Little Picasso

Ellie has really show a passion for the arts. Take a look at the drawing she made the other night. Jim and I both had to ask each other if we helped her, but neither of us did! She drew Daddy & Mommy. Mommy's on the right, with the hair :-)


She is also enjoying AJ's birthday present (thank you Auntie Anne for the easel)! Luckily we've had some nice warm days to paint outside. Take a look at her first masterpiece-in-progress (mid-commentary)!

Happy Halloween!

The Monkey & the Dragon

With toddlers, Halloween is not just one day on the calendar. It is a month-long excuse to wear every costume in the house at any given time. Even the ones that are WAY TOO SMALL. It is also a challenge to keep a younger child from coveting (read: crying, and eventually getting) the older child's candy (at a much earlier age than the older child ever did). So Aidan may get more cavities than Ellie, but hey they are baby teeth, they'll fall out in a few years anyway ;-)

Sorry for the long break in posting. Will try to find more time to keep you all up to date on our exciting lives! And here are some photos from October 2009. You'll see Ellie had two costumes this year -- the monkey (from last year) and the ladybug (a hand-me-down from a friend). Enjoy the photos!

Down Under

Thanks to two sets of grandparents, Jim and I were able to enjoy a wonderful 12-day, kid-free vacation to Australia & New Zealand! We had an amazing trip and while I have lots to tell, finding the time to blog it is challenging. So for now, take a look at the pictures from our Bridge Climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. By the way, we were required to wear their gear, that is the reason for our matching suits :-) Check back soon as I hope to have our pictures and more details of our trip updated as soon as I find the time (okay, so maybe not real soon).

Beach weather in April!

Thanks to our friend Tim, we got to spend a rent-free long weekend in Bethany Beach, DE at the end of April. His parents let us use their 5 BR home that is just a few miles from the beach. We lucked out with beautiful, sunny and sometimes HOT weather that turned out to be perfect for going to the beach. Ellie had a blast playing in the sand and the shallow water that formed on the shore. The water temperature was really cold, but she didn't mind at all.
Aidan also enjoyed his first beach trip, but spent the time either gnawing on beach toys or sleeping under the umbrella. But he did love the wind in his face and feeling the sand in his toes.
Jo Ann, Jim and Joey also stayed with us in Bethany. Joey celebrated his 32nd birthday on Saturday and Jim's 62nd was a few days later. Ellie and Aidan visited with Jo Ann's brother Butch who lives in Lewes while Jim and I slipped away for a date lunch. We also got to visit with our friend Mike who lives at the beach year-round. Tough life, ehh? Overall it was a great weekend and got us really excited about our week vacation to the OBX in July! Take a look at our Bethany Beach pictures.

Easter, baptism and a birthday

Not only did we celebrate Easter, but that same weekend was also a Hankins family gathering for Grand Jane's milestone birthday (I won't mention which one :-) and Aidan's baptism.

Our family fun began when Luke, Pam, Cole and Zach arrived from Loveland, Ohio to spend their Spring Break week with us. Ellie was very excited to have her cousins staying with her and was very eager to see them each morning at breakfast. We took a trip to the zoo with them and Ellie got lots of play time in the backyard with Cole & Zach.

At the end of the week, Grand Jane, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dave arrived. On Saturday we celebrated Grand Jane's birthday with a nice dinner and yummy cake! After watching the Miami University hockey team lose in the NCAA finals (happening at the Verizon Center in DC), we all got to bed early that night for our Easter morning baptism.

Aidan Joseph was baptized during the Easter Vigil service which began in the dark at 5:30 AM at St. Mary's Episcopal Church. The whole family got up early to attend the service in Aidan's honor. Ellie got to stay home and sleep so she could enjoy her Easter day. AJ was lucky enough to have Maggie & Brian as his godparents in attendance for the service as well. Papaw Tom, Linda, Andrew and Gene made the trip from West Virginia and of course the McCrackens joined us for the celebration.

We had hoped to take Ellie to an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, but it was too rainy. We had a simple one in the backyard for her on Sunday morning. Her uncles and grandpas helped hide and find the eggs. She enjoyed finding them once she discovered they contained animal crackers and pretzels inside. Our day ended with Jim and Jo Ann hosting us and Grand Jane (who stayed for the week) at their house for Easter dinner.

It was a very busy weekend and we enjoyed having so many family members around for such important life events! Take a look at our pictures from this fun family weekend!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Check out our two little leprechauns. It was impossible to get a good picture of them together, but you can see they were decked out in their festive Irish attire. Take a look at our St. Patty's photo"outtakes" in the March 2009 album, too.

Aidan is 6 months old

Our big boy keeps getting bigger! At his 6-month check up today, AJ tipped the scales at nearly 18 lbs, and is 27" long. He grew almost 3 inches in the past 2 months. He's also very brave! He barely cried as he got 2 big shots in his legs. Now we get to start having fun, feeding him oatmeal, veggies, fruits and drinking water from a cup. We should have some good pictures from these early meals, so we'll keep you posted. For now, just check out this handsome guy :-)

An early glimpse of spring!

Well, less than a week after our big snowfall we had a weekend of 70-degree weather! We tried to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible and tire Ellie out in the process. On Sunday afternoon we played in the backyard and cooked out on the grill. Check out Ellie's t-ball skills in this video and be cure to see the newest photos added to our March 2009 album.

Aidan's first "meal"

Aidan had his first taste of "food," and now that he's 6 months old, his palate will be expanding quickly! He got started with very watery rice cereal today. As unappetizing as it looked to us, he seemed to like it. I guess when you've been on a liquid diet your entire life anything with a different texture than milk is exciting!
I doubt that much got swallowed, and at the time he seemed more interested in his fingers than food, but it was still a successful first attempt. We'll try the cereal for a while and slowly delve into the fruits and veggies over the next few months.
Ellie was very interested in AJ's cereal and asked for a taste. She said it was good, but that's hard to believe! Ellie would never eat baby food at his age, so I expect she will digress and want mashed-up foods as Aidan explores them all for the first time. You can see more photos from AJ's first meal in our March 2009 album.

Aidan the pterodactyl

Aidan is a very chatty baby these days. While he tends to clam up when I pull out the camera, you can still hear some of his pterodactyl-like sounds on this video clip.

Snow Day on March 2nd!

The first accumulation of snow we've had in years waited until March to arrive this season. It snowed heavily overnight and by morning we had about 8 inches of beautiful white powder. Jim stayed home from work and took Ellie sledding at the neighborhood elementary school that morning. Unfortunately once the snow stopped, strong winds came and the temperatures were close to single digits with the wind chill. So they didn't have too many runs down the hill before Ellie was ready to come home for hot cocoa. After nap time, Ellie was ready to brave the cold again, but this time just to play in the backyard. We got Aidan all bundled up too and had a family play-date. But again, the cold temperatures had Ellie ready to come inside (for MORE hot cocoa) after making just a few snow angels. You can see more photos from our snow day (and other recent pics) in our March 2009 album.

Puerto Rico!

Thanks to Jim's stellar performance at work, he earned us another Caribbean vacation! This was a 5-night trip to the El Conquistador Resort in Puerto Rico. It's on the east coast of PR, about 30 miles outside of San Juan.
The company encouraged employees to bring their children. At 5 months we decided Aidan was too young to appreciate the trip, so he stayed with Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Joe McCracken. At 2, we knew Ellie wouldn't remember the trip but would likely have a good time while we were there. So Jim and I opted to share our Valentine's weekend with Ellie in PR and hoped for a somewhat relaxing trip!
There were 170+ kids on the trip so Ellie made friends quickly, starting early in the morning at Dulles when our flight was delayed about an hour. We discovered that when you take a 2-year-old on vacation, EVERYTHING is exciting. The bus to the terminal at Dulles, the airplane bathroom, the tray table that folds into the hand rest, etc. I think that our travel day to PR was the most exciting day in Ellie's young life. We woke her at 6 AM to leave the house. She loved everything about the airport, even playing football with some of the boys as we waited to board our plane.
Once on the plane we got lucky enough to sit in the bulk head row right behind 1st class. We had lots of leg room and we were armed with new books, toys and of course DVDs! Ellie watched Elmo, read books, ate snacks and visited new friends sitting in other places on the plane. She didn't sleep one second on the plane and didn't sleep until we got in the van in San Juan for our 1-hour trip to the resort.
When we got to the resort she was ready to go exploring before the opening dinner. At dinner she ate, did some crafts and loved seeing all the fun animals they had to entertain the many children. We got back to our room late (thanks to our adventure in the funicular that broke down with us in it - a nice 45 minute delay in getting back to our room), got to bed late and even with the lights off it took her about an hour to wind down. She didn't fall asleep until nearly 11:00 that night but was up & ready to go at 7 AM the next morning!
The resort was a great place for kids and we had beautiful, sunny, 80 degree weather every day. We spent most of our time at one of the various pools or the water park, but also spent one morning on the island at the beach. Ellie was an ideal travel companion and loved being on vacation, especially staying in a hotel room. With all the other kids on the trip we were even able to find baby-sitters for Ellie so we could enjoy a few adult dinners with friends.
Ellie was having so much fun in Puerto Rico she didn't want to come home. However our trip did come to an end and once we got back, she was happy to see Aidan and the McCrackens and sleep in her own cozy bed.
As I uploaded our pictures, I realized we didn't take very many! We were too busy entertaining Ellie to capture it all for posterity. But we did take some, so check out our Puerto Rico pics.

Sorry for the long lapse in posting any photos! Some of my excuses include getting our computer upgraded, buying a new camera, and oh yes, having 2 small children requiring constant attention! So forgive my delay, but I am hoping to do a better job of keeping on top of our postings to keep you all informed of our exciting happenings.

Our latest album includes pictures from January 20009. Check back soon for photos from this month (and our trip to Puerto Rico).