Monster Trucks, The Nutcracker, Sickness, and the Shoe Miracle!

Looking through my phone, I noticed I had some pictures/videos that I wanted to add to the blog.  So here they are very randomly.

Before Christmas, Ella and I were at the store and we had to make our way through the toy section.  I expected her to run straight for the Frozen section but instead I found her here.  She studied all of the monster trucks very carefully.  Ella is girl through and through but she has this boyish side of her that's hard to explain.  She loves bugs (especially big spiders) and tools and apparently monster trucks.  When Ben and I showed Ella this picture of the world's biggest spider, Ella was in love.

All December long, Lily's dance class practiced dancing to The Nutcracker.  Lily was first excited about it because she had helped me throw the Nutcracker themed baby shower early in the month, so she knew a little bit about it already.  On the last day of class before Christmas break, they put on a 20 minute performance for all the moms.  It was adorable!

Lily and her partner struggling with their arabesques.  :)  

And keep an eye out for those two girls in purple in front at the end of the clip.  Ha!

Dancing with candy canes.

Since November, we have been sick with very little breaks between illnesses.  Between everyone in the family we've had way too many episodes of croup, stomach flu, bad colds, sinus and ear infections, and laryngitis.  Ella just started a new cold yesterday and I am ready to wave my white flag.  This was the first time Ben and I stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve, but I was so sick that Ben was sleeping on the couch and we celebrated in two different rooms and sent each other a kiss via text messaging.  Now that's just sad.

I think our family could sleep in an extra half hour every day if our shoes were always where they're supposed to be and were easy to find.  We only have two places in our house where we keep shoes, yet it takes forever to get shoes on six people.  The reason is because we have two toddlers who love to wear random shoes and leave them all over the house.  Then Ben came up with a brilliant idea.  The shoes that have velcro or laces, can be tied together.  WHAT?!?!  It has been life-changing.  Pairs are always together!!!  I knew I married that guy for a reason!