Little pianist

Keith is very musical and loves to involve the girls in music playing at any opportunity. Anna is following in big sisters footsteps and loves the piano already. Check Ella out at the piano when she was a little younger by clicking here.

Bathtime

We love bath time at our house! Ella loves for Anna to take a bath with her and Anna's finally steady enough to sit well in there and play. Up until recently Ella squirmed around in there so much Anna kept sliding around and falling over. Anyways, it's a fun way to end the day and get ready for bed. :-)

Fridays with Nana

My mom is at the church until 12 on Fridays and then has the afternoon off so we typically get to hang out with her that day. Ella loves spending this time with her and I know Anna will too as she gets older. And of course, I love it...if you know me, you know I'm quite the momma's girl! :-)
And a little update on Anna's crawling - she's crawling for sure, but not fast or moving very far. She's still getting the hang of it. But, I just don't know that she'll be a big crawler - she has a hard time getting coordinated and would much rather stand now.
In fact, this is what I found her doing all by herself this afternoon. She's been standing and holding on to things for a while, but not actually pulling up much without help (she's a little, ahem, lazy ;-)). That is until today! So, time will tell if she'll be an early walker like Ella or if she'll take a little more time (which will be ok by me!).

Tuesday

Well both girls appear to be on the mend...yahoo! Ella's fever started going away yesterday evening and has been gone all day. Thank goodness...she was really pitiful for awhile. We visited the dr. yesterday morning and she too tested positive for RSV and had a double ear infection (a "bulging" ear infection in one ear is how he referred to it...ouch!). Anna-bear is back to normal, but I'm concerned about her weight again because she lost some last week due to no appetite. She's really little - 16 lbs. or so. We have a check-up next week so we'll see what he says about that.

A couple of exciting things have happened around here today...we finally lowered Anna's crib mattress (probably should have done that a while ago). She looks so little in there now! And, tonight is Ella's first night sleeping in big girl panties. She potty trained shortly after she turned two and keeps panties on all day, but she was continuing to sleep in diapers or pull-ups at night. We had a big pack of diapers left and so I said once those are gone, then we're done (she hasn't woken up with a wet diaper in months). So fingers crossed that it goes well!

Here's a few pictures I've taken recently on my iphone - love that little toy ;-)





Taken yesterday morning - when Ella is content to lay on the couch for more than 2 minutes, you know she doesn't feel well.















Chewing her first piece of gum - right before she swallowed it.













Anna in her lowered crib...big girl!



















Peaches + rice + crackers + cheerios = one hot mess!

Sick Kids

Man, we have had some sick kids at our house the past few days. Anna is finally on the mend, but now Ella appears to have caught Anna's RSV and she is one sick little girl. Fever, runny nose, coughing, the whole 9 yards. I feel so bad for her! She sure is a trooper though and it takes a lot to keep her down. Even when she's feeling her worst, she still manages to play with her toys and keep herself busy. I don't know how she does it!

We did get out of the house this weekend to enjoy the beautiful weather and some family time. More pictures from that coming later. For now, here's a few randoms from this week.
Taken before the virus hit her...totally out of focus picture, but love the expression (and the red velvet cake pop remnants on her mouth)!

Anna was NOT feeling good that day, but hung in there.

And I'm sure stuff like this is how Ella got sick in the first place...is there really any good way to keep siblings apart when they're sick??

Poor Anna!!

Our poor little girl is SICK! She woke up absolutely miserable this morning so we headed straight to the door. She tested positive for RSV and has a double ear infection. He said on a scale of 1-5, she's got a 5 in one ear and a 3 in the other. Poor thing! I can't imagine how bad that must hurt her little ears. So, she got a shot today and we'll start a round of antibiotics tomorrow to take care of everything. I'm pretty sure Ella has picked up the RSV, but we've got her on breathing treatments and her inhaler so hopefully that will take care of it. It will be nice to get everyone well and back to normal. :-)

Anna has learned how to drink out of a sippy cup and enjoys playing with it in her highchair during dinner. I took these pictures yesterday when she was still feeling halfway decent...she was NOT smiling today.
Another little note - Ella has become so protective of her baby sister. I kept her out of school today because I thought she was running a mild fever this morning so she went to the doctor's office with us. When she found out that Anna was going to get a shot she absolutely did not like that! And later this afternoon when I was trying to clean up Anna's runny nose (Anna gets hysterical when you try to wipe her nose - it's crazy), Ella said "don't hurt my baby sister!!!" I just think it's sweet that she already wants to take care of her. ;-)

Trying to be better...

...about blogging on a regular basis instead of letting it all pile up and then bombarding the blog with images. We'll see how I do! :-)

Anna-bear has been sick this week. She has a really yucky cold and seems to just feel miserable. I'm debating a doctor's visit. I hate to go too early and be sent home because there is nothing they can do for her only to go back a couple of days later because it's developed into an ear infection. But, I hate to wait too long in case it's already getting into her ears. Ahhh, decisions! I guess I'll wait and see how she's doing in the morning. Sick babies are so pitiful! Especially our little bear...she's a little dramatic. ;-)

She's cute with a bow though isn't she???

And one of big sis...


To prepare for Valentine's Day, we made some yummy Funfetti cupcakes. Ella was my big helper in the kitchen.
And my big helper eating them too!
Last but not least, I leave you with another V-Day picture of sweet Anna. She's our little Love-Bug.

SNOW!

We love snow at our house and we had such a fun snow day last Friday. Ella thought it was so cool and enjoyed every minute we spent outside. Anna wasn't too impressed. :-) Here's our snow day in pictures. Enjoy!

Ella's Valentine's

This is the first year Ella will be taking Valentine's to her friends at school. I had fun making up some cute ones for her to take. Next year I'll probably try to be a little more crafty and cut well thought out holes in the cards for the lollipop to go through, but this year I was lazy and content with taping it to the back. ;-)


And of course I couldn't leave little Anna out of the V-Day picture fun.

A few more 6 month pictures...

Couldn't leave out this little cutie!

...wow...I guess I went a little overboard on Anna's 6 month pictures! Oh well...better to have too many than none at all! :-)

Having Fun

Sweet sisters...I must confess that we had our first sisterly altercation. And right after I posted that Ella had never been mean to Anna! Anna grabbed one of her toys and Ella promptly bopped her on the head. Sharing is such a hard thing to learn at 2!

We've had a few really nice days so we took advantage and headed to the park after naps





Ella is soooo particular with her things...her markers always have to be lined up just right. When they're like that I love to color coordinate them. I just don't know where she gets her ocd tendencies?!


Her hair is such a mess after she wakes up from a nap...bless her heart, I do know where she gets that from.