Thursday, January 31, 2008

Pictures of Ethan and Ella

Here are our lates prof. pics. of Ethan and Ella. My friend Vicki took the pictures and I think she did a fabulous job. We have a whole CD of the pictures she took. Here are just a few.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Make a Craft Monday

So I have decided to post a kids craft every Monday. I am doing this to encourage me to keep my mind creative when playing with the kids, and to share with all of you (most of you are moms of young kids). So here is it Homemade Play Dough.

Not only do kids love play dough but they love to help make it. Ethan loves mushing it all together to make the consistency right. I have made more than a few batches of play dough for the kids but this recipe is by far the easiest and the consistency of the dough is great (creating hours of creative play). One more great thing is that you know exactly what is in it, in case you have a child like Ella - who likes to sneak a bit when I am not looking. Yes I know you are saying "gross".
Ingredients:
2 + cups of white flour
1/2 cup of salt
1 cup of hot water
1 teaspoon of cooking oil (optional)
Mix flour and salt together then slowly add water and oil (I used only 1/2 teaspoon of oil) Add more flour as needed. Add food coloring if you want or just leave it white. Store in air tight containers.
If you have a craft idea for me just email me and I will get it posted but make sure it is cheep and easy.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Another year!!

So I have now kept this blog up for a year. GO ME! I am pretty proud of myself since when I started it, Melissa had to pull my arm to make me do it. It is fun for me to look back at all the fun times we have had (and all the black eyes, and fat lips). Here are a few pictures from this week. This first one is of Ella and Ethan in their puppy sleeping bags and Blake in his Colts blanket.
Ella with her crew of puppies. She sure loves her puppies.Not sure what this face is but Ethan wanted me to add it to the blog.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Craft Crazy

Ethan and Ella had a lot of fun doing this craft. It was a wonderful Christmas present because it is something fun we can do during the cold winter without getting out. The strep bug hit us for the first time this week. Poor Ethan! So inside craft fun has been a huge success to help get Ethan's mind off of his throat hurting.

Pictures for Nonna

So little miss Ella let me put a bow in her hair today. She really does not like bows in her hair but she kept it in long enough for Daddy to get home to see how pretty she was. When Daddy did get home she said "look at me Daddy, see - I'm pretty". After Daddy got home she asked me to take a picture of her for Nonna (yes for you Nonna - I know your heart is breaking because you don't like being so far away from them). So here you have it -- Ella hamming it up for the camera for Nonna to see.
I think in this last picture Ella is actually starting to look like me - yes I know - maybe one of my blond kids will end up looking like me after all.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Christmas and Birthday Highlights 2007

Get ready for a lot of pictures. I am way to tired to write a long meaningful blog entry. Instead here we have a whole bunch of pictures. We had a great past few weeks. On Christmas Eve we went to church and celebrated the true meaning of Christmas - The birth of our beautiful Lord Jesus. After church we came home and made Christmas cookies with the kids, my mom and dad, and Aunt Debbie. The kids put 4 cookies out for Santa along with apple juice (because Ethan really thought Santa would like apple juice better than milk). We then put reindeer food out one the front step (we heard that the reindeer got hungry while they were waiting for Santa to eat his cookies). Christmas morning we opened gifts with the kids and then went to my parents house for Christmas dinner and more gifts. Then just when the kids thought all the fun was over - Nanny, Pop, and Uncle Isaac came to stay with us for a few days. The kids had so much fun. We celebrated Ella's b-day with the whole family. It was great but of course we missed the Chatraws' and Schafer's.