What is your name?

I thought this was the cutest idea that I stole from a friend of mine (thanks Emily!). I plan on recording the girls saying their own names throughout the years to see how their pronunciation changes--there is our first attempt. I would love to get both girls sitting down next to each other and say their names but YEAH RIGHT! I'll take what I can get :)

Laney Leigh Willett




Ella Kathryn Willett
Notice how Laney falls in the background? At least she didn't seem to mind!

Hide and seek

This video cracks me up for a few reasons:

1) Their laughs are contagious.
2) Laney wearing half of a princess outfit.
3) Ella "accidentally" pushes Laney over, and Laney bounces back like a champ.
4) The girls fleeing the scene quite quickly.....but I can't remember why??

A generous girl

Ella has shown a beautiful, generous side to her lately. Seeing this generosity is such a great reinforcement to us as parents that "maybe" we are doing something right when it comes to teaching compassion and thoughtfulness.

Every time we go on a play date (and I mean every time), Ella packs up one of the crafts she has made and gives it to the friend she is going to play with. Last week, we played with Carly, Jack, Reese and Ryan. Ella packed up a 4 brown lunch bags and filled them with little crafts she had made (finger painting, pieces of paper with drawings on them, cotton balls glued to paper, etc). Carly and Reese even got a piece of chalk (sorry about that Jen and Kristy...I hope that didn't become a weapon of mass destruction later in the day). But regardless of what is in the bag, I love that she is showing her friends appreciation.

Ella's friends love getting the gifts, they say thank you and are genuinely excited to open the brown paper bags! Seeing her friends so happy makes all of Ella's planning and hard work pay off.


As I am typing this we are getting ready to go to a playdate. So yes, she is packing up 2 bags (one for each of the kids) and is giving each of them a piece of artwork, which includes a finger painting project and a stamp project.

On the right is Ryan's birthday gift which Ella was so excited to decorate.

I am so proud of you, Ella, for your generosity and love of life!

Ella's Christmas Performance

Is that a typo? Oh no! Ella's Christmas performance at preschool had been canceled twice due to bad weather but today they decided to do it. Luckily Ella had on some appropriate clothes and even clothes that matched.

Ella was doing great during the first few songs, and then we saw her tired face come out.
Yes, even singing stars get tired every now and then :)

If you double click on the pictures, you can enlarge them to see how stinkin' cute they all looked. And you can see Ella's cute new hair do. Both girls got their haircuts yesterday but it was Ella's first actual hair do (not just a bobb). It is cut fairly short on the sides and layered in the back (suspiciously looks a lot like mine). Can we say mini-me?

Ella is the one in the purple dress, left hand side of the back row.
She was standing in the back row with the 4 year olds because she is so tall!

Singing Jingle Bells

Unfortunately some of the videos are so bright and the light can't be adjusted (Darn sun).
We started laughing throughout this song because Ella
was singing so incredibly loud, and we could hear her perfectly.
You can't really hear her voice on tape but it was loud and clear during the actual performance.

Another Christmas song in January!

Before they starting singing, a boy turns to the teacher and says
"teacher, I don't like this song. It's just too long."
It was a long song that Ella was not into but I included
the clip because at the very end you hear Laney shouting,
"hi Ella, Ella, Ella." It's around the 1:40 mark if you just want to skip there :)

The Pope (but not THE Pope) Family comes to visit

My parents and sister as well as my mom's sister, Anne (who lives in Florida), came for a visit this past Sunday. The girls had so much fun jumping around, playing hide and seek, changing clothes and playing Guitar Hero, and that was just my mom, Cindy and Anne :) But seriously, Ella and Laney loved seeing their family and just being goofy.

The dueling guitar hero was brought out and boy did we play! All participants showed much improvement by the end of the visit, and it lead to some good, friendly competition.

I know driving up and back in one day makes a long day but thank you Mom, Dad, Cindy and Anne for the visit! We sure miss seeing you on a regular basis but we will take any visit we can get!

Mom, Cindy and Anne

Ella and her Aunt Cindy playing around

Laney and Grandpa Mike playing the which hand game?

Ella and Nana Kay

Cindy and Aunt Anne

3 girls, 3 guitars--those are some rockin' babes!

Mom, Ella and Anne intently watching the Guitar Hero Competition

Hey, I wanna play!

I LOVE this picture! My parents, all serious, playing Painted Black.

Dad showing Laney her new guitar

Ella is the true photographer in the family

But here are her subjects laughing at the picture she just took :)

Playing the infamous hide and seek game that we play at least once a day.

Windsor got some great puppy love thanks to Cindy and Anne.
He was in dog heaven!

Laney was loving Auntie Cindy time!

Anybody that knows my girls, knows that anytime
is a good time for snack time.
Windsor obviously agrees!

Nana and Laney enjoying their cuddle time

She can sure be a ham when she wants to be

Thanks for a great visit Cindy, Mom, Anne and Dad

Bad hair day, Laney?

It's a snow day!

Ella asked to go play outside and although I am not a big fan of playing in the snow, luckily for Ella, Windsor is. She was happy to have her buddy outside with her.

The only negative to having Windsor outside was that he wouldn't let her build a snowman. He tried to eat the snow every time she tried to pack it. From inside, it was pretty funny to watch, but it was definitely frustrating for her!

Ella made quite a good snowball, which Windsor happily chased.

Chase this one Windsor

Time for some light cleaning

Weeeeee (this picture is so grainy because I took it inside looking out the kitchen window.
It was just too cold for me to go outside (boy am I a wimp!!)