Ella's Birthday & Reunion

We decided to skip a party this year and instead headed to Chicago for a night for Ella (& Phil's) birthday. We had a lot of fun at American Girl. Ella got a new Baby (we named her Molly Jane) and enjoyed our tea party. It was a little overwhelming after skipping a nap but the orange soda she had made up for it! She said, "Daddy, this is the BEST orange soda I ever had!" (make that the only!) We also had fun at the Shedd Aquarium the next day... Ella's favorite was the shark tank. Henry just went with the flo and hung out. He had a great time, too! One of our favorite parts about the weekend was walking back to our hotel in the dark and swimming in the hotel pool at night! Pretty cool (it was indoors by the way!) I think Henry's favorite part was when we let him destroy an entire roll of toilet paper in the hotel.

The kids' school also had a Thanksgiving Program (that the 2+ yrs performed at) and so I took a few pictures. Ella's now one of the oldest children in her class so it's amazing to see how much she's grown since last year's performance!


Lastly, we hosted a Yoder reunion (Sally's side of the family) this weekend. It was very casual, but really a lot of fun to get everyone together and visit without the stress of the holidays. Thanks to everyone for making the trip. We had a great time.

Festivities...

There are so many things going on around here lately. Henry started walking literally on his first birthday (10/29), of course he turned 1 (can't believe it), Halloween & trick or treating, Ella's school had a fall festival with face painting and games. Grandma D came in town for the Halloween weekend. We had a blast. Ella dressed up as (my version of) a scary witch (more like a fairy witch) and Henry was a little bear. Henry could've cared less but Ella really got into it this year. Running from house to house yelling 'trick or treat' and then a quick 'thank you' as she cut through the yard to the next house. Henry also started swimming (parent tot splash time really) and Ella is doing some basic dance and gymnastics classes. Finally, our new house has lots of trees and leaves so we jumped in the pile of leaves today and really enjoyed the beautiful weather that we are having for the moment.

Ella turns 3 on Sunday so we are heading to Chicago for a night and have lots of kid things planned. Heading to American Girl (she's young, but she loves a good tea party!), Shedd Aquarium, the Children's Museum and of course deep dish pizza and a little pool time at the hotel. Ella is very excited and I think Henry will enjoy it as well. We are really just having a great time being together as a family and finally relaxing a little after an extremely busy spring and summer. We love our new home and can't believe the holidays will be here soon!

With all the activities, it's just easier to post a slide show so enjoy! Be forewarned, there are a lot of pictures of Henry eating his bday dinner (ravioli - his fav) and his first taste of birthday cake (which he LOVED.) Lots of mischeif and laughter!

Click Here for the slide show (it's also running on the right side of the screen.)

Movies & Mug Shot

Henry by the fireplace (OFF of course) just chatting and standing up.


Ella riding her bike for Granny & Grandpa with Henry hanging out, too!


Happy Halloween PJs (more like a mug-shot)

Time Flies!

It's been inappropriately too long since my last post. We've been settling in to our new house pretty well. Finally got the old house on the market (sad and glad) and our new house is feeling like home. The kids really enjoy running around like crazy and I think things are calming down a bit for us.

Henry is really just growing and changing each day. He's on the verge of taking his first steps as we sometimes find him accidentally standing by himself. He'll walk to you with encouragement (a step or two) so it's not far. He's on the move: conquering steps, pushing a little car, dancing, investigating our new fireplace. Since he doesn't walk yet, he's just packing on the pounds but he's as cute as ever with his goofy smile. He looks like a bruiser with 6 teeth but Ella is still the man-handler of her little brother... but not for long. He's the cutest little thing and really is developing a personality.

Speaking of Ella, she continues to grow each day. Her imagination and vocabulary are incredible. The other day she correctly used "Henry and I" and then "with myself" correctly in a sentence. It was crazy. She talks about a 'Auntie Brenda' and the funny thing is that we don't know anyone named Brenda. It really drives Phil crazy... like is Auntie Brenda an imaginary friend (he'll say: Is she here with us now? and Ella looks at him like he's lost his mind.) For now, she seems to be a friend she's imagined that is usually traveling long distances and calls on the phone a lot (hmmm - see a pattern here?) Anyway, she's really fun and is less and less of a toddler and more and more of a chatty little girl. She's so much fun and as determined as ever.

I finally posted some pictures and videos... enjoy!

(Wagon Ride Outside)

(Tub Fun)
(C&C Wedding Reception in Dallas)

(Playing Around)

Big Week for the Little Man...

Last week may have been the best and busiest week of Henry's life (perhaps next to being born!) Anyway, besides our new house, he accomplished some major tasks last week!

1. Really started to crawl. He was starting to move a little, but man oh man... he's really going and even learned how to go up a couple of steps already! Needless to say, the baby gate is out again...
2. He learned to clap. Here I was, a little worried b/c Ella was clapping at 9 months and then all of a sudden, he's a clapping fool... move over Ray Charles!
3. Henry got 2-4 new teeth! He had the bottom two and then on top, the two on either side of his two front teeth were on their way out, but then the two front teeth also (finally) showed up. I was again worried that maybe he didn't have front teeth!
4. He got his first hair cut! I had been trimming up around his ears, but Ella was getting a quick trim and so Cheryl (our hairdresser) said she's shape him up as well. Even used the trimmers on his 'burns. What a cutie! Watch out Myla... he's tough to resist now!
5. This is the funniest of all. He found his favorite destination in our homes... he LOVES to play in the toilet. Gross, I know, but as soon as it's quiet in the other room - I know that I better check the potty to make sure the seat is down. It brings him such joy... I keep it pretty clean, but it's just priceless to see his little grin over that big bowl!

Have a great week all!

It's Official... x2!

Don't freak out - this has nothing to do with having another baby... but rather two other very exciting things!

1 - Henry if officially off to the races crawling! He just really started which is about the same time Ella started crawling, but he's so cute to see his little behind crawling across the floor. He's pulling himself up and walking around things. It won't be long now before he's starting to walk and then running after his sister! I have 2 videos to post - couldn't decide. The first I love b/c Ella wants to be like Henry - and wants me to get a video of her and him crawling. The second I love b/c at the very end, Henry retaliates on Ella and pulls her hair. It's terrific! Enjoy!

2 - We officially bought a new house! It's kind of been in the works for about 5 months or so now, but it's officially ours as of today! It definitely needs some serious yard work, some sprucing up inside (paint and carpet) and the basement has been gutted - water damage. But it's really a great house and we're so excited to turn it into our new home. Not sure when we'll move yet, but we are going to try and rent our existing home out for some ND football weekends. If you know of anyone needing a great cute house about 2-3 miles from ND - let me know! We'll keep it cheap - just trying to cover the extra mortgage a little. :) Here's a picture. We'll definitely be in before Christmas, most likely in the next few weeks. We are very excited!

This One's for Uncle Tim & Aunt Alex

I had to post this before the weekend. In case you didn't know this, Ella is quite the performer. She gets a little bashful around boys (stay that way!) and she's not really sure about being on stage in front of an audience (thank you Christmas program at school) but, at home, she's a dancing and singing machine. Tim & Alex got Ella a microphone for Christmas last year. It's actually an official 'kaeoke' microphone that you can plug into your TV. Anyway, Ella has recently re-discovered it and I captured her singing the Blue's Clues theme song (after her own made-up song) last Friday morning. Enjoy.

Here are the lyrics for those of you who don't watch Blue's Clues 5 times a day...
"Now it's time for so long, but we'll sing just one more song. Thanks for doing your part... you sure are smart. You know with me and you, and my dog Blue, we can do anything (bum, bum, bum) that we wanna do!"



And here's a picture of Ella & Henry with Baby Sofia (my girlfriend from HS Kasey Heer, now Kasey Swade's daughter) born in early May.

July Pictures

Well it's taken me long enough to put up a new post, I thought it would be best to just do a slideshow (to the right) of the past month. It's been hot so we've been playing in sprinkler and water parks with friends. Ella's class took a trip to Kennedy water park (see below.) It was quite a crew, but so fun! We also went to visit some friends in Chicago for the day (Cole & Finn) and had a great time. I'll try and be better this next month.

Most of you know we're in the process of buying a new house (still TBD until we close) so that's consuming most of my time. Phil just finished 2 fantastic boat shows and so now he's ready to enjoy the rest of his summer. Hope you're having a great summer too! More to come!

A little preview...

We were in Punta Cana (in the Dominican Republic) over the 4th of July holiday weekend to celebrate the wedding of my brother Chris and my new sister-in-law, Candice. The whole family traveled there and we had a great time. The beach was beautiful, the pool - so fun, the wedding was so romantic and and simply perfect. The kids had a great time. Ella was the flower girl (another dancing machine,) I was a bridesmaid and Phil and Henry were there for support and to enjoy it. Candice looked absolutely gorgeous and Chris looked pretty handsome himself! I plan to get more pictures up soon, but wanted to do a quick post before the weekend.

Summer Fun

We've had a great couple of weeks just enjoying the weather and playing outside. Ella's class took everyone to the South Bend SilverHawks (Single A baseball) game for Father's Day. We took a family picture and Ella's got about 10 Skittles in her mouth! We also went for a picnic and played on the playground. We went to a marionette puppet show with Sally and Ella posed with one of the puppets. Our friends, Kasey & Matthew just had a beautiful baby girl, Myla James, and we visited with them one evening as well. You can really see Henry's two bottom teeth now and he just laughs and laughs all the time. Ella loves making him laugh and just running, running, running (it doesn't stop!) around at the playground. By the way, Ella took the picture of me laying down with Henry!

Our newest discovery is that Henry just loves the 'Jack-in-the-box' and Ella makes it POP out for him. The both just squeal with delight. Enjoy this clip!

Playing Around