Shutter Love Tuesday: Eyelashes

Happy 2nd Birthday Ella!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ella!

I realize this post is almost a week late, but that's how life goes sometimes. Things have been pretty crazy busy this past week! I still cannot believe that you are already two years old!

It is so hard to begin this post because you are doing so many amazing things these days that I don't even know where to begin or what I should include. Every moment is so special to me. I never realized how much fun having a toddler could be until I had you! You are funny, sweet, precious, cute, and smart. You always make me smile. You test our patience a lot as well, but that is part of growing up and figuring out your boundaries.

You like to inform us about what is going on, even though it is obvious.  For instance, when Troy is crying you’ll say “Troy crying,” then “Mama, Troy crying,” then “Daddy, Troy crying!” You've really started giving us directions (aka bossing us around). You'll see the TV remote and tell us to put on one of your favorite shows (your favorite is Clifford The Big Red Dog right now) or you'll tell us to read a book or you'll tell us to stand or sit in a particular location. Your language skills amaze me daily. You are speaking more and more clearly, and your sentence structure continues to grow.

You are still a great big sister. You are so proud of Troy, and it is hard to describe how I feel when you say "I love you Troy!" You still like to help out with Troy - in the photo below you were spinning the toys on his bouncer to entertain him.

You continue to love to sing. Even though it has been a month since Christmas, you love to sing "Frosty the Snowman!" Other favorite songs include "Jesus Loves Me" and "Roll the Gospel Chariot Along." You have been doing great in the two year old Bible class. You are very proud of your work when you come out of class.

You love to color and draw. You got an Aquadoodle mat for Christmas, and you have already almost worn it out from coloring and drawing so much! One day I looked down and you were just drawing a bunch of straight lines. I was impressed and so was your dad - he said he couldn't even draw lines that straight!

You love to identify the letters you know, and I'm always impressed when you shout out "A!" or "B!" when you see them whether it be in a book, on TV, or even on the wall at a restaurant. Right now you can identify A, B, C, E, L, and sometimes D. You can also count to 10 . . . well, most of the time, when you don't forget 9! I'm thankful you got over counting "1, 2, . . .4!" and finally remembered to include 3.

We celebrated your birthday by going to dinner, going to a movie, and going to get dessert afterwards. We had such a great time!

Favorite foods: eggs,  noodles (especially with meat and red sauce), bread (rolls), crackers, cookies (animal cookies), rice, cereal, lunch meat, tortillas


Favorite games/activities: coloring, playing with stickers, running around, dressing up (yourself or monkey), reading (some favorite books right now include Handy Manny Flicker Book, The Foot Book, and There's No Place Like Space), doing puzzles, pretending to cook

Ella @ 23 months

Ella @ 22 months

Ella @ 21 months

Ella @ 20 months

Ella @ 19 months

Ella @ 18 months

Ella @ 17 months

Tot School

~Ella is 24 months old~

We’ve been really out of our regular Tot School routine. We’ve had a sick household off and on for about two weeks, but with that said, we have done a few things.

For Christmas Ella got a ton of Melissa and Doug toys. I love these toys, and so does Ella. They are great for learning, and Ella really enjoys playing with them.

Ella has loved building towers with these blocks. I’m absolutely amazed at how good she has gotten at building the towers. She also puts the boxes all back together. I thoroughly enjoy watching her mind work through the process of figuring out which order the boxes must be put back together.

Ella is beyond obsessed with coloring lately. Although it is still a bit advanced for her, I printed out tracing sheets from COAH. Ella has started drawing lines and circles on her own, so I thought I’d go ahead and introduce the tracing sheets.

Ella played with alphabet fridge magnets I got from Target for $1.00. She loves playing with them on the cookie sheet. Although she can’t recognized many letters yet, she loves finding the ones she knows. She’ll ask “What’s that?” when she comes to a letter she doesn’t recognize.

Ella has also been playing with puzzles a lot, like this Melissa and Doug animal sound puzzle. She’s so quick with the puzzles now, but she still loves to do them!

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On a completely unrelated note, my photo of Ella that won first place in the Paper Mama’s Photo Challenge is in a vote-off for the best photo of the month. I’d love a vote if you like my photo! :)

Menu Planning Monday

Only three meals this week. We still have some food left from last week, so I didn't need to plan as many meals this week.

• Lasagna and salad. Not homemade this time . . . I’m using a premade frozen lasagna because we got a good price on it.
• Chicken tostadas or maybe chicken tacos. Shredded chicken with lettuce, guacamole, and onions.
• Chicken parmesan. This is one meal that I’ve tried to make a few times, but has never come out very well. It seems like by the time the chicken is cooked, my crust is burned, so I want to keep trying. I think I’ll try a coating with a mixture of Panko crumbs and Italian bread crumbs.

(Hamburger with caramelized onions, bacon, and jalapeño ranch.)
Did you plan your menu this week? Link 'em up!

2011 Project 365: Week 5

Day 29 (1/29/11):

Day 30 (1/30/11):

Day 31 (1/31/11):

Day 32 (2/1/11):

Day 33 (2/2/11):

(Troy didn't like the Bible Ella placed next to his head . . .)

Day 34 (2/3/11):

Day 35 (2/5/11):

What is in my camera bag?

I'm linking up with some other Project 365 blogs. Check them out!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

The Paper Mama Valentines Photo Challenge

When I took on The Paper Mama's Valentines Photo Challenge, I knew it would be a big challenge for me. I am SO not creative. AT ALL. However, after thinking about it some, and being persuaded by some pretty awesome prizes, I thought I'd try my hand at it. It gave me a great opportunity to play with a program I want to learn better: GIMP. Gimp is a free program that lets you do lots of photoshop-like things (or so I've been told, seeing as how I've never actually used photoshop). Anyway, here's my entry:

Hiding the Word in Their Hearts: The Bible

I know that this series of lessons will be a work in progress. That is to say that I’d like to have a particular format for the lessons to follow, but I’m not 100% sure what will work best until I actually put it into practice. So, with that said, bear with me as I work out the kinks!

How will I use these lessons? For now, considering Ella’s age (2 years old), I plan to focus on one lesson per week. I want her to be immersed into Bible stories and messages, and to become familiar with these things. However, I don’t want to overwhelm her by throwing too much information at her at once, which is why I intend on only doing one main lesson per week at this time.

I’ve thought a lot about where to start these lessons, but I’ve decided to start with a very basic foundational lesson: The Bible. There is a major attack on God’s Word in today’s world, and I want to train my children to have a strong faith in the Bible, even when others may be tearing it down. This foundation begins with a knowledge of what the  Bible is.

Child’s Target Age: 2 years old

Bible Text: This lesson is not taken from one particular passage; however, some passages to draw principles from or to consider could include 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:15-21; 2 Peter 1:2-4; and Psalm 119.

Memory Verse: Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” (NKJV)

Key Lessons

• God gave us the Bible.
• The Bible is a special book.
• The Bible tells us about Jesus.
• The Bible tells us how we should live.

Activities

• With a Bible, practice proper handling of the Bible such as talking about not coloring in it, not tearing the pages, etc. because it is a special book.
• Using a flashlight and/or candle in a dark room, demonstrate how the light shows the way. Explain that the Bible does the same thing for us in this world.
• Using individual letters (such as magnetic fridge letters or simply letters on separate pieces of paper), practice letter recognition while singing “The B-I-B-L-E".”

Songs

The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me.

I’ll stand upon the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.

 

The Bible is God’s book, His words are written there.

I’ll keep it in a special place and handle it with care.

 

Oh, we love to hear the Bible, the Bible, the Bible.

Oh, we love to hear the Bible for it is God’s word.

It tells us God loves us, it tells that God made us.

Oh, we love to hear the Bible for it is God’s word.

(Repeat with “read” instead of “hear”)

 

Two little hands to hold my Bible, two little hands to hold my Bible.

God gave me my two little hands to use for Him.

Two little eyes to read my Bible, two little eyes to read my Bible.

God gave me my two little eyes to use for Him.