More Baby Russ

It is a big day for Ellen if she gets to hold Russ.  Really big.  She knew he was coming, so got into mommy mode by putting a baby in her tummy.  That is what she has been doing since Russ was born.  She wants to be just like Susie was and have a baby to care for like she does now with Russ.  And if you are unsure who she is she will tell you that she is her "baby's mommy."  We hear that a lot. 

"I'm my baby's mommy, so I can put on this lipstick."

"I'm my baby's mommy, so I can push the grocery cart."

"I'm my baby's mommy, so I can make the coffee."

The idea being that if she is her baby's mommy, then she can do mommy things like me.

Ellen takes the job of holding Russ VERY seriously!

The boys do not.

Ellen's outfit.

She picked it out herself.  You like?  Most of her clothes are hanging and she can only reach her pj's.  Hey, she did the best with what she had to work with.  I especially like her choice of sock and shoes.

"What? I'm just helping trim the spinach."

Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls made the boys some sweet treats and the boys brought the girls flowers and candy!  This seems like a sweet way to spend vday with one set of each gender in our family.

Happy Valentine's Day 2012!

Mommy and Ellen Walk

It was an overcast and cool morning, by far my favorite type of day, so Ellen and I went for a long walk.  The last two are such Ellen faces :-)

Who is more tired?

Ellen or the bear?

Valentines

Lucas was very into making the cards for his classmates this year.  The piece of paper has a list of names on it.  After decorating it, he used it to cross out names as we created the cards.  I thought it was sweet and thoughtful that he chose Star Wars cards for the boys and cute kitty/puppy cards for the girls (because they obviously don't like Star Wars.)

Way too busy for pictures...

The Star Wars cards came with a piece of candy, so he suggested we tape a sucker onto the girl's cards.

He was very particular about who got what character. 

Griffin, his best bud, got Yoda.

Here they are enjoying some cards that they got early...

Meeting Baby Russ

To say that Ellen loves Baby Russ would be an understatement.  She ADORES him.  Not a surprise since she very much a baby doll girl.  She almost always has one in her arms (poor bun-bun has been pushed aside during the day.)  In addition to the doll, she usually has a bottle in case they get hungry and a pack of wipes in case they need a diaper change.  



Elementary School 5K

Lucas's school is having their first annual 5K event at the end of March.  One of my friends suggested that the school have a Running Club to prepare for the event.  I was eager to volunteer to help the kindergarten class!  Much more fun way of volunteering that shelving library books. 

Somehow I was the one in charge of our 22 kindergarten participants.  Griffin and Austin's mom and Blane's dad also helped.  We did some stretching, warm up laps, and then running games.  It was really fun and I'm looking forward to next week.

Ellen's Dental Visit - so cute!

Top Dog

Lucas is excited to have been chosen for Top Dog this week in his class!  

Sasa Visit

SaSa didn't come for Christmas, so we get to see her in January!  And P*llen Park just opened, so we headed there to start our weekend...

Then Ellen had us pose for some "no smiling" pictures.

Grandma Sleep Training

Perhaps the best part of our wknd vacation was that my mama stayed with the kids and taught (bribed) them to sleep in their beds all night!  Somehow they had both fallen into the habit of waking up and coming to our room.  Oh wait, it may have been because of the mattress on our floor inviting them there.

We figured this was better than them waking us up.  The rule was that if you come down you have to be quiet and just go to sleep.  Sometimes it worked. 

Anyway, Grandma training.  Here is how it went down...

Mama likes her sleep and didn't want them to wake her up, so she told them if they slept in their beds all night she'd take them to get ice cream the next day.  I couldn't believe it, but it worked.  On day 2 she took them to Target and had them pick out two toys each. The catch was that they had to put them on top of the fridge and could only have them if they slept all night in their rooms.  It worked! 

To continue the bribe theme, we took them to the $ store and had them pick out about 10 things each to put in a grab bag.  If you sleep all night, you get a grab back treat.  My babies love presents, so yes, it worked. 

Lucas with his bag and his first item... silly string.

Crazy hair awaiting her bag.

Grandma was about to head out, but we got a few shots of her with the kids.