Regressing

Posted on February 5, 2009 by Erica

Since I started teaching more .. my dogs have seriously started regressing. I don’t know if its separation anxiety .. or just that maybe they don’t get let out as much during the day (though I know they can hold it .. most days I’m home they go 4-6 hours between trips out) .. but I’ve found more then a few ‘accidents’ when I come home from work. We’ve always had problems with potty training, so I’m not too bothered by it .. but what does bother me is Daisy’s new found love of stealing and chewing.

Yes, they have also always chewed socks and pants .. but since I’ve been good about keeping the pants off the floor lately, and Sean has been not so good about keeping socks off the floor lately .. there has been a HUGE surge in the number of his socks where the toes have gone missing! I’m talking 10 – 15 socks everytime I do a load of laundry will go right into the trash. So .. I’ve been trying to go around and pick up socks every day for the past week or two. Now .. Daisy is stealing anything she can get off my desk! I found remnants of a pencil under the futon, I’ve caught her stealing a bandage wrap off my desk .. and numorus packaging materials that I don’t notice they’re gone because they really are garbage .. but to her .. they’re a treasure. Today when I walked into my office to turn on the computer she rushed in (door has been closed all day) grabbed a red sharpie from some where and ran it out to her bed in the living room.

Its totally a game, for attention .. and I know its because I’m gone most of the day .. and when I come home I get on the computer, into the kitchen or sometimes clean house .. I hardly ever end up on the couch watching TV with them anymore .. and I cant even remember the last time we went to the dog park .. but I know it was last year

So I’m off to go take them for a walk .. and then a trip to PetSmart to see if I can find some bones they wont finish in 10 minutes .. and if I don’t pick up a job tomorrow, I’m going to make a real effort to take them to the dog park

Here’s a random picture of Ella in a pretty dress .. she’ll be wearing this at Liz’s friend Rachel’s wedding this April. Liz is the maid of honor and I’ll be photographing the wedding .. it will be a total family affair!

Hangin’ With Ella

Posted on December 14, 2008 by Erica

Last week Liz had to work a special event at the Hard Rock in Orlando. She asked me to come along to watch Ella, and of course I couldn’t pass up a few days with my darling niece Here are a few snapshots of our time together.

She kinda freaked me out when she ordered strawberry ice cream with m&ms. I’m not a fan of strawberry ice cream .. and mixing it with chocolate just doesn’t sound good to me .. so I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to finish it up. Luckily .. she loved it!

Next we took a stroll to City Walk, since it was in walking distance from the hotel. Of course I had to get her up on this surf board, I have a picture of her mom up there too

Then we wandered over to this fountain, which she successfully avoided being hit by the random water spouts for a good 5 minutes, then her favorite little one decided to hit her right in the face

Our last stop of the night was the red carpet infront of Hard Rock Live, where Liz was inside planning her event. Ella just loved rocking out under the spotlight.

The next morning Ella and I headed to the Magic Kingdom bright and early. The first stop? The teacups, by her request!

Then we hung out at Pooh’s house for a bit

and met Scrooge McDuck or “The Professor” as Ella kept calling him

Then we raced to the new Pixie Hollow to meet the fairies, knowing that the line is super long, we were in the first crowd of the day. We still waited 45 minutes! But it was well worth it

Thursday Nikki & Halle braved the stormy weather to spend a day with us at Hollywood Studios. It just happened that the Stewarts were there as well, Ella was so excited to play with Zach We did Playhouse Disney, the new Toy Story ride, Muppets 3D, posed for pictures with a couple of Cars, Ella played with a parachute in a parade, we watched Beauty & The Beast and The Little Mermaid shows. Overall it was a very full day! I took a bunch of pictures, but they’re all on Liz’s camera. So you’ll have to wait for her to upload them, or Nikki or Christina to upload theirs

UPDATE: [click here] to see Nikki’s pics

Friday we headed to my house for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday morning Ella and Liz woke me up to encourage me to set up our Christmas tree. Ella helped put up our newest decorations, one from Santa Fe and New Orleans

Hive 2008

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Erica

There are sooo many picture to choose from, I’m going to try to share some that others wont. I’ve already uploaded over 300 to the Hive website gallery so head on over there to see much more!

Here’s the gang infront of the castle, 25 of us total, 11 are kids under 4 years old!

Here’s Ella with Dopey

Ella meeting Auntie Erica’s favorite princess, Aurora

Onto day 2 – which was supposed to be a camp out, but we had to stay inside because of rain .. we did get to play lots of Rock Band though

And still got to eat s’mores, thanks to Megan!

Baking the Hive cake – apparently you only need 1 box cake

Here it is all trimmed up and cooling off

Then final yummy result! THANK YOU LIZ FOR BAKING OUR CAKE!!!

The kids got all dressed up in their Halloween costumes and were so adorable!

Super Girl is taking off

Ella made the cutest pirate ever, I can’t believe that costume was only $13 at Walmart!

We finished the night watching the Gator game, but by then I was starting to feel lousy because of the cold I picked up in my travels. The next day we had a brunch at the Donald Barn that was really nice, but I didn’t take my camera out (again, felt crappy).

Downtown Ella

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Erica

Here’s another shot from our mini downtown shoot.

Yesterday realized I had a real possibility of posting a picture every day this week .. so I’ve decided to give it a shot.

El Bell

Posted on September 14, 2008 by Erica

Here’s one of my new favorite pictures of Ella .. taken during my last visit south.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ella!!

Posted on July 6, 2008 by Erica

Since we had to drop Liz’s friend Jessica off at the airport at 7am this morning, my mom suggested that we find someplace around Disney to have breakfast (we also had to upgrade our tickets). We took a chance and called Disney to see if they had any openings for a character breakfast. We totally lucked out and ended up with reservations at the Crystal Palace, for a breakfast with the Pooh characters! So this morning we were out the door by 5:45 am, and made it to the Magic Kingdom just before 8am. Ella was so excited. I took her over to get a birthday button while Liz and mom rented a stroller for the morning. Ella wore her button the entire time we were at the park, and everybody kept wishing her a happy birthday .. she loved it.

The Pooh breakfast was magical. We were part of the very first seating, and it was pretty empty when Pooh came out. Ella, Liz and I were picking out food from the buffet when we heard my mom whistling. When I turned around, Pooh was sitting at our table waiting for Ella to come back! Liz and Ella ran over and hung out with Pooh, while I snapped some pictures

Then came Eeyore

And Piglet

Then there was a parade, and Piglet came right over to Ella, who helped lead the parade.

Then there was Tigger

They even brought Ella a cupcake and a card signed by all the characters!

After breakfast, we went over to Adventureland. Ella saw the magic carpet ride and got all excited, “I want to ride that!” .. so Liz, Ella and Grandma rode on the carpet, she had a blast.

Then we rode Pirates, Liz hasn’t been on it since they added Jack. Ella just put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes when she didn’t like what was going on. But she know’s the yo ho yo ho song, so she perked up a bit when the singing started. Then we took the train to Mickey’s Toontown. Mickey and Minnie greeted a special guest, and escorted them to their house, and we followed right behind. When it was Ella’s turn to see Mickey and Minnie, they noticed her birthday button and started to conduct the happy birthday song, I started to sing along and everybody else in line sang too! It was awesome, and Liz has that on video!

Then we made a stop to see Donald, Pluto and Goofy before heading over to the Pooh ride. She seemed to like it, again covering her ears and closing her eyes when she was scared, but she had a big smile on by the end of the ride. Our last stop of the day was the big carousel.

She wasn’t too sure about it at first, but when it was over she started crying because she didn’t want to get off. The attendant let her ride a 2nd time because it was her birthday. This time she started pouting before it ended because she knew it was almost over. But we made it out of the park without any goodbye tears

This is going to be a very tough birthday to beat! [See all the pictures here!]

Also – now I’m a proud owner of a Disney seasonal pass, I’m excited we’ll be going back more often.

4th of July & Ella’s 2nd Birthday Party

Posted on July 6, 2008 by Erica

We joined the Derosas and the Konickis for a great 4th of July / Welcome Baby Elena party on Friday.

Ella had a blast in the ocean and playing with her friends.

There was TONS of food, and the rain stayed away .. it was a great time. [more pictures here]

Saturday we threw Ella a little party for her 2nd birthday.

Nikki brought over Halle’s water toys and we filled up the baby pool we had for the dogs and the kids had a ton of fun. [more pictures here]

Lots of cleaning and work to catch up on this week. Hopefully I can stay on task.

Since I managed to delay my Disney posting ..

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Erica

Liz actually beat me to uploading the 2nd half of our Disney pics You can head over our Kodak Gallery to see them all, but here are a few of my favorites.

Here we are on our way to meet Nemo

Ella watching a sea turtle

Dory, Marlin & Nemo!!

And this is where Ella turned 5 years old right infront of our eyes

This morning Big Pup didn’t eat his breakfast .. so we went to the vet this afternoon where they discovered a ‘bug’ in his stool. They gave him some fluids under his skin (so he looked like a camel for a bit) and some meds to help with the stomach problems. Daisy also got some of the same medications, just in case. Hopefully all will be back to normal tomorrow

As for the fires, that update I got were that the fires were 40% contained. That surprises me because I cant see any plumes out there, although the horizon is all together very gray.

Hello from Disney & Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on May 11, 2008 by Erica

We’re spending a lovely Mother’s day with Mickey Mouse This morning we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to check out the Playhouse Disney show & jump on a couple rides.

We’re taking it easy as its 90 + degrees here. Luckily there’s a strong wind that kept us cool this morning. We came back to the hotel to cool off and take afternoon naps. Later on this afternoon we’ll be heading back to Epcot for dinner and hopefully the Nemo ride at the old living seas.

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day, whether you’re a mother or not

Long Key Nature Center

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Erica

Yesterday (Sunday) the girls went to the new Long Key Nature Center in Davie. Apparently a long long time ago .. all of Davie (and South Florida for that matter) was underwater, except for a small stretch of islands that the native americans named Long Key. Anyways .. what that means is .. there are giant oak trees that are 100s of years old in this area, which you just dont see everyday in South FL. In March they opened a giant nature center, and put some side walks together. We saw lots of different kinds of birds, lots of butterflies, a snake, turtles and Liz saw a gator last time she was there. Pictures are up on Flickr

My Fiasco

When in doubt, smile.

Category Archives: Ella