I WUV EWE!

For quite a while now, we've been trying to teach Ellie to say "I love you." Well, she learned!!  And oh my word, I think last night I had one of the best moments of her short life with her. (at least for me :O)  I was hugging her and said, "I love you" and she quickly replied, "I wuv ewe!" in the sweetest little voice ever. Naturally, tears came to my eyes. Then, the best part was that she kept saying it over and over again, all the while, squeezing my neck...PRICELESS! 

We all, of course, took turns (even Hannah) getting "I wuv ewe's" & squeezes from Ellie...what a night! 

Ready for Spring

I'm ready for spring...I know living in IL, we probably have at least another month of "winter" weather, but I'm ready nonetheless. So, because I'm ready for spring, I decided to reflect that on this blog and find a fun background that make me think "spring." I hope you all like it. 

We're off to warm weather for 9 days and we can't wait!!!! CA here we come!! I'll fill you in all about it when we return. Until then...I hope you all have sweet dreams of spring! :O)

p.s. I know the flowers are kind of seen on the pictures, so just click on a picture if you want to see it more clearly. 

Snow much fun! :O)

We were in MI this past weekend to see my parents who were in town for a week and to celebrate my nephew's birthday. Unfortunately, the new 7 year old (Happy Birthday Luke!) got sick and we couldn't see him. We were all bummed, but Hannah was REALLY sad that she didn't get to see her cousins. The girls were, of course, thrilled to see Grandma and Papa and get some quality time with them. 

We took the girls sledding on Sat. morning and had a ball. Hannah was fearless and even Ellie loved it! (it was her first time!) After sledding for an hour or so, we went inside the lodge for some yummy hot chocolate. Hannah wanted to sled a little more after that, so we headed back out to the cold hill. It was really a great way to spend a Sat. morning in cold, snowy Michigan. And, we went at the perfect time, since it rained and was 45 degrees the very next day! Ahhh, Midwest weather...gotta love it!

Ellie's maiden voyage on a sled!

She LOVED it!! You could actually hear her screaming and squealing down the hill!

Hannah and her favorite winter treat...fresh, white snow to eat!! (we make sure to tell her that she can ONLY have the white stuff!)

Can't you just see the joy on her face?!

Hannah loved sledding too...forward, backward, w/out a sled on her stomach, you name it, she did it! She even went on the big, bumpy hill and wasn't scared at all.

Ellie "throwing" snow!

The girls and their sledding partner (don't worry, I didn't go down, even though I was tempted).

The girls and the photographer. :O)

Can I go by myself now? 

Two happy, happy girls.

Now, this is the way to travel!

Later during the weekend, the girls decided it would be fun to play in the shower..."nudey-pudey" of course! :o)

Just hanging around...

Preschool Valentine's Party

I had the opportunity to help out in Hannah's class today for their Valentine's party and what a treat! It was so fun to watch her participate in the activities she tells us about and see her interact with her little friends.

Here she is at the drawing station.

Okay, our daughter really is tall for her age! Wow! I never really realized until I saw her next to her classmates.

Enjoying their special Valentine's treat...2 cookies (they got to decorate themselves) AND ice cream! Let's just say, she wasn't too hungry for lunch after that! 

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day from Hannah and Ellie! 

Thank you G-ma and G-pa for the yummy cookies! 

They smell as great as they taste!

Be mine...so cute!

It's cookie mania over here! Hannah and I made heart cookies yesterday and had a great time...making the mess was 1/2 the fun!

Her creation!

Jackson came over to play yesterday too. The "babies" were playing in the tent when I caught them being goofy! I just love the look on Ellie's face!

Family Photo

This is just too precious for words... 

Okay, not the greatest shot, but they're hard to come by these days. (Ellie is not too keen on sitting down to get her picture taken!)

25 Weeks...

15 to go...

Here he is...growing like a weed inside of me! I'm sure many of you who I haven't seen since Christmas will be shocked at this sight...sometimes I'm still shocked at this sight! I actually had a woman in a store the other day tell me that I was "small" for being due in May. What?!?! Yeah, right! Whatever I was wearing that day must have been disguising the little guy. :O)

Hannah felt him kick today for the first time and her expression was great. I never thought about how fun it would be to share this with her now that she's older. When I was pregnant with Ellie, she just didn't quite get it as much as she does now. It's really a treat...

Winter in IL

We got a ton (well, it's a "ton" for us...probably not you Michiganders!) of snow the other day and both girls were excited to get out in it and play. This was really Ellie's first time "playing" in the snow and boy, did she not want to stop! I know she doesn't look completely dressed for the snow, but don't worry, she was literally outside for about 5 minutes. (she was even still in her jammies!)

(Hannah was busy playing next door with the neighbor boys when I took these, so I didn't get any shots of her.)

The girls sharing some computer time. I think Hannah was actually consoling Ellie here when she became upset about something (probably not getting her "turn" on the computer. :O)

Okay, we have a climber on our hands!!! Stacey, what do I do?!?! :O) Thankfully Ellie hasn't tried to climb up anything too high. So, for now, it's kind of cute to see her get up on something and then make her little grunting noise to get our attention...just to be sure we see her. I will say, she's got pretty good balance for a 17 month old!

Here she is on the tipped over block box. 

p.s. blocks are a fun toy,  but make a mess scattered all over the room!

"What do you mean, Get Down?" :O)

This is what people who own iMac computers do when they're bored on a wintery, Sunday afternoon!  

Check out my growing belly!!! I'll try and post more pics of that soon!