Haircut!

I went with my friend, Jeanne, last night and we got our haircut with Bridget. We've been going to Bridget together for a long time now but I just now got around to giving her my blogsite (bad Anna!). So hopefully, she'll become a faithful reader (Hi Bridge). I think I also forgot to mention that I linked my blog to Jeanne's blog (www.delhall.com) about her gorgeous little cutie pie, Natalie.

I just wanted to mention something about my haircut last night. Bridget said two little words one never wants to hear right after having cut a chunk of your hair. These would be "OH CRAP!" Don't worry, don't worry, she wasn't "Oh crap"ping because she had made a mistake on my hair but because she had cut her finger with her scissors--ouch!! Despite the cut finger, she managed push through the pain to finish the haircut. Now that's dedication. Bridge rules.

Extra Pix From the Birthday Party

For some reason, my family thought it was hilarious to dress Luke up in a dress that Ella got as a present. In some of them, he's also wearing a chef's hat and apron. Here are some of the cuter pix...

Picture Taking

I took the kids to get their pictures taken today. I hadn't ever gotten Luke's 1st birthday picture taken (I know, I know, bad Mommy) so we did that and had Ella's 3rd birhday picture taken. I also did a quick change of clothes so I could get a Christmas picture done. I did the Smiles by Wire this time so I'll be able to send my friends and family the link to see all the pictures in a few days. Some of them are cute, some of them are not so cute. Ella absolutely, positively, would not even consider smiling for 85% of the pictures AND for some reason she decided to scratch her cheeks so they are very red and irritated looking. In most of the pictures of her by herself, she looks like she's posing for a mugshot.

Luke, as usual, was a charming little fella smiling and laughing for the photographer but he wouldn't stand still long enough for her to get a picture. I think the ones I chose to buy were the best options so let's hope everyone likes them (If you don't, I don't really care at this point because I'm not going back for a re-take).

UNFORTUNATELY, they were running very behind where we got the pictures so we missed story hour today. Ella was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO disappointed and as a result, decided to boycott lunch. Well, she boycotted partially because she couldn't go to story hour and partially because we ran out of Dora the Explorer soup. Sigh. What's a mommy to do?

They Say It's Your Birthday

I liked this picture because Myles is using binoculars to look at Ella. He must be really near-sighted : )

It's hard to believe that she's three years old already. Ella had her birthday part with my family on Sunday. We had Grammie, Poppy, UJeff, ARobin, Myles, GG and Pawp over to our house to celebrate. At my mother's instance (ahem, MOM!), we decided earlier in the week that we would have Chinese for lunch that day. I had our order all written down and called the Chinese restaurant and who would have guessed that they were closed that day? Just my luck! We had to order pizza instead. I knew I never should've listened to my mother and order Chinese. Just one more reason to tune her OUT!

On Monday, we went to the pediatrician's to have Ella's 3rd birthday checkup. She weighs 28 1/2 pounds (25%) and is 36 1/2 inches tall (40%). As we always do, we completed a Denver assessment for Ella. Turns out this girl's got some skills. She has some skills all the way up to a 5 year old (the doctor was impressed with her use of verbs, sentence structure, and ability to write/draw). She just needs to turn these skills into something marketable so she can take care of her Mommy in a wonderful wing of her mansion when she grows up.

She Was the Dancing Queen...Young and Sweet

I said DANCE, Myles!
Don't you wanna dance? Say you wanna dance? Don't you wanna dance?
Dancing Queen

The Moment of Truth

The end

The beginning

I'm sure you're all wondering...well, did they do it? Was there any crazy flower girl/ring bearer mishaps? Was it a replay of when I was a flower girl with my cousin, Josh, and I all but yanked him down the aisle because he was too busy lollygagging? Nope. These two kids did it like pros. They played to the crowd when it was needed, and they focused on their job when that was needed, too. I may have to rent them out to other people to use in their weddings they were so good.

Does It Get Any Cuter Than This? I Think Not.

The top picture is Ella, Myles, Luke, and my cousin's baby, Zak. The bottom picture is, well, I think you know who these two are by now.

Daddy!

On our way upstairs after getting ready, we found Daddy in the stairwell who was more than happy to pause for a kiss from his little princess.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing, Baby

Aunt Robbie and Ella doin' the 'do

Could this girl get any more excited?

For some reason, I decided to punish myself by doing a little bit of post Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas shopping. That's right, folks, I got up at 4 AM so I could get to the store by 5 AM and shop. I didn't last long as I only made it to one store. I was back home and in bed by 6:30 AM. I went back to sleep for an hour or so until 8:00 when Ella came home to eat her McDonald's with Grammie and Poppy.

After breakfast, we started slowly getting ready to go to my cousin's (Brant) wedding. We had to get to the church in Grove City by 2:15 for pictures. We ended up getting there by 1:45 because I wanted to get Ella dressed and do her hair there before the pix. She loved putting on the pretty dress and the necklace from Monica (the bride) and the fancy party shoes. Her basket of flowers to carry was gorgeous (see also above photo). Myles was the ring bearer (see also the photo above with the shy looking little guy in the background). I curled Ella's hair but am hair challenged beyond that so I gave Aunt Robbie the go ahead to work her magic (See also above photo of them Doin' the 'Do). After they were all done there, it was time to go to get some pix taken upstairs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Luke decided he couldn't wait for Turkey Day so he decided to take Jane's bag of cat food and dump it on the floor. He thought it was hilarious watching me try to quickly get the food back in the bag before he decided to try and eat it. Grrrrrrrrr.

Thanksgiving Day was good. Aunt Annie and Uncle Kevin made the big trek from NY for the occasion. As always, Ella enjoyed hanging out with them and made them pay all kinds of attention to her. We ate lunch with Aron's family and went to my parent's house after that. Overall, much good food, many good times. Woooooooooo...

Ella decided that she wanted to try to spend the night at Grammie and Poppy's house. She hasn't done this for a long time (probably since Aron and I went to NY 2 years ago). She was very excited. Poppy decided he would get more sleep if he went to my old room (Ella technically kicked him out by telling him that it was "Girl Time" for her and Grammie and that he needed to go somewhere else but we let him think it was his own decision). I hear that they ate popcorn and watched some Flintstones cartoons in Grammie's bed. They picked up McDonald's for breakfast on their way into town to drop Ella off. Tasty.

Wedding

I know, I know. Today is the day for the greatly anticipated wedding photos for my friends. I promise I will try to get them up this afternoon. Ella has her 3 yr check up and I have to do other assorted errand type things this morning but I will do it later.

The Big Talker Who Has an Appetite For Destruction

I know Tori will appreciate the GnR reference in the title.

Luke's really coming along with his emerging skills. He is starting to say all kinds of new words and even stringing together a few. I went into his room this morning and started tickling him as he was standing in his crib. As I picked him up, I said "I tickled you, you little cutie pie. Gotcha!" He giggled and said "Gah-uh." He said it again a few times after that.

He has also started to laugh differently. It really sounds like an old Woody Woodpecker cartoon. It's very stacatto and huhhuhhuh sounding. Its very hard not to laugh when he's doing it.

The appetite is also increasing. Today for lunch he had 1/2 a toasted cheese sandwich, a whole hot dog (I know, I know, hot dogs are bad for him AND they're a choking hazard for such a small kid but cut me some slack), some noodles, a whole container of yogurt, and some cheerios. Seriously, he eats more than I do. There must have been something in the air, though, because Ella was a Starvin Marvin, too. She had a hot dog, 1 1/2 yogurts, 2 bowls of cheerios and some noodles PLUS she had just eaten at story hour. I think I'm going to need a 2nd job so I can pay for their food.

Now that's tasty!

Ella went to Grammie's story hour today. They celebrated Thanksgiving. I was hoping for Pilgrim and Indian costumes but there weren't (darn!). However, they did enjoy a Thanksgiving feast complete with turkey (turkey lunch meat--a fave of Ella's), popcorn (also a fave), and ICE CREAM. I don't think that the pilgrims had ice cream at their Thanksgiving nor did they have the strawberry syrup to put on top but that's neither here nor there (hey, I just used "nor" two times in one sentence. I can't say I've ever done that before. I hope I used it properly both times).

The kids also sang Happy Birthday to Ella because it's her birthday on Sunday. The big 0-3. She was very excited to have everyone sing to her.

She also made an enormous turkey. Our camera's thinking about dying so I didn't get a picture of it yet. I'll have to see if I can get it to work using my magical skills.

New Format, Bayyyyybeeee

I hope everyone enjoys the new look and the new link I added to my friend's blog.

Belated Halloween Pix

I didn't get around to putting in pictures of Luke's Halloween costume--I'm such a bad Mom. I will now flood you with a flurry of pix of my little Parrot.

They're Just So Darn Cute

How in the world did I end up with the cutest kids ever? It's a mystery to all, my friend.

I think Luke's finally hitting the stage where he has the skills to interact and wants to play. He loves taking his little Gator tractor and running it around the living room floor while he's making little engine noises. Aron has taught him to put the Gator in the barn when he's done playing with it. How cute (and delightfully organized of him).

The kids have really started to play with each other lately. They love to share snacks with each other and generally really get along. Ella likes to give him bites of her pudding or sips of her milk. I'm a little worried because I'm sure the day will come that they're smacking each other and pushing the other one away from a toy but that doesn't stop me from sitting back and enjoying the peaceful co-existence now.

Score One For Miss Lori--Awwwww Yeah, Baby

We finally made it back to story hour. Today's letter of the day was I. Miss Lori read the kids tons of books with the letter I in it and showed them tons of things that started with the letter I. All of these things were fine and dandy with the kids but she had one heck of a closer. She let them make ice cream. Awwwwwwwwwww yeah, Baby. Nothing beats the old double ziploc bag method of making your own vanilla yumminess. That Miss Lori. She's such a rock star to my kid.

Getting Back in the Saddle

Finally, after almost a week of sickness, we're getting back on track. I had my first ever trip to the ER. The unfortunate side of living in a small town is that everyone knows you and you know everyone else. The nurse that checked me in to the ER was the mom of a friend of mine in high school. Oh well. The point is that I survived but I didn't get out of the ER in time to vote. Curse you, 7:30 poll closing time!

The kids got a little bit sick throughout this week but they survived, too. Luke had a little bit of a fever a couple times and Ella threw up a couple times but didn't get sick enough to really slow either of them down.

We missed story hour yesterday because I just didn't quite feel up to it. I got a burst of energy in the late afternoon but then lost it again by bedtime. Double curse you flu virus!

The House of Sickness and Fog

We've been a house of fevers, vomiting, flus, and all sorts of other yucky yuckiness for the last few days. Hopefully, we'll all be back up and running by Thursday for the Story Hour Circuit.

My Kid's Tougher Than Your Kid

My kid's tough as nails. I think she could out-tough a guy in one of those Tough Man Contests (or whatever they're called). I think she watches football and wishes they wouldn't be quite so wimpy and have to wear all that padding. You might be wondering why I'm saying this. Here, let me entertain and enlighten you with a little story.

Ella had to see Dr. Brown yesterday. She enjoys seeing her mostly because she knows it means a sticker or some awesome something or other. Anyhoos, Dr. Brown decided that she wanted Ella to do a urine sample and a blood draw. We had to do the blood draw at the hospital across the street from her office. As we went over to the hospital, I told her all about how there would be someone there who would take a little bit of blood from her arm and about how she would have to be a big, brave girl for me. She said she could do this. So, we registered then we went downstairs to the lab. We waited our turn and then went in the room and said hi to the phlebotomists (the nice ladies who take your blood). I wasn't able to get her to do a urine sample at the doctor's so after we gave the phlebotomists our paperwork, we trotted off to do the sample in the bathroom. We tried to go back in the room but noticed that a man was in the room getting his blood work done since we had gone potty. She watched him do his thing and I told Ella "See? He's getting his done, too." She leaned over to me very solemnly and said "He's being very brave, Mommy." I told her I thought he was brave, too.

It soon was our turn to get it done. Ella went right into the room and crawled up into the chair. She sat right down , rolled her sleeves up, put her arms out with wrists up and said "Ready." She then assumed the thousand yard stare. I asked her if she wanted to sit on my lap or hold my hand. She shook her head and said "No, thank you, Mommy." The phlebotomists looked at her and shook their heads. We were all thinking that this bravado wouldn't last long. They put the needle in her arm and she never moved a muscle. Didn't so much as bat an eye. She sat still the entire time they took the blood. When she was done, they asked if she wanted a sticker. She said "Yes, please." She picked out a sticker, pulled the paper backing off, and then placed it on my hand while telling me "You were very brave, Mommy. Good job."

My kid eats kids like yours for breakfast! Yea!