ella enchanted......

or ella possessed? evil? or just grumpy. her mood can change in the blink of an eye. or a look from a stranger. she's just soooooo sweet when she's happy and soooooo not when she's mad.

happy birthday

LISA!!! what would i do without you? you have made moving to omaha soooo much fun!!! have a great day!!!

more good times....

almost spring

i knew it was going to be a good day when i walked outside and saw the first robins of spring in our lawn! well, they were the first i had seen, anyway. ella and i had bagels with lisa, miley, and kelly. what fun! our day kind of went downhill after than --- ella had a meltdown and the car wouldn't start when we went to leave preschool. thankfully it was warm and sunny outside so the girls could play with alex and ben until daddy came to rescue us. we got to play taxi for kurt after that, so we got to drive around in the sporty blue car with the sunroof open and our radio disney tunes cranked up loud. i'm sure the girls would have rather been at the park, but it was so fun for me! and they got to play with their neighborfriend when we got home, so all is good. and kurt did all of the laundry for me! what a guy!!!

today my oldest friend is coming to visit. and by oldest i mean we've known each other since we were 8. i can't wait! she's the one who taught me all about shopping --- especially at the baby gap and gymboree. :) so of course we are planning on shopping today. hopefully the guys won't mind staying home and watching basketball too much. :) go hawkeyes!

i finally scrapped!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

100!

at school last week they asked the kids to count as high as they could, and anna made it to 100! she was so proud of herself! she has been counting for everyone she knows ever since. :)

ella in her bouncy seat

just a quick lo i did for the scrapbook bytes challenge.

happy valentine's day!

(thanks to lisa for the inspiration for the card.) :D

:D

just thought i'd post my brother's wedding announcement. we can't wait for the big day!

homemade valentines

all anna's designs! :) we are making 20 of the top card for her to give to her classmates. the heart was a family project for preschool. we all worked on it together. kurt and the girls glued on the sequins and buttons. i helped with the pictures and the ribbon. anna was so proud that she made the buttons into the letter "h." lol!

pictures

it was so nice and warm that we played outside today and i got a few good pictures. the winter sun and shade in omaha is definitely harder to work with than the bright sun in san antonio. or maybe it's just different --- i still have a lot to learn.

anna met 3 new neighborhood friends --- 2 girls and a boy that are just one year older than her. they were playing outside while their parents watched from inside. so i left them to play alone for awhile. that was the first time anna's ever been allowed outside alone. of course i was standing by the window almost the whole time. it was so hard for me to just let go! i can't believe she's growing up so fast! tonight we watched some old movies of her singing and dancing and it seemed like just yesterday. i'm so proud of her and what a sweet girl she's grown up to be. but there are times when i wish she could just stay 4 forever!

here are a few of our pictures from today, and last night. ella tried on my glasses and was working on suduko. lol! anna and ella were riding on kurt's back and calling him a lion. i wasn't sure how to explain to them that people usually don't ride on the backs of lions! :D

a case of the grumpies

poor little ella. she's two. the terrible twos. she is just starting to go through the afternoon without a nap. but every day in the late afternoon she gets a case of the grumpies. she grunts and groans and yells at everyone. but sometimes she just says the funniest things! and when we laugh at her she gets even more grumpy! today i tried to talk to her and she said, "that's IT for talking!" i said, "ok. i love you!" and she yelled back in her grumpiest voice, "i love you too!" the other day i told her she was my precious angel, and she yelled back, "no i'm not! i'm hunny bunny!" no one can escape her grumpiness --- she yells at all of us and gives glares to total strangers. but after a little cuddle and a snack she's usually back to her sweet self. :)

january??? already???

what a wild two months it's been!!! between getting pregnant, moving, thanksgiving, christmas and the new year, we've been going non-stop! i'm finally over my morning sickness, for the most part, so we are allstarting to feel a little better. phew!

our first few weeks here were quite a whirlwind! what a move! it actually wasn't too bad, but i just don't like moving. i know, good thing i'm married to a military man - lol. the first night that we arrived at my mom's there were tornados about 30 miles north of us. two days after that there was a snowstorm. our things didn't arrive at our house until 7 days after we left san antonio, which was on a friday. of course we had to be in ankeny on that saturday, so kurt just went out by himself to direct the movers and the girls and i stayed at my mom and dad's. we finally came to our new house on sunday nov. 19th(?). a few hours after we got here tons of poicemen and a firetruck stopped just a few houses down. apparently there was a housebreak in and the owner walked in on the burglers. ack! so much for nice, safe Omaha. needless to say we had an alarm system installed the very next week!

we miss texas A LOT! but it is so great to be close to our families and friends. we love our new house! so many of our neighbors have welcomed us and a lot of them are even iowa fans! :D anna started going to preschool just a week or so after we moved into our house. her new school is structured quite a bit differently than her old school, and so far she really loves it and seems to be thriving. starting school one hour later than in texas seems to help us all! :)

on december 15th kurt and i were able to go to the u2 concert in omaha. it was amazing!!! i am always amazed at how awesome their music sounds in concert. so many songs that i thought were good on cd i just LOVED in concert. i'm not sure if this link will work (http://www.u2tours.com/displayfan.src?ID=20051215&XID=9827&Return=), but Beverly Brown could not have described the concert any better in her review on the U2tours.com website. the whole audience seemed to radiate a warm yet excited aura. here's a list of the songs they sang ---

Main Set: City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo - She Loves You, Elevation, I Will Follow, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - In a Little While, Beautiful Day - Sgt. Pepper's, Original of the Species, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday - Rock the Casbah, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One - All I Want Is You
Encore(s): Until the End of the World, Mysterious Ways, With or Without You, Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, Crumbs From Your Table, Yahweh, 40

all of the songs were incredible! bono singing opera in miss sarajevo was incredible. i mean i knew his voice was amazing, but wow!!! stuck in a moment was done acoustically and it was even better than the original. during the concert people were encouraged to add their signatures to the one campaign --- http://www.one.org/. what an amazing cause. and just signing up gets you an email from bono. no kidding. the name in the sender line says bono. reason enough to sign up if you ask me! :D

we spent a week in ankeny over christmas. everyone in my family was home. what a treat! the girls had such a great time playing with their uncles. the boys never had to play barbie when they were little since they outnumbered me 3 to 1, but my girls made them more than make up for that over christmas. :D we were able to spend time at kurt's family on friday night, go to mass late saturday afternoon, and then open presents on saturday night. it was so fun to see the girls' expressions when they opened the presents they were hoping to get. anna made a christmas ornament at school and gave it to us as a present. i think it's the best one i've ever gotten!

ok - it's sad that i wrote more about the u2 concert than all of christmas. lol! but christmas was just so laid back and relaxing. i'll have to post christmas pictures and the details about them soon. and new house pictures too. happy new year!!!

botanical gardens

today i took the girls to the dinosaur exhibit at the san antonio botanical gardens. we had a blast! it was a very beautiful day. ella was a little afraid of the dinosaurs at first, but by the end she wanted to go see them all again. the flowers were so gorgeous, and all full of butterflies. the girls had a great time touching and smelling them all. they were also fascinated by all of the rocks and puddles along the way. lol! anna's favorite plant was a lemon tree. we spent several minutes there examining all of the different stages the lemons go through as they grow. she loves to smell everything as she examines it too. she's so funny! the gardens had a beautiful water area with gold fish, turtles and some fun rocks and bridges to explore. we had a wonderful lunch at the main cottage after our adventure. the food was wonderful and the girls actually behaved -- for the most part. :D here are pictures of a few of the dinosaurs --- there were 20 dinosaurs total. be sure check out the botanical gardens' website for more information.