Looking more like Minnesota

Well we were lucky and had much warmer weather than usual all through November and December. Now, it's snowing for the third time this month! We got about six inches last Sunday and now there are snow flurries today. Not much acculmulation though. I just got back inside from shoveling the driveway along with all the 10 year olds in the neighborhood who just got home from school. Made me daydream of the day when I could send Ella or Lily out to do the shoveling! I hear from friends back in California that there was some snow there too, in Malibu Canyon and Valencia! Hope those folks are handling it okay. And there's weird weather down in Texas and the Gulf area too. Very odd.

Anyhoo, I'm not really here to talk about the weather. We are battling our umpteenth cold of the season. Hope all this ends soon! I'm not used to dealing with colds every other week. Not fun.

Last week was the first time since we moved in that I felt like I could relax a little. I didn't unpack or clean during the girls naps. I just watched my tv shows on the DVR and read in "my" room, which is really the guest room. But I'm loving its coziness.

We started potty training Ella in full force last week. There was a Little Mermaid vanity on super sale at Target so I told her we could get it but that she couldn't open it and play with it until she went on the toilet and wore big girl underwear. Well, not to give you all too much information, but the underwear went well for three days and now we're back to pull-ups. I think she got tired of peeing in her pants. But she does use the toilet every now and then. She just goes up on her own and then calls me when she's done. I devised a chart that I taped to the big vanity box (which is currently sitting on the bathroom sink). Everytime she goes, she gets a sticker. When she fills the chart (like 36 boxes) she gets to open the vanity. So far we have about 12 stickers. So at least its a start.

In other news, I signed her up for preschool this week! She's going to go three days a week for three hours a day in the afternoon. She has to be potty trained. So here's hoping she is trained by SEPTEMBER! Jeez, she'll be four, I hope she's trained by then! I think she'll enjoy preschool and I think I will too! :-)

Andrew's parents came for a visit this weekend. We had fun taking them to the Mall of America for a couple hours. We took Ella to Libby Lu (a store bathed in pink and purple made for little girls who want to be princesses) where she got a make-over into a Princess with a tiara and everything. My cousin Cindy's daughter Emilee turned four on Thursday and she had been to Libby Lu. When we went to her birthday party, Ella was envious of Emilee's up-do and tiara. So we thought it would be fun for her get the princess treatment. She loved it! She was so into it and walked around the mall afraid to get her nails all messed up! It was pretty adorable and funny to see Ella so prissy. She's such a tom boy some days and a girly girl other days. At least she's well-rounded.

We also visited the aquarium at the Mall. Ella & Lily still love seeing all the fish every time we go there. On Sunday, we visited Chuck E Cheese where everyone had a great time! See the pictures in the new January album.

Andrew is off in California right now for a couple weeks to work on stuff for the Super Bowl. Then he's off to Miami for the Super Bowl. So we're on our own for a bit. My mom and Dave are coming up this weekend to celebrate my birthday (the big 3-0!) and then Mom is back at the end of next week to help me out with the kids.

So I guess that's all for the current update. Nothing too earth-shattering. :-) Thanks for checking in!