Our Days

This video is pretty typical of our days. Connor laughing at Elli (he thinks she is extremely funny), Elli not paying much attention to him while wearing her snow white dress (she is obsessed with dresses and skirts these days, especially her princess dresses), and me trying to get her to play with him! (You have to make the video full screen (double click on the video) to see the whole thing).

Today, Connor was laughing so hard at Elli. Elli would bend down and put her head on his and he would just crack up. I turned my back for a second (I was literally 2 feet from them both)....I hear Connor cracking up and Elli saying "horsey." I turn around to find Connor face down on his stomach and Elli sitting on his back. Yikes! Not my proudest moment as a parent. Although Connor was clearly enjoying this, I put a stop to it immediately!! And I'm only posting this because I want to remember it....Scott and I laughed about this for quite a long time tonight!

'Spring Break'

We've had a busy week last week. We got home from Florida on Tuesday afternoon and then Scott's parents and our nephews came to stay with us for a couple of days. They were on spring break and arrived at our house on Wednesday night and stayed until Friday evening. Elli was so excited when she saw them on Thursday morning. We didn't tell her they were coming because we knew she would have had a hard time sleeping that night (lately, sleeping has been rough with her).

We spent the majority of Thursday at the zoo.

The kids got to ride the train and merry-go-round at the zoo...

Elli didn't want to ride on a horse, but enjoyed riding with Papa on the bench....

Vander enjoyed cuddling with Connor in the wagon!!

At night, Vander read Elli her books at night. He's quite the good reader!

Friday was spent going to the park and then going to Scott's office for lunch. The rest of the day was spent lounging around!

Vander and Connor got pretty close this trip! They definitely bonded and pretty much every time Connor saw Vander, he had a huge smile on his face!

Elli and Connor had such a good time playing with their cousins!

By the end of the week, Elli was exhausted and had regressed a bit on potty training! I'm happy to say that although she is still having some trouble going down for naps, her sleeping is somewhat back to normal! Also, we are back to accident-free days with going to the bathroom! We've had a good 2 weeks, but we're happy to be back into our normal routine!

Beach Pictures

As mentioned in the previous post, we took some pictures on the beach during sunset on our last night in Siesta Key. Connor was on his game, but Elli was a little too busy running and dancing all around. It is almost impossible to get both kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time, but we did our best....

So....Elli was bribed with jelly beans to get her to stay still and smile....you can see her eating them in a couple of the pictures....oh well!!

This little guy LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the sand! He was so interested in it that the only way I could get him to even look at the camera is if we played peek-a-boo.

And the sand is in the mouth!

We had a great week and are excited to spend some time in Siesta Key next year (thanks to my retired parents) and probably every year after that!

Siesta Key

We traveled back to Florida on March 20th and Scott was able to come with us this time around. Elli was so excited about going back and was especially looking forward to the plane ride. Our kids definitely know how to fly and did great once again on the flight there and on the way home.

We made it to Florida around 7:40 on Tuesday and arrived at the condo a little after 9:00. Luckily, the kids feel asleep on the drive to the condo and didn't have too much trouble getting back to sleep once we arrived. We crammed a lot into 1 week!

Our first day, the girls, Scott, and Dad spent a little bit of the morning at the park and beach. We then spent the majority of the day at the pool. We couldn't get Elli to put her floaties on during our first trip to Florida a couple weeks ago, but we were successful this trip. And when the floaties were on, she wanted to swim by herself!

After a day of swimming, we went to St. Armands Circle for a little eating, shopping, and ice cream.

A picture of the 2 youngest before the night out!

Elli in her awesome purple shades

All the babies!

Out to Dinner!

Nana B., Elli, & Daddy

Connor looking very handsome

Both babes in the stroller!

Elli posing

Elli and Kensley took turns pushing Connor around in the stroller!

On Thursday, Scott flew out early in the morning to Arizona for work. He spent the whole day in Arizona and took a red-eye that night back to Florida. He made it back to the condo by 8:00 on Friday morning!

While Scott was working, we were playing in the condo....

at the beach....

and at the park....

Mom and Dad watched the kids for Amber, Jeremy, and I while we made a quick trip to the outlets.

Friday was spent primarily at the beach!

This little girl loves playing with her bucket in water and sand.

"Come here water"

The two littlest cousins playing on the beach!

Sitting on the turtle and being bribed with candy to smile! (Notice their tattoo?? So classy!!)

Daddy & Connor enjoying the beach!

Everyone except me playing in the pool! Check out Amber's sweet pose. Ha!

At lunch, Amber, Jeremy, Scott and I went to 'The Hub' for lunch! We spent the rest of the time at the pool. Amber, Jeremy, Kensley, and Avery headed home later that evening.

Saturday was spent at the beach....

And then we went to dinner later that night...

Enjoying the 'fake' animals while we waited to be seated!

I wasn't very lucky in getting a good picture of both kiddos together on this alligator!

After dinner, Dad volunteered to put both kids to bed so Mom, Scott and I could go to the outlets! According to him, bedtime was a success! He was very brave for doing that!!

Sunday was spent at the beach and later that night we attended the drum ceremony! This time, Elli participated and did a little dancing. She is still talking about the drum ceremony and will often dance around like the girls at the drum ceremony!

Some girl gave her shakers....

Sunday was packed full with feeding the birds....

Hanging out on the beach....

Flying a kite (what a big girl!)

Taking many, many pictures (I did a photo shoot on the beach at sunset....I took tons of pictures which I'll post later)

And playing on the beach....

I will post more picture of our 'photo shoot' on the beach later!