Fire Truck Ride

Its Nathan's third birthday today! Over the weekend we celebrated it with a special trip to the Rapids Fire Hall.

The firefighters there were so nice. They gave us a tour and let us try on their fire fighting suits!

Ella was a little scared of the oxygen masks-

We got to ride in the back of one of the trucks-

Ella was tired too- so she did her best to keep it together :)

The best part was the fire truck ride- They let Nate turn on the siren and honk the horn. Ella got to go on 2 rides around town.

Zoe was sleepy so she didn't get to ride- but she had a good time hanging out with her cousin, Seth. Happy Birthday Nate!

Making a Snowman with Mom

Its been sooo cold outside- Zoe has been staying in her pj's all day to stay warm.

Zoe is getting so big. She turned 8 months yesterday! She started all out crawling on Sunday at church. I think she is driving Ella nuts as she is learning to cruse all over the living room. She is even pulling herself up on things. She is not pulling to a stand yet- but she is getting up just high enough to grab toys and books- and Ella's food :) Ella's new favorite phrase: "Stop it"

In the last few weeks- we have had about 6 consecutive lake effect snow warnings. We took advantage of all the snow and made an "ella-sized" snowman.

We even discovered snow-cream. Pretty much- you just take some snow, sugar, milk and chocolate and make icecream- it wasn't bad- Ella loved it and Zoe had some too!

She did a good job- but mostly she enjoyed putting snow on the pile we made and knocking it down :)

Poor kid even had to shovel :(

Train Show with Grandpa and Josh

The day after Thanksgiving, Grandpa took Josh and Zoe and Ella to see a train exibit at the History Muesume in Buffalo- Josh held Ella's hand almost the whole time - so cute

We got to try on fun hats and get our faces painted

Zoe even enjoyed looking at the trains

I think Ella even got on the news while she as squishing her face against the glass so she could see the toy trains go by

They sat together for story time- "The Little Engine Who Could"

Fun day...we even got some snow- Josh was really excited about it- us old folks were not as excited

Thanksgiving 2010

What a crazy week!

Joe and I hosted Thanksgiving this year and had a great time doing it!

The food was great the family was fantastic - and it turned out to just be a nice quite time to be thankful for all that we have-

I guess this year we did have a lot of "new" things- Zoe, the house, my practice (which came and went, but you get the picture :)

The kids were very well behaved- Ella fit right in with the girls watching Despicable Me after our big dinner

Zoe is always ready to party

Got the tree up- and Joe's picture of the house

Ella helped out by pretending to be a frog...she does know how to get things done :)

It really was a great day- of course my fridge has so much food in it I could feed an army with just the leftovers...

Zoe in the Tub and visiting Amish

Since Zoe has become such a good sitter- she can now take baths all by herself

What so exciting about that? Well- its nice that she doesn't need a bath seat anymore and now that it is so much easier for her to take a bath- I've been letting her enjoy the tub all to herself. Bathtime is more fun when you don't have to fear your big sister helping you "wash" Yesterday Aunt Nancy and I took the girls to meet an Amish family. I only got a few pictures because the Amish don't believe in taking pictures- but here is their farm and I got a picture of one of the new calfs.It was fun for the girls because they have two little girls there- one is 1 and the other is almost 3. So even though the children spoke only german- Ella and Zoe fit right in. We had lunch with them and then the Amish girls showed Ella how to use their sit-n-spin. Ella showed them how to bang on things and make drums...its fun to see how play transcends language. The girls mom was pregnant and tired- she told me that she fell asleep the day before and the little girls at almost all the cookies she made for our visit. I told her my girls would have done the same thing. I think it was hard for them to understand me having a job and that I'm a doctor- but it was nothing compared to when they asked what my husband did for a living. Saying "computer programmer" didn't mean a thing to them- It was really cool to just sit and talk with them. For the first time I think I'm understanding the appeal of their lifestyle. They live by what they need instead of by what they want. You can fill needs but you will never fulfill all your wants. And while that life might just seem to us to be a lot of work- they are happy.

I have to say though- the best thing that the mom told me was that "my house isn't usually this messy" Ha- yep- mine too!

After the long drive back home- Aunt Nancy was nice enough to grab some pizza for us.

We let Zoe have her first taste- she got her own crust to hold- she did a great job chewing-such a big girl :)

Drawing with Daddy

Joe is drawing even more this week.

He finished a drawing of our house, a hand, a ballerina for the girls room and

some ballerina shoes!

Ella just wanted to draw with her Daddy so bad :)

Photo Op

Zoe had a big week- she now has her second front bottom tooth coming up, she is a steady sitter and can crawl backward- she is such a big girl!

We took advantage of her being able to sit and tortured our kids by taking a ton of pictures of them:)

Our other play group ended last week- so the girls just had their first week of swimming lessons. Ella and Zoe both love it- but you can tell Ella is just a bit more nervous about it then Zoe is. They really loved all the singing and dancing, kicking and splashing that is part of their class- I'm sure they will be diving off the diving board in a few weeks :)

Since we were gone at swimming- Joe had the house to himself and decided to start drawing again- He drew this one and started a picture of the house- you will have to come over to see them in person!

Halloween 2010

Halloween was really fun this year- We started our weekend of fun at the big pumpkin patch-

We tried on hats and were weighed with our pumpkins on the old fashioned scale

They had some cool wood carvings there

Animals...

Really big pumpkins...

And some fun hats!

When the big day came- the girls were ready!

Ella and Zoe had a lot of fun. We started in our own neighborhood with Aunt Nancy- then we hit the YMCA for some games and candy- then off to Babcia and Grandpa's for some dinner and of course more candy with the cousins!

We ended the night late- with full tummies and sticky fingers-

now on to Thanksgiving!