5 years... and counting!

Troy and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary Friday night. Boy, it's amazing how much we're survived, and accomplished in our short time together!

We met in December 2002, got engaged and bought a house in 2003, married in 2004, had Ella in 2005, (2006 must have been a year off???) then had Alex in 2007!!!! We've lost 3 grandma's, Troy's brother Nick, and seen a good friend go off to war.

Through it all, we've had each other. I can barely remember my life before Troy, and I don't want to imagine a day without him. I love my man! Isn't he handsome in this picture?

Just the two of us....

Alex and I are solo today, for the first time, in a long time!

I've been taking care of another almost 2 year-old boy, Liam for the past several months. They just relocated last week, so Alex and I are on our own for the 3 days when Ella is off to pre-K.

Today, he seems a little lost. It's chilly and windy outside, but he asked for Kung Fu Panda, so we're watching that and getting ready to share some lunch. We've already made a trip to the unemployment office, saw at least a dozen school buses, and 2 trains.

Not a bad first morning, but I hope to spice it up for him! We're gonna try Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead this week, and maybe the park, so he can enjoy the fact that he gets playtime while Ella's at school, with Mommy, all to himself!

Back 2 School

Ella is officially a pre-kindergartener. It's hard for me to believe!


We decided to keep Alex home for one more year. He'll start preschool next fall, when he's 3, just as Ella did. That lets us put in just one kid at a time, which is a huge tuition savings, and gets Mommy some quality time with my boy before he goes off to school next year.





Ella was a little nervous. We have two sets of teachers this year. Her T/Th class in the Rainbow Room was all new kids, except for Ella's best friend Sophia. But the teachers, Mrs. Dick and Mrs. Pantalleria are wonderful and Ella is already hugging them every morning at the door!





Monday is an enrichment class which provides a little extra Language Arts, Math and Science focus. We're paying extra for this, but hope it will help since she's going to be one of the youngest in her kindergarten class. Her August 20th birthday means she only makes the age cut-off by 11 days! She's doing great so far, but does learn some things a few months later than her friends who are almost a year older... so we wanted to give her every advantage we could.




This is Ella's first year to pack her lunch for school and that's been a learning experience for both of us! The school is nut free and dairy free, so no PBJ allowed. Luckily, Ella likes hummus and beans and pasta, so we've been pretty creative in what goes into that Hello Kitty lunchbox.


She's pretty proud of herself so far, and we are too! (These are just a few photos from her meet-the-teacher sessions, and her first week of class.)

Big Boy Bed

It's all he's been saying for 2+ days now.

I found it on Craig's List for a steal, along with a small sweater chest... so Troy schlepped up to Leavenworth this weekend and brought home a new bed for Alex.

We didn't plan to put it together right away, just sometime soon, so we might be able to use the crib for another baby, should we be so lucky.

But as soon as Troy unloaded it and Alex spotted it, he's been in love with his new big boy bed. It made me sad to see him standing up inside the frame of the bed which was turned in its side in our garage. He's still small enough to fit inside one of the drawers! But he is about the same as as Ella when we moved her to the princess bed...

So we bought a mattress, put it together, and Alex collapsed into his
new bed LATE Saturday night.

We picked up the quilt Sunday, not Mommy's first choice (I'm not into themes...) but Daddy and Alex picked it out and it is REALLY growing on me.

It's the perfect for for my little man!

Mermaid Party Fun

Ella's 4th birthday is this week, but we are spending a long weekend at Big Cedar to celebrate her special day, as well as Daddy's 37th... so we scheduled Ella's party a week early this year.


She asked for a mermaid party this year, and our neighborhood seemed a perfect location.

Ella invited her girlfriends from preschool over to swim Saturday morning and they all had a blast. (Sophia, Grace, Hadley & Macie)


I have to admit, mommy LOVED the easy clean-up of being outside on concrete with lots of water, instead of in my dining room.


Ella's friends brought such wonderful gifts, but more than anything, I think she just enjoyed seeing them and spending those 2 hours splashing around!

She wore herself out and kept saying how she "very much liked her birthday!" It's been a long summer and we just haven't seen enough of our preschool friends!









I'm sure she'll let me know what she wants for her 5th birthday anytime now...

Booty shorts

It's not a term I ever expected to use. I didn't even know what they were a few weeks ago. Now I'm the "butt" of several jokes, because my daughter has started wearing "booty shorts." Isn't she the cutest little thing!?

Put a lid on it!

Alex just recently discovered that he owns this orange baseball cap, and he loves it.

He has been wearing almost every day outside, and he even wore it in the pool tonight.





He truly looks like a boy, not a toddler when he puts this on.






He especially likes to wear it when Daddy is wearing a hat too.





And the expressions, like father, like son, are priceless!