BRUSH YOUR TEETH

I made Ella a canopy for her bed this weekend and while John and I were hanging it she wanted to get in on the decorating action. So she starts making everything in her room fancy. Here is her lamp looking POSH, Ella style!

SNACK TIME. Just a cute picture of the 3 of them.

Each morning if John is home before he heads out the door Ella likes to make him a picture to take to work. This morning she had some helpers...

She got a little carried away and thought Christopher would make a perfect sticker book!

After bath every night the boys love to brush their teeth. I got their toothbrushes and started the water and then went to help Ella get her pajamas on. I hear so much laughing and the boys got a little sidetracked with their task... Here they are.

All moms of young napping children hate the UPS man since they love to come deliver packages at nap time and ring the door bell a couple times just in case you didn't know from the dog barking, baby crying, and loud truck driving away that someone was at your door. Well today to my surprise I was excited to see him. He brought me a lovely blue box! It was a beautiful bracelet from a secret admirer. Although who am I kidding, its no secret everyone knows John admirers me...

GLASSES

Its been a crazy couple of days. I am ready for the weekend. John will be home from California so life will resume as it should.

This picture of Jack wearing dress up glasses made my day. He makes me laugh. Tonight he was looking at me and I winked. He thought that was fantastic so he made such an effort to do so as well. It was great. He shut both his eyes sooo tight. The harder he closed his eyes the better he thought he was doing. Ella and Christopher joined in and the smiles on their faces was priceless.

No one had long naps today so we have a very tired house. Good night Y'all...

CHRISTMAS IN JANUARY

Everyone knows that I love Christmas and birthdays and all celebrations especially when gifts are involved so I was so excited for my kids today.
Last night Sam was barking at the door so I opened it and to my surprise found a parcel. It was from Andy and Stephanie. They had sent the kids some presents for Christmas... The gifts were wrapped and the kids were asleep so everyone had to wait till the morning to see what kind of loot they got, oh wait no I didn't have to wait so naturally I peeked. I knew the kids would be happy. We are giving Stephanie the credit of picking out nice presents but I also know Andy is a fantastic shopper with great taste too. So thanks guys, the kids love their toys. Ella had made her purse before breakfast and I had read both Fancy Nancy books twice before 7am. The boys held their cars all day, I had to bribe them to leave them in our car when we went to the gym. Christopher took his to bed with him. I've attached some photos.

It's appropriate that they were given cars from our Boston relatives since they both have mastered the accent. Listen to them say CAR boston style. CAAAAr

FOOD

Christopher has a great appetite. One of the best. Experts say around this age toddlers are picky eaters and their appetite slows. Not so much where Christopher is concerned. It is really wonderful having a child who enjoys eating. He sits well and we can take him out to eat without too much trouble and you never worry about their calorie intake. Ella never ate much so this is fantastic - and the best part is he pretty much eats anything. Fruits, vegetables, dog food (well we try to make sure he doesn't, but he has on occasion). Poor Sam he is so skinny and he can't even get his own food left alone long enough to enjoy. Our grocery bill is through the roof now but oh well... back to Christopher... For example on Saturday morning Christopher was climbing the steps to go play upstairs with trains. I mention to John that I should give them a snack. Christopher hears SNACK and immediately slides down the stairs and runs not walks RUNS to the kitchen chair, climbs up and sits down. John and I are laughing since it was really very funny. I didn't even have a snack ready for him. He eats his snack, Jacks too and finishes off Ella's. He looks at me as if to say THAT'S IT??? I say yes honey you will eat again soon. He goes off to play.
So today after church we are walking to the car and he is saying cracker cracker. I tell him we are going to lunch and we will eat soon. We took the kids to Skeeters since I was craving hamburgers, and they had chicken tenders. Lunch was a success. On the way home Christopher is wanting something to eat. I give him a left over chicken tender (Ella's left over, not his) We notice that Jack is falling asleep. We start singing to him and just annoying him to keep him awake for a few more minutes when I look over and there is Christopher sound asleep with the CHICKEN STILL IN HIS MOUTH. I thought I would die laughing. It was such a Christopher moment. He was so content.
Funniest thing about it was that when John laid him down he tried to remove the chicken and Christopher's (still asleep) mouth is moving trying to eat the chicken.
I am surmising that he must be growing...

I included a cute picture of Ella - she wanted to take a picture of Christopher too.

WWF

The boys wrestle with each other all day long and have the best time pushing and shoving. Yesterday I heard Jack making a laughing crying sort of noise and went over and Christopher had him a in head lock. Jack was having fun but at the same time thought Well maybe this doesn't feel that great. Today Ella decided to get in on the action... Here she is playing with her boys.

SHOES

Shoes are so much fun especially when they are someone elses and really big. They laughed and laughed at themselves and each other trying to walk in Daddy's shoes. He's got some pretty big shoes to fill boys!!!

ZOOM ZOOM

John skipped out of work early yesterday to update the car... My parents gave him car tinting for his Christmas present. He was pretty excited. Here are the pics of the new zoom zoom.

Ella

She just looked so cute to me today. We were leaving the house to go to the Y and she just smiled so cute. I asked her to do it again and this is as good as I got. Not the orignal drop dead smile but gorgeous none the less.

A couple more of her this morning. What a great smile...

HEADS UP

I was on the phone with Erin this morning and the kids were all playing nicely in the boys room. I had just changed the batteries on their crib toy so Christopher and Jack wanted to get in and play. I put them in their cribs and they were dancing and having a great time. The opportunity for me to get Ella dressed was there so I took it. We went into her room and as I am helping her with her clothes I hear a loud THUD. I run into the boys room to find Christopher in a heap crying... Poor thing dove head first out of his crib... Hopefully since it wasn't a great experience he won't be attempting that again.

Long time no post...

Well I took a blog break. Things have been busy as life is for everyone, so I just took a break. Things have been the same around here. Lots of playing and a little more talking for the boys.
We were looking at houses thinking of making a move but have decided against it. The market doesn't really have a lot and I feel like we would be settling plus our house is great. A little small maybe but I do like it so we have decided to stay where we are.
Here are some pictures of the kids over the last few days.

Christopher loves his food. Chocolate pudding does not solidify with soy milk quite as well but he thought it was fantastic.

We went to Shelley with Linda and the kids and had lots of fun. Santa brought them a bounce house too.

Thanks to Alexia Tyler and Dylan can now dress up with boy dress up. They think its fantastic and Ella couldn't agree more. The last few days she has decided being a princess is not as much fun as a police man, fire man and our Texan favorite COWGIRL!

KIDTOPIA

We are back in the land of the warm air. We had a great time in Canada and the kids loved the snow. It was actually very mild weather until the last three days before we left to come home. It was absolutely freezing.... We took the kids to an indoor play gym called Kidtopia where they had so much fun. It was a successful outing.

We then went to dinner after, not quite as successful!!! It was so awesome that Dea was there since she loves the kids and the kids absolutely adore her. She played with them and kept them happy while we waited and waited and waited some more for our food...

Check out this website. www.onemonthtolive.com John and I are doing it through our church... It's fantastic.

MONSTER TRUCK RALLY

The boys have had so much fun with these trucks. The trucks have been a major source of conflict since there are 3 kids and only 2 trucks. We went back to TOYS R US but they were gone. So we have improvised and found a way for all the kids to have fun.

FUN WITH GRANDPA

While the girls were making dinner and John was working (all day on New Years) we sent the kiddos to play with Grandpa. Naturally he found a video THE POLAR EXPRESS and everyone was happy. Ella has never seen a full length video before so this was a first and she thought it was great. The boys would come and go through it and turn the TV buttons which made everyone crazy... They also threw things down the stairs. They amuse themselves well, at the expense of everyone's toys and treasures though, so its a bit costly.

It appears that Jack is a music prodigy. Grandpa is proud that someone in his lineage will keep the passion alive.

The boys love trains. All three boys. So they have plenty in common. Here the boys are fascinated with Grandpa building a build for his super duper train table.

Happy New Year...

WINTER WONDERLAND

It was so fantastic to wake up this morning to 2008 and see the snow falling. It was so pretty and before we had breakfast we were all outside playing in the snow. It took us what seemed like quite a while to get everyone in their snowsuits but Ella was so thrilled to make snow angels and snowmen that it was worth it. Jack and Christopher weren't as excited with the cold wet snow but they co operated for awhile. We had no mittens for them but John thought outside the box and put socks on their hands. Great thinking Johnny!

After we made a snowman we had to make him a mate. So here is her snow princess. I went inside to get her a tiara but by the time I had come back out Grandma and Ella had improvised and made her some hair... Very creative. Shes so proud!!!

CHUCK E CHEESE

The family made an outing to Chuck E Cheese. Jack and Christopher thought any game that had a ball was for them to take with them. The bucket game is definately a few balls short...

It was so busy there, everyone seemed to have the same great idea! We had fun and then went to Swiss Chalet for dinner. A Canadian favorite for me. My parents accomodate me nicely while visiting.