3-0

I don't know how I let it happen, but I turned 30 last week. We did all sorts of things to celebrate, which made being officially old seem a little less terrible. I decided my new decade also needed a new hairdo....

Nicholas took these pictures of Ellen and I playing with her favorite toy (and my least favorite).

And here she is reading her first library book..

The days are flying by

It's already March. Summer is just around the corner (and I know this because I can feel that Spring is in the air at school... fun time of year, let me tell ya).

Ellen's been getting harder to photograph lately. She wants to see the camera the second you take it out so by the time you have it ready to take a picture, she's already stopped what she was doing and crying about not being able to have the camera. It's fun...

Here she was playing with an oven mitt like it was a giant claw. By the time I got the camera powered up, I got this shot and then this one...

This one I tried to catch her kissing the glass door...

Oh... and she got another round of school photos. This is the one we decided to keep.

It's been awhile

I guess we've been busy since we haven't posted anything in awhile. Not sure what we've been busy doing, other than the same old stuff.

Ellen is really turning into a little person. She runs all over the place, screams when she doesn't get her way, pushes kids out of her way to get their toys....she definitely has a big personality. But she's also turning into my little helper. She's learned how to throw things away for me, put things in the washer/dryer, get tupperware out of the cabinet...it's cute.

Oh, she really wants that camera!

She loves playing with blankets these days.

Nicholas says she looks like a chalk outline when she sleeps....

My chunky-monkey. She learned how to shrug her shoulders, so I haven't been able to get a normal picture in awhile. I think this picture was taken just before she ate half a crayon. Yum.

She's also learned how to squat.

A day in the life...

Hahaha - we love to laugh!



















"Up, Up" Sometimes we just need a hug























So sleepy...

Just thinking a little

Does anyone else sleep like this?

The World of the Working

Erika and I made it back to work this week. It's hard getting back into working mode after 3 weeks off. I forgot how to teach, I had forgotten a couple of my students names (luckily the finger pointing to call on a kid worked for a day or two...), but it was nice to be out of the house. My only complaint was that after two weeks of being locked in our house, I felt like I was finally enjoying my vacation when we had to get back to the real world. Oh well... thus is parenthood.

Ellen's been running around like crazy. She's stopped keeping her hands at ready while walking around, and she's even starting to get the "toddler" body shape. She's getting so big... she's even got her own purse now!

Erika had taken a series of photos with Ellen on Saturday. There were ones that turned out better than this one, but I thought this one looked like she's annoyed with mom, a look that we might be seeing more of when she's a teenager.

And finally Ellen has discovered that she fits into this ottoman that was Erika's Christmas present from me. She likes to be picked up in it and flown around the room like it's a carnival ride. We tried to get her to duck down and hide in it. That didn't go too well.

I just realized that she's in our least favorite outfit in every one of these pictures (not all taken on the same day). Soooo... here's one more random one where she's not in the same clothes.

Zoo Lights!

Today was the first day we were able to take off our chains and drive around like normal since Dec. 14! It felt GREAT to get out. We went to see the Zoo Lights with Kellie and Jon, and had lots of fun. Ellen is big enough to actually see the animals now and called everything "dog! dog!"

Ellen having fun with her aunt and uncle.

We warmed up in the gift shop and Ellen liked these shades

I tried to take a cute Christmas picture of the family.... this is pretty much how well that went

Dreaming of a Green Christmas

I think there's about a 0% chance of a green Christmas this year, but a girl can dream. At least we got no new snow today. Nicholas borrowed a snow shovel from a neighbor and dug our car out. We made it to Jenny and Josh's to see Emily. It was so good to hold Emily - what a little cutie! She looks just like Josh. And it was really good to hug Jenny and know she's okay. I missed her!

And because I'm obsessed with our snowfall - here are a couple pictures from this morning.

Jenny reminded me today that I never posted the fact that Ellen is walking! It took her awhile to figure it out, but she's really taken off! It's hard to show in pictures, and I couldn't get a video to post. She's our big girl now! And most of the time she's too busy to let me take pictures anyway...