A look into the future...

Eliana got this gorgeous dress-up wedding outfit from my mom (who made it from an old curtain... the woman is uber-talented!). The only problem is that she made it a little too nice and Ellie thinks it is her actual wedding dress - she has it safely tucked away in her closet for her wedding day!

And the verdict is in....

Raelyn loves enchiladas (or at least loves covering her whole face with them)!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2008!!!!

Christmas Countdown....

Christmas last year (2007)

Eliana had a great time in her "ballerini" outfit playing with the hospital cart. She was not very happy with me when I told her it was time to leave Aunt Roses' house.....

Raelyn's first Christmas
My gift to Darren - a book called "it's fun to be a Buckeye". It was a sacrifice for me to buy it for him (I still say Go Blue!)but we had a great time reading it Christmas morning...

Raelyn discovers Eliana's dress-up....

She found the boa and the necklaces and brought over the headband (which is from one of my jazz recitals when I was little)... she couldn't quite get it on her head herself so we helped her out. Needless to say, she thought it was quite fun!

Christmas Countdown

Christmas 2 years ago (2006)... Abbie's one and only Christmas. She loved unwrapping her Christmas ornament by eating off the paper and listening to it jingle as she moved it. She was already sick with leukemia but we didn't know it yet. She was a happy little girl despite all she went through...

The Christmas card picture... Eliana was fussing and had to be bribed with a graham cracker in order to get the picture (you can see some drool from her crying on her sweater). Abbie on the other hand (who was already sick) was having a blast sitting there having her picture taken!

A Christmas Countdown....

I know I have been a bad blogger and haven't posted in a while so here is a sure fire way to get me to post a few days in a row... a Christmas countdown! Each day I am going to post pictures from "Christmas past" as a way to countdown to Jesus' birthday. Here is Christmas three years ago....

To Grandmother's (or Great Aunt's) house we go!

Eliana getting into the swing of opening presents!
Anyone else think she looks a lot like Raelyn?

Chuck E. Cheese.... Where an adult can be a kid!!!

Eliana wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her birthday and we invited the Marcuz family to join us (their daughter Augustine and Eliana are good friends). Eliana was a bit scared of the animated characters playing in the band and clung to her Dad's lap. You can see her "I'm trying to enjoy this but it is scary" smile in the picture below....
She warmed up to the animated characters but remained terrified of the life-sized mouse that comes around to greet the kiddos - she SCREAMED every time he came around. Of course Raelyn was fascinated by him and kept wanting to go over there :)
Eliana and Augustine discovered a game that they both loved and got rather engrossed in... I lost count of how many tokens went into this game....


To make sure the kids had enough tickets to pick out a prize, the adults had to play some ski ball and the guys had to play a little basketball. We had a great time - both the kids and the adults. The picture below demonstrates how worn out we all were by the end of the night - just check out Ellie's incredibly tired eyes and face!

Eliana's 4!

*** Note - this should have been posted Dec. 1st but I am incredibly behind... just pretend it is December 1st because it will help you feel like you have more time to get all your Christmas stuff done as well!***

While searching for cakes to make for Raelyn, Eliana saw this "flip-flop" cake and wanted it for her birthday. Never mind that she was born in DECEMBER! I had a good time making it and I think it turned out pretty cute. With the left over frosting, I wrote a little birthday "card" out on some paper towel... I am betting you can guess what happened next.....

Yep.... purple frosting all over her face - but she had a great time doing it!