Birthday Fun!

I am finally getting around to adding Addi's birthday pictures to the blog. These are from her two parties. She had a family party and a friend's party this year.

The girls decorated cupcakes.


They made mini-pizzas.

We played Zingo!

The January birthday cousins.

Proud Parenting Moments

So we all have those moments where we might say something that we probably shouldn't have. Trav and I both had one of the those moments with Ella this past week.

After getting home Trav was helpin Ella take her coat off. He could find her hat and wasn't getting a straight answer from her as to where she left it. After asking her repeatly he decided to break it down slowly for her. Trav-"Where.......did......you......leave.....your.......hat?" Ella responded with-"I.......left.......it.......in......the......car.....Dad!"

I was in the process of helping the girls clean up their room. Addi as usual was doing more than her fair share. Ella had somehow disappeared in the process. I had asked her to come back several times and she hadn't shown up. So I raised my voice instructing her to get back to her room right away. She came right away and in a quiet voice right in my face said "Mommy I will talk to you when you can talk in a nice voice!" Love and Logic at it's best!!!

Little Man of Many Talents

Kole is changing so fast. It seems he is doing new things everyday. Trav taught him to say So Big and he loves to perform that. He started saying Da, Da and Ma, Ma. He has only master the more sign, but we are working on up and milk. Kole has also become quite the walker too.

He is also working on learning to brush his teeth!

Kole's New Discoveries

Kole has figured out a lot of things in the last couple of weeks, but his favorite has to be the dishwasher. He somehow just knows when it is open and will make a beeline for it. I have seen him crawl right past Daddy to get to the dishwasher. Once there he likes to 'rearrange' the dishes.

Kole has also discovered how to pull drawers open. I think he has pinched his fingers over half the time he's opened drawers, but he continues to do it. He is also just the right height to pull open the knobs on bottom cupboards. It's also amazing to me that Kole is starting to pester Ella. The other day she was sitting on the toilet and he came in and pulled the lid down on her back and then proceeded to laugh.

Finally you will see that Kole has become a bit of a puppy. He loves all the braclets that the girls have. His favorite thing to do with them is just let them hang from his mouth. He doesn't bite them or pull on them, they just hang from his mouth as he crawls and plays.

Ella Quotes ;)

After getting home today I told Ella she could take her hat off. Her response was 'No thanks Mom my hair is cold.' Then my purse fell off the desk and as I was picking it up she says 'Is your purse ok Mom?'

Recycled Christmas Tree

This weekend while we were stuck inside we decided to 'plant' our christmas tree in the back yard.

Then we made 'decorations' for our tree that we thought the birds would like.

We strung popcorn and fruit loops. We also stuck sunflower seeds in powdered donuts.

The birds have yet to find our tree, but Trav put Ella in charge of watching it to see if the birds were coming.

All decorated!

Napping Shoes

When I went in to wake up Ella from nap today this is what I saw. She has been very into her high heels lately and apparently she couldn't sleep without them!

Snow much fun!

All of this snow is out of control. We are home again today for another snow day. No one is going outside to play so we are thinking about when it was a little warmer and we got to play in the snow. Here is Trav, Ella, and Addi a bit tired after playing.


The Christmas snowman they made at Grandma's house.

This is to give you an idea of how much snow we have at our house. Addi and Ella are standing on the railing of our deck because that's how high the snow really is. We went sledding right off the deck until it got too cold to even think about going outside!