Happy Birthday Eliza!

 This darling little girl is just the sweetest 2 year old I know. We all just love having her in our family. She's silly, sweet and loves to give us all the best cuddles. Her tiny girly sing-song voice just melts us all. And then when's she's singing-be still my heart. We all love you so much Liza bird!

 I found this bunkbed at a garage sale last summer and had to buy it. I had almost the exact same one growing up. So I painted it and added new fabric to it and meant to give it to her for Christmas. And totally forgot!!! So this morning we gave it to her and she just loves it.

 She gave her babies a bottle and a diaper change this morning. I love how being maternal is coming completely naturally to her. And it's bringing it out in the boys too! Who doesn't love a guy who likes babies?!?!?

 Attempting a smile. She was very "busy" and I kept bugging her for pictures! I made this dress from an old pattern from the 70's. thanks Stace for going garage-sale-ing!

Birthday Festivities

We started celebrating Eliza's 2nd birthday a few days early.

Grandma Joellen came on Saturday bearing gifts. Eliza had a blast ripping the paper. Grandma gave her these darling Melissa & Doug pizza and birthday cakes.

 I just like how Eliza's hair looks pulled back!

 She was such a big girl carrying her gifts to daddy.

 Since Phil had Monday off for President's Day we decided to do a small party with Meyerson's b/c we knew he'd work late on her actual birthday. I searched ebay for weeks for vintage fisher price stuff. Here is the beloved houseboat. My grandparents had this when I was little and I just loved it.

 I also got some furniture to fill up the house I found at a thrift store in Alabama. Also in Bama my sisters found this darling western town at a flea market. My mom bought it and shipped it off as Eliza's gift from her. Thanks Dunlop's!

 Lucy being a cheeser. That's actually what she was saying.

 Meyerson's gave Eliza some dress-ups. She doesn't appear to be liking this crown so much.

 My kids just love vintage fisher price!

 She loves the dress-up high heels.

 Lucy cheering us all on!

 her expression kills me

 Delicious angel food cupcakes. I'm still dreaming of them...

 Getting ready to blow out her candle. All I had was an 8. woops!

 She was very nervous by the fire and her little blows were so tiny. She eventually did it though!

 She studied her cupcake a good while.

 Then she dug in. As did Lucy there in the background!

Afternoons at our house

We rest our bums in any comfy seat we can find. Although I think we can all agree this doesn't look comfy.

 the main floor of our house is a big loop. These 2 spent 30 minutes w/ Chase pushing Eliza around and around it. They giggled non-stop. Even when they kept crashing into the wall.

 Tyler is seriously such an awesome brother. He makes Chase math and spelling "worksheets" complete w/ equations and letter tracing. Then he grades them and gives him prizes for doing well. This is especially nice b/c it replaces me. I have tried doing this w/ Chase for years and he has no interest. If he'll do it w/ Ty-I say hooray for me! (and him too)

Ty also got out these magnets to help Chase w/ his math. he was so proud when Chase didn't need them. Way to go Chase! And again-this is all Tyler. He's 7 going on 35.

 Eliza asks for "mulk" approximately 8 million times per day. No kidding. And she means business. You give her water and she's been known to throw it at you. And that hurts. She's getting better however b/c she can't drink that much milk in a day-so I say- get over it sister and embrace the H2O!

 Phil's mom came to celebrate Eliza's birthday a few days early. We had to bring out the Just Dane for Kids and it was some great entertainment! We all had a good time. Please note Ty took these pics.

 This isn't the afternoon, but I have to say how fun these 2 are together. They sat here singing "the wheels on the bus" together and it was just darling I tell you! DARLING!!!



The Birds!

Phil just watched Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" for the first time in it's entirety the other night. This has nothing to do with this post, but figured this was noteworthy.
Back to business. After watching some friends kids the other day I decided I needed a birdfeeder. See-I was standing at their kitchen window rinsing some dishes and their birdfeeder was swarming w/ a variety of birds. And it just made me smile. The 3 kids and I sat there very entertained for what felt like a long time. And then i thought of my own childhood-we always had a birdfeeder. And my mom knows the names of all the birds and at one time I'm sure I did. And my kids need that experience. I haven't done it b/c I don't like the seed everywhere and the poop all over the deck, but I figured birds are hungry in the winter so I'll feed them until spring-then back the birdfeeder goes into the garage.

ANYWAY. So I got one, hung it up and waited. It only took about 2 hours before our own birdfeeder was swarming. It was so fun and Chase and I were giddy as could be. I picked up Ty from the bus and he was staring up at the trees in our backyard. He's yelling look-look! And there was a huge honkin' Hawk or something. He was ALSO thrilled by the birdfeeder. I'd brought his next meal conveniently to him! Look at those talons!

We also now have squirrels. Tons of them. I know I should have gotten a squirrel-free house, but we'll figure it out. The other day the kids and I spent an afternoon up in Eliza's bedroom window shooting them with nerf guns. My boys have awesome aim and nailed those nasty rodents. Only problem is they don't care and keep coming back.

It's the pep squad here

I seriously feel like Debbie Downer lately. The other day Phil was saying how happy he was the weather was warming up. My only comment was, "great-now everyone will get sick." Wuh wuh.

Today is the "anniversary" or whatever of the day sweet Jake died. Miss ya bud.
Everyone else enjoy this weather. Wuh wuh.

Holy Toledo

I just want to make sure all you bloggers have updated your settings so you can upload a ton of pictures at once. It has changed my life.

Go to SETTINGS, BASIC, under GLOBAL SETTINGS make sure the POST EDITOR UPDATE has been selected.

Woot woot!

Sometimes

You get encouraging emails and yummy homemade treats from friends and it just makes your day. THANK YOU!!!

OH. MY. GOSH. It's happening...

I am getting off my lazy, mopey butt and I'm going to exercise. I couldn't find a pair of socks and went to the clean clothes and grabbed a pair. I put them on-and that's when I realized. I am wearing TYLER'S socks. I can fit into my sons socks. My mind is officially blown. Soon I'll be wearing his sweatshirts and maybe his sweats?!?!? Will my baby really be taller than me one day?!?!?! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!

I will be in big trouble for this

But I was just looking at pictures from our Disney Cruise and saw this one and I can't stop laughing. Sorry-can I get a free pass b/c I'm sad?!?!?!??!?! :)

Feeling down

Since this is my journal of sorts I am posting that I'm sad. Depressed. Ticked off. Angry. confused. Scared. My dad has had appointments the last 2 weeks that are just so frustrating and more bad news. They have found more cancer in his body. This just isn't how I saw my parents lives going and it just doesn't seem fair to me. I know it's not fair to anyone. But this is MY dad. So forgive me if I'm distant, grouchy, unfriendly and gloomy. I want to hole up in my house and never ever leave. I'll be praying for my dad, and if you have the chance it would be great if you could to. Whoever YOU are. Who the heck am I even talking to?!?!

Easy Valentine Decoration + Surviving the cold

I thought w/ ice or some other cold something coming from the skies tonight into tomorrow somebody might need an activity to keep the kids busy.
I'm sure you've all done it in school, I had, but I totally forgot about it. I saw it when I was looking at nie nie's blog. It's not all that kid-friendly for the kids to actually do (b/c you're getting crayon shavings, and I couldn't find a pencil sharpener so I used a cheese grater:how will I get that clean you ask? I have NO CLUE, and you use an iron), but mine had fun watching me and asking 8 kazillion questions. And they look so pretty hanging in all of our windows!
I'll post the link b/c then I don't have to take a pic, upload, and write how to do it!!
http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.0e0eb51a2e6b5ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=34b12e912b11f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&backto=true&backtourl=%2Fphotogallery%2Fvalentines-day-projects-for-kids#slide_23