The Hulk wants to crawl

Two big things are happening in Ellie's world. 

1.) The "Hulk" has returned..

2.) And she wants to crawl.

Out of nowhere during dinner yesterday, Ellie resurrected the "Hulk"- a little trick Wren used to entertain us with. She squeezes her fists until her little faces shakes and turns red. 

Flashback with Wren:

Do any of my family members have any other pictures of her doing this? This was the best one I could find. 

 Ellie has suddenly taken an interest in crawling...actually just moving in general. She didn't roll, crawl or enjoy being on her tummy at all until a few weeks ago. It's like a switch turned in her head and she's interested. Yay!

Flashback to Wren:

 Oh my gosh look at all the HAIR Wren had compared to Ellie at the same age. What!

Flashback: Wren was eating anything she could crawl to and get her hands on. Again, the hair...so much hair!

Takin' a break. The hand- so funny...

This is Ellie this morning taking a break again from trying to reach her toys. She's not able to actually get anywhere but it's not going to be long. 

Oh, Wren wanted to get in on the action. She usually looks sweet in pictures, but this is a very true representation to what she is actually like 99% of the time. I'm already tired, and it's only 9am, haha, but it's Friday so yay :) 

Friday nights are usually family movie night for us. Any good family/kid movies we should see? 

Wren finds herself hilarious

A few weeks ago we recorded the girls playing in the bath. Wren was quite a ham that night and had lots of silly moments to catch on the videocamera. 

One of her favourite things is to re-watch our home videos. I could hear her from the other room giggling up a storm.

I had to take a picture, I almost wish I could have videotaped her laughing at herself!

Hanging large wall photos

After reading the bedroom makeover post from A Cup of Jo last year, I knew I wanted to try hanging a large family photo in our living room.

Amanda did our family photos in the fall. They were already in a nice, high resolution so I could blow them up using the Costco photo center. 

We used these instructions (from Little Green Notebook) as a guide to mount and hang the photo.

I went with Costco's poster photo print, and printed a 24 by 36 inch photo. I'm fairly sure that is the largest they can do, and then you would need to go to another printer for something bigger. But our walls aren't huge so this was as big as I felt we could go for our space.

But for our poster, it was a mere $15.99! Not bad at all.

It was a little tricky to use the scrapbook tape and lay the poster evenly on the plywood and without any bubbles or ripples, but we managed to get it nearly perfect in the end. D-rings on the back hold the whole thing onto the wall.

A really affordable way to hang a nice big piece of art or a photo in your house. I highly recommend it!

A kid in the crib

Wren was ultra tired this morning. She was playing with Ellie in the crib, and then curled up with one of Ellie's blankets and started to drift off. I took Ellie out and quietly closed the door so Wren could sleep. 

Funny.

Chemex Coffee

Have you heard of the Chemex coffee maker? Back in the fall I was on the hunt for a great gift for Kenton's birthday. I read this post from Sprouted Kitchen's blog and thought this would be the perfect, unique gift for the guy that loves his coffee every single morning, and sometimes in the evening! 

He used to always use a french press which was okay but the coffee (which I would steal a half cup of in the mornings) would have some of that trademark sludge in the bottom. With a Chemex, it's perfectly filtered and clean. I'm a fan.

 Ever since reading up on them for his birthday, it seems like Chemex's are everywhere...but they have actually been around forever!

You can find them at Crate & Barrel, or buy them at The Artworks downtown in City Center mall. 

I bought him the 6 cup version (comes all the way up to a 10 cup size).

They also have coffee makers with glass handles, although I haven't seen these anywhere for sale other than the website (which doesn't ship to Canada last time I checked). The glass handle is slightly easier for cleaning because you don't have to take off that wood collar and leather tie before you wash. 

There can be quite an art to coffee making, we are pretty basic about it, but this coffee maker is super easy to use and looks really rustic and fun on the table in the morning or serving guests a cup.

I'd say our only complaint is how quickly it cools off in the container, but really, a fresh cup right after it's made is best, right?

Maybe one day one of us will get really fussy with our coffee making, after all, we have this book to help us learn...

P.S. A friend coincidentally bought him an Aeropress coffee maker too, which is incredibly easy and fast to make individual cups of coffee. I typically leave the coffee making up to Kenton in the morning but I have managed to make my own with this when I need that afternoon pick me up.