Christmas Pics!

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas holiday for Ella's first. We headed out to Charlotte on Christmas Eve to Erin and Josh's house, and celebrated Christmas there. Beware for a long post with many, many pics (and more to come when I get more from Mom!

Erin and Josh were the perfect hosts (as usual) and we had a wonderful time.

Dressed up for church on Christmas Eve with Grammy


The 3 of us


In her sweater!



Christmas morning, in her PJs and santa hat with Daddy



Erin's tree and so many gifts!


The world's cutest little elf


Checking out her toy from Santa


Standing up on her new dump truck full of blocks


Pushing it all by herself!



This little frog croaks Jingle Bells. Ella crawled right up to him to investigate.


Hey, who is this guy??


After her morning nap it was time to get in full Santa costume!!

Here is a very serious little Santa with Aunt Erin


With Gramps


Dad and Donna came for Christmas too which was so nice. It was our first holiday with everyone together and really a treat for Ella's first Christmas.

Here is Ella's stocking. My mom made it by hand and it's really beautiful. My stocking is also a snowman that Mom made for me when I was a baby, and a few years ago she got Steve a snowman stocking too...so now all 3 of us have one :).





Ella got everyone ornaments with her photo on them...here is Grandad with his


Climbing on Aunt Erin


Opening presents with Uncle Josh


With Daddy


Climbing up Grandad's leg...trying to get to Chico!!


All this gift opening makes a girl thirsty - time for a water break


With Grandma


After dinner (which was fantastic) Ella got to play with a lot of her new toys. Here she is riding on her lion



Getting a push from Erin


Standing up and pushing it (with a little help from daddy)


As she always is, Ella was completely fascinated by Chico and this time seemed to figure out his leash - here she is with a good grab on it


Following him...but still holding on to his leash


We also took some family photos after dinner




Later on, playing with Grammy and Aunt Erin




After a bath where Ella truly entertained us all, here she is reading books with Erin


It was a wonderful day. Ella was completely spoiled by everyone (we were too!) and the trip was great. It was so nice to have everyone together and I will always have a great memory of her first Christmas. I thought so much about how I felt this time last year, we were so excited to meet her and couldn't wait to find out what she'd be like. She is such a sweet loving baby (almost toddler) and I just want her to know how loved she really is. It makes me so happy that aside from parents that love her more than anything, she has a loving extended family that can't get enough of her as well, we are very blessed.

Weekend Pics

Here are some pics from the past weekend.

Best view in the house!


Watching TV with Daddy


Look at this mischevious face!

Little fingers and toes

For Christmas, Aunt Michelle sent Ella a Laugh & Learn Teddy bear, and she is completely fascinated by it!


Here's a video of her bopping to the ABCs...

Pre-Christmas Photos

Here are the Christmas photos we had taken of Ella and my digital scrapbooking attempt!

Big Girl Update

In the realm of "ahhh she's getting to be such a big girl", 2 things of note about Ella:

1. Her 2nd tooth appeared today - it's the one right next to the one that's already on the way in, her front right tooth on the bottom. The other one is still on it's way up.

2. Ella's started helping to feed herself with the spoon. She really doesn't like to be fed anymore and tolerates it minimally but usually only for about 4 or 5 spoonfuls before she's done - BUT she now likes to grab the spoon and feed herself. Here is some evidence (WARNING: the following image is not for the faint of heart)...



As messy at it is, I'm happy that she's interested in eating fruits and veggies, and already seeing what an independent streak she has! (wonder where that came from??)

Pulling Up

Ella started pulling up recently and especially likes to pull up on the gates. Here she is last weekend.





Very excited to pet Sammy!


She also just started a little bit of 'cruising' - she will hold our hands and then put her hands on the table, and then come back to our hands. She takes a few steps on her own when we're holding her hands and she definitely seems to enjoy it and then all of a sudden she just decides she's done and buckles her legs to sit down.

Playing with Blocks

Ella looooves her new building blocks - of course, building for her involves pulling them all out of the bag and making a giant pile. She loves playing with them!



Very busy!

Christmas Party

Last Friday night was my office Christmas party at my boss's house. One of my co-workers dressed up as Santa and gave out presents to all of the kids. Ella did not cry but was not sure about him and just sat very stiffly on his lap with her arms and legs out really straight.

Getting her introduced to Santa


On Santa's lap - look at her outstretched arms and legs!


Mommy, I'm not sure about this guy...


Check out this gigantic Christmas tree, it was two stories tall




Opening her gift from Santa


Picture of all the kids...you'll see Ella is crawling away from the group!


Clapping to Jingle Bells


Playing with my coworkers son. He got some new dinosaur toys and was playing with them and she just crawled right up to him, sat down and started playing!


He was very nice and shared his dinosaurs so they could play together