Sledding Fun!

Ella loves being pulled around the house in her new sled (Thanks Grandma & Grandpa M!), so we figured we'd brave the cold and try it on the newly fallen snow. She loved it!

Hi daddy!

Daddy's turn! And she's off!!

More! More!

I'll have to bundle myself up more next time, but we really had fun running around on the sidewalks. Ella is so easily pleased. :)

Christmas Pics!

Sitting in her new chair with her babies... She takes such good care of them!

She's gotten really good at ripping off wrapping paper.

Checking out her giraffe...Not real sure of him. However, she did give him a couple kisses!

Some new plates and dishes. Ella loves playing make believe. She often brings these to the real stove and puts them up on top.

She received a few new books which are always big hits!!

Ella with her new baby stroller that she pushed around for quite a while that morning!

Though she doesn't look thrilled, she was really enjoying her stroller. I think she was just concentrating!

Helping Grandma open a present.

We had such a nice Christmas. It's so hard to believe that next Christmas Ella will be 2 1/2 and we'll also have an 8 month old. Wow...

Mmm...grilled cheese

She much prefers to have at the entire half sandwich rather than the little bite sized pieces she usually gets. How cute! Though it makes her look much too grown up...


Now this is pretty good!

She has such good manners....even wipes her mouth afterwards. :)


Christmas pictures hopefully to be posted soon!!

Breakfast with Santa

We decided to attend the Breakfast with Santa after church this morning and boy did Ella look adorable walking around in her little dress, white tights, black shoes, and red sweater. Very festive! She thoroughly enjoyed mass, waving to everyone and making friends, and then enjoyed a nice french toast, sausage and ahem, cookie, breakfast with crafts afterwards.

Walking around with daddy.

Meeting Santa. She got all excited when he walked in the room, pointing and talking excitedly.

We thought perhaps she'd enjoy sitting on Santa's lap this time. I walked Ella up to him and she was doing fine, until....

the crying started!! I tried to rescue her quickly, not wanting her to be traumatized, but Santa didn't want to let her go! He said what a cute picture it would be. Hmm... I don't know. I still prefer a smiling, happy Ella.

The crying stopped the minute I took her off Santa's lap. :) Ella decorated a votive candle with stickies, and made a mouse candy cane holder. Pretty cute, huh?

And a picture of our future pianist in a sweater I bought last winter and shoved to the back of her closet thinking it'd be way too big on her this winter. It actually fits pretty well! That's my top of the charts baby!

4 days to go until Christmas!

My Little Christmas Cookie

Some other cute pictures from today that I had to post!

She loooves the tree, the lights and definitely the ornaments.



Working on her masterpiece. I know she's bound to have artistic skills!

Love her, love her, love her!

Making Cookies: Part II

Another success! Ella enjoyed sitting at her own table and helping to roll out the cookie dough...

choose cookie cutters and punch out the dough...

and laugh about it!

She was very interested and a wonderful helper again today!

And excited to get the cookies cooked and out of the oven!

We didn't get to decorate them today. That will have to wait until tomorrow. :)

Making Cookies: Part 1

Today Ella and I decided to start making our Christmas cookies. She was a wonderful helper and we had a lot of fun! Tomorrow we'll finish the sugar cookies by cutting, cooking and hopefully decorating them. Yuum!!

Checking out the ingredients and getting ready.

She helped add the sugar and flour, and here she is waiting to start the mixing!

And the stirring....

Hmm....this stuff looks interesting!

One last check on the recipe before we put it in the refrigerator to chill.

More fun to come tomorrow!

Santa this year, Santa last year

I wonder how she'll react to Santa next year. Hopefully it'll be a happy meeting!

Getting Cozy with Santa!

We decided to get a nice family picture with Santa this year.

....Because this is what happened when poor little Ella was left all by herself with Santa...

Aww...she walked right up to Santa and let him pick her up. I was so proud of her! But the minute she settled on his lap and I started moving away, she started crying. Santa invited me, then the hubby up and Ella was much happier that way. :)

Ella also made some other friends while we were there. Lots and lots of stuffed animals....

...and she wanted to take them all home. :) Just like her mommy when she was little, Ella LOVES stuffed animals!

We had a really good time. There was a greyhound rescue at the store as well, so Ella got to meet a few dogs. In addition, she met a talking tree!! Even I was shocked when it was talking back to us. Not expected at all! Ella was amazed... unfortunately, no picture of that. It was pretty fun!!

On one last note, Ella's waving is becoming more and more refined, and she waves at everyone and everything! It's so sweet to see people smile so big when they realize Ella's waving to them. She brings happiness to lots of people. How wonderful! As usual when we take Ella out, today she made a lot of friends. :)

Our little fishy

Good times!!

Newspaper is so funny!

Ella and Grandpa from Susan on Vimeo.

Now, did that make you smile?? Hope so! This is the latest video I watch when I need a laugh. She is one happy little girl. She always manages to put a smile on my face.

Christmas is in the Air!

We decided to break out the Christmas tree and decorations early this year. Ella has really enjoyed all the lights on houses, decorations at the mall, etc, so we knew this would be fun for her. We were right! She absolutely loves the tree and all the ornaments....and flicking the lights on the tree with the remote!

My serious little model posing in front of the tree. (With her baby, of course.)

And a silly one!! She was looking at her farm book and found some ducks, so she was telling us all about it. She's very expressive!

And a sweet one with Grandma. (Sorry G-ma!)

What a fun time of year. I feel like I am a child again seeing things through my sweet little one's eyes. And we're just getting started!!