Obligatory Easter Sunday Mornin' Pics

Sipe Christmas

We spent Christmas with our family in Marion, IL. 

My mom sure sets up a lovely Christmas house. Everything is so festive.

 Believe it or not, this isn't Christmas morning. Just my kids dragging out all the toys and making a huge mess. It's what they do best.

Caleb, Aunt Juicy & Nella watch Frosty the Snowman. It must have played over 100 times; my kids LOVE it.

The house where I grew up. She sits on a historic street in Marion. Isn't she just darling?

It was the first white Christmas since 2004. Growing up in Southern Illinois I saw very few white Christmases, only a couple.

Nella played with the Fisher Price farm set that was my first Christmas gift. 

 My nephew, Ilan David.

Aunt Juicy helped Nella try on her new apron.

Caleb sketched with Silas and my nephew, Marley.

Silas makes messes.

Everywhere he goes, he's messin.'

Nana's Lap.

Nella built a gingerbread house.

She was so proud of her creation.

It was a Merry Christmas!

A Thank You Video for Grandpa & Nana Sipe

The kids see their (early) Christmas gift for the first time. 

Christmas Kitchen from Keli Billingsley on Vimeo.

It's such a cute kitchen! And sturdy. And well built, because I spent 3 hours putting the darn thing together the night before. But, I watched two Christmas movies (Elf & Christmas Vacation) and drank 2 cups of cocoa while doing it. I guess that could have slowed me down.

Billingsley Christmas

This weekend we celebrated Christmas with Caleb's family. Since we're traveling to Southern Illinois over Christmas this year, they came to Urbana. It was a quick trip, but it was fun and we're so glad they came!

Nella loves her Granny.

Caleb read the Christmas story.

Silas picked out our Christmas background music.

Nella built a "big huge tower" out of presents.

Silas really enjoyed unwrapping gifts.

Caleb took lots of video footage. 

Nella and Silas play with some new toys.  

The tea set we got Nella is amazing, by the way. It's made from recycled milk jugs and is bpa and phthalate free. That's good news, friends. Tea time should be toxin free. Plus it's sturdy and adorable. Anyway, if you're looking for a gift for a young girl, I recommend it.

As always, I posted the rest of the photos on facebook. Be my friend, and you can see 'em! ;)

Christmas Card 2010

Gifted Tag Christmas

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Check out the cute faces on this Christmas card! I just ordered our Christmas cards this morning and after I placed the order, Shutterfly offered me a $25 credit to post my card to my personal blog. Uh, yes, yes I will do that for 25 bones to spend on prints, photo books, and other photo products. You should give it a shot too!

April - The Condensed Version.

April 1st:

 That brought us our newest nephew, Ilan David Ben Avi. 

Ben Avi family of four.

Nella loved her new cousin's fuzzy hair.

Gratuitous Silas eyes shot.

Easter

The kids and I were already in Marion for Ilan's birth so we spent resurrection Sunday at Pawpaw & Nana Sipe's house. We missed Caleb, but he needed to be at our church that morning so he was unable to join us.

Silas did have an adorable coordinating Easter outfit. But, uh, to spare you the gory details, I'll just say he only wore it for about 20 minutes.

Nella and cousin Marley hunted eggs.

Trip to Louisville:

We went to the 'Ville for several days for Caleb to attend a conference.  While there, we were able to visit lots of our friends that we left behind last September (when we shocked 'em all by up and moving to Central Illinois!).  I took very little photos while there. How terrible!  

But here's one of Silas playing horsey with his friend Jonas.  

And here's one of Nella at the park with her friend Shiloh. 

(Photo by Carrie, Shiloh's lovely momma)

Here's Caleb at the conference with some of his dearest friends.

Other Highlights:

It wouldn't be a normal photo-heavy post from me if I didn't include a bajillion more photographs of the kids. That's what really keeps you comin' back! 

Nella teaches Silas the fine art of accessorizing.

7 month old Silas is getting closer to crawling every day.  Currently, he can only go backwards.

 

For now, he gets where he wants by rolling around.  He's fast. 

He bullies his sister by kicking her.

Speaking of sister, Nella is still very much into playing with her dolls.  But she is also loving playing outside.  She is interested in plants and flowers.  I just may have a budding gardener on my hands!

Nella talking about the azaleas in our soon-to-be backyard. 

Her favorite of all the 'flowers' the delightful dandelion. 

When she's not holding babies, picking 'flowers' or fending off kicks from little bro, she can be found in an empty bedroom closet with mom's iced tea.  On a side note, I get a lot of compliments on that cup.  My mom bought if for me at Starbucks last summer.  They sold out fast and are very hard to find.  If you want one, they are being sold on amazon.com.  70 bucks???  What a steal!  I'm pretty sure they were $19.99 in stores.  They must be a very desirable item!    

Anyway, back to the kids:

Oh Silas, you're killing us with those eyes/eyelashes!

The last, hugely exciting, April event: we bought a house!

An old one.  A reallllly old one.  A 1918 bungalow in Urbana.  We love it.  It has character.  It has charm.  It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, delightful wood floors, and a desperately-in-need-of-a-makeover kitchen.  But all it really needs is a family and a little love.  We're honored to be that family and we're ready to move in and start lovin'!  I plan on blogging about our adventures in 'fixing up' our little white bungalow and turning it into a home.  Here's a picture of our little white bungalow.  Isn't she a simply adorable?  

And don't worry. The first thing we'll do is rid her of that awful awning. Ick.  And we may even mow the super tall grass.  If we get around to it.  We close on May 14th.  After that, I'll post many photos and our project list.  

So, that's April.  And now it's over.