Happy 2nd Birthday Ella!!!

WOW -- today my baby turned 2. It is exciting yet emotional all at the same time. My little princess is no longer a baby. Tomorrow we are going to celebrate her birthday with the family. Even Nanny and Pop (Blake's parents) and Isaac are going to be here. What a treat for my little girl and us. As I reflect on how much Ella means to me I can only laugh at all her fun, cute, sweat, precious, and yes even sly things about her. She is so full of life, energy, and love. One thing that pops into my head is how one day a few weeks ago Blake looked at her with so much love and just started to giggle with a smile on his face. I ask him what he was thinking and this was his response - "I love that girl - she is really going to be someone some day - you just watch and see." It amazes me how much we can love our children and then to think of our God looking down at us with the same loving, fatherly response that Blake made. God has given us such a wonderful, amazing, hard task of raising up his children. They are a gift God has given us, a responsibility He has trusted us with. I pray that God uses me to bring up my children in the ways of the Lord. For you just watch and see "they will be someone some day".

This picture is of the birthday girl today. Happy 2nd birthday baby.

Here is Ella showing of her new dance moves.

This is Ella at 1 year.

Ella just a few hours old. And I must say she is awful beautiful for being just a few hours old. Oh course I am partial but....

Ethan's Christmas Party

So Ethan ended the calender year with a big bang at his Christmas Party at Preschool. Ethan is doing his craft, making a Santa hat. You will see the finished product at the end but if I were to vote Ethan had the most "decorated" hat.

After the craft the kids played "Pin the nose on Reindeer". And then to the presents -- all the parents gave money to buy gifts for the class. They got many gifts to use throughout the rest of the school year.
Then the snack. Ethan is sitting here with his good buddy Max.
The finished product. Pretty good, don't you think?
And the happy boy on his way home from his first school Christmas party.

Snowman!!!

We got a little bit of a snow storm last weekend. We were expecting a foot of snow but instead only got about 4 or 5 inches. But non-the-less - we made our snowman and had our fun. Here is Ethan all pumped up to go play in the snow. This is Daddy, Ethan, and Ella with the snowman Daddy made. WOW he is big.
Now if you look really really close you can see the snowman I made sitting in front of me and the kids. I personally like my little snowman better - that is if it were a contest.

Indiana State Museum

So we have been pretty busy - sorry it has been so long since I posted an update. Baby, it is cold outside so up go the Christmas decorations. For some reason we decided to finish our lights at night. Here is Ella all bundled up.

And Ethan as proud as can be of his snowman.

We went to the Indiana State Museum and ate at the Ayers Tea Room. They have a replica inside the Museum of the old Tea Room that the downtown Ayers used to have. After we ate the kids got a little gift from the Tea Room. It was pretty cute - we used to go to the real Tea Room when we were little and got little gifts back then also. Then we went to go ride on the Train. Boy was that a big hit. Of course the kids had to have Mommy go along. Don't I look a little big for this train?

Then to Santa. The kids are peeking in at the the kids in front of us telling Santa what they want for Christmas. We have been very diligent about telling the kids about the real meaning of Christmas and how everyone is having a HUGE birthday party for Jesus. Hopefully they understand that it is not about reindeer, Santa, and gifts. So here they are all excited and ready to tell Santa what they want for Christmas.
Now, Ella is not so excited anymore. She never did tell Santa what she wanted.The whole family picture. This was the only way to keep Ella from balling her eyes out.
Here is the whisper "I want a car and train".

Children's museum

The Jolly Days of Christmas is back at the museum and you have got to go. The kids had a blast.

Huge Yule Slide -- I only went because Ella was not old enough to go by herself.
Santa's Cookie Cafe!! Ethan loved this place. Here is a wonderful brownie that he made.
Ella was more into the story time by Mrs Clause but here she is trying to figure out the kitchen stuff.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family. Janel, Jason, and Faith came and stayed for 2 weeks. It was great to see them and Faith is just getting so big (even though she is a peanut for her age). Now first off - who is that bearded man?! Blake is doing No Shave November again. I guess there are only a few days left.

Janel and Ga (my grandma).Ethan, Ella, and Faith. What a great trio they make.

I have a baby in my belly.....

"I have a baby in my belly!!!" Those are Ethan's new famous words - along with WHY...? WHY...? WHY...? - Yes I now have a "Why" child. Back to the baby in the belly. So we have been talking a lot about Aunt Janel and how she is coming to visit us on Wednesday. As we talk about it I told Ethan that cousin Faith and Uncle Jason where also coming. We also told him that Faith was going to be a big sister because Janel had a baby in her belly. So this picture is what Ethan thinks Janel is going to look like when she comes to visit. He just came into my room yelling "I have a baby in my belly like Aunt Janel." He is going to be greatly surprised that since she is only 9 weeks - she will not be that big at all. He also is voting that it is a baby boy in her belly. Oh, I just realized that if you do not read this whole post you may think that I have a baby in my belly - which is indeed completely false.

New Rooms

Now that Ella is 22 months - we decided to get her a big girl bed. Thanks to Ethan she got his old bed and Ethan got a fun new bed. Ethan's bed was a hand-me-down from Uncle Isaac. Now we have plenty of space for friends to come spend the night. (OK that may be a little premature but Ethan has reserved his top bunk for a friend of his at school - I just think that is awful cute)

Morning time and....

As you can see, Ella is bright eyed and bushy tailed. She slept wonderful and did not wake up once in the middle of the night. Honestly, I thought she would wake up and get upset that she was not in her crib. See the post below to get a brief on what I am posting about.

I think we might be in trouble

So, tonight we put Ella in her big girl bed for the first time. She is getting a little to big for her round crib (since she is our giant child). And she is getting a little to "rough" with it. So we decided to give her a big girl bed. I took this picture just one hour after she fell asleep -- as you can see, it looks like we will be in trouble tonight. After just one hour she is already turned the wrong way. This reminds me of Tommy Boy a little, but instead of "fat guy in a little coat" - it is "little girl in a big bed". (OK I know Janel will laugh at that - you others just try with all your might to withstand the urge to make fun of my bad joke.) I am sure I will have more to post about after tonight is over.

Leaves and Lumberjack

This weekend was full of leaves, leaves, leaves. We were gone if Florida for a while and came back to a yard full of leaves. Since we live on 2.6 acres, full of trees - we had a lot of leaves to move this weekend. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the leaves but between me and you - I think Blake had the most fun. We also got some more fire wood chopped for our fireplace.We still have a lot of leaves left to rake -- all these need to fall off and this is only one tree.Ethan would get his car and drive as fast as he could and let the leaves stop him. What a blast for a 3 year old.
Where's Waldo?

Florida Trip

The end of October we went to Florida for the United Convention. Jennifer, Blake's sister, watched the kids while we went out in style at the convention in Hollywood, FL. Jennifer did such a great job taking care of the kids - if you want to see any pictures of that use the link on my blog to her blog. After the convention we stayed another 5 days in Florida. Here are some pictures of the kids swimming -- they loved it. This was the first time that Ella actually ventured off on her own. This whole summer she had to hold onto someone - but she now has a whole new confidence.

Ethan loves jumping into the pool and making big splashes.Although Ella has a new confidence in the water - she still lacks a little confidence when it comes to jumping in - Even when Daddy is right there.

FIRE

Our newest addition.

Fall - God's Beauty

Every fall I am reminded of how beautiful God made our world. He has blessed us so much even with the very details of season change. This just demonstrates the very essence of God. He is a God of beauty, a God of love, a God of forgiveness, a God of kindness, and the list just goes on. Here are a few pictures that I took that capture God's beauty. Also are some pictures of my blessings specific blessings from God. It still amazes me that God has entrusted me with these two beautiful and impressionable people.

The GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

So my GOOD friend Beth (who is a faithful blogger) mentioned to me last night that my kids are just so GOOD and so loving to each other. So Beth this is for you. As most would agree - it is easier to go get your camera when the kids are being good or having fun. It is not on the top of my list to grab the camera when they are BAD fighting. "OH wait guys keep fighting while I get my camera". That just does not seem quit right. So to prove to Beth that my job is not all peaches and roses here is a picture of the UGLY. Something that happened less than 24 hours after Beth and I had this conversation. You can make your own conclusion of what happened but it has something to do with the kids fighting and Ethan getting a little out of hand - therefore producing many tears from my already emotional little girl. Beth like I said -- this is for you.

Survey: Toddler vs. Newborn

Who do you think is easier to manage: a toddler or a newborn?
Things to keep in mind:
~There is a difference btwn individual newborns...case in point, Ethan was a lot more difficult as a newborn than Ella was (same goes for toddlers).
~Things that are easy to manage with toddlers are harder with newborns (sleep) and vice versa (independence).
~Newborn phase really only lasts about 4 months, toddlerhood lasts about a year/year and a half.
~Toddlers can verbally communicate their wants (although it may not be what YOU want), whereas newborns use crying as their primary method of communicating (eventhough it seems toddlers only have tantrums and whining as their means to communicate).
~Toddlers throw food when they are mad but newborns spit up food all over you.

I saw this post on another blog and wanted to hear you opinion. I sure have one.

Because....

This is what we did all summer and now that it is getting to cold to be outside so much we need to find more inside activities to keep my kids busy.

Play-Doh continues to amaze me. We pulled out some Play-Doh that Aunt Debbie bought the kids this summer (I put it away until now so that it would be new when it got cold outside). They played with this stuff for about 4 hours. Now that is truly amazing. I am open for any comments on any activities on how to keep the kids busy this winter.