Let's get ready to TUMBLE!!

I have been trying to find things to do indoors because of this freezing cold weather. Anywhere but the INDOORS of my own house. I took Ella to Tumble Time on Saturday night. She loved it and had a great time running around with her friend Cadence. I am going to enroll her in the class because she enjoyed it so much.

Her favorite was the bar and doing flips on it. She kept saying "again! again!"

Walking the balance beam with a hula hoop...can I enroll her in the circus?

Mamas and their girls

ABC's

Ella has been singing her ABC's this month and I had to share the cuteness with you all! Ignore the first like 20 seconds. She was trying to sing along to a new country video:)

The Growing Belly

I told myself I wouldn't subject the world to this for a second time, but I have had quite a few requests to see my growing belly and I am here to please my readers...all 3 of them. I only take these to show Tom and sometimes if Bridget asks enough I send them to her, too;) So here goes:

9 weeks

18.5 weeks (14 Feb)

To compare...this is my 19 weeks belly shot when pregnant with Ella. Hmmm I think it's pretty similar!!

Potty Training...

...is for princesses ONLY.

His little Valentine

Tom was extra sweet to Ella this year for Valentine's Day. Maybe it's because he's away or maybe it's because she understands all about getting gifts from her daddy, but either way she was excited to know her daddy was thinking of her enough to send her CHOCOLATE. And let me just tell you, a minute after putting that piece of chocolate in her mouth this poor kid realized she couldn't chew it...so it ended up ALL over her. She was a droolin' chocolate fool. Sorry no pics of that mess. I was too busy cleaning up the floors and sofas.

Hugging the Elmo stickers

She calls this her "heart box" which is from one of her favorite shows Ni Hao Kai Lan. She couldn't believe her daddy sent her an actual heart box!

"Are you going to help me open this heart box or what lady?"

She was mad because I stole the best chocolate piece...the caramel one.

She's unsure of how exactly to chew it

Valentine's for Daddy

We wanted Daddy to feel special on Valentine's Day even though Tom and I happen to think Valentine's Day is a REALLY lame holiday (sorry to all of you out there who love this day). We baked him cookies, made him some peanut butter fudge (thanks for the fabulous recipe Aunt Alison!) and put together some pretty pink Chex Mix. I made enough for his fellow commander friends as well, but I do believe Tom never shared. Greedy, greedy:( We made him homemade cards which Ella really loved doing. She's good with arts and crafts. I think she gets that from her grandmas. Both are very crafty and very artsy. We had plenty of time to work on all of these things since we were stuck indoors from that horrific ice storm!

Adding sprinkles (it's what she does best)

Our hugs and kisses cookies

Yummy Valentine's Day Chex Mix

The BEST peanut butter fudge

Concentrating very hard on making her card perfect for Daddy

She is eye balling that little fuzzy red ball like it's a cherry...

And she's double checking she isn't missing out on a delicious snack

Our final products:)

Our Valentine

We miss our handsome guy! 57 days until you are HOME! We love you always and hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Ella Fun!

That's what Ella's game is called...just spelled a bit differently...Elefun! She loves this game and I forgot to post these adorable photos of her playing with her buddy Johnny. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, little butterflies shoot out of the elephant's trunk and the kids have to catch them with a net. Ella pretty much waits until they all fall on the ground and picks them up that way. Lazy? A little. Still fun for her though!

So happy!

Oh NO! There's a hole in the net!

So very sad. (I love her cheeks in this picture!)

Taking a breather trying to fix her net.

Ice Storm!

We had a terrible ice storm come through Lawton this past weekend. They say it's the most devastating storm this city has seen since 1947. Half the city was without power for days and it was miserably cold. When I was able to venture out, I took a few photos with my Iphone of the poor trees. The ice makes the branches weigh 3-4x more causing trees to bend and snap in half. Same with the power lines. As I drove around, it was eerily beautiful. Odd way to describe the scene, but even though it was a white winter wonderland, it was creepy to me. There was a mist that formed and I kept thinking vampires were going to spring from the ground and attack. (I really have a slight obsession with the blood suckers after the Twilight series...which I highly recommend.) And it was sad at the same time to see all of the destroyed trees that typically lined the streets.

This was the day the storm started. That's not snow either. It's a sheet of ice.

The forming of the icicles

The view from our windows

These were a few Iphone photos I took on Monday (5 days after the storm hit)

What the heck were those horses eating? Ice?

These were the trees at the Post Office. It was so sad.

Outside the neighborhood

My friend Leah lives on post and this was what it looked like there. Thanks Leah for letting me use these photos!

Needless to say, I believe the whole state is very ready for Spring to come!