Tee Ball

John Dickson had his first tee ball practice last night! He seemed to enjoy every minute of it, even though he appears to be the youngest on the team. I couldn't get too close for pictures, but you can still see him. He's wearing the orange t shirt and the adorable baseball pants. Running to second

Ready to bat

Playing outfield

Aaaand Henry sipping some juice while watching John Dickson play hard

Happy Easter

You leave 1 post up about Christmas Eve for a few months, and people get all cranky, I have learned. So... Happy Easter from us! We'll talk again at Halloween.

Christmas Eve Pt I

Christmas Eve was a pretty busy day for us! We went out for a festive lunch at Qdoba where John Dickson decided to give me the honor of pulling up my dress while standing in line. A little early Christmas gift from him. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent tracking down a bottle of nail polish. I had just gotten my nails done, and they were chipping pretty hardcore from cooking and baking and cleaning. I never get manicures, and I refused to let it go without a fight, so we went to 10 stores in search of "French Quarter for your Thoughts." Literally ten. I almost lost 1 husband. I finally wound up convincing a nice man to sell me an open bottle - he was very much in the Christmas spirit. After that fiasco was resolved, we headed to a 3:00 church service (3:00 service = genius, by the way)with Granna, Papa, Erin, Jason and Ella. A little pre-service picture:



And yes, the boys did look quite dapper, if I do say so myself.

After church everyone came over for Christmas Eve dinner. Just getting these 3 in the same shot is quite the feat.



Opening their ornaments - a Christmas Eve tradition in our house. John Dickson scoping out Ella's loot:



Henry and the Granna. It was approximately 100 degrees that night, so you may notice the boys gradually stripping over the course of the night.



The massive tickle fight that broke out.

$10 if you can name that turtle!

I came home one night last year (in 2010), and there was a Christmas robot next to our tree. It was the most ridiculously awesome way to wrap a gift card. Adam knew he had set the bar pretty high, and quite frankly, I didn't think it could be topped. Never underestimate the Ad-man. A few weeks before Christmas he drew up plans, shopped for supplies, and sent me out for a girls night. I came home to this:







Note the nunchucks. I love my husband.

Sleepover!

I'm beginning to think that people get annoyed with me. I have this somewhat annoying habit of asking people (daycare teachers, neighbors, etc) if they babysit. But then I never call them. In theory it just sounds so nice - get a babysitter, go to a nice dinner, see a movie, go do nothing... But when it comes down to it, I am extremely particular (paranoid, whatevs) about who watches our kids. So to add to our growing list of perks of moving to the area, we get to trade off sleepover nights with Erin and Jason. Ahhh dinner, movie, AND peace of mind. Love it. And double bonus - when Ella comes over, the kiddos all entertain each other!

Just a few sweet shots from one of our nights:







John Dickson may have been slightly annoyed that I was taking pictures while he was watching a movie.

Ella's Birthday - Part II

Side note 1: Ella get's called "Ella Boo" a lot. John Dickson has now started Henry "Henry Boo" and referring to himself as "John Dickson Boo." Pretty cute.
Side note 2: In the spirit of the Minnie Mouse party, Henry has started to say "Oh Toodles!" and oh my goodness is it my favorite thing he has done to date.

A few more party pictures:

Blowing out her candle!



Enjoying her cake.



After the cake, the party moved out back for the munchkins to play.




John Dickson turned this thing over no less than 3 times. He's skilled like that.



Hard to believe it's John Dickson's birthday turn again, and so soon! These babies just keep getting older. As John Dickson told me just this week, "it's going to take many weeks, but I'm going to grow up!" Sad for me.

Happy Birthday Ella Boo!!!!

When we were having babies, I desperately hoped for boys. I mean, I wanted two boys for as long as I can remember. On the flip side of that though is that I also desperately wanted nieces. Precious little girls to buy things for, to later take to get our nails done, or to do other girly things. Turns out, I am obsessed with this child:



Who wouldn't be? We had the pleasure of celebrating her 2nd birthday with her, Minnie Mouse style. Get ready for several posts on this, because I took about 100 pictures.

Everything was adorable at her party, from the decorations to the food to the coloring and music tables. The boys had an absolute blast!



The Hen with his precious Mickey Mouse ears.



Having fun at the coloring table.



Ella was excited to open her presents!



John Dickson maybe was not.

Christmas Tree Shopping

I've been awful about blogging. I'm still in November 2011, but if you look at our printed and albumed pictures, well, Henry isn't even born yet. So compared to that I'm doing pretty well! For some reason blogging has begun to feel like a chore, but then I read other blogs when I have some spare time, and I hate to think of those precious moments being forgotten because I didn't write them down. I just wish someone else would do it for me. It's part of my lottery winnings spending plan, along with a live in hairdresser and vomit cleaner upper. Until then, I'm going to do my best to catch up and get back to blogging, because man are my kids cute.

After a great Thanksgiving celebration with the Propst side of our family we went Christmas tree shopping to help my Mom and Dad pick out the perfect tree. (I have to post pictures from this excursion, as our personal Christmas tree shopping experience consisted of picking up a 5 footer from Lowe's during the employee appreciation week... less than thrilling).




You can't see it in these pictures (or maybe you can), but these were some disheveled munchkins. We took them out for CiCi's (an impressive display for our two). They looked homeless, except for the fact that they were purchasing an 8 foot tree, which would be odd with no home. Nevertheless, we found just the right tree. John Dickson got to put the angel on the top of the tree, with a little help from his Daddy.



Ahhh the angel. I'm pretty sure I've talked about her on here before. She is um... unique. She's made of cardboard and covered with felt. Her head is made of plastic, and she cost either $0.79 or $0.99 back in the day (my parents can't agree on her price, but I would assume my mom is probably right on that one, whichever one she said). So there she is, on top of their tree, year after year after year, where she has sat every Christmas since they got married. I WANT HER. If they do not find a replacement for her soon, I will steal her. They've been warned.



Isn't she... unique? I'm sure its difficult to tell if I'm serious or not about wanting her. Seriously? Yes she is ugly, and yes I desperately want her.

What do you think Henry?

Pumpkin Carving

No, we don't carve pumpkins for Christmas, or to ring in the new year. We carve pumpkins for Halloween and then blog about it just in time to get it in before the new year. I may be late, but I will blog about it in 2011. Right before we sell our house. We decided to wait until the last minute (Halloween Eve to be exact) to find the perfect pumpkins. We drove from store to store, but there was not a pumpkin to be found, until we finally went to a pumpkin patch and landed a nice big fat pumpkin. Leslie and Nick came over for the pumpkin carving party!





And let me tell you, the Hen LOVES him a pumpkin carving party.



I couldn't resist putting this picture in here just to prove that it is possible to not see John Dickson's booty hanging out.



The final product.

The Fair: Henry

Henry was at the fair too, and he certainly loved his corn dog (we had to buy him his own after someone ate his entire gigantic corn dog). But instead of riding rides, Henry felt like watching the cows and eating delicious foods was more his speed.