Visiting Santa!

Santa came up to my office last week so Michael and I took the kids to visit him!  I printed out a picture of Addie sitting on Santa's lap and even kissing Santa on the cheek trying to pump Ella up to see him, but she wasn't very interested.  She knew what I was doing, and decided from the beginning that she would NOT sit on Santa's lap.  She was anxious to see him, but as soon as we got close, she clung to me and pretty much wanted nothing to do with him.  Easton was easy-going about it, as expected based on his age!  Oh well.....Ella enjoyed seeing him from a distance, and her talk of "Santa" has definitely increased since our visit!

It was a fun visit and Ella got to see where Mommy works, which was also fun for her!

Johnny Jump Up....take 2

I've written before about how much Easton loves his johnny jump-up!  Well, I guess he loves it so much that he completely wore it out!  I put him in it the other morning and then turned around to get some coffee.  I heard him struggling a little so I turned around and this is what I saw!

He was hanging sideways because the strap had completely snapped!  You can see the hanging strap above his shoulder in the picture below!  I hadn't even noticed that the strap was thinning or anything.  But luckily the other three straps were still in tact, so he was completely fine!

This jumper had been through a few kids, so I'm sure it was simply worn out, but I thought it funny that Easton was the one who broke it because he jumps so hard and so much! :)

Knowing how much he loves it and that this is such a great way to entertain him, especially while I'm cooking in the kitchen, I went to kid-to-kid a few days later and bought him another one.  Hopefully this one will last at least a couple of more months! :)

Sweet videos

Every night when we go to bed after reading books and turning out the light, Michael and I lay with Ella for a few minutes to cuddle.  As we lay there, the first thing Ella says is "I want to pray God". So we pray to God, and then she always says, "I want to pray Jesus!".  :) So, after we say ALL our prayers often times we'll sing songs.  Lately, her favorite song is the "monkey song"!!  So we always sing "5 little monkeys" and now she loves to sing it all by herself.  I took this video last night when we were laying in bed, so its completely dark, but I love to hear her sweet voice singing.

Click here to see Ella singing on YouTube

And, completely unrelated, today Easton officially started "army crawling"!  He has been pretty mobile for a couple weeks now by pivoting around on his belly, and he also gets up on all fours and often launches himself forward a bit, but today was the first day he officially pulled and pushed himself forward to reach his toys.

Click here to see Easton army crawling on YouTube

Family Traditions: Giving

When Michael was a kid, his parents would adopt a family and deliver food and gifts for the holidays.  It made a lasting impression on both him and his sisters and this year he wanted to start that same tradition with our family.  He took the initiative to contact an agency, and get everything set up.  I was so proud of him for doing this and so excited to start this tradition with our kids.  We invited his family to participate with us, and we all had fun shopping and providing for this large family.  We were assigned a family that consisted of a single mom with four young kids.

We were able to hand deliver the items and we loved putting faces to all of their names.  It was amazing to see the excitement in their eyes as fifteen of us walked into their house with overloaded bags of food and gifts.  Not to mention multiple trips back and forth from the car.   Their kitchen was stocked full and the Christmas tree was flooded with gifts when we left their house.  The kids were adorable and they were all very welcoming and appreciative.  It was a wondeful morning.  When "toilet paper" is on the mom's list of wants, you know you are making a big impact to family that really needs the help.

I know that my kids are young to really understand what we were doing, but as they get older, hopefully this will be something that we can continue each year.  

I didn't take my camera with us, but Kim got some pictures, so hopefully I can add them later!

Spiderman!

Recently was Carter's big 4th Birthday Party!  We had been anticipating this party for a while because months ago, Megan asked Michael if he would dress up as Spiderman as a HUGE surprise for Carter and everyone else at the party!  Of course my husband was thrilled to do this for his God-son!

The party was at Aerial Athletics,which we LOVE for birthday parties!

Ella did NOT want to stop jumping on the trampoline.  I was seriously worried about her because her legs and feet were so tired that she was limping towards the end of the party and the rest of the night, but she refused to stop jumping!

Towards the end of the party, the "REAL Spiderman" made his debut and the kids went wild!  (See Megan's blog for more great pictures of Spiderman!)

Spiderman (aka. Michael) took lots of pictures with the kids and adults and did an INCREDIBLE job!  He is such a good sport, and I love that he did this for Carter!  For several reasons, this just added to our list of funny memories!  Those are the best! 

Andy and Kelly came in from Austin for the party. They recently moved, so we got one more picture of the "6 of us!".

A budding artist??

Ella has been drawing a ton lately on her magna doodle. Before, she would make little scribbles and say it was Mommy, Daddy, Easton, Ella, Addie, etc.  So the other day when she told me she drew an apple I said, "Oh, that's great Ella..." totally expecting it to be a small little scribble.  When I actually turned my head and LOOKED, I couldn't believe my eyes!  I was so proud of her! :)  It looked exactly like an apple!

A few days later when she drew a banana and a pear, I assumed they were talking a lot about fruit at school, but when I asked the teachers, they said no!  

She also came home from school drawing an "H", (which I think she learned from addie), so we started working with her to draw an "E" and then an "L"...next will be the A.  I'm glad she has a simple name, so maybe she'll be able to write it out before too much longer!

Here are a couple of her really good "E"s....

I was most impressed with the one that she painted on the left, and right below the "E" you can see where she was working on her "L"!

Happy Birthday Megan B!

Megan Brown's birthday fell very close to Thanksgiving this year, but we wanted to continue the tradition that was started last year of cooking a nice steak dinner on her birthday!  So we celebrated a week late, but the wait was worth it!

Apparently Addie hadn't been to our house in a while, because she hadn't seen Ella's new bed and new room, so the first thing she said when she walked in the door, was "I want to see Ella's big girl bed!"  So up we went....

And then the two of them sat in Ella's room and played with their babies while I went back downstairs to help with dinner.  They were so quiet up there together and didn't even make a mess!  They are really growing up!!

 Earlier in the evening while I was setting the "adult" table, Ella set a table for just her and Addie!  (Carter was with his MeMe, so it was just the girls!).  

Of course they wanted to do more playing than eating, but that's okay...on occasion!

When Easton was born, we received some amazing Cakebread wine from our great friends Steph and Brian.  Michael and I kept saving it, but we finally decided to open it up on this night!   Yummy!!!

Cheers to 31!

 Thanks Michael for another AMAZING steak dinner!

The girls had a blast together!  When I had told Ella that Addie was coming over, she was giddy with excitement!  Such LOVE!