I've moved!

Please visit my new blog at http://francisfamilyconnection.wordpress.com/

Moving to WordPress

I am moving my blog to WordPress right now... I'll link up once it's ready. Hopefully this will solve the picture issue, and quite frankly, I've been eyeballing WordPress ever since I saw Jenni's blog. We'll see how it all works out.

On hold

So it seems that I have met my limit of picture space for this blog site. I did not know that there was such a thing, but apparently, Blogger and Picasa team up and whatever space Picasa allows is what I get. As of now, I can either pay for more space, move on, or delete pictures. I do not like any of these options.

Therefore, the pictures from Ella's party will have to wait.

And any new pictures of the kids in general will have to wait.

And new posts with fun pictures will wait.

I realize that about 2 whole people read this, one being me, but I am still not happy.

Birthday silliness

I am exhausted, so birthday pics will have to wait. But for now, here is a series of pictures that I took of Ella and I. The idea was to get a nice picture of the two of us, but this is what happened. It was all her idea, and she completely surprised me. I was crying, I was laughing so hard at her antics.

Guess we'll have to try a photo booth now.

Yep, more Ella quotes...

Ella has been interesting lately. She gets like this when she is in any kind of growth spurt and right now, it is a learning growth spurt. She is sassy, lookin' for trouble, funny and challenging. Thank goodness for the funny part of all of that. On days like this, I really need a camera crew to capture what is going on around here. Ella is slinging one-liners right and left, Benjamin is tackle-kissing her and they are both hysterical. Love it. So here are a couple of things that I can remember.

Here's one of my recent "favorites":

Ella: (poking my belly with a strange look on her face) "Why is your belly so big?"

Me: (expecting a baby sort of response since she has a stuffed animal "baby" in her pj's EVERY morning) "Why do you think it's so big?"

Ella: "Well... you eat a lot of food." (I made sure to job for the first time in three weeks that afternoon)

This morning:

Ella: "Can Benjamin eat corn?"

Me: "Well, I guess we could try it. If I had some corn, I'd give him a piece to see how he did. Why do you want to know?"

Ella: "Because I like corn and I love Benjamin."

At church today while playing with Ellie and Shay (thank you, Jenni and Nancy!). I had just told Ella we'd be leaving pretty soon...

(squatting down in front of Ellie, who was sitting on the floor with a book) "Ellie, we are going to have a snack and then I have to go home. I love you, I do, but we will need to go home soon".

We have been hooked on Trader Joe's lately. Can you believe that it is about 3 blocks away and we NEVER went there for the first 5 years we lived in Berkley? I know. It's horrible. So we grab dinner from there pretty frequently now instead of ordering from our old standby take-out places. Tonight was artichoke ravioli, spinach feta ravioli, turkey meatballs and Bean So Green veggies. Yum. Anyway, Scott and Ella went to get dinner (It took Ella about 2 minutes to pick up on the fact that she gets a balloon every time we go there) and she had her Webkinz Love Monkey, JoJo with her. "JoJo is coming with us on his first Trader Joe's adventure!" (we neglect to notice that JoJo is pink with pink and purple hearts all over "him")

And here we have The Benjamin Story, as told by Ella. These pictures are in a little brag book that we had laying around. It is one of Ella's favorite things. This is a rough approximation of the story she told today. Enjoy.

Oh, Benjamin. You are so born. You were in Mommy's tummy and you could not get out! But there was a hole and it was just right and now you are borned.

Ooooh. Daddy is holding you and keeping you warm because you are so cold. But Daddy and that blanket keep you niiiiiice and warm.

Oh, Benjamin, you are so cute and you can't get your booger sucker! You can't get it and you are sad and you are taking a nap now.

I love you so much, Benjamin! This is Ella and Ben!

Here you are cold, Benjamin. Mommy says you are mad and you are cold in your puppy towel.

Gotta love it.

What??

I have to say, once again, that I am glad that we are not a newly churched family. The things Ella is coming up with since being in Sunday School are baffling and I am glad that we know that she is not being taught the very things that are coming out of her mouth. I know that she is working things out in her little head, but really. It is strange, the things she says. Today was no exception.

We have been having some trouble with manners lately. There are a lot of demands flying about and not a whole lot in the way of "please" and "thank-you". Or if "please" is involved, it sounds something like this, "I want yogurt NOW! ... um, please." And, of course, there is the delightful questioning of why Mommy and Daddy don't always ask nicely. In her mind, it is a double standard. Why does she have to ask us nicely for yogurt when we can simply order her into time out? So, of course, she brings God into it.

"Mom, give me more Lightning McQueen soup!"

"Hmmm... there is plenty more, but I haven't heard any nice words".

"Well," she says with a generous helping of attitude, "that's how God says it".

"What?" Thinking this will be interesting...

"That's what God said... He said, 'Give me my money NOW!'"

What?? I asked her what story that was from because it really did not sound like something God would say. The answer is still a mystery.

Never a dull moment.

Roller skating!

Today's new adventure was Toddler Skate With Elmo. Ella's admission included a skate rental, lunch and a mini skating lesson. Benjamin's admission allowed him to cruise the rink in the stroller. He was less than thrilled. Once he is sturdier on his feet, we can take a push toy and he can join in the fun, rolling over wobbly skaters. I am looking forward to my many apologies to irritated mothers of tearful toddlers. But I digress...

With it being mid-winter break for the few lucky districts (not Scott's, unfortunately) who still get more than 2 days off, there were a ton of people there. It was manageable, though. Ella was hesitant at first, but by the time she had a little skating lesson, she was ready to "go and ice skate real fast!"

We were invited my my friend, Laura, and I thought that Jenni and Ellie would probably also love an outing. My plan was for all of us to mingle and have fun, but alas, with the large crowd and many small children, it did not work out and there was not much mingling and even less talking. Maybe next time. I have a feeling that the girls would be rather taken with the handsome Henry, and Benjamin would absolutely love Honor's company. Poor guy seemed to feel rather left out. Thankfully, Ella did not notice that her lunch came with Goldfish crackers, so I kept shoving them in Ben's mouth to keep him happy. Yes, my parenting skills are still pretty sharp.

Score another point for Mommy's Winter Fun Fest. Keep the ideas coming, 'cause our house isn't getting any bigger and it isn't getting any warmer outside.