The Blizzard... Continued

Gracie had to find the stairs before she could walk down them!

Brent got enough of his side of the driveway cleared so that he can back out and then angle himself into my side of the driveway to get out. There is just too much snow to get it all moved. We will wait for the rest to melt! :-)

I think we can all agree that Brent did a bang-up job clearing the driveway! Look at that cement!

What a guy! Now that the drive-way is done, he's helping Gracie make an igloo!

In case you were wondering where Ella was in the previous pictures, she doesn't love the snow yet. It's hard for a little person to navigate through snow, and it just wears her out. She also gets cold within minutes, and then we are undoing all the bundling that we just did to go outside. It's just not worth it to her, and I'm glad she has figured it out. Today she didn't go out until the igloo was done!

The Big Blizzard!!!

Here's what the snow looked like at our house.

Brent shoveled out my side of the driveway, but there was no place to put the snow on his side of the driveway. The pharmacy was closed until 1pm today. Only 3 of us made it in to work, but it was a light day so it didn't matter. Not too many people are plowed out yet. The city roads were only cleared for one-way traffic in most spots. I haven't ever seen anything like it in my lifetime!

I don't know what caused this, but it's a view off our deck looking down onto the bushes below. There was a perfect circle in one of the bushes, and it kind of showed the depth of the snow that was accumulated on top of it.

Ella's Three!!!

Ella got her wish, and we all got to be home for her big 3rd birthday. No school toady! The snow is falling fast, so we may not be going anywhere at all today!
She wanted to open her presents the moment we were all awake.

Gracie got in on the action. She loves to dress up just as much as Ella does, so maybe they can share!

I loved this one! Her hands are clasped and she has such a real smile on her face. What an exciting day she is having.

Ella loves to play with Gracie's sticker books, but Gracie doesn't exactly appreciate that. So, we decided to get Ella her very own big girl sticker book. She was thrilled!

Ella loved gorgeous in her new Princess Tiana dress and shoes!

Later in the morning Ella was playing with her new toys and trying out her new spring dress Nana gave her. Grandpa called and said he was going to call the radio station and tell them it was Ella's birthday, so we got the radio out to listen. These pictures show her reaction to hearing Grandpa's voice on the radio and hearing her name on the radio!

Poor Ella didn't get the prettiest cake in the world, but she still loved it. I underestimated the amount of snow we were going to receive, and I didn't have any icing in the house. I didn't mind making the icing, but I ran out of powdered sugar, so we didn't have a well iced cake.

Homecoming Week - Day Five

Today was School Spirit day, and I guess I'm just used to seeing Gracie in her Atlanta blue, so I failed to take a picture this morning. It is predicted that we are to get a huge snowstorm in the next few days. Time will tell. There is nothing going on outside as I write this.

Ella is getting pretty excited about her birthday. She will be 3 years old on February 1st. I keep talking to her about being a "big girl." I used to tell her that "big girls" didn't potty in their pants. Potty-training has been ended a long time ago though. Now I tell her that "big girls" sleep all night in their own bed without waking their Mommy up. She is still in the horrible habit of roaming the house at night. She usually wakes me up, goes potty, lays back down, gets back up and asks if she can sleep on our floor in our bedroom or she'll just go lay on the couch. Sometimes we get up 4, 5, even 6 times in a night. It's ridiculous and it never was this way until I moved her from her crib into a big girl bed. The horrible part is that it is somehow affecting Gracie. She was a terrible sleeper for most of her short life, but it had been getting better. I think Gracie is a light enough sleeper that she can hear Ella getting up, so now she is getting up and wanting to sleep on our floor as well. Augh. If I knew the answer to this problem I would probably do anything. I actually feel like we have tried everything. We tried being nice about it, we tried punishing them, we tried bribing, and now we are using a chart system with rewards. I'll keep you posted on our success. For now if you see me with dark circles under my eyes you'll understand why!

Homecoming Week - Day Four

Two words: Nerd Day

(Gracie insisted nerds would make a face like this.)

Homecoming Week - Day Three

Today's theme was a little challenging for us. The theme was "Dirty Job" day, based on the show where the guy visits people who have incredibly disgusting jobs. We didn't have anything that could make Gracie look horribly disgusting, but I told her cooks have a messy job at times. She liked that idea so we ran with it. Brent took Gracie into the cafeteria the next morning before school started and the cooks all liked her idea. They were quick to tell Gracie that their job really IS a dirty job! She enjoyed having the flour spritzed all over her face. I also dirtied up her apron and smeared some chocolate syrup on her cheek.

Homecoming Week - Day Two

Today's theme was "The Outdoor Channel.