Elf Days 4,5 & 6

Cinnamon ornament, the elf couldn't resist:

Hanging in there (upside down on the kitchen ceiling):

Elf left a note from Santa for the girls:

Paige wrote a note to the elf:

Paige can tie a bow!

Brooke's also working on it:

Elf night 3

Elf posing for a portrait.

Elf nights 1&2

Last night we read the Elf on the Shelf book to the girls. Afterwards, Paige said she hoped we got a girl elf this year.

This morning we found Esabelle (named by Paige) on an advent calendar!



Tonight the elf is hanging out with the stacking snowmen.

Vitamin

Brooke: I want a wyamin.
Jen: A what?
Brooke: wyamin
Jen: I can't understand you
Brooke: wa wa wyamin
Jen: Oh! Vitamin! Va va vitamin!

The crib is gone!

We sold the crib today! Jen listed it a few days ago on Craigslist, and we sold it with our first call. It was such a nice crib, and we're happy that another baby will get to enjoy it.

This cleared up a ton of space in Brooke's room, which let us do some rearranging.






Much nicer! She does need a picture on that back wall, though...

Brooke is starting to recognize letters

She doesn't know sounds yet, and doesn't know their names, but she can find the specific shapes much faster now compared to just a few days ago. And she's starting to know letters by context. She pointed to a "c" that was by itself and said "Cat! Cat!". She also loves to point out B's on storefront signs and say "That mine! That me!"

School Pictures

This year's school pictures:

Brooke's big girl bed

For the past few months, Brooke has been having some issues at bedtime. She wants us to stay with her until she falls asleep. So every night one of us sits in the hallway just outside her door until she falls asleep. In the mornings, she usually wakes up around 6am and cries for us. At that point we'll bring her in bed with us for the next hour until we're ready to get up.

When Paige was this (exact) age, we transitioned her into a toddler bed. We did that because she had been trying to climb out of the crib. Brooke, has not made any attempts to get out on her own. But we figured since Brooke is already having some issues with bedtime, maybe if she was excited to sleep in a big girl bed she will improve? So yesterday we set up the toddler bed in her room, but we're keeping the crib in there as well until we're sure she's ok being out of it. It took awhile for her to go down for a nap because she was pretty excited. And bedtime went fairly smooth last night too. She even slept in until 7am on her own!

Flooded basement

In the last 7 days, weather.com is reporting that we got hit with 8-12" of rain. That's equivalent to the ANNUAL rainfall in Phoenix. The worse for us was on Tuesday night. It had rained all day and continued through the night. I'm guessing the majority of that 8-12" happened within 24 hours.

When we went to leave the house yesterday morning, we found about an inch of water in our basement. There are 2 parts to the basement, the finished and unfinished parts. The unfinished part is where the washer, dryer and furnace are. And there's a drain in there as well as a drain in the garage. The water was moving down the drains, slowly but surely. I used a mop to help pull the water from the corners and away from the appliance to the drain and pulled up a few small rugs we have. After I had mopped, that part quickly dried up. The finished part has a shag carpet and no drain. So that water just sat in there. Luckily, just recently we moved a lot of clothes that were in boxes into plastic storage bins. There were some boxes on the floor, but we quickly got them picked up and I don't think much if anything was ruined. Except the carpet.
We're not upset about the carpet getting soaked. It was very old, dirty shag carpet that was going to be replaced sooner or later. But we just had to advance that timeline a bit and pulled half of it up last night and we'll probably tackle the rest tonight as it's getting kind of stinky down there now.

We were so excited when we saw that there was tile under the carpet. If we had known that, we probably would've pulled this up a long time ago! Some of the tile is a little chipped around the edges where the carpet was nailed to it, but other than that it's in good condition. But then as we pulled some up over by the closet I uncovered a number 6. And I said to Justin, why is there a 6 on our tile. He quickly ripped up more carpet by the number like it was a Christmas present and then exclaimed "It's a shuffleboard court"! 
At this point, we still have the other half of the carpet to pull out, who knows what we'll uncover on that side!

Kindergarten Favorites

I hope I can remember to do this each year, starting with Kindergarten!

First Day of School 2011

The girls were excited this morning to go back to school. Brooke is going through a shy phase, so she was sort of hiding behind Paige here:

Paige loves getting her picture taken now and most of the time will even smile for me! She is so excited to be in Kindergarten this year!

And here's Brooke, still being a little shy, but at least smiling:

This is outside of school. Paige did well when I left her, but Brooke didn't want me to go. She's been extremely attached to mama lately and being home for the past week with me hasn't helped. They are trying to smile, but the sun was just so bright!

Here is last year's first day of school pic. I can't believe how much they have grown!

Paige's UNO technique

So I look up during our UNO game and see this:


She played most of a hand this way. No apparent difficulties...

Family baseball video

I made this a while back, and Paige wanted to see it again. I figured I'd post it here.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Game night

Brooke was teaching me how she plays the caterpillar game...

Where is thumbkin

One of Brooke's favorite songs right now. Her other favorite is Happy Birthday.

Paige got her first library card today!

Proof:

Problem on the Railroad

Disaster struck on the B&O railroad last night...

"Oh no! Choo-Choo train! Fall down!!"

Swimming

We just got home from our 2 week summer vacation in Cincinnati. Paige and Brooke spent the second week with the grandparents while Justin went to a conference in Indiana and I went to work in Boston. When we got back in town we went to the pool and got to see Paige's new swimming skills! Before we left she wasn't even putting her face in the water. After a week she was swimming a few feet by herself without any floatation device! She is holding her breath for a good while underwater and was even starting to bob up to catch a breath while swimming. She even had no fear doing a back float without me holding her! She AMAZED us by how quickly she conquered her fear and dove right in (pun intended).

Here's a few pictures Nama shared on Facebook from one of their pool trips:

Tonight Paige starts swim lessons tonight at the YMCA. I can't wait to see what more she learns over the next 3 weeks!

Brooke discovered that the markers all fit together today

Guest Bathroom remodel

This past weekend Grandma and Papa came out to help us give our bathroom a facelift! The first job was removing all the wallpaper and painting. Then we replaced the 1970's medicine cabinet/mirror and added a light fixture above the new mirror. We added new light switches and a working outlet in the bathroom (to the right of the mirror). And lastly, we replaced the faucet. The blue tile is staying...that's way too big of a job for us to take on right now! But at least now it doesn't look nearly as dated as it did before. Thanks grandpa for all your help!

Before:

After:

Paige's first t-ball game

Paige had her first t-ball game tonight. She really was awesome. We have practiced a bit in the back yard, but it was fun to see her go after grounders, throw them (in the direction of) first, and stroke a couple of infield singles. She really had a great time running the bases too.

I may end up coaching. There supposedly are three coaches for the team, but none showed up today and so myself and another dad ran the show. It was my first t-ball game too, so I didn't know a bunch of things. I knew everyone bats, but apparently you can't get thrown or tagged out, for example, even though the fielders are supposed to try. Anyway, I'll be there for most of the rest of the games, so if I'm needed I will be out there. Might need to get myself an orange shirt!

Disney World!

Lots of pictures from our trip! We had a great time! Click the picture below to see our album...

https://picasaweb.google.com/paigeisone/DisneyWorldJune2011#

Keyboard Duet

The girls are home with me this week, and decided to have a keyboard/vocals duet.

Paige's self portrait

Paige's project on her last day of preschool!

Dance Recital

Tonight was Paige's dress rehearsal and tomorrow is the real deal recital! I put tonight's pictures in our picasa account and I'll upload more after tomorrow's show:

https://picasaweb.google.com/paigeisone/June2011

Brooke singing and playing the harp

The tree

We had a huge leaning tree removed from the backyard. It was probably about 20 feet tall, but it was leaning right towards our bedroom and we feared it would come down on the house during a bad storm.

Here's the view from our family room before the tree was cut. All you see is a big branch or two that was right in front of the window:

And here's our new view! There's a lot more light that comes in now. And there are 2 big bushes that we now see that are beautiful when in bloom.

Happy Birthday, Brooke!

Today you are TWO years old. I feel like I just brought you home from the hospital yesterday. My sweet little baby is totally a toddler. You are so loving and affectionate. You love to cuddle and I hope you don’t grow out of that any time soon! You even love your dolls and your kitty. I bet you say Ella’s name no less than 20 times a day. Every time you see her you call to her as if you’ve been apart for years.

The biggest change this year was changing schools to be in the toddler class at Penn-Mont when you turned 18 months. I was so nervous about how you would handle the transition and you impressed everyone including your teachers at how well you could adapt. You’re a very independent little girl and love all the activities you can keep busy with during the day at school. One of the teachers commented early on that you are the most communicative child they ever met and yet you were only saying a handful of words. If someone wasn’t understanding what you were trying to say, you’d take them by the hand and show them what you want. Another helper in the classroom told me she doesn’t think she ever saw you cry. You’re very easy going about most things.

Your favorite part of the day at school is when you get to go outside. Your class has outdoor time the same time as Paige’s preschool class. You run up to the fence to see your big sister every day! You love and admire your big sister. If we’re getting ready for dinner and Paige is still in the other room you’ll call out as loud as you can “AAAAIIII” which we all know to be “Paige”.

You have learned routines very well. You don’t fuss at bedtime anymore as long as I do the exact routine every night. I tried to make a fun picnic dinner in the living room one day which upset you very much because you didn’t want to vary from the routine of dinner in the kitchen. When you’ve done something wrong, you’ll willingly go sit in time out because you understand the consequence. Your first 3-word phrase was “No, Time Out” when you were correcting me for not putting you in time out after you had pulled Sissy’s hair.

We thought you were going to be an early potty trainer, and you still may be. You know when you have to go and you had gone a couple of times in a row for a few days, but then you developed a fear of the potty so we’re taking a break right now. But as soon as you dirty your diaper, you tell us. Sometimes you even slip and tell us before you actually go.

Right now you are obsessed with the color purple. It’s your favorite thing in the whole world. You’ll walk through stores shouting “purple” at every purple thing you see. If you see clothes that are purple, you’ll insist on wearing them instead of anything else I might suggest for you to wear. I hope you keep this passion for things!

Thank you for making these 2 of the best years of my life!

Happy Birthday, Paige!

Today you are FIVE years old. Time flew so fast for me, but for the last month or so you've been asking us daily how much longer until your birthday. You're so anxious to be 5! You grew up so much this year. You started out a preschooler and now you’re counting down the days until you start kindergarten! You absolutely love school. I hope that never changes. Even your teacher is so excited to tell us about all the new things you are learning. It seems like math may be your strongest subject. You’re only in preschool and you are already multiplying!

On the other hand, maybe you’ll want to be a scientist when you grow up like Daddy. This year you’ve been asking tons of questions about where things come from (including babies). You are fascinated when looking through the pictures in Daddy’s anatomy textbook.

We got to see the jokester side of you come out this year. You like to tell us jokes. Sometimes it’s the same joke over and over and other times you’ll ask a question with a silly answer and call it a joke. You’ve also started testing your boundries with “fake stories” as you call it. We refer to them as lies. If we catch you in a lie, you laugh and say “fake story”!

This year you’ve been taking a tap/ballet/tumbling class instead of gymnastics. You do very well following the teacher as they instruct when you’re not in a silly mood. Your first recital is coming up soon and you’re so excited to be on a stage and wear your costume and makeup!

(Far right, in all light pink)

In your second year as a big sister you’re starting to see Brooke not only as your sister but as a friend. You just can’t get enough of her. You love it when she sits on your lap and asks you to pick her up even though you can only lift her an inch off the ground. She looks up to you and you are so proud of her. I couldn’t ask for a better big sister.

Thank you for five of the best years of my life.

Happy Easter

On Saturday, we did an egg hunt in our backyard for the girls:

On Sunday morning, they quickly found their baskets from the Easter bunny:

After breakfast we got ready for church:

After church, they had treat bags for the kids: