Finn and Ellen

Finn, our next door neighbor, has become more of Ellen's buddy than Lucas's.  Lucas is a year and a half older than him and Ellen is only 10 months younger, so she is more on his level right now.  These two can play for hours, which I love.  And, they are super creative, but also messy!  In this scene, they were building a house for Tyson, complete with a fenced in yard.  See the boxes on top of the end table?   That is supposed to be the roof.  Ellen gets very specific ideas of what she wants and gets frustrated if she can't do it perfectly.  For example, she wanted two things that could come together in a point to make a roof, even though the table was already acting as a roof.  So we had to go in the attic and find these two boxes to make her happy.  Notice Lucas playing with Annie in the background.  Notice Tyson, not too sure about this arrangement  : )

Cute Guy

Jeff won't like this, but since the blog can only been seen by Sandy, Susan, Jeff and me, too bad.  I have to cater to my audience : ) 

Jeff had me take some head shots for his business stuff.  Here is the one that I liked the best.

Ellen and Tyson

Ellen has recently claimed Tyson as her own.  He sleeps with her at night and she is the one that carries him up the stairs to bed at night and down the stairs in the morning.  The poor guy is 11 now and has a hard time seeing and hearing.  He can go up the stairs alone, and often does around 8pm to tuck himself in to Ellen's bed : )

This development is unexpected because the reason we got a second dog in the first place was because Tyson was trying to bite Ellen whenever she tried to pick him up and baby him, which was pretty much daily.  Tyson got a break for about 6 months while Ellen played with the puppy, but now that the puppy weighs almost as much as Ellen, she has lost interest and is back to toting Tyson around like a baby.  But, he doesn't seem to mind now!  I actually like it because I feel guilty that he doesn't get all of my attention like he used to. 

Ellen does still play with Annie though!  The below picture is her big success in making a cart that she could push Annie around on.  She's so smart.  At first she put Annie in the pink basket, which has wheels, but Annie was too heavy and it wouldn't move.  Ellen said, "I got it!" and put the basket on top of Annie's bed.  Then, to solve the problem of Annie jumping out, she put her leash on her and tied the leash to the basket.  Annie doesn't look as happy as Ellen does : )

Baby Schrades is back!

It's a new year and Baby Schrades is making a comeback!  I will try to fill in the gaps over the past two years, but definitely want to record going forward. 

My first comeback entry includes photos from this past November.  They were taken quickly and aren't the best we've ever had taken, but it was still fun to capture some pictures of the whole family.  And, they are different from last year because they include a 6th family member - Annie : )
 

The Schroeders - Nov, 2014

Lucas and Annie

Ellen and Tyson

 

This picture of Ellen in the tub with Tyson is a re-do of one that we took of her and Tyson, in the same tub, on her first birthday!  It was her idea to take this picture : )  I'll have to make a separate post with the two pictures side by side.  

Front yard

This captures her personality perfectly!  Rough and tough, barefeet, and a fancy dress!

Lucas is 8.5 and Ellen is 6.

Lucas and Annie are best buds.  They play hard and both love it!

Our back patio...

Christmas Morning!

The scene right before the kids came in!  Notice the handmade garland and star.  I loved our tree this year.  Ellen made the star with cardboard, yellow paint and gold glitter.

Lucas, 8 1/2 and Ellen, 6

Santa wrapped our presents this year, which made it last longer.  The note on the tree is from Elfie, our Elf, telling them that he would miss them and to be kind to each other.

Ellen loves this diary, that has a lock and key, from SaSa! 

Lucas is still a Lego man!  This huge lego set was on his list.  Thanks, Santa!

A sleeping bag from Grandpa!  Grandpa Dennis got the family a tent for Christmas, so this is the perfect accessory. 

The stockings!  Santa brought fun bathroom stuff.  Lip gloss, fun toothbrush, fun toothpaste, bubble bath, etc.  Ellen said, "We must have been extra good because Santa only brings stockings if you are extra good.  But I didn't think we were extra good because we fight so much."

E and her stocking.

Lucas got dodgeballs from Santa!  How did he know that Dodge ball is Lucas's favorite sport?!

Thanks, SaSa, for the animal drawing book!

What a surprise!  Glow in the dark stars for their rooms!

Towels aren't too fun, hence the fake smile.

Who is gonna clean all this up?

This is how it looked all day!  We were solo this year, which I was worried about, but ended up being fine.  Lucas did Legos most of the day and Ellen did arts and crafts.  Jeff and I watched football, dozed on the couch, cooked and played.

Christmas Eve

Our tradition has become to make cookies and other goodies on Christmas Eve.  My mom used to do this, and still does when we are together.  We make my mom's chocolate chip cookies (she doubles the sugar and omits the brown sugar), rice krispy treats and sugar cookies.  

Lucas loves to help me cook, but only if it's just him.  When he and Ellen do it together, they fight and he gets mad and leaves to do something else.  I tried this year to have them each help me with different things. 

Daddy, checking out the goods.

Daddy made us powdered donuts (like Sandy makes) for breakfast!

This girl loves to help mommy in the kitchen!

Annie had to check things out.

Tyson on Christmas Eve.

Annie on Christmas Eve.

Elfie's last trick of the year.  He'll be flying home tonight to catch up on his rest.  Bye, Elfie!

hours later...

Ellen's Visit with Santa

We missed several opportunities to meet with Santa due to our trip to Disney, so we were very thankful when a church down the street invited the neighborhood to meet Santa at their church.  Susie (the other Lucas's mom) brought her little guy, Russ.  We were the first ones there, so Ellen got a LOT of time with Santa.  He seriously spent like 15 minutes with her... really talking to her.  I think she was a little shy and caught off guard.  He finally got a little smile out of her towards the end.  They discussed every item on her list... and Lucas's list!  Lucas didn't want to come because he feels uncomfortable talking to Santa and sitting in his lap.  Ellen did question Santa's outfit and we theorized that his big red suit is all clean and he doesn't want to get it dirty before the big day.

Russ Petretich

Russ was shy so Susie stepped in.

Ellen and Russ (almost 3yrs old)