Watch out world! Here she comes!

Dreaming of summer.
We are planning on taking Aidan swimming for his b-day, so Elly needed a new suit.

This is what happens when Dad and Aidan babysit. She gets so worn out that she falls asleep in weird places. :)

Here she is, attempting to "scoot" to me!

Happy Girl!

Elly is now in the beginning stages of mobility!

A few weeks back we noticed that whenever we put her down into a sitting position, she would start "bouncing" or rocking. Well, now she can literally pull her whole bum off the floor and she has realized if she does this continually she can actually propel herself somewhere.

The other day this consisted of maneuvering herself from her play gym where I had put her down to play to under the Christmas tree which was clearly much more fascinating.

Thankfully she didn't pull the tree down.

We hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Gingerbread Man!

Aidan and his creation

We didn't do the sides because we were already a sticky mess.

Front view

Today we had our first attempt at a gingerbread house. Aidan has been dying to make one, so I bought one of those pre-made kits from Target. Let me tell you, those things make it look easier than it really is.

First of all, the frosting is REALLY thick and even though I thought I cut the bag to the specification provided in the instructions, it still quickly became a unmovable glob.

I just kept repeating to Aidan, "this is NOT going to be perfect nor look like the picture, but we are having fun and that is the point." Thankfully he didn't argue. :) He did however want the candy to be just like the picture. Nothing has changed. He's been like this since he developed a personality. He will sit there for hours if it means getting it "just right". You could call him "determined". :)

We did have fun and by the end our hands were covered in dried frosting with sugar up underneath our fingernails and a white mess all over the table, but we had fun. Mission accomplished.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

7 months old!

You think I'm going to LAY under here anymore?! HA!

Dude, why is your mom making that crazy face?

It's clear who wears the pants in this relationship..

Elly and Ivan=Best Buds!

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted. Since then we have celebrated Thanksgiving and are are gearing up for Christmas in less than 2 weeks!

Thanksgiving was spent back in Minnesota with my parents and brother's family. We had a great time being back for our first time since moving to IL, but boy is that a long drive! Thankfully our kids did well in the car. We were touch and go there for a minute on the way back with Elly but after we made a stop and got some food in her, she slept the whole way from Wisconsin Dells to our front door!

The pictures above are from a visit we had while in Minnesota. My friend Abbey was pregnant at the same time I was and had little Ivan at the end of July. They made the quite the lunch date. They loved looking at each other and Elly made sure Ivan knew she was boss. She kept stealing away one of his toys. Thankfully Ivan didn't seem to mind, YET. :)

We will have new pictures coming again very soon. I just took the kids in to get their Christmas pictures, as well as Elly's overdue pictures that should have been done when she was 6 months. Oops! Time flies when you have 2 kids. :)