Ella Bowling

I laughed so hard when I saw this!! (try to pull yourself away from the cute little girl bowling and watch her Aunt Jenny's skills in the background- especially that celebratory jump at the end!!)

This is what happens....

When you leave Ryan and Nate in charge of the kids during a basketball game!


My mom and I left to go shopping for a bit and I came home to a home that looked like a hurricane had just hit and kids that had BYU written on their foreheads with blue robin eggs!

I guess I will just be thankful that it wasn't written in permanent marker!

It's your Birthday.... Shout HOORAY!

Happy Birthday 2 our little Ella Rose! Our sassy but sweet Ella celebrated her second birthday last week and we are so excited we now have an excuse for her "terrible two" behavior! She is still in love with Minnie Mouse so we had a Minnie party and she was in heaven. It was so fun to see her eyes light up when she saw all the decorations.

Some facts about our little Missy right now...

She loves anything Minnie or Strawberry Shortcake (berry cake as she calls it!)

She has an attitude and often tells me she is going to spank my butt when she doesn't get her way!

I love the way she grabs both sides of my face and demands a "siss" and she doesn't settle for your cheek either... she wants to give you a smack on the lips!

She LOVES her daddy and her "jacker man!"

She is a scaredy cat and will always run to me screaming "scary Jack" whenever he is doing something she doesn't like!

She is full of sass one minute and the next she will bat those big brown eyes at you and be the sweetest thing you've ever seen!

Whenever she sees a deer much to her dads delight she yells " SHOOT deer!"

She is a streaker.... she will not not matter how much threatening I do.. keep her clothes on. Pj's zipped up backwards have been our saving grace at keeping her dressed throughout the night.

I used to think badly about parents who don't have socks and shoes on their kids when it's freezing cold out but.... I am now one of them.... as soon as she is loaded in her carseat... off goes the socks and shoes... immediately followed by anything I have placed in her hair! SO when you see us out and about and she doesn't have socks or shoes on and her hair is standing straight in the air... trust me I tried!

We just love her and have thoroughly enjoyed watching her grow and watching her sassy personality emerge! I can't believe she is already two and I am not quite ready to admit I don't have a baby anymore!

She took a swipe of the cake as soon as we got her close enough!

She loved her scooter she got from Grandma Rosie!

The Minnie Mouse cake!

Her Minnie Mouse decor! I am so thankful Hobby Lobby opened just in time! We were so lucky that Grandma Rosie got to be here for her birthday this year and Ainslee too! Great Grandma's and Grandpa's, Grandpa Keldon and Grandma "Nette", Uncle Cory, Aunt Julie, Lisa, and Jenny, Caroline, and Lynda also all came out to celebrate with Ella. She is so lucky to be loved by such an amazing family! She was thoroughly spoiled.... seriously... but she loved every minute of it and has enjoyed playing with all her new toys and snuggling with her new blanket and pillowcase! Thanks everyone for making her day so special and for loving our sweet girl!

As a bribe we told Jack if he sang Ella Happy Birthday he could blow out the candles too. It was so cute and he was such a trooper at having ALL the attention be on his sister and he can't wait until his birthday. He has already requested a fire starter (blow torch) on his birthday cake. (Have I mentioned he loves fire??) Not quite sure how I am going to manage that one!

St. Patty's Day

So I always read about all these fun Moms who celebrate with their kids by turning their food green and telling stories of Leprechauns who leave surprises and thought I would take part this year. Last night I started telling Jack about Leprechauns who come and do these silly things and he FREAKED! He insisted between hyperventilating breathes that he doesn't want any Leprechauns to come to our house or to touch his food. So needless to say..... we won't be doing anything fun to celebrate today.... well at least anything that involves Leprechauns!

About every 3 minutes he still asks me.... "Mom, you were just joking about Leprechauns right???"

Hotel-O in Pocatell-O

The last few weeks have been really rough for me. I get really depressed about this time of year because I HATE winter, I miss spending lots of time with my family and I am so TIRED of being cooped up in the house. With Jack's surgery and us really being stuck at home for so long I was really at the end of my rope and needed to go somewhere.... anywhere! We had already told everyone we weren't going to the snowmobiling party this year because of Jack's surgery but he was feeling reallly good and I really needed out of the house so we decided to go last minute! My mom and Ainslee met us in Pocatello and we shared a hotel room so we could have a fun weekend snowmobiling, sledding and swimming with the kids. We had such a great time and we will definitely have to do it again soon!

Ainslee was such a good sport and swam with the kids for a really long time! They love her and she is such a great help to me!

Jack's my little fish and floated around for hours until we were all REALLY pruney and I insisted we finally get out!

Ella insisted on wearing these goggles for a long time. When we actually convinced her to take them off she had red circles all around her eyes! She's such a little weirdo!

I forgot to take my camera when we went sledding so all we have are swimming pictures-

It was a great weekend and hopefully it will be enough to keep me out of my winter funk long enough for Spring to actually get here!

ELLA = T R O U B L E

She is so cute and looks so innocent but seriously this girl is giving me a run for my money! The little stink won't leave her clothes or shoes on for anything. She won't leave anything in her hair. She refuses to wear her earrings and prefers to wear Jack's underwear as a necklace and rainboots all day long.

The other day I was trying desperately to get Jack to take his medicine. We were going on about 20 minutes of "discussing" that yes we were going to take it when I started to smell something suspicious. I stopped what I was attempting with Jack and went around the corner where little Missy was supposed to be watching Mickey Mouse like a nice girl..... to find her stark naked.... with a diarrhea diaper on the ground and poo dripping off her bum. She was not one bit happy when I had to drag her kicking and screaming away from the tv to attempt cleaning up the situation! I was though very thankful that she had chosen to stand and watch Mickey instead of sitting on the floor or climbing onto my couch. Although it was a disgusting giant mess it could have been SOOOOO much worse!

And quite possibly my favorite part is when I am bathing her in the sink and she tilts her head to me bats those big brown eyes and says "I sorry Mommy."

B-O-W-L-I-N-G

We celebrated Cory's birthday the other night at the bowling alley and had a fabulous time like usual! We are so lucky to have Ryan's fun family that likes to spend time with each other and I feel especially lucky since I have no family here to do anything with so it's great that they include us in everything! The kids absolutely love all their aunts and uncles and are spoiled ROTTEN by them! We had so much fun bowling and then playing a round of laser tag. Jack and Ella are even able to play and they LOVE it! Ella wears the heavy vest all around and tries to "shoot" people although towards the end of the round this time she was telling Grandma that it was "heavy!" I must also document that the girls claimed a VICTORY over the boys who think they are all sharp-shooter hunters! :) (It may have been that they had Ella on their team - a slight handicap!)

Cory, Julie and Jenny

Jenny and the birthday boy!

Ryan wanted to document his score and the fact that he's gotten over 200 the last two times we went bowling! I hate him.... he's good at everything he does!!

Grandpa and Jack looking for the best ball!

Ryan and Jack waiting the five minutes it takes for the ball to get down the lane after Jack "throws" it!

Ella and Lisa.... Not sure why she was hiding from me..... but it is blogworthy that she kept these ribbons in her hair the entire night! Definitely an accomplishment!

Loading up for the adventure....

What a handsome blue-eyed boy!

And my beautiful brown-eyed girl!

Can't wait for someone else to have a birthday so we can do it all again!

***Thanks for all the stolen pictures Jenny! I can always count on you!