Christmas Pics

Breakfast at Salish Lodge with Grandma & Grandpa

Family Pic 1

Family Pic 2 - Christmas morning

17 months

Ellena is now 17 months old. She continues to be our little sweetheart. And she is very attached to her big brother. She loves to follow Evan around and will do anything that he tells her to do... which can sometimes lead to major mischief!

Her absolutely most favorite thing are the cats. Even in her grumpiest mood (usually after her nap), she will brighten up when she sees Piko and Poki. She pets them and tackles them for snuggles and is slowly learning how to be more gentle around them.

Best Friends

Evan's best friend from school is Colin. They are inseparable at school, pretty much to the point of distraction. And we try to get together outside of school about once a week. Very fun times for the boys.

Duck Hunt

Pops brought out his OG Nintendo (the system is 25 years old!) and introduced Ellena to Duck Hunt. How cute are they? Ellena always makes that stanky face when the camera comes out. That's her "smile".

Late Night Visitor

Last night Poki was acting strangely - she was looking out the sliding door and "hunting" something in the backyard. I assumed it was a neighborhood cat or raccoon. Did NOT expect to see this:

Mr. Possum was eating something - not quite sure what, but he did not care that we were all crowded around watching him.

Oh yeah, and we are quite pleased with the new camera's flash - this was in pitch darkness and the pics came out nice and sharp. Sharp as a possum's teeth... See first picture - very sharp teeth on display!!

Another MNF

Hope the Ravens can re-group during half time. Here are the fans:

If Evan would stop scowling, this would have been a pretty good pic.

Here's Ellena snuggling with her big brother. Pops seems perplexed about something.

Latest Pics

Ellena decided she would help herself to some caramel corn.

Here's Evan modeling his new shoes from Uncle Ring & Aunty Jane.

Here's Ellena rockin' the socks and sandals look that I despise. Just cause everyone does it, doesn't make it right.

Evan took apart his Ikea chair and used the legs to become a peg-legged pirate. What a goof!

O Christmas TreeS!

We went to pick out our Christmas tree this past weekend. We support a local church whose proceeds go towards building homes in Mexico, since last year's trip to the tree farm was met with little enthusiasm by all parties involved. :)

It was below freezing, so we quickly picked out our tree. Here are the kids at the tree lot.

Evan found a little tree for his room. This is the first year that we got a SECOND tree. Next year, I'm sure Ellena will want one for herself, too. It'll be a house full of trees!

Evan was given a $10 budget for ornaments - He was attracted to the colorful ones. His tree topper is a Santa puppet he made at a children's storytime.

Here's our tree - gotta round up the kids and do our annual family picture in front of the tree.

16 months

Ellena is now 16 months and a couple days old. I usually post a pic, but have been too busy to bust out the new camera. Instead, I'm gonna be lazy and just put up the video Pops posted today on YouTube. She is a little ray of sunshine and we cannot get enough of her smiles, giggles, rascal-ness, sweet snuggles, and hi-larious sense of humor.



Love the napkin swipe!

New Camera

We got a new camera yesterday cause the other one finally died. We need to read the instructions, but after just winging it, the pics are looking ok - but Grandma Madeline's camera is way more clear... Hopefully we can play with some settings and it'll look just as sharp. Or we totally made the wrong choice! We went with the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS - a friend has it and likes it, got good reviews, got a nice bundle from Amazon. But Grandma's Sony is putting out some nice looking pictures!

Canon:

Check out Ellena's mean-muggin'

Grandma's Sony - way more sharp

The Pigtails Continue

El's 1st Pigtails

Got Ellena some tiny rubber bands today and did her first pigtails. Very hard to do with a wiggly walker! Not sure if Pops is ready to see his little girl with a new 'do!

MNF!

Tonight is Monday Night Football and we couldn't be more excited! Here are the kids getting psyched for the game.

11/13 Evanisms & Ellena-Antics

* Evan likes to go through toy catalogs and pick things out for Christmas. Today he found something and this was our convo:

Evan - It's only five dollars!

Me - Are you sure? Does it have other numbers or just a 5?

Evan - It's a one and a five.

Me - Ok, then that's 15. That's more than 5.

Evan - Do you have 15 dollars?

Me - Nope.

Evan - Then we'll have to go on Ebay!

* We were getting breakfast ready and I asked Evan to come join us to eat. He came walking by and said, "Ok... now everybody, just calm down!"

* As I was carrying Ellena through the Costco parking lot, she burped. I told her, "Burp... Burp Snurp... Burp Snurp Boogie!" She giggled and stuck a finger in her nose. I told her, "Boogie... not booger!" She thought that was soo funny and we cracked up together.

New pics:

Evan's faux-hawk

"More Bob Than Mullet"

Today Ellena got her first haircut. It was a pretty pleasant experience and Pops is confident he will be able to give her future haircuts. ;) After the initial trim of the wispies, the hairdresser asked if we wanted to go up another half inch. We agreed to go with the "more bob than mullet" look. And just when we thought our little girl couldn't get any cuter, they put a little bow in her hair!

Before:

During:

After:

False Start... 1st Haircut

I decided it was time for Ellena to get her first haircut. I took some "before" pictures and we were off to the mall - heard great things about Dooz. But darn, they didn't have an opening til later in the day - too late to get back in time to pick Evan up from school. So we have an appointment for next week. In the mean time, here are some of her "before" pictures.

Ellena's First Trip to the Dentist!

Today was Ellena's first trip to the dentist! When I was scheduling Evan's 6 month check-up, I asked when they would like to see Ellena. They said when she has about 8 teeth in. Oops. Ellena has 16. I guess we're a little behind. We didn't take Evan til he was 2 1/2, so I didn't think we were in any big rush. Oh well.

The girl did soooo good! She was a little hesitant at first, with the new surroundings and strangers, but she was surprisingly calm during the cleaning and exam. What a brave girl!

Here she is with her loot - a new toothbrush and a rubber ducky dressed as a witch. :)

Update - Ellena was stoked to use her new toothbrush tonight at bedtime. So stoked, that she didn't want to give it up. She read her bedtime books with them. As I was putting Evan down, I hear her screaming in the next room. Turns out, she didn't want to give it up in her crib either. I will be sneaking in tonight to get it. She did earn it... And if it gets her to brush all day long, then I won't complain. But I don't want her sleeping with it. :)

Trick or Treating

The kids had a blast trick or treating tonight. After a tasty dinner at the Ale House up 228th, the kids got dressed in their costumes and we went around the neighborhood. My goodness, there were TONS of kids out!

Dangit, Evan, look at the camera!

Happy Halloween!

From the Dragon with the Rainbow Belly and Miss Kitty.

15 months... and a few days

When Ellena turns another month older, I usually put up a post of the new things that she's doing, along with a picture taken that day. Unfortunately, Ellena is not looking her best right now. Poor girl. She is getting over a cold and is a mucous-y mess. So I'll save the picture for another time. :)

She is walking more and more and we're so proud of her. She is also saying more words, including "mine" and "poke". She loves to snuggle up to Evan, which is so sweet to see.

Shots

Today we went in for Evan's 4 year and Ellena's 15 month wellness check ups. Evan hasn't had shots since he was 2, so I was a little apprehensive of how this would all go down. Yesterday I took Ellena in to check if her cold turned into an infection (it didn't!) and the on-call doctor said to basically give Evan the shot before he even knows what's going on. Obviously, this doctor doesn't know my Evan. My guy is the ultimate planner. He needs to know what is going to happen and when it's going to happen. So today I told him that they were going to get flu shots this afternoon and we'd get a special treat after because they were so brave (Evan chose Baskin Robbins).

So the whole day, Evan is looking forward to getting his flu shot (seriously). When we get to the doctor's office, he keeps asking to get his shot. Sorry dude, they save that part for last. We decided to do 2 of the 4 shots that he needs before starting Kindergarten, rather than save it all for next year. We also got the flu shot and they had H1N1 in, so we got that one too. So in all, Evan got 4 pokes. Ouch! He was so amazingly brave. The first one didn't phase him. The second one hurt, so he didn't want to do the last two. I talked him through it and they were over before he knew it. Phew! A few tears were shed, but nothing earth-shattering. What a trooper! Even the nurse was surprised with how well it all went. And Evan was quite tickled to choose FOUR stickers, when he usually only gets one. But I had to clarify with him that he got 4 because he got 4 pokes, and not because he was 4 years old. We have to go back in a month for the flu boosters - we'll see how anxious he'll be to get poked again... But if a treat is involved, I'm sure it'll help a little.

Ellena got 3 pokes and also did well. Such tough kids! They really enjoyed their rainbow sorbet, too!

Musings...

Now that Evan is 4, I've noticed a few changes in the little man.

* He became a little apprehensive about turning 4. He asked if he would still be going to the same school after his birthday.

* He was convinced he would have an enormous growth spurt on the eve of his birthday. He kept asking me how big he would be when he turned 4.

* After turning 4, he was convinced the growth spurt did happen and keeps telling me to look at how tall he is and how long his legs are.

* He was very proud to show me the hair that is growing on his legs and arms. :)

* And here's the big one - after his birthday, he calls me "Mom" and not "Momma". Wow. So grown up!

Cookalicious Club

Last night was Evan's birthday party and it was such a blast! We went to the Cookalicious Club and Evan and his friends had a cooking class - they made pizzas, cupcakes and smoothies, which they got to eat for dinner!

Pops worked hard all day smoking some pork shoulder, so while the kids had their meal, everyone else got treated to pulled pork sandwiches - yum yum! Evan is anxious to go back and take more cooking classes. We're so happy it was such a success! Thank you to everyone for making Evan's 4th birthday a special one!

The Pinata

We got Evan a pinata and both he and Ellena had some fun with it. Here they are filling it together. Teamwork!

Here is Evan before he took his first swing.

Here is Ellena enjoying the spoils.

And here's a video clip of the entire beat-down experience.