daddy does my hair

jason's sister lisa came out to visit when ella was just days old. she brough the cutest onesie that said, "daddy does my hair." it was funny because she had so much hair...and still does! well, this weekend i had a luncheon on Saturday, so jason had a few hours with the kids by himself. he had quite a bit of fun styling her hair while i was gone. we didn't get a picture of the third style...a french twist...but these were cute looks for her as well!

pigtails

the ever classic ponytail

yummy delicious

i just can't get over the way bo says delicious. here's it's actually, "yummy, delicious" but it's just too cute!

i miss bo

i must say that i am totally torn about what to post today. we took over 50 pictures this weekend and several videos that will probably all make their way onto the blog eventually. i know i'm totally biased, but my kids do so much fun stuff, that i just can't resist getting most of it on film! so...there are a lots of fun posts to come; there's your "teaser!" this particular moment was captured just minutes ago. typically, bo goes down for his nap about 45 minutes before ella. it's usually a sweet time that i get to have with just ella [her only one-on-one time of the day] and we get to have all sorts of girly fun. today, she was having none of it. she was so mad at me for putting bo to bed. she was totally pitching a fit in her own 11 month old way and trying to figure out how to get into his room. i finally gave up trying to distract her and just started filming. she's way more particular than bo ever was about things...it's going to get REALLY interesting when she hits two!

molars

my molars are coming in, so this is my new favorite face. it's most often accompanied by a very high pitched whine and a very runny nose. mommy will be glad when the teeth are in!

so happy together

i love it when the kids "play" with each other. most of the time it looks like this...they simply stand in the vicinty of one another and play independently. more often than not, playing together ends in some sort of mess...ella's mad because bo pushes something out of her reach on the table or couch. bo's mad because it's ella's turn or some other thing has not gone exactly how he felt it should have. or i'm overwhelminlgy involved in a very complicated and philosphical "this is how we share" demonstration. these moments are fun to catch...

but they are also very quickly over...

email

there are many times throughout the day that bo insists that he must get into the study to check his email. once in, he beelines for the chair and gets the keyboard all set up. he doesn't actually push the keys, he just runs his fingers over them so they sound like typing is taking place. he's so proud of himself. he gets especially excited when there's a phone within reach and he can take care of some serious business and check email at the same time. here's our favorite phone conversation of late:
hi, how are you doing? where are you? okay. love you, bye
that's pretty much the conversation i have with jason every day when he's coming home from work...it's funny to me that he picked up on it!

yay...no more spam!

cool kids

it's been so sunny lately that we've all been wearing our sunglasses. the kids have loved wearing them around...in and out of the house!

bo always says...oooh, look mommy, it's dark!

just hanging out

bo and ella have fun hanging out and snuggling after nap time!

r-o-w-d-y

this is bo's favorite new move. it's non-stop entertainment.

elmo's world

we have a SERIOUS elmo fan on our hands. cookie monster definitely took the early lead as the sesame street favorite, but i think elmo has officially taken over cookie's territory. in case you do not watch sesame street every day, this explanation may be helpful. elmo has a goldfish named dorothy [this is why our gold goldfish is "dorty" and the spotted fish is "nother dorty."] one of dorothy's roles is to ask kids how to do things based on elmo's theme of the day. think..."how do you get dressed? how do you play with your friends? what do firefighters wear? how do you talk on the telephone?" and other all important life questions! there are children of all kinds who answer these questions as dorothy listens from her fishbowl.

not too long ago, i heard bo in the laundry room as i was working in the kitchen:

bo: hi dorty...this is how you put on rainboots.

i looked around the corner and noticed he was in fact putting on his rainboots as a demonstration. since then, he's explained lots of things to dorothy...how to brush your teeth, how to wash yourself in the tub, how to eat a banana...you name it; we show dorothy a lot of stuff! i was so excited to catch this moment on film the other day. i included a translation underneath just in case it's not super clear what he's saying.

"put the feet on petals, and go! hi dorty, dis is how you gonna ride a motorcycle, dorty."

good hair day

ella was having such a great hair day yesterday that I thought I would try to capture her locks on film. let me just say, the pictures do not do her justice. her hair is really amazing!! it's all layered and flippy and too cute. i can't wait until she starts walking. she will look like a miniature four year old!

after dinner she also decided to help with the dishes...hard hat required apparently!

dancing queen

ella LOVES to dance, and it looks like she might actually have some rhythm!

blackberry pickin'

we decided to head up to a small berry farm this morning and pick some fresh blackberries. it was actually a lot of fun. bo did a pretty good job picking the berries, and he was surprisingly consistent about picking the ripe black ones instead of the immature red ones.

that is UNTIL he discovered that you could actually eat the berries. THEN, he decided mom's job was to pick and his job was to eat.

we still got a few in the basket, but if the stains on the shirt tell you anything...our morning snack was definitely fresh blackberries! our grand plans of filling 8 quart containers quickly fizzled away. we were happy to end up filling 2!

ella enjoyed riding around on my back for the morning. picking blackberries with a kid strapped to your back is a whole new kind of experience!

pool fun

we had some friends over to play in our "pool" and have lunch with us yesterday.

bo had fun splashing in the water.

the red cups were pure entertainment for both boys.

ella decided she was having more fun watching. she ventured over to the pool a couple of times, but wasn't real happy about getting splashed!

breakfast

bo decided to help himself to a second bowl of cereal this morning; too bad he missed the bowl! this was actually all the cereal that was left in the box. a new box could have meant serious disaster!

table talk

bo and i had a funny conversation yesterday at the lunch table. i thought you guys might enjoy!

[mom hands ella a piece of bread]

bo: bread please

me: okay bo, you can have some bread....here you go

bo: look mommy, bread telephone

me: you're right bo, that does look a little like a telephone

[a few moment later as bo eats the last piece of crust off of the bread]

me: bo, now that you've eaten the crust, what does the break look like?

bo: it's a bread piano

me: a piano?

bo: no mom, a little bread piano...yummy

me: wow

[bo takes one more bite]

bo: no more bread piano...say bye-bye bread piano

me: what is it now?

bo: a butterfly mommy

so here's bo with his "bread butterfly." he's trying to make it fly!

peek-a-boo

i can't believe it took me this long to figure out this whole video thing. it was definitely way easier than i thought. i'm not sure exactly what i was trying to do before. i'm loving the fact that the kids are actually starting to play together. it's just too much fun to watch them interact! i was excited to capture this game of peek-a-boo the other night!

my little helpers

bo and ella decided to help me cook dinner the other night. bo was making a "yellow treat" which is his favorite new dessert!

he decided ella wasn't doing it quite right, so he wanted to help her out. not sure what she was making!

three trips to the mulch pile

unfortunately, we've not done the best job with landscaping over the last year. we've found that it takes more time and money than we have to enjoy a lushly landscaped lawn. i finally got so tired of seeing weeds in our front bed that I started weeding. let's just say it was quite a project. i haven't done anything in those beds since last August when i was seriously nesting at the end of my pregnancy. once we got the beds weeded, we decided we would bite the bullet and take some preventative action against future weeds. jason stumbled upon some information about a free mulch pile not too far from here, and so he headed off with the taurus.

jason was working so hard in the yard, and the kids were missing him terribly. they both kept hanging out at the window trying to get a glimpse of the action.

during ella's morning nap, i recruited bo to help for a bit, and he had so much fun. when we finally came back in, he kept saying "mommy, bo is so thirsty." he was so red-faced and sweaty that i couldn't resist a shot.

so after a day of sweat equity, $60 at the home depot and three trips to the free mulch pile...it finally looks like someone lives in our house and hasn't completely neglected the lawn!! maybe next year we'll actually get some flowers to go with the few bushes that are still hanging on from last year!

a few favorite quotes

bo is saying so many memorable things these days. i couldn't resist posting a few of my favorites:


[the phone rings]
bo: mommy, white real phone ringing...go get it


[while the fish are eating]
bo: dorty [dorothy] get the big yellow treat...get it...eat it...


[we're working on "may i please" and "will you please"]
bo: cereal please
me or jason: can you use a sentence?
bo: sentence please

[as he's feeling jason's scruffy face]
bo: daddy's face is dirty

[when we go in to get ella out of her bed]
bo: hi ella, how you are doing?

[when he wants more desert]
bo: one last cookie, okay?

more to come....

news flash

Ella is now standing up on her own! It doesn't happen very often or for very long, so I have not been successful at capturing the moment on film! She usually pulls up on something and then grabs a toy; she's so excited to have the toy that she lets go to play with the toy and stands just fine until she realizes she's not holding on! She is getting so big so fast!

perspective

Forgive me for the long post...there's a lot on my mind this morning. Yesterday afternoon, I spent a few hours out in our front flower beds picking weeds. I haven't weeded out there in over a year, and it was seriously overgrown. I've been feeling so convicted because we don't necessarily have the money to bring in some landscaping expert and make everything perfect, but I have two hands. There's no reason the beds should have looked that bad. The last time I weeded was exactly a year ago when I was in serious nesting mode. Way too long!!
As I was out there pulling weeds, I was really convicted about the condition of my heart in light of those weeds. There is a lot of Biblical imagery that relates to growing, and tending our hearts and our lives. Some of the weeds were really shallow and came right up, roots and all. Those were my favorite!! There were other roots that were really easy to pull up, but that was only because the roots stayed firmly planted in the soil. The dirt looked good, but with closer examination, the roots were still right there under the surface. I just felt like this is so often the condition of my own heart. I either deal with the really easy issues that come up with little struggle or sacrifice and make me feel better, or I'm entirely concerned with the surface of my heart and the appearance. I am slow to examine the roots of my sin, and cling to Jesus.
I really am in need of a serious life weeding. So many things just seem so frivolous to me.
This was confirmed later yesterday afternoon when I got a terrible phone call. A friend from our church and small group in Charlottesville, VA, passed away yesterday, very unexpectedly. I am broken. There is a sweetness for Amy...she is enjoying the presence of her heavenly Father, and for her I rejoice. I am broken for her husband and their daughter. I cannot even begin to imagine how lost he must feel right now. Their daughter is close to Ella's age, and I couldn't even look at Ella without crying last night. It just hurts.
"Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.
My comfort in my suffering is this;
your promise preserves my life."
Psalm 119:50

science center fun

well, this has certainly become a very busy and fun week. this morning we had a playdate at the science center with another resident wife and two of her kids. it was quite fun. the science center is huge! i'm not sure how much learning the kids actually did, but there were lots of cool things to play with and climb on.

ella has quite the arm...she may be the athlete of the family! bo had fun climbing up and down in the gigantic indoor treehouse. there was a huge slide and he braved it all by himself [after a trial run with mom]. he's more and more independent every day, which is so much fun!

the train was also very exciting. i'm not sure if you can tell in the photo, but bo is saying "chug, chug, choo-choo."

this morning we took our first trip to the zoo...yay! my friend lisa from my Bible study and her daughter karli invited us out for a morning with the animals. we've tried to go several times, but the rain has kept us away. it was so fun to be there even though it was a warm 90 degrees! ella seemed to have fun, but bo was really excited to see a lot of the animals in person. the elephants were inside for some reason, so they were a little hard to see through the bars, but we were able to get pretty close to them. ella was slightly distracted by all the birds in cages across from the elephant!

bo and karli were checking out the giant galapagos tortoise [uh, spelling on that one?] when bo noticed a couple of birds that where definitely more interesting!

bo: "hi, mr. bird, how are you doing?"
he REALLY wanted to touch the bird, but we had a long talk about why that was a bad idea. the bird looks really friendly, but I couldn't get the "careful we bite" sign in the picture!