Mardi Gras

I'm not sure if I have just never paid attention or what, but until last year I had no idea that Bolivar had its own Mardi Gras parade.  So this year I was on it, and we found out the date and the girls got to experience their 1st Mardi Gras parade, and probably their 1st parade ever (unless it is Mardi Gras, I'm not really one to seek out local parades!)  We had no idea what to expect, Michael figured there would be maybe 4 floats, I figured it would just be a bunch of people in backs of pickup trucks, not real floats, but we were both pleasantly surprised.  Day started off with terrible rain and thunderstorms and the parade was delayed, but once it got going it was a blast.  There were lots of floats and there were some pickups, some ATVs, some boats, but also some proper Mardi Gras style floats.  It was no Bacchus in New Orleans, but it was Bolivar style and it was perfect.  Does kind of make me want to got to New Orleans again sooner than later!

 I didn't make the girls anything for Valentines because I opted to make Mardi Gras dresses.  They turned out pretty cute, although I need to remember that the pillow case dress style does have the tendency to make it look like your kid is wearing a pillow case, so I might opt for a different style next time.  The picture of Addy below is after climbing around in the car and standing in the misting rain for the parade, so it looks a little worn, and it is.  And the pic of above is of a smiling Ella, which she is most of the time, just not when the camera is out, so I was excited we got this one!

 Thank goodness for big cars with lots of room to climb around in.  We were probably a little past the 1/2 way mark in the parade route, so we had a bit of a wait before the action started.  Lots of climbing in the car, standing in the misting rain...I was freezing, but the girls were fine and Ella didn't want to wear a jacket for the longest time.  And be sure to check out the jackets they have on, the good parents we are forgot their real jackets at home, but after a fun trip to the Big Store, they both had new Crystal Beach hoodies.  And new rain boots - I need to start sending Michael to the store, I buy way too much, not completely necessary, stuff when I go there.  But I figure I'm just supporting the local economy!  

Neither girl knew what to expect, and this was all happening during prime Ella nap time, so for a number of reasons it was a comical outing.  Addy had 1,001 questions, and Ella was just wondering what in the world we were doing.  This pic was when the parade was just about to us, and the girls are looking down at what is coming.  

 This was early in the parade, notice the progression of beads through the next few pics.  

 This pic clearly depicts Ella's general confusion and curiosity about the whole event!  I thought that she'd freak out when we started putting the beads on her, but I think that the combination of her being tired and not knowing what was happening worked in our favor this time.  Most of those we picked up and put on her, but she got into it for a while and was grabbing the beads off the ground and putting them on herself.  This is where her playing in Addy's jewelry box paid off- she knew what to do with a necklace and how to get it over her head all by herself!

 Michael and the girls at the end of the parade.  Clearly there were way more than 4 floats in order for us to get all these beads. 

 Addy and all her loot! 

 This was taken less than 5 minutes after we got back in the car - she was zonked! 

Here is Ms. A modeling ALL of the beads we got, once we got home.  Probably weigh about 1/2 as much as she does!  Fortunately Addy had the idea to take beads to her friends at school, but unless we give each kid a dozen, we are going to have a lot of beads around the house...anyone want some Mardi Gras beads??!!

Happy Valentines Day

I made the mistake of trying to take pictures after a day at school, before dinner, so the whole tired/hungry kid combo was not working in my favor when trying to take cute Valentines pics.  But here is what we got!

 Valentines was a mini-Christmas this year!  Here is Addy putting together a puzzle from Aunt Dottie and Uncle Fred - it was a huge hit.  And thanks to Granddad and Meme for the heart socks! 

 Note, Ella is happy and smiling while standing (she won't sit!) at the table eating her snack.  More importantly, check out her cute tights!

Michael brought home a flower for each of his girls!  Addy and I loved ours and Ella liked hers so much that she broke the stem, and shortly after this picture was taken she smushed the entire thing (smart daddy anticipated this and opted for the $1 carnation for the little girls!)

Goodbye Garden Bathroom

This post makes me super happy - we started demolishing our master bathroom and are looking forward to a 20th century-worthy bathroom, good-bye 1980s.  Obviously will share the end result, but here is just a sneak peek of weekend 1.

Here is the "before" picture - it was functional, but the flowers are just not our style.  And it had white tile and white grout on the floor (at least it was white at some point), I'm sorry, but whoever thought that was a good idea, clearly didn't have it installed in their own house. 

 Goodbye flowers.  Addy was the one that labeled it the garden bathroom and thought that it was silly that we were having to shower with all the flowers.   I certainly don't disagree with her!

This was at the end of day 1...we have many more days ahead, but we certainly miss having our bathroom, so we have serious motivation to keep the ball rollin'.  Fortunately we have a 3rd bath so all 4 of us aren't sharing a bathroom. Unfortunately the extra bath has the tiniest bath/shower ever and no ventilation and no windows - we may be all sharing the same bath before this is all over!

Dress Up

We've been super busy recently, just not with picture/blog-worthy activities.  But when looking through the pics in the camera this afternoon, I had a few and realized there was definitely a common theme - Ella playing dress up.  She is a bundle of entertainment these days!  One of her new words is "Barbie" and today she put on some of the dress up shoes and was walking around calling them her "Barbie shoes".  Here are some of her recent dress up adventures

 This pic is from Tyler Swann's pirate themed birthday party.  Ella had just woken up and I'm not sure she actually realized there was something on her head.  She sat there for ages.  On the other hand, Michael quickly took the stick-on beard off after the pic.  

 I guess you could say they were playing dress up in their laundry baskets.  They had a blast playing in these until Ella got stuck again.  

Another theme is Ella not ever looking at the camera, so I have a bunch of strange profile shots!

After disappearing in Addy's room for a while and being super quiet, Ella walked out decked out in nearly every bracelet we have, and a few necklaces.  Shortly after this pic, she took it all off and threw it all on the floor.  One of Ella's favorite past times is playing in Addy's jewelry box, so I can't tell you how often we pickup jewelry off the floor!  

Back To The Beach

After months of keeping busy here in Houston, we finally made it back to the beach.  Cold but fun time!

 Down to the beach with hoodie jackets on!

 Guess who was the first member of the family to go for a little swim in 2012?  Yep, that would be Star.  I didn't even touch the water to know how cold it was, but pretty sure she didn't need to be frolicking in the waves.

 Cold Ella, with zero interest in being down at the beach.

 Such a pretty sunset and you could see to Galveston it was so clear.

The main goal for the trip down to the water was to find some good seashells - Addy found some good ones and the 2012 shell collection begins!

Cuteness

 Addy is taking dance again, so we had to pull out the dance leotards last week.  Ella found the blue one and HAD to put it on.  Also note that they are both wearing princess dress-up shoes, Ella even found some Cinderella shoes that match the dress.  

 Yep, we have a minor obsession with princess dress-up shoes.  And once she gets them on, Ella can do a decent job keeping them on and walking around in them.  

Ella is also into babies and the baby bottles that Susan, Jon and Heidi gave her for Christmas are a huge hit! Here she is carefully feeding baby a bottle, while completely mesmerized by whatever is on TV.  Very good at multi-tasking!

Aggie Win

We just couldn't pass up a chance to go see A&M play when they were in the bowl game at Reliant Stadium, 5 minutes from our house - and it was all worth it when we were able to pull off a win. Since A&M doesn't tend to do so well in bowl games, and all the coaching drama, we weren't sure, but they showed up and it was a great match-up. 

Also had a fun time hanging out with Collin and Zach and doing a little bit of tailgating before and after the game. 

Christmas 2011

Such a fun and busy Christmas!  The festivities started with a great dinner at Helen and Dick's on Christmas Eve.  This was the first year that the girls at what the rest of us ate and we were all quite amazed.  Kind of a Christmas gift in itself!  Addy even found out she liked sweet pickles - wow. 

Festivities continued Christmas morning with Ella waking up me and Michael.  Addy wasn't too excited to get up until I reminded her that Santa had come, then she jumped out of bed.  Present fun here with the 4 of us.  Was kind of surprised that Ella had zero interest in opening gifts.  She was actually more interested in Addy's Santa gifts (big surprise).  Then presents at Dad and Mary's topped off with too much good food at brunch.  Home for a bit of a nap then to Jean's for  presents and a great dinner with everyone - the Densons, Wolfs, Berhows, Pflugers and Kellys.  We are so lucky that all the families have just melded together and a good time is always had by all! 

Then due to scheduling conflicts, we got to have a belated Christmas with the Wolfs and Berhows on Monday morning.  Was just like Christmas morning, except the day after! It was great being able to celebrate with Heidi on her first Christmas.  And the girls all enjoyed playing with each others new goodies. 

And now for the pictures...

 Addy is becoming quite the tree decorator.  And this year Ella was quite the tree undecorator.  For some reason, instead of putting the ornaments back on the tree after she took them off, we just piled them on the table.  By the end we had a pretty big pile on the table and not so many on the bottom of the tree.  Don't think that she broke any though, so that is good.

 First half-asleep look at her loot.

 Ella definitely got distracted with the toys that were unwrapped and had zero interest in unwrapping the gifts on her own.

 Blurry picture b/c it is an action shot of Ella taking Addy's new doll for a ride in the new baby stroller!  We are all super excited to have a good stroller that doesn't break every 2 seconds - is maybe just a bit too big though b/c Ella can climb in herself.  

 Sleepy girls full of Christmas!

 Betsy, Addy and Jean 

 More fun opening Ella's gifts - these were new books which were great.  We read A LOT of books and although I feel like we have a small library here at the house, it was really nice to get some new and different ones.

 Granny and Mary - from the smile on her face, you would never have guessed that Granny had a bad case of bronchitis.  She was the ultimate trooper!

 These 2 are going to be trouble one day.  Neither can really talk right now, so I'm not really sure what they were doing, but it totally looks like they are cooking something up.  Too cute!

Cousin playtime after opening gifts at Grandma and Grandpa's

Visit from the Loredos

We were so excited to be able to get together with Carl, Kelley, Gage and Ainsley over the holidays.  A fun playdate here at the house topped off with lunch at Coney - can't beat it.  Ainsley and Addy became best friends and I think that Gage was excited to see that we actually had Hot Wheels and boy-friendly toys here at our very girlie house!  Hoping it isn't next Christmas before we can all get together again!

Lion Hanukkah Party

So, we go to Hanukkah parties instead of Christmas parties, but you know, they are really all the same...  little bit of singing, eating and crafts.  At Ella's age it is just fun to watch all the little ones. It was nice to actually get to meet some of the other parents in the class too. 

Guess what Ella's favorite part of the party was

 Cupcake!

Seeing them all sit around the table eating is adorable. 

Mommy's Tower

Pretty much anywhere we go, you can see my office building sticking up in the sky since it is the tallest thing around, in this part of town.  And every time Addy notices it, she says "mommy's tower" (if only I actually owned it instead of just worked there!) and right after she points it out she asks when she is going to be able to come to my office.  With her school schedule and E's nap schedule it is just tricky to find time, but over the holidays, Ella had school, Addy didn't and I was off from work, so to mommy's tower we went for a visit.  Addy had a blast walking around, drawing on my dry erase board, and riding the elevators and escalators.  And maybe the biggest accomplishment of the day was going to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe at the Galleria (which is attached to my building) and Addy was not freaked out by the animals.  Until we walked around to the gorilla section that is, still not OK with the gorillas - maybe when she is 6.  Here she is checking out the view from my office

These are not related to Addy's visit, but while cleaning out my e-mail at work, I found these pics I had taken from my office -- the novelty of an office with a window on the 56th floor wore off years ago, but we all still get quite giddy watching the weather from so high up. 

 A lesson in isolated thunderstorms, these are my favorite, and it is cool to watch them move around the city

 Always try to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but no luck yet.

This is neat and weird at the same time, typically not above the clouds unless I'm in a plane.

Ella Tidbits

Ella is quite the entertainer these days and is ALWAYS wanting to do what big sister is doing.  She never plays in her room, is always in Addy's, usually making a mess.  Her new favorite is emptying Addy's drawers - this does not make mommy and daddy happy.  Or Addy for that matter.  But we love her to pieces.  Here are some funny pics of Ella being Ella.

 I got most of these singing snowmen before kids, they were just funny, I loved them.  Now that I have kids, I love them even more.  Although they did lose their appeal, they were the best babysitters when we first brought them out - Ella would just play them over and over again.  She could start them herself and I was busy enough getting stuff done to not even care if she had 4 of them going at once. 

 Addy was painting, so Ella wanted to paint.  She wouldn't wear a smock, so the shirt came off!

Ella pointing out the Ariel on the brush, not sure if it is her "favorite" princess, but it is the only one she knows by name, so anytime she sees Ariel, we hear about it.  

Ella staying still, smiling for the camera = rare and cute