I am way behind on blogging! I am going to blame it on a super busy December, immediately followed by terrible pregnancy nausea starting January 1st. Here is my feeble attempt to catch up...
I can't believe my baby is two! She has been such a blessing and a joy to our family. She and Jack are best friends, partners in crime, and at times, each others worst nightmare. She is talking so much and has so much personality. Steve tells me that I'm going to need to help him say no to her when she's older. When she sees her Dad in the morning she says, "Dad I miss you." She still loves her babies. She takes very good care of them. She also loves babies in general. Anytime we see one she tells me how cute it is. She loves to sing and can sing the ABC song, I am a Child of God, I love to see the Temple, almost every word, just to name a few. Her other favorite songs are "Buckaroo" and "Horsey, Horsey". She can also count to 10 (from playing a lot of hide and seek with her brother). She is very independent! She loves to put her own clothes on, her own shoes, etc. She is obsessed with the potty and likes going number 1 and 2 in the potty, although mom is not quite ready to potty train her yet. She absolutely loves nursery! She loves to spot helicopters, but is still super scared of the garbage truck.
Here are Ella's 2 year old stats: She weighed 21lbs (1st percentile-that's their way of saying she's not on the growth chart while trying not to cause concern) height- 33.25 inches (34th percentile). We think she is just perfect!
She loved her birthday cupcakes!
The birthday song is another one of her favorites. She would sing it to herself for a long time after her birthday.
Once she got a taste of present opening, I had to put the Christmas presents that were under the tree away. She could not help herself.
She loves this purse. She packs it full of goodies when we are going somewhere.
She also LOVES this stroller. It is so cute. It collapses and is really easy to push on the carpet. She puts a blanket over top like moms do in the grocery store and tells me her baby is sleeping.
Jack did most of it himself while Ella was napping.
But he saved a few for his sister to do after she woke up.
Our neighborhood did a bonfire, fundraiser for a family in need in place of doing neighbor gifts this year. We went and participated, but didn't linger too long. It was pretty cold, even with the fires.
We rode front runner downtown with the Bingham family to see the Christmas lights. It was fun and so beautiful with the snow, but oh was it cold! The train was delayed on the way home so we ended up waiting outside for it for about 30 minutes. The kids were little icicles by the time we got on the train. The fun still outweighed the cold, though.
I've never seen Jack do this before, but he could not resist stopping to catch some snowflakes in his mouth. Kids are the cutest!
Mom and Ella waiting for the train. This girl was such a good sport. I took her boots off on the train to check them out, and her feet were sooo cold.
Ella had a slip and fall accident the middle of November. I was at work and got a call from Steve. I was surprised since he never calls me at work. I wasn't sure he even knew the number. He told me that Ella had fallen and hit the railing and split her head open. I was able to leave work and meet up with them to take Ella to Instacare. I had a hard time deciding if we should take her up to Primary Children's to have a plastic surgeon close it, but I remember when I worked up there that people would wait hours for a consult at times and I just didn't have it in me to wait. The Pediatrician was able to use dermabond to close it, which I think was a good choice since a few days after she bumped it hard again. I know it would have opened back up if she had facial stitches that have to be removed after just a few days. She'll have a scar for sure, but it's healing up nicely. It just gives her character!
Steve said the worst part was that it was bleeding so much and all going right in her eye.
Here she is with the numbing cream on. She was not a fan of this part. I was debating getting rid of her binkie around this time (which we have since done) but I'm really glad she had it for this night. It sure helped her relax.
All better! I still can't believe that she got a head gash before her wild big brother. Who would have guessed?
Ella was not afraid to get her hands dirty carving pumpkins
Jack, on the other hand, still won't touch the "gooey". He saw a picture of himself carving a pumpkin when he was 2 years old and he had a sucker, so now he thinks it's a tradition. He insisted on having a sucker while he carved.
The finished product!
Photo credit to Jack for this one. We're centered and everything!
My cute little ladybug! All creative credit goes to my friend Jess on this one. She made this for her daughter a few years ago.
Jack wanted to be Optimus Prime from his favorite cartoon "Rescue Bots". In retrospect I should have ordered up a size, but his little wedgie bum was actually pretty cute.
Checking out the loot! Jack and his friend Charlie were die hard trick-or-treaters. They were gone for a couple of hours and even had to have a potty break on an electrical box. Thanks for that Dad (insert sarcasm).
Ella didn't get as much candy in her brief debut, but Jack was a good sharer and she loved answering the door with me at home.
We signed Jack up for soccer this fall. While I don't think he has a career in professional soccer in his future, he had a lot of fun. It was fun to see him make friends with his teammates, and how much he improved throughout the season. His coaches were two of the moms, and they were super positive with the boys. Jack has a competitive nature, so that part was right up his alley. The more we would yell encouragement from the side lines, the more he would dig in and run, with a super intense look on his face. Too funny! The great news is, he has 8 more games coming up this spring.
You better believe this was an amazing in bounds kick!
Jack and his buddies Harper and Miles
These kids required constant instruction. In this picture I think everyone on both teams were standing out of bounds.
To Jack, the game objective was not to score a goal, he saw it more as a foot race.
So, I haven't blogged in a few months, which leaves quite a bit of catching up to do. We'll see how I can manage... The beginning of October, my sister Heather and I decided winter was on it's way and we should take advantage of the warm weather. We took the kids to the Ogden Dinosaur Park, and they had a great time.
Ella didn't get the "scared face" memo.
Jack and Brody. These two are pretty good buddies.
Ella riding her first dinosaur. She went up the tree trunk pictured behind her and down the slide all by herself, which I thought was pretty brave. I was scared I was going to have to go in after her for the rescue.
Heather is such a fun Aunt!
This boy enjoys life so much! Especially when we are anywhere but home. He loves to be out seeing the world!
WARNING: This post has a lot of pictures. But, I figure if I spent $750 on Disneyland tickets, I better chronicle our trip well. It's part of getting your money's worth!
Our first day we had ideal Disneyland weather. It was 70 and overcast all day! Here we are with our little princess outside Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Ella was asleep in the stroller for this picture. I loved Disneyland all decorated for Halloween. Disney goes all out, and it looked amazing. Here's one happy boy with his huge lollypop. He called it lollypop moon for some reason and he had it for most of the trip. I left it in a ziploc bag in the glove compartment of the car so it ended up being a multi-use sucker.
This was Ella's first character experience. She wasn't so sure about him. Jack didn't know who he was either. We'll have to go back in a few years after Jack has watched Star Wars and knows what a storm trooper is. Jack's first major Disneyland ride was Space Mountain. I guess I didn't remember what it was, and Steve hadn't been on it before, but needless to say it was a bad choice! It's basically a real roller coaster in the pitch dark, that had scary ghosts screaming at you since it was Halloween ghost edition. He was traumatized! After he said that he felt like he wanted to scream, yell, and throw up! We later saw a warning sign that said it was scary and not for young children. Disneyland tip: just because your child is tall enough to ride the ride, doesn't mean they should!
My kids loved petting the goats. It felt a little funny to go see farm animals that they've seen a dozen times with our precious Disney time, but we tried to let the kids do and see what they wanted to, with our forced agenda every now and then.
Ella in the goat pen. She loved petting the goats! I love how clean Disneyland is, even in the goat pen. They had a sweeper in the pen following the goats around waiting for any imminent droppings.
Our first day at Disneyland was Friday, so it was open late. We took an afternoon break and then went back for some night fun. Steve and the kids road the Astro Orbiter, which after Jack's earlier scary ride experience, he had to be bribed to ride. He had his eye on a mickey light up sword, and the promise of it was enough to get him on the ride. We were going to watch Fanstasmic, but it seemed to hard with the kids, so we settled for watching the fireworks and going on a few more rides.
We spend day 2 at California Adventure. We loved it over there. Disneyland is great, but I think some of the rides are there because they are nostalgic. Since Steve and I don't remember going on Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan as kids, they just seem like outdated rides with cardboard cutouts to us. But California Adventure is new, and high tech, and amazing. That, and the fact that Jack was more into the Pixar characters, and since Ella was too little for a vote, we mostly did what he wanted. I definitely want to go back when Ella is older and into princesses. Then I'm sure we will spend more time over at Disneyland. I love this picture of Steve and Jack at Paradise Pier.
Ella meeting her one princess for the trip, Princess Sophia. She was wearing a Sophia shirt which made it extra cool to her. She wasn't sure about any of the characters while we were there. She wanted to look at them and touch them, but not hug them or anything crazy like that. Now that we're home, she absolutely loves looking at the pictures with herself and the characters. Just seeing them makes her laugh.
The girls with Sophia. I just couldn't bring myself to wait in line for 75 minutes to see the princesses at the Royal Hall. Not with my 21 month old that doesn't even care if we see them, hence our only princess shot. One of my kids very favorite things we saw was Disney Junior live on stage. It was so fun for them, and had the characters they really know like Jake, Sophia, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Doc McStuffins. Jack loved singing along with the show. He also loved the things falling from the sky like the snow, and the gold doubloons. It was too cute to watch, and a nice air conditioned break for the kids.
Cars land was our favorite. Radiator Springs is so much fun. You can barely see Jack in the back middle. He liked/disliked this ride. He loved the slow part at the beginning with all of the cool "Cars" references, and he like the fact that you were racing another car, but he did not like the fast part.
He said he felt like he was going to fall out. Despite being nervous, he was a good sport and rode it 4 times total (the last two took a little bribing). Watching this video makes me feel a little guilty. He was genuinely scared. Good thing he trusts his Daddy.
Jack wanted to meet Buzz Lightyear above any other character. Some of the characters had pretty long lines and we would skip over meeting them, so that made Jack a little nervous. I told him when we saw Buzz I would wait in the longest line ever so we could meet him. Jack kept reminding me through the day, "remember your promise, Mom?" Luckily, when we tracked Buzz down, the line wasn't even long. He was a little nervous to meet his life sized hero in person, but still talks about when he met the real Buzz Lightyear. He's assured me that his toy Buzz can't fly, but the real Buzz can. The Disney magic was alive for Jack.
Jack playing with his new Buzz toy after the Pixar Parade (it was the bribe to get him on Radiator Springs again). He has loved that toy and it was worth every penny. We watched the Pixar parade both days we were in DCA. It was one of my kids favorite things. It was so well done with the music and the bubbles. It was a good chance to see all their favorite characters up close. The dancers were so fun and interactive. My kids got at least 5 "high fives" from the performers during the parade which made them feel like a million bucks. Another thing Jack loved was the Phineus and Ferb dance party. He loves that theme song so it was fun to see him watch it. I didn't get a picture of it, but at the end of our DCA day we went to World of Color. It was amazing and we all really enjoyed it. Jack could name almost every movie that the video clips were from, which surprised me. It was super hard with the kids, though. We had to wait in a crowded spot, standing for 45 minutes. About half way through the show Jack said he needed to go potty. About 5 seconds after that he said, "I'm going". I can count on one hand the number of potty accidents he's had since he's been potty trained, so the poor kid must have really had to go. Steve was holding him, so his world of color experience was less than he had hoped!!
Ella got a new toy too, a Rapunzel doll. Here she is loving her new toy and jumping on the bed at the hotel. The kids were such troopers. The Disney days were long with tons of walking and no naps. At the end of the day Steve and I were exhausted, so I know the kids had to be too.
Day 3 we spent at DCA with a couple of hours back at Disneyland. Jack loved this bumper car ride in Bugs Land. There's something so fun about being able to drive a car by yourself when you're a kid!
Dad and Ella riding Ella's favorite ride, The Little Mermaid. She lost her shoe on this ride, but an employee was able to retrieve it for us. She loved all the music and the colorful scenes. This ride never had a wait so we went on it 5 or 6 times. By the end she could sing the song where Ariel looses her voice (the ahh ahh ahh one).
Jack and Ella getting ready to ride Toy Story Mania. They did awesome with the waiting in lines. It's a hard thing for young kids to wait in line for 30 minutes. Steve and I decided that if either of us ever has a minor foot injury requiring a walking boot, that would be the perfect time to go to Disneyland. You can rent a "Jazzy" and go to the front of all the lines. I'm just saying :)
Toy Story Mania was Jack's favorite ride. It had one of the longer wait times, but we went on it a couple of times for Jack Jack. He loved trying to shoot the targets and score a lot of points. It was one of Steve's favorites too. He was proud of his high score.
We went back to Disneyland to make a visit to Toon Town. We hadn't met Mickey yet and that's just a must do at Disneyland. My friend told me about Photo Pass Plus before we went, and I would definitely do it again. You can buy it before you go and then at Disneyland they give you a lanyard with a pass. Anytime you see a Disney photographer they will take your picture and you get all of them on a CD after your trip. You also get all your ride photos and any character experiences. I loved it since they took lots of pics of my kids with the different characters. They would take close ups of their expressions and it was just nice to not have the stress of trying to get a good shot.
I love this picture of Jack and Mickey! I know that he may not remember too much about our trip, and Ella definitely won't, but we made so many fun memories with our kids!
This girl loves here Daddy. I love this picture of the two of them together. Steve is so fun to travel with. He's easy going and super helpful. It was his idea to go on this trip and I'm so glad we did!
Our final Disney picture. We had such a great time. We will definitely be back! We're already saving our pennies and hoping to go again in a couple of years!
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