Friday, December 20, 2013

E.L.L.'s first week

Eekey Locky Luke has made quite the impression in our house!  Redmond is so excited every morning to find him.  He's ridden on dinosaurs, hung from the ceiling fan, built his own house out of Legos and even ended up on Redmond's bed!

Day One - 12/8/13


Day Two - 12/9/13




Day Three - 12/10/13


Day Four - 12/11/13


Day Five - 12/12/13


Day Six - 12/13/13


Day Seven - 12/14/13

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Through the Jungle and Into the Desert....

We made our annual trip to cut down our Christmas tree last weekend.  It was so cold!  Thankfully, we didn't have to wait too long to get loaded up on the horse-drawn wagon.  Redmond loved the horses, he liked to look, but didn't want to get too close.

 
We took a short little ride on the wagon, grabbed a saw and started searching for the perfect tree.  Jason found a couple that looked good, but Redmond wasn't satisfied with any of them.  He told us we needed to walk through the jungle and into the desert.  Our tree was waiting for us in there.
 
 
Finally, after our toes and fingers were frozen, Redmond yelled "I found it!  There's our Christmas tree!"  He was so excited to have picked out our tree this year.  It may be the smallest, most bare tree we've had yet, but it's perfect nonetheless :)
 
 
Poor Jason's hands were frozen by this point.  That sure didn't make sawing down the tree any easier!
 
 
After he made some progress, I thought I'd help him out by pushing on the tree.  I let out my inner She-Ra and ended up splitting the trunk in half.  Oops!  Guess I just don't know my own strength!
 
 
Once we got home it was time to decorate.  We are keeping the ornaments at a minimum this year because we figured Ashlyn would be all over them, pulling them off of the tree.  She's actually left it alone for the most part, it's Redmond who we keep catching playing with the tree.
 

 
 
Who knew we could find the perfect Christmas tree in the desert!?
 
 

Sunday, December 8, 2013

He's Back!

I was SO excited about getting an Elf on the Shelf last year.  I had such grand plans for him to sneak around the house creating mischief and leaving little treats and surprises.  But, as I secretly knew (but didn't want to admit), Redmond was still too young for it.  He didn't "get it" at all.  My sister just started using one with her kids this year and after spending the past week with them and seeing what their elf surprised them with I couldn't wait to dig ours out once we got back home.

Redmond loves making pancakes with me on the weekends so I figured this would be a great place for the elf to make his first appearance.  
 

  Here's a close up of the note the elf left the kids to explain who he was and what he was doing:


Dear Redmond and Ashlyn,
 
Santa's from the North Pole and so am I,
He sent me to watch you and to be his spy.
 
Give me a name and I'm yours to keep
I'll go visit Santa every night while you sleep.
 
The rules are simple you will see;
When you find me in the morning, leave me be.
 
Touching me is a no-no, me talking is too,
We'll have lots of fun, but I have a job to do.
 
I'll fly home to the North Pole every night
To tell Santa if you've been good, bad or just alright.
 
I may play some tricks and bring some treats too.
Can't wait to share and show them to you!
 
Love,
Your Elf

Redmond was so excited when he found the elf this morning!  Truth be told, he was really just excited that we were going to make pancakes, but he did think that the elf holding the whisk was pretty cool :)

I still don't think he totally gets the whole idea behind the Elf on the Shelf, but I know I'm going to have fun with it!!

He was most excited to name the elf.  Drumroll please......

Eekey Locky Luke

Maybe Ell the Elf for short? 

Gotta love the imagination of a three year old!!


Saturday, December 7, 2013

Gobble Gobble

We just got home from our annual trip to my sisters house in Virginia for Thanksgiving.  It's the one time every year that myself, my sister, my brother and our families all get together.  Along with Thanksgiving, we also do an early Christmas gift exchange for the kids, celebrate Redmond's and my oldest nieces birthdays and also run/walk the 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.  I look forward to this trip every year!  We extended our stay for an additional week this year so Jason could do some work in MD and the kids and I could spend some extra time with my sister and her family.
 
It was a bit stressful at times....the kids and I got sick, Ashlyn was in to everything, neither kid did very well at sleeping and Redmond is hitting the peak of being a "threenager" so he was being extra bossy and whiny when playing with his cousins (who are such good kids and put up with him).
 
The drive also was also exhausting.  Ashlyn hates the car so we decided to leave at 3 a.m. in hopes that the kids would sleep, which seemed to work out well.  Unfortunately, we did have some bouts of car sickness from Redmond (yuck!), but I was kind of prepared since it had happened over the summer.  But, let's be real, are you ever fully prepared for a puking toddler in the car!?  Good news is that I am now a pro at nursing in a moving car.  Even through DC traffic :). But, the good outweigh the bad and I'm very thankful for the time I got to spend with family.  Here are a few highlights from the last two weeks:

      
 
 
 
 



 
 
   
There's no place like home....even if it means leaving 50 degree weather and returning to snow!

Oh, and the best part?  We returned home with a fully potty-trained toddler!!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Three!

I never realized just how fast time flies until I had Redmond.  It does not seem possible that three years has gone by already.  I have a three year old.  Mind blowing.  Really.

We had his big party the weekend before his birthday, so his actual birthday was pretty low key.

We started the morning with him opening a few presents.  Friends of ours sold us a ton of trains, tracks and a train table since their kids don't play with them any longer.  We decided to give him a few trains and some tracks for his birthday.  The rest will wait for Christmas.

Jason went into work late so he could play and make Redmond breakfast.  Redmond just loves it when he gets to play with daddy in the mornings!
 
He got a special play date with his grandma and grandpa for lunch.  They came and picked him up and took him to Mancino's for pizza.  Then, grandpa took him to the park.  He was fired up when he got home and ready to play with his trains some more.
 
 
We let him pick what he wanted for dinner.  He went back and forth between pizza (yes, even though he had that for lunch) and Mexican.  He finally decided on going to "the restaurant" to have Mexican.  Cheese quesadilla, rice and water it is!  Definitely one of his favorite meals.
 
 
Since we had cake at his party (and since he's not really a fan of cake anyways), we had birthday cookies.  Chocolate chip of course.
 
Redmond, we love you so much!  You are so bright, hilarious, intelligent and have such an active imagination.  You love your little sister so much and are happy to play with her, at least for short periods of time :). You are a total mama's boy, but you absolutely love playing with daddy.  You're still a bit of a picky eater, but every once in awhile you'll get adventurous and try something new.  You still love your "hot egg and banana" for breakfast and most days you have PB&J with grapes for lunch.  Surprisingly, you really like broccoli!  You are thisclose to being completely potty trained.  Yay!!  It only took a little over a week.  We're so proud of you!!  You have made huge improvements when it comes to strangers.  Depending on your mood you will talk to anyone, usually making them laugh out loud.  You love going to Kindermusik each week - you just love Ms. Lisa!  You're always singing and dancing.  It's amazing how many songs you know by heart.  You're pretty good at making ones up too though :). Redmond, we love watching you grow and become a little man.  You always know how to cheer us up and make us smile.  You're full of hugs and tell us "I love you" all day long.  Thank you for being you!!



Unbelievable.  I will have a preschooler in the fall.