Outside Fun

The girls can't get enough of this sunny weather. Ellie loves to run around, and Ainsley is enjoying learning how to climb the slide and watching her sister. One day we were outside, Ellie started singing just like we do at church. I ran to get the video camera and recorded her. She ends up catching me videoing her after a few seconds. She still continues to pretend she is the Sunday school teacher. She reads them bible stories, lines her imaginary students up in line for worship, and then leads her students in singing at worship. It's so cute!

A Warm February Day from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

I got another video of Ainsley waving. She loves to wave at EVERYBODY. She will spot people, even when I think there is nobody around, and just wave to them. These girls get so much attention.

Ainsley waving from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Letter Sounds

Ellie has known her letter sounds for a few months now, but I just never have gotten it on video until the other night. She also can recognize all the letters, although a lot of times she's not very motivated to identify them for you. We're about to start writing letters. I didn't think we were quite ready for this but Zach showed her how to write the letter E a few days ago and yesterday she wrote a letter E that actually resembled an E (it had a few extra lines in it)! I can't believe how much she is learning in such a short amount of time, she just soaks it all up.

Here's her letter sounds:

Marbles Fun

I no longer can take both the girls to Marbles by myself, so we get to have fun on the weekend's with Daddy. I love taking the girls to play, but the problem is that they don't play together much.

Ainsley likes to play on the ramps:
Ellie likes to drive cars... but I did get them in the same play space here (Ainsley's in the back of the truck):
Finally, in the same place. Cars seems to be the key, too bad they don't keep their attention the whole time.:
Not only did we get to play our usual, we also got to have a special treat. Marbles was having a Valentine's day event for members. We got to make some yummy chocolate dipped treats, color Valentine cards, and practice being cupid:


We love Marbles!

Adoption Update: Patiently Waiting...

Adoption update: We have been waiting for our CIS approval, for 6 weeks now! I was thinking this would be the week!! Zach and I have been meaning to e-mail them and see what is taking so long, but have been a tad bit lazy and haven't gotten around to it. Well a letter came yesterday, I was so excited but then became very sad. The letter said they were unable to process my fingerprints. WHAT?? Seriously. Ok, I'm trusting in the timing here but a tad bit frustrated. I will have to go back for another appointment to do my fingerprints. So it looks like it will be another month before we are on the waitlist... 2 months past what we had orignally thought. I will be patient, I trust that He knows what He's doing, His timing always works out for the best.

Valentine's Day

I'm not a big Valentine's Day person, I think it's a little silly because you should be doing nice things for the ones you love throughout the year. I think they make way too big of deal about it, although I do love hearts and the color red. It is another excuse to do something special, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

I haven't been feeling very well the past week, so Zach decided to make dinner for me for Valentine's Day. I thought it was delicious and perfect. Zach on the other hand, not so much, especially the next morning. He had not cooked his chicken enough, and well the next morning he had a tad bit of a stomach ache. Luckily it lasted until mid-morning and he recovered quickly afterwards. He did make a delicious pie that lasted for days, what a Valentine's day treat!


A Valentine's Day we'll remember. I'm so glad I have such an amazing, handsome Valentine :)

Little Gym Birthday Party

Ellie's friend, Caleb, had a birthday party at the Little Gym. I was super excited because I heard Little Gym parties were a lot of fun, and they were right. Both of the girls had so much fun, we wish it never would end. Here is some of the fun we had:

Climbing:

Parachute fun with the birthday boy:

Waving hello:

More parachute fun with Daddy and Addison:

Waiting for the inflatable bounce thing to blow up:

Bouncing!

Snow... again

We've had frequent snow this winter for North Carolina. Ellie looked out of the window first thing this morning (before even calling for us, a HUGE surprise) eagerly expecting snow, and Ainsley was highly interested in the snow as soon as she looked out the back door. They both wanted to go outside in it, and as soon as they did, this is what they did:

Just stared at it. These two barely can stop moving any other day and they were EAGER to go out in the snow, yet they just stood there. I was somewhat surprised they didn't walk around or SOMETHING. Ellie eventually picked up some snow:

But Ainsley just stood there:

In LOVE with BOOKS

Ainsley LOVES books, she is constantly surrounded by a pile of books. She loves to flip through every page of EVERY book. Daddy is very happy that someone in the family shares his same desire.

Our New Playmate, Little Gerry

I started keeping a friend's little boy, Gerry Milburn Felton IV, last month. This may be part of the reason why my posts are slacking (and also the fact that I am always busy chasing my two little ones around). His mommy, Shaina, had to go back to work (just part time) and had asked us before he arrived to keep him. We are excited to be able to help our friends and take care of him for the few hours she works.

You might think I'm crazy for doing this, but actually having him only from 8a-3:30p, 3 days a week isn't bad at all. I think adding a 3rd one is a LOT easier, especially when he isn't yours to keep! Babies are such a joy and so sweet, I love having them around.

My morning starts off with this, all three on my lap:

Both Ellie and Ainsley LOVE little Gerry. They always get so excited when he arrives and when he wakes for his naps to play. They both are quite the little helpers, although there are moments where they get in trouble.

Such cuties! They're getting practice in for before their little brother arrives! We can't wait!

We LOVE Smoothies!

I made a smoothie in order to keep the girls from whining, crying, fussing anymore (I was about to have a break down). It worked. They drank the smoothie for the next 20 minutes, then dad came home and rescued me!

Reading

Two kids that love to read...

Taking a Walk

We are desperate to get out of the house these days, and I'm just plain tired of going to Target. I decided to take a walk the other day (when it was 40 degrees), we just couldn't take it any longer. I put some tiny crocs on Ainsley (there are no decent shoes her size with tough soles) and just let her and Ellie go free in our culdesac. Ainsley was very thrilled she could walk all by herself on the road, she had the biggest smile on her face. Oh the little things...

I definitely should have bundled them up some more, we went down the street and were out a tad bit longer than we should have been. Ellie doesn't mind the cold, but Ainsley definitely does NOT like it. She cried and cried until we got her little hands warmed up (neither one would wear gloves, they just threw them off. at least I was able to get them to wear hats!).

Monkeys Jumping

Ainsley Singing

Ainsley started singing twinkle twinkle one night with me, and then we caught her singing with the music video we were playing. I love it! She now will try to sing even without music, it is such music to my ears.

Bible Verses

Ellie has done great memorizing her bible verses at church each month (for the past 8 months). The only one she has struggled with was last month's verse, John 3:16, it's a little long. I recorded her (although she's a little distracted by the garbage truck) citing her verses, I'm so proud of her!

Ellie Saying Bible Verses from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Verses:
"Let the children come to me." Luke 18:16
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son." John 3:16
"My God will meet all our needs." Philippians 4:19
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid." Deuteronomy 31:6
"Nothing can seperate from God's love." Romans 8:38
"God is with me wherever I go." Joshua 1:9
"Do what is right in the eyes of the Lord." Deuteronomy 12:28
"Be kind and loving to each other." Ephesians 4:32

Another Onesie Craft

This time I made some for a friend who just had twins!

Ellie is Potty Trained!

It has officially been over a week with zero poo poo accidents! If you remember from before, Ellie was almost potty trained at 2 but she refused to poo in the potty. After a month of washing out dirty panties, I decided to stick her back in diapers and wait until she was ready.

Well, at the beginning of December she started wanting to go poo poo on the potty. She was asking to go and would sit forever waiting... she actually did go a few times out of the 100 times she tried. I didn't want to mess with it over the holidays, so I waited until the beginning of January (last week). She has really loved panties, so I posed the question if she wanted to wear panties last Tuesday. She enthusiastically said yes, so I informed her that we do not go poo in panties and that if she did there would be consequences. I told her she can poo in diapers or in the potty, but we would like her to poo in the potty. She agreed and has been doing great since!

Another big motivator for Ellie was her best friend, Addison, who has been potty trained for well over 6 months now. At church, Ellie and Addison were no longer in the same class because Addison was potty trained. We have been trying to get Ellie to move up, but it just never worked. We gave up "manipulating" her, and knew one day she will be ready. Last Tuesday (the start date), after she had gone poo poo in the potty, she asked if she could go up to Addison's class. She was so cute, and was very proud of herself. I informed her that she can't go up to Addison's class UNLESS she poo poos in the potty EVERY time. I explained this multiple ways so she understood. Well, I'm not sure if it was the panties or Addison, but Ellie has been doing great!

Ellie does have a few wet accidents, but I know this is harder because of being in diapers for so long. She has only had a handful of wet accidents, and all have been understandable. It's definitely hard on my part to remember to ask her, but she does GREAT! I rarely ever ask her to go, she does it all herself! She runs to the potty when she needs to go (at home) or asks me when we're out. She can pull her pants and panties down by herself, and also put them all back on by herself! The only thing I have to do is help her wash her hands and occasionally wipe. This has been super easy, it's definitely worth waiting until they are ready! So proud of my little girl!!

Ice Storm

Not a very good picture, but it was beautiful seeing the ice shine on everything. However, I do not like ice! There's just nothing good that comes from it, you can go out in it and you can't go anywhere in it. Luckily we still were able to get out because our roads cleared up pretty fast, but YUCKY! I wish it was snow...

Fairies

Ellie and Ainsley have absolutely loved playing as pretend fairies. We have fairy wings, tutus, and a wand which they take turns wearing/holding. Zach will fly them around and they go CRAZY over this. Both of them cry when it's their turn to take off the wings. It has been a lot of fun to watch, Zach even enjoys playing (although I restricted him from wearing the wings).

Here is a video of one night while we were playing, Ainsley is running down the hall in her wings:



Ellie is wishing for candy because one night I pretended to be the fairy godmother who gave wishes. Ellie wished for candy and her wish came true.

Ellie Learns to Ride

Ellie finally has figured out how to ride her tricycle! It has been a long time coming, but she just never had the motivation to do it before. I think since we never play outside anymore, she figured the only way to convince be to bear the cold would be to ride her tricycle. It sure worked. I'm so excited she can finally do it, and I think she is too, she definitely enjoys it!