happy thanksgiving!

here is the pre-recorded version of elli's thanksgiving songs and her jokes:

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interpretations:
thank you granny, for making a good dinner today....thank you family, for coming here today...

what do you call a bear with no teeth? a gummy bear

(i'm not sure what the 2nd joke was!)

what do you call a smart blonde? a golden retriever

and here is a little clip of ralphy doing his favorite thing: running!

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and a few pictures of "thanksgiving, round one" at granny's!

just plain fun...

a haunted night...

it all started a couple of months ago when ralph taught elli the song "little red riding hood" by sam the sham and the pharaohs (hey there, little red riding hood...you sure are lookin' good...you're everything a big bad wolf could want...hoowwwlll)...she was singing it all the time and it was just hilarious, especially during the "howl" when she would throw her head back and howl at the moon...so...gram thought that might be a good idea for elli to be little red riding hood and ralphy to be the (little) big bad wolf (she of course volunteered to make the costumes)....then aunt tina sent halloween magazine that happened to have patterns for both costumes! and so it happened that we ended up with the cutest dressed up kids ever...

our first stop on halloween morning was grandmother's house, of course (granny, that is)...amazingly, ralphy left the hood on the whole way down the sidewalk and to the door...we made this stop early for fear that it would get too warm for the wolf suit! we had a beautiful halloween day that reached almost 70 degrees! in the afternoon we got ready for visitors (some of our cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents always come over for chili and trick-or-treating)...we set up the firepit and chairs in the front yard because for the first time in elli's life, we had nice weather on this holiday and we were able to hang out outside (i think it rained her first 3 halloweens!)
another first was that ralph made it home in time to trick-or-treat with us (thanks to daylight savings time being later, it was still light out when he got home from practice)...

i decided to be ridiculous and dress up as "the grandmother" from the story, and ralphy wasn't too fond of my new look...it took him about a half an hour to let me pick him up once i was in costume!
we had a really wonderful day and we took lots of pictures...there are so many i wanted to include, so i put the rest in a slideshow...it probably won't be at the beginning once you get down to this part, so you may have to watch them cycle through again...darn :) we hope you had a great time, too!

to hear the inspiration song, check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4-Asw3hCc

gearing up for halloween

i can't wait to post halloween pictures!

just close-ups...

home movies...

here are a couple of videos of the kids being silly on a rainy day...



by the time elli was finished, the shaving cream covered her neck and arms! her hands remained an odd shade of blue from the food coloring i added to the shaving cream...it looked like she was suffering from poor circulation...ralphy joined in the fun for a few minutes...he really doesn't like the feeling of the shaving cream...we have bath foam, too, and he doesn't like to touch it, either...he likes to make a mess in other ways!

i'm a big kid now...

so...elli started preschool today...actually it is "mini-preschool" and it is tuesday mornings for five weeks, but this makes her an official big kid...she was very brave as ralphy and i got her settled at a table with an activity...it was harder on me than her! after our goodbyes and hugs and kisses, but before i left her table, another mom brought in her unhappy child (kicking and screaming) and i explained to elli that her new friend was having a hard time, but that she would settle down and suggested that she try to help her feel better...she seemed okay, so ralphy and i left...of course i looked through the little window into the room and saw her get up (looking for me) and then she got teary...they say that you should just leave and not come back in because that makes it worse, right? well, i followed that advice against my heart...the teacher quickly comforted her and got her settled down, but i had to walk away for fear that she would see me watching her...i tell ya, if i wouldn't have had ralphy with me, i know i would have sat in that hallway the entire two and a half hours just to make sure she was okay...i knew that she would be fine and i knew that i was supposed to go, but it was hard to actually do it...anyway, ralphy and i went and spent some time together and when we returned, she was all smiles and so excited to tell me about her experience! (the teacher said she only cried for a minute and then did just fine...) she wants to go back next week, so, like we expected, she loves it! one of the best parts of it (besides getting to spend time alone with the little guy, of course) is the artwork she gets to bring home! ralph often gets the surprise of new artwork when she does it during the day and he is at work, but now i get a surprise, too! ralphy isn't really into art yet...he just likes to steal the markers (or crayons or paintbrushes) and run! i'm thinking most of his artwork will be done outside...he's already practicing on how to be a mess-maker! but who could get mad at this kid?

lots of smiles...

i am finally posting some of the pictures we took in honor of the kids' birthdays...most of these were taken during "ralphy's photo shoot," but there are a few in there from "elli's photo shoot" at the waterfall at the beginning of september..ralph and i didn't intend to be in the photos ourselves, so we didn't dress accordingly...but i think we'll go back to "the rocks" soon to have a family picture taken!

ralphy is 1!

a whole year has gone by since ralphy was born! he had a great birthday, full of food, presents and fun at his party at the park...just like his sister when she turned one, ralphy wanted nothing to do with his birthday cake...we thought for sure that he would dig in and destroy it, but we were wrong! we'll be taking his special "birthday pictures" soon, but here are some of his day...

elli is 3!

our little girl turned 3 on sunday...since this year it's ralphy's turn to have his first big birthday at the park, we planned a special day for elli to celebrate turning 3! after opening presents at home, we went to ride the little steam train near our house...grandma g & grandpa g met us there...afterwards we picked up elli's cake and she picked out balloons...after naptime, we got ready for the party with the grandparents, uncles and aunt! we had a bbq, cake, ice cream, presents and then a movie outside when it got dark! it was a great day!

funny kids

here's a clip of our hilarious girl and our wild man:

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elli is so silly all of the time...and her closing line is the best!


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i know my video skills aren't great and it looked like ralphy was going to fall off there for a second, but honestly he didn't even tip..i just started watching him instead of the camera screen as he got close...he loves riding that tractor! he drained the rechargeable battery twice this weekend! (thanks kyle & sarah for passing down such a great toy!)

videos

ralphy will be 11 months old this week...he prefers walking to crawling now and is so proud of himself on two feet! he still likes to climb and is trying to give me a heart attack all the time!

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i know this video is a little long (2 1/2 minutes), but i know a few of you will be hanging onto every word like we do!

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summer is winding down

we spent last weekend at my cousin jay's cabin and went back to maramec spring park and to the river...we had a great time, despite the heat...the kids love the river, as you can see...ralphy is definitely a "walker" now...we have been attempting to get a good, clear video clip of him on his feet, but so far they keep turning out a little blurry...we'll have more footage of him soon! summer is officially over for ralph, as he started practice and school meetings this week...summer flew by too fast (but the kids and will still be enjoying the rest of it!)

busy bees

these two are constantly on the move, as you can imagine...our little 10 1/2-month-old has been taking steps on his own and climbing on everything! elli rarely slows down, either - her body and mind are always racing! ralph is enjoying his last few days of summer before his school/football commintments begin...i used the kids' naptimes to finish the last harry potter book this past week and i finally managed to get the flowers painted on elli's wall (pictures soon to come)...i know it's a little late in the season, but they are finally blooming! so, we've been busy and we're still having a blast...isn't summer great?!

fun in the sun

last week was a week of real summer vacation...summer school is over for ralph and he didn't have any football obligations, so after we got back from camping, we got to have fun all week!

we went to the zoo...

we watched fireworks on the fourth of july...

we went to the baseball game...

played in the sprinkler...

and basically just had fun!