Sunday, January 31, 2010

Snow Storm #2

Wow, if only I knew at the time, this was snow #2 of SEVEN thus far in the season!!! Are we really in the south, people?! You can tell the excitement was starting to wear off for me - I chose to stay indoors and snap pics while Jonathan and Ellison trekked out to make snowmen and play. Thank God Daddy is around to help give Elli some fresh air when her lazy mom wants to stay couped up. It sure is nice, though, to watch the two of them from afar - it warms my heart. :-)




Two snowmen - a Daddy and a Mookie.

Not sure why, but Ellison took off her gloves to touch the snow, and realized just how cold your fingers become.

E's New Cubby

Though these pics don't show the final product, Ellison has a new little cubby to sleep in. She became much more excited about bedtime since she got her "princess curtains". She thinks it is so cool to sleep in her very own tent-like setting. When she goes to sleep, the curtains are down, closing her in, which is something she always loves to be. Well, we started off with just one curtain being down (in case she needed to quickly/easily get out of bed for an emergency), but she has started this phase where certain objects are "scary" to her in the dark. (I'm thanking Disney, for all the scary things they put in their princess movies, and I'm thanking ourselves, for exposing her to them). First, the "rectangles on the door" (the insets), were scary, so now both curtains are down so she can't see the rectangles. Then, the decorative circle on the headboard of her antique toddler bed, which she used to call "a doorbell", is now a "scary eye". So we have a big princess pillow that covers it up at the head of her bed.
Since it is taking me so long to keep up with posts lately, I'll say that Grandma just finished the curtains for us - they were too short, and we couldn't buy them the right length. So I'll post the new pics when I catch up on the other posts.
Needless to say, Ellison LOVES her bed area now.



So excited trying out her cubby for the first time. She was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Thoughts of a 3 Year Old

You know when you're driving, and the shadows of the trees whizzing by seem to "blink" in the sunlight against the interior of your vehicle (mini-van, if you're so lucky)? Ellison said she was tired in the car this afternoon and informed me that she was going to close her eyes for a few minutes. After about 5 seconds, she exclaimed, "I see orange when I close my eyes! I see TWO colors when I close my eyes (due to the shadows)! Mom, I see two colors and I can't make them hold still!".

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Bring Your Own Tissues

So, you may not wanna use the tissues in our house if you just so happen to find yourself with a runny nose, or a tear in your eye, or on the verge of a sneeze...

Ellison has had a runny nose for a while, so there was a tissue box sitting on the floor yesterday, and I turned around to catch her bent over wiping her nose on a tissue... the one that sticks out from the box... while it was still IN the box. I quickly said, "Mookie!", and she just as quickly shoved the tissue down into the box. Yeah, 'cause no one ever would've noticed grabbing a slimy or crusty tissue. Seriously, wasn't it more work to stoop yourself over the tissue box as opposed to grabbing the tissue and bringing it up to your little face???

We've got nose issues in this house (which reminds me: Ellison informed me, "I have issues," the other day. Only one person comes to mind that uses that type of phrase frequently - Daddy, ahem). Either she's got her finger halfway up to her sinuses, or I'm getting handed a booger, or a booger is being wiped on my pants; and now she's disguising dirty tissues...

[January 23, 2010]


Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tea Time

Ellison had her first little "real" tea party with Ella James. The girls were fixin' to eat lunch, and thought it was pretty cool to use the tea party set. They both drank enough water for camels. (Hope you made it home with a dry carseat, Alisha...)



Ella James must be giving a toast...

"Cheers"
[January 8, 2010]

Monday, January 18, 2010

Too Cute...

Today while playing outside, Ellison asked me out of the blue, "Mom, did you tootsie?". I then realized that there was a slight icky odor in the air, and told her (truthfully, people), "No, did you tootsie?". "No, I didn't... I think God must've tootsied." After giggling, I told her, "I don't think so, Ell. God doesn't have a body - did you know that? Only Jesus has a body." (How on earth do you begin to explain the trinity to a toddler?). "Yeah... God doesn't have a hineenee..."

She's been increasing her frequency of talking complete jibberish, and then saying that it's Spanish. When I asked what she was drawing with the chalk, she responded as such. Then she said, "That's Spanish for 'ankle'."

[January 18, 2010]

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

First Movie

We took E to her first movie theater experience this past week when Daddy was off from work (in between the reorganization going on all week in the house), to see The Princess and the Frog. It was cute, and she sat still through the whole thing. She keeps saying she wants to go back and see it again. Gonna love those free kid movies in the theaters that run all summer long!

[December 30, 2009]

"GPS" Belle

So Ellison came away from her trip to MI with a love of her cousins' "GPS" (a DS, but that's what she calls it). So what did Uncle Josh and his fam get her for Christmas? Yes, her own DS game thingy (see - I don't even know the correct lingo) with some games. I still shake my head when I think of how my 3 year old has a DS. She can literally sit and do it for an hour at a time, if we let her. She knows how to do it far better than I do. She loves drawing on it and doing this horse game, and now a game where she gets to paint the nails and decorate them.

So funny to see "Belle" playing her "GPS".

And by the way, that's often what we have to call her - Belle. If I answer her or talk to her without addressing her as Belle, she says, "No, say,'Yes, Belle' ". Her favorite Belle activity is to walk up or down the stairs while pulling up the one side of the dress (just like Belle or any other female in a long dress would do when going up or down stairs). And she has to do it just so - "You have to take just a tiny piece in your fingers, just like Belle does in the pictures". When she brings a necklace to me, I automatically assume she wants it on, but am quickly corrected, "No, I don't want the necklace on because Belle doesn't have one on in the pictures". Details, details...

[December 29, 2009]

My Hairdresser

Gotta hand it to her. She's creative all right. She was playing "hairdresser" with me and asked me to put in the ponytail. Then she proceeded to decorate it with Christmas ornaments from the mini-tree, and her fishing poles from her little fishing game. :-)


[December 27, 2009]

Christmas Evening at Home

The rest of our Christmas day was spent having good family time - playing with her new Playdough set and kitchen (Ellison loves to play "restaurant people" and take our order, cook the food, calls us "M'am", etc.) and such. Then we had a great dinner - Daddy smoked a chicken, and Mommy made German Potato Salad (a Christmas staple from growing up), and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus again before blowing out a candle and chowing on cake.




Playing with Bendaroos.
[December 25, 2009]

Christmas Brunch

We went over to the Spence family's house for Christmas Brunch for some YUMMY food and great fellowship. They were kind enough to invite over anyone who didn't have family nearby to come over for brunch. We had a great time, and got to hang out with some new friends from church, too - the Stones and the Campbells.

It's really a cover - the guys were playing in the playroom, and little Nolan came to get back his book.
(Jason Spence, Scott Stone, Nolan, and Jonathan)

Ellison, Avery Spence, and Joshua Campbell having fun playing with the new train set.

Angela Campbell and Becky Spence

[December 25, 2009]

Christmas Morn


Christmas morning was the best with a 3 year old! Ellison always walks straight into our room after she wakes up to come crawl into bed with us in the morning. Jonathan and I were already awake in anticipation, when we saw her coming down the hallway toward our room, and pause for a moment at the top of the stairs, where she could see the new kitchen set Santa brought her. She came running into our room, shouting, "Mommy, mommy! Come quick! I have to show you something! Come here! Come on, Mommy! I have to show you something!". We barely had enough time to pull back the covers before we were being dragged by the hands to the stairs to, "Look! Look!". I was bummed we didn't have the video camera going for that part of the morning - the one of sheer surprise and delight.

Ellison was thrilled with her new Ariel jewelry set, complete with the necklace that has Ariel's "voice" in it, singing to the tune we hear out of Ellison's mouth several times a day. She immediately had to strip off her PJs to make room on her bod for the new dress-up dress, too.

Opening presents from family, too.



A new dress from the Sotos in Buffalo. She (and we) love it!
[December 25, 2009]

Christmas Eve

Ellison had been dying to wear her new red dress - asking to wear if every day since it found a home in her closet. To have "curly-curlies" in her hair, and her new shoes from Grandma & Grandpapa were icing on the cake.






As always, lovin' her some shoes...

Talking to Grandma on the phone before heading to church.


Playing her rendition of "Jingle Bells", singing loudly.



She just looks SOOOO old to me in this pic!

Our cheesy attempts at family self-portraits again.

After attending the Christmas Eve service, we came home and got all cozy by the fire.


The we baked some reindeer cookies for Santa and set them out with the milk. Ellison was devastated the next day to discover that we all forgot to set out the letter she made to Santa. Earlier on Christmas Eve, she suddenly popped up and said she was going to make Jesus and Santa a letter, and wrote them in her token "cursive", and decorated them with Disney princess stickers.
Going to bed wasn't much of an ordeal that night. I was just slightly panicked we weren't going to be able to use "We'll call Santa and tell him not to bring you some presents" anymore after today.
[December 24, 2009]

Now Those Are Some Big Boots...


Mommy got to open one of her Christmas presents early, out of necessity for her church outfit. :-)
Mookie thought they were super fun to try to break her ankles, er, walk, in.
[December 24, 2009]

Baking Jesus' Cake

Such a good helper baking Jesus' birthday cake.


[December 24, 2009]