Great-Grandma Tour 2010

Lola started out 2010 on the right foot by visiting her Great Grandmothers (and one Great Grandpa) in Illinois. Luckily they all live fairly close to each other so the tour didn't take us across the entire state.
First stop, Morris IL where Lola got to visit Grandma Betty (Joni's Mom) who supplied Lola with her fancy Happy New Year hat. Lola was pleased to see that Grandma Betty had a mini refrigerator where she could load and unload the water bottles. Repeatedly.
Next stop Ottawa where we saw Grandma Joyce & Grandpa Dale (Gigi's parents). Lola is very comfortable running the show there. Her favorite thing is running from room to room slamming all doors behind her. Something I'm sure sounds like heaven to Grandpa's ears and doesn't make him at all nervous.
Last stop to see Grandma Kasik (Grumpa's Mom). Grandma was in Ottawa that day visiting my cousin Steve which worked out great because we got to see his girls and found out they are expecting baby #3! Congratulations Steve, Becky, Lily & Maddy!
A few more photos of our day here.

Just like Joan and Christina + a Grandma and a leg lamp

Aside from wire hangers, verbal and physical abuse, loads of money, birthday parties with ponies, a mansion, Hollywood glam and a tell all book, Lola and I are just like Joan & Christina Crawford. Oh and I don't make Lola give her birthday presents away to the poor kids. BUT, thanks to Grumpa we now have matching jammies w/ Grandma Joni and that is SO JOAN & CHRISTINA! OMG! I am so excited!

Grumpa got us girls special jammies from pj's for the cure. Check it out and get your jammies there. Every dollar you spend will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.




And before you ask... I have no idea where he got the leg lamp, it must have been a major award.

Cinderella Lola

Lola would like to thank her cousins Emma & Grace for giving her a HUGE bag of dress up clothes! The Cinderella dress is her favorite.

Below we have footage of Cinderella Lola getting her chores done so that she can attend the Royal Ball. You will hear her scold me for being a "bad step-mother" while encouraging me to "get going to Target".

Enjoy this classic footage!

Merry Christmas!

The staff at LOLApalooza would like to take this time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
Enjoy your holiday!

Christmas Eve News

SANTA CALLS LOLA!


As we were preparing a plate of cookies for Santa's arrival (and dog treats for Rudolph) Lola received a call from the big man himself! She was very happy with this phone call and after went to bed like a perfect angel. We haven't heard one peep out of her. Amazing! Maybe Santa should call her every night before bed.
Are you up for that Santa?



In other Christmas Eve news, Santa has arrived and everything is ready for Christmas morning!

Christmas in Ottawa

Click HERE for photos

this is it = this is awesome!

Speaking of MotherLoad of gifts Gigi also got Lola this fancy ballerina outfit AND the Michael Jackson This is It CD.

Lola has been wanting this CD ever since I saw the movie.

Gigi, maker of the dress

Lola's new favorite dress!

Gigi showed up last week with the MotherLoad of gifts when she whipped out this hand made Snow White dress. First of all let me say that Lola has worn this dress every day since she got it, aside from Saturday when she was in Illinois, and believe me, she asked about wearing it.
Christmas week with Gigi has come and gone as she leaves to head back to sunny Florida bright and early tomorrow morning.

Thank you Gigi for EVERYTHING you do for us! We love you and Merry Christmas!

nixed

We are currently in the process of taking a sweet photo of the children for this years holiday cards. For obvious reasons the above photo didn't make the cut.
Incase you can't pick them out the reasons for the cut are as follows:
Ian's lack of a smile.
Lola isn't looking at the camera.
How about that shoe string Ian calls a belt? A classy trick he learned from his Dad and totally not acceptable for the holiday card.
The below photo works out better and by acting like a bird just pooped on my head I was able to get Ian to crack a smile. It's actually a really cute photo of the children however I'm not using it.

Eye of the Beholder

Being a Twilight Zone fan I've always loved the episode titled Eye of the Beholder. It's about a beautiful girl who attempts plastic surgery to make her face "normal" and what we don't know until the end is that normal in the Twilight Zone are these crazy pig faced people. So in a tribute to the episode I love watching re-runs of I've decided to give Lola that "normal" look.
We ended up with a series of about 30 of these photos because each time I would take one and show Lola she would laugh so much and wanted to take another just so she could look at it. The mad circle continued for some time.

random cute photo

Too many toys taking over the family room...

...problem solved



In an effort to cut back on the clutter of toys, which seem to take over a room in a matter of seconds, I have turned our front closet into a play space for Miss Lola.
This is also her space to proudly display her princess items such as the Disney Princess poster & Disney Princess couch, which happens to be nice for me since I don't necessarily want those particular items on display anywhere else in the house. There aren't a lot of things that are prettier than a character themed couch which also pulls out into a bed complete with a Princess sleeping bag. I should mention that this is Lola's new favorite place to take her afternoon naps as seen in the photo below.



She seems to love her new play space and enjoys entertaining her family & friends in what she calls her "Princess room" so if you're here visiting be prepared to spend some time on a nice comfy couch, if she lets you sit there. Most of the time she directs her guests to sit on the floor.

parmesan has tomatoes in it

THIS IS IT

I finally got to see THIS IS IT!
After seeing this documentary it is clear that this would have been the greatest concert ever. What is also clear is that I have a very good friend in Angela. Not being a huge Michael fan she agreed to go with me. I'm not sure if she agreed because she secretly wanted to see it or if it's because I called her and said "you know, you really should go see this with me."
Regardless, she went and I thank her.
What's also exciting is that I got to wear my old Michael Jackson t-shirt and surprisingly all of me fit into it!

Anyway, this was an excellent documentary, I enjoyed it very much. Well worth the wait.

tapping her way into your heart

Aaron and I both agree that Lola is very smart, talented and beautiful. I'm pretty sure most parents would say the same thing about their own children but in this case we are sure we've got some serious talent on our hands and I'm not just saying that because she's OUR daughter. OK, I am.

**Lola would like to thank Jenny & Stella for her new tap shoes and she would like to thank her Daddy for picking up this beginners tap DVD from the library. Yes, you read that right, AARON picked up a beginner tap DVD for his daughter.

We are in the process of prepping Lola for the talent portion of the competitions.