Our St. Louis Vistor with Special gifts!

Our very very good friend came to visit us the other day all the way from St. Louis and he came bearing gifts!

Chase,
It was so sweet of you to come visit us. I hate that it was so busy and we didn't get to spend much time with you but it was GREAT seeing you. The kids loved their cardinals and I swear they have slept with them every night since. Luke says, "Mommy, where's bird?, as I am tucking him in at night and Ella has named hers "Rockin Robin"...wrong bird I know, but that was the name. I hope we can see you again soon and this time with your wonderful wife. We miss you, Amy!! I hope we can plan a trip to come up there some time soon. We love you guys!

Luke's Tractor Party

It wasn't too hard to decide what I was going to do for Luke's party this year. All he talks about everyday is riding Papa's tractors. So, on his special day, we took him to ride tractors!!

Papa took Luke on a special tractor ride all by himself. They road all over the farm and Luke even got to feed the cows. I think he had a great time and was very worn out from all the excitement when he got back....but there was still lots to do!

We invited the whole family down to my parents house for pizza and birthday cake.

After pizza, Luke got to open presents and SURPRISE Luke got his very own Gator!!

Besides the big tractors, I think the cake was his favorite part.

It was a good celebration for a little boy turning 2!

Ella's Winter Wonderland Party

This year was a big birthday for Ella. She turned 5! So, we went all out with a big party with all her friends. We had 12 of her best friends here at the house helping her celebrate. Ella had a great time and I had fun planning it with her. To see awesome pics of the party click here. Our very sweet neighbors brought their little boy Lucas to the party and she took great pictures for me. I told her they made the party look so pretty! I have to learn how to do that!! My pics are below...very big difference.

We had a winter wonderland party for Ella so the house was full of snowflakes and snowmen.

The Winter Wonderland Feast.
I realized I may have had too many sweets for the kids but every bit of food on that table was gone by the end of the party. The "snowballs" (white donuts) were a big hit!

My sister made these awesome Cake Pops. Aren't they beautiful!! You should see some of the others she has done.

Build-A-Snowman

The kids loved making their own snowman. It was fun watching them.

"Snowman Forest" That was Ella's name for it. I thought that was pretty good!

Snowball Alley

I was afraid it might rain so I came up with this game for the kids to play inside in case. Not to creative, I know, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

S'Mores Galore

Luckily, we had beautiful weather and the kids got to roast s'mores in the backyard.

Can you believe the size of those marshmallows!!

Lyle and uncle Ryan were in charge of the s'mores.

Cake time!

And finally Party Favors!

Ella was so happy! She loved having all of her friends over. The party was so much fun to plan and Ella loved helping me with it. Every night she would say, "What are we going to do tonight, mom?"
Special thanks to my sister and her husband for helping out. I couldn't have pulled it all together without you. My sister loves planning parties as much as I do so we always have fun coming up with ideas together.

A Happy Birthday Wish to our Pa

Hi Pa! The kids wanted to sing you Happy Birthday today so I told them I would video them and post it on the blog. Hope you are having a great day!

It's Luke's 2nd Birthday!

The Birthday boy!

Lyle had a great idea to celebrate Luke's birthday this year. I was a bit skeptical at first but it turned out to be absolutely awesome! We took the kids to a hibachi grill for the first time.

The kids bounced around as usual at first but when the hibachi master/cook (whatever he is called) lit the grill on fire and flames shot up it was total silence at our table. Ella and Luke were mesmerized! They giggled at all his tricks..which he played up a lot because the kids were getting such a kick out of it...and gobbled up the their food. It's the perfect type of food for Ella. Individual pieces of meat and vegetables...no mixing. She moaned with delight the whole time and declared that this was her new favorite restaurant (along with Jason's Deli she reminded me).

Both of them got a huge kick out of using the chop sticks. You can tell in this picture, Luke was really concentrating on them.

We then headed home to open presents and eat birthday cake. All the way home (and I do mean ALL THE WAY HOME) Ella and Luke chanted CAKE CAKE CAKE in the back seat. Lyle and I laughed so hard.

Here is a video clip of Luke opening his presents from Mims and Pa and Landry and Elizabeth. Thought you guys might want to see this. (I hate my voice in these videos. Sorry you have to listen to me but what can I do???)



Luke loved his gifts and you are so sweet to him. Ella said that Mims and Pa gave Luke the perfect gift because it was one they could both use!

Then it was time for cake! What a Birthday celebration!

Luke, you are such a sweet little boy. You are turning out to be quite the little clown too. You are constantly performing to get us to laugh at you which we do all the time. You talk unusually well for a 2 yr. old, say your ABCs, count to ten, know all your colors and you just learned how to climb out of your bed. Yes, you are a climber...my little dare devil! You love your sissy and love even more to imitate every thing she does. It is so fun to watch you two grow up together. You have added a whole new level of excitement to the family. You listen so well and when I ask you to do something I always get this response, "OK, Mommy". You say it so sweetly! My second favorite thing you say is, "Cuddle, Mommy. I want a cuddle". You are just wonderful! We love you, Luke. Happy 2nd Birthday!

Snow Day #2

What's the only thing left to do when you have been stuck in the house for two days...play dress up! Here is my cowboy and cowgirl. They are husband and wife headed off to watch a movie in town. So funny!

The First Snow of the Season

It has been pretty exciting around here lately. We got 6 inches of snow Sunday night so we have been out of school...which means Mommy is out of work...for two days.

My birthday was on the 10th so Grandma and Papa came up to watch the kids on Sunday while Lyle and I went out for a very nice lunch at a wonderful French restaurant we found. While there the first flakes started to come down and I told Lyle then...I bet Ella is already outside. Sure enough when we drove up to the house, Ella had Papa and Grandam outside in the snow.
Here is a picture of outside when the snow first started to come down and then later on that night while Daddy was grilling us some awesome steaks!

The next morning we were out in the snow by 8am!

Here is a video of the kids in the front yard.



Lots of kids were sledding down the hills around the neighborhood so that gave me the idea to take the kids sledding. Now, when I was a child my dad would tie a sled to the back of our 4wheeler and pull us around the farm...GREAT fun! But since I don't have a farm or a 4wheeler..or a sled for that matter...I came up with the best alternative. It was actually easy to pull them and we really picked up speed going down the hills. They had fun and that's all that matters!
As I was pulling the kids around the neighborhood, we saw several older boys and girls who would stop to watch us as we went by and it occurred to me then that there would probably not be another time that Ella would let me pull her around the neighborhood in our recycling trash bin! How embarrassing!
Here's two clips.





After our trips outside we would come in and warm up by the fire.

Nothing better than toasty warm clothes to slip into when you are ready for round #2!

That night we made our second and by far the best snowman. Ella named him SnowFlake.

My 5 year old

New Year's Day is not only special because it is the first day of the new year but also because it was the day my little girl was born. This year Ella turned 5! Ever since I first had her, I was dreading her turning five. Five is big girl age...real school, baby teeth falling out, starting to read kind of age. She was going to be all grown up then. But as she turned five this year, it wasn't as hard for me as expected. She is a great little girl and changing so much that it is exciting. We can do so many fun things together now...I do miss her chubby baby cheeks though!

Happy Birthday, my big girl! Your daddy and I are still in shock that you just turned five. The years have flown by. Everyday you amaze us with your funniness, your intelligence, and your kindness and love for your brother and family. You have blessed our lives so much. Always remember how much we love you!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a good 2010 and will have an even better 2011.

We kicked off the new year this year with a 'BIG' New Year's Eve party at the grandparents. Since Lyle was on call this eve, we spent it with my mom and dad and my nieces.

Of course, a party is not a party without some games so we started with Twister....which ended with little Maya and Luke being rolled up in the mat. They thought it was funny but preferred hanging out in the refrigerator instead.

Then we played Hide-n-Go Seek. First Papa was the finder...the big bear finding the little bears...Papa always adds some extra excitement to any game.

Then it was Papa and Grandma's turn to hide. Can anyone find Papa in this pic?

Next it was time to get down to the real party. We put on our party hats...which didn't go over quite well with Luke...grabbed our horns and sparklers and headed outside for the big New's Year countdown...at 7:30;)

The sparklers were a big hit!

It was a great night...would have been better with Daddy around but we still had a fun time...Thanks to Grandma and Papa!!