January 18, 2011

Fancy Lila


I am afraid I am creating monsters. Shopping monsters, that is. Lila has always loved clothes and shoes and always enjoyed going shopping. On Monday, we made a family trip to the mall to do some shopping and help Chris pick out some new clothes. As soon as we walked in to Von Maur Lila said, "I like to try on shoes here. Let's go try on some shoes!". We made her wait until we were done shopping and she kept asking to try on things in her "own little size". So, as a reward for being patient I took her up to the toddler section to look at clothes. She informed me that she had to try clothes on, just like me. She tried things on and, of course, we bought a few things. Her favorite were these Fancy Nancy pajamas with matching slippers. They are satin and the slippers have feathers on them, they are very fancy.

January 14, 2011

New Camera

We got a new Canon Powershot last week! I was never happy with our last camera so I am very excited to have a new one. Plus, this one is much smaller and lighter so it's easy to carry in my purse and diaper bag, so hopefully we won't have any more events that are captured only on my phone's camera.

This has been a fast month, but a slow blog month. We've been very busy, but nothing has been all that blog-worthy. Today Lila wanted to have a birthday party for her pink bear and we all had to dress in our fancy clothes. Cara and I had pretend fancy clothes, but Lila dressed herself in a tutu, butterfly wings, a big pink bow and a pink blanket aka a beautiful scarf.


Cara checking out the party food.

Singing Happy Birthday to Bear.
And an update since the blog has been lagging:
Ian's grades are all up in school and he's been keeping very busy with school, swim and youth group. Last weekend he participated in a service project for Feed My Starving Children and described it as "really awesome. I could have saved a life today." He and I also took on the job of organizing all of the books and papers in his room and after some grumbling (me) and sighing (him) we finished it and his room looks much better!
Lila moved up to Turtle 2 at swim lessons last week! She started swim lessons at this school last March and has already moved up four levels! The director said she is a natural swimmer! Lila was very bored over Christmas Break and was thrilled when school and all of her activites started up again. This week was Spirit Week at her school (it's Preschool through 8th grade) so she had Pajama Day on Tuesday which she loved and Sports Team Day on Thursday.
Cara is fully walking! She is also learning new words every day and is learning more animal sounds. In addition to dog, a long time favorite, she knows sheep, cow and bunny (hop, hop, hop). She can also point to her tummy when asked where it is.

A Little More Christmas...

Yes, I know it's January 14, but I had to wait to get pictures from Mom and then the picture CD sat on a shelf for awhile... And here we are.

This is the best family picture that we have. It also counts as Six Days of Christmas Outfits-Day Six.



Sibling picture after the kids were in bed and before the adults opened presents.

Momoo and Popoo with the grandkids and great-grandkids before we opened presents with them on the 26th. Ian was already at his dad's.


Lucy took a nap on this present for about an hour. Christmas is exhausting for dogs too!


Lila and Cara intently checking out Cara's new basketball hoop.

January 1, 2011

More Christmas

Mom has more pictures from Christmas Day, including some family pictures, but I forgot to get them from her before we left. Here are a few that I took, though. We had Christmas Dinner at Mom and Dad's with extended family, then Ian opened his presents before going to his dad's. After the girls were in bed the adults exchanged gifts and then the next morning the girls opened their presents and we exchanged gifts with Momoo and Popoo.



Ian with his new video camera.

Cara opening a present.


Lila showing off her new Princess crown


Even princesses love Thomas the Train.

Christmas Morning

The scene when the kids woke up Christmas morning.

I have about five pictures just like this and then I gave up on the getting a picture of all three kids in front of the tree. They were ready to get started!

Cara checking out her stocking presents.



Woo hoo! Candy!


This is THE thing that Lila wanted from Santa this year. Every time she was asked, for over a month, she said "a Thomas Train that you can ride". She was thrilled to see it under the tree and wanted to ride it immediately.


Here's Ian with the number one thing that he wanted for Christmas- a World of Warcraft replica sword. Never in a million years did I imagine I would purchase something like this, but he was very excited to open it. And on his head he's wearing another present, a Link hat from the Legend of Zelda game.
We all had a very fun Christmas morning. Cara stuck her fist in the air and said "yay!" every time she opened a present. Lila wanted to play with everything as she opened and was very excited about all of her new things, even the new clothes.
After opening presents and eating breakfast we packed up and drove down to Mom and Dad's for Christmas dinner and more presents.