Happy Birthday to Nicolas!

Nic celebrated his 5th brithday at Bouncin Craze with 17 of his friends and a whole bunch of family. He decided he wanted a Wolverine and the X-Men birthday and also decided to dress up as a ninja. He is VERY creative and we try our best to let him experience things how he sees them. He enjoyed playing, eating pizza, opening his presents, and of course making a birthday wish.

I can't believe Nic is now a big,independant five year old- man how does time fly. It seems like just yesterday he was as Ella's age and we trying to figure out how to raise a child. We made it through the first 5 years and so did Nic with lots and lots of trial and error. Thankfully he has been the best baby, toddler, and preschooler we could ever ask for. Nic is kind, generous, smart, and a little ornery at times and we love him so much. Here are some things he has acomplished in his 5th year:

Writes his full name
Recognizes all letters of the alphabet and their sounds
Played his first team sport - basketball
Attended his first public school (John Ross Pre-K)
Can swim without a life jacket
Has his own and very independant sense of style
Doesn't like his clothes or shoes getting dirty
38" tall and 38 pounds
Enjoys going to Peace Preschool with his Mimi as his teacher
Loves to collect legos and teddy bears
Enjoys riding his four wheel, bike and scooter
Spends most evenings playing with his neighborhood friends
Knows his address and phone number
Still likes to cuddle with mom and dad in bed
Enjoys his little sister
Favorite movie is Night at the Museum
Favorite park is the 'space ship' park (Chitwood)
Loves going to the zoo and any museums
Favorite animals: Dinosaurs and Penguins

He has been a great kid, brother and son and we love him all our heart!

We Love Balloons and Bubbles

Tonight we blew up a few balloons that we had got for Nic's birthday tomorrow. Ella was AMAZED by the whole process. Nic and I would blow it up and give it to her while the air let out. She absolutely LOVED playing with them. After that Nic and her took a bath, and Nic made it a SUPER bubble bath! They are so cute together, and really enjoy each other's company. I'm so glad Ella has such a sweet older brother to protect and help her as she grows up.

Our Fun Saturday

We had a great (but busy) Saturday today! Chris and I took turns running errands for Nic's 5th birthday party tomorrow, while the other stayed home with the kids. On my 'shift' Nic and I played good guy, bad guy, which basically consists of chasing each other around the house with play guns. I have found myself so busy with Ella lately, that it's been a while since I've taken real time to play with Nic. I made myself let Ella play by herself for awhile when we were playing and found her minutes later under the dinning room table! I guess we're going to have to get out the pack-and-play? Anyway, here are some pictures of Nic being goofy, Ella hiding under the table, playing with her toys and one of her and Nic. We had a great Saturday playing!

She's CRAWLING...OH NO!!

So Ella started to crawl as of Thursday night (Feb. 18th) at 6 months 5 days old. I had left Ella in Nic's room while getting her PJ's when Nic yelled "Ella is crawling". In disbelief I casually peeked in his room to see my little squirt on all fours making her way towards her brother! She's getting better everyday...I can't believe it's already happening. Here she is this afternoon. This is not one of her best efforts, I'll try to get a better video soon.

6 month pictures

Boy was this a challange!. Ella wanted nothing to do with getting her pictures taken this past weekend. She cried the whole time and just wanted her momma to hold her. Here are a few of our sweet ladybug.

Half a year already.

Here we are again with yet another month down. This month was a blast, one of my faovrite so far. Ella's presonalilty is really shining through and it's fun 'getting to know her'. She is the sweetest, busiest, funniest little girl and we couldn't love her more! Here are a few things from this month:

24 inches (60%)
15.1 pounds (30%)
Loves reaching for people.
Found her head - she does this silly little head banging move over and over.
Can get up on all fours.
Takes 1-2 hour morning nap, and 1-2 hour afternoon naps
Can scoot herself around.
Can sit up in her crib by herself (I about lost it the first time I went to go get her and there she was sitting up!)
Likes grabbing her toes.
Tried her baby cookies for the first time
Grabs everything in site.
Likes sitting on her hip while on the floor
Drank from her sippy cup
Wears size 2-3 diapers and 9-12 month clothes
Her blonde hair is growing back in
Loves 'walking' around the house while holding her hands.
Spent her 2nd night away from us
Can pull herself to her knees to look in her toy basket.
Loves the vaccum
Climbs all over you while holding her.
Recognizes strangers and get the most terrible look on her face. Poor girl.
Has become a momma's girl

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH ELLA AND CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU WILL LEARN NEXT.

Her new interest

Ella had taken a great interest in the vacuum cleaner in the past few weeks. Everytime I vacuum she gruts until I pick her up so she can help. I'm slightly addicting to vacuumming (I know...weird), but it's just something about those pretty little lines in the carpet that makes me feel good. Tonight after vaccuming her room I left the vacuum out in the hall, obviously in her sight becuase she grunted for about 5 minutes trying to tell me what she wanted. This is also a new thing, grunting, and when she starts it's like a guessing game, trying to figure out what she wants until she will quit. Well, after going through every toy in her basket in her room, it finally dawned on me that she could see the vacuum in the hall. So I brought it in her room and instantly the grunting stopped and she was mesmerized by it for the next 10 minutes. Hey, it might not be the cleanest 'toy', but it did the trick (and it gave me time to get dinner started!)

Ella has her 6 month pictures this weekend, so we had a little semi-dress rehersal tonight. She however, didn't want any part of it as you tell in the pictures. It didn't hit me until I looked at the pictures tonight how big she looks. She is changing so much everyday and it takes me back looking at her mature little face and body, comparing her to six short months ago. She is changing so much, so fast and I'm afraid I'm going to look back in 5 years and faintly remember these days! It also makes me realize it even more when Nic (almost 5 years old) was in our bed tonight writing his own valentine day cards out to his friends. How do they go from not being able to talk to filling out and assembling valentine cards so fast...where does the time go? I have had to take a few steps back lately, and remind myself to enjoy every second because it is something I will never get again. I sometimes wish there was a pause button in life...

Great Wolf Lodge

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend at Great Wolf Lodge this past weekend. This was Nic's second year to go so he was excited to 'show Ella around'. To our suprise, it took Ella awhile to warm up to the water park. We thought that since she loved her baths so much she would be in heaven in the pool. She did finally enjoy splashes around and Nic enjoyed all the big kid rides. Nic had a really great time with the MagiQuest, where he had a magic wand that would make pictures talk and tresure boxes open throughout the hotel. It's a really neat weekend get-a-way for winter - thanks Mimi and Papa. We got home around 6 on Sunday and to say the least we were all ready to be home. Ella's eyes shut as soon as we walked into her room, almost like she was telling us "OH, I'm so glad to be in my room", and slept from 7PM-9AM the next morning. Chris said both the kids were exhausted Monday morning. We had a great family get-a-way!