Santa visited us for the weekend

Abigail got a cute little Elf from Nana for Christmas that she got to open this weekend. She named her Elfie and she loves her. She has heard about the Elf on a Shelf thing, and has friends who have elf's that disappear to the North Pole at night. Abi is really worried about Elfie disappearing. She sleeps with her, or puts her high up on the shelf so that she can't get down. First thing in the morning she frantically checks to make sure she didn't 'sappear, as she says it. When my dad was here last weekend, she roped him into playing the role of Santa. They were pretty funny to watch.

The Dance Recital

Abi has been really excited for her Christmas Dance "Bacital"

Mimi and Pops came down for it. She did a great job, and is so stinkin cute. She is the smallest one in the class by a long shot. It is so fun to see her up there having fun. I think we are done with dance for now, but she had fun, and loved being on stage!

Here is a link to the video if you want to see the whole thing:












I think Ellie is sick of sitting on the sidelines. She is ready to get in on the action!

Santa the Fire Chief :)

I really love our neighborhood. We won't be living here much longer, but they do lots of cool things. Saturday, they had the neighborhood fire department do their visit from Santa. They have the fire chief dress up as Santa, and they drive through the whole neighborhood and hand out candy to the kids. They were a few minutes early so we were scrambling to get out to see him. Abigail was wearing Ellie's coat, haha. Abi loved it though, and Ellie slept through it :) I love when people go out of their way to do things like this that make it such a fun time of year for the kids.

Christmas Part 1

My parents came up this last weekend to have "Christmas" with us before we left. They also got to see Abigail's Christmas recital, and that alone was worth the trip :) I didn't take very many pictures, but the girls both got some cowgirl boots from Mimi and Pops and the LOVE them. They got spoiled with several other things as well, but the boots were a big hit. Abigail opened them, her jaw dropped, and she just started hugging them. It was so cute, haha. Ellie put them on and started walking around. Hers have some growing room, they fell off once, and she started crying until we put them back on. I got a cute new Vera Bradley bag that I can't wait to pack and use this weekend, haha.

Gingerbread House

We have had a fun month getting ready for Christmas. We just can't wait to fly outta here on Saturday and spend the holidays in Washington this year. The next few days will be a photo blast of the different things that have been going on around here.

First, our Gingerbread house. Charles helped Abigail build it. Ellie kept occupied with other things. Then Abigail decorated it. She instructed me where to put the icing, and then she added the candy.

The Birthday Party

Birthdays are a big deal to me.

I'm not really sure why. I think it must be because my parents always went out of their way to make us feel special and loved on our birthdays. That, and... buying gifts might be my favorite thing in the world. I feel like there is only one day a year that is ALL about you. It should be special.

I try to keep things toned down, especially for the first couple of birthdays when they don't know what is going on anyway. But any little thing I can do to make it special, I want to do it.

I was a little bummed when I woke up on Ellie's birthday feeling a little queezy. I didn't get to make a big deal out of it like I wanted to, but lucky for me, she didn't know the difference.

I wasn't feeling very well all day, but I did manage to make a cake for her.

She opened her presents with a little help.

The cake was enjoyed Ellie, Abi, and Daddy.

Ellie handled it much better than Abigail did on her first birthday. For Abigail, I made her a little bear cake that looked like a real bear, and it made her cry. Haha.

Ellie dove right in once she got a taste.

Watching the three of them eat the cake pushed me over the edge.

I spent the next 12 hours hugging the toilet.

So did Abigail. Now she thinks cake makes her throw up.

I'm not telling her it doesn't, either.

My Ellie Mae

The first year of life is a funny thing.

For the first few weeks, you are still wrapping your head around having a little one.

And you wonder if you will ever sleep again. Then before you even realize it, they aren't so tiny anymore. You are thrilled when they start to roll over. Sit up.

Then- holy crap, when did my baby get big enough to crawl? Eat solids?

Now she is One.

She is walking. She is jibber jabbering.

She is getting feisty.

(I wonder where she gets that.)

I can't believe a year is already gone.

I find myself wishing I had taken time to enjoy it more. It has been a little bit of a rough year for me, trying to figure out some health issues going on. This year has been full of blessings though, and having Ellie Mae join or family definitely tops the charts for the year.

She is walking. She just doesn't know it yet.

She can walk all the way across the room if she has the right motivation. Other than that, she is content crawling, or- holding on to someone's hands and steering them around as she walks.

At 11 months she was 24 lbs. We will see what her 12 month check brings.

She wears size 18 months clothes.

(Side note. I just had to make Abigail stop wearing her size 18 month coat so that Ellie could wear it.)

She wears size 3 or 4 shoes. Kind of in between.

She only takes a bottle before bed. And not for long.

She eats.

and eats.

and... Eats.

She is allergic to eggs. Kind of. They give her the worst diaper rash you've ever seen almost instantly. Probably something she will outgrow.

She also has a bad reaction to squash, and possibly other orange/yellow veggies.

Diary is still undetermined.

She does the cutest mean face on demand.

She bites Abigail when she is being mean to her.

She loves, loves, LOVES playing on the stairs.

She likes making a mess of the doll house.

She gets into everything.

She freaks out when you put her in her car seat, but is fine once she settles in.

She wants to be a big girl. She hates having to sit on the sidelines and watch Abigail do certain things, like her dance class.

She loves baths.

She sleeps about 13, sometimes 14 hrs at night. (with the occasional disruption of course)

She likes to sleep with her face buried in the corner of her crib.

So much more I could say about our Ellie.

She is wonderful.

She has made our family complete.

...............At least for now :)

I went through the last year and picked some of my favorite pictures of Ellie to put in a book.

Feel free to quit at any time, but I couldn't stop picking favorites.