Preschool Visit

This year I have been able to help out in each of the girls' classrooms once a month. Yesterday was my day to be in Sienna's preschool class.

Lauren, Sienna and Lily hanging out in the block area

Playing with animals
Sienna did a "Sensory Walk" through flour, popcorn kernels, beans, packing peanuts and paint
Lily, Michael, Molly, Luke and Sienna having snack

Circle Time

Cat in the Hat musical chairs

Happy 1st Birthday, Elijah!!

After this unbelievable year, we are thrilled to celebrate Elijah's first birthday!!! He is a special little boy who we are thankful for every single day. Our family wouldn't be complete without him!

Now that he's on the move, we can barely keep up with him! Every once in a while, Elijah will disappear, and I'll find him standing at the toilet. Yuck!! I need to remember to keep the bathroom door closed! He has also discovered the stairs.

Elijah makes a beeline for the refrigerator when the door is open. He has also figured out how to open drawers and cabinets. The other day he discovered the vases in the hutch in the dining room.
Elijah can make a mess in a matter of seconds. Notice the stuff from the bottom of the tree scattered all over the floor. Doesn't Elijah look happy with himself?!? Elijah is teething like crazy. One of his molars has broken through with three more on the way. A couple of weeks ago I took Elijah to the doctor because he was really poking at his ears. Even though he didn't have a fever or any other symptoms, we thought that he might have an ear infection. As it turns out, he was only teething!!!! I assured the nurse that I'm really not a crazy parent who brings her kids in to the doctor for every little thing. I'm not sure that she believed me!

Elijah is experimenting with his voice. He has mastered, "Dada!" and he definitely associates that word with Mike now. He also does all sorts of babbling, but we're still working on "Mama!" This was a video I took the other night when Mike came home from work. He and Elijah are two peas in a pod!

Elijah has figured out how to push himself backwards on his ride-on toys. Now we have to teach him how to go forwards!

In addition to cruising around all of our furniture, Elijah is working on walking while holding our hands. He certainly knows where he wants to go.

It seems that Elijah is going to need his first official haircut much earlier than the girls ever did. They were both pretty bald still at a year. You can't really tell from this picture, but Elijah is starting to get a mullet (just like Papa used to have!). We have a funny video of Mike when he was probably about 12. He was video taping himself and talking about his hair which was a mullet at the time. He said, "Long hair in the back, short in front...America's hairstyle!" Too funny! Elijah is well on his way to having "America's hairstyle!" Papa picked out this outfit for Elijah's birthday!
We can't wait to see how Elijah grows and develops in the coming months and years. We love you, baby boy!!!

Elijah's Birthday Celebration!

After my failed attempt to make penguin cupcakes, we decided to go with dogs for Elijah's birthday. I made dachshunds, pugs, collies and dalmatians. Can you tell? These designs came from the Hello, Cupcake! book again.
Elijah was impressed!

Or not...

Hmmm... What is this?!

That tastes good!

I can do it myself!

This one's for you, Uncle Nathan! Too bad I didn't have chocolate ice cream to go with it! We'll save my first ice cream cone for when we see you this summer!

Decisions, decisions...

Sienna chose a collie.

Isabella is still thinking.

Elijah has just about polished off his cupcake!

After much deliberation, Isabella finally chose a collie, too. Mmm...

That was it?!?

All cleaned up and ready for presents

You know you're too big for your carseat when...

...you can do this!!!

Since Elijah is turning one and he's over 20 pounds (and clearly too big for his infant seat), it was time to turn him around and put him in a regular carseat.
Do you think he was happy about this?!? What a big boy!!!

February Vacation-Part 1

We enjoyed a fun February Vacation with the girls home from school for a week. Luckily, our MOMS Club calendar was full of lots of great activities.

We started out the week with a family visit to the Museum of Science. The batteries in my camera ran out right away, so this is the only picture I have from our visit.
Isabella and Sienna spent Monday morning at gymnastics camp with their friends, Lauren and Sarah.

Sienna and Lauren's first taste of gymnastics class

Isabella and Sarah made snowmen during craft time

After gymnastics, we went to a "Make Your Own Pizza" playdate at a friend's house.

Charlotte, Isabella and Sienna rolled out their own dough and chose toppings

Josh, Sara, Connor, John and Luke enjoyed their pizzas

Another day we went to a gym class where the girls got to ride on this fun swing that was attached to a track like a zip line.

Elijah is starting to enjoy these classes now, too!Sienna the monkey

Elijah had an audience of various girls throughout the class. Brienna spent the majority of the time with him.

Parachute Fun!
Go, Sienna, go! (like Diego on his zipline)

We were supposed to go to a friend's house for outdoor snow play. Since most of the snow had melted, she brought a little bit of snow inside for the kids.
Elijah tormented Miles (who is two!) by following him and pulling his hair multiple times. Poor Miles!