Mall of America

Submitted by William on Sun, 01/16/2011 - 12:27am

Thank you Grandpa Lanz and Grandma Lanz for the Christmas money! I spent it at Lego Land on a Lego Ninjago ninja costume. I saw a HUGE Lego serpent. I went up an escalator and one more and saw a HUGE Lego robot that took two Lego people to drive close up. The Mall of America is so cool, I wish we could go again tomorrow.


Ninja!

[Mom here, barging in on William's blog just to clarify that we went to the MOA to celebrate Eliana and Katie's birthdays. Katie turns 3 next week. The girls each got to build a bear. Eliana, of course, chose Hello Kitty. We had dinner at Rainforest Cafe and then walked around Nickelodeon Universe. By that time the girls, neither of whom had taken naps, were exhausted. I think we all agree that we should go again, but maybe not tomorrow.]

Today I turned 3!

Submitted by Eliana on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 10:48pm

"How are you? How are you?" This is what I greeted Mommy by singing when she picked me up from daycare at noon. I really liked that new verse of the happy birthday song because now I am three! I have been saying I'm three ever since my first party on Saturday. And I still have one more tomorrow. But today was my real birthday and I got to celebrate with my friends at daycare. I got to bring a treat to share. I asked for animal crackers and Mommy got the frosted ones with sprinkles! We did some painting at daycare, too. I painted a birthday cake. Speaking of cakes, when I got up from my nap, I helped Mommy make a cake for my party tomorrow. I cracked the eggs! When it was done baking, I tasted some that Mommy cut off to make the shape of Hello Kitty. It was yummy. I told Mommy earlier in the day that I didn't need any more presents and that I had enough already, but I got one anyway. I was happy to get a shirt and diaper for my baby! Unfortunately, I noticed right away that she needed pants and gave a quick call to my grandma. Tomorrow my grandparents are coming to celebrate with me. I know that will mean even more presents and I guess that's okay. As long as they sing happy birthday and I get to blow out even more candles!


Look who's three!

You can tell by their faces...

Submitted by Sara on Wed, 01/05/2011 - 12:24am

That it was a merry Christmas. And the tired little ones are only more evidence of all the merriment!

(for lots more photos, see the December and January albums)

How to turn into a ball

Submitted by William on Thu, 12/23/2010 - 8:04pm

I can turn into a ball. Here's how to do it:

Tip: Only if you have a shirt or anything with a zipper that goes all the way down.


Step 1

Step 1: Hold on to your shirt or anything with a zipper. Raise it up.


Step 2

Step 2: Put it over your face.


Step 3

Step 3: Crouch down and put your head on your knees.

When you're done, you can pop up!

The end. Those are true directions.

It feels like Christmas

Submitted by Sara on Sat, 12/18/2010 - 9:58pm

What a wonderful week it's been! We have received so many great gifts, it feels like it's already Christmas. Friday was definitely the highlight of the week. It was everyone's last day of school before break so we went out to lunch to celebrate. Then we came home to build gingerbread houses. But the very best part of the day was that Lillian Kathleen was born!

My brother Joe and his wife Kathy had a baby girl at 12:37am. She was 6lbs 12oz and 21 in. She is called Lily and is as beautiful as her name! Eliana and I went to visit today. Ellie was so sweet with her. She played peek-a-boo with Lily and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in a soft, soothing voice, which brought a few tears to the grown-ups' eyes.


The happy family

Lily decided to be born just two days before my birthday! I enjoyed an early birthday dinner with my parents and Michael on Thursday night before William's school Christmas program. The presents were perfect and the program was great fun (have you ever seen the three kings represented as the kings of rock&roll, soul and country before?). I'm looking forward to a fun birthday date with my husband. We're finally going to see the latest Harry Potter movie!

I have to go back just one more day to Wednesday. It was such a fun day! In the morning, William played We Three Kings on the piano in front of the whole school at chapel. He did a marvelous job and everyone (parents, grandparents, teachers, classmates, his sister and of course William) was very proud. Scroll down for the video. But that was only the beginning of a great day. Eliana and I went to the radio station to sign up our trivia team. We got lots of pictures to work on for the next couple months! Then during naptime I went and picked up our first ever 1/4 of a cow. It was quite an experience to go into the back of the butcher shop where the crew could be seen cutting up fresh meat. The back door of the market had hay coming out of it where they bring the cows in. The farm that our cow came from is less than a half hour away. It lived a happy life and you can totally taste it! The steaks we had tonight were amazing. Thank you, Cow! You were one of the many things this week that really made it feel like Christmas. We've had so many reminders of how blessed we are! We wish everyone a very blessed Christmas!


Merry Christmas :)

*Warning* the cheering is much louder than his playing!

My favorite words

Submitted by Eliana on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 1:01pm

I'm getting to be quite a chatterbox. I talk in mostly complete sentences of around 5 words. Some of my favorite words are:

* Even - a multipurpose word; good for making any sentence longer even, even, even; can be used as an affirmative response even
* Oh, my goodness! - and along those same lines...
* Gosh!
* Really - another great word for adding length and emphasis, like when you really, really, really don't think Daddy should have another cookie.
* Delicious! - to be used frequently when eating desserts like ice cream or Oreos.

Now I'm going to watch more tv. I thought Mommy was about to turn it off so I said, "Don't! Don't turn it off! Never again!" I must have been pretty convincing in my argument because she's letting me watch a few more minutes. I'll talk to you later!

Buddy the Drummer

Submitted by Eliana on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 9:52pm

This week was National Education Week at my school. There were lots of fun things going on.

On Monday I got to bring a stuffed animal friend to class and have my picture taken with it. I brought my monkey. We made name tags for our stuffed animals just like we make for ourselves and our moms and dads. My Monkey got to sit by my teacher Janie's Big Bear during snack time and while I played with my friends.

On Thursday my mom and I made a special trip to school to see Buddy the Drummer. He played on his big African drum in the gym. It was really loud! At first I covered my ears. Then I took mom's hand and pulled her closer to the front so I could dance with the other kids. It was lots of fun. At dinner I didn't even hesitate when Daddy asked what I did today. I told him all about Buddy the Drummer. Today I started singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star the Buddy way. Mommy made a video so you could see my Buddy style.

Snow Day

Submitted by William on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 8:01pm

We penguin slid... wait! Let's start from the beginning. We went outside to play and I slipped and fell in the driveway. The driveway was icy! Then we started to mostly play on the driveway. We sledded on the driveway. We did tricks on the driveway. We did bobsledding on the driveway. Isn't bobsledding fun if you ever tried it on your driveway today? It'll be fun if you didn't try it today. We did tricks with the snow and ice on the driveway. Like throwing them at the driveway and making fireworks or skidding them on the driveway. The end. That's a true story.

When My Cousins Came Over

Submitted by William on Sat, 11/13/2010 - 4:06pm

Let's go back to Thursday when my cousins Tiernan, Caedmon, Brayan and Ariella came over. Tiernan is 5 years old, Caedmon is 4 years old, Brayan is 3 years old, and Ariella is 1 1/2 years old. Their mom is my dad's sister Dawn. I did hand stands for Tiernan. Eliana did a somersault, I think. We played Spies and we played Get the Hat.

How to plays Spies: We try to take stuff from the parents and we hide with the stuff. And that's how to play Spies.


The spy crew

How to play Get the Hat: First I take somebody's hat. And then I run away with it and have the person that the hat belongs to try to get the hat. And that's how to play Get the Hat.

The End. That's a true story. Mom helped me write this story. She helps me write all my blogs.


Pose 1

Pose 2

Pose 3

Pose 4

Pose 5

Pose 6