Happy 2nd Birthday, Ellianna!

Ellianna's birthday was last week!  Can you even believe she's TWO?!  I can't!!  I can't believe my baby boy has been a big brother for two years, either.  Memaw and I took her to the Pecan Porch for lunch.

We let her watch the trucks drive by after we ate.  You know, 'cause that's what every little girl wants to do on her birthday.

That evening we ate dinner at memaw and pappaw's house and had cupcakes at home.

Saturday was her party.  We just had a small family party with her grandparents.  When it came to a "theme", there were so many cute options.  I wish she could have helped me decide.  She's a little lady of few words, but still gets her point across very clearly.  She is so demonstrative and expressive so I can tell by the level of excitement in her reaction to things what she likes. She loves cars, trains, trucks, and airplanes because that's what brother loves.  But I wasn't going to give my dainty girl a truck party although I'm sure Etsy had things for a girly truck party.  She also loves dogs, but until she can verbally beg me for a dog party, I just couldn't bring myself to do it, not a fan.  So I chose birds.  Anytime we are outside and she sees birds fly by, she gets SO excited and wants to make sure everyone else sees them too.

Invitation:

 Welcome sign:

 Cake:

Part of her banner.  It said, "Ellianna is 2".  I didn't make her banner this year, not enough time after getting back from FL!

Birdie balloon:

I should mention that Elli woke up with a fever on Thursday.  Took her to the doctor, wanted him to check Noah's chest too because he's been having so much trouble with allergies.  Doc offered to check Noah's ears too and he had an ear infection!  Not what I was expecting.  By Saturday morning, he also had whatever Elli had.  Aunt Lindsey and Alexis were sick too and didn't get to come to the party.

Poor baby.

Opening presents:

Grandpa Gary and Debbie got Elli a gorgeous, frilly lamp for her room and Noah a book that was written just for him (ha!).  It's called How Things Work.  It shows everything from how drains and toilets work to escalators and airplanes.  We love it!  I think it helped him feel better for a little bit.

Memaw and pappaw wanted to get Elli a kitchen for her birthday.  They let me choose which one we wanted.  Decisions, decisions!  Who knew there were so many different kinds of toy kitchens?!

They knew she would love whatever they got her, it was just mama giving it too much thought.

By cake time, she was so ready for nap.

Nana and pawpaw got her the Cozy Coupe.  Hooray!  She loves it, of course.

I need to get her a stool to reach the freezer and microwave!  :) Sweet tip-toes

I purchased OSU/TU tickets a couple months ago since we knew Nana and pawpaw would be in town for Elli's party and they could watch the kids.  The game was set for 9 PM kickoff and although we knew that was a stretch for us to be up for a game ending at 12:30AM, I also knew it was my only chance to go to a game childless (since my usual babysitters, my parents have OSU season tickets).

We got to the U of Tulsa campus around 7:15 so Brandon could watch the first half of the OU/FL State game.  We found a sports grill and ate dinner.  I was ready to bust out and walk to the stadium when Mr. Meteorologist came on with T-storm and tornado warnings!  Lovely.  The NWS also advised that they clear out TU's stadium so we just stayed right there in our little booth and MANY other people from the stadium joined us.  We had such a fun time hanging out, just the two of us!  Lucky for B, he got to watch his entire game.  Not so lucky for me.  I spent too many bucks on tickets that never got to see the lights of Chapman Stadium.  

We waited it out until 11:30.  That's when Brandon had to be my voice of reason and drag me to the car talk me in to going home.  They finally kicked off at 12:15 AM!  With two little ones at home, it just wasn't practical to stay at a football game until 3:30 in the morning. My crazy parents stayed until halftime.  Praise the Lord that we went home because we were up with sick Noah from 3:00-4:00 AM.  We would have been SOOOO tired.  I DVR'd the game and we won, 59-33!

Introducing...

Noah and Ellianna's new baby cousin.  Easton Riley Bennett!  It's a BOY!!!!!  Easton was inspired by the baseball bat/glove company and Riley after our maternal grandpa's middle name.

He was ELEVEN days late!!  Can you even imagine?

He is absolutely gorgeous!

Noah was so excited to meet his new baby cousin.  I think he's glad to have a little buddy and not be the only boy.  Here are two of the most handsome baby boys I know...

Elli is IN LOVE with the Cozy Coupe.  She sat in Alexis' coupe in her room for the longest time.  Our neighbor let us borrow theirs for a few days because their daughter doesn't play with hers much anymore.  I really think she'd sleep in it if we'd let her.

We were there for a belated party for Alexis.  The date that would've worked for her party was Lindsey's due date, but who plans a birthday party on their due date, right?  Who knew little Easton would've taken his sweet time getting here.

Listening to Minnie Mouse sing happy birthday.

Yum! Cake!

Memaw and pappaw with their FOUR grandbabies!

Daddy and Noah.

Alexis got a bounce house for her birthday.  It was a HUGE hit.  Elli and Alexis took naps at different times so while Alexis slept, Noah and Elli had a blast in the bounce house.

One at a time, please!

We ate at Eskimo Joe's that evening.  I was laughing to myself as I was sanitizing Elli's highchair thinking about how different things are now compared to when I used to have a leisurely lunch at Joe's in college.  I wouldn't trade it for anything, though!

First Day of School 2011

Noah started his 3 day a week Pre-K program at preschool last week!  

We stopped for a special first day of school breakfast of sausage rolls (no donuts for that boy, Elli can eat enough sweets for both of them).  Then we were off to school.  He was so excited about going back to school.  What a relief!

I had to pull information from him all afternoon and evening.  Boys aren't founts of information like little girls are.  :)  When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was, he said, "when Ms._____ painted my hands and we made hand prints!"  WHAT?!  I love it.  This boy would have nothing to do with hand painting last year.  Any time they made gifts, shirts, etc. his sweet teachers would have to trace his hand on the paper and then paint it in for him.  What a difference a year makes.

His teacher taught first grade for 10 years and is very focused on getting the kids ready for kindergarten.  I think Noah likes her.  Wednesday night he said, "I get to see Ms._____ again tomorrow!"

I found the cars, I'm good to go!  See ya, mama.

That evening, daddy was holding Elli and Noah said, "I want to have her!"  So he held her while he sat on the couch.  She loved it!  He's too busy to love on her very often, but every now and then he gets a burst of loveableness and just squeezes her until we have to tell him to be careful!  He would never admit it, but I think he missed her a little bit.  :)

 

Florida Vacation 2011

We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Seaside and Seagrove, Florida. It was our first vacation as a family of four! 

We drove, which kind of made me think we were insane, but the kids did unbelievably well!  Elli usually starts saying, "out" and pulling at her car seat on a short trip across town so we prepped them several days leading up to our departure to let them know we would be in the car a lonnnng time.  I was prepared with activities, books, toys, movies, songs, food, prizes, etc.and it worked!

We drove halfway on Friday and stayed in a suburb of Jackson.  I think Brandon hummed or sang, "I'm goin' to Jackson" off and on the whole way there.  :)

On Saturday, we stopped in Mobile, AL and toured the USS Alabama Battleship.  The Battleship park was great, it had planes, tanks, helicopters, and a submarine.

The boys in the sub.  Pappaw was on a sub in the Navy.  It's crazy to see the conditions where they lived.  I would've been so claustrophobic (and probably seasick!).

After a quick stop at Firehouse Subs we were on our last leg to Florida!  One of Noah's trip treats was a new monster truck and he played trucks on his little desk for the longest time!

We finally arrived in Seaside, checked in to our condo and headed straight for the beach!  As soon as I put Elli down, she bent down and grabbed two hand fulls of sand. The sand is so beautiful and white! Noah headed straight for the water.  He wasn't timid at all which surprised me.

Seaside is just as picturesque and dreamy as it looks in pictures.  I loved it.

This is the path we took to get down to the beach every day.

This was our view of Seaside's Central Square from our condo. Since Noah started school after Labor Day, we were SO spoiled getting to go in the "off-season" while every one else was back at school.  Next time we go I think we'll be shocked at how busy it is.  Brandon said, "there's nothing wrong with taking your kid out of school to go to the beach is there?"  Ha!

Our view of the ocean.

There were several of these silly things around town and Noah always requested to take a picture in them.  This one was at Bud and Alley's Taco Bar.  Elli looks hilarious.

Of course, I had plans to get beach pictures of my kids.  This is what the majority look like.  By evening picture taking time, she was exhausted and not in the mood for pictures.

Noah was willing to cooperate.  He's showing me his muscles!

I LOVE these pictures.  They had so much fun anticipating the waves.  After they got splashed, they would just laugh! 

Before heading out for dinner one night.

One of our few family pictures.  Bathing suits and greasy sunscreened faces.  Not my first choice.  :)

My babies had so much fun just playing in the sand.

Ellianna went in the ocean with daddy a couple times, but for the most part was content to just play on the shore.

We found a heavenly (overpriced) ice cream shop called Heavenly's.  Noah opted for a chocolate chip cookie, but I love that he suggested taking his picture with the ice cream cone.

Seaside has cute airstream trailer food truck type things.  One of them is called The Melt Down.  They have specialty grilled cheese sandwiches.  I almost bought sister one of these shirts because she indeed did have a melt down (or two) on 30-A.  :)

On Monday, we moved down the beach a little to Seagrove Beach so we could experience actually being ON the beach.  This was our view from the kitchen.  AAAAAHHHHHHH.  I could so get used to this.

The kids loved the bunk beds.  Sister loved sleeping in a big girl bed.  I loved that they came with guard rails!

We met another family with young children and Noah had a lot of fun playing with them.  They had the most fun "riding the waves" on this air mattress. 

Handsome boy.

More playing in the sand.  They absolutely loved it!  Noah protested having to go inside each day.

We drove to Panama City Beach one evening and took a Pirate Cruise.  Noah was excited (but exhausted) and after the guns fired (albeit with ample warning), he was done.

We got to see dolphins.

There were so many cute activities, they got to swab the deck, have sword fights, shoot foam balls out of the fake cannon, play tambourines.  But this is how Noah spent the entire cruise...sitting.

Sister also had a melt down of her own right on the deck.  Oh, how we laughed.

Quick recovery.

The "pirates" stopped the ship and recovered a box of treasure from the bottom of the ocean.  So fun.  Each kid got to have 3 pieces.  Ellianna didn't get that concept and kept going back for hand fulls.  She'd give them to Brandon and I would throw them back in the treasure box until we only had our allotted 3 pieces of pirate booty.

Happy to be on our way back to the docks.

Noah did participate in the tattoo getting and then Elli wanted one. So for the rest of the week, my kids had these evil tattoos on their arms.  Lovely.

I finally figured out if they weren't in the mood for picture taking at the end of the day, we could try it before breakfast.  Still a no go.

Maybe she would've smiled had she known we were on our way to breakfast at The Donut Hole.  Can you say red-velvet-donuts-with-cream-cheese-icing?!  Thanks for the recommendation, Ms. Vicki!

Sweet babies.

Noah loved his pirate hat after he got off the ship.

How Noah feels about my picture taking.  Note my girl's dainty tattoo.

The sunset on our last night.  Sniff. Sniff.

On our balcony right before we left.  :(  We left right before T.S. Lee made his arrival.

This is the only time both kids slept at the same time (well, the ONLY time Noah slept).  They were wiped out from waking up with the sun and playing hard every day.