Napping with mommy

Doesn't get much better than this ... napping with his favorites: dog snuggly (see forehead), 'Raffe, lamby, motorcycle shirt, and mommy (who snuck up to take this photo!).

Disney Days are back

So we decided to renew our Disney Annual passes and are already so glad we did ... Elliott loves it with a whole new appreciation now that he knows some of the characters and "gets" it a little more.

Our first trip back was at the beginning of Christmas season, so we got to meet Santa Goofy, see reindeer and more!

E loves reindeer and loved getting to see some real ones at the petting zoo!


This was his first up-close character interaction in a while so we weren't sure what to expect ... he loved it! He immediately starting patting Goofy on the nose and laughing at him.




Horsies with daddy:



The Buzz ride with mommy:

Elliott turns 2

Elliott's second birthday party was pretty low-key! He had a couple of friends and we had pizza and of course, truck cake!




As these things usually go, the night ended with a mini-dance party! You can see baby brother making an appearance back there in the first one :)





Here are a few things about Elliott at 2 so we can remember when we look back!

~ He is obsessed with cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes, helicopters, trains, etc.
~ He loves to be outside ~ running, jumping, climbing!
~ Since he has turned 2, we have found him IN the bathroom sink and found 2 chipped teeth we didn't know about ... he's very active!
~ He loves his friends and family ... he is always excited to go to Tennessee to visit and to see our friends in both places.
~ He says more words than we can count and often talks endlessly for extended amounts of time :). His words ending in -er often come out as -ey, so numbers = numbeys, letters = letteys, etc. He has stuck to a couple of his favorite baby words like bubby = vacuum and fwuvee = shower/waterfall/etc.
~ His memory constantly astounds us!! He often remembers things that he only did once or that people only mentioned once ... it constantly surprises us!
~ He is so good at learning new things! We are amazed at how he can repeat back lines from books and identify several letters of the alphabet! He favorite is "E for Elliott!"

Diaper Trouble

We are back in another phase of E taking his diaper off as soon as he wakes up in bed ... or really anytime he can get out of our site. This round seems more aggressive, so we are really fighting back.

So far we haven't had any luck with time-outs or various clothing options. We used to be able to put him in a onesie ... he mastered that in about 2 seconds. For naptime today we tried backwards onesie covered by overalls ... no big deal to slip those right off.

So we made an emergency run to the Target clearance rack tonight for some zippered, footsie jammies that we could cut the feet off so we could put on him backwards and this is what we came home with ... cheapest pair, and I figure he doesn't even know what he's wearing since he can't see what's on his back, right?


Adam has asked that we at least call them "Tink Jammies" rather than "Princess Jammies"...

Snow Watch

Well, the snow is all gone but was fun while it lasted yesterday! After we played in it, we needed to just sit and watch it for a while with Daddy and Lovee!

It's Snowing!!!

Afternoon outside

We spent our afternoon playing basketball and learning to ride a tricycle!

Friends

I think these little boys would be good friends.


Wait ... hang on a sec ... there. That's better:

Truck Cake

I have such fun memories of the homemade cakes that my mom made for our birthdays growing up. My decorating (and baking) skills don't even start to compare to hers, but I still enjoy the process and thankfully E is too young to notice all of the flaws!

We had a small party for E this year with a couple of his friends, and of course the theme was Trucks! We've been so busy that I didn't have as much time to devote to his cake as I wanted, but thought I would share what I threw together! Last year, he was very unaware of the doggy cake that I made him, so it was super fun to see him get so excited about his truck cake this year! He still asks for it about every other day!

I found this video about making a fire truck cake and modified it to be more of a pick-up truck to fit our theme a little better. Here are the work-in-progress shots:

Starting point ... it was really easy to just do a sheet cake plus 2 small loaf pans to form the truck portion:

Icing base:
Oreo wheels and icing decor ~ he was really excited about the E on it!

And the finished product ~ candles for the exhaust pipes, and I did a "dirt" border on the cake aka oreo crumbs. I also decided last minute that it needed some cargo, so I whipped up some Oreo Balls (special thanks to none other than Melissa Diane Perryman Morgan who I got the recipe from ~ I'll include recipe below).


I thought it turned out really cute despite the poor icing job on my part. He loved it, which of course was all I cared about! At the rate we are going, we may be still doing trucks next year, so maybe I'll get another chance to try it again!

Oreo Balls:
1 Package Oreos
1 8 oz. package cream cheese

Put all together in food processor and blend until cookies are all crushed. Form mixture into balls (you can do as big or small as you want).

Dip balls into melted chocolate (I use the Wilton candy-making discs that you can get in all colors at Michaels, Joanns, etc.) and let harden.

They are cute and SO easy to make ... a good last minute party food option. They are similar to cake pops but much faster and easier!

Party pics coming next!

Celebrating E

We stretched E's birthday celebration out over several days since it kind of got hi-jacked by Thanksgiving this year! So many people were sweet to send wishes and gifts ... and now he thinks that every time the UPS truck comes, it is bringing a present for him! We are having fun trying to un-do that thinking :)!!!

Here are a few snapshots of gifts from over the birthday week ... thanks everyone (and many more not pictured!):

Bossy truck from Lovee/G.G.:


Lightning McQueen pillow from uncles:

Tools from mommy/daddy ... drilling like daddy does:

And a baby from Mimi/Deda: