Soon

I'll admit it. Sometimes when I'm checking in on other blogs I like to read and I noticed that it had been a few days since they posted, I wonder "what are they doing? why aren't they blogging? It's not like they have two kids/a house they're getting ready to list for sale/a demanding job/hair that need conditioning/8 loads of laundry/whatever seems to occupy my brain at the time". So I feel your pain if you've checked in here only to be dissapointed that it's still about Baby Alex. At least I left you with a cute one, huh?

We've had a mellow week at the Ellerman Household, and I'm having a hard time being productive after a very relaxing weekend in Charleston with Sessy, but its looking like it's going to be a fun February for us.

And hopefully an entertaining one for you to read about.

Babeeeeeee A'ecks.

So, like I was saying. Baby Alex. He's pretty darn cute. He belongs to this couple, whom I will call Hancock[left] and PrivateSchool [right]. They do have other names, but this what I call them in my head.

They so graciously invited us crash in on their quiet and relazing weekend at their family lakehouse. We briefly considered saying no since nothing about twin almost-two year olds is relaxing, and we knew we could run the risk of not being invited back if our kids didn't cooperate, but we needed a change in scenery ourselves and threw caution to the wind.

I got plenty of baby-holding in, and about melted into a puddle when Alex rested his head on my shoulder. He's a cuddler! Keith will try to tell you that Alex also cuddled with him, but its not true. Alex liked me best. Right, Alex? See- he's not so sure about this.

I could so steal Alex to make him mine, but he does seem awfully content with PrivateSchool and Hancock.

Even Grady liked him. And offered him the opportunity to touch BEAAAAAH. Not just anyone can touch that bear, you know. I was hoping in this interaction that Alex was telling Grady how to be more relaxed and laid back.

Thankfully all little kids sleep at some point, so while the weather outside was like this:

Inside it was more like this:

We played games, chatted and enjoyed our time with some of our favorite people. And hopefully left early enough the next day to let Alex and his parents relax a bit.

SHISH!

When it's cold outside and you have little kids you often wake up thinking "what are we going to do today?". The park is not an option, 'cause it's freezing out. The house is getting smaller by the day, and we've already walked around Walmart a few days ago. Since we're possibly some of the last Atlantans to go to the Georgia Aquarium, we decided my birthday was as good a day as any to go. 

I am not going to bother with any commentary, because the pictures really speak for themselves. Nah. Who am I kidding, half the fun is telling you what happened. 


We froze our *sses off getting inside, and dodged a crazy looking woman [who stepped right in front of Keith as he was taking a picture. Perhaps wherever she is from it means something else when a person stands and points a camera at the rest of their family? Here it means he's taking a picture, lady], and we headed to see the tunnel of shish first. 

The tunnel did not disappoint. Lots of SHISH-ing, and pointing.

And not all of it done by kids. 

After the tunnel, one comes to the giant wall of shish. So peaceful and we all sat mesmerized. And pointed. Sark! OOOOH, sark.

My apologies to the dude in the background. Not the best or most flattering picture of your rear, but at least we didn't capture your face. I did get a cute pic of Keith and Grady ID'ing fish.

We left the deep sea tank and headed to the coral reef.

We stopped in the rivers section for a rest, and we played in the kiddie area. That poor kid stood there for several minutes waiting his turn in the bubble window. Sorry dude. 

And we checked out the jellies.

 

The above picture is possibly my favorite picture of Keith and the boys, ever. Or should I say of Keith, the boys and Pacific Sea Nettles.

A great first visit to the Aquarium! We got annual passes, so you can look forward to more shish pictures in the future.

Playtime for All

Saturday afternoon we had a playdate at our house. It was really just an excuse to have some other adults over to talk to them, but I suppose the kids all benefit from it too. 

 

Mason, showing me how poorly the house is child-proofed. 

Matthew!

Morgan's scooting along, and Cole is touching the oven when he shouldn't be. That gets HOT, Cole!

Here's what Morgan was looking up at.

Here's Mason, pointing out how easy it is for kids to climb onto the changing table. Mom Karen is on stand-by to catch either Mason or the table.

The rocking animals Grammy and Grampie got the kids finally got some action. Gavin's rocking on Etetant, and Princess Piper is on Raff.

This picture cracks me up. Not sure what Piper and her Momma are doing, but I love the look Piper's little sister Gracie shot them.

When Cravings Hit

Somewhere near 8pm on Friday a craving to bake hit, so I got busy. I tried a few new recipes. A fudge pie, YUM, that you can find here on this fantastic blog, http://www.flythroughourwindow.com/2009/05/fudge-pie/. This pie is so easy and so good. It should be called Brownie Batter Pie, 'cause that's what it reminds me of. I considered this my birthday cake, and its really worth the extra 2 miles I'll have to run on Monday to shave that piece of pie off my lovehandles. 


I have also been wanting to make homemade cinnamon rolls, and the cold weather made this feel like a perfect time to do so. Keith was called in as my sous chef, and we set out to make this recipe, http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/ . While perusing Pioneer Woman's site I also saw this, and decided I should make this as well: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/moist-pumpkin-spice-muffins-with-cream-cheese-frosting/ . HHHMMM. Tasty. I did it without the frosting though. But only because I had pie in the fridge.

Back to the rolls. We recipe seemed easy enough, so we went for it. We made the dough. It's important to pull the face to get the right texture in the dough.

Then rolled it out into rectangle. Ya know. The Pioneer Woman's site does mention that it's not a low calorie recipe, but she said nothing about the recipe making your butt look big in pictures of you baking the rolls. Hmmm.

 

And then you pour butter, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon, and you roll it. And because someone can't help but critique other people's rolling technique, he got to roll it.

Then slice, and put into trays.

Then into the oven with your nose pressed against the oven glass, willing the rolls to bake faster. It's the longest and best smelling 15 minutes. Ever.

The recipe does make a lot. This is not even all of it. Suppose we either need to freeze some, or get busy eating.

Snow!

I'm possibly the only person in Atlanta who is not excited to be home because of snow. What can I say, there's a lot waiting for me at work, and this feels like a wasted day. Plus I hate being homebound. The walls are closing in!


We did get bundled up to play in the snow for 2 seconds before we came inside for warm milk...

I really think Grady has started to pose for pictures, look above! Doesn't it look that that to you? He's such a little man.

                                       

And then Dada came home and brought Momma some Panera veggie soup and coffee! Ahhh, heaven.  This day might be salvaged yet.


My 31st birthday is later this weekend, and when Keith asked, I opted to not go out to dinner tonight, but rather stay in to watch a movie and eat a frozen pizza. Good thing that's what I wanted, because that's about all we can do with the impending freeze over. We're hoping to squeeze in a quick run to Wahmattttt to get the makings for homemade cinnamon rolls and then the rest of our day will be filled with coloring, [the paper, not tile floor, Grady!] book reading and hopefully some crafting for me. 


Hope you're keeping warm, wherever you are!

Not the Start I Expected

In my mind I had a very witty and touching blog entry written about 2009. Pictures of the boys from each month, with cute things they did that month. In reality we're having a rather trying weekend with two very sick little boys. In between getting rid of the Christmas decor, keeping the house somewhat livable and keeping temper tantrums and crying at a minimum [there's no hope in stopping them all together, I've learned to be realistic], I've not even showered in two days, much less sat down to write a long post. I do have a few new year's resolutions I'll share:


1. Shower every day. Whether I need it or not.


OH. A baby has awoken from his nap, and I had better get in there before he gets pissed. No more blog for now.

And Happy New Year to You!

Hard to believe we started '09 with little ones who looked like this...

... and we ended the year with them this big..

...can't help but wonder what they'll look like next January.


Happy New Year!