I've been saying for months now

that i need to be writing down all the cute things little john-john says. i did do this with my first born and the other two will ask 'what was my first word, what did i say when i was a baby?' and i do at least remember one or two things each child said early on. but having children sometimes does crazy things to your memory occasionally you do forget things.

so, yesterday when i was done checking out at sprouts and the cashier handed me the receipt john said in a loud, strong voice 'bye, bye guy'. it was so funny and unexpected i knew i had to journal it somewhere.

then when john and chris were getting into the car this morning john sees a man and points to him and says, 'dad - that guy'. when they got home and chris told me he commented that we need to work on the 'guy' thing with john. ya, i guess it's not too polite but since he's only two he can get away with it for now.

i need to document more on his sayings but i'm off to cafeteria duty now.

get well card

so, i had a lousy day...i've been dealing with a toothache that i found out after going to the dentist yesterday is on a tooth that i've already had a root canal on. today i went to see an endodontist and then it's back to my dentist on thursday to go over my options...retreatment, extraction, bridge, implant???...yikes - as you can imagine i'm not looking forward to any of it.

anyway, i'll get to the point - i was feeling a decent amount of pain when ella got out of the shower tonight. she saw me still sitting at the dining table not looking so good and asked if i was ok. i told her my tooth was hurting to which she replied, "oh, mom, i want to do something special for you".

she went into the kitchen where i wouldn't see and made this get well note for me ...

she really is a thoughtful little girl...always making something for someone or suggesting something we could do for someone. like the other day - it was chris' parents 35th wedding aniversary and she said, 'oh, maybe we could go clean their house when they're gone and surprise them'....to which i replied, 'that's very thoughtful but their house doesn't get too dirty since they don't have any little kids at home anymore'.

what would i do with out my thoughtful daughter?

my oldest is now...

a 10 year old!! even harder to believe than my youngest being a 2 year old. yesterday was christopher's big day...
he woke up to a sweet brand new bike...
and some other gifts to open....
one of which was the 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Do It Yourself Book ' where you get to make up your own story and fill in the blanks. he got going on it right away. he read the entire series over christmas break - our avid reader just like his dad...
he asked if he could have one of the cream soda's santa brought him with dinner, then said, "mom and dad, on the count of three start saying: chug, chug". the first time we did he started laughing so hard we had to start over. on the next try he really did chug the whole thing...drunk off cream soda...
he love's lighting his own candles...

and we had his favorite dessert: brownies and ice cream (from a special store in Chicago sent by his cousin who makes the ice cream there...better than mary coyle's for all you locals)...
grandma, grandpa and the 'uncles' on dad's side stopped by for dessert...
i also brought wendy's (spicy chicken sandwich is his fav) to school for him to have at lunch. wish i would have brought my camera. all his friends love little john-john and are so good with him, he sat with them all and ate with all the big 4th graders.

a bigger celebration with more family to be held over the weekend...

my youngest is now...

a 2 year old!!!!

i can't believe it...little john-john celebrated his 2nd birthday two weeks ago (i'm not always exactly timely on my posts...will try to work on that). we had been talking about it so much, that he really got the fact that it was his birthday, rather his "happy" as he calls it.

now that he is a big two year old, he knows that he is supposed to smile for the camera - and i just love that smile. it just lights up your world (mine, at least) and it always has ever since he was a baby, there's just something special about his smile.

we took him to watch the "choo-choos" the morning of his big day at Lola's coffee shop....since it was the first week back to school from christmas break we let ella sleep in, so she got to join us and show up late to school....

lola's has this great big window with a bar looking out onto central where you can watch the light rail trains go by....

my choo-choo/milk loving two year old!!!!

he had some visitors come by with gifts after the kids got home from school....

sweet neighbors...

grandma & grandpa...

and his favorite dinner: homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches...

more on his big celebration to come....

breaded talapia

i bought it at costco over the weekend and it has served us two great meals.

this is how we had it last night:
i pan fried it in olive oil and we made our own 'filet-o-fish' sandwiches...they were delicious. i served them on thin multigrain buns (also from costco - love that place) and made tartar sauce (mayo w/chopped pickles & a little lemon juice) to go on top. christopher has been wanting to try sweet potato fries so we got those from costco too, we'll have to try making our own sometime.

the first night we had the fish with rice and broccoli....yum - i love cooking fish because it cooks so quickly, it's healthy and it's delicious. in the past i have breaded the talapia myself but was excited to see it already done at costco to save me that extra step. try it sometime, it's not fishy at all - the kids all loved it and raved over both meals.

Christmas recap

this year santa brought:

remote control cars...

pokemon trading cards...

and wii games (not pictured)

a moxie girl, pink scooter and paint set...

*side note: ever since ella fell asleep on Christmas Eve in her Christmas dress when she was almost two, she has declared that this is what she must do every year. that is why she is in her Christmas dress in this picture on Christmas morning.

and a fabulous activity cart for the little guy...

we had a wonderful Christmas morning...

full house for a few hours, relaxing afternoon and wonderful dinner at nani's. ella kept reminding us before christmas that it is not about the presents but about Jesus' birth...Amen.

happy new year....

the kids all stayed up until midnight last night (first time), except for the littlest one who tried his hardest but crashed on the couch at the party we were at around 11pm...

we had a great time dancing the night away at the lovely celebration, the kids joined right in on the dancing and even did a conga line a couple of times. one of the best new year's eves we've had (except that ella wasn't with us, but she had her own celebration to attend at her sweet friend lizzy's house) - here's to a great new year!