Valentine's Day!

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's day this year!  I mentioned earlier that I got Elise a necklace from Etsy.  I also ordered her a cute skirt to go with it.  Here she is wearing her new outfit!

She loves this necklace and asked for it the other day by saying, "Mom, can I have the special necklace you and daddy got for me?"  So sweet. 

Here are my two little Valentine's ready to go play!

 

That afternoon we went to a playgroup with some friends at our church.  We all brought some pot luck treats and the kids had a blast!  They made froot loop necklaces for their moms, decorated a bag for their valentines, got their pictures take and even had some Valentine's stories read to them. 

I forgot to take pictures of all the fun we were having but fortunately we did manage to get some at the photobooth.  My talented friend, Courtney, took pictures for everyone there. Here is a cute one she took of Elise and James.

 

Later that day, Zack came home early (!) and surprised me with these beauties-

 

And I worked hard making these delicious little bites-

These are called Sweetie Pie Pops!  You can find the recipe here.

 

We also were spoiled from our family back home. We got lots of fun packages.  Thanks to everyone who thought of us! 

Thanks Ryan and Becky for all the loot!  Elise loved the whistle lips! 

And thanks Nicole and Justin for the sweet cards and candy!  Elise loved it all and felt truly loved, just as you should on this fun holiday!

 

Tosa Fire Station

A few weeks ago our playgroup met up at the Tosa fire station to take a tour!  Elise had a blast and loved exploring a new place and getting to see all of the gear, trucks and fire poles! 

Our fire fighter showed us all their gear like their face masks and even the blood pressure cuff.  Elise was thrilled (and very attentive) that she was chosen as the model.

She thought it was the coolest that they get to slide down the pole! 

They let them all walk through the big fire truck and see all the gadgets inside.

Group shot of all the kids we went with!  A rare photo where Elise is looking at the camera and smiling!  Win!

At the end, they were all given a souvenir fire hat!  Elise wore it the whole way home, she loved it!  Now any big red truck she sees is, of course, a firetruck!  We had so much fun exploring new things!

Friday Five

1- This past week has been all about teething.  Poor James.  Poor me.  This little guy is in a lot of pain which means he only wants to be held 100% of the day.  Here's to hoping the worst is over.

2-  Lately I've made two great purchases on Etsy.  I ordered a cute bubblegum necklace for Elise for her Valentine's gifts and I got a wooden airplane teether for James.  I've never really used Etsy before but now I basically want everything on it.  I'm very impressed with both items!

3- Zack has both Saturday and Sunday off this weekend (Miracle!).  This means that we finally get to go out on a date to celebrate my birthday!  Hooray!  Now, which restaurant offers the best free birthday dessert.....

4- Today Elise has her first friend birthday party.  Her little buddy Eric is turning 3 so we are heading over today to help celebrate.  I'm sure she will have a blast!

5- One of the cutest things Elise has been saying lately is that we stole her heart.  She, of course, says it in an accusing sort of tone.  She will point to one of us and say, "Hey!  You stole my heart! Give it back to me!"  Ha ha. It is so cute. We tell her all the time that she already has ours.  Love this girl so much!

Here's a picture of my cute little man! You can see the little teether there too.  In between teething crying sessions he DOES smile.  Love him lots!

The return of Friday Five!

It's been a while since I've had my Friday five post up.  They really are some of my favorite posts, since they give little snippets of our day-to-day lives.  Sometimes it's boring, others interesting and sometimes it can be something funny the kids say.  Either way, I want to remember these moments down the road.

-The documentary "Mitt" comes out on Netflix today and I'm pretty excited to see it.  I just think the world of Mitt Romney and am excited to see and learn more about him and his family. 

-Today James is officially 8 months old!!  He is getting so big!  He also is cutting his two central incisor (middle) teeth.  I'll post a pic when they are officially out. He also graduated to the big bath tub now that he is sitting up!

-I started back up on Jillian Michaels workout DVD, 30 Day Shred.  I'm only on day 4 today so we'll see how long I can last. Trying to be better!!

-Elise and I have been watching the new Disney Junior show, Sheriff Callie's Wild West.  Elise is pretty much obsessed with it.  It's cute and I like that Mandy Moore is the voice of Callie. 

-This has been the coldest/worst winter we've had in our time in Wisconsin.  It is miserable.  It's sad how much I look forward to a day that would be considered "freezing".  32 degrees sounds pretty great, if you ask me!  Yesterday it was so cold that the credit card machine for gas wouldn't read Zack's card.  Things like that just shouldn't happen!

Our Sweet James

Our sweet baby James is 7 1/2 months old!  It is high time I do an update on our favorite boy! 

When he was 6 months old he figured out how to climb out of the bumbo chair, so we don't use it anymore!  This boy is a mover and a shaker!

He is wearing clothes that are a few months older than he is!  Right now he fits 9 month clothes perfectly.  He is a very tall boy.

He kept fighting his swaddle so he graduated from this...

to this!  He now sleeps in his sleep sack and rolls all over the place!  He has been a thumb sucker since forever!  We actually have an ultra-sound picture with him sucking his thumb.

He is so SO close to crawling!  He gets up on all fours and even his tummy is off the ground but he hasn't quite figured out how to move those knees forward.  He moves all over and scoots himself to every corner of our house!  He is so fast- one minute he is by my feet and the next he is underneath the piano bench.

It was tricky at the beginning, but he is finally a good eater!  He prefers table food rather than jarred baby food.  His favorite foods are yogurt, refried beans and puffs!

 

Other big news: He sleeps through the night!  We put him down around 8pm and he sleeps until around 6:30-7am.  I could not be happier! 

 

I could be wrong but I swear his first word was "Mama!"  I know, I sound completely biased but Zack is the one who pointed it out!

 

He has the best laugh!  He smiles at everyone and is a joy to be around.  We are so happy to have this little boy in our family!  He loves to watch his sister run around and be silly. Nothing makes him laugh faster!



Elise turns THREE!!

I really can't believe that our little girl is 3!  We thought we'd start the day out right with some streamers and balloons for her to wake up to.

She thought it was a pretty awesome surprised and had fun playing with the balloons for days!
Since her birthday fell on a Sunday we let her open one present before church. 

It was a beautiful, sparkly "layna" dress!  She has been asking for a sparkly dress for weeks now and was excited to have one!  Also in the present was a pin to wear on her dress that said "Birthday Girl" and it was fun to have everyone at church say happy birthday to her!

 

The day was pretty low key and normal until dinner time.  I made what I think is one of her favorites for dinner- Italian crock pot chicken.  It is a meal she always eats a lot of so I figured it has to be a favorite.  She even got to use the You Are Special plate and thought that was pretty cool!

 

After dinner she got to open presents!  Here she is opening the game Uno Moo.  We are hoping to get her into more games this year since she is bigger.  She also got Candyland for Christmas. Both still seemed little advanced for her, but we'll keep working

 

I should also mention that Elise did get dressed that day, but she is OBSESSED with this little star nightgown she opened Christmas Eve.  Unless we are leaving the house, she can usually be found wearing this. I'm picking my battles. And who I am to argue someone who wants to wear pajamas all day!

 

Reading the new books that Grandma Marie sent to her- with princess crown, of course!

Giving her new Cinderella doll a hug!

Here she is showing off her new butterfly wings and matching tu-tu!

Grandma also sent 4 little farm puzzles knowing how much Elise loves farms!

And speaking of...she got more farm animals!

And to finish the night off- a princess kit!  It came with a skirt, high heels, earrings, a wand (that she calls a "spell") a purse and a crown!  How very fitting for this little princess of ours!

When it was time for candles Elise wanted more. She remember that Daddy had lots of candles on his cake and wondered why hers didn't.  I explained that each year she'll get more and more candles the bigger she gets. She still wanted more but settled for the 3 :)

 

Happy birthday our sweet Elise!  We love you so very much and had a great time celebrating you all day long! 

Christmas 2013

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! It was our first Christmas that we didn't travel back to Utah to spend with our extended family.  We were sad to not see all of our loved ones but we had a really fun time waking up in our house Christmas morning and just enjoying it together.

 

On Christmas Eve we got together with 3 other families and had a fun dinner.  The kids played together and watched a little bit of Elf too.  After that we all went home and talked about the true meaning of Christmas. It's a little tricky of a concept for our almost three year old to grasp so we talked about Santa coming too.  She was so excited!  She went to sleep very well since she knew that she had to sleep for Santa to come. 

Here is what our Christmas tree looked like on Christmas Eve!

Here are the gifts that Santa left! He brought a ballapalooza for both kids.  They love it!  We have dance parties to it every night, it is so much fun.

Santa brought James: a gumball machine, race car, tiger and lots of books!

Santa brought Elise: a princess castle, safari animals and some yummy candy!

Here is a picture of the "after math" of Christmas morning.  We spent a long time opening presents and playing with all our new toys.  We were all very spoiled!

Zack and I were good kids this year too so Santa didn't forget us!  Zack got lots of great new clothes, cologne, Cranium and his big gift is Skydiving!  He will use it sometimes this summer when it isn't -14 outside! I was very lucky and got lots of fun little things!  I got a scarf, new boots, a Mindy Gledhill CD, a rice cook and a laminator too!  I've had so much fun trying out all of my new things!

I walked by Elise's room later that day and "caught" her playing with her castle.  I love to listen to her play when she doesn't know I'm watching.  It's my favorite!

Here is another favorite photo from the day!  Zack reading Elise some of the books Grandma sent to her.

 

We feel very blessed for all the many things we received.  We missed our families so much but felt lucky to spend the day playing together as our own little family.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well!