stuff

This year we got to celebrate birthdays with both of my sisters kids. Their birthdays are only 11 days apart (well, and 3 years :) I got to make Brenn's birthday cake this year. She wanted a special cake from a book that she loves. She had been asking for that cake for 9 months! I did my best to give it to her.

The Book version

My version


Ella had a hard time with the noise and amount of people at the party so after a while she hid with Nana in the bedroom


WE had a blast visiting with our family in Atlanta. It was a great birthday party.

Here is a sweet picture I took the other day. Daddy reading to both his kiddos


And last but not least, and sweet picture of my Ella-boo

They're Gr-r-r-r-r-r-eat!

Today is the first sunny day in ages!! Ella, Wes and I are LOVIN IT!
Wesley has this adorable sleeper that looks like a tiger. This is the first time he has worn it and he was so cute I had to take some pictures. Ella of course needed to get in the action, so there are some of her too.

Work it Tony!






My beautiful blue-eyed dolly

Kitty has a name-o

We picked a name for our new kitty. We are going to call him "Kitzeln" which is German for Tickle. Ella voted for "polkadot" but it was 2 to 1 so the grownups won that one. Kitzel is an AWESOME cat so far. He lets Ella carry him around and hold him, and he follows me around like a shadow. He purrs so sweet and loud! I really think he will be a great match. In fact, today he even laid down right next to Wesley and let Wes manhandle him for at least a minute before running away. I have proof!




I also shot a cute video of Wes and Kitzel playing by the stairs.

Now and Then

Two years ago (I think) my dad built Ella her own personal jungle gym in our back yard out of PVC pipe. She loves it! She named it "Grandpa's toy" way back then and the name has stuck. The other day I shot a short video of Ella playing on it with a friend of hers. That prompted me to go looking for a video I made of her playing on it when it was new. Wow, Ella has grown so much! So I thought I would share both the old and new videos.
Retro Ella:


New and improved Ella:

How fast they grow up!

A new member of the family

Today we adopted a Kitty from a local shelter. He is a 4 month old boy (neutered of course) Black and white short hair cat. He was so sweet with Ella at the shelter, lets hope that continues! We visited 4 shelters and petted a dozen cats before choosing this one. I hope he is a good fit for us!
Here is little no-name (we are still deciding!)




Here is "his" room. We set up a kid-free zone for him in the downstairs bathroom.


And here is what is going on right now. According to Ella, he is watching Land Before Time with her and he likes Sharptooth. He is so patient!

tea party

Today Ella and her friend had a tea party in honor of Mad Hatters day (today). We had quite a spread and we had a lot of fun drinking hot chocolate and eating treats. After the tea party we all watched Alice in Wonderland. It was a totally fun morning.

The spread from left to right,
Scones, lemon curd and lightly whipped cream for the scones, finger sandwitches, and snicker-doodles and lemon pound cake. All served with some delicious caramel hot chocolate.


Would you like some tea?


Fresh cup!

Sass

Yesterday in the car Ella and I were going to make a late night Wal*mart run. We were talking about her new favorite movie, "The Land Before Time" She asked me what my favorite dinosaur from the movie was and I said "Ducky, Yup-Yup-Yup" I then repeated Yup-Yup-Yup (a line from the movie) several more times.
Then I hear Ella from the back, "Stop it mom! You are makeing yourself not interesting to me!"

Evidently I am boring.
Who knew?