I Paed Wif Max

Translation: "I played with Max."

Don't you just love when kids are first learning to spell and they write everything phonetically? Well, every Monday morning in Keely's class they write the "Monday morning news" and it's just supposed to be a line about what they did over the weekend with a picture to illustrate. I found this the other day and it made me happy. Max is Keely's cousin and we just happen to be lucky enough to live right by them. We don't know how long we'll have them here, but we're thankful for every second we get! The bond that Max and Keely have formed is something very special and makes me smile almost everyday. When they get together you never know what fantasy world they'll dream up, but you always know they'll have fun doing it!

B-Day for the B-Boy

And Ben is officially 2! We celebrated his birthday this past Monday and had lots of fun. We started the morning out at Gym America, one of Ben’s favorite places, and then went to lunch with his cousins (this actually may have been more for the moms but we called it a birthday lunch). That night we had The Ellis and Elder families over for pizza, cake, ice cream and present opening. He LOVED blowing out the candles!

So my 2 favorite things about Benjamin right now are:
1.That mischievous smile he gets any time he knows he's doing (or about to do) something naughty.

2.The excitement and passion he has for everyday life. He’s loud and carefree and I hope he stays that way.

Haircut

Keely's been dying to get her haircut so I took her the other day and I think it's adorable. More importantly though, super easy! So, here's the before and after shots she so obligingly posed for.

Before

After

Longing for the Old Days

All I have to say is "goodbye" to this (the binki)

means a lot of thisHanging in there!

Need…some…sun!

If anyone’s keeping tabs on Midwest weather lately you know things are pretty bleak. Well, not long ago Shawn mentioned that he was going to be teaching a course in Orlando, Florida at the beginning of February and maybe I should come and bring the kids. I came up with an even better idea though…maybe I should come without the kids!

Well, thanks to my beautiful, smart, wonderful, caring (is this too much sucking up?) sister Arah who agreed to come to ice cold Michigan and watch my kids for a week here I am! Shawn and I were talking about it and I’m pretty sure that this is the first time just the two of us have gotten away together (without meeting up with friends, family, or bringing kids) since our honeymoon. Good times!

So, we arrived last Saturday and will be going home on Friday. Shawn didn’t have to start running the course until today, so we had the whole weekend plus together and here are just a few of the things we’ve done:

Our first night here we went and saw the Blue Man Group. We had heard good things but had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be a super fun and super random show. If you ever get the chance, go!

This is the band for the Blue Man group; the guys who play instruments and light up behind the screen anytime the music gets going...hard to explain
Because the next day was Sunday we went to church and then mostly hung out at the hotel. Shawn took this picture of me and said he was going to tell everyone this is what I did our whole time in Florida. Hey, it is my time to relax!

and who wouldn't want to hang out at the hotel with this view? So anti-michigan right now, I love it!

On Monday we went straight over to universal Studios because we knew it was supposed to rain and we wanted to catch some rides before getting rained out. The first ride we took was Dr. Doom's Fear Fall. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good scare. Well the worst (and best) feeling for me is a free fall. I was screaming so hard and so were the women next to me. All the sudden I heard nothing but myself and when I finally opened my eyes I just saw the two women next to me laughing their heads off and Shawn just grinning and shaking his head. Hey, I didn't know that ride was over as I was still screaming, "No, no, no!"

After some pretty weak pictures Shawn and I decided to have a little fun with our photography

Until we got rained out. : (

By the way, Shawn says my pose is totally unnatural on this surf board, but who do you think looks more unnatural?

So today we returned to Universal (we bought a week pass) for one last bout before Shawn started working. We didn't have much time but we did run into Donkey (from Shrek) and he was hilarious. We only got a little bit of video of him harassing us, but he was really great and funny with everyone, I wish we would have recorded the family before us:

So, after Universal today we checked into a new fancy shmancy hotel (the one where the workshop is being held) and I miss our other hotel. I feel so out of place in hotels like this, I feel like you have to tip people all the time for things you could totally do yourself and everything costs...everything! Give me a simple, clean place and I'm happy - let me park my own car, carry my own luggage and drink a bottle of water for less than $5!

By the way, has anyone ever heard of “turn down service?” A maid just showed up to my room to turn down the sheets for me and leave some chocolate with relaxing raspberry and chamomile to help me sleep. Really? Are there some people who can’t pull down the sheets for themselves? Weird!

Ice Skating

In January I went ice skating with the youth group I work with at church. Keely has wanted to go ice skating forever and so I brought her along. I kind of expected the worst. She’d try, couldn’t do it, would fall down and/or hurt herself and give up (why am I so negative?).
Turns out though that the girl has a lot of heart and determination. She did fall down and she did hurt her knee, but that didn’t stop her. Keely kept trying and really had a great time!

New Year's Eve

You can say a lot of things about Kristin and Abram Ellis, but you can’t say they don’t know how to throw a party! Really, great food, great people and super fun games. I can honestly say that I think this was the best New Year’s yet!