1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You!

* Happy Birthday Thing 1 & Thing 2 *

we celebrated EVERETT and ELLIE'S 2nd BIRTHDAY last night!

ev's birthday is on sunday and ellie's is in 3 weeks. but because chris is between semesters right now and uncle tony & aunt layna are visiting, we decided to throw a big hoopla for these two sweet babes! as you can see, it was a dr. seuss theme and was SO much fun to plan and think of! if you aren't a die-hard ellie fan, proceed with caution because we've got pictures up the wazoo!

the cute invites larissa made:

ellie wouldn't be ellie without a few cuts and scrapes on her face!

J and E picked out a thomas the train sticker book for ev... i think he liked it...

slowly through out the evening ellie added layer upon layer of her new clothing.

here she is showing grandpa her new panties (yes im crazy and contemplating potty training even though we JUST went through it with jack). she is always so proud to show grandpa everything!

i wish we had recorded them trying to blow out their candles, it was a hoot! by the time they werent mesmerized by the flames, they didnt know which direction to blow in!

i guess you arent allowed to use hands when eating your birthday cake

ellie's first dress-up dress. she ran away from it when she opened it. but by the end of the party she had warmed up to it....

....so we added a wig and tiara...

...but that didnt last long! baby steps, i guess, baby steps
jack shed a few tears because he just couldnt grasp that it wasn't HIS birthday party. but i think even through his tears and tantrums he managed to have a good time, thanks to ev and his thomas the train sticker book!

being a parent to ellie has been like a wild roller coaster ride. we have had so many ups and downs with her personality. for the past 6 months or so she has really warmed up and become a much more cuddly and happy little person. dont get me wrong, there is still plenty of grrrs, grunts, and growls from her. but now she likes to be held (sometimes) smile (occasionally) and snuggle (every once in a while)! we do love our little ellie bellie and hope she has a happy and healthy year ahead!

exciting news!

IT'S GONE!

we chopped off ellie's rat tail!!!! you know, the one she created herself by pulling out almost all of her hair in the back except that one little section right in the middle that she couldn't reach? yup, thats the one! gone! hopefully never to return!!!

here's what it looked like before her cut, it was getting just ridiculous:

oh snap!

HOLY COW! the past few weeks have been FREEZING here in florida! literally FREEZING! we have had a major cold snap in southwest florida!
check out what the cold has done to our yard. not that it was anything fancy to begin with... but still!

(these are all different palms by the way)

pretty pathetic huh! i say we just light a match and start over from scratch, but something inside me says thats not a very smart idea. even the skin on my hands have cracked because its been so dry. out of the 15 years that i have lived in florida, i dont think it has ever been this cold for so many consecutive days, let alone my skin cracking. i think i better chat with al gore about all this global warming mumbo jumbo!

to stay warm, we have had to take refuge in the great indoors.
my favorite thing we did was go see

SHERLOCK HOLMES
it was AWESOME! i didnt really have any expectations. in fact, i was really apprehensive because the previews looked as though there could be a few risque scenes. but my mom and dad were stoked and went to see it opening week. my parents are not typically movie-goers. in fact, i think the last time my dad went to the theater was 2 years ago. when they came back from the movie my dad said to my mom, "when do you want to go see it again?". chris and i knew we needed to go see it. and we did! and we both loved it! it's very clean. the worst parts of it are in the previews. i was really impressed with the partnership of robert downey jr and jude law. they were phenomenal. they were funny and witty at all the right times without over doing it. they made a great team as holmes and watson. all in all it was very enjoyable and i would highly recommend seeing it. especially in the theater!

if you're happy and you know it...

this months theme for preschool is "feelings". i was lucky enough to get the week that we learned about being happy. along with a couple songs and games, we also made some big smiles and then danced in a parade...well, sort of...you'll have to see for yourself!

(sometimes blogger REALLY irritates me. for whatever reason, it kept uploading this picture of luke sideways and i couldnt get it right. sorry natalie)

the game we played was called the "smile tag" game. one person was it and had a huge grin on their face while everyone else was somber. then the person who was smiling would pretend to wipe it off their face and throw it to someone else, who then had to catch it and put it on their face. and so on. the whole time the game is being played, only the person smiling is allowed to laugh and giggle. the kids really really really enjoyed this game. i wished i had video taped them cause there was a lot of laughing going on!

we are also learning about the letter "M" this week. and when i asked the kids to think of words that start with M, jack responded "fish". then "jackfish". then "grouper fish". he's got a one track mind!

* NeW YeAr'S EvE 2009 *

one of my favorite things about being a parent is that, when your kids are young, you can dress them up pretty much however you want and they still think its cool... even if it's not! for example, i made dweedle dee and dweedle dum these awesome party hats that they wore all night!

jack's expression the ENTIRE night... love it!

and my expression all night!

after we did a few little fountain fireworks of our own, my parents neighbor (who happens to be a wealthy dentist) put on a firework show that could rival Stadium of Fire. seriously! i kid you not! it was INCREDIBLE! we had the closest seats you could ever hope for, without fighting crowds or having to pay a dime! in fact, they were so close that the lanai and our cars were covered in ash and chunks of fireworks. we could even hear the debris landing in the bay and the pool and it sounded just like it was raining. we were so surprised because they have never done any fireworks in the past, let alone putting on a show that probably cost several thousand dollars! it was awesome and the kids had the night of their lives! thanks neighbors!