Peabody Ducks

This last Tuesday we ventured out and did something for the first time, we went and saw the Ducks March at the Peabody Hotel in Downtown Memphis. I was starting to feel really guilty because we had never been and we were less than 2 weeks away from moving away from this place forever. It seems like every time the Mothers group would go or someone else would invite me to go I never was available to. Well I decided last minute Monday night to go and invited the Mother's group. No one else showed up which was fine I wasn't expecting anyone to at the last minute. We had a perfect little day just the three of us. I am grateful we went, it was just what we all needed to get out of the messy unorganized chaos that is our house at the moment. We got there a few minutes early and there wasn't very many people which I was thankful for. They have the hotel decorated so beautifully for Christmas! We sat and waited and the Duckmaster gave his speech on how it came to be and the history of the hotel and then he went up to the roof to get them from their room.

 

Waiting for the ducks before we decided to sit on the ground, someday I hope Easton has a picture with his eyes not closed!

 He is only the 5th duckmaster in 60+ years

 They came off the elevator and immediately tried to escape!

 The kids were ecstatic and so excited for the ducks. Easton's excitement was overwhelming. He couldn't get enough! He just kept saying duck over and over again! They would splash water on him and he would laugh!

 

 This cute little Grandma decided she wanted to be my personal photographer for the day and offered to take my picture with the kids and then by the Christmas tree and then a few more, it was really so nice of her! Her husband is in the background of this one looking thrilled!

 We then rode the elevator up to the roof and saw where they live and the beautiful view of the city and overlooking the river!

 They have an awesome gingerbread house display set up. It smelled so good! They used over 250 lbs of Powdered Sugar and 300 lbs of Gingerbread to compile it! Easton just loved the train that went around it all!

We ended the day by stopping by to see Dad on our way home before he ate lunch!

Puzzles

I am going to brag about my little Ella. She amazes us every day! She says and knows things that amaze me. The other night she told me she couldn't go to bed because she had to check her hypothesis! I laughed pretty hard at that one and then realized a couple days later it comes from Dinosaur Train. She says things and does things that I didn't think a 3 year old would know. I love how her imaginative play has changed so much this year, it is fun to listen to her make stuff up. One of her favorite things right now are these puzzles. They are the Dollar store cheap ones but they have been worth every penny. She sits and does them for hours over and over again. Most have 24 or 48 pieces which she can do no problem now. She has one that she got for going potty that is 100 pieces and I used to have to help her do it but now she does the whole thing on her own! She amazes me when she does that one! I bought her a couple other small ones for Christmas but I was thinking I should have got another 100 piece one!

Mother's Group Christmas Party

A week ago Friday we had our Mother's Group Party. It was a lot of fun! The kids started out by frosting and decorating sugar cookies! Easton clams up around people at church and so it took him a few minutes to start frosting and then he never ate it and I found someones child eating it a while later which I wasn't very happy about, but oh well less sugar for him!

 They look so thrilled to be there, like Mom why do you drag us to these things!

 Ella loved putting the sprinkles on with her fingers!

 I ended up frosting his cookie since he just kept trying to spread the same teaspoon!

 Ok now we are happy, we had been there long enough that they figured it was safe!

 And then SANTA came! The kids actually were pretty excited. Ella told him she wants a Jasmine doll (thankfully Aldi had 1 left the next day!) and she wants the rest of the princesses to go with her palace so they can sing. I keep telling her she wants a new baby doll and she screams no I don't each time, we shall see.

 Easton doesn't really know what he wants all he says is Vroom vroom and Ella tells him he wants toys and he gets excited!

 They each played some games to like Pin the button on the snowman and Santa hat bowling! It was a lot of fun! Thanks to those who put it on!



My Pirates

We were out the other night and I remembered I needed something at Joann's so we all went in. I just needed two things and I was trying to make it quick because Joann's + Kids = horrible, so I grabbed what I needed and they all started following me until I got half way through the store and noticed I was talking to myself. They had made it ten steps and found the toy aisle and were taking pictures. I can't take these three anywhere :)!

 

Easton says Rrrrrrrr....

Jackson

Last week we headed to Jackson, MS for Andrew to take his final portion of boards. They have to take it at a testing center and by the time we had the funds to sign up for it all the local spots were taken. It worked out ok because they gave Andrew the day before the test off so we left in time for naps and made the 2 1/2 hr trip down and the kids slept most of it! We got there in time to get some dinner and then swim! The next morning we dropped Andrew off at the testing place and went back to the hotel and had breakfast! Then I let the kids watch TV and we all got ready and we checked out right at check out time (we wanted to get our money's worth and stay til the last possible second :)) We went to the Grocery and got some food for lunch and met Andrew back at the place for his 45 min break! He went back in to finish the last 4 hrs and we went and found something to do. We wandered Target and Kohls and only managed to buy one thing, a bag of Popcorn!!! We then went and watched a show in our car and drove to where Andrew was and by then the kids were both asleep. He came out about 20 minutes later with a big grin on his face, he had just completed his last test EVER!!!! I got out and gave him a big hug and congratulated him! Lucky for us the kids slept another hour while we got back on the road! It was such a short trip but it was just what we needed to recharge our batteries. It rained HARD for about the last hr of the drive but we made it home safely! I am so proud of Andrew and all that he has accomplished, school has not been easy but he has done so well. He has gotten good grades and studied hard but has still made time for the kids and I. One more semester and graduation to go!!!!

 

Here they are waiting for the elevator, they went and helped Andrew with something in the lobby, they both have their hands on their hips!

After swimming, I was mad I left my camera in the room while swimming they were being so cute!

They thought this was a good idea, both sleeping in the same bed, it didn't last more than 5 minutes! Easton is to busy to sleep in the same bed as Ella, he just wanted to play!

It was nice when they went to sleep I had 20 minutes to relax in the car alone!

Easton's Birthday - Cake and Presents

For Easton's birthday dinner we kept it easy and went and had pizza at one of our favorite pizza places here, Avellinos. We then went home and opened presents. He is a pro at it! He knows just what to do and gets very excited with each one no matter what it is! Then we sang and skyped with my mom. Then we ate cake, which by this time it was 9:30 but we still gave them cake and they didn't go to bed for a long time! We are awesome parents like that!

 

Easton is all about Cars right now, he loves the show and anything that goes Vroom, Vroom! The night of Ella's birthday Andrew said he wanted to make him one so I made him stick to his promise even though it was his last study day before boards :) He did such a great job and the perfectionist he is shows! Easton was enamored and my sister asked where we bought it!

He was in desperate need of new church clothes! Hooray!

We ended up with another one of these because one is not enough for the car!

Easton is a lucky boy and got lots of cards and gifts in the mail as well! Thanks to all our families who were so generous with not just his birthday but Ella's as well! They each carry around their money with them all day it is hilarious!

This was his big gift! I waited and waited for it to go on sale and then it did and I found it cheaper so thanks to price matching at Target I got it for a steal! One thing I did this year for their birthdays was all year I earned Target gift cards from things I bought like diapers and food. So each of their big birthday gifts and a few of their Christmas gifts were bought using those free gift cards! If I didn't have them they probably wouldn't have gotten such big gifts!

He loves this! It goes along with their other one they got last year for Christmas. It was nice to buy it because we have all the cars already that can go on it!

We put them down before they cleaned up because they were so tired and Andrew and I had a lot of fun playing with it! Ha ha!

Singing and blowing out the candles! He did a really good job blowing! He also did a good job not putting his finger in the flame, I think he learned his lesson after last year!

He opened two more gifts while on Skype from my mom and sister! 

I remember my little brother loving these big boots guys and Easton loves them too. He opened the first one on Ella's birthday and then this one on that day! He loves the "hat" on the guy the most, he was so excited for it!

It was such a fun day and we loved celebrating our little man! Some things about him: He loves fruit! He would eat a fruit only diet if we let him! He loves Ella and mimicking anything and everything she does, it can be a problem a lot of times! He has such a tender heart. He loves Cars, Buzz, Woody, and any type of vehicle that moves. He is starting to lose his baby chub and it makes me sad. He isn't as quick as Ella when it comes to talking but he says more and more words everyday! He knows all his animals and sounds. He visited 5 new states this year and traveled thousands of miles both by plane and car! He loves to jump. He will jump on the carpet all the time and in his bed too. We keep telling him he is going to break it and to stop. He would jump on the couch if it was allowed it!We have discovered recently he sometimes does not like meat. He will eat pretty much anything but he doesn't do well with eating the same thing over and over so we try to only eat Peanut Butter sandwiches a couple times a week. He still loves his milk! We love him to pieces! He got on the scale the other day and he weighs 28.4 lbs and then Ella got on and she weighs ......28.4 lbs! That is all I really know I am going to take them in for their checkups when we get to Utah in January (not a huge fan of the doctors here!) We love our big boy and still are in shock that he is ours let alone that he is 2!