Spring-Summer is here.

In Central Texas we have about two weeks of nice spring weather before the high temperatures sneak in and it feels like summer....from about mid march to September. With the rise in the temperatures came the opportunity to break out the sprinklers to let the kids (Ben and Betsy) play. Bets wasn't a huge fan of the
'sprinkle waller'. She was 'scared of waller'. She liked it much more when Ben would pick her up and vault over the sprinklers with her in his arms.











Ben took Bets to the park four times this weekend. It gave me an opportunity to clean, catch up laundry and take some pictures of Ella! Of course as soon as the big sister gets home she runs to find little sister and yell "Hey Allah!" and rub her hair. It's very sweet!





Have a nice Monday everyone!

Cake pops!

I tried a new project, cake pops! I used the instructions from cakepops.org. Here are some of the final product...






And while I worked on cake pops Betsy decorated her Melissa and Doug toy cupcakes. She loves these!

Little people happenings.

Who are these little people in my house?

Betsy is potty training herself and we have planned "Potty Palooza" for this weekend. She did 'both' last night without any prompting from us, and she wore big girl undies around the house. We also tried our first pull up yesterday! I need to stock up on pull ups and M & Ms for potty palooza weekend, which will be starting at noon tomorrow as soon as I get out of work!

Ella stood balancing against the couch for 57 seconds last night. We were counting and clapping and she was SO proud of herself. I kept telling Ben she was a strong stander and he had to watch and I only expected her to balance for about 10 seconds without our help but she was just shy of a full minute! I see another 'athletic little baby' in our future.

AND finally, sister-in-law Tiffany are in the midst of planning a baptism for Ella and my nephew Hudson. It's fun to have a party to plan for the first time in a YEAR and what a special reason to celebrate :)

Donut debacle

Yesterday I picked up Betsy from school and took her for her first professional hair cut. I bribed her with a donut (i.e. soft pretzel) from Target where we would be going next. Then we stopped at Ulta so I could make a return. The kid was so good with the promise of a "dunnut".

Then we get to Target and they have 12 soft pretzels on display...but come to find out those are fake plastic pretzels and they were sold out of the real thing. Try explaining THAT to a 2 year old. I improvised with a cookie that was literally the size of her head. She didn't leave disappointed. She knew she couldn't consume the whole cookie so she sweetly shoved the cookie toward my face over and over directing me to "Eat it Mommy!"

My cute kids

Ella...she is growing and changing so fast! She rolls around. She tries to sit up completely on her own. She's about half way there. She's close to balancing on her own sitting up. She loves talking to that baby in the bathroom mirror that looks just like her. She smiles at Mommy and Betsy a lot. I think she has acid reflux so in two weeks at her 4 month appointment I'm going to be asking for medication. She also has really dry skin Betsy never had and we've been trying one lotion and remedy after the other with no relief. But she's a pretty happy girl and I love our quiet snuggle times first thing in the morning.

Betsy...is awesome. She says and does the cutest things. She loves to play hide and seek, and to jump out and scare me! Yesterday she and I went shopping at Target alone and she gave me her opinion on dresses "Mommy Beautiful" and shoes "those hippie shoes, those pretty shoes" I admit she was pretty spot on in the shoe department. For the meager price of a small cherry Icee and a soft pretzel Betsy serves as my own 'Tim Gunn' like stylist. Betsy also picked out her Easter dress and specified that she wanted to "matchy Allah". We bought some summer clothes this weekend and some bigger shoes and while BEN tried to dictate what shoes she would be getting Betsy had her own opinions. Guess who won that battle? Dora the Explorer shoes came home with us.

While in the dressing room with me Betsy sang the dinosaur under her breath until the last line when she "RAWR!"ed with the enthusiasm that she convinced all other shoppers there was a t-Rex in the dressing room. They went silent with fear.

We went next door to Ulta so I could pick up some headbands and she tried them on and handed them to strangers and asked them to 'put 'dis back please.' She also picked out her how 'ip stick and applied it to her face about 20 times in an hour. Betsy smelled strongly of strawberry kiwi lip smackers.

That's about all for today. I'll try to post pictures of both of them soon!

Ella/Hudson Pictures

Cousin Hudson came over Saturday for a photo shoot with Ella. These are the best pics!

Harold and the Purple Crayon

This happens to be Betsy's favorite book. I stumbled upon the HBO kid's series on demand and no surprise Betsy loooooooves it. An episode is 22 minutes and it's basically storytelling to an animated baby falling asleep and drawing what's in his imagination.

I adore hearing Betsy ask to watch this show. It goes like this..

"Betsy watch baby colors? Hehwold colors puhpul crown? Harold color di-no-sores (dinosaurs)? Harold color charaft (giraffe). Hehwold sleepy colors wit puppy lavendar? Harold see moon and stars?"

and when an episode ends...

"Mow baby colors? Pwees? Betsy see mow Hawold?"

and when we oblige her...

"YEA!!!!!! BABY COLORS!"

Thank you HBO.