Four Peas-in-a-Pod

Ellie's first dance recital

2010-06-29T20:46:00.003-04:00

Ellie had her first dance recital last weekend, which was fabulous! They danced to The Trolley Song by Judy Garland. We were worried that she would be too scared to dance on stage, but she had no fears and came out with a big smile on her face! Afterwards we went to Friendly's to celebrate with dinner and ice cream :-)

(I know that you aren't able to see the video in the post below from the dress rehearsal due to copyright issues and unfortunately we won't be able to post one here.)

Audrey's birthday party

2010-06-29T20:28:00.003-04:00

Audrey celebrated her second birthday with a luau party in the park this weekend. Even though the party was from 10-12, it was HOT! Luckily, kids don't really care about the heat and they still managed to have a good time :-) We were so lucky that lots of friends and family were able to join us in celebrating this big event for sweet Audrey!

The girls enjoying some watermelon in their personalized luau outfits

Our hula girl!

Audrey blowing bubbles

Eating lots of cake!

Audrey with her favorite birthday present - a creepy baby who coos, talks, and breathes. She LOVES it and we think that the baby could be in a horror movie! :-)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Audrey!

2010-06-24T16:39:00.004-04:00

Two years ago today, our sweet Audrey joined our family. Today she is a fiesty, assertive toddler with a sweetness that can't be matched! Today she went to school after one of her current favorite breakfasts (blueberries, dried figs, and cheerios) and we joined her there later for a birthday party with her friends. Afterwards we went to the toy store so Ellie could pick out a gift for Audrey and they're playing with that gift (a toy cash register) now! Tonight we'll have Audrey's favorite dinner (burger and fries with LOTS of ketchup) and birthday cupcakes for dessert. This weekend we'll celebrate her birthday with family and friends at her luau themed party in the park. Happy birthday to our beautiful girl!

Pictures from this morning in her birthday cupcake dress

"Audrey, how old are you?" "Five!"

Birthday party at school

Ellie's dance recital practice

2010-06-22T18:35:00.003-04:00

This is a very busy week for us! We picked up our new car tonight, Audrey's second birthday is Thursday, Ellie's first dance recital is Saturday night, and Audrey's birthday party is Sunday morning. (Not to mention that I got a new job!) Phew, I'm tired just thinking about all the running around we'll be doing! Last night was Ellie's last dance class and we filmed her class practicing their recital piece and the finale. I've posted them below in that order. Sorry they're both from the back. We'll tape the dress rehearsal tomorrow night so will finally have a video from the front and will post that, too!

Summertime

2010-06-06T16:23:00.007-04:00

Here are a few pictures from our busy month of May!

Trip to California....

BBQ on Memorial Day weekend

Ellie's first fish on their first fishing trip!

Cooling down with watermelon and friends

Memorial Day

First time in the pool this summer!

Black and white

2010-04-25T15:22:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-04-18T15:26:00.007-04:00

For my birthday, we all spent the weekend in Philadelphia and had such a fun time! We spent most of Saturday at the zoo and then went back again this morning to see the exhibits that we missed yesterday (we're members so free entrance and free parking - yay!). The girls were great and enjoyed staying in the hotel almost as much as the zoo :-)

Lori and her long lost cousin

with whom Ellie came face to face!

The girls' both loved the Children's Zoo, especially this huge bunny village!

Inside a tractor wheel

Lunch :-)

Audrey is doing her imitation of an elephant - the index finger in front of her nose is supposed to be the trunk!

Enjoying mini burgers and ketchup at Saturday night's birthday dinner!

Sunday morning and back at the zoo!

There were special events at the zoo this morning for Autism Awareness Day. Ellie got to meet lots of different characters, of which Audrey was terrified. She kept calling Abby, but when we got close, she freaked out!

We had such a fun weekend and are completely exhausted! It was so nice to get away though. We hope to go back again soon and see more of the sights of Philadelphia!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T10:13:00.003-04:00

ABCs

2010-03-23T17:55:00.001-04:00

Here is a short video of Audrey being goofy. At the end, you can hear her version of the alphabet, which is just too darn cute! Pretty good for a 20 month old :-)

First day of spring

2010-03-21T09:24:00.005-04:00

Yay for spring! It was beautiful here yesterday so we celebrated the first day of spring by spending most of the day outside. We took the girls for their free Italian ice at Rita's (like we do every year on the first day of spring) and then went to a great park nearby. We finished the day off at Ellie's BFF's house and had a great time hanging out with friends. More of the same today :-)

Audrey at the park

Playing on the slide. Audrey was fearless at the park and would follow Ellie anywhere!

Audrey getting a ride in the Jeep

BFF was kind enough to let Audrey drive it, which she loved!

On the swings

JOY!!

Lucky charms

2010-03-21T09:14:00.003-04:00

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day!

Everyone loves an Irish girl!

Kiss me, I'm Irish!

Haircut

2010-03-06T20:32:00.003-05:00

Before today Ellie had only had two haircuts in her life. She was so bald as a baby that we didn't even know for certain that she had curly hair until she was about 2 1/2! Her hair has always been thin and she has recently started telling us that it bothered her because it was always getting in her face. We made an appointment for a haircut and when she said she wanted it short, she wasn't kidding! She knew what would look good and we love her new style. The only thing we don't like is that she looks like such a big girl!

BEFORE

AFTER

The little things

2010-02-26T15:14:00.005-05:00

Sometimes it's the little things that remind me of how lucky we are. Before Audrey was born, we (meaning Boppa) installed new cabinets in our kitchen. We left a space under part of the new countertop with just enough room for two stools. We envisioned Ellie and hopefully a sibling eating there together. Today they did just that. Now that Audrey is old enough, they enjoyed their afternoon snack of homemade cinnamon rolls that they helped make in that very spot. Enought to warm a mama's heart!

Pouty

2010-02-21T14:29:00.003-05:00

Ellie has taken lately to pouting when she is mad or gets into trouble. This morning she was doing something that we asked her not to do (more than once). When Lori calmly asked her to stop, she went into the kitchen to pout. This is what we found.....

Audrey took it upon herself to get rid of Ellie's bad mood....

We can't wait for life with two teenage girls!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T18:04:00.004-05:00

Hugs and kisses from our two Valentines!

Snowpocalypse!

2010-02-11T07:29:00.004-05:00

As you've all seen in the news (if you're not in the middle of it yourself), we have been slammed by snow this week! Over the weekend we got about 12 inches and then during the last 36 hours we were hit by somewhere between 18 and 24 inches. It is crazy but absolutely beautiful. The girls have enjoyed watching it fall from the warmth of our living room with a fire in the fireplace. Lori went to work for a few hours yesterday while I stayed home with the girls and today we have a delayed opening until noon. We are thankful for the chance to have the sidewalks and roads cleared and traveled before we journey out with the girls!

Our front door on Wednesday morning (with two pajama clad girls watching the snow)

The sidewalk leading to our house on Wednesday morning

The tree in our front yard on Wednesday afternoon

Having a one-sided snowball fight with the girls through the front door :-)

A large branch on the tree in our front yard cracked Wednesday evening due to the weight of the snow. The end of the branch was (and still is) hanging down to the sidewalk. We had to dig a little walkway around it in the snow because the sidewalk is completely blocked.

Shoveling our front steps again Wednesday night!

The view from our front door on Wednesday night.

Our front yard Wednesday night

One last picture of our front steps before bedtime!

Bowling

2010-02-07T13:57:00.004-05:00

Ellie and Audrey went to a bumper bowling party last weekend and had a blast! The party was for the newly turned 4 year old son of one of my dearest friends. Ellie loved bowling and Audrey enjoyed just watching and playing around on the (completely clean I'm sure) floor. After lunch and birthday cake, the kids got tokens for the arcade games. You'll see in the last pictures which game was a hit with the kids!

Karate Kid

2010-01-31T18:48:00.000-05:00

Na na na na

2010-01-25T20:07:00.004-05:00

Audrey loves to sing and we've been trying to capture it on video for months. Like most kids, she clams up the second she sees the camera. Today though she was singing in the car and I was able to film it from the front seat without her noticing. This is her favorite song to sing and we have heard it multiple times a day for the past 3 months! A complete lryic starts at second 11....

Maybe someday I'll capture her singing "Doddy No No No", also known as Frosty the Snowman.

Dress Up

2010-01-14T18:07:00.002-05:00

For curious minds, Ellie is wearing a hippie Halloween costume with a pink tutu and Fancy Nancy sunglasses. Audrey is wearing her normal clothes with a Fancy Nancy tutu and sunglasses. The dress up box is another great idea for a cold day inside!

Gingerbread House

2010-01-09T16:57:00.003-05:00

Mimi got all the needed supplies for gingerbread houses at Christmas, but we got so busy that they didn't get made. We're at Mimi and Boppa's house for the weekend so Ellie made one this afternoon. Another very fun winter indoor activity!

Audrey was not such a fan of the marshmallow chimney!

Ellie's finished house, complete with front door, chimney, and holly bushes.

Audrey decorated some gingerbread cookies with rice milk icing (surprisingly not so bad!). Eventually she figured out that she could just eat the icing with the spoon.

Winter fun at home

2010-01-08T13:29:00.005-05:00

The past few weeks have been very cold by our regional standards and we've been spending more time than usual at home. It has been a challenge coming up with ways to entertain the girls for hours on end inside! Today I resorted to letting them play in the bath for an hour before lunch! Here are some of our other activities....

Audrey and Ellie laying on the couch watching The Sound of Music on Lori's laptop.

They love the two-side easel from Grandpa. Audrey uses the chalk side while Ellie uses the dry erase side. Audrey is of course strictly forbidden from using the dry erase markers!

Ellie playing games on the Sesame Street web site. She feels so grown up being sllowed to use the computer!

Hope you're staying warm wherever you are!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T19:14:00.003-05:00

Wishing you a 2010 filled with peace, joy, and love!

We're welcoming the new year in in style....

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T14:42:00.010-05:00

We wish you all a very merry Christmas! We enjoyed an amazing morning at home with the girls yesterday where they were thrilled to find all that Santa had delivered. Ellie had a couple big gifts this year (a bike with training wheels, roller skates) and her favorites were the piggy bank from Santa and a microwave from Aunt Barbie. They also loved their joint gifts - an art easel from Grandpa and a toddler basketball hoop from us. Audrey was much more into the excitement and mess than the actual presents of course! After opening and playing with their new toys, we drove up to Mimi and Boppa's house to see the girls' grandparents, great-grandma Olive, Aunt TT, Uncle Ty, and baby Addie. Round two of presents commenced and we've been relaxing here since then. We hope you all are enjoying your time with family and friends and we wish we could see more of you this holiday season!

Ellie quickly figured out how to ride her new bike

Opening presents!

Ellie learned how to roller skate in our kitchen :-)

At Mimi and Boppa's house, Ellie got a "laptop"!

Audrey's favorite gifts involved her babies - a highchair...

and a bottle set!

Ellie's Fancy Nancy skirt and shoes

Audrey, Addie, and Ellie - Santa's newest reindeers

The big cousins help feed the littlest cousin her bottle

Ellie and Audrey with great-grandma Olive

Audrey helping Mimi make dinner

Three little cousins

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T21:38:00.007-05:00

We have had such a wonderful few weeks leading up to Christmas! The girls have really enjoyed all the sights and sounds of this holiday season. Audrey has especially enjoyed the lights! The past week has seemed full of preparations for tomorrow. They had their Christmas party at school yesterday and Ellie's best friend came over this morning to decorate cookies with us. As we do with every holiday, we dressed the girls up in festive garb for a week or so beforehand and tried to take a picture every morning.

We wish you and yours a very merry Christmas! At our house, the stage is set downstairs for a magical morning!

Ready for Santa!

Winter fun!

2009-12-20T12:25:00.006-05:00

We woke to a winter wonderland this morning and two very excited little girls! We have at least 12 inches of snow on the ground and it is cold. Although last night was too cold for them to play in the snow, I took Ellie out this morning for some fun. Audrey watched from inside with Lori and we had a good time throwing snowballs at the door!

City Kids

2009-12-19T16:49:00.004-05:00

We are in the midst of our first big snowstorm of the season and are anticipating up to 12 inches of snow by tomorrow morning. Instead of letting the kids go out to play, here's what they're up to....

Why go outside in the freezing cold when you can sit inside with the fire, see outside, and still play with the snow?!?!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

2009-12-18T09:02:00.005-05:00

Before Christmas, we thought we'd catch up on pictures from Thanksgiving :-) We spent the four day weekend with Mimi and Boppa. We delayed our actual Thanksgiving celebration to Friday when Aunt TT, Uncle Ty, and baby Addie (which is really how she is referred to in our house) joined us. The girls had a fabulous time playing with Addie and couldn't keep their eyes or hands off her!

Addie fresh from a bath in the kitchen sink!

Ellie and Audrey love their baby cousin

Ellie and Addie

Audrey and the refried beans....

Mimi and Boppa have their hands full with three granddaughters four and under!

Ellie's 4th Birthday Party

2009-12-13T07:50:00.005-05:00

Ellie had her 4th birthday party at Build-A-Bear two days after we returned from Disney and it was fantastic! The kids had a great time and the parents appreciated not having to clean up before or after the party :-) The party lasted a little over an hour and then we had cupcakes and opened presents.

Picking out their bear "skins"

Ellie hugging her newly named Blueberry

Blueberry's hearts

Ellie watching Blueberry get stuffed!

Giving Blueberry a first "bath"

Looking at all the bear clothes to choose from....

And Ellie of course chose the wedding dress :-)

The kids with their bears

Having cupcakes after the party

Happy 4th Birthday, Ellie!

Pajama party

2009-12-13T07:41:00.003-05:00

Twice a year, the girls' school hosts a "Parents' Night Out". They always do one in December so parents can catch up on holiday preparations. This Friday night we dropped the girls off at school in their PJs and they were excited! School provides them with Happy Meals for dinner (Ellie's second meal from McD's) and then they watch movies. Lori and I enjoyed a rare happy hour with friends from work and then had dinner at our favorite Thai place. Because the girls were so excited about the pajama party at school (which is how we sold it to them!), I let them wear their Christmas PJs all day, including a trip to Target :-)

Disney World (part two)

2009-11-25T18:49:00.006-05:00

Here are photos from our second day at Magic Kingdom. Another fun-filled, amazing day! For pictures of the first day, click here.

The family in front of Cinderella's castle

We had lunch at Crystal Palace and met Winnie the Pooh and his gang. Eeyore was the first to approach our table and Ellie was terrified! It got better as the lunch went on and by the time Piglet came by, she was able to take the picture by herself.

Our little pirates after riding Pirates of the Caribbean.

Magic Carpet Ride

On Main Street with a suffragist

One the tea cups once again!

Meeting Mickey and Minnie!

Our favorite photo of the week

So sad to leave but too tired to stay

Disney World (part one)

2009-11-21T09:12:00.012-05:00

We are home from our week in Orlando and had the most fabulous time! I was invited to give a talk at a conference in Tampa so we turned it into a week long vacation once we realized how close the conference was to Disney World. We spent two days at Magic Kingdom, one day at Downtown Disney, and two days playing at our resort (including a visit by Lori's brother and sister-in-law!).

There are really no words to describe how much fun we all had on this trip. This was our first family vacation and the best part was watching the joy on the girls faces as they discovered this whole new world. Ellie is usually a pretty timid kid, but she let go of all her inhibitions and had a great time. We were worried that Audrey wouldn't have much fun since she is so little, but she really enjoyed most of what we did (she would point at things and say "Wow!"). We cannot wait to go back!

These are pictures from our first day at Magic Kingdom...

Waiting for Magic Kingdom to open

Watching the opening ceremonies

Dumbo, one of Ellie's favorite rides!

Ellie and Audrey ready for the 3D movie!

Ellie meeting Ariel (the Little Mermaid). This was one of the most special moments because she was the first character that Ellie met. We were worried that she would be scared, but she ran up to her with her arms outstretched!

We had lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table where we met all of the princesses. Ellie loved it and it was definitely one of her favorite things about Disney.

Riding the Tea Cups!

Our first ears!

Trying to cool down while waiting for the afternoon parade to begin.

Audrey took a much needed nap during the parade.

In front of the castle

After Magic Kingdom, we went back to the resort and went swimming. This is Ellie in front of the biggest of the six pools! There was a sunken ship to play in and lots of fun slides.

Ahhhh-geee

2009-11-12T18:31:00.002-05:00

Tonight with a little prompting, Audrey said her name for the first time!

Birthday Eve

2009-11-12T17:41:00.003-05:00

We cannot believe that tomorrow our little baby is turning four! This afternoon she had a party at school. She chose Fancy Nancy as the theme and requested blue cupcakes and grape juice. There is a short video at the end of her classmates singing Happy Birthday. Tomorrow we will celebrate her birthday by going to Friendly's for lunch and having Mimi and Boppa over for a taco dinner. She hasn't decided yet what to do between the meals!

Audrey video

2009-11-10T21:26:00.003-05:00

At 16 months, Audrey is learning new things constantly. Her latest interests are in feeding herself and talking (today she was pointing to and saying "fish"). This is a short video of her at dinner one night just being her cute rapidly developing self! And as a note, Albert is her buddy at school and we love the way she says her name.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T18:31:00.005-05:00

The girls had such a fun Halloween! Mimi and Boppa joined us for our two rounds of trick-or-treating. Despite the rainy weather, we were able to go out in our neighborhood and then meet up with the friends we've been trick-or-treating with since Ellie's first Halloween. Ellie had a great time, although she was scared of some of the decorations and of the kids wearing masks. Audrey had no idea what was going on, but she quickly learned how to go up to the house with her pumpkin and then say "bye bye" when she was done. She clutched her pumpkin all night and wouldn't let anyone hold it, no matter how heavy it must have been.

Halloween outfit #5

The girls in their Halloween costumes - Dr. Ellie and Little Chicken Audrey

The gang ready to go get some candy!

Trick-or-treating

Feeding Ellie her first pixie-stick :-)

"I do not care that I cannot eat this candy. You can't have it!"

Pre-Halloween Festivities

2009-10-30T18:10:00.007-04:00

We have been in the Halloween spirit all week! The girls have each worn a special Halloween shirt to school each day this week and Ellie has even had a different Halloween tattoo every day. Today was their parade and party at school, which they loved. We can't wait until tomorrow!

Halloween outfit #1

Halloween outfit #2

Halloween #3

Halloween outfit #4

Pictures at home before the the school parade

School parade

Trick-or-treating and pumpkin picking on the playground

School party in the afternoon

Halloween preparations

2009-10-25T17:13:00.005-04:00

We are ready for Halloween around here! This weekend we carved our pumpkin, went to a fall festival at a local farm, and even had fun at a Halloween party without kids! The girls have their costumes ready for next weekend and their five Halloween outfits laid out for the week!

Ellie scooping out the pumpkin "guts". We baked the seeds and they were yummy!

Our finished product, designed by Ellie with help from Boppa

Cleopatra and her cat heading out to a Halloween party :-)

Ellie on the hayride at the farm

Audrey looking cool on the hayride

Mommy and her girls

Ellie getting her face painted (a pumpkin on one side and a ghost on the other)

Ellie loves riding horses!

The two cutest girls we know!

The apple farm of sisterly love

2009-10-10T18:45:00.004-04:00

Apple picking

2009-10-04T20:22:00.005-04:00

We had wonderful weather today so we welcomed in Autumn by going apple picking this morning. The girls had a fun time, although I don't think Audrey understood what was going on; she kept picking up the rotten apples from the ground and putting them in her bag. One of us would then throw them back on the ground when she wasn't looking! We ended up with plenty of apples and now have apple cake, applesauce, and apple cider.

Ellie also had another treat today - her first doughnut! I have always told her when (if) she is no longer allergic to egg, the first thing we'll do is stop and get a doughnut. Today the farm stand had cider doughnuts with NO EGG!!! She loved very bite of them!

Last summer hurrah

2009-09-26T18:39:00.007-04:00

We took advantage of the reasonably nice weather to head to the boardwalk one last time this year! September is our favorite time of year at the beach - smaller crowds, cooler weather, and free beach access. The girls both had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave!

Ellie playing in the sand

Audrey hated the sand and insisted on sitting in my lap the entire time so that the sand touched no part of her body!

Audrey went on her very first ride! It was so sweet - Ellie kept her arm around her the entire time.

Then Ellie went on a few rides by herself (enough of baby sister tagging along!)

Ellie was so proud of herself on this ride. She and I went on it together last time because she was afraid to use the handle and make it go up. This time she went alone and made her elephant go up and down the entire time. She kept yelling it to us whenever she went around. We told her that now she's ready for Disneyworld!

Ellie played her first game of Skeeball today!

We're sad to see summer go, but we've made the most of this one! Now on to apple picking, pumpkin picking, and Halloween!

Too much excitement!

2009-09-20T20:12:00.005-04:00

Well, we had quite an exciting weekend! I had plans to meet two friends at Carlo's Bakery (of Cake Boss fame) on Saturday afternoon. I brought Ellie with me and on our way there we got into an accident. We were turning left and a car hit the front of our car on the passenger side. Luckily, the accident was right in front of a fire department and across the street from the mayor's home so we had help instantaneously! I didn't even have Ellie out of her car seat before three firemen were there and the police and EMT were there in less than two minutes. We were also fortunate that we were almost at my friend's house so she met us at the scene within a few minutes. When she got there, she informed me that the kind woman who came and sat with us on the curb was the mayor!

Luckily, Ellie and I were not seriously hurt. We were both very shaken up and I was terrified that Ellie was hurt and not telling us because she was scared they would give her a shot (that's all she kept asking). At the advice of the EMT, we spent a few hours in the nearby emergency room getting checked out (while Lori anxiously paced the floors back at home!). Today we're both sore and stiff but mostly tired.

Our car is repairable but not drivable. While we were in the ER, my friends picked up the stuff from our car and took pictures for us. The car will be towed tomorrow from a lot to a body shop, where we were told it will take at least two weeks to repair. My friend generously gave us her car to use this weekend and tomorrow morning we'll pick up our rental car. We are thankful for our friends and insurance coverage!

So after our visit to the emergency room, we weren't going to let an accident ruin our weekend and still made it to Carlo's! If you haven't seen the show, the cakes that they make are amazing. We all ordered samples of their pastries and they were delicious. We tried the creme puffs, napoleons, lobster claws, canoli, and chocolate covered strawberries - all were great! We won't be heading to that area for a while, but we'll stop there again next time.

Ellie and I outside of Carlo's - the line was out the door!

Ellie excited to see all the yummy treats

My friend ordering her goodies

Car accidents and emergency room visits - BAD!

Chocolate covered strawberries - GOOD!

Labor Day BBQ

2009-09-07T08:50:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we basked in the cooler September weather with some friends at a BBQ! We had a wonderful afternoon with two of my friends (since high school!) and their kids. Among the kids, Ellie is the oldest and Audrey is the youngest with three little ones in between. Ellie loves when we see them, as do her parents!

The gang

Our sweet Ellie

Will and his best girls

Audrey sucking her baby's tag, as usual!

Our little speed racers

And back to sucking the baby's tag :-)

Enjoying another great dinner by Mike and Christine!

(Don't you just wonder what they actually talk about when they're sitting without the grown-ups?!?!)

Audrey update

2009-08-27T19:12:00.005-04:00

As second time parents, we unfortunately find that we do indeed take fewer pictures of Audrey so this update will be filled with pictures only of our sweet second born!

Audrey turned 14 months old this week and she is a girl on the move! She is walking all over the place and is quite proud of herself. She is also using new words every week. Her latest words include book, baby, belly, bye-bye, apple, no, mine, this, and that. However, she mostly says mama (meaning any adult who takes care of her or "I want something") and nana (food or eat). She is also our very good eater and puts her eight teeth to good use! She is still allergic to soy and dairy so we have to get creative at mealtime in order to exclude three major food groups now (dairy, soy, and egg). She L.O.V.E.S. any type of meat, especially Mimi's pot roast and chicken. She also loves her special cookies; we keep the box on top of the refrigerator and every night after dinner she points up there and calls, "That, that, that, that,...", until we get them down. She is a strong-willed baby and she wants what she wants! There have been a few time-outs already :-)

Audrey apparently hasn't gotten the spatial thing down yet! She spent an entire day trying to figure out how she could sit in Ellie's rocking chair with this toy in the seat next to her. After many, many, many attempts, she still couldn't understand why they couldn't both fit and boy was she upset!

She has become a bit obsessed with her belly!

This is her baby (which is actually Ellie's baby). She absolutely loves this baby! She sleeps on top of it every night and wants it with her most of the day.

Looking out the window at Lori and trying to tell her to come back inside....

Weekend in PA

2009-08-16T20:24:00.006-04:00

This weekend we took a quick trip to see a good friend in Pennsylvania. We had a great time hanging out and Ellie loves the "vacation"! This morning we even got to have breakfast with our friend's niece and nephew, which the girls enjoyed.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the pool in the 90+ degree heat. Audrey fell asleep on the walk home clutching her water bottle.

Saturday night (which was followed by a very early Saturday morning)....

Audrey on the way home - the girls both did so well in the car!

Evolution of Audrey's movement

2009-08-08T21:00:00.005-04:00

In one evening, Audrey went from the "spider crawl"....

to practicing walking with her toy...

to her first steps!!!

Pictures from our trip to Virginia

2009-08-08T15:47:00.007-04:00

We spent this past week in VA meeting our new niece, Addie, and seeing her parents, Aunt TT and Uncle Ty. She is adorable! We all had such a good time seeing her (well, maybe except Audrey who was a little jealous!). The girls did great on the 8-hour drive there and back and they loved staying in the hotel. We didn't take as many pictures as I had hoped and unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the three cousins together. It's difficult getting a 4 week old, a 13 month old, and a 3 1/2 year old to sit still together long enough to get a picture! We can't wait to see Addie and her parents again soon!

Sweet Addie

Cousins

Aunt Jana and Addie

Hanging out at the farmers' market and downtown

Audrey flirting with Aunt TT at the coffee shop

Aunt TT took Ellie to paint pottery, which she loved!

Audrey was so exhausted during the pottery painting that she was acting drunk!

Ellie's completed cupcake

2009-08-03T11:30:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since we have blogged because we have been too busy enjoying our family this summer!

We've been playing,

swimming,

trying to learn how to walk,

enjoying the fruits of summer

or not so much enjoying them,

and laughing!

Tomorrow we leave for a few days to meet our niece Addie. I'm sure there will be plenty of good photos to share when we return! Until then, we hope you all are enjoying your summer!

Ellie's first trip to Friendly's!

2009-07-19T19:42:00.003-04:00

Thanks to allergen-friendly restaurants and their websites, we are slowly exposing Ellie to more and more eateries in our area. Today we took her for her first meal at Friendly's, which she loved!

The sugar rush began with a cotton candy drink. For the girl who is allowed juice once or twice a week, this was a very big deal!

After dinner of a hot dog and fries, she had a cone head. She thought this was the neatest thing ever!

Fun summer afternoon

2009-07-19T15:29:00.003-04:00

Our ballerina

2009-07-13T20:41:00.003-04:00

Today Ellie had her first official dance class and she loved it! She is actually taking a "movement class" this summer and in the fall will start a ballet and tap class. Three of her good friends are in this class with her, which she is very happy about. They all looked adorable in their pink outfits! Ellie told us that her favorite part of class today was running around the room and playing the tambourine.

Baby Addie

2009-07-09T19:09:00.004-04:00

We are thrilled to welcome our niece, Adelyne Grace, into the world! She is a cutie and we can't wait to meet her!

BFF

2009-07-06T18:45:00.002-04:00

We hope that these two are friends forever!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T20:28:00.005-04:00

Happy Fourth of July! We had a wonderful day that started with our local parade. Last year Lori had to leave a few minutes into the parade because Ellie was terrified of the noise, but this year we all made it through! We meet up with a big group of friends every year and our group just keeps growing. This year we took up half the length of the block. Ellie had a blast getting candy and some of our very generous big kid friends helped or shared with her. Audrey hung out on Mimi and Boppa's laps, just enjoying all the sights and sounds. This evening we went out for burgers with Mimi and Boppa and are now all settled in for the night. Two exhausted little girls are sound asleep in their beds and the other two are heading that way! Happy Fourth!

Our Lil Sparklers!

Ellie waiting for the parade to start

The girls with Mimi and Boppa

Ellie and her BFF

Scenes from the parade

Boston

2009-06-28T17:56:00.008-04:00

We got home Sunday night from a wonderful weekend in Boston! We went up for my cousin's engagement party on Friday night, which was held at an amazing place with an incomparable view of Boston. Friends and fmaily came from near and far to be there and we had so much fun reconnecting with everyone. On Saturday we went to a BBQ at another cousin's house outside of Boston and had such a nice day hanging out with part of our large extended family. We were all sad to leave!

Lori and Audrey at the engagement party

Fun cousins visiting from Guam

Ellie with my cousin

Some of the family at the party

Ellie met her 4 year old second cousin at the party and they instantly fell in love! They had so much fun together. In this picture they're chasing each other around and around a big table while Audrey watched.

They chased each other until they collapsed!

On Saturday morning Audrey went for her first swim.

Audrey at the barbecue on Saturday

Princess Ellie and her princess cousin

They spent a lot of time chasing each other around again on Saturday!

Cousins in the "girl tent"

Ellie and her soon-to-be-married cousin

Audrey has watermelon for the first time and we're all thankful that it washes out of white!

Family!

One Year Old!

2009-06-24T19:01:00.017-04:00

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, AUDREY!

At one year old, Audrey is a sweet, strong-willed girl. She is also inquisitive and a big talker. She says "da" all day long, which seems to mean this, that, and "I want it". She is a fast crawler, but although she can "cruise" on the furniture, she has no interest in walking. When we try to make her walk holding our hands, she will only do it side wise with her right foot leading at all times. Audrey loves music and will find her toys that make it so that she can dance. She has started raising her feet, rocking back and forth, and clapping when she dances. Audrey also loves to eat just about anything. She is allergic to dairy and soy products. She has four teeth and weighs about 25 pounds. Audrey has a very funny habit; she loves to rub her nose with any type of tag (from a blanket, burp cloth, toy, clothing, etc) while she sucks her bottom lip. She has never taken a pacifier or sucked her thumb so this seems to be the way she soothes herself. She sleeps through the night from 6:30 pm until 6 am and is either woken up by her sister or wakes her sister up!

We love you, Audrey! We had no idea what joy you would bring into our family!

Party!

2009-06-16T20:21:00.007-04:00

This weekend we went to the record-release party for our favorite kids' artist, Mr. Ray, and we had a blast!

Ellie getting her face painted

and doing some coloring.

They had characters from some of his songs there, which Ellie was terrified of. Audrey had no idea so we took her picture with them!

Ellie and BFF

Mr. Ray and his band, including special guest Bobby Bandiera (who plays with Bon Jovi). We see Mr. Ray once a month but he is alone during those shows. It was so different seeing him with a band. Ellie loved the drums!

Dancing queens

The girls with their new CD in front of the guitar

We waited in line to have our new CD signed. We've met Mr. Ray many times and he has talked to Ellie on every occasion. She is always shy though and this time she couldn't even look at him! The first time we ever saw her blush was when he told he she looked beautiful in her fancy dress at his show one night. Adorable!

Ellie, BFF, and Mr. Ray!

Audrey's first birthday party!

2009-06-15T17:47:00.007-04:00

This weekend we had Audrey's first birthday party! It has been rainy for the past two weeks, but the skies cleared for a few hours on Saturday, giving us a respite from the rain just in time for her garden-themed party at the park. We had lots of friends and family join us in the celebration. Since it was on Saturday morning, we served bagels, donuts, fruit skewers, juice, and coffee. We also had flower cupcakes and dirt cake with gummy worms, which the kids loved! Audrey enjoyed a banana muffin (dairy, soy, and egg-free!). The kids "goody-bag" was a shovel and a tin pail with a seed pack inside. The shovels were a big hit and the kids had fun digging up the dirt and real worms!

We had a wonderful time and the kids loved running around the park. We can hardly believe that Audrey will be one year old in just a matter of days!

Some of the party-goers at the park

Mimi and Boppa celebrate with Audrey

Audrey and Ellie

Ellie had such a good time playing with her friends!

Lori and Audrey

The birthday girl eyes her muffin while we sing

"Hmmmmm, what is this?"

"This is so good! You've been holding out on me! More please!"

All these presents for one little girl!

Strawberries

2009-06-08T18:39:00.007-04:00

On Sunday afternoon, Ellie and I went strawberry picking at a local farm (the same place we go pumpkin-picking every October). The weather was nice and there were plenty of strawberries ripe for picking! We thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of our labor for dessert!

Ellie strawberry picking at 3 1/2 years old, June 2009.

Ellie strawberry picking at 2 1/2 years old, May 2008.

And don't worry, Audrey and Lori were having their own fun back at home.....

Pierced ears!

2009-06-05T20:52:00.005-04:00

For Ellie's recent half-birthday, she received a set of earrings and today she had her ears pierced! She has been so excited waiting for this day. Our pediatrician did it, which worked out well since it was a familiar place and face. After the first side was done, Ellie cried and said that it really hurt, but the pediatrician didn't give her the chance to really think about what was coming. She just told her to hold still and then did the second ear. Ellie was upset at first, but it only took her about 5 minutes to calm down and realize that she finally had pierced ears. She hasn't stopped staring in the mirror since!

In the waiting room beforehand with an anesthetic cream on her ears

A big smile right before it was done

And another big smile a few minutes after!

Pretty ponytail perfection

2009-06-02T19:06:00.002-04:00

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-25T19:51:00.007-04:00

Happy Memorial Day! We had a very full and fun three-day weekend, from BBQs to parades to just hanging out with family.

Saturday we went to a BBQ with dear old friends. The older three kids, which includes Ellie, are just a couple months apart in age and had a great time playing! The older kids did, too :-)

The kids learning how to blow pinwheels

Chowing down on some corn

Jana and good friends from high school

Our beautiful girls

On Sunday we hung out at Mimi and Boppa's house and even got in a little shopping!

Ellie making biscuits for breakfast with Mimi

Audrey getting snuggles from Mimi.

Today went watched the Memorial Day parade at the end of Mimi and Boppa's street. Ellie was a little nervous at first about the noise, but got into it very quickly once they started throwing candy!

The evidence of a good weekend are the pictures from the drive home....

We hope that you had a lovely weekend, too. We are so very thankful for the men and women who fought for and protect our country every day.

Eleven Months Old

2009-05-24T17:05:00.006-04:00

It's hard to believe that we have only one more monthly update of Audrey's first year! We will be having her first birthday party in just three weeks! Here is what Audrey is up to at eleven months old...

- She is a crawling pro! She also now has started to what we refer to as "spider crawl". She moves around with her feet and hands on the floor and her bottom in the air.

- She is a very physical baby - she never stops moving and even when she's sitting in one place, she has her arms and legs swinging.

- She can pull herself to standing but has NO interest in walking! She scares us because she pulls herself up on things and then pushes herself back down to sitting on the floor.

- She has four teeth, two on the top and two on the bottom.

- Her only real word is still "mama". She makes lots of sounds though and is starting to say "up" and "down". She spends half of her day pointing at things and saying, "da!".

- She feeds herself at most meals. For breakfast she eats oatmeal with prune juice, but at every other meal she eats finger foods. She loves green beans, pasta, peas, peaches, and pears. We're working on using a sippy cup, which isn't going too well. When she's hungry or thirsty, she smacks her lips at you! She also makes this motion with her hand over half of her face to blow you a kiss.

- She is a good sleeper! She goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 pm and doesn't make a peep until 6:00 am. She loves sleeping in the same room as Ellie. We listen to them talk to each other over the monitor and it is so sweet.

- She has the prettiest blue eyes.

- She is still our sweet, snuggly baby. When she's tired, she loves to sit in your lap, hold on to your shirt, and smell it. She also sucks her bottom lip when she's tired.

Happy Half-Birthday!

2009-05-13T17:08:00.009-04:00

Our big girl Ellie is 3 1/2 today! She celebrated this half-birthday by bringing half-frosted cupcakes to school to share with everyone. She also received a little gift from us this morning, which was a set of earrings and an appointment with our pediatrician to get her ears pierced in a couple weeks. She is quite excited!

Here's what Ellie is up to at 3 1/2...

- She is a kind-hearted, gentle girl. She is so loving with her sister and her friends.

- She loves to be read to and enjoys just about any book you pick. She told me that her favorite books are Pinkalicious and the rhyming book I mentioned here. She also likes Clifford, the Berenstain Bears, and Arthur. She gets so excited when we turn down the street to the library!

- When asked what age she would most like to be, she said 60.

- Her favorite color by far is blue.

- She loves to play games. Her favorites are Candyland and Memory.

- She loves music. One of her favorite things to do at home is stand on our bed and watch herself sing and dance in the mirror. If she doesn't realize you're watching, it is especially great! She also loves the free monthly shows by a local kids singer that we take them to - she really boogies down! She is starting dance class this summer and cannot wait. I think she's mostly excited about the pink leotard and ballet slippers though!

- She is able to write her letters and can write anything down if you spell it for her. She loves working on her "workbook".

- She enjoys doing what she calls "craft projects". Usually this means cutting and gluing anything!

- Her favorite food is tacos and she asks for them every time we go to the grocery store. She has oatmeal or dry cereal for breakfast almost every morning. Before we add the hot water she has to have a bite of the dry oatmeal every morning (like a reindeer, she says). She is not a picky eater though and will try almost anything. Most nights after dinner she is allowed to pick a dessert from the yellow bowl in the kitchen. She is still allergic to egg but does very well helping us manage that.

- She loves being outside! She likes to play on the playground at school, go to the park, ride her tricycle, and go on walks around our neighborhood. She also loves the beach.

- Her favorite TV shows are Sesame Street, The Wiggles, and Little Einsteins.

- She weighs about 39 pounds and is about 40 inches tall.

What would you add about Ellie at this age?

Half-frosted cupcakes to celebrate a half-birthday!

Happy half-birthday, Ellie!

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T16:22:00.007-04:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Our new family photo

Sunny weekend pictures

2009-04-26T20:01:00.010-04:00

This weekend has been beautiful and sunny so we spent as much time outdoors as possible! We threw in a little priming of the living room and dining room, too, so we can get our floors installed soon!

On Friday afternoon we did a little swinging and a little cycling...

Ellie told me she needed to wear all her necklaces to the playground so she could look like a mama :-)

Ellie loves riding her tricycle now!

Scratching her back on the tree like bear

On Saturday, another playground and Rita's....

Audrey likes it best when Ellie pushes the swing

It was 91 degrees so we didn't stay at the park long. Instead we headed to Rita's for cold ice in the shade.

Sunday morning at the beach!

"Mommy, the water almost got me!"

"Who's toe is that?!?"

Audrey hanging out in the shade

Audrey's first (freezing) dip in the ocean

Just chillin'

Ellie flying a helicopter!

Lori wanted me to show Ellie how the rides are done - she didn't understand how to pull the lever to go up. She figured it out and wanted to stay up the whole ride!

Ten months old!

2009-04-24T14:33:00.008-04:00

Sweet Audrey is ten months old today! We have already started planning for her first birthday party, which just doesn't seem possible! Here is what she's up to these days:

- She started to officially crawl a couple weeks ago! She had been getting around by scooching herself across the floor (our pediatrician calls it "commando crawling") but is now going about it in the traditional way. There is a video of her crawling at the very end.

- Audrey can also pull herself to standing and go from laying down to sitting up. She is also trying to go from laying down to standing by doing the yoga position 'downward facing dog'! You can see this briefly at the beginning of the video.

- Audrey has two primary motivations: 1) Ellie and 2) food. She will find a way to get anywhere if it involves one of those two. If you notice in the crawling video below, we got her to do it by putting a bowl of Cheerios at the other end of the rug!

- Audrey is primarily eating table food now. She loves pasta, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, and soy yogurt. She is still nursing or having a bottle four times a day, although we will be trying to cut back on that soon. We have been working on drinking from a sippy cup for several weeks now and she is just starting to get the hang of it.

- Audrey finally got her third tooth. She has had her two bottom teeth since six months and recently got one on top.

- Audrey has figured out how to smack her lips. She does it to tell you she's hungry and also to give you a kiss.

- Another big transition has been that she now points with her finger rather than her whole hand. And she mostly does this to get the things mentioned above as her primary motivations!

- She is responding more to 'no' and answers 'no' as well.

- Her favorite things - the swing at the playground, the bunny that she sleeps with, the tags on her toys, books, her large table top toys, and baths.

- What Audrey does not like - wearing socks, having her nose wiped, having her face cleaned, and being told no.

- Audrey has a very "spirited" personality. She is assertive and lets you know what she wants (even more so now because she can point and she tell you no!). She appears to have a very different personality than her sister and is already giving Ellie a run for her money!

- Her growth is slowing down a bit. She now weighs between 22 and 23 pounds. She has been slimming down a little bit, especially in her face and neck, since she started moving more.

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-04-18T18:44:00.007-04:00

I am one spoiled birthday girl today! This morning Lori took both girls to Ellie's gymnastics class and then to the grocery store so I had more than three whole hours alone!! I couldn't even tell you the last time I was home by myself and it was heavenly just to lounge around.

Lori and the girls brought back a bouquet of balloons for me and the fixings for a picnic. After naptime we all went to the park for an early picnic dinner and lots of playtime.

Audrey did not like the grass at all!

Ellie and Lori made me a delicious cake! My birthday gifts were a trench coat that I have been wanting for two years from Lori, beautiful weather, and Audrey's third tooth!

Easter weekend

2009-04-13T18:33:00.008-04:00

Happy Easter!

We spent this past weekend at Mimi and Boppa's house to celebrate Easter and Mimi's birthday. We had a wonderful, relaxing time. The weather was beautiful on Friday so Ellie got to ride her Big Wheel up and down the street, which she loves. Saturday and Sunday were rainy and cold so Ellie had a lot of indoor play time with Mimi and Boppa. Audrey enjoyed all the extra snuggles and arms to hold her. She especially loved her nap times with Boppa!

Ridin' the Big Wheel!

Audrey watching her big sister racing down the street

Ellie decorated cupcakes for Mimi's birthday

Happy Birthday to Mimi!

Audrey helps Boppa with the entertainment part of our evening

Sharing a bowl of Cheerios and watching cartoons on Saturday morning

Easter morning

Easter egg hunt

All the hidden eggs have been found!

Ellie cracking open her loot

Cheerios?!?! Where's the candy?

Easter dinner

Fun weekend

2009-04-05T16:13:00.007-04:00

We have had such a fun weekend, capped off today by amazing weather! Here are a few pictures....

Friday night we went to the monthly free Mr. Ray show. We met a bunch of our friends there, which made it even more fun!

The three girls listening to Mr. Ray - Ellie the Plumber is in the middle.

Ellie and her BFF dancing

Ellie and her BFF stood right in front of Mr. Ray for a large portion of the show. It was so cute!

These are their little faces from the front as they watched Mr. Ray in awe.

Audrey has no idea what's going on!

During the show, Mr. Ray asked for volunteers to come up and sing a song in the microphone. Ellie was the first one to raise her hand and I think Lori and I almost had a heart attack! She went up and told him her name and age, but when he asked her what she wanted to sing, she started shaking her head and backing away. We were so proud that she even went up there!!

On Saturday we did a little cleaning and brought some "new" toys down for Audrey.

Today we went to the beach for an Easter egg hunt. This is Ellie on the way there - looks like a good day for the beach, huh?

Audrey playing in the sand

Ellie digging for eggs! They rope off huge areas for different age groups and bury plastic eggs with goodies inside.

And then we went on the rides!

Audrey just watched this time, but by the end of the summer she'll be on the rides, too!

By popular demand

2009-04-02T20:19:00.005-04:00

Well, maybe not popular, but by Mimi and Boppa demand, here are some recent pictures...

I love this picture because it shows the difference between the girls' personalities. Ellie is hugging Lori's arm and Audrey is pushing away, making a crazy face. I love my three girls!

And now for the peas series.....

Hmmmm, what are these? Let me see if I can put them into my mouth.

What are these things?!?!

If you really loved me, you would let me eat enchilada lasagna with you instead of these nasty peas. Why, mama, why?

So instead of eating them, I will squish the peas into oblivion....

and look cute!

Nine Months Old

2009-03-24T18:10:00.008-04:00

Audrey is nine months old today! When Lori realized this, she said that she couldn't believe that we'll be having a first birthday party for Audrey in just three months. The past nine months has gone by so fast!

Little Audrey has been sick for the last two days so she didn't celebrate her big day in her usual style. She continues to be a happy baby though, even with a 103 temperature! She has a big personality and knows what she wants, which is usually what her big sister has, to be nearer to her big sister, or food. She has a few words that she is using: mama, hi (which sounds like haaaa), night night (nnn nnn), and uh oh. She has also said mommy once. She will wave to you if you say hi, bye, or night night.

Audrey also appears to have the Mimi and Boppa music genes. This girl will start to wiggle, bounce, and sway anytime music is on and she even tries to sing along. We love it! She is still not crawling but has found her way to get around - she lays on her stomach, grabs the blanket with her hands, and just pulls her body up to where her hands are.

Audrey is eating more and more solid food. This weekend she had her first steamed veggies and seemed to enjoy it. We got the results of her food allergy tests last week and the only thing that was positive was the dairy allergy. We were thrilled! We have dealt with the dairy allergy before in Ellie and most kids outgrow that one (Ellie did by 2 1/2). We have started her back on Cheerios and puffs, which is going well. The girl likes her food!

Today's photo shoot didn't go so well since Audrey is sick, but we took a few pictures anyway....

This is how she spent most of our photo shoot!

Spring weekend

2009-03-22T16:58:00.006-04:00

We just got home from a fun weekend at Mimi and Boppa's house! Ellie loves it because she has so much fun there and we love it because we get to sleep in a little :-) Last night Lori and I went out for drinks with friends, a rare thing for us these days, and today we enjoyed the beautiful weather at a nearby park. Now we're getting ready for the week and the continued repair of our downstairs ceiling. We'll post pictures once the ceiling is done and we have flooring in place.

The group at the park - we met up with my friend and her family who we had been out with the night before. She and I have been friends since 8th grade!

Swinging Audrey

Mommy and Audrey

Ellie playing in the sandbox

Audrey's first slide

Ellie goes down the much bigger slide!

Sweet Audrey

Enjoying our picnic lunch

Here comes the sun!

2009-03-18T16:50:00.005-04:00

The weather today has been beautiful so I took the girls for a walk and then to the playground for an hour. Ellie was so happy to be outside! She ran around the playground, doing all the things she couldn't do alone last year. Amazing! She also brought her soccer ball and had a good time playing with that. Lori has been working with her on kicking and stopping it; she's ready to sign up for the teams here next summer!

A short video of Audrey's first time in the swing - she loved it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T19:10:00.004-04:00

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

from our wee lass and our little leprechaun!

Circus

2009-03-14T21:04:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we went to the circus! We took Mimi and Boppa for Boppa's birthday and also went with Ellie's BFF and her family. We saw the Zing Zang Zoom show by Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey - it was wonderful!

We were nervous about Ellie's reaction for a few reasons: 1) she HATES clowns; 2) she's not a big fan of loud noises; and 3) she really hates clowns. At the beginning of the show, she sat in her seat and was way more excited about the popcorn and juice box than about the circus itself. She is a very observant kid so we knew she was taking it all in but she wasn't reacting much to the activity. By the end of the show, she was clapping, laughing, and dancing in her seat with BFF. She even told us today that her favorite part of the show was the girl clown wearing the blue dress (I have no idea who that was!).

We had a great time watching the circus but even more fun watching Ellie watch the circus!

Our group before the show

Ellie and her BFF

Some of the amazing circus acts...

Mimi and Ellie

Ellie's eyes were glued to the action!

Photos by Boppa, March 13, 2009

Peek-a-boo!

2009-03-08T14:43:00.002-04:00

I was playing peek-a-boo with Audrey today when she grabbed the blanket. She covered her face and when I said, "Where's Audrey?", she pulled it down and gave me the cutest look. It was adorable and a complete surprise to me! Later Lori took a video of us playing...

Blood draw

2009-03-06T10:00:00.003-05:00

This morning we took Audrey for her first blood draw, which was needed to evaluate her food allergies. As you can tell by the bandages on both arms, things didn't go so well. They couldn't get a vein so they stuck her multiple times in both arms. Lori and I had to trade off holding her because it was so upsetting. There were three techs involved and when I was at the point of telling them to just stop, the third one finally got it. Audrey screamed the entire time and then slept in her car seat for an hour afterwards. The picture below was taken right after she woke up, in her usual sweet manner with no memory of this morning's traumatic events. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that Ellie will remember this for a long time. Note to self: do not bring other child to future blood draw appointments!

Audrey in action

2009-03-01T17:13:00.001-05:00

This is a short video of Audrey just hanging out today, being her usual silly self....

Pizza, pizza

2009-02-28T08:49:00.003-05:00

We are always on the look out for new recipes that are easy and delicious! My kitchen counter is littered right now with the pages I tear out of Parents and Family Fun magazines looking for fun foods Ellie will like. It can be hard sometimes because they have to be egg, nut, and seafood free. And if they're going to be made during the week, they also have to have little prep time or something that can be made ahead. We really love the Crock Pot!

I recently found a great pizza dough recipe that we adapted a little to fit our preferences. It is delicious and everything I needed was already in the house.

Basic pizza dough

3 cups flour

1 package active dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs sugar

1 cup warm water

2 tbs olive oil

Mix 1 1/4 cups flour with yeast, salt, and sugar; add warm water and oil. Beat with a whisk for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in another 1 1/4 cups flour (or enough so the mixture holds together). Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead in another 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour until the dough is lump free. This amount is intended to make 8 mini crusts so at this point wrap in plastic and refrigerate/freeze what you won't be using this day. Cover the remainder and let sit for 10 minutes.

Heat oven to 425. On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into the number of mini crusts you want to make and roll each into a 6-inch circle. Put onto a greased baking sheet. Build up the edges slightly and use a fork to prick the bottom of the crusts. Bake on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes. Take out and add the sauce and toppings then cook again for another 10 minutes. We do this last 10 minutes directly on the rack because it is much crispier this way.

Our favorite sauce and toppings....

Sweet pepper sauce

Combine a 12-oz jar of roasted sweet red peppers packed in water, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tbs honey, salt, and black pepper in blender and blend until smooth.

Toppings

Slice an onion into thin rings and cook with a small amount of olive oil until caramelized. Place onion and crumbled goat cheese on top of sweet pepper sauce.

I'm hungry just thinking about it! Delicious!

Infomercial

2009-02-27T16:35:00.004-05:00

Ellie got a book for her birthday that we have recently started reading and we all love! It's called Come Rhyme With Me! and the author is Hans Wilhelm (it's published by Scholastic). It has a page for each letter with a very funny rhyme. The last word of each couplet is covered with a flap to encourage guessing the correct rhyming word. We would definitely recommend it - the rhymes get a lot of laughs at our house!

Ellie insists on reading it almost every night and she thought she'd read some to you....

G is for gorilla, who's got ten useful toes:

Nine of them for walking and one to pick his nose.

Eight Months Old

2009-02-24T17:10:00.008-05:00

Audrey is eight months old today and we just can't believe it! She has changed so much in the last month....

- Audrey said her first word earlier this month: mama! We can also tell what she wants when she calls me now by the intonation of the "mama". The mama that she says when she's tires is truly the most pitiful noise I have ever heard.

- Audrey has started to respond to other words that she clearly understands. If you say bye bye or night night to her, she waves her whole arm at you. If you say yay, she claps her hands together. Lori and Audrey have an entire night time routine that happens when I take Audrey up to nurse before bed, which involves a lot of waving on both of their parts. Tonight she even kissed Lori good night!

- In addition to waving and clapping, she is learning other gestures. My favorite is how she points with her entire arm at her bed when she's tired.

- Audrey is desperately trying to crawl! She rocks on her hands and knees but hasn't figured out how to move forward yet. She can scooch backwards and can wiggle her way around in a circle and across the blanket though. She can also get near Ellie no matter where Ellie is and will climb on top of her!

- Audrey is teething again and she is not happy about it. Neither are we!

- Audrey is 28 inches long (which was Ellie's length at nine months) and weighs 21 pounds 6 ounces (which was Ellie's weight at one year). We were told at her last pediatrician visit that she is between the 50th and 75th percentile for length and far above the 95th percentile for weight!

- She is still just as snuggly as ever! She is a baby who loves to be held. Sometimes she'll just sit on your lap and rest her head on your chest, which is the greatest thing. Now that she is becoming much more active we treasure those moments!

Our time

2009-02-22T19:03:00.004-05:00

Dress-up time

Drawing time

Lunchtime

Nap time

Check-out-my-chocolate-face time

Craft time

Bath time

Breaking news

2009-02-19T18:48:00.003-05:00

Audrey caught up on the news with Miss C today. She's already taking after her mommy!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T20:29:00.004-05:00

Valentine's Day may be a "Hallmark holiday" to some, but we used it as a great excuse to spoil the girls yesterday! They each woke up to a Valentine's teddy bear and then we started the day with heart-shaped pancakes. Ellie kept calling it our Christmas breakfast and I can only guess it was because she woke to to find a present downstairs!

The sweetest Valentines

After gymnastics, I took Ellie to the dollar store to pick out balloons for Lori and she got to get a hula hoop while we were there, which was probably her favorite thing about the day! After a little hula hoop dancing at home by Ellie and I (a video of which will NEVER appear on this blog), we took the girls for lunch at our favorite local diner.

"Why must you insist on taking me out in public like this, Mama? I'm a baby, not a doll!"

Later in the afternoon Ellie and I made Lori a special dessert, chocolate covered fruit (bananas, pineapple, and strawberries). We had a lot of fun making them and even more fun eating them after Lori's delicious spaghetti dinner!

We hope that you had a nice day with your loved ones as well! Today I hit the clearance sales so we can do it all again next year!

Valentine's Party

2009-02-13T17:59:00.006-05:00

The girls are home with me on Fridays, but today I took them to the Valentine's Day party at school. The kids exchanged Valentine's, some of which were more elaborate and came with little goody bags. They also had lots of treats! The teachers started the kids off with big plates of fruit so by the time they passed out the sugary sweets, most kids were less interested. Ellie ate a huge plate of fruit and then just licked the frosting off her cupcake and ate a small cookie. Audrey watched all the action from the safety of my arms or her car seat! The pictures below are from yesterday and today...

Dressed in some of their Valentine's finery for school yesterday

Who wouldn't want to kiss these lips?!?!

We came home to find a Valentine's package from Aunt TT, which included sunglasses for both girls.

and this adorable headwrap!

Ellie very intent of putting sprinkles on the cupcakes and cookies for today's party!

Pucker Up!

Party at school

If somebody could just pass that plate of brownies over here, I would greatly appreciate it!

Ear infection

2009-02-10T10:22:00.005-05:00

Audrey has hit yet another milestone - her first round of antibiotics. Boo! After a few days of what appeared to be a bad cold, Lori took her to the pediatrician yesterday. He said that Audrey has an ear infection in one ear and the beginning of one in the other. The eczema on her cheeks is also infected. She started amoxicillin last night and seems to be a bit better today. She is a good patient though! She takes the medicine right down with little complaint and just wants to be held most of the day.

We've also scheduled an appointment at the end of the month with the allergist for Audrey. She started eating Cheerios last week and a couple days later she was red and swollen on her forehead. We're hoping the two things are not related since a wheat allergy is much more difficult to manage than an egg or dairy allergy. They will likely test her for the common allergens at that appointment. We'll keep you posted!

I'm too sick to play.

January Pictures

2009-02-04T19:25:00.005-05:00

The past few weeks have been busy ones for us with little time to blog. Here are a few recent pictures from January.

On January 29th, we went to the county courthouse to finalize Lori's adoption of Audrey. Both of our names have been on the birth certificate since Audrey's birth due to the great laws in our state. However, we had to complete the adoption process for federal purposes.

Audrey had a few firsts in January! After our recent pediatrician visit, we were told to start giving her water in a sippy cup, which you can see is going to take a while to master! She is also eating Cheerios now, which she hates. She acts like she's choking every time we give her one! At her check up, she weighed about 20 1/2 pounds. Audrey's biggest first is her first word!! After babbling ma ma for a few weeks now (which we definitely don't count as her first word!), she has started calling me mama when she sees me and when she wants something. It's so sweet and hard to resist!

Boo to water!

We had a beautiful snow fall last night - almost 6 inches, the most of any storm this winter.

Sassy Audrey at daycare drop-off!

Seven months old

2009-01-24T09:50:00.010-05:00

Sweet Audrey is seven months old today! In the last seven months we have seen her go from a calm, sleepy newborn to a feisty baby! Here's her latest...

- She has her two bottom teeth and knows how to use them. If we're really meant to nurse babies for the first year, someone tell me why they get teeth this early!?!?

Check out these pearly whites!

- Audrey is a raspberry blowing fool, especially when she has food in her mouth!

- She has developed lots of skills using her hands- she can clap, pick up more complicated objects, throw things, and transfer objects from one hand to the other. She is an expert hair grabber and glasses remover.

- Audrey still loves to talk - she babbles constantly!

- She has started to respond to her name, especially when it's said by Ellie. She does not respond to no. At all.

- You always know where she is because she happily screeches and hollers all day.

- At school, they call her the nosey baby; we like to say she's observant. When someone at school tries to give her a bottle or when I'm nursing her, she flips and flops all over the place if anyone else comes in the room so she can see what's happening.

- She is eating a lot more solid food. She has three meals of solid food every day and loves it! Her usual is oatmeal with prune juice at breakfast time, a fruit at lunch time, and a veggie at dinner. She's gone from nursing every two hours to only four times a day. She eats her meals in her highchair at the table with us, which Ellie loves!

- She is not close to crawling yet, but every once in a while when she's mad, she can get up on her knees and hands. When she's on her back though she scooches herself backwards.

- She enjoys playing with her toys and she loves holding onto her feet. When she's falling asleep in your arms, she likes to hold your shirt up to her mouth but doesn't actually put it in her mouth. She sucks her bottom lip instead.

- She loves to snuggle and will sit on your lap for a while just relaxing.

- She is the sweetest baby and we wouldn't change a thing!

"I'd rather go to school"

2009-01-23T16:14:00.008-05:00

For the past few days, we have been telling Ellie that we were going some place special and really fun on Friday. Her guesses: the grocery store, the cookie mall (the mall that sells her favorite cookies), and Mimi and Boppa's house. We promised her it would be more fun than all of those! Last night we finally told her that we were going to go see Disney on Ice. She had no idea what that was so we showed her a video preview. I don't think that she completely got it because she said that she would rather go to school!

Today she was on the edge of her seat all morning in anticipation of going. She had lots of questions about what was going to happen and what characters would be there. What we didn't tell her was that her BFF and family were meeting us there! When we walked down to our seats, Ellie was so excited to see them. The show itself was fun but a little long for the adults. Ellie was glued from the moment it started and she got into it much more than we thought she would. She was clapping, waving, and doing whatever they asked the audience to do. She had such a great time! We definitely plan on going to something like this again!

Audrey got a ride in the Baby Bjorn

BFFs

"I can't wait for the show to start!!"

The girls got to sit together and share popcorn.

Ellie's favorite parts were when Cinderella and Snow White came out of course!

Soggy Saturday

2009-01-18T06:25:00.006-05:00

What comes after "Frozen Friday"? Why, "Soggy Saturday", of course!

When we thought things couldn't be worse than no heat on the coldest day of the year so far, we woke up yesterday morning with no heat AND no water. I called our water utility company who didn't seem concerned and then confirmed with our neighbors that they all did have running water. The assumption was that there was a frozen pipe somewhere outside and we would just have to wait for it to warm up enough to thaw. Luckily we have a water cooler so had plenty of 5 gallon water jugs sitting around.

The furnace was thankfully replaced by late afternoon so we finally had heat again. We still did not have water so we were trying to make plans for the next few days. Since we assumed that the frozen pipe was outside, we were thinking about staying with my parents until Monday. We decided though that we'd stay home one more night just in case it came back on. Definitely a good decision!

A couple hours after the heat came back on, my parents took Ellie out to dinner. Lori and I were sitting on the couch with Audrey when we heard this loud noise and then a huge rush of water. We jumped up knowing that the water must be coming back and then suddenly water started pouring out of our ceiling and vents! We turned off the water to the house and unplugged the electric appliances nearby while just watching water pour into our living room and dining room.

My parents got home from dinner right before the fire department arrived. We watched the firemen tear down parts of our ceiling until they found the burst pipe. Such a tiny little crack! Once they found the pipe and could confirm that there was no electrical risk, they told us it was okay to stay here for the night. The plumber is coming this morning to repair the pipe and then we'll have a contractor out to do the ceiling repair. The carpet is soaked so we don't yet know if it will need to be replaced. We will call our homeowners' insurance carrier as soon as they're open and see what we need to do.

It was hard to believe this in the moment, but we are very lucky. We happened to be home and sitting in the room when the pipe burst so the water was turned off within 30 seconds. We had few things sitting directly under the water. Ellie wasn't home when it happened. My parents were here to help with everything. We have amazing neighbors. Most importantly, no one was hurt.

So what we though would be a nice three day weekend with no major plans has so far included no heat, a new furnace, no water, and a burst pipe. Remind me, what are the benefits of owning again?!?

Hope your weekend is going better! :-)

Frozen Friday

2009-01-16T17:17:00.005-05:00

Do YOU know what it's like to live with no heat when it's 6 degrees outside???

WE DO.

All week we have been waking up to temperatures below our thermostat setting, but today the temperature was 10 degrees below. Help was called and according to Tom from a local repairer of such things, we need a new furnace. Our current furnace is the original from when our home was built. Furnaces are supposed to last 15 years. Did I mention our house was built in 1983? So although we can't complain about a terrible furnace, we can complain about the cost of a new one. Has anyone else gotten a new one lately?? It's crazy!!

The furnace will be installed tomorrow so tonight we are without heat on the coldest night of the winter so far. The company we are using left us two space heaters so we are all staying in one room whenever possible and we'll all sleep together tonight. We are so cold!

The Three Musketeers!

2009-01-15T07:59:00.003-05:00

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil

and they certainly don't act it either! :-)

(Ellie and her two best friends at school)