puddle stompin'

Yesterday, when I checked the mail there was a special treat addressed to Miss Ellee!  Auntie Emily & Uncle Jason had sent her a package!  Ellee got so excited!  Inside she found a new rain coat and a Nike fleece jacket! SO CUTE!  She was especially excited about the rain coat!  She LOVES playing in the rain!  So of course we had to put the rain coat on and take it for a test drive! : )

Headed out!

 Stomp, Stomp!

 Having so much fun! : )

 LOVE my Ellee!

Here is some video!  It is hard to hear her, but she is singing, "I can playing my puddle, I can playing my puddle"!

on the move.

OH Boy!!  We are in trouble now!  In the last week or so, Tucker has started moving himself backwards while on his tummy!  He is also trying so hard to get himself onto both his hands and knees!  Our little boy is growing up so fast! : )

He started out over on his play mat with all the toys!

 Working so hard to get those knees up!

I guess he wanted to play with his basketball hoop instead of with the toys on his mat!

 On the move again!

 So close!

 All this scooting is tuckering him out!!  BIG YAWN!

 Here we go again!

 Happy boy!

Here is some video of Tucker trying to crawl!

snow day.

Tuesday night the weather channel kept saying we were going to get snow.  I didn't really think much of it because they had been saying that for a week.  To my surprise when I woke up Wednesday morning we had about 4-5 inches of beautiful white stuff covering every inch of our yard!

Ellee's play toy in our backyard!

 Shayne's truck didn't leave our driveway for 3 days!

 Tucker in the swing at my work

 Even in the snow he smiles!

 David and Tucker!

 So Beautiful.

 Since Shayne didn't have to go to work he and Ellee went over to his parents house to play while I was at work!

 Trying to get Daddy to help her get Grandpa Scott up!

 Going to throw a snowball at Grandpa Scott!

 Mmmm, Yummy snow!

 Grandpa Scott attempting to bury Ellee!  Doesn't look like she minds much!

 Running from Grandpa!

 They had so much fun!  I was stuck at work ALL day!  Wish I could have been there! : )

As much fun as the snow is to play in, we are definitely ready for it to be gone!  Thursday it rained freezing rain all day!  Was not fun to drive in or play in.  The power went out Thursday evening and was off most of the day Friday. We are so thankful for our generator and wood stove. We stayed nice and warm!  There are lots of branches and ice everywhere!  I will be glad when we completely thaw out!  I'm ready for spring! : )

giggling "boinks"

2 1/2 year old Runway Diva

It's Ellee's half birthday today!!!  She is 2 and a half!!!  Crazy how our little baby girl is growing up so fast!  She has learned and developed so much in the last 6 months!!!  She amazes us more and more every day and we couldn't imagine our lives with out her!

She loves to pull out my shoes and model them around the house!

Snapped these photos of her this morning! :)

dinner time snooze.

No nap yesterday = Ellee trying oh so hard not to fall asleep at the dinner table!

This went on for probably a good half hour!!  Too funny!

Re-winding a bit more. {meeting baby Hadley}

Back in October I took 2 weeks off work and jumped on a plane with the 2 kiddos and Auntie Sarah in tow. {Wow, was that an adventure!}  Let's just say I won't be flying again by myself with the 2 kids anytime soon! Trying to keep track of 2 kids while navigating through both airports was a challenge for sure! Sarah however, was a huge help!  LOVE her!
Tucker did amazing on the plane!  Hardly heard  peep out of him the whole time.  Ellee did okay.  She is a huge Daddy's girl so was so sad that he couldn't come with us.  Since she is 2 she had her own seat.  I had her sit in her carseat to help keep her contained {very smart decision on my part!}  However, she got bored very quick so there was a lot of fussing!  Sarah did an excellent job on trying to distract her so it turned out okay.

We had a ton of fun spending that 2 weeks with my sister and her family! We did lots of fun things.  We went to the pumpkin patch, a kid's play place called JUMP AIR, trick or treating, shopping and had tons of fun relaxing at home.
We also got to visit some extended family.  We really enjoyed being able to spend some extra time with them!  I sure wished we all lived closer!!

The trip home was much easier since I kind of knew what to expect!  Again, Sarah was a huge help and Ellee didn't fuss as much.  It helped that we could keep telling her we were going to see her Daddy, whom she missed very much! :)

I have so many fun photos to share!  To see all our fun Georgia Trip photos, click HERE! :)

Tis' the Season.

Tis' the season.
We started off the holiday season with a tree hunt.  So much fun with both kiddos this year!  We went to the local tree farm with Grandpa and Grandma Chakos!   We both had great success finding the perfect trees!

"I want this one!"

 Found our tree!

 Ellee & Grandma Katie

 Grandpa & Grandma's tree!

Christmas this year was very low-key and relaxing.  We had so much fun spending this holiday with our families!
Christmas Eve was spent with my Mom, Greg, Sarah and Greg's son and his wife.
I had to work in the morning, so after I got off we headed over to my Mom and Greg's for brunch.  The kiddos had so much fun opening their gifts from their Grandmom and Grandpa.  And their Auntie Sarah!  They truly got spoiled!  Shayne and got very spoiled ourselves.  Mom and Greg gave us a 2 night stay at a World Mark Resort.  We chose to take a mini trip to Seaside, OR in March.  The trip also included babysitting!  So we are looking forward to a little alone time! :)

Christmas morning we got to sleep in.  I have a feeling that next year that may not be the case! ;-)  Ellee was very excited to see all the gifts under the tree!
After the kiddos opened their gifts from Santa we headed over to Shayne's parents where we all got spoiled again!  The kiddos got lots of fun toys and clothes.  And we got some pretty awesome gifts too!  We are so blessed to have amazing families!  We had so much fun with them and enjoyed a yummy eggs benedict breakfast!
Here is Ellee and Tucker in front of our tree:

There are so many fun photos to share that I will just have you click HERE to see them all! :)
{I still have yet to upload photos from Christmas Eve, stay tuned for those!}

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope all ya'll did also! :)

rewinding a bit.

I just realized I didn't post anything about Thanksgiving 2011!  So, before I post about Christmas (super late of course, cause that's how I roll, LOL!)  I thought I had better get some Thanksgiving pics up!

My sister Emily, her husband Jason and their new, sweet little addition Hadley Lane came to visit for Thanksgiving!  We had so much fun and little miss Hadley had gotten so big since I had seen her last in October! (will post some pics of our trip later!).
Emily and Hadley were able to spend the week before Thanksgiving with us and Jason flew in the day before and they all stayed until the following week!  Was so much fun having them in town and being able to spend time together!

Here is the photo re-cap of Thanksgiving Day!

Isn't Miss Hadley just the sweetest thing you've ever seen?!!

Grandpa Greg and Little Miss Hadley

 Uncle J with all the kiddos!

 They always have so much fun with him! :)

 Turkey Hand Pumpkin Pies!

 Tucker's Turkey Hands

 Ellee's Turkey Hands