Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is almost over! We had a good one here! This week, the weather has actually been in the 40s occasionally, so that was so nice. We actually got out of the house quite a bit. And Fox and I had a date on Friday--hooray! Our friends Elizabeth and Gabe babysat while we went to eat at the Indian Oven and had yummy coconut kurma. It was so delicious (and not Scobby-Dooby--pee-yucky as Cash likes to say).

Cash and I picked out a mailbox at the craft store and brought it home to decorate. This little project kept him busy for an hour! He was so happy!

Opening his Robot-stickered (no girly hearts here!) mailbox to find his Valentines this morning (Don't worry, Mom--there was only one piece of candy in there!):

I found this cute idea for krispy-cones online. Cash and I whipped these up with a sour cherry ball on top and then took him to his neighborhood buddies:

Testing it out--yummy!

And of course, what's a blog post without a picture of my little ankle biter (yep, she's at the cat-tail-pulling, pinching, bite-for-fun stage!):


*I just noticed Cash is wearing the same shirt in these pictures, even though the first picture is from earlier this week. He wants to wear his santa pajama top every single day! Don't worry, we wash it often. But, should I be discouraging this? This is the first time Cash has ever been picky about clothing!

Some Recent Faves

Nothing too new here in the Ellis household. We are getting over colds and having the wonderful time of transitioning Cosette down to 1 nap a day. Since we have been home so much, I thought I would share a few things that have made the days a little bit more cheery (I will not be including Cash's newfound obsession with Scooby Doo. I got him a video from the library. He loves it, but I don't. Shaggy is so annoying and now Cash asks to sleep with the door open, since he gets scared. Ugh..)

Read:

Once I Ate A Pie is the "true" confessions of thirteen different dogs. It is hilarious, especially if you do different voices for the dogs. For example, Mr. Beefy, a pug, confesses that he likes to go eat tubs of butter in the basement in private. Just a really cute book--I think Fox and I might have enjoyed it more than the kids!

Listen:

I love this album. I usually put on music while I'm cooking to keep everyone happy, and this CD does the trick. It is mellow and also dance-worthy. There is a reggae ABC that Cash loves. Just a really good CD. We love it!

Snack:

Okay, if you know me, you know I can't resist candy advertising when new flavors/editions come out! It can be called "Chicken Noodle Soup Kit Kats", and I will be all over that. I just love the novelty. The Dark Reeses have been out for a while, but we just recently tried them. They are so much better than the regular ones (especially if you have left some in your pocket all day, and they are a little melty). But they still can't beat this wonderful homemade recipe, of which I always seem to have the ingredients conveniently on hand. Yum!

Websites:
Okay, I just wanted to share this: RunPee.com is a website that lets you look up a movie and then shows you when the best time would be to go pee, so that you don't miss any good parts. Hilarious and helpful! It also tells you what you missed after you went to the bathroom, and you can download the app onto your iPhone.

Awkward Family Photos is also great for a laugh!

Enjoy!

Snowman Party!

Winter in Logan has been dragging on, and a lot of time has been spent indoors. Might as well make a party of it! So, we sent out little invitations and invited a bunch of 2 year olds (what was I thinking?!) over for a little snowman party on Monday. The party was very chaotic, but the kids had a ton of fun. I didn't take many pictures, since I was crazy busy! We played pin-the-nose on the snowman, hot snowball (like hot potato but with a fake snowball), made snow people out of marshmallow popcorn balls, and then decorated terra cotta pot snowmen (which was a big hit)!
Finally, the kiddos got their energy out by beating a snowman pinata. Good times, and I love that I was able to use the enticement of a party to get Cash to behave for a week!

The snowman pinata, made from paper mache and balloons (idea here)

Snowman English muffin pizzas:

Our good friend James swinging at the snowman. Yes, that is a hobby horse he is swinging with. Awesome, huh?

Cash took the pinata down! We weren't about to go outside in 18 degree weather, so I thumb-tacked the pinata to the wall...and it worked! I only filled it with 2 pieces of candy per person, as I did not want or need more chaos at that point!

Enjoying the spoils:

At the end of the party, each kiddo got to take a little snowman buddy home. I made these out of old wool sweaters and craft felt I had on hand (pattern here


I am so glad we got to start the week with a cheap, fun party. I think I learned my lesson, though--stick with 1 snack and 1 game next time. Toddlers are a bit too crazy for so many things at once!

14 months old!

Cosette turned 14 months old this week! This past month, she has changed the most! She can now make several animal sounds (she often wakes up meowing), knows some body parts, and even uses the potty at least once a day. Most of all, she is a speed walker everywhere she goes! Yikes!
She is also very mischievous. She is a hitter and makes Cash cry at least once a day. She just always seems to be up to something, although her favorite thing is still looking at books.
Here is her "I'm up to something naughty" look:

Cosette is going to be a clothes lover, I think. Here she is wearing her scarf, which she will put on and wear around the house often:

As I mentioned, Coco is Miss Mischief. Here, Cash is choking her...and she is laughing! I'm trying to pull them apart. Hmmm...I think I'm in for it with this girl!

Christmas in Texas (finally!)

Our Christmas pictures were very few this year! Our camera died, and we forgot to bring our charger. Then, when we got home and did our own little family Christmas, I realized that I had left my camera at my friend's house. I got it back yesterday, so voila!

Our first day in Texas, we went to play on the playground of Fox's old elementary school. Cash loved the seesaw!

Chillin' on the slide:

Relaxing in Grandpa's chair (a favorite activity):

Another photo shot by Cash:

Christmas morning:

All of the cousins got matching blankets. We let Cash sleep in with them, but he kept getting up to play with Grandpa Rick's computer in the dark:

On Christmas Day, we headed to the Waxahachie fire station, where Fox's brother Richard was working. He showed Cash all the neat equipment. Cash was so excited to sit up in the fire truck!

Uncle Richard, our favorite fireman!


These are the few Christmas pictures not excessively blurred by little fingerprints on the lens...oops! We have had our digital camera for 5 years now, and it's still hanging in there. It is huge and bulky, but we just can't bring ourselves to buy a nicer one until this one is completely dead. Hence, the permission given to our children to play with it (in hopes that they might break it and give us an excuse to get a new one. Shhh!)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

I couldn't find any decent pictures of just Fox and I, so here is a random one Cash snapped a few months ago.

Yesterday, Fox and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! Wow, time flies! Kelsy came over to babysit for us, and we are so grateful. We hadn't gone out on our anniversary since 2006!
There really isn't too much to do in Logan. First, we went to the bookstore. Then, we went to see Avatar 3D. The entire theater was given the wrong 3D glasses (the lenses were mixed up), so it was pretty funny to see everyone slowly figure out that the glasses didn't work. (A lot of--"It's still blurry!"shouts--pretty amusing). We both really enjoyed the movie, but I thought it was a little too long. All movies should be 90 minutes! Finally, we went to dinner at Angie's, which is Logan's local down-home restaurant. We had a really good time.

P.S. Our drive home from Texas was long but smooth. The weather was perfect. The only incidence of note occurred around Moab. The kids were getting really fussy, and there just happened to be a man relieving himself on the side of the highway in the snow. Well, to get the kids to stop crying, I made up a very animated story about proper emergency toileting practices. It was such a huge hit that "Don't Ya Go A-Pee-Pee in the Snow" has now evolved into a series of bedtime stories and songs that Cash begs for every night. Yep.

We're Here!

Hi everyone! We have arrived safely in Texas, after a 2 day drive totalling 24 hours of drive time! The kids were amazing. No potty accidents or tantrums! We got to Fox's parents house at around midnight on Sunday. Cash and Cosette were so happy to be out of the car that they were doing cartwheels and backflips. Okay, they were running (or crawling) around in circles! Thank you to everyone who helped us get here successfully (you know who you are!). We appreciate it so much.

I have to say, I am so glad we are in Texas right now. When we left Logan, it was 13 degrees. It is over 50 degrees here! Just taking the kids outside without coats and hats and gloves is so awesome. Please pray that the weather in Utah is good when we had back this weekend.

We love you and will update some more when we get back. Merry Christmas!