Sweets for the sweeties

Ella and I went over to our friends house last week to decorate Valentines day cookies. Kristel has 5 kids. The oldest 2 were at school and the middle was at preschool. Her 2 youngest were at home decorating with us. It was fun for Ella to be able to play with other little kids and to do her other favorite thing...get messy. It's nice to break up the day and do something different with friends!

Kisses for the Daddy

Ella wanted some of my lipstick on the other night so I put some on her and showed her that if you kiss Daddy it leaves a kiss on his face. She loved it!

What we have been up to...

1. Cirdan's parents stayed at our house a couple weeks ago. It was a quick visit because they were coming over to take a class for their new computer but it was really good to see them again. Ella really loves and adores her Grandpa and wants to know where he is at all times when she is around him.

2. I am teaching the CTR 7 class at church which is Kaiya's class. The kids are so cute and smart!! I have one little boy in the class that I am convinced should be teaching the class rather than me. I am having fun with studying the lessons and seeing their bright smiles on Sunday.

3. Its basketball time again for Cirdan which means he has practice on Monday's and Tuesdays. Then games on Thursdays.

4. Kaiya has been having fun at school. She is very excited to see Ava next week and enjoys Skyping with her. She has also been busy with dance on Tuesday nights and piano on Wednesday's.

5. Ella has been sick the last few weeks. It started with a runny nose and developed into a yucky runny nose and a nasty cough. Cirdan took her to the doctor last week and said it was just the common cold but it has really been holding on for a long time.

6. Cirdan's business (Puget Sound Moving) has been going extremely well. We had thought that December and January would be the slow months but it turned out that January was close to the biggest month yet! Besides the fact that they make daily deliveries for the furniture store on Fort Lewis and McChord AFB, they also had 40 moves for the month which is great considering it's generally the slowest month in the moving business!!

We are looking forward to February and have many exciting and fun things planned!

What does it mean when....

I go and help in Kaiya's class and her teacher says to me (as she is laughing)..."I LOVE when Kaiya tells me stories about Ella! If I didn't know you I would be like....ummmm Kaiya? But since I know you I just think its funny!"

Lil Ms. Emma

Ella and I went over to have lunch with Amy and Emma last week. While I was there we had an impromptu photo shoot. Emma is really photogenic and super duper cute!! I love to hold her and give her big hugs!

My Man

Cirdan and I have had some good laughs over the years at Cirdan's expense. Like the time he got so mad because he thought someone stole his sunglasses from his car at work. He went so far as to have them review the security tapes only to find them...not on top of his head...but fitting perfectly on his face looking out of them.
Also, the time that he thought the dry cleaners misplaced his shirt. Calling them about it. He ended up finding his shirt...in his closet.
He is always 100 percent sure (and very passionate) about these things that he KNOWS happened. He KNEW someone stole his glasses and he KNEW that the dry cleaners misplaced his shirt.
Well here is the latest story...
Cirdan plays basketball on Monday nights with some guys at the church. I had known that he had emailed the guy who puts this Monday night practice on asking him to send out an email telling everyone he left his ball at the church and if anyone saw it please let him know. He didn't hear anything back. On Wednesday I noticed his basketball bag next to the front room with a basketball next to it. I was confused so I asked him and guess what he said. His basketball was in his car, on the floor of the passenger side the whole time.

I am looking forward to the next story.

Ella....our nanny boo boo

My little girl is really growing up fast. Seems like a blink of an eye she was just learning to walk and now she talks, runs and has a crazy little personality. She has been doing a lot of new things the last couple months.

We converted her crib to a toddler bed. Not like she even slept in her crib but she has taken a couple naps in the toddler bed and seems to like it. She likes that she can get in and out on her own. Ms. Independent.

She loves her nursery class at church and has only cried once for only a second when we dropped her off.

She loves putting on peoples shoes.

She wont throw her hands in the air at the part of the Patty Cake song that says 'throw it in the oven for Mommy and Me' cause she knows I will tickle her.

She loves to color. We bought her some of the markers that only write on special paper which has really helped with her coloring on herself and the walls.

Cirdan called me a couple months ago and I was on my way home from the gym. He was in a panic because he was in the garage working and Ella had woken up and went right to the garage door leading into the house and pushed the lock and locked him in the garage. It was a scary experience and we have since done a couple things to prevent that from happening.

She loves to take her clothes off and most days she just wears a diaper and onesie. Ella doesn't just try to take her clothes off at home. She tried undressing at my parents house the other day and we were at the church building the other night and she was trying to take off her pants. When I take her shopping she almost always takes off her shoes and socks when she is in the cart. Not sure how to keep them on her!

Ella just figured out how to put on her pants the other night and did it for the first time!

She loves to help me around the house. Her favorite thing to do is unload the dishwasher. I take out the knives right when I open it and then she unloads the rest of the silverware and spatulas (which go in a different drawer). If I open the dishwasher and she is around she will stop whatever she is doing to come help.


She loves to run. Always has.

She loves Elmo...and by love I mean she is obsessed with Elmo. If it was her way she would have Elmo on TV all day long. We brought out a bin with Kaiya's old toys and there was a couple Elmo dolls which she absolutely loves.

Ella also loves Cookie Monster. She lowers her voice and says in a gruff tone...cookie monster! When she first said it it sounded like...cookette. We bought her a big stuffed cookie monster and its another one of her favorites.

She loves to put things in the garbage--she says "gabage"

The thing that she does that I love the most is ask for hugs and kisses. A few times a day she will come up to Cirdan, Kaiya and me and say..."keess or hug (ug)". It melts my heart every time.

If you ask her a question her response is always NO.

She likes to pull Kaiya's hair but we are trying to teach her not to do that.

She is a horrible sleeper. If we put her to sleep before 9:00pm, nine out of ten times she will wake back up before 11:00pm and stay awake for a few hours. She has been going to sleep around 10:30 and will sleep until around 9:00. She still wakes up during the night a few times a week.

She loves to sing to the tune (or what she thinks is) of Spongebob and Elmo.

She points to the things on your or her body and names them. She knows and says...hands, ear, hair, tummy, eyes, cheek, chin, toes, feet, legs, arm, teeth, mouth and nose (as she puts her finger up it).

She still loves her binkie and blanket. She has to have them with her almost at all times. We really need to start weaning her off. Ella even likes to suck on Elmo's binkie.

She says...help me, I want to do it, I want to play

Her vocabulary has really flourished these last couple months and every day it seems like she is saying new words and even putting words together. Some of her new words are...

Cookie, coat, boots, cold, cool, socks, milk, hug, kiss, baby, santa, broken, pocket, back, garbage, gosh, Heidi, all clean, remote (mote), Ella, Marker, book, I want this, Kaylee, Grandpa, diaper, light, yes, rice, fries, monkey, Ava, flower, off, go away, bite, eat, push...and much more!

She is a little talker!

That's all that I can think of for now. She is quite the character with a funny little personality and we love her to pieces.

Our little cheerleader!

Kaiya always loves dressing up for Spirit Day at school. Last Friday it was Sports day so she put on her favorite Seahawks jersey and her Cardinals hat she got from Grandma and Grandpa in Arizona. Don't let the hat fool you...she will also be a Seahawks girl...

Happy New Years!!

On New Years Eve we were planning on going over to my aunts house but around 6:00 we decided to just stay home. I was pretty sick of getting myself and the girls all dressed up...and was kind of "partied out". I sent Cirdan to the store to get some snacks for us. He returned with not just some snacks but a TON of junk food. It made me laugh...he always goes all out when it has to do with food. I told Kaiya that this was the one night that she could eat whatever she wanted. At first she was a little hesitant but by the end of the night she had a stomach ache. I think she enjoyed eating all the candy and treats she wanted.
The plan was to eat, watch the celebrations on tv and play some games when Ella went to bed. We ate and watched tv but Ella stayed up until past midnight so the board games didn't happen. Instead, Kaiya and Ella danced and kissed each time a time zone changed to midnight. We had a fun night just the four of us and are all looking forward to a wonderful 2010!!

Christmas with the girls

The day Kaiya came home from Arizona we celebrated Christmas with her. Santa had been here when we were in Spokane and brought Kaiya and Ella some presents. Ella got most of her presents in Spokane but got a few other things here at home. Kaiya also had presents here from her family in Spokane.
The girls had a great time and I was happy to be able to see Kaiya open some gifts.





Scarf from Great Grandma

Don't know what Kaiya was doing but it was making Ella laugh.