is it spring yet?

i apologize to those of you that check this blog often - there haven't been any updates in awhile...we've been busy :)
these two silly kids play really well together (for the most part) and one of their favorite things to do is get in ralphy's bed when we're not looking....ralphy has figured out how to climb in like elli (using the blue rocker next to the crib)...luckily he hasn't tried to get out on his own yet...

we had a really nice valentine's day and the kids got all kinds of goodies...
and we celebrated Duck's Day! (and most of you are thinking, "what in the world is Duck's Day?")...right after christmas we were talking about what holidays would be next and what kind of decorations we'll have....so elli "created" duck's day and told us that duck's day would be after valentine's day and we'd decorate and have cake, etc...we asked her what we would eat for duck's day and she said, "chicken!" (good thing, too, because i wan't thrilled with the idea of baking a duck)....so after we took down the valentine's decorations at our house elli said, "it's duck's day now!" (she remembers everything...it's scary sometimes...) so we made cupcakes and a cake and had chicken for dinner...then we iced & decorated the cupcakes and cake...below is a picture of elli having a good time with a cupcake....ralphy prefers his without icing, so he enjoyed one plain...we got all of this with the video camera, but i guess we didn't end up with a still shot of ralphy and his cupcake...up next is Ladybugs Day (i promise she thought of this one on her own, too!) but she hasn't decided when that will be... ralphy has become very fond of reading (like his sister) and will sit and read several books before and after his naps and at bedtime...his current favorites: Pat the Bunny, Goodnight Gorilla, Goodnight Moon, Animal Babies, Five Little Monkeys and How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten? (just to name a few) he has really been chatting a lot, trying to keep up with elli in conversations...we catch some of it, but some goes right over our heads...he definitely has a lot to say...
and here are a couple videos...the first is of elli being slap-happy...she had already been laughing for a few minutes by the time i grabbed the camera...
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and here's ralphy moving at his favorite speed...it's a little blurry, but you get the idea...

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we love snow days!

we finally got another good snow! it arrived on thursday and ended friday morning...every time the forecast includes accumulating snow, ralph makes fun of me saying that i am worse than a little kid with my anticipation...he's right...as a kid i would sit in the kitchen and watch it snow, praying we'd have a snow day...we got plenty of them when i was a kid and i loved every one of them...during college i think i got one snow day...during student teaching: none...during my 7 years of teaching: only a few...but oh, how i would watch the weather forecast, the window, and the school closures on the bottom of the tv...as an adult, it often ended in disappointment, especially when my district was not called off and ralph's was...so now that i am staying home with the kids, i don't need anyone to tell me i can or cannot have a snow day! but, i still watch and cross my fingers i hopes that ralph will get to stay home with us...and this time he did! we found out thursday night that he wouldn't have school on friday, which made it even better!

so we played in our yard friday morning...

ralphy isn't wildly fond of the snow in the same way that he is wildly fond of most everything else...but it would be hard to be bundled up so that you are as wide as you are tall and not be able to tell your mom and dad that your fingers are numb, you have snow in your pants and you've had enough (i think those are the things he kept trying to tell us as we put him on the sled time after time!)

we went to my mom and dad's friday afternoon to sled on "my hill"...my mom, dad, ralph, the kids and i all played...we had races and dared each other to do stunts...it was great...

elli was awesome! she made snow angels, flew down the hill on the saucer and the sled...on saturday morning she and my mom and i did "the hill" again and she wanted to go down by herself...she said, "gram you wait at the bottom and mama, you slick me down"...slick me down...i hadn't heard that phrase before, but i gave her a push and that's what she wanted...she laughed all the way down the hill (and then we pulled her back up...every time...what a work out)...we found deer tracks in the snow all along the edge of the yard and across the dam of the pond...we were elli's sled dogs as she took a ride...i didn't get many pictures at my mom and dad's because it's hard to manage a camera in the snow...gloves and melted snow and cameras don't mix... we had a snowball fight with papa and then made the best snowman ever...we intended to bring ralphy back saturday afternoon to get a picture of the snowman and both kids...but sadly, we didn't get a picture with ralphy because by saturday afternoon he had melted...elli was sad that the snow was going away so quickly and so was i...i think ralphy was glad to see it leaving!

i love snow days!

Clifford, The Big Red Dog came to our library last week! Elli wan't sure about him at first, but Ralphy wanted to check him out. After the little guy said hi, Elli decided it would be OK to do so, too! I think she would have stayed next to him all day if she could have! We're still having fun and getting outside on every mild day that comes our way. Pre-school is still great for Elli. Ralphy has a new trick: climbing INTO his bed! (He hasn't tried to climb out yet...let's hope he doesn't figure that one out!)

the weather outside was not so frightful

so our new photo calendar that i made says "the weather outside is frightful" on the january page...usually that would make sense...but not this year so far...we've started 2008 on the mild side as you can see in the pictures...

we took advantage of the two very warm days (70+ degrees) that we had earlier this week...the kids finally got to run around without being bundled up...we went to the bird sanctuary to check in on our feathered friends and elli decided we really needed to take pictures of all of them...i included a few for your enjoyment! she said, "aren't the turkey vultures soooo cute?" that's never the first thought that pops into my head when i see them, but she is a true animal lover...and i think ralphy is going to be like his sister in that respect, too, although i think it will be awhile before he will verbalize his thoughts on the birds, because he really doesn't care to talk much at this point...he's gonna get by on his good looks for awhile...

christmas 2007

it was a fantastic christmas...santa came and brought all kinds of wonderful things and we got together with our families on several occasions...elli got her swimming baby and her ring that she asked santa for and ralphy got great stuff, too...we are still enjoying the season (and the toys) and we aren't quite ready for it to be over...

santa claus is coming to town...

i haven't posted any video clips in awhile, so here are a couple of us hanging out in elli's room...her version of "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" is great...some words are switched, some words are omitted, but we love it! because i goofed up, you will first need to go to the christmas slideshow below and mute the jazzy christmas tune before you play the videos...sorry...

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and here is the crazy little boy..one of his favorite things to do is jump on elli's bed...he usually steals her teddy bear, too, but in this clip it is his own that he is eating!

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and here is a still shot of ralphy (the video was so blurry that it was hard to tell what he even looks like!)

and another of elli by "the big tree"

and a few of our big snow last weekend...ralphy didn't like as much as elli did, but he stayed out for quite awhile (it was hard for him to walk in it)...elli loved the white stuff! you wouldn't believe that we had snow, as it is 60 degrees here today...but it sounds like that will be changing within the next 24 hours, so we won't have snow for christmas, but we will have cold!

merry christmas everyone!

deck the halls

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