Happy 2nd Birthday, Elijah!

How is it possible...that this little guy...

isn't one year old...

...but TWO years old today?!?!

Elijah didn't really care about opening presents this year, but his sisters were happy to help him! Sienna even put on a Christmas dress for the occasion!

Mike let each of the girls pick a present for Elijah from the dollar store. Isabella chose these firemen,

and Sienna bought Elijah a teddy bear.

New books and a cute stuffed rat from Aunt Katy and Uncle Nathan! (Elijah was born in the Chinese Year of the Rat).New jammies... ...and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots (Tracy and Mike's favorite childhood game) from Aunt Tracy, Uncle Jeff, Trevor and Sydney We gave Elijah a new helicopter...

...but he was much more interested in playing with the box!

Who needs new toys...

...when the box can provide just as much (if not more!) fun?!?

Check out this goofball!!

Here's the helicopter that came from that cool box!!!

Elijah loves all things related to transportation-especially dumptrucks, so I made him a dumptruck cake this year! The birthday boy checking out his birthday cake!

One of Elijah's newer words is "dumptruck." Now he can say, "dumptruck cake!"


He got this cool Monster Truck from his friend, Sammy.
Happy birthday, Elijah!!
Yum!!
This tired puppy is ready for bed after a fun birthday!!

Father/Daughter Dance

Our local YMCA and Rec Department organized a Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dance for kids in first through fifth grade. Isabella couldn't wait to go to the dance with Mike and several of her friends!

When Isabella was asked to be a flower girl in our friend, Becky's, wedding three years ago, I made this dress just to see if I could make a flower girl dress. I used the material from the skirt that I wore in my friend, Sarah's, wedding in 2001. I was glad that Isabella could finally wear the dress since it was way too big when I first made it!

This bow is supposed to go on the back of the dress, but Isabella wanted to wear it in her hair!
Mike took Isabella out for dinner before the dance.

Sienna was ready for her pajama and popcorn party with her friend, Lauren.

Ready to party!

Since Lauren's older brother and sister went to the dance with their mom and dad, she came over to have a pajama party with Sienna.

They ate popcorn, snuggled up on the couch, and watched Monsters, Inc.

Isabella and Mike had a lot of fun at the dance. Mike said it could have been called "Ditch Your Dad Night!" Luckily, he knew a bunch of the other dads (and moms) from our neighborhood and from basketball. Isabella and her other first grade friends ran around, did the limbo and led a conga line around the dance floor. Afterwards, they went out for ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. Isabella came home with a beautiful rose from the dance and chocolate on her face. She was so wound up when she got home!

They showed me how they danced.

This will be a fun tradition for Mike to continue with the girls for the next few years, and hopefully, Elijah will go to the dance with me some day!!

Final December Posts

Happy New Year!

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Disney on Ice

More Snow Fun

Another Gingerbread Masterpiece

Preschool Sing-Along

Since Sienna's holiday sing-along was snowed out last month, it was rescheduled for tonight and it became a winter sing-along instead.

We decorated one last gingerbread house.
The children listened to The Gingerbread Man.

They pretended to be gingerbread children through an obstacle course before they went back to the cafeteria to decorate gingerbread people. It was fun for us to do something special with just Sienna!

More...

Finding Ornament (the Elf)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Merry Christmas

Catching up...

Update:
Here are a few more...

La Salette Shrine

Puzzle Time

Giving Back

Home Sick

Snow Fun

Up on the Housetop

I finally starting posting some of our pictures from December. You can either scroll down to December or click on each of the links.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Enchanted Village

A Weekend of Christmas Traditions-Old and New


Here are a couple more:

More Christmas Traditions

Gingerbread Houses


Stay tuned for more! I'm on a roll!

Tom!!

Elijah loves our neighbor, Thomas, who happens to be the nicest 11 year-old boy you'll ever meet! He's really sweet with Elijah and he doesn't seem to mind Elijah's obsession with him.
When it gets to be close to the time to walk down to the busstop to get Isabella, Elijah watches for Thomas out the window. We happened to open our front door right as Thomas was walking by the other day and Elijah yelled, "TOM!!" so loud that poor Thomas jumped about a foot. It was so funny!! Here's Elijah watching for Thomas yesterday.

Thomas and Elijah walking to the busstop

Mini Dada

UPDATE: I added a picture of Mike when he got home from work tonight. Guess what he was wearing...

I pulled this hand-me-down shirt out of Elijah's closet this morning and he immediately said, "Dada!!" The girls said that he looked like a mini Dada, too! They suggested that I put black (actually, charcoal) pants on him with a belt, but we settled on blue jeans (which is Mike's casual look). I wonder why they said that!! Is it the princess cup?!?

Is this any indication? Don't be fooled by the colorful casual shirts. At least 90% of Mike's work shirts are blue or blue and white. No wonder they all thought that Elijah looked like Dada!

I think so, too!!

See?!?!?!?

Dada and Mini Dada!

Uh-oh...

... Spaghetti O's!!!!!!

Being the procrastinator that I am, it's no surprise that I'm way behind on my blog posts. I have so many pictures that I need to post from Christmas, Halloween and even the summer. I promise to get on those this week. (Okay, Kim?!?!) :)

Lost Tooth #3!

Isabella lost her third tooth yesterday afternoon while she was at her friend, Hope's, house!! Last night she wondered if the tooth fairy ever brings toys (instead of money).


This morning after telling me that the tooth fairy left her $1, she asked me why some of her friends get more money from the tooth fairy. One friend claimed that she got $4 for one tooth (which I know isn't true). I convinced Isabella that her friend was talking about the total amount that she has gotten from the tooth fairy for all of the teeth that she has lost.

Isabella sure asks a lot of questions and she's always thinking!!! She has asked several times who God's dad is!! We still don't have an answer for that one!!!!