The Adventures of ELLA and NOELLE

Girls and Dogs

2008-11-25T10:42:00.002-05:00

Ok, this post is simply about what I named it. As you all can tell by now I have no blogging wittiness. It's basically pictures of the girls with little story. I just never have the energy to think hard enough to write something engaging to read. Perhaps some day I will. Until then please enjoy the pictures :).

Max and Birdie...Birdie and Max....

Christmas card fun

2008-11-25T10:32:00.004-05:00

Here is my attempt at getting a cute picture of the girls for our Christmas card this year. Easier said than done when you have a pre-schooler and toddler. I don't know how the picture taking people do it. Man oh man. None of these, by the way, made the final cut. One of them is close though.

Scanning Fun!

2008-11-25T10:12:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures of the girls that I had to scan in. They are getting way too big way too fast.

Halloween pic

Ella's school pic :)

Her class picture - Ok, I see it's sideways but I saved it rotated....hmmm. Once I figure out how to turn it on here I'll do it.

Our family pic

Ella's 3yr pic

Noelle's 18mth pic

Halloween 2008

2008-11-07T15:03:00.002-05:00

Since we were in Hilton Head on vacation during Halloween we decided to go to John's dad's in Savannah for Halloween night. The girls had a great time and looked adorable. Ella was very polite about the candy and loved seeing all the decorations. Noelle was a hoot and was not shy AT ALL about grabbing candy, sometimes 2 handfuls. She turned up her cuteness a notch during trick or treating and said Thank You or Happy Halloween to everyone. We're so glad the girls got to go trick or treating with Grandpa Alex and Grandma Jeannie!

Hilton Head

2008-11-07T14:38:00.010-05:00

We took a vacation to Hilton Head Island, SC the last week of October. We went with another couple that had 2 small kids too. We had a nice time and the kids had a lot of fun. John got to golf at some of the most beautiful courses in SC. The week went by way too fast as most vacations do. The weather wasn't what we wished for but the sun was out all week and barely a cloud in the sky. So really I can't complain too much. We got to watch the dolphins every day. Our condo was right on the beach and it was spectacular. We plan to go back again, but when the weather is supposed to be a little warmer. We didn't even get to go in the ocean. Bummer.

Time for school!

2008-09-12T21:59:00.003-04:00

School? Are you kidding me? How did this happen? It is so hard to believe that Ella is old enough for preschool. She only goes 2 days a week for 2.5 hours those days. Drop off on the first day did not go well. She is in the afternoon class and is still taking naps. So, she was tired and clingy when it came time for school. There was a lot of tears and calling for Daddy. We managed to leave and she managed to calm down and enjoy herself. I can't wait for all the artwork to start rolling in!

On the way to school after stopping at Wendy's for lunch

Standing outside with Addison (neighbor). They are in the same class.

Beauty

Checking out what's in store for her

Time for school

Ella's 3rd Birthday Party

2008-09-12T21:48:00.003-04:00

I can't believe she's 3! Well, not yet officially. That's not until September 19th. We decided to have her birthday party the same day as Noelle's baptism since family was in town. We had a packed house! Also wouldn't you know that it rained a half hour before the party and it hadn't rained for a month. Go figure! I think all 35 people that were here enjoyed themselves despite. Unfortunately, these are about all the pictures I took. I was too busy running around doing other stuff.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

An evil, evil gift from cousin Sophie. This recorder has mysteriously disappeared..hmmm???

Here are the treats! Yes, I made them all myself AND they were yummy!

Cousins

2008-09-12T21:43:00.002-04:00

I love this picture so much that it gets it's very own post. This was taken after Noelle's baptism. So, I'm surprised my girls aren't in the throws of a fit.

Sophie, Lenie, Alexis, Ella, Noelle and Rachal

Don't they all look fabulous???

A bunch of whatever

2008-09-12T21:35:00.002-04:00

Here are some random pictures that I couldn't quite fit anywhere else.

The fam - I know it's blurry but I had to post it since we rarely get a pic of all of us together

Our double stroller

Ella doing her famous pose

Wow! What a great looking couple.

Ok, maybe not so much

Noelle's Baptism.....finally

2008-09-12T21:22:00.004-04:00

Finally Noelle is baptised. It took nearly 17 months to get it done. Ella was baptised at 10 weeks old the wonder Father Donner at Sacred Heart in Gladwin. Unfortunately he passed away only months afterwards. When we moved to Ohio we himmed and hawed about joining a church. Well, Noelle was born and we needed her baptised but noone would do it unless we were members. So finally this January we got our act together and joined a church.

There sure is a difference between baptising a 10 week old and a 17 month old. Ella didn't make a peep during her ceremony. Noelle was quiet but it was smack dap during naptime so she was restless. It looked like we were playing hot potato with her while standing up with the priest. She only wanted one of us to hold her for a few seconds at a time. All in all everything went smoothly. Phew!

Here's the star of the show!

Ella with cousins Alexis and Rachal

Waiting for the ceremony to start

Here's the crew. Noelle's Godparents are John's sister Tina and her husband Lenie.

Jump Around

2008-09-12T21:16:00.002-04:00

Ella got this bounce house from her grandparents for her 3rd birthday.

Ella LOVES 'jumpolines', although with this one I think she likes the slide more. Her and Noelle have had a blast jumping in it!

Yes, I do normally put pants on my children.

Our Princesses

2008-09-12T21:08:00.003-04:00

The girls love dressing up as princesses. Luckily Aunt Tina has a bunch of girls that are in dance class. So, she gave the girls a ton of super cute dance outfits!!!! They will have fun with these for years!

Here are the Royal Princesses (I swear Noelle was not drinking)

All about Noelle

2008-07-06T09:30:00.004-04:00

Noelle was the most wonderful surprise John and I could have ever received. She is such a joy, although she comes with a LOT of attitude. She is a riot to be around and has us in stitches most of the time.

She is almost 16 months old and is running all over (including the couch, ugh), climbing up and down the stairs and is constantly telling us thank you. She has finally figured out some words and tries to repeat others we say. She loves to dance and will always tell us to say 'duck' when singing Old McDonald. She also will do the motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider. She is our lover and is always running up to hug our legs and rarely turns down an opportunity to be held. This is the opposite of how Ella was at her age. It's nice to have a baby hug you and lay her head on your shoulder. We need to cherish these moments now because who knows how many more years we have of it.

Right now she is trying to steal Ella's milk since hers is all gone, but Ella isn't giving it up. She is such a little brute. Ella better watch out in the next 6 months. Oh boy.

Even though she gives us attitude now it's nothing compared to a defiante 2 year old. I'm already dreading those times with her. I'll sure miss this sweet baby age she's at now.

All about Ella

2008-07-06T09:15:00.004-04:00

Ella has grown so much lately. She is talking so much better and is able to tell us her feelings. We get a lot of 'you hurt my feelings' or 'I'm happy' from her. It's nice to be able to have a conversation. We are in the midst of potty training. Oh boy, it's a chore. She hasn't quite 'gotten it' yet, but we're getting there. She'll tell us most of the time when she has to go. It'll sure be nice to have only 1 in diapers. She starts school in August and it is a requirement. So fingers crossed that it completely sinks in before then.

She is such a fun, beautiful little girl. She is in love with her sister and even though will push and kick her when she feels like it she'll also protect her. It's really amazing to watch her love for Noelle. It just melts my heart.

She JUST told me 'Mommy I like you'. She said this despite me yelling at her to stop running on the couch (this is a constant battle with her and her sister).

Having a 2 year old is extremely challenging, but the sweet moments outweigh the bad by a million.

Helping Mommy make muffins

Apparently not in a photo taking kind of mood

My Girls

2008-07-06T09:10:00.003-04:00

The girls are getting so big. They play well together and love each other so much. Noelle loves and I mean loves to take Ella's stuff and RUN. She loves when Ella chases her. It's all a big game. Ella usually has to tackle her to get whatever it is back all the while Noelle is cracking up. It can be quite comical. I need to get video of it to share on here. It is so wonderful to watch them grow up together and see them interact. Since I'm an only child this is all new to me and I'm loving every second of it.

The Yard

2008-07-06T08:07:00.006-04:00

Here are some pictures of our yard. We pulled out some bushes in the front and replanted some of the hostas from under the red tree in front of the house. We took out the mulch in the back and replaced it with river rock. We did this mainly because of the dogs tracking the mulch in constantly. We think it looks much better and has saved our floors from added dirt. It was hard to find rock here. You'd think in a big city it'd be easy to find but there's only 1 place that carries it. Everyone here uses black mulch to decorate their landscaping. It looks nice and is what we have in the front.

(Our yard was in desperate need of mowing and weed wacking when I took these pictures. The bushes also needed a good trimming.)

The front and sides of the house.

The backyard.

Since taking these pictures we've rearranged the stuff on the patio. It has really opened it up.

Fun in the sun

2008-07-05T18:07:00.004-04:00

We bought a sprinkler for the girls to play in. They had fun although neither of them really got close to it, at least for very long.

Camping Trip

2008-07-05T17:38:00.014-04:00

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've updated this. The girls and I went camping in Michigan with my parents over Memorial Day weekend. We had a fabulous time. The weather was just about perfect for late May and it was a very relaxing weekend. The girls had an absolute blast and we're planning on making it an annual trip.

Prepare for picture overload.

Here's Ella fishing for the first time ever. She caught 3 fish with Grandpa!!

Ella playing on the beach. It was a tad chilly to go swimming.

Enjoying some ice cream

Poor Noelle fell down the first day we were there and split her lip open.

Here's Ella flying a kite for the first time. It wasn't really windy enough to fly a kite, but she managed to get some good air.

And finally the ride home.

1 year pics

2008-04-12T16:29:00.001-04:00

Here are Noelle's 1 yr pictures!! They will be going out in the mail this week. I promise!

Misc Pics

2008-03-30T14:35:00.004-04:00

Here are some random pictures from the last week.

Noelle playing with her new Fridge Phonics from Grandma Jeannie & Grandpa Alex

Ella and Rachal enjoying some birthday cake (I forgot to load this with the bday post)

Ella wearing one of my trouser socks

One of our princesses

Yet another princess

My new do. I had it colored brown and highlighted just at the very top. I really like it!

Grandpa curled up with a giraffe

A mallard couple behind our house

Easter

2008-03-30T14:24:00.004-04:00

Here are a few pictures from Easter. It was great having everybody down and the girls had a blast especially Ella playing with her cousins!

Egg hunt in our yard

Coloring Easter eggs

Tada!! The end result

Birthday #2

2008-03-30T14:13:00.003-04:00

Here is Noelle enjoying her 2nd 1st birthday. LOL. Her cousin Sophie was also celebrating her 11th bday.

Opening some presents

Cakes

2008-03-30T14:10:00.001-04:00

We had a 'birthday party' for Noelle and Sophie while everyone was down for Easter. Here are the girls with the cakes I made for them. I think they turned out pretty good!

Happy 1st Birthday Noelle!

2008-03-14T22:23:00.002-04:00

Well, it finally happened. My baby has turned 1. How did this happen? Already? Really? She's walking all over the place now and giving us big wet open mouth kisses when we ask. She has the sweetest 3 tooth smile you'll ever see and still loves to snuggle up on our shoulder. She's still a baby yet she's not. I'm trying to soak in every ounce of babyhood I can since she's it. No more tiny, innocent babies in our house. Before I know it she'll be throwing tantrums and using everything in her being to not obey me. Oh, I know it's coming, remember she has a 2.5 year old sister. So, here's our baby eating her first cupcake and let me tell you she knew exactly what she was doing. There wasn't an ounce of cupcake left to eat when she was threw. That's my girl!

Also, I snapped some of Ella enjoying her cupcake.

Baby Noelle

2008-03-14T22:20:00.002-04:00

Yes, I do take pictures of my youngest. Here she is pre-cupcake eating. The cake isn't actually for her birthday. It was for my final cake decorating class and I decided to put her name on it since her bday was coming up. She didn't get to eat any of this one. Well, she did sneak some frosting.

Makeup

2008-03-14T22:16:00.003-04:00

Someone likes wearing makeup. The pictures do it no justice. I let her do it herself. She put on lipstick, blush and eyeshadow. She applied the eyeshadow like the black stuff the football players wear under their eyes. We went shopping right after these were taken. She had it all wiped off before we got to the store. Good thing, I didn't want people to think she had 2 black eyes. By the way, that's a Spartan cheerleader outfit she's wearing :).

Strike A Pose

2008-03-14T22:14:00.000-04:00

Ella asked me to take these pictures of her. No kidding.

The Storm

2008-03-14T22:09:00.002-04:00

Here's our first real storm of the season. Too bad it waited until March to happen. John took Ella out to play in it but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. She wasn't very impressed with the snow. Surprisingly it was her first real time playing in the snow. We got a total of 16 inches!!! It's not quite a week later and most of it has already melted. Yay!! Come on spring!

Notice the snow in the window. This is after I had knocked it out once already.

Barbie (Disney) Princesses on Ice

2008-03-14T22:02:00.005-04:00

Here's our trip to see the Disney Princesses on Ice. Ella had a great time and was in complete aw for the first 15 minutes of the show. She loves her princesses. Sorry for the bad pictures, she wouldn't look at me.

Before the show

Singing along

Rosary necklace???

2008-03-09T10:59:00.004-04:00

This is how I found Ella when her nap ran a little long. She got into her keepsake box and found some goodies. She decided to wear her rosary as a necklace and found an ink pad that I had used to make her hand/footprints as an infant. It was so cute I had to catch it with the camera.

To sleep or not to sleep

2008-03-05T21:07:00.003-05:00

John put Ella to bed last night, in which she rarely gets out of once she lays down. When we went back upstairs to get ready for bed I noticed Ella's bedroom light was on (we keep the girls doors closed until we go to bed). So, I opened her door (to the overwhelming smell of poo) and find her like this:

Apparently she wasn't quite ready to go to bed because she needed to poop. So, she got out of bed, turned her light on, played, pooped and passed out.

Her daddy should be proud.........she was obviously practicing her golf swing.

Like Mother Like Daughter

2008-02-19T20:25:00.003-05:00

Seeing these together totally freaks me out. Therse's no mistaking Ella is my daughter.

Church and the Barbie Princesses

2008-02-16T08:54:00.005-05:00

We finally started going to church in January. We've talked about it long before having kids but have now finally been forced into it. Noelle still has not been baptized and will be turning 1 next month. In order for this to happen we need to belong to a church. The church we joined is beautiful and hopefully we keep up with it. So far so good! It's nice to finally be going even though it's always trying with the girls. Ella likes to put on her church dresses and shoes though.

Also, nothing to do with church here are some more pictures of our beautiful barbie princess. She's running around in her outfit as I type matter of fact.

Our first trip to church as a family

Introducing once again Barbie Princess

Another of the Barbie Princess in training

Our First Vacation as 4

2008-02-16T08:30:00.003-05:00

We took our first family vacation as 4 late January. We drove to Savannah to visit John's dad, stepmom, brother and sister and then headed to Orlando because John had a conference. We stayed at Grandma Retta's and the girls had a blast. We had a wonderful vacation! We took the girls to Disney one day and then to Downtown Disney the other days. Surprisingly it was a very relaxing vacation and hopefully our next vacation will go as well.

The girls with Grandma and Grandpa

Ella with Uncle Alex

Ella with her usual expression

On the trampoline!

Disney!

Our other princess

2008-01-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

We knew it was bound to happen one day. Ella has already crowned herself as the Barbie Princess. Here is Noelle fastly following in her footsteps. Isn't she cute?

Goofy kids

2008-01-20T15:41:00.000-05:00

Parenting is one of the hardest things one can endure. Sometimes when you think you can't take any more screaming, poopy diapers, backtalk, crying, you name it they will do something like this and all is forgotten.

Thank You

2008-01-20T15:29:00.001-05:00

It's always nice when you don't even have to tell them to go to timeout. Ella felt the need to put herself in the corner. We're not even sure what she did :).

Some Christmas Pictures

2008-01-20T15:22:00.000-05:00

Who is that hiding under the tree?

Picture overload

2008-01-19T11:05:00.000-05:00

Here are some somewhat recent photos! Enjoy!

Happy Girl!

Mmmmm...crayon

Food good

Breakdancing

Ella and Daddy

Balls down the dress....I don't know.

It's a toy explosion!!!

Cutie Noelle

It's bathtime for Barbie

Backpack Girl to the rescue!!!!!!!

Princess Barbie

Sweet Noelle

Peanut butter 'cheese'

The Beginning

2008-01-19T09:30:00.000-05:00

I figured I'd give this blog thing a try. Until now I've been keeping seperate sites for each of the girls. Now I can put their pictures together and tell the stories that go with them. Hopefully I can keep up with this better than the other sites. Wish me luck!