"My Best Friend Is Coming"

"My best friend is coming, my best friend is coming!!"  That is what we heard all week long last week. Elli couldn't wait to have Kensley come to her house for her birthday.  We started the celebration off on Friday night with a 'movie night.'  We let Elli pick the movie and she of course picked 'Snow White.'  Connor even sat for some of the movie!!  The kids got in their sleeping bags, ate popcorn, and got to drink juice out of their special sippy cups.  The girls got up at most songs to dance.  

Elli opening up her birthday presents from us.  This 'bride dress' was from Connor....she's worn it everyday since she opened it.  

Best Friends

Connor got some cool sunglasses from Nana B.

Doughnuts for breakfast.  

Nana got the girls glow in the dark nail polish....so we did nails in the morning and just played around the house.  

After naps, we took the kids to go see 'Snow White' at the children's theater.  The girls couldn't wait!  

 Waiting for the show to start.  Connor did great and sat through the whole thing.  The kids were entertained, but the rest of us were not impressed.  We finished the night with dinner out (we didn't get to go to Red Robin because of the long wait) and ice cream.  

Both girls in a 'bride dress.'  These were worn many times during the weekend!

We took the kids to church the next morning.  When Scott went to go pick the girls up from their room at church, they were holding hands and dancing together.  The lady working in the room said that they had entertained themselves the whole time playing with each other.

Elli was sad to see Kensley leave.  At the breakfast table our conversation went something like this:

Me: Elli, Kensley has to go home today.

Elli: Kens, why do you have to go home?  I'm going to miss you.

Me: She has to go see Avery and her mommy and daddy.

Kensley: Yeah, Elli I have to see Avery and my mommy and daddy.  I'll miss you.

Elli: I'm going to miss you.

Kensley: It's ok Elli.  I'll be back this weekend.  I'll be back on Saturday.

Elli keeps talking about all the things they will do when Kensley comes back.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure Kensley will be back anytime within the next few weeks, but I did tell Elli that she gets to go spend a few days with Kens at her house this spring.  I'm so glad they had a good weekend together!!

3rd Birthday Party

This past Saturday, we had a 3rd birthday party for Elliana with family at my parent's house.  The theme was Beauty and the Beast.  Elli was so, so excited!!

The cake

 Seriously, Elli and Kensley are best friends.  Tonight, I asked Elli who was coming this weekend (Kensley is) and she yelled, "KENSLEY, MY BEST FRIEND.  My best friend is coming!  My best friend is coming. My best friend is coming."

Connor got to try on Elli's birthday gift

Working on some Belle paper dolls

Cookie Decorating

Thanks everyone for making Elli's party so special!!

17 months

Happy 17 months Connor Lee (last week)!!

These days, Connor is able to follow directions very well!  We're amazed at how much he can understand.  He is beginning to tell us when he is going to the bathroom.  Just this week, we noticed that when he goes #2, he keeps patting his diaper saying "ugh, ugh, ugh."  

The older Connor gets, the more we realize just how much Connor likes to sleep!  He is still sleeping at least 12 hours, many times more each night.  These days, we usually see him waking up around 8:30 in the morning. We used to put him to bed without hearing a peep from him.  These days, he likes to talk to himself for 10 or so minutes before he falls asleep.  

One thing I always want to remember about Connor at this age is how anything can typically become his toy.  I love watching his imagination with everything!  He loves putting things to bed.  Just the other day he put a thing of play dough in the stroller, was pushing it around, and saying "shhhhhhhhh." He'll put his niney (blanket) in a cabinet and say "shhhhhhh."  Speaking of niney, he loves his niney....just like Elli does.  I made his niney awhile ago and he rarely lets it out of his sight.  

Just like his sister, when a part of his body hurts, he instantly wants it kissed.  I often see him patting the body part that hurts and smacking his lips, so I will kiss it.

Connor is playing with the dog blanket in the picture below!  He loves walking around while wearing this!  Looks like we will have 2 kids that like to play dress up!

He loves shoes and gets really excited about trying on new shoes.  We often see him putting our shoes on and walking all over the place! In this picture, he is wearing Elli's sandal.

I couldn't help, but post the above picture.  A few months ago, Connor would ALWAYS stick his pointer finger in his nose.  We saw him consistently doing this when he would get scared/nervous.  This picture was from the other day, but it reminded me of when he would get scared/nervous.

Connor loves wearing hats!!  See that NetJets hat??  Um....who wouldn't want to buy into NetJets after seeing this picture??

Connor is just so sweet, fun, lovable, and easy going!  

Ladies Man

Connor is quite the ladies man.  I'd say this was his first kiss, but these two have been giving each other more smooches lately!

 

16 months

I am a little late on this '16 month post' seeing as how Connor turned 16 months on December 16th, but better late than never!  

Connor continues to love playing with his toys, singing, and dancing.  I can't really pick out a favorite toy as he usually loves playing with them all.  He also really enjoys opening and closing doors and playing with a bottle that has a cap.  He is becoming quick on his feet and his broken leg didn't slow him down much at all.  He is doing more of a run these days and still loves the game chase.  In fact, this is his favorite game!!  

He is repeating more words these days and I know I will leave some out, but here is what I can remember off the top of my head: mama, dada, sissy, more, ball, yes, uh oh, down, up, thank you, sit down, night night, open, baby, bubble, pop, out, cake, cookie, tractor, shoe and cracker.  He, of course, does a lot of "uh uh" and pointing to get his point across, but we're pretty good at making him request using a word before we give him what he wants.

Connor goes to bed around 7:30 and usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8:30 in the morning.  He also sleeps 2 to 3 hours in the afternoon.  He has no problem going down to bed.  He still loves for us to rock him before bed and this usually includes us singing to him at his request.  Putting him to bed at night or at his nap is my absolute favorite time of the day.  This is our one on one time!  At times he just lays his head on my shoulder and I sing to him.  Other times, we work on identifying body parts or play little games.  It sounds like we spend a long time putting him to bed, but we really only spend a few minutes doing this.

One of our favorite things that Connor is doing is this.....

 See those eyes??  When he is excited, being ornery or playful....he makes his eyes really big!

Connor loves looking at books these days.  He will crawl up in our new chair and just look at books!

Connor loves dancing.  Some days, I let the kids watch sesame street while I'm cooking dinner.  He loves watching the beginning song- that's about all he will sit for :)

Grandma and Grandpa Zurcher got Elli and Connor a recordable book for Christmas.  Both kids love listening to Grandpa read the book and Connor loves swaying to the music when it plays.

Christmas 2012

Here are pictures from our Christmas....

Snuggling with Vander

Snuggling with Uncle Ross

 Lindvall Christmas

Elli trying on her new skirt Nana L. made her.  She wore this skirt most days last week.

Connor checking out his barn Papa L. made him

Connor loves, loves his new tractor

Heading to church

Zurcher Christmas....they just got a special gift

Elli in her new Belle dress

Playing in the snow

Dane taking a picture of Elli

Snuggling on the couch with Dane watching 'The Little Mermaid'

Connor trying on his new fire hat 

We had a good week and we were able to see a lot of family.  The kids loved playing with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins!  

Water park

Over Christmas, we traveled to Mansfield, OH for the Brauchler Christmas.  We stayed in a hotel that had a water park.  We weren't so sure we would make it to Mansfield due to the snow; however, we braved the weather, spent many, many house in the car, and finally made it to the water park.  Elli LOVED it and went down the slide over and over again!  Connor, on the other hand, was not a fan of the water.  He will be in swim lessons this spring :)

Best Friends.  Last week Elli and I were talking about Kensley and she said "Kensley's my best friend."  They really do have so much fun together!

Connor spent the majority of the time walking around!  He did have a lot of fun doing that.  He was sick at the time so I'm sure that didn't help his fear of the water. 

Couldn't resist posting the next picture....  :)

Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to come to the hotel multiple times, so we wouldn't have to load the kids up in the car again.