual 2nd birthday, since she understands a lot more now. Here are some pics from the evening:

2009-03-30T07:15:00.004-05:00

Funny/Cute things Elle says...

2009-03-27T14:44:00.005-05:00

I've been trying to keep a mental note of some cute/funny things Elle has said recently, and I finally took the time to write some of them down. I know this is a lot of writing, but since this blog is essentially Elle's baby book (and Lauren's), I wanted to make sure I saved them. So, feel free to read any of them and get a glimpse into our favorite 2 and a half year old's mind!

The other day, Elle walked toward Lauren and grabbed her hand and started moving it toward her face. My first reaction was to tell Elle to stop and be more gentle (since she usually has a hard time playing gently with Lauren) until I heard what she was saying, “Baby Lauren, it’s Father, Son, Holy Sprit!” And this is a follow-up to when were in Augusta for Christmas, and my mom and I took the kids to the local science museum. There was one of those large marble balls that spin and are covered in water. Elle walked right over to the water at the bottom, dunked her hand in and made the sign of the cross. Too cute! So, even though she still walks around going, “I’m not Jesus, mommy! I’m not Jesus!”, she’s kind of starting to get it!

Elle’s also on an ownership kick—she lets everyone know what’s hers and what belongs to someone else. She walks around saying, “You’re my mommy, not Sam’s mommy, but my mommy.” Or, “Lauren’s my baby sister, not Coral’s baby sister, my baby sister!” Or, most recently after she had pooped in her diaper, “It’s my poopie, mommy, it’s not Coral’s poopie, it’s my poopie!” Yes, Elle, it’s all yours!

Elle’s really been loving her daddy lately, so she talks about him all the time when he’s gone. Yesterday, around lunchtime, she came up to me and said, “Mommy, I miss daddy.” It’s the first time she’s ever said she missed anyone, so it was really sweet!

For a while now, Elle’s been using some new adjectives. When she doesn’t want to walk anymore while we’re out running errands, she’ll lay down on the ground and say, “Mommy, I can’t walk; I’m too big (or I’m scared)!” Not sure where she got that from…I definitely think it’s the age, but Elle has also been getting “scared” of things a lot more frequently. Every morning when we start to walk downstairs, she says, “Hold you, mama, I’m scared—there’s monsters!” And then she’ll randomly run over to me throughout the day and do the same thing. She also still has a major fear of bugs and will often wake up in the middle of the night grabbing her feet and screaming “No bugs! No bugs!”

Elle has been obsessed with labeling people by gender recently. She goes through the whole family plus Sam and Noah on a daily basis (i.e. “I’m a girl, mommy’s a girl, baby Lauren’s a girl, daddy’s a boy, Sam’s a boy, and Noah’s a boy”). And, if you ask her any questions about herself or say, “Elle is….(insert pretty much anything here),” she will quickly correct you and say, “No, I’m a girl!” Well, she had also recently learned that girls have vaginas and boys have penises, so the other day, we were walking through Target (me, Kyle, Elle, and Lauren), and she loudly proclaimed, “Daddy has a penis!”

We always try to encourage good manners, so if Elle doesn’t do it on her own, we remind her to say “please” and “thank you”. Well, she’s now taken it upon herself to remind us and Lauren! Every time she hands me something, she looks at me very seriously and does that mom-tone-voice and says, “Mommy, say ‘bank (thank) you,’ Elle,” and she does the same thing to Lauren. It’s too funny! But, I guess I should expect this because Elle still tries to copy most everything we say or do and she’s really bossy. She tells Sam (the little boy I watch who’s also 2) what to do all day long; luckily, he usually listens to her. If she gets in timeout at all during the day, she will put all her babies in timeout and say, “Timeout—you stay right there—I’ll be right back!”

Elle has also really been loving her Papa (my dad) recently. It was Papa’s birthday a little over a month ago, so she loved singing “Happy Birthday” to him and for weeks went around saying, “Happy Birthday to Papa!” And she often asks if we can go see him when we get in the car to go somewhere, so I’ve had to explain to her that Papa lives far away, so we can’t go see him any time we want. So, she continually reminds me, “Papa’s far away, Mommy.” A few days after I first told her this, she saw an airplane and as it flew away she said, “Mommy, the airplane’s far away! Papa’s far away too!” I thought that was a pretty good understanding for a 2-year-old. So, even though we can’t see Papa, she pretends to talk to him on her play phone all the time and asks to call him most every day and loves to “show” him all her toys through the phone. We can’t wait to see Papa again soon!

Spring is here!

2009-03-25T07:08:00.004-05:00

Well, at least for now....we've had freezing temps into May before, but we're hoping Spring is here to stay! In honor of the weather, I set up a little sensory activity for Elle, using mini-terra cotta pots, fake flowers, a small shovel, and some inexpensive ground coffee (we found most of these items at the dollar store!). She did a great job of shoveling the "dirt" into the pots and sticking in her flowers a few times, but then she just loved dumping the "dirt" back into the bowl and using her hands, so some great hand-eye coordination practice and a great sensory experience. As you can see, she was too focused to look at the camera--I can't wait to plant some real flowers with her soon!

There is no better friend than a sister...

2009-03-25T07:04:00.002-05:00

A Perfect Sunday

2009-03-22T22:12:00.003-05:00

Warning...lots of pictures in this post...