Happy Birthday to Papa!

Happy Birthday to Papa!

Ella and I picked up Papa on Tuesday and he joined us for Ella's dance class and then we took him to lunch. It was lots of fun!

Ella LOVES her papa! Logan lights up when he sees papa!

I am lucky to have such a great dad!

Happy Birthday........we love you!

"um.....excuse me?"

Ella: "Mommy can you put my 'dirty' movie on for me?"

Mommy: "what was that Ella?"

Ella: "you know.....my dirty movie. I want to watch my dirty movie, please"

So....Ella LOVES the library now. She especially loves that she gets to pick whatever books, movies, and cd's to 'borrow'. This last visit she picked "The Backyardigans Robin Hood" movie and watched it yesterday.....silly me for not realizing that it was a 'dirty movie'.......the movie has the 'dirty sheriff' in it.......he wouldn't allow soap in his kingdom until Robin Hood the clean came along...... Good thing daddy watched the movie with her yesterday and filled me in on what she

was really requesting........

One SHARP chomper!

It's official!

Logan has his 1st tooth! The left middle one on the bottom. That is one sharp little chomper.......take it from me. I have been 'chomped'! He keeps it well hidden with his tongue....I am hoping to sneak a photo of it when he is least expecting it!

The rest of the weekend.....

Ella was ready to swim! Gotta love the poses!

Superhero swimmer!

After swimming, we made a pizza. Ella was a big helper......

It almost looked like a heart! She ate almost as much cheese as she put on the pizza!

We had to have some 'noodles' as well. We have "Kung Fu Panda" to thank for this craziness

Yesterday was a nice, relaxing day........ zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................

Our Weekend ..... thus far...

Friday Night Fun.........

What is better than crawling around in a world of toys?

Logan played for hours before bed last night....he is a mover!

Nothing like a family game of "monkey in the middle"......daddy's the monkey!

Ella monkey did a great job swatting down the ball!

We had several items on the agenda today......

#1 The library.....Ella couldn't wait to take daddy and Logan to show them her new favorite place. Not sure why I didn't take any photos

#2 Lunch at Chili's

Daddy's girl

Logan LOVES his sister......big kiss for her!

Logan tried a french fry for the 1st time.......doesn't he look thrilled?

"Hey this thing really isn't too bad after all"

"Yum....I kinda like these!"

Who needs those little corn holders that you jab into the sides of the corn when you've got daddy

#3 Shopping for school supplies ....... Also Ella and Logan got to pick a special toy thanks to nannie and muntz. Ella got a little alphabet video game and Logan got a race car and a dump truck

Now after an outing in the super dooper heat.......we are all headed to the pool!

An old friend and a new friend......

I have facebook to thank for finding lots of old friends..........including my grade school friend, Ana

Come to find out, she doesn't live too far away and has a little boy who is Ella's age......so today they headed over for lunch and a playdate. Lots of fun for the kids and for the mommy's who spent time 'catching up'. The kids got along great and had fun playing in Ella's kitchen, playing board games, and having a lunch 'picnic'......

Ella was sad that her new friend had to go home but was sure to tell him that he could come back soon!

Ella and her new friend Sammy

Jumping Bean!

This little guy LOVES to jump!

Movie Fun-Day

Ella and I had a 'just the two of us' morning.......

We headed to the summer movies to see "Hotel for Dogs" which was a super cute movie. We joined up with Brooke, Bradley, and Jen at the theater. My poor little sensitive girl did cry some tears when they tried to separate the brother and sister in foster care. She is so very emotional.....such a genuinely sweet girl!

As a special treat, we then headed to Johnny Rockets for lunch. The kids had fun coloring in their 'special' hats......

Had to 'personalize' the hat......

Ready to go home.....with an obviously full tummy!

Ella.....& her wisdom.....

I learned two things from Ella today:

1.) "mommy do you know how you make a dinosaur?"

"no ella....how?"

"well, when a tiger eats a butterfly....he becomes a dinosaur"

2.) "mommy when you have a girl baby, can we call her Tinkerbell?"

(Guess there might be another child in our future?????)

Here is some cute photos from yesterday......

After a not so good dance class last week due to Ella being quite the 'stinker', she did great yesterday! She is really learning alot! It is amazing all the ballet lingo that she knows.

Ella practicing her 'leaps'......so glad I caught this one!

Reading in the Rain

There is a new library that opened up a few months back that is pretty close to us.......so, I FINALLY decided to take Ella tonight. Of course, a great monsoon storm was brewing and the sky decided to open up and pour down on us just as we pulled into the library parking lot. We were pretty wet as we ran into the library but Ella had a great time and LOVED all the books and the DVD's. I can't believe this was her first visit to an actual library, but with all the books that she has, she has had plenty to read at home. She just 'knows' about libraries now and I think that the 'borrowing' concept is a good thing for her to learn!

They have self check-out which is really quite high-tech and fancy. Ella had a great time doing it herself!

Rubber Ducky.....you're the one!

Time for the move to the 'big boy' tub

Smokin' Salami

Lunch today was a bit crazy at the Barron Home!

Logan was a monkey......I had given him peas, carrots, and some turkey stick since he has been liking 'finger foods'. He decided to mash them all and let them ooooooze out between his fingers and fling the rest on the floor. He rubbed it in his hair and somehow got the food between his toes. He ended up in the tub after lunch and there was pea skins floating in the tub..........ewww! He definitely is not 'liking everything' anymore and will swat at the spoon or blink/close his eyes if you give him something 'yucky'. Once again, it's a good thing he is such a cutie!

Now, onto the funniness of the day.......

Ella DOES NOT try new foods. She sticks to what she knows. Well, I am not sure what happened but she has decided to becoming a bit 'daring' and has been asking to try things recently. Today I asked her if she wanted some salami, thinking of course I would get the, "MOMMY, salami is yucky and I DON'T like iT!"..... It really was a shocker when she said, "Yes!" She LOVED it.....she just kept saying, "salami is so good!" Her favorite part was folding or rolling the salami into shapes. The best of which was the roll when she told me, "Look mommy, it's my smoke pipe"...... Hilarious! She had said this one other time in the past and finally we discovered we had the catepillar from "Alice in Wonderland" to thank for her 'smoke talk.'

This little piggy.....

Logan had his 9 month check-up today and he weighs

18 pounds 10 ounces.........

He has gained over 3 1/2 pounds since his 6 month check. He is 28 1/2 inches long, but I really think he is a bit longer because the guy didn't do such a good job measuring..... He is 20th% for weight and 48th% for height. Our brave little guy got 2 shots today! After a long afternoon nap, he is happy and smiling away!

What a DIFFERENCE......

...................12 Hours make!


Asleep on the couch when I got home last night


Sunday night, Ella woke up in the middle of the night saying her 'mouth hurt'. I gave her some tylenol, she drank a bit, watched a cartoon or two and FINALLY went back to sleep. I had to work yesterday, so she was home with daddy who kept me updated on the fact that she was not herself. She laid on the couch most of the day, didn't eat or drink much, but didn't run a fever. She was asleep on the couch when I got home.....so, after a shower and putting Logan to bed, I came down to check on her. She was on FIRE! She woke up and was practically screaming about her throat. She wouldn't talk, wouldn't take a drink, and was REALLY miserable. I took a look at her throat which was RED RED RED.....she also had the yucky white tongue and 'that' breath.......She was not too thrilled AT ALL about heading to the doctor, but we left about 9pm and I am happy to report we were back at about 10:05pm....we went to Good Night Pediatrics at 88th ave and union hills. It is a pediatric urgent care.....we were in and out in about 20 minutes with a confirmed diagnosis of Strep. Ella was such a trooper and did great getting 'swabbed' and saying 'ahhhh' for the doctor. Walgreens was super nice to us and made up the antibiotic in about 5 minutes which was enough time for Ella to pick out a new Care Bear (she named her Carrie), a Hello Kitty color book, butterfly stickers, and horse stickers. How could I say 'no' to any of it since she was breaking my heart and had been such a trooper!



She went to sleep as soon as we got home and had one more 'bad' time at 1am when she woke up with a sore throat and threw up all over herself and me after motrin, but this morning she is SO much better. She has eaten about 5 crackers and had 3 cups of juice. Ella enjoyed a LONG bath and has made her 'nest' on the couch where she has been all day. She is talking, drinking, and smiling. SO glad my sweet Ella is on the mend. She made it almost 4 years without needing antibiotics! Shhhhh........she just fell asleep.




Drinking her 'pink' gatorade from her new 'pink' piggie cup....

Looking at all of her 'prizes' this morning on the couch......

Asparagus!

I have decided that it is time to start 'finishing' some projects......I mean 'starting' some projects that I have wanted to do since we moved in almost 4 years ago.....

The downstairs bathroom being one of them that was tackled today!

It was tan like the rest of the house and needed some 'help'

I was ready for a 'fun' bathroom!

Paul was taping it to get ready and Ella wanted to 'help' so she made some signs clearly stating the rules for the project

I did allow my little artist to help a bit......gotta love the color "asparagus"

Still lots to do until it is complete, but here is a sneak peak.......the walls are all painted. We took down the big, ugly mirror and I bought this new one for a bargain price of $25 at Wally World. The towels and rugs are a silvery gray color and need to be washed and hung. We also need to hang new towel racks and hang some really cool wall tiles that I bought.........will post the finished project hopefully sooner rather than later!

The Bags....

I wish I could say that is was our 'money bags' that were getting bigger.....ha ha ha......nope!

It is the bags under my eyes that are!

Unfortunately, the bags under my eyes that are ginormous today! Our little Logan is a stinker!!!! Was a super sleeper at 3 months....sleeping a 6 to 7 hour stretch, no problem. Then, bam! I go back to work and Mr. Man wants to wake up all the time, sometimes every 3 hours. Super tired me! The past few months he has continued to wake up at least once a night which makes for a continuing tired mommy because (I forgot to mention) in the middle of the night, if daddy goes in, Logan cries harder. LOVES his daddy during the day, but only mommy will do at night. SOOOOOO......last week, the turnaround occurred. My sweet boy was going to sleep around 7:30pm and sleeping until about 5:30am.......fabulous!!!! Again......just a tease. Just when I am smiling as my head hits the pillow knowing that I get to catch some quality zzzzzzzzzz's, the little man decides he wants to start waking up again........ Last night, Logan decided at 2:30am that he wanted to be awake, not just wake up for a brief snack and go back to sleep......WHAT? He was bright eyed and crawling around his crib.... After several attempts and some fussiness (more Logan's than mine).........he was back to sleep with a smile on his face around 4:30am......yawn........ Once again I say, 'it's a darn good thing that Logan is so stinkin' cute because he wears me out.......literally' I guess it's time for me to invest in some new concealer......

And, not that anyone can tell, but this blog post was interrupted by one little stinker who decided to wake up after 20 minutes from his morning nap, standing in his crib and ready for 'action'......normally he sleeps for 1 1/2 to 2 hours..........

Who Cares that it was 112 degrees when you've got swimming, smoked chicken, guac, and cheese & the McG's

Summertime in Arizona.......guess what, it's HOT!!!!! We all know, we all complain about it, but you just have to accept it and find a way to cope!!!!

What's better than swimming, smoked chicken, guac, and cheese, and the McG's...........

I wish life didn't go by so quickly and we had more time to spend with our friends. Ella was ecstatic all day that her Brooke and Bradley were coming over to swim. The kids had a great time swimming in the pool. I am so glad that Ella has such good and sweet friends. Thanks to Blake for the yummy smoked chicken and onions........SO good. Thank you also to Blake for helping Paul prepare the beloved guacamole (recipe courtesy of our friend Kyle). Dinner was great, but all that was on the kids minds were the "pinkalicious" cupcakes that Ella helped me prepare this morning.......strawberry cake, strawberry frosting, and pink sparkle sprinkles....does it get better than that!!!!!

Jen, Blake, Brooke, and Bradley.....we are so glad to have you all as friends!

Logan enjoyed his dinner by the pool

The sweet girls sharing 'secrets' by the pool......such cuties!

"pssst pssst pssst pssst"

Snap, crackle, poprocks!

Ella loves the show, "Pinky dinky doo" and they always play a game called 'eat it or wear it'.....well, looks like Logan likes to do both! No folks, that's not a hairbow.....it's a carrot!

How is it that it doesn't matter how hot it is outside, the kids have so much energy and love to play and play and play!