18 Months!!

Aaaaaah!!!

My sweet little angel baby has turned into a rambuctious, funny, ball of fire toddler!

And we are loving it :)

Elise is known around here for her funny faces. She never pulls a princess smile. Her facial expressions are always full of personality!

This one is her classic "Cheeeeeese" that I get whenever she sees a camera

Ellie is a Climber. She climbs on everything and can get to anything! Her favorite place to climb to is the freezer where she will snag a popsicle and beg me to open it. My favorite place she has climbed was into her dresser drawer...it was not where I expected to find her when I heard her yelling from her room :)

Cole Clone: El loves her big brother and does EVERYTHING Cole does, which is not always a good thing. Thanks to Cole Ellie loves trains and airplanes, can roar like a dinosaur, has mastered tantrums, loves to tickle, and gives the best hugs.

Ellie is a Daddy's Girl...especially when he lets her play with his Ipod :) This little girl has her daddy wrapped around her little finger and can get away with almost anything when he's in charge!

She may not act like a princess, but this girl loves her "Pretties".

She loves to show off her cute accessories and to hear people tell her she's pretty :)

Her favorite things are shoes, especially her cute rain boots.

At 18 months old Ellie is 33 in long (86 %ile) and 25.3 lbs (64 %ile)

Elise still loves to read (like her mommy) and will bring books to my lap, which I love.

She loves to rub Cole's head and give him kisses.

She is always making funny noises and then laughing at herself (just like her daddy and brother).

El constantly brings me her shoes and begs to go outside.

She is always moving, even in her high chair. She just can't sit still.

Ellie is great with sharing, but won't let anyone push her around and take her things.

She doesn't talk much yet, but she has her animal sounds down :)

Her favorite word is "uh-uh" which she sometimes says even when she wants something.

Elise is simply my smart, busy, funny, loud, loving, stubborn, sweet, sassy, tough, beautiful girl! Love you Ellie bug!!

Spring Break 2011

Ben didn't get much of a Spring Break this year. He had school stuff to do almost every day, but we did get to see him more than usual so we were happy. We even got him to take a day trip with us! Cole had an appointment with Dr. Hong, his rheumatologist, so we headed to Iowa City. Not my first choice for a getaway, but we made it fun anyway.

We saw the Iowa State University stadium...

...and the U of I Museum of Natural History

You may have noticed there isn't much to Iowa City besides the university. We certainly noticed. Luckily Cole and Elise liked the museum a lot more than I thought they would.

We also got to see the Morman Handcart Memorial (which was only a plaque and a walking path, also on the university grounds), the Amana Colonies, and the Tanger Outlets on our way home.

Cole and I also got to have a date to the movies. We saw the movie "Gnomeo and Juliet". It was a fun date, mostly due to the popcorn. Cole couldn't sit through the whole movie, but he had no trouble finishing off the tub of popcorn :)

Like I said, it wasn't a very exciting Spring Break as far as Spring Breaks go...but it was very exciting for us to have Ben around every single day!!

Sweet boy...

Lucky Me

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Des Moines knows how to celebrate this holiday! We went downtown to the parade this morning. I was surprised how decked out everyone was. We saw all sorts of green wigs and hats, a lot of hair dying (on the head and face), green eyelashes and makeup, and an assortment of leprechaun accessories. It was quite the sight!

There was a lot of beads and candy being thrown. We were a lot smaller and slower than most of the parade watchers (since this is a holiday where adults act like kids and get drunk by lunchtime) so we didn't get as much as most. Two strings of beads and a pocket full of candy is plenty! We were very happy with what we got :)

To make our Lucky Day even better, it reached 70 degrees here in West Des Moines!! We spent a sunny afternoon outside enjoying the warmth, the ever-present wind, and breaking in Cole's tricycle and Ellie's car.

I am so lucky to have my two cute kiddos to share every day with!

Cole Can Read!

Cole knows his letters pretty well but wasn't quite understanding that multiple letters make up a word. He would just look at the first letter of a word and guess words that started with that letter. Last night we were reading a book and I helped him sound out the word "truck". Then all by himself he sounded out the words "bus" and "tractor"!

Today we were at Dollar Tree when Cole looked at the sign and said "Hey, there are two L's. What does that say? Doll, dolla, dollar. That says Dollar store!" He sounded out Dollar but not Tree...I guess he has a short attention span like his daddy :)

I can't believe my baby boy is big enough to read! It's only a few words so far, but it still amazes me. I'm so glad that I get to stay home with my kids and witness big moments like this!

Way to go my Super Cole!!

The Things That He Thinks

Cole is always saying things that catch me off guard. Sometimes they are random, sometimes they are sweet, sometimes they are deep for a 3 yr old, but they are always funny to me. I thought I would share a few:

When we were in Utah Grandma Coombs asked Cole if he did something and he said "Yes I didn't." It threw her off for a sec and then she started laughing hysterically. He also says "willn't" instead of "won't". If you think about it, willn't makes a lot more sense than won't.

Cole was eating a piece of licorice one day when I asked him to help me look for something. He replied "It's not in my licorice. I don't know where it is!" and he gave up looking.

Cole was playing with Daddy one day when he chomped at him and said "I got your attention" like it was something he could bite off.

Me: "Cole you have a big boogie in your nose"

Cole: "It's sticky, let's just leave it

Me: "Here's a tissue"

Cole: "I don't need it. I'm just dancing"

One day at preschool Cole's teacher asked him what animals he would have if he had a farm. Cole said he would have turtles. The other kids all said cows, horses, and dogs. Cole stuck with turtles. I have to admit I agree that a turtle farm would be more fun than horses and cows.

Cole was at a friends house one day when he picked up a book and said "I'm taking this home. You have too many toys!" This of course made his friend protest so Cole said "Since I can't take anything else can I have some candy?"

Ben and Cole were watching trains on Youtube one day. They saw a clip where a train crashed into a semi truck and totally smashed it and a nearby sign. Cole said "Oh no, the sign!" Who cares about the semi and the person driving, the sign is ruined!

Out of the blue Cole said "I really missed you mommy!" I asked "When buddy?" since I had been with him all day. He replied "At bedtime. While you were sleeping. I love you mommy." What a sweet boy!

Cole asked me one morning very seriously "Is this crazy?" Both his shirt and pants were on backwards and he wasn't sure if it was cool or not :)

Cole: "Bugs are stinky. We don't eat bugs, huh mommy."

Me: "Nope. We do not eat bugs. That would be yucky."

Cole: "Yeah. We just eat frogs."

"Thanks for making this yummy dinner Mommy. It's delicious." He says this often but hardly ever actually eats his dinner. Go figure. Maybe I should try feeding him something gross...like frogs :)

"Where's Daddy?" Ben has been going to school every day for the last year and a half and Cole asks me this almost every day.

Cole doesn't like to be told he's cute. "I'm not cute, I'm cool" he will say.

At bedtime one night Cole hid his face from Ben and said "No kisses Daddy!" He then looked at me and said "You can give me lots of kisses Mommy, you're not prickly like Daddy."

"After dinner I want to get my blood dropped" meaning he wanted to get his blood drawn. This kid has been through a lot if this is what he wants to do!

The other day Cole said "Thanks for cleaning the couch Mommy! I like you to clean all day every day." At least I'm good for something.

Cole: "I want to drive to Mini Apples (Minneapolis) to see the Legos at the Mall of the United States of the America (Mall of America).

Me: "Or, should we fly to Disneyland?" (Wishful thinking, but it was a fun thought)

Cole: "We can't fly, we don't have wings. Maybe I can call my friends the pteranadons."

If only.

The other day Cole said "What an imagination" to me. It's even more funny because I have no imagination compared to him. I don't know where he gets his ideas, but I'm glad that he does. We have a lot of fun around here!

Soakin' Up The Sun...In February?

The sun has returned to Iowa with a vengeance. Tuesday it was 50 degrees and most of our snow had melted. (Our giant snowman that was taller than Ben melted to a one foot stub!) The kids were thrilled to be able to play outside again without risk of hypothermia :)

Wednesday was even warmer, it got up to 60 degrees, so we decided it was a good day to go to the zoo. Cole was thrilled to be back and Ellie was enthralled with the animals. I can't wait until all of the animals are back outside. If this weather sticks it should be pretty soon!

Today we made it to a balmy 70 degrees! We didn't even need jackets. It was a beautiful spring day...in February? We'll take what we can get! I am loving the sunshine and the kids are loving being able to run around outside again.

We went to the playground for the first time in 3 months. Ellie was a muddy mess by the time we were through but it was worth it! I really hope this weather sticks!!