MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

How cute are the girls in their Christmas dresses? Getting a decent picture was another story. One of these Christmas's Santa is going to leave me a very nice camera under the tree that will capture hundreds of perfect pictures, but until then I'll have to make do with whatever candids we come up with. We had a very nice low key holiday. The girls were so excited for Christmas this year. I'm not sure how much Molly really understood what was going on, but Ella's enthusiasm definitely rubbed off on her. She loved unwrapping presents, and got really mad whenever it was someone else's turn. The kitchen Santa brought her was a big hit.

Ella has been busy playing for the last five days. Everytime we go out she asks- "Are we going home soon so I can play with my toys?" She keeps asking me how the elves made all the different things in the workshop that she got for Christmas.

Its hard to believe that another year has gone by. We have been very blessed this year, and we're excited for all the possibilities this new year will bring. That being said, I'm about to go eat another piece of cake because my new year resolutions don't kick in for another three days. We love you all, and hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Are you on the nice list?

So this morning Todd showed the girls this website that tracks Santa on Christmas Eve. It also has a countdown to Christmas, and I think there were some games or something like that. What I loved was where you could check to see if you were on the naughty or nice list. So we got on and checked both of the girls. It asks them a few questions like- Do you go to bed on time every night? and so on and so forth. And I am pleased to announce that both of our girls made the nice list this year. Well, according to Santa Ella is barely hanging on. But that was good enough for her. We may have sacrificed any leverage we had on her before Christmas by giving her that news. Anyway, check it out- www.northpole.com.

Naughty or Nice

I have been so lazy at blogging lately- and I felt very justified, seeing as how the holidays are just around the corner. But when our funny little girl learned this new word, I knew I needed to make some time for the blog between everything else that is going on. Hopefully I'll be back before Christmas...

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The Christmas spirit has hit our house big time. Ella asks me on a daily basis when Christmas will be here. We've really had to reinforce that Christmas is about Jesus, not Santa. A great example happened during her bedtime prayer the other night- "Thank you that Santa can come to our house in his sleigh. Thank you for his reindeers. And thank you for Jesus Christ. And thank you that he has a good list and a bad list and he's checking it twice. But help us to be good, for goodness sake." She really had us cracking up!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween was so much fun this year. Ella is still asking me every day when Halloween is coming again. I've been pushing the Christmas angle, but the memory of Halloween is still too fresh in her little mind. Molly was a pro trick-or-treater. Ella was done about half-way through, and spent the rest of the time being pushed in the stroller so she could raid her candy bag. Molly couldn't wait to get to the next door. She would look up at us to make sure it was okay, then she would take off for the front door.

HAPPY FALL!

We finally got a chance to go apple picking this year- one of my favorite fall activities!

Ella insisted on having her own bag so she could pick her own apples.

Molly was good at finding the most rotten apples on the ground. We were constantly having to look in our bags to check for any treats she added to our bags.

Molly has become my biggest helper lately. She loves to vacuum. Okay, so maybe its not that helpful. But she tries! She has started setting the table lately, too. The plates are placed precariously close to the edge of the table, and half of the time the forks are on the chairs, but she really does get all of the stuff to the table by herself!

Decorating sugar cookies, another fall favorite. Ella spent most of the time eating the chocolate frosting. Better her then me.

Ella loves making crafts, so I have been scrambling around trying to find different things for us to do. These ghosts were one of them. Ella's ghost is the highly decorated one the left. Molly's is the somewhat pancake shaped ghost on the right.

I haven't been very good at updating our blog lately- so I thought I would just throw all of the random pictures I have lying around into one post and call it good! Lazy, I know. Happy Halloween everyone! I promise to blog our little Ariel and bumblebee after all the holiday fun.

Second Time Around

I just finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird. It was our bookclub book this month. I haven't read it since junior high, when it was a required read. It was so good, I want to pick it right back up and start reading it all over again. I don't remember thinking much about it either way when I read it in junior high. Its making me want to go back and read all the things that I read back then in order to fully appreciate them. Who knows what else I could be missing? I wish I hadn't have waited so long to read this again. Okay, I know I am branding myself as a total bookworm right now. But for all of you that haven't read this book since you had to do a character development paper on it, I strongly urge you to go back and read it again. I think you will find it a much different experience this time around. At least I did.

Poor Baby!!

My poor baby took a fall down some cement steps last night and got herself a pretty good gash on her forehead. She is such a trooper, she barely cried at all. I think Ella was more upset then Molly was. In her defense, there was a LOT of blood. We thought it looked pretty borderline, so it took a little while to decide whether or not it warranted a trip to Urgent Care. I finally decided it better to take her and have them tell me that she didn't need them, then to not take her and leave her with a huge scar on her head for life. The doctor looked at it and immediately said that it would need a couple of stitches, so apparently my idea of borderline and her idea of borderline were not quite the same. We got there about 8:00pm, and Molly spent most of that time charming the nurses and helping herself to all the stickers and suckers she could handle. I think she thought it was a great treat to get to stay up so late hanging out with Mommy. The only time she cried was when we had to bundle her up and hold her down so they could put the actual stitches in, and even then she was just mad that we weren't letting her move.

When we got home Ella had made Molly a picture of all her favorite things to help her feel better. She asked three times in her night time prayer that Heavenly Father will make Molly's owie all better. She is such a sweet sister! All day she's been playing Nurse Ella, informing Molly not to touch her bandaid if she wants it to get better, and more importantly to definitely not show Ella her boo-boo because "it is VERY gross, and I don't want to see it." Ella took a trip to Urgent Care at the same age for stitches in the same place, so apparently its a rite of passage in our house. We're just glad that she's fine. She was going to be a bumblebee for Halloween, but I think she might make a better Frankenstein this year...

Worthy of a Post

So a few weeks ago the girls lugged a bag of dried beans from the pantry into their room to play 'kitchen'. I let them enjoy that for a couple of days before I got tired of finding little bowls and cups of beans all over the place. The last straw was the bowl of beans and water I found marinating by the sink in their bathroom. About a week after I (thought) I had gotten rid of all of the beans, I was helping Ella into the bathroom to brush her teeth, and I found this little sprout coming out of the drain. I was confused for a second wondering how Ella had gotten the plant from until I realized that it had grown from one of the beans that must have gotten stuck in the drain. We got a pretty good laugh out of it. A few days ago Todd discovered two more sprouts making their way out of the drain. I have no idea how many got washed down the sink. It was pretty amazing. I finally got Ella to hold them for a picture. She didn't want to touch the sprouts. I asked what the problem was, she picks flowers all the time. She informed me "I only like to hold beautiful flowers, Mom. Not gross ones."

A Farewell to Summer

Camping at Pymatuning Lake with Grandma and Papa!

Mmm.. whipped cream in a can! The endless junk food was definitely Molly's favorite part of camping.

Molly has decided to start potty training herself. I think as soon as the newness wears off, she'll go back to doing her business in a diaper.

Day at the zoo with the fam!

The end of summer came with a rush of activities, and somewhere during all of that craziness I lost some of desire to blog them. So I thought I would stick them all together as a sort of farewell to summer... excuse the seemingly complete randomness of the photos. The end of summer is always somewhat bittersweet for me, but I have decided to embrace the cooler weather and all that comes with it. Goodbye Summer!! We'll miss you!

Too funny not to share...

Watch closely at the end of the video. It almost hurts to watch..

Uncle Bob's Wedding

My brother Eric (a.k.a. "Uncle Bob") got married last week to his beautiful bride, Holly. It was a gorgeous wedding, and I am so glad that we were able to go out there and be with them. Minus Todd. Sorry about that, honey. The girls loved their flower girl dresses and spent most of the reception out on the dance floor showing off the wonderful spin radius on them. That was Ella's only request for the dresses. That they be 'spinny'. Even Molly would go out and spin on cue. We got to see a lot of friends and family, and the girls got to spend some time with my grandparents. I'm just glad that someone finally got Eric to tie the knot. :) Welcome to the family, Holly!