And I have to say Prince was AWESOME! Not sure about the scarf around the hair thing, but he rocks!
I think all the pics are pretty self-explanatory.
2/05/2007
The Super Bowl Chronicles: Sunday (Part 1)
I'll just post some pictures for now. I haven't talked to Andrew since the game yesterday. I'll get a full report from him this morning. I was on the phone with him during the opening kickoff when Chicago ran it in for a touchdown. THAT was awesome! Too bad the Bears couldn't keep that momentum up for the rest of the game.
And I have to say Prince was AWESOME! Not sure about the scarf around the hair thing, but he rocks!
I think all the pics are pretty self-explanatory.
And I have to say Prince was AWESOME! Not sure about the scarf around the hair thing, but he rocks!
I think all the pics are pretty self-explanatory.
2/04/2007
The Super Bowl Chronicles: Saturday
I talked with Andrew this morning. They were going to be heading over to the stadium on the buses around 2pm. He was getting pretty psyched up!
Yesterday, he went over to the control room one last time to deliver the final "Countdown to Kickoff" tape that had been Fed Ex-ed to him overnight from California. Nothing like waiting to the last minute!
In the afternoon, he and the guys played a round of golf at International Links. They played a best ball so no particular scores to report. ;-)
In the evening they went to South Beach and partied it up. The city closed off a whole block and Andrew said it was craziness down there. People everywhere, ESPN and NFL Network were broadcasting. There were games people could play. It was chaos! He said it was a lot of fun. But sorry, no pictures!
I'm sure there will be a much more interesting report from today's adventures!
Yesterday, he went over to the control room one last time to deliver the final "Countdown to Kickoff" tape that had been Fed Ex-ed to him overnight from California. Nothing like waiting to the last minute!
In the afternoon, he and the guys played a round of golf at International Links. They played a best ball so no particular scores to report. ;-)
In the evening they went to South Beach and partied it up. The city closed off a whole block and Andrew said it was craziness down there. People everywhere, ESPN and NFL Network were broadcasting. There were games people could play. It was chaos! He said it was a lot of fun. But sorry, no pictures!
I'm sure there will be a much more interesting report from today's adventures!
2/03/2007
The Super Bowl Chronicles: Friday
Andrew spent most of the day on Friday in the control room (there's one pic below of their stuff on the conrtol room screen) at the stadium working with the staff to double-check all the animations and answer any questions they might have about it. He met with staff from CBS Sports and toured the stadium, including the stage where the commentators will be sitting on Sunday. He sat in the chairs!! He's sitting with two of the CBS guys in the photo below.
In the evening he attended the NFL Commissioner's Party at a place called Parrot Jungle. The party was, of course, a beach/jungle theme. They had mojitos, sushi, and an open bar as well as other fun things, including real live parrots and monkeys you could handle! He said it was very nice and fun, but he also equated it a very expensive but boring wedding. He said it would have been more fun if us wives could have joined the fellas because three married guys hanging out at a party together wasn't the most rockin' time. Not that he didn't appreciate the opportunity to be there. I thought that was very sweet of him to say!
Thus concludes Friday's update. Enjoy the pics and see you tomorrow for Saturday's update!
In the evening he attended the NFL Commissioner's Party at a place called Parrot Jungle. The party was, of course, a beach/jungle theme. They had mojitos, sushi, and an open bar as well as other fun things, including real live parrots and monkeys you could handle! He said it was very nice and fun, but he also equated it a very expensive but boring wedding. He said it would have been more fun if us wives could have joined the fellas because three married guys hanging out at a party together wasn't the most rockin' time. Not that he didn't appreciate the opportunity to be there. I thought that was very sweet of him to say!
Thus concludes Friday's update. Enjoy the pics and see you tomorrow for Saturday's update!
The Super Bowl Chronicles: What to look for
Most of what we show here at the Isaacson blog will be related to Chicago because well most of the people we know will be rooting for Da Bears or don't care.The first image is the Chicago Super Bowl logo.
The second is a headshot that Hornet/Famous created.
And the last image shows the skinny LED boards in the stadium in Miami. These you might actually be able to see on television.
I also wanted to inform the world as we know it, that Andrew has FRONT ROW tickets! Yes, you read that right, FRONT ROW tickets(!) near the five yard line. So its very possible you may be able to catch a glimpse of him on national television along with the other 110 million viewers world-wide. He plans on wearing a lime-green short sleeve golf shirt. So get your TIVOs and DVRs ready! And let ME know if you spot him!
Happy Super Bowl watching!
Little bit of this, a little bit of that
Well we are at T-minus 3 days until Andrew is home again. He has spent the last two and half weeks in California working on the NHL All-star game and the Super Bowl. Thursday he flew to Miami and got settled in. He has asked me to update the blog each day with his activities so for the next couple days please look for: The Super Bowl Chronicles. :-)
The girls and I are hanging in there. We sort of hit the wall today where we've done all our regular activities a couple times now and didn't have much else that I wanted to venture to do on my own with them. So we went to the Mall of America (again.). But this time we did something new! First, we were one of ten people in the state of Minnesota who ventured out in this freaking cold weather. Yes, the car thermometer said -11 as I was driving there. UGH! But thankfully since the other 9 people didn't appear to be going to the Mall, we got Rockstar parking! Then ran down the "enclosed" but still unheated and freezing walkway into Macy's. Both Ella and Lily thought this was great fun. We actually made it to the Rainforest Cafe just 10 minutes before 11am and made a reservation for 11am then walked around the gift shop. We were promptly seated near a fish tank (yes! Automatic entertainment for the girls!) and a waterfall. The girls were a little unsure of what was going on until their food arrived. They spotted a butterfly, monkey, dolphins, snake and alligator. And I ate my food in relative peace. It was a very nice meal. Ella also was excited to get a blue icee in an obnoxious glass that flashes a colored light. I showed her how she could turn it on and off and thankfully, she chose to have it off quite a bit of the time.
We of course then visited the Aquarium, which turns out was the destination of the nine other people out that day. We played in the sand, popped bubbles an entertainer was blowing, played in the sting ray pool, then came home. All in all, a nice outing for Saturday.
We had a nice week last weekend with Nana Mary visiting. We went to Adventure Peak at Edinborough Park and IKEA as a couple of our major outings. My mom and I spent a majority of any free time we had (aka naptime) working on a canopy for Ella's room. We/she finished it but I am waiting for Andrew to get home to hang it. I'll post a picture once we have it up. I think its going to be really fun! And thank you Mom for all your cooking and help while you were here! I would be going nuts right now, I think, without that little reprieve. I have pretty much no pictures from her trip because Andrew has our good camera with him. Sorry!
Okay enough about us. And now the first installment of The Super Bowl Chronicles.....
The girls and I are hanging in there. We sort of hit the wall today where we've done all our regular activities a couple times now and didn't have much else that I wanted to venture to do on my own with them. So we went to the Mall of America (again.). But this time we did something new! First, we were one of ten people in the state of Minnesota who ventured out in this freaking cold weather. Yes, the car thermometer said -11 as I was driving there. UGH! But thankfully since the other 9 people didn't appear to be going to the Mall, we got Rockstar parking! Then ran down the "enclosed" but still unheated and freezing walkway into Macy's. Both Ella and Lily thought this was great fun. We actually made it to the Rainforest Cafe just 10 minutes before 11am and made a reservation for 11am then walked around the gift shop. We were promptly seated near a fish tank (yes! Automatic entertainment for the girls!) and a waterfall. The girls were a little unsure of what was going on until their food arrived. They spotted a butterfly, monkey, dolphins, snake and alligator. And I ate my food in relative peace. It was a very nice meal. Ella also was excited to get a blue icee in an obnoxious glass that flashes a colored light. I showed her how she could turn it on and off and thankfully, she chose to have it off quite a bit of the time.
We of course then visited the Aquarium, which turns out was the destination of the nine other people out that day. We played in the sand, popped bubbles an entertainer was blowing, played in the sting ray pool, then came home. All in all, a nice outing for Saturday.
We had a nice week last weekend with Nana Mary visiting. We went to Adventure Peak at Edinborough Park and IKEA as a couple of our major outings. My mom and I spent a majority of any free time we had (aka naptime) working on a canopy for Ella's room. We/she finished it but I am waiting for Andrew to get home to hang it. I'll post a picture once we have it up. I think its going to be really fun! And thank you Mom for all your cooking and help while you were here! I would be going nuts right now, I think, without that little reprieve. I have pretty much no pictures from her trip because Andrew has our good camera with him. Sorry!
Okay enough about us. And now the first installment of The Super Bowl Chronicles.....
1/25/2007
A little winter fun
The girls and I played in the snow yesterday afternoon on a little hill near the side of our house. They seemed to have a good time. Click here for a video. You just get one take because its a little difficult to shoot and pull the sleds at the same time! ;-) I tried to upload the actual video, but blogger is being snarky right now.
Roll out the red carpet....
'Cause Andrew is nominated for his first Oscar! Well, okay, not really. But An Inconvenient Truth is nominated for Best Documentary and Best Original Song at the Academy Awards this year! We are very excited by this!
And for those of you looking, you can see Andrew in the first couple minutes of the film. He is one of the first audience members you can see when Al Gore walks out onto the stage about 2.5 minutes into the film. That's the best view of him. You can catch the back of his head a couple other times throughout the film and of course his name in the end credits.
Here's an article link where Gore comments on the nomination.
And for those of you looking, you can see Andrew in the first couple minutes of the film. He is one of the first audience members you can see when Al Gore walks out onto the stage about 2.5 minutes into the film. That's the best view of him. You can catch the back of his head a couple other times throughout the film and of course his name in the end credits.
Here's an article link where Gore comments on the nomination.
1/24/2007
My Sympathy on the loss of your 20's
The title of this post was the birthday card I received from my mother. Yes, yesterday I turned the big 3-0. I really can't believe I'm that old already (that comment was in no way meant to make those blog readers who are older than me to feel old). ;-) Some days I feel older than that and other days feel like I'm still in my mid-20's. So I guess it all evens out.
I had a very nice weekend and day yesterday. On Sunday, we had my Grandma Betty, Aunt Carol, and Uncle Joe over for ribs and my grandma made a birthday cake. And then yesterday, Ella, Lily and I tried a new place called Sovereign Grounds. An independent little coffee shop in the city with a play area! (What fantastic concept! Why aren't these EVERYWHERE?!...Hmm....someday when I win the lottery) And my dad and Clare came over last night with Indian food and more cake. The girls are loving this multi-day celebration. They have had cake for dessert three days in a row now.
We had a fun visit with my mom and Dave this weekend. We went to the Mall of America and walked through the Dinosaur "Museum" there. I put museum in quotes because I think it could very loosely be called a museum. There some labels with educational material, but the whole place is replicas of artifacts. So is that really a museum? Not in my opinion. But the girls liked wandering around seeing big dinosaurs, little ones, ocean dwellers, eggs, bones, etc. Lily was actually really scared at first of the big replicas (with skin and everything--they look like Disney Dinosaurs or something). But she warmed up to them as soon as she realized they don't move like animals at the zoo.
Not much else to report. We're looking forward to Nana Mary's visit again at the end of the week!
I had a very nice weekend and day yesterday. On Sunday, we had my Grandma Betty, Aunt Carol, and Uncle Joe over for ribs and my grandma made a birthday cake. And then yesterday, Ella, Lily and I tried a new place called Sovereign Grounds. An independent little coffee shop in the city with a play area! (What fantastic concept! Why aren't these EVERYWHERE?!...Hmm....someday when I win the lottery) And my dad and Clare came over last night with Indian food and more cake. The girls are loving this multi-day celebration. They have had cake for dessert three days in a row now.
We had a fun visit with my mom and Dave this weekend. We went to the Mall of America and walked through the Dinosaur "Museum" there. I put museum in quotes because I think it could very loosely be called a museum. There some labels with educational material, but the whole place is replicas of artifacts. So is that really a museum? Not in my opinion. But the girls liked wandering around seeing big dinosaurs, little ones, ocean dwellers, eggs, bones, etc. Lily was actually really scared at first of the big replicas (with skin and everything--they look like Disney Dinosaurs or something). But she warmed up to them as soon as she realized they don't move like animals at the zoo.
Not much else to report. We're looking forward to Nana Mary's visit again at the end of the week!
1/18/2007
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!
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 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!
1/11/2007
Finally new photos
We finally got the G5 up and running so I added a ton of pictures yesterday. Check out the second half of November, December, and various Christmas celebrations! And I know many of you have been waiting for pictures of the new house so there are a few of those as well. I will add pictures to the new house album as we get more rooms finished and cleaned up. Enjoy!!! Just click on the "Latest Pictures" link in the sidebar.
1/01/2007
Winter Wonderland
Andrew and I left the girls at my dad's house last night and are enjoying a lazy kid-free morning. In fact, Andrew is STILL sleeping. We would normally be up hours before now. So, so far we are enjoying 2007. 2006 was a transition year for us sort of filled with stress and the Unknown. While many good things happened, and we always feel blessed by what we have in our children, family, and friends, we are also happy to say good-bye to 2006. We are calling 2007 our "Rebuilding Year". We are looking forward to feeling settled once again and getting into the groove of things.
Whatever your New Year's resolutions and goals are, we hope you have a wonderful, exciting year ahead of you, and we look forward to sharing in all of life's wonder with our great family and friends.
12/28/2006
The Deal of the Century and other things
The title of this post should really be: The Deal of the Century and Is that really MY daughter?
The Deal of the Century
My mom and Dave are visiting for a few days. We actually got our guest room set up now that we've decided Andrew's temporary office is going in our bedroom. The guest room is pretty sparse right now but hey, there's a bed to crash on. AnyWAY, since my mom and Dave were around to watch the girls, Andrew and I braved the Day-After-Christmas-Shoppers and set out on several missions. The first of which was to buy a new tv for the family room (so we don't have to fiddle with the audio cable every five minutes when the tv all of sudden goes mute). We spent an hour at Best Buy and decided on the model. But of course, since Andrew complements my impulsiveness with his very thorough approach to things, we did not buy the tv that day. We'll perhaps be getting it in the next day or so. Okay, I'm completely digressing now. So Mission #2 (and the subject of this post): find a very tall but cheap artificial Christmas tree to put in our family room next year. I was hoping for 50-70% at Michael's or something like that.
We decided to go to the mall/Target before heading to Michael's. Andrew ran over to Sears to compare prices on tvs (again, that thoroughness showing through). I went to run into Target (LOVE that Target is attached to the mall, I think it should be an anchor store at every mall in the universe!) to get a few things. I happen to wander around the Christmas department where EVERYTHING was 50%. We got some icicle lights, 300 for $3! That's a good deal. Then I looked at the remaining Christmas trees. They had a 7.5 foot tree for a pretty good price, but if you buy the display models, you got 75% off! They had a NINE foot tree marked at $149.99. I read the sign a little closer, and it said 75% off the original price, which was $299.99. Okay, who in their right mind, would EVER pay $300 for a tree that lives in your house for one month of the year. I whipped out the cell phone and told Andrew about the various floor models available. He thought the nine foot tree sounded like a really good deal. So he went to move the car closer and came and found me.
On his way, he found someone in a red shirt to help us. Turns out he found the right person for the job. She got the tree down, on a flatbed cart, AND wheeled it over to the checkout area, where she used her walkie talkie to open a lane JUST FOR US!! Then proceeded to help the cashier ring up our tree. She said, okay what was the price? We said, "It was $299.99, but 75% off." She then said to the cashier, "Oh no, its not 75% off, it's 90% off." Um, 90% off!! I believe Andrew and I were both just standing there in shock with our jaws touching the floor. We were quickly processing this. You mean, we got a $300 tree for only $30?
No, that can't be right. Oh yes, that is correct! We got a $300 tree for $30!! Then they used their glorious walkie talkies to call someone to help us load it in the car! (Um, am I in Target, or Nordstrom's?) I waited with the guy, our tree, and my cart full of other fabulous buys, and watched as Andrew walked two rows over and got into the car. He had found Rock Star parking in a lot that was completely full all the way to the last spots in Timbuktu! That should have been the first sign that we were going to get a great deal! So thus concludes my novel about our Deal of the Century. Andrew was on a high the rest of the day. He felt like we practically stole the tree we got it for such a good deal. He immediately brought it in the house and now we have two trees sitting in our family room. And I feel like maybe I finally got something back from Target for spending all our money there. ;-)
Is that really MY daughter?
As many of you may know, I am not really a dress person. I tend to wear dress pants and a nice shirt if I can get away with it. And I tend to only dress up when I'm really required to. Just my nature, always has been. My mom had the hardest time getting me to wear dresses as a kid. I hated anything pink or frilly. So naturally, I don't tend to dress my girls in things that are pink or frilly. And they tend to only wear dresses on special occasions. I discovered this summer that Ella does like to wear a dress occasionally and I had a couple cute dresses for her so she was a girly girl a couple times this summer. For Christmas, I had several dresses for the girls to wear to our various get-togethers. Well, since we've had so many in the last week, it seems Ella has gotten used to dresses. She was in search of one to wear today.
Andrew was upstairs with her, she saw some hanging in Lily's closet and wanted to wear one of those because I didn't have any hanging in her closet. There was one dress that Ella wore to Lily's baptism almost a YEAR ago and Andrew helped her put it on. It is practically a miniskirt now, where it went to mid-calf at the baptism. Then, she insisted she MUST have tights on. Well, her one and only pair of tights are still dirty from Christmas day. She proceeded to meltdown because she couldn't wear tights. UM, really, is that MY daughter? I don't hardly even wear pantyhose when I do happen to wear a skirt or a dress. And MY daughter is screaming her head off because we don't have a pair of tights for her to wear? She settled on socks. Now, about an hour later, she is currently asking Andrew for something else to wear, she wants pants on now. Okay, now THAT is MY daughter. :-)
I know this post is forever long already, but I do want to throw out two congrats. 1) to Heather, Peter and Matthew for welcoming little Max to their family on December 16th! We are all so happy he arrived healthy and safely. And 2) Matt and Allison, congrats on your new little arrival, Lilah, on December 26th, three weeks early! We can't wait to meet both of your new little ones!
The Deal of the Century
My mom and Dave are visiting for a few days. We actually got our guest room set up now that we've decided Andrew's temporary office is going in our bedroom. The guest room is pretty sparse right now but hey, there's a bed to crash on. AnyWAY, since my mom and Dave were around to watch the girls, Andrew and I braved the Day-After-Christmas-Shoppers and set out on several missions. The first of which was to buy a new tv for the family room (so we don't have to fiddle with the audio cable every five minutes when the tv all of sudden goes mute). We spent an hour at Best Buy and decided on the model. But of course, since Andrew complements my impulsiveness with his very thorough approach to things, we did not buy the tv that day. We'll perhaps be getting it in the next day or so. Okay, I'm completely digressing now. So Mission #2 (and the subject of this post): find a very tall but cheap artificial Christmas tree to put in our family room next year. I was hoping for 50-70% at Michael's or something like that.
We decided to go to the mall/Target before heading to Michael's. Andrew ran over to Sears to compare prices on tvs (again, that thoroughness showing through). I went to run into Target (LOVE that Target is attached to the mall, I think it should be an anchor store at every mall in the universe!) to get a few things. I happen to wander around the Christmas department where EVERYTHING was 50%. We got some icicle lights, 300 for $3! That's a good deal. Then I looked at the remaining Christmas trees. They had a 7.5 foot tree for a pretty good price, but if you buy the display models, you got 75% off! They had a NINE foot tree marked at $149.99. I read the sign a little closer, and it said 75% off the original price, which was $299.99. Okay, who in their right mind, would EVER pay $300 for a tree that lives in your house for one month of the year. I whipped out the cell phone and told Andrew about the various floor models available. He thought the nine foot tree sounded like a really good deal. So he went to move the car closer and came and found me.
On his way, he found someone in a red shirt to help us. Turns out he found the right person for the job. She got the tree down, on a flatbed cart, AND wheeled it over to the checkout area, where she used her walkie talkie to open a lane JUST FOR US!! Then proceeded to help the cashier ring up our tree. She said, okay what was the price? We said, "It was $299.99, but 75% off." She then said to the cashier, "Oh no, its not 75% off, it's 90% off." Um, 90% off!! I believe Andrew and I were both just standing there in shock with our jaws touching the floor. We were quickly processing this. You mean, we got a $300 tree for only $30?
Is that really MY daughter?
As many of you may know, I am not really a dress person. I tend to wear dress pants and a nice shirt if I can get away with it. And I tend to only dress up when I'm really required to. Just my nature, always has been. My mom had the hardest time getting me to wear dresses as a kid. I hated anything pink or frilly. So naturally, I don't tend to dress my girls in things that are pink or frilly. And they tend to only wear dresses on special occasions. I discovered this summer that Ella does like to wear a dress occasionally and I had a couple cute dresses for her so she was a girly girl a couple times this summer. For Christmas, I had several dresses for the girls to wear to our various get-togethers. Well, since we've had so many in the last week, it seems Ella has gotten used to dresses. She was in search of one to wear today.
Andrew was upstairs with her, she saw some hanging in Lily's closet and wanted to wear one of those because I didn't have any hanging in her closet. There was one dress that Ella wore to Lily's baptism almost a YEAR ago and Andrew helped her put it on. It is practically a miniskirt now, where it went to mid-calf at the baptism. Then, she insisted she MUST have tights on. Well, her one and only pair of tights are still dirty from Christmas day. She proceeded to meltdown because she couldn't wear tights. UM, really, is that MY daughter? I don't hardly even wear pantyhose when I do happen to wear a skirt or a dress. And MY daughter is screaming her head off because we don't have a pair of tights for her to wear? She settled on socks. Now, about an hour later, she is currently asking Andrew for something else to wear, she wants pants on now. Okay, now THAT is MY daughter. :-)
I know this post is forever long already, but I do want to throw out two congrats. 1) to Heather, Peter and Matthew for welcoming little Max to their family on December 16th! We are all so happy he arrived healthy and safely. And 2) Matt and Allison, congrats on your new little arrival, Lilah, on December 26th, three weeks early! We can't wait to meet both of your new little ones!
12/18/2006
Everything "Christmasy"
We moved in on Sunday the 10th and have been unpacking ever since. Things are at least liveable now and the girls are getting acclimated to their new rooms. I have invested an ungodly amount in Target products this week. When will I actually buy stock so maybe I can earn something back?!
Andrew celebrated his 30th birthday on Monday. The actual day was a little unceremonial, but he did get a new house for his birthday so no complaining. :-) We actually celebrated Saturday night by going out to the Green Mill restaurant with my dad, Clare and Grandma Mazie.
Sometimes it really is the little things that make you happy. Kind of like those Mastercard commercials. This would be our version:
Cost of a new house in MN: an amount much more reasonable than a house in Southern California
Cost of moving: too much STRESS
Being in a new house for Christmas: Priceless
Having your own non-coin operated washer & dryer for the first time in 11 years!: WAY BEYOND Priceless
Anyway getting back to the title of this post....Ella loves the word "Christmasy". To her, anything and everything holiday related is Christmasy. Including Santa. She could say Santa last year, but not this year. He's just Christmasy. Holiday lights on houses at night: Christmasy. Packages under the tree: Christmasy. It's actually quite cute.
I had a funny conversation with her the other day. She's been a little less than good lately. I'm just going to blame it on transitions in her life right now, and not the fact that she is just very defiant with me. So I was having a little talk with her the other day about how Santa only brings gifts to little girls and boys who are GOOD. And that it was especially important to be very good right before Christmas because Santa was still paying attention. And if she wasn't good, he wouldn't bring her any gifts. (Gina: I almost used your "I'm gonna call Santa and tell him not to bring any gifts." trick)
Later on, we went to the grocery store and she was particularly well behaved. I told her how much I appreciated her good behavior and her response to me was, "uh huh, Christmasy." (I had not mentioned Santa at all in this conversation). So then I said to her, "Oh, so are you only going to be good in December now, until Santa comes?" She said, "All right, Christmasy." That will teach me. She's way too smart! :-)
Lily is hanging around too, she just sort of goes with the flow. She loves all the holiday lights when we drive around at night. She points and "oohs" and "ahhs" appropriately. They both love the Christmas tree in our family room. Ella helped me put the nonbreakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree. Right now I have a gate around the table the tree is on so they won't open the gifts prematurely. Ahem, like they did at Aunt Gail's house last Saturday. (SORRY, Aunt Gail!)
Andrew took the girls to Madison to vist with Aunt Gail and all the Isaacson clan. They had a great time! And we look forward to visiting with everyone again this Saturday for Isaacson Christmas. I can't believe Christmas is almost here already! Hopefully things will really slow down for us after the New Year. I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit. We'll see! ;-)
Since I'm sure I won't get another post in before, we hope everyone has a fabulous holiday (whatever holiday you celebrate) and ring in the New Year with gusto!
Cheers!
Andrew celebrated his 30th birthday on Monday. The actual day was a little unceremonial, but he did get a new house for his birthday so no complaining. :-) We actually celebrated Saturday night by going out to the Green Mill restaurant with my dad, Clare and Grandma Mazie.
Sometimes it really is the little things that make you happy. Kind of like those Mastercard commercials. This would be our version:
Cost of a new house in MN: an amount much more reasonable than a house in Southern California
Cost of moving: too much STRESS
Being in a new house for Christmas: Priceless
Having your own non-coin operated washer & dryer for the first time in 11 years!: WAY BEYOND Priceless
Anyway getting back to the title of this post....Ella loves the word "Christmasy". To her, anything and everything holiday related is Christmasy. Including Santa. She could say Santa last year, but not this year. He's just Christmasy. Holiday lights on houses at night: Christmasy. Packages under the tree: Christmasy. It's actually quite cute.
I had a funny conversation with her the other day. She's been a little less than good lately. I'm just going to blame it on transitions in her life right now, and not the fact that she is just very defiant with me. So I was having a little talk with her the other day about how Santa only brings gifts to little girls and boys who are GOOD. And that it was especially important to be very good right before Christmas because Santa was still paying attention. And if she wasn't good, he wouldn't bring her any gifts. (Gina: I almost used your "I'm gonna call Santa and tell him not to bring any gifts." trick)
Later on, we went to the grocery store and she was particularly well behaved. I told her how much I appreciated her good behavior and her response to me was, "uh huh, Christmasy." (I had not mentioned Santa at all in this conversation). So then I said to her, "Oh, so are you only going to be good in December now, until Santa comes?" She said, "All right, Christmasy." That will teach me. She's way too smart! :-)
Lily is hanging around too, she just sort of goes with the flow. She loves all the holiday lights when we drive around at night. She points and "oohs" and "ahhs" appropriately. They both love the Christmas tree in our family room. Ella helped me put the nonbreakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree. Right now I have a gate around the table the tree is on so they won't open the gifts prematurely. Ahem, like they did at Aunt Gail's house last Saturday. (SORRY, Aunt Gail!)
Andrew took the girls to Madison to vist with Aunt Gail and all the Isaacson clan. They had a great time! And we look forward to visiting with everyone again this Saturday for Isaacson Christmas. I can't believe Christmas is almost here already! Hopefully things will really slow down for us after the New Year. I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit. We'll see! ;-)
Since I'm sure I won't get another post in before, we hope everyone has a fabulous holiday (whatever holiday you celebrate) and ring in the New Year with gusto!
Cheers!
12/08/2006
Deal is sealed!!!
We have a new house!! I haven't said anything very solid on here about our new house for many reasons. One, I didn't want to jinx anything, and two, its has been the most up and down rollercoaster we have ever been on. The short version of the story: we had a buyer in CA, so we put in an offer on the house of our dreams here in MN. The buyer backed out and we had to scramble to find a new buyer within a week or risk losing the MN house. We were lucky enough to find a new buyer. But various paperwork issues and errors happened and the closing of the house kept getting moved forward and backward and then delayed three weeks and then back to being a week away. It was a nightmare of Elm Street proportions!! But today as of 1pm, we are the official new owners of a beautiful home in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. And it was all worth it! Poor Andrew has been so stressed dealing with all the minute details of this process. I can't say I have the first clue about half the stuff he was negoitating about. But he did a wonderful job, and I am so thankful to have him! Now, its my turn to do the hard work of unpacking and figuring out where all of our mountains of stuff will go in the new house!
Hopefully we will have our Christmas cards out in the next week with our new address on them! As soon as we get settled, we welcome visitors anytime!
Thank you to everyone who has supported us and offered kind words and positive statements during this transition time! And a special thank you to my dad and Clare for letting us invade their home for the last two and half months! Hopefully we'll get some photos posted very soon!
Hopefully we will have our Christmas cards out in the next week with our new address on them! As soon as we get settled, we welcome visitors anytime!
Thank you to everyone who has supported us and offered kind words and positive statements during this transition time! And a special thank you to my dad and Clare for letting us invade their home for the last two and half months! Hopefully we'll get some photos posted very soon!
12/07/2006
More Holiday Fun
| I know I posted this last year but I feel like it deserves to be watched again! Ella thought it was pretty cool when she watched it this year. | |
12/06/2006
Deck the Halls
Although I haven't been posting much lately, its not for lack of stuff to talk about. The girls and I have been a little bored running errands and everyday things. But we've thrown in a few fun holiday excursions. Last week, we visited the Mall of America to see the World's Largest Gingerbread House, a replica of the Polar Express train engine, and well, the good man himself, Santa. I was glad we didn't have to wait in a long line for the Gingerbread house because I thought it would be more than one room on the inside. It was pretty cool on the outside with real gingerbread and candy glued to it. They were handing out candy canes as you walked in and Ella matched her candy cane up to each and every one glued to the outside. We were met by a couple elves in a candy factory on the inside where I was most excited by the giant tin of Dots (my favorite candy) sitting on the floor. We just looked at Santa from afar because there was a long line and Ella had already visited with Kris Kringle at the Eden Prairie mall and told him her wish list (She wants a "whoo hoo". That's choo choo or a Thomas train in Ella-speak).
We also visited the aquarium again (did I mention we're all members now--each with our own photo member card, including Lily). :-) And this time Ella actually took her time and really looked at everything. Usually she likes to run through the whole thing just to get to the gift shop and play area. And we actually learned something new. Did you know that there are sting rays that live in fresh water? I thought that was quite interesting.
Last Satureday, we went to Lockhead Martin, where my stepmom Clare works, for their family holiday party. Everything was decorated with big balloon arches and balloon candy canes, hersey kisses, stars, and more. All the kids got their picture taken with Santa (except for Lily who is petrified even if you take one step closer to the jolly old man). Ella also made a reindeer ornament, correction: I made a reindeer ornament and Ella watched me. She also had both cheeks and her nose painted, frosted a cookie all by herself, and colored a holiday card. Lily sort of wandered around enjoying the atmosphere. They both received a cuddly little bear blanket and a very nice book about Lily the rabbit and her friend Honey Bear which I thought was quite appropriate for our Lily and her lovey Bear. All in all, we had a great time!
We look forward to perhaps putting up our own tree in our own house in the very near future! But that is all I'll say about that for now so I don't jinx anything. More on that later.... ;-)
We also visited the aquarium again (did I mention we're all members now--each with our own photo member card, including Lily). :-) And this time Ella actually took her time and really looked at everything. Usually she likes to run through the whole thing just to get to the gift shop and play area. And we actually learned something new. Did you know that there are sting rays that live in fresh water? I thought that was quite interesting.
Last Satureday, we went to Lockhead Martin, where my stepmom Clare works, for their family holiday party. Everything was decorated with big balloon arches and balloon candy canes, hersey kisses, stars, and more. All the kids got their picture taken with Santa (except for Lily who is petrified even if you take one step closer to the jolly old man). Ella also made a reindeer ornament, correction: I made a reindeer ornament and Ella watched me. She also had both cheeks and her nose painted, frosted a cookie all by herself, and colored a holiday card. Lily sort of wandered around enjoying the atmosphere. They both received a cuddly little bear blanket and a very nice book about Lily the rabbit and her friend Honey Bear which I thought was quite appropriate for our Lily and her lovey Bear. All in all, we had a great time!
We look forward to perhaps putting up our own tree in our own house in the very near future! But that is all I'll say about that for now so I don't jinx anything. More on that later.... ;-)
12/01/2006
Standing on my soapbox....again
It's the holiday season again and that means that your local Barnes and Noble may be doing a children's book drive. Yesterday, the girls and I went for the last storytime before Christmas. (And the last time to play with the Thomas trains before they put the table away for the holidays.) In the spirit of the season and giving, Ella helped me pick out a Barbie Mermaidia book for a three year old little girl. I explained to her that some little girls' mommies didn't have the money to buy them books so we were picking out a book to give to one of those little girls. She really seemed to understood me and thought someone would like the Barbie book. Lily and I picked out a Lift-the-flap shape/color book for a 2 year old little girl.
I encourage all of you to get in the spirit of the season and purchase a book for a well-deserving little kid!
I encourage all of you to get in the spirit of the season and purchase a book for a well-deserving little kid!
11/22/2006
A New Venture!
Hornet Inc. has created another new company called Webrides TV. They rocked the gaming world when they created gametrailers.com (which was sold to Mtv) and now they are doing a similar thing for car enthusiasts! They just launched this fall, please check out their new website: www.webridestv.com to see what its all about!
Ah, the lovely holiday season
Anyone else notice I've been neglecting the blog lately? ;-) Things have been a bit hectic for us around here lately. The weekend after Halloween, the girls and I packed up the car and drove down to Iowa to visit Nana Mary and Papi Dave. This was the first time I drove anywhere with the girls on my own (well longer than driving to the beach from our condo in Glendale anyway). They did very well actually. I was quite pleasantly surprised. I loaded up the backseat with stuff to entertain them and bags of snacks to hand back and the four hours went by relatively quickly.
While in Cedar Rapids, we visited the Iowa Children's Museum where Ella and Lily had a blast. They pretended to grocery shop in a pint-sized store, Ella served us up some pizza at a play restaurant, there was an art studio, a motion room, an animal discovery area, as well as an awesome play house and farm (of course, it's Iowa!). They also had this very cool sand area where the sand was a special mixture of sand and some kind of wax or putty, so you could sculpt with it. Ella loved that!
We also went outlet shopping and enjoyed my mom's awesome home cooking (you know, real cooking, not what I normally do). I also visited with my friend Molly and got caught up with her which was fun. Oh, and Ella got her hair cut for only the second time by a real stylist! I usually trim it up for her. But my
mom was getting her hair done and Ella was very intrigued so we asked her if she wanted to have her hair cut. She said, "All right." So she got in the chair and sat like a little princess while Kelly put the drape on her and trimmed her hair. She didn't move a muscle the whole time! Not exactly what she does when I try to cut her hair. So maybe my trimmin' days are over!
The drive back to MN went just about as well as the first so all in all it was a very successful trip. The girls were excited to be home with all their familiar toys and see Daddy and B-pa (Grandpa) again .
Andrew left for Los Angeles after just finishing up a trip to Miami. He was checking out the stadium in Miami for the Super Bowl. Hornet will be doing the Super Bowl graphics again this year. He worked in the office while in LA and packed up the rest of our stuff. Now we just need a moving date and we're all set. The date keeps getting pushed back a week for various reasons. Right now, we're hoping for the middle of December. The holidays are going to be really interesting for us this year!
But for now we are focusing on the Thanksgiving holiday this week! We are hosting my mom's family and Andrew's parents, brother and and his wife. There will be 13 of us! So our biggest Thanksgiving yet. And I can't wait to chow down on some yummy food! Oh, and of course be thankful for all we have! By the way, just want to throw kudos out to Erin and DJ (our guests of Thanksgivings past) because they are also hosting Thanksgiving this year. And we'll miss you guys a LOT!
Happy Turkey Day to everyone!
PS. I had planned to write a tirade about how commercial the holidays are and that I can't believe department stores had Christmas stuff out weeks before Halloween! (I'm not kidding, Halloween/Thanksgiving on one side of the aisle and Christmas on the other as you were walking in the store). But I'll save my thoughts for next year, probably when they start putting Christmas stuff out before Labor Day!
Oh and one more P.S. Just wanted to throw a congrats out there to my good friend Sarah (and a faithful blog reader) on the birth of her second baby, a beautiful little girl named Thea! Congrats Sarah, Shawn, and big brother Collin!!
We also went outlet shopping and enjoyed my mom's awesome home cooking (you know, real cooking, not what I normally do). I also visited with my friend Molly and got caught up with her which was fun. Oh, and Ella got her hair cut for only the second time by a real stylist! I usually trim it up for her. But my
The drive back to MN went just about as well as the first so all in all it was a very successful trip. The girls were excited to be home with all their familiar toys and see Daddy and B-pa (Grandpa) again .
Andrew left for Los Angeles after just finishing up a trip to Miami. He was checking out the stadium in Miami for the Super Bowl. Hornet will be doing the Super Bowl graphics again this year. He worked in the office while in LA and packed up the rest of our stuff. Now we just need a moving date and we're all set. The date keeps getting pushed back a week for various reasons. Right now, we're hoping for the middle of December. The holidays are going to be really interesting for us this year!
But for now we are focusing on the Thanksgiving holiday this week! We are hosting my mom's family and Andrew's parents, brother and and his wife. There will be 13 of us! So our biggest Thanksgiving yet. And I can't wait to chow down on some yummy food! Oh, and of course be thankful for all we have! By the way, just want to throw kudos out to Erin and DJ (our guests of Thanksgivings past) because they are also hosting Thanksgiving this year. And we'll miss you guys a LOT!
Happy Turkey Day to everyone!
PS. I had planned to write a tirade about how commercial the holidays are and that I can't believe department stores had Christmas stuff out weeks before Halloween! (I'm not kidding, Halloween/Thanksgiving on one side of the aisle and Christmas on the other as you were walking in the store). But I'll save my thoughts for next year, probably when they start putting Christmas stuff out before Labor Day!
Oh and one more P.S. Just wanted to throw a congrats out there to my good friend Sarah (and a faithful blog reader) on the birth of her second baby, a beautiful little girl named Thea! Congrats Sarah, Shawn, and big brother Collin!!
11/01/2006
Happy Halloween
We had a really fun Halloween this year! Ella was so into it! I've been building it up for two months now. I got the kids books about halloween with pictures to show it was about pumpkins, and ghosts, and of course candy. We watched Dora Halloween over and over again. Both the kids are so excited when they see anything "pumpkin" now. We also practiced trick or treating where Ella would pretend to knock on my door and I would answer, she'd say "i see please" (her word for candy is i see). I would give her a toy or something in her bucket and
she would say "thank you".Last night we got them dressed in their costumes. Ella was SO EXCITED she could hardly contain herself. And we headed out the door with her walking by Andrew and Lily riding in the wagon. We went up and down my dad's block. And then because it was so cold out, we went over to Eden Prairie mall. You could go to each of the stores there and trick or treat. It lasted as long as their candy did.
By the time we got there, over half the stores were out of candy. But maybe that was a good thing, Ella got a good enough stash as it was. I don't think she nor mom and dad need ALL that candy around the house!Hopefully I'll have our pumpkin patch pictures and Halloween uploaded by this weekend. Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! (I'll add picures to the post this afternoon when Blogger isn't being so snarky.)
10/30/2006
Time Change
Wow, it seems like time really flies faster here in Minnesota. Not sure why that is, I don't think the girls and I are busier than we were in California. The girls have really gotten acclimated to Gramma and B-Pa's house (Ella has tried saying "Grandpa" but has decided she likes "B-Pa" better. So my dad is now known as B-Pa). We have done some fun things the last couple weeks. We visited the Mall of America one day just to kill some time. Ella loved seeing the Rain Forest Cafe store, playing around in Pottery Barn Kids, and a really nice Disney Store.
We also visited Emma Krumbee's Farm where we saw a bunch of scarecrows and picked out pumpkins. It was a little more commercialized than we had hoped it would be. You had to pay $1 to play each kiddie game! But Emma sure does make a mean apple pie! We picked one up from the bakery on our way out.
Andrew's parents came to visit this weekend. We had a really nice visit and they said the drive (about 6 hours) wasn't so bad. We mostly just hung out with them and the girls. But we did go look at the two houses we had narrowed down in our search. It was fun to show them to everyone. We may have more house news in the near future, but I don't want to jinx anything just yet.
Hope everyone has a fun Halloween tomorrow! We'll be trick or treating with the girls. I'll post pictures as soon as I can! In the meantime, there are new Shutterfly pictures up for September and half of October!
We also visited Emma Krumbee's Farm where we saw a bunch of scarecrows and picked out pumpkins. It was a little more commercialized than we had hoped it would be. You had to pay $1 to play each kiddie game! But Emma sure does make a mean apple pie! We picked one up from the bakery on our way out.
Andrew's parents came to visit this weekend. We had a really nice visit and they said the drive (about 6 hours) wasn't so bad. We mostly just hung out with them and the girls. But we did go look at the two houses we had narrowed down in our search. It was fun to show them to everyone. We may have more house news in the near future, but I don't want to jinx anything just yet.
Hope everyone has a fun Halloween tomorrow! We'll be trick or treating with the girls. I'll post pictures as soon as I can! In the meantime, there are new Shutterfly pictures up for September and half of October!
10/17/2006
It's beginning to look alot like.....hey, wait a minute!
Yes, it looked like Christmas around here for about 24 hours. It SNOWED on Oct. 11th! Okay, I knew it would be cold here, and I knew there would be snow. But on Oct. 11th! Not fair! I didn't even have winter coats for the girls yet. Here are a bunch of pictures of Ella discovering the snow falling. She has seen it and played in it before, but hadn't experienced it while it was falling. She was very intrigued. She would watch it out the window, and when it would stop, she would ask, "Hey, where'd it go?". When it would start up again, she'd say, "Oh, there it is!" 
We also decorated the front of the house for Halloween. Gramma Clare bought some decorations at the store and said, "Go crazy." So here's a picture of it. There are also some ghosts hanging from the trees. Ella helped me stuff the pumpkin bags and the bags for the pumpkin man. She loves looking out the front door every night to discover the lights have been turned on. Just wait until Christmas this year! :-)
The last two pictures are of the girls being cozy inside one morning right after they woke up and Lily reading her new book called "Prancing Dancing Lily". Both she and Ella really LOVE this new book and others they received from a friend. ;-)
This week hasn't been too exciting yet. Ella is getting over a cold and I believe Lily is just getting it. The weather has been cold and rainy so no playing outside. We spent an hour and half killing time at the bookstore today. We are hoping to visit the pumpkin patch (check it out here) and some see some scarecrows on Saturday. And Andrew and I will be house hunting on Sunday. Yippee! Speaking of houses, we received an incredibly lowball, insanely lowball offer on our condo. We're countering but I'm not holding my breath that anything will come of it. But cross your fingers just in case! Coming soon: more Shutterfly pictures!
We also decorated the front of the house for Halloween. Gramma Clare bought some decorations at the store and said, "Go crazy." So here's a picture of it. There are also some ghosts hanging from the trees. Ella helped me stuff the pumpkin bags and the bags for the pumpkin man. She loves looking out the front door every night to discover the lights have been turned on. Just wait until Christmas this year! :-)
The last two pictures are of the girls being cozy inside one morning right after they woke up and Lily reading her new book called "Prancing Dancing Lily". Both she and Ella really LOVE this new book and others they received from a friend. ;-)This week hasn't been too exciting yet. Ella is getting over a cold and I believe Lily is just getting it. The weather has been cold and rainy so no playing outside. We spent an hour and half killing time at the bookstore today. We are hoping to visit the pumpkin patch (check it out here) and some see some scarecrows on Saturday. And Andrew and I will be house hunting on Sunday. Yippee! Speaking of houses, we received an incredibly lowball, insanely lowball offer on our condo. We're countering but I'm not holding my breath that anything will come of it. But cross your fingers just in case! Coming soon: more Shutterfly pictures!
10/13/2006
Election humor for you
I will update for real soon. However, please check out this link when you have a free moment. Andrew's brother, Benjamin and his wife, Jenelle received a political message on their answering machine. The funny part is what was said after the caller thought she had hung up. Listen to the clip here.
10/08/2006
Just an update
I'm having technical difficulties with Shutterfly right now. I got a new laptop so I could take advantage of my dad's wireless network. And well, the shutterfly plugin that allows me to add tons of pictures at once is not suitable for the laptop's processor. They haven't created a plugin that works with it yet. :-( So unfortunately I can't upload our latest pictures. Andrew will be bringing our old computer with him when he arrives in MN next weekend so hopefully I'll be able to get new pictures up then.
We had a very fun time at Claire's wedding. Ella & Lily stopped by the reception for a little while and were pretty well behaved. My mom got her perfect Christmas card picture (which is why we are so coordinated!) and so did we. We figured why not, since we were all dressed up anyway. I've known 
Claire since sixth grade as well as Erin and Allison (also in the this picture). Allison was a bridesmaid and Erin and I were greeters and handed out programs at the church. Claire and her new husband Jeff really had a nice wedding and are perfect for each other! Congratulations Claire & Jeff! We hope we get to hang out with them more often now that we are in MN.
We had a nice first week here. We tried out some new parks, the Barnes and Noble storytime, and of course Target. We've also taken advantage of all the walking paths around here! Although we did lose Bear (Lily's lovey) on one of the walks and I panicked for a few minutes. But whew, we found him, thankfully. We played in the leaves with Grandpa on Saturday. 
And one of Lily's favorite pasttimes these days is playing in the kitty bed. She LOVES it! I'm thinking may need to buy her own. Poor Gracie the cat hasn't slept in there since we arrived!
Up next week, decorating the front yard for Halloween, Toddler Tuesday at the Mall of America, a visit to Great-Grandma Betty's, and more random fun! And best of all the return of Andrew next weekend! Yeah!
We had a very fun time at Claire's wedding. Ella & Lily stopped by the reception for a little while and were pretty well behaved. My mom got her perfect Christmas card picture (which is why we are so coordinated!) and so did we. We figured why not, since we were all dressed up anyway. I've known 
Claire since sixth grade as well as Erin and Allison (also in the this picture). Allison was a bridesmaid and Erin and I were greeters and handed out programs at the church. Claire and her new husband Jeff really had a nice wedding and are perfect for each other! Congratulations Claire & Jeff! We hope we get to hang out with them more often now that we are in MN.
We had a nice first week here. We tried out some new parks, the Barnes and Noble storytime, and of course Target. We've also taken advantage of all the walking paths around here! Although we did lose Bear (Lily's lovey) on one of the walks and I panicked for a few minutes. But whew, we found him, thankfully. We played in the leaves with Grandpa on Saturday. 
And one of Lily's favorite pasttimes these days is playing in the kitty bed. She LOVES it! I'm thinking may need to buy her own. Poor Gracie the cat hasn't slept in there since we arrived!Up next week, decorating the front yard for Halloween, Toddler Tuesday at the Mall of America, a visit to Great-Grandma Betty's, and more random fun! And best of all the return of Andrew next weekend! Yeah!
10/03/2006
The look of fall
My favorite time of the year is Labor Day until New Year's.
And I have to admit, it's even better now that we're back in
Minnesota. A REAL fall!! Yippee! The changing color of the
trees, the falling of the leaves, the rain pouring down. Here
are some fun pictures of fall in my dad's neighborhood and
the girls
playing in leaves for the first time!
9/29/2006
So you say it's your birthday!
Okay, I'm a day late on this one, so sue me! :-) Lily's FIRST birthday was officially yesterday, but we chose to celebrate today to give us a little more time to get organized. She was very
happy and bubbly as usual all day yesterday. It was almost as if she just knew it was her birthday. She would smile and laugh whenever we said, "Lily's the birthday girl today!". We got the girls a big slide from Toys R Us as sort of a birthday/moving gift. They were so excited when we brought it out. Hopefully they will enjoy it through the winter months in the basement and outside in the summer.
Tonight we celebrated Lily's birthday with my mom and Dave, my dad and Clare and Grandma Mazie. We ordered pizza and celebrated with a Dora cake. Lily stuck her hand in the cake before we even got the candle lit! :-) She was a little perplexed while we sang Happy Birthday and Ella was c
rying and hiding under the table (do we really sing that bad? I'm sure the answer to that is, yes. I'll post a video in the next few days and America can be the judge.). Lily cried after we were finished singing. But she was sort of interested when we put the cake on her tray. She had a few licks of frosting and then dug into the cake. After awhile she just picked the cake up with both hands and took little bites off it (like a squirrel). She actually was quite neat eating, until she rubbed her eye and got it all over her face. Then, she decided it would be fun to finger paint on the tray with the frosting. All very cute! And captured in digital pictures that I'll also upload
in a few days.Ella and I helped her open a few gifts and she played a little bit in her new Dora car (Ella also got a police car--with her birthday gift cards). Lily also enjoyed pushing her new baby doll stroller all around the house.
After her bath, she promptly fell into a blissful birthday sleep. Happy Birthday to our little one-year old! We can't believe its been that long already. The year has gone by so quickly. We have loved every minute with Lily and look forward to all her amazing feats!
Sidenote: we took Lily to her one-year checkup and she is 23 lbs. and 32" tall! That's 90th percentile for weight and over 100% for height. She's a tall girl! And their baby books are packed but I know that Ella was about 20lbs and 30" at her first year checkup. Lily really is amazing when it comes to language. Her favorite word is "bubble". She loves to say it. She calls balloons "Bubbles" which I think is the cutest thing ever. She also says "thank you" in CONTEXT after you give her something!
Other than that, things are getting organized and we're still getting settled here. We will be going to my friend Claire's wedding tomorrow so look for pictures from that as well. AND, my brother-in-law, Benjamin is running in the Portland Marathon on Sunday morning. So good luck wishes sent to him. If you're curious about his progress throughout the race you can check out his running blog. I'll be his guest poster for the day and sending updates every two miles or so.
Hope you are all doing well!
Bittersweet Farewells
When we first moved to Los Angeles and for the first couple years, I didn't really let myself get close to people because we always knew we would be moving back to the Midwest at some point and I wanted to spare myself the inevitable good-bye. Well, obviously when you know people for a certain amount of time, you're going to get to know them, and find people you really like to hang out with. After I had Ella and chose to stay home with her, I realized that I needed contact with the outside world and preferably adults. I found a playgroup online that was very informal. There were no requirements for joining and you could go to whatever you felt like, however often. Sounded good to me! I never expected to meet such good friends through that group! I guess when you see people 2-3 times a week plus a weekend event every now and then for 2 1/2 years, you're bound to grow pretty close to them.
Andrew and I decided at the beginning of September that Sept. 27th would be the big day, officially. So began the good-byes. And it seemed we couldn't just do one big shindig. We had to drag it out for more than two weeks.
We did our best to spend one last outing with all of our good friends in Los Angeles. Starting with one last Mom's Night Out for me with The Tot Lot (our current playgroup). We had a fondue party at Melissa's house and played The 80's Game where I got to show off all my completely trivial pop culture knowledge (Like that Michael Bolton sang Down in the Boondocks and Bo Diddley did a 
"You don't know Diddley" commercial for Nike). From there, we moved to one last Wednesday playdate. (our regular weekly scheduled playdate) That week's playdate was at Petco. Ella and her friends went on a guided tour around the store and were able to touch/hold various animals such as rats, birds, and chinchillas.
Friday, I met up with my friend Shelly at a great children's bookstore in Studio City called Storyopolis where Ella and Lily enjoyed storytime and then we grabbed a bite to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. We met Kate, Pete, and Liam at the "sand" park in Burbank on Saturday morning for one last outing to our favorite park. Kate and I worked together at the Autry. She started there as my assistant and now she's running the place and has been
there longer than I worked there!
Saturday evening, we took Andrew's boss, Greg and his wife, Kelly out to eat at my favorite restaurant, Taverna Tony's in Malibu. We really enjoyed their company and are so appreciative of the opportunity for Andrew to continue on with Famous/Hornet
here in Minnesota. Sunday evening, we visited with our friends the Pickenpaughs and the Smocks with homemade pizza and the kids running around the backyard. It was a really fun, relaxing night. And finally, the last, yes, I said LAST good-bye, was our last "Mondays at the Park" outing with the Tot Lot where 9 of the 11 members came to 
wish us well. Ella ended the evening by giving everyone hugs and high fives. Even Lily gave out some hugs too!
After all of that, I spent Tuesday packing, organizing and being in
frenzy mode to get everything ready. And Wednesday morning Sept. 27th, only 15 minutes behind our estimated departure time from the house, we left with 6 bags to be checked, 5 carry-ons, 2 car seats, 2 kids, 1 double stroller, and ourselves (We left the partridge in a pear tree in California). We had a near perfect travel experience. We were able to get everything on the shuttle bus and utilized Northwest's curbside check-in. The girls napped for half the flight and were well behaved for the rest of it. My dad and Clare (in two vehicles to fit all our stuff!) picked us up from the airport and we arrived here at their house in Bloomington without incident! Whew. Minnesota! Here we come!
Andrew and I decided at the beginning of September that Sept. 27th would be the big day, officially. So began the good-byes. And it seemed we couldn't just do one big shindig. We had to drag it out for more than two weeks.
We did our best to spend one last outing with all of our good friends in Los Angeles. Starting with one last Mom's Night Out for me with The Tot Lot (our current playgroup). We had a fondue party at Melissa's house and played The 80's Game where I got to show off all my completely trivial pop culture knowledge (Like that Michael Bolton sang Down in the Boondocks and Bo Diddley did a 
"You don't know Diddley" commercial for Nike). From there, we moved to one last Wednesday playdate. (our regular weekly scheduled playdate) That week's playdate was at Petco. Ella and her friends went on a guided tour around the store and were able to touch/hold various animals such as rats, birds, and chinchillas.
Friday, I met up with my friend Shelly at a great children's bookstore in Studio City called Storyopolis where Ella and Lily enjoyed storytime and then we grabbed a bite to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. We met Kate, Pete, and Liam at the "sand" park in Burbank on Saturday morning for one last outing to our favorite park. Kate and I worked together at the Autry. She started there as my assistant and now she's running the place and has been
there longer than I worked there!Saturday evening, we took Andrew's boss, Greg and his wife, Kelly out to eat at my favorite restaurant, Taverna Tony's in Malibu. We really enjoyed their company and are so appreciative of the opportunity for Andrew to continue on with Famous/Hornet
here in Minnesota. Sunday evening, we visited with our friends the Pickenpaughs and the Smocks with homemade pizza and the kids running around the backyard. It was a really fun, relaxing night. And finally, the last, yes, I said LAST good-bye, was our last "Mondays at the Park" outing with the Tot Lot where 9 of the 11 members came to 
wish us well. Ella ended the evening by giving everyone hugs and high fives. Even Lily gave out some hugs too!After all of that, I spent Tuesday packing, organizing and being in
frenzy mode to get everything ready. And Wednesday morning Sept. 27th, only 15 minutes behind our estimated departure time from the house, we left with 6 bags to be checked, 5 carry-ons, 2 car seats, 2 kids, 1 double stroller, and ourselves (We left the partridge in a pear tree in California). We had a near perfect travel experience. We were able to get everything on the shuttle bus and utilized Northwest's curbside check-in. The girls napped for half the flight and were well behaved for the rest of it. My dad and Clare (in two vehicles to fit all our stuff!) picked us up from the airport and we arrived here at their house in Bloomington without incident! Whew. Minnesota! Here we come!
9/15/2006
Tidbits
Well lots of little things to report these days. First we had a scary day on Wednesday. We were at our playdate at Griffith Park and Lily tried part of a cracker with peanut butter on it. You're supposed to be a year old for peanut butter and she has two weeks to go so it didn't seem like a big deal. Then not ten minutes later, she had a large bump on her lip and hive-like spots on her face. I tried calling her doctor and they weren't much help so we just made a trip to the ER. They didn't do much for her except make sure she was breathing fine and they got us in right away. By the time we left two hours later she looked about 85% better. They just said to give her Benadryl. She was fine the next day. But we have to be really careful from now on with her because each time she's exposed the reaction can come on quicker and more severe. Very scary! Not something I want to deal with again anytime soon!
On a much lighter note, Ella hit a major milestone (at least in my eyes!) on Monday. While Lily was taking her morning nap, Ella asked me to come sit by her on the floor, she crawled into my lap and asked me to read her a book! She actually sat there and listened and pointed things out and let me read the words! Then she wanted me to read her four more books after that! Okay this might not sound like a milestone to most people, but this is quite amazing for Ella. Since she was a baby, she would always have to be in charge, turning the pages, never wanting me to read any of the story. And you know how I love books, so I am really hoping the girls turn out to be readers. I was so thrilled she actually wanted to be read to. I think the storytimes I've been bringing her to have really helped.
We also took Ella to the doctor a couple weeks ago to have her ears checked just to make sure everything was working right. Since her speech seemed slightly delayed we just wanted to make sure there was no physical problem keeping her from talking. And she is fine. The doctor said she was on track and pretty normal for her age. And she really has had a language explosion the last couple weeks. We hardly have any temper tantrums at all anymore. It's so nice! Guess we're just biding our time until Lily hits the terrible twos. :-)
In Hollywood excitement this week. I am a fan of Grey's Anatomy and I know some of you are as well. They were filming at the Autry Museum on Wednesday. There were swanky stars trailers and gaffer trucks, catering, people walking around in hospital garb. It was pretty cool. I even got to see the guy who plays George dressed in his scrubs and lab jacket walking around. If I can tell which episode they filmed there, I'll let ya know. Also, for anyone who is a fan of the show Cold Case. The season premiere episode was filmed in the Burbank mall. I was there a couple months ago and they had parts of the mall cordoned off with signs saying they would be shooting somewhat graphic material that day that may not be appropriate for smaller children. They were building fake walls and there were signs that read "Woodland Valley Mall". Definitely going to miss the excitement of seeing filming going on once we get to MN.
And I guess my final tidbit is that even though we haven't sold the condo yet. We're heading East. We're going to stay with my dad and Clare for a little while (and hope the condo sells very soon) and have the movers come get our stuff sometime the beginning of October. We have one guy who is pretty interested in our place, but just isn't ready "to commit" yet and wants to mull it over another couple WEEKS! Geez, just make a decision already! So anyway, we're ready to move on and we're coming to terms with the reality of leaving here and starting to say good-bye to good friends. I can't think about it too much because it makes me sad. I'd rather just sort of be in denial and think I'll see ya in a while.
And with that I think I'll end today's post. Hope you are all doing well and starting to get into the spirit of fall with slightly cooler weather and football season starting!
On a much lighter note, Ella hit a major milestone (at least in my eyes!) on Monday. While Lily was taking her morning nap, Ella asked me to come sit by her on the floor, she crawled into my lap and asked me to read her a book! She actually sat there and listened and pointed things out and let me read the words! Then she wanted me to read her four more books after that! Okay this might not sound like a milestone to most people, but this is quite amazing for Ella. Since she was a baby, she would always have to be in charge, turning the pages, never wanting me to read any of the story. And you know how I love books, so I am really hoping the girls turn out to be readers. I was so thrilled she actually wanted to be read to. I think the storytimes I've been bringing her to have really helped.
We also took Ella to the doctor a couple weeks ago to have her ears checked just to make sure everything was working right. Since her speech seemed slightly delayed we just wanted to make sure there was no physical problem keeping her from talking. And she is fine. The doctor said she was on track and pretty normal for her age. And she really has had a language explosion the last couple weeks. We hardly have any temper tantrums at all anymore. It's so nice! Guess we're just biding our time until Lily hits the terrible twos. :-)
In Hollywood excitement this week. I am a fan of Grey's Anatomy and I know some of you are as well. They were filming at the Autry Museum on Wednesday. There were swanky stars trailers and gaffer trucks, catering, people walking around in hospital garb. It was pretty cool. I even got to see the guy who plays George dressed in his scrubs and lab jacket walking around. If I can tell which episode they filmed there, I'll let ya know. Also, for anyone who is a fan of the show Cold Case. The season premiere episode was filmed in the Burbank mall. I was there a couple months ago and they had parts of the mall cordoned off with signs saying they would be shooting somewhat graphic material that day that may not be appropriate for smaller children. They were building fake walls and there were signs that read "Woodland Valley Mall". Definitely going to miss the excitement of seeing filming going on once we get to MN.
And I guess my final tidbit is that even though we haven't sold the condo yet. We're heading East. We're going to stay with my dad and Clare for a little while (and hope the condo sells very soon) and have the movers come get our stuff sometime the beginning of October. We have one guy who is pretty interested in our place, but just isn't ready "to commit" yet and wants to mull it over another couple WEEKS! Geez, just make a decision already! So anyway, we're ready to move on and we're coming to terms with the reality of leaving here and starting to say good-bye to good friends. I can't think about it too much because it makes me sad. I'd rather just sort of be in denial and think I'll see ya in a while.
And with that I think I'll end today's post. Hope you are all doing well and starting to get into the spirit of fall with slightly cooler weather and football season starting!
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