My Weekend, In Short

So, here's Ella waiting impatiently for Friday's pizza baking inside. I wasn't able to capture it, but she was actually licking the stove!

Also on Friday, we had a little gathering of some friends, Jaime, Nolan, Darryl and Marsha. A little bit of pizza, popcorn, strawberries, pringles and a game of Cranium and it was a party. Before the partying got under way, Nolan and Jaime read a bedtime story to Lily. You remember Nolan, the single, Flower Creations guy? Why does he always make it into my blogs? I think that he really likes the publicity.

Today, Sunday, Christy came over after Church for a special craft with Lily, St. Patrick's Day pins. It involved painting, gluing, and most importantly, glitter glue. Perfect for a 4 year old. While they were waiting for the paint to dry, they made green hand prints on the newspaper.

Today's Special... Dirt & Worms

My sister Heather comes over to visit once or twice a week. I would say that she's visiting me, but I think that really she is here for my girls. Because of Heather, there is a "Lily's Beauty Shop". Since my first mention on this site there has been a swell of clients waiting to be pampered by Miss. Lily. Due to the increase in clients, we have just completed some much needed expansion renovations. You will notice that there is now a waiting area, decked out with magazines to browse through. The new beauty tabletop showcases all the varieties of nail polish options for your manicure and/or pedicure. We also have a tv for you to stay up-to-date on all your favourite shows. There must have been a back order on the stools, and that's why Heather, and the rest of Lily's clients are on the floor. I assure you that this is only temporary, and we are sorry for the inconvenience. Ella is the newest employee, and is responsible for reception. She is currently in her cosmetology training right now, so doesn't have any clients at this time.

In addition to the beauty shop, I am pleased to make you aware of the hottest eating spot in the world, "Lily's Diner". I think it was two weeks ago that Heather was over and thought it would be a good idea to introduce Lily to one of her favourite dishes, Dirt & Worms. At first Lily thought that wouldn't be a very good idea, and then she found out what the ingredients would be: chocolate pudding, Oreo cookie crumbles and gummy worms. Here are some pictures of Lily taking our orders and the finished product.

What will Lily do next? Stay tuned.....

Lily on Ice

Today I missed one of Lily's firsts. Funny to think that she's 4 1/2 and still has firsts that I'd like to capture on the camera. Luckily, Uncle Jeff and Auntie Heather had their camera handy and that's how I'm able to share this first with you today. I'll get the 4-1-1 on today and then post a little more later.

Photo Booth

As many of you may know, Brad and I have a Mac. We got it in the Spring last year and just love it. Lily really likes using it too. She especially likes to use the Photo Booth program. I was flipping through some of the pictures, and thought that I would share them with you. Enjoy!

Holiday's Over, Back to Reality

Christmas has come and gone... New Year's too. I've missed blogging for a while because of the busyness in the last few weeks. We've attended Christmas concerts (Lily's and my cousin Christy at The People's Church), gone to a wedding (my cousin Wesley, and Rachel), 3 family Christmases, Brad just got back last night from a week in St. Louis (Urbana... maybe I'll be able to convince him to blog about it), the girls had a weeks vacation at Grandma and Grandpa Boo's (Brad's parents), and I've been working full time this past week. Busy, busy, busy. While everyone was out of the house, and when I wasn't working, I managed to get to Home Depot with my sister and paint Lily & Ella's room, "Pooh Bear Yellow"... pretty mellow compared to Elliot Gilmore's room, but really brightens up the space, and a million times better than the white it's been since we moved in. I kept the redecorating a secret from Brad and the girls. Lily wants to spend more time in there now, and Ella keeps running back and forth touching the walls, saying "Ohhh!" I was going to tackle our master bedroom too, but there really wasn't time, and I wanted to make sure that Brad would be happy with the colour too. Oh yeah, I'm also half way through a new book, "Banker to the Poor". I actually gave it to Brad for Christmas, but decided to read it first while he was away. Ha ha!

Somewhere among the busyness I was able to visit with my friends Krista and Kim from Calgary. It wasn't much time, but it was a BLAST!!! We made a couple visits to Bagel World, went shopping at the Yorkdale H&M, had a pot luck at Gilmore's in Oshawa with a bunch of old MBCers (thanks for hosting Joan & Derek), did our own version of a gift exchange (check out Jaime's website to find out more & see pictures), had a late dinner at Montana's. Without them, Lily and Ella's room would have never gotten completed either. They are a lot taller than me, and the taped the ceiling/wall for me with ease. There was only one thing that we weren't able to fit into their visit, a trip to Honest Ed's. They've never been, and I thought that it would be fun to stroll the isles for a bit. Next time.

New Year's was fairly uneventful. If you were in the Toronto area, you would know it was raining, pretty hard too. I was working a close shift that night, our manager gave us permission to close early if it was slow, which got us out an hour earlier. I was scheduled to open the next morning, so asked if I could borrow the couch at my Aunt & Uncle's who live right across the street from my work. We visited for a bit, watched the ball drop on the tv and toasted the New Year with some sparkling juice... and then went right to bed.

After work on Jan. 1st, I headed up to my in-laws to pick up the girls. Lily and Ella had a great time!!! I heard all about the tea parties, birthday parties, pajama parties, dress up parties - you get the idea. I know they were busy with the playdoh making all the pretend food for each of these events too. When we got back to our place, Brad was here waiting for us. It's nice being back together again after a week apart... and a lot messier too!

Well, I think that covers everything for now. All the best to you in the year ahead, and good luck with any resolutions you may have made.

Christmas Countdown

Just ask Lily if you're not sure how many days until Christmas. She's had a countdown of how many more sleeps are left since our tree went up. We've actually already had our larger family get togethers. The Bates Christmas was a couple of weeks ago, and the Norman Christmas was this past Saturday. Lily and Ella got to wear their brand new Christmas dresses from Grandma Norman, as seen in the picture. Ella's is still a little bit long, so she only wore hers for the picture. Lily is so excited about this dress! She'll be wearing it at her school's Holiday performance this Thursday. I'm going to try to video the show and will hopfully be able to download it here for you to see later this week.

This past Saturday, Lily was given "The Grinch that Stole Christmas" book and a stuffed Grinch from her Great Aunt and Uncle. Lily has never seen the Grinch, so was kind of startled by the green creature with yellow eyes. After reading the book to her realized that the Grinch turns out to be a nice guy in the end. She loves the story now, and even helps me to finish the rhymes.

Ella was given "The Sneeches" book and a stuffed Sneech from the same Great Aunt and Uncle. In the book I found another short story from Dr. Seuss that I had never heard before "Too Many Daves". I have grown up with three Uncle Daves, my Mom's older brother, and each of my Dad's sisters married Dave's. When I was little this was sometimes confusing.
I remember Uncle Dave Bates was Uncle Dave, Uncle Dave Pipe was Uncle David and when the third Dave was added to the family he was going to be called Uncle Davy... but I don't think that anyone really liked that and all three were just Uncle Dave. I read Lily the "Too Many Daves" story and we decided that the two Uncles that were there should be renamed with a name from the story. I think that they are still fighting over who gets to be "Uncle Stinky" and who gets to be "Uncle Zanzibar".

Only seven more sleeps, and Lily has been busy checking out the presents that keep appearing under the tree each morning. She's allowed to shake the presents and guess what they are, but isn't very good at that yet. I'm sure in a few years Brad and I will have to get a little smarter with our wrapping to disguise the actual gift. One of the presents she says is square and hard, which she thinks is a wand... when really its a book. Shhhh! Don't tell!!

'Tis The Season

Today was the Bates Family Christmas. We celebrate early to make sure that everyone can come. This way there aren't any conflicts and trying to figure out how to fit everything in to an already hectic December is a little more bearable.

My mom and dad hosted the day, and everyone brought something to help out with the food and beverages.... great turkey Auntie Kathy!!! As you can see from the pictures, some of the dessert became an activity for Lily. With a little help from Auntie Amy, Lily was able to decorate a couple of gingerbread cookies, before she decided to behead them.

Our family has tried a couple of different things over the years for gift giving, pick a name out of a hat, gag gifts (remember the bread mixes!), etc. This year we thought that it would be best for every family to donate to a charity of their choice. We've chosen to give to WOW (Women for Orphans & Widows, www.wowmission.com). This organization supports communities in Zambia and Malawi which have been affected by HIV/AIDS. We heard about this organization through a presentation at our Church.

For now the kids (four of them now!), are still exchanging presents. Lily REALLY liked her colouring/painting book, and right now is "sleeping" with her new Steffi Barbie. We can already tell that Ella will get a lot of use from playing with all of her musical gifts. She likes to listen and dances along with the songs.

Hope that the rest of the family had as much fun as we did today. Many blessings to you this Christmas!!

The Beauty Shop

When Heather and Nathan came for a visit today, Heather wanted to do Lily's hair. So we pretended that our family room was a Beauty Shop, and Lily was going to be the customer. She phoned to make an appointment. The receptionist, Auntie Heather, answered the phone. Lily spelled her name to make sure that we had it in the appointment book correctly. She came and had a manicure (nail polish) and had her hair styled (french braids). Then it was Auntie Heather's turn to be the customer. Lily was the receptionist and answered the phone when it rang. Heather started to spell her name so that Lily could write it down correctly, and Lily asked her how to make an "H". It was way too funny.

Heather already had her hair "styled" so she was just in for a manicure. Lily's first customer. Auntie Heather was so brave!! Lily did an alright job with the nail polish, but Heather removed it before she left the house. Practice makes perfect.

The Beauty Shop had already been cleaned up, but I thought that I would try to give Ella a haircut anyway. I think it only took a handful of quick snips, and the mullet was off. She looks great! I don't know if everything is straight, because I can only cut her hair when she isn't wiggling. Some of her curls are still there, so that will hide any of the parts that are uneven. I'll try to post a picture of Ella's first haircut later.

Jaime, just so you know, Auntie Heather let Lily know that you would make a good customer one day. What a nice Auntie! :)

All About Ella

You all know that I have two kids, but I think that a lot of times I've focused my blogs on Lily. This one is dedicated to you Ella!

So... Ella is 1 1/2 this month, in just a couple of days actually. She has been walking since the summer, and loves to play her own version of Tag with Lily around the living/dining room and kitchen. She is very independent and will walk anywhere without holding on to our hands. For this reason, we always go shopping with her still in a stroller. I think I'm going to have problems keeping track of her when she's too big for me to strap down.

This past month is seems like her mouth has exploded with teeth. Her teeth are coming in handy now that she is a little less interested in soft foods. Unlike Lily, she has an enormous appetite, and will eat anything that I put in front of her. She has been using a fork, but still needs a lot of practice. She has also graduated from having a bottle to using a sippy cup.

As far as words go, her vocabulary is still limited to "Daddy" and "cat". I know that normally moms like to hear their kids first words be "Mommy", but I'm enjoying having Ella call her dad's name when she wakes up in the middle of the night!!! Don't think that because she can't say a lot we don't know what she wants. Normally she will give us her empty cup, squeal and then head into the kitchen and tap the refrigerator. Or she'll just make a lot of noise in the kitchen and wait for us to come and see what she wants.

Ella's hair seems like its taking forever to grow long enough to put back. I would have her get her hair cut, but I'm worried that she would wiggle too much. Most of the time I try to give her a little pony tail to keep her hair out of her eyes, but sometimes its a losing battle.

Ella is our little dancer and likes to twirl with her big sister. Sometimes I hear music coming from our bedroom and realize that she has turned on our clock radios. I go in to find her hands in the air and stamping her feet to the music.

She's never been much of a cuddler, but is good at giving Brad and I hugs and kisses before we head off to work, and before we put her down for bed. She'll walk between Brad and I over and over again, like she's playing a game, and starts to giggle.

We love you very much Ella!!!

What's Cookin'?

I’m a good helper to Mommy in the kitchen. I like to pour and stir. I really like to lick the bowls too! I like to play kitchen with my baby sister Ella. Mommy thought that we were cooking the cat! Silly Mommy!