Oops...

I just realized I had forgotten all about this blog. Alot has happened in 4 months. I guess the biggest thing is we got a dog. Her name is Penny and she is a 4yr old Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

We got her from a rescue organization and she is quite well behaved. She knew plenty of tricks and commands and she is mostly a pleasure to have around. A few weeks ago she ate something she wasn't supposed to and got very sick. She spent a week in the vet hospital but seems to have made a full recovery. We are excited to start taking her geocaching with us.

Right before we got Penny, Josh was in a minor accident on the way to Indianapolis and totaled his pick-up truck. It was a snowy and icy afternoon and the wind blew the truck right off the road into a ditch. The was not injured, but would have been if he hadn't been wearing his seatbelt. So we decided to replace the truck with a 4 wheel drive SUV. We got a 2000 Dodge Durango.

It was a great deal, and it has a fold down third row of seats incase we need room for another carseat in the future. :-) It sure drives like a truck though. I like it. We also have a wire divider so we can throw Penny in the back and take off. She loves to ride with us.

The girls are now sharing a room and not loving it. Ella prefers to sleep alone. Ands she lets us know this by waking up every morning between 4 and 5am. So I go in, lay her back down and she sleeps till 6 and at that point she is ready to start the day. We would love for them to have their own rooms, but we need a bigger house. We are also ready to get far far away from the neighbor's annoying rat dog that barks at the dust particles in the air. So we are keeping our eyes open for a new place.

Lilly is registered for pre-school now. She'll start in August and she already has 3 friends from class. Actually she knows them from church and they all just happen to be attending the same school. She seems very excited as she asks to walk by her school everytime we go for a walk. Luckily it's only one block from our house. She has pretty much mastered her first computer game. It's Jumpstart Pre-school and she loves it.

Ella is a walking, talking, climbing machine. A true daredevil. She has so many facial expressions. She would make a great actress. She's 16 months old as of yesterday, and growing like a weed. People are constantly telling me how cute she is. I can't argue with that!

One elderly gentleman came us to us at a local restaurant last weekend and told us he was impressed with how well behaved our children were. I guess we're not doing too bad as parents. They both have their moments though. Lilly has learned to parent her sister and the dog very nicely.

So I guess that's about it for now. Spring is here...finally. Check back for some outside adventure pictures.

Cheers to a New Year!

So we're back from Connecticut, well we've actually been back for what a week now? We've been busy. As much as we hated running around everywhere in CT we still have not spent one full day at home since we've been back. I think today might be that day.

We are still waiting for Christmas gifts to arrive from CT where they had to be shipped because we just didn't have enough hands to put anymore bags or boxes onto the plane. There was just so many toys! These girls are surely spoiled.

There is a new addition to our family. It's black, shiny, noisy and cost way too much. It's a mammoth television. We have gone HD. Finally we aren't the last people in the country to catch up to technology. I swear back in Akron we were the last ones in the world to get DSL (although I know dial-up is still out there). At least now we are ahead of the DTV switch (in one room anyway). It's nice. Merry Christmas to me.

As for the milestones...Ella is walking. We knew it was coming. She's also riding the radio flyer bicycle. It's so cute. Lilly is speaking spanish...oddly enough. Yesterday she told Ella to "Vamanos". We both heard it and after the initial shock, busted up laughing. Props to Dora. And they say TV rots kid's brains.

That's about it for now. Have a great New Year everyone!

Christmas Time is Here

Which means crazy time is here. This year we are heading east to spend the holidays with Melissa's family. We will be flying out on December 19th, barring weather problems and returning on January 1st. This will be Ella's first time on an airplane and Lilly's 3rd time. This is the first time many relatives are meeting Ella and she'll already be 1 year old. Her birthday is on the 15th and we are all very excited.

We have had our first snow fall here in La Porte. We got 6.5 inches on Tuesday night. Lilly got to play in it yesterday and she loved it, even more than last year I think.

On a developmental note...Lilly is completely potty trained! No more pull-ups! It's a wonderful thing. Ella is not quite walking on her own but she will with a push toy. Soon she will be running away from us. She likes to climb too, luckily not out of her crib yet. Ella is now a human garbage disposal. She will eat anything. We don't give her junk but she just loves food. She weighs 21 pounds now and Lilly is only 26 pounds. Ella is on track to pass Lilly out.

So this will probably be the last post until after vacation. We hope all who read this are healthy and happy and we wish everyone a Merrry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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In the first place

Welcome!
So we started a blog to keep everyone informed with how the kiddos are growing and what our family has been up to. We figured this would be easier than updating the girls' baby pages. So here it is. There will be pictures and possibly even videos. So keep checking back, or use feedblitz.com or changedetection.com to monitor this blog for changes.