First Movie

We took E to her first movie theater experience this past week when Daddy was off from work (in between the reorganization going on all week in the house), to see The Princess and the Frog. It was cute, and she sat still through the whole thing. She keeps saying she wants to go back and see it again. Gonna love those free kid movies in the theaters that run all summer long!

[December 30, 2009]

"GPS" Belle

So Ellison came away from her trip to MI with a love of her cousins' "GPS" (a DS, but that's what she calls it). So what did Uncle Josh and his fam get her for Christmas? Yes, her own DS game thingy (see - I don't even know the correct lingo) with some games. I still shake my head when I think of how my 3 year old has a DS. She can literally sit and do it for an hour at a time, if we let her. She knows how to do it far better than I do. She loves drawing on it and doing this horse game, and now a game where she gets to paint the nails and decorate them.

So funny to see "Belle" playing her "GPS".

And by the way, that's often what we have to call her - Belle. If I answer her or talk to her without addressing her as Belle, she says, "No, say,'Yes, Belle' ". Her favorite Belle activity is to walk up or down the stairs while pulling up the one side of the dress (just like Belle or any other female in a long dress would do when going up or down stairs). And she has to do it just so - "You have to take just a tiny piece in your fingers, just like Belle does in the pictures". When she brings a necklace to me, I automatically assume she wants it on, but am quickly corrected, "No, I don't want the necklace on because Belle doesn't have one on in the pictures". Details, details...

[December 29, 2009]

My Hairdresser

Gotta hand it to her. She's creative all right. She was playing "hairdresser" with me and asked me to put in the ponytail. Then she proceeded to decorate it with Christmas ornaments from the mini-tree, and her fishing poles from her little fishing game. :-)

[December 27, 2009]

Christmas Evening at Home

The rest of our Christmas day was spent having good family time - playing with her new Playdough set and kitchen (Ellison loves to play "restaurant people" and take our order, cook the food, calls us "M'am", etc.) and such. Then we had a great dinner - Daddy smoked a chicken, and Mommy made German Potato Salad (a Christmas staple from growing up), and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus again before blowing out a candle and chowing on cake.

Playing with Bendaroos.

[December 25, 2009]

Christmas Brunch

We went over to the Spence family's house for Christmas Brunch for some YUMMY food and great fellowship. They were kind enough to invite over anyone who didn't have family nearby to come over for brunch. We had a great time, and got to hang out with some new friends from church, too - the Stones and the Campbells.

It's really a cover - the guys were playing in the playroom, and little Nolan came to get back his book.

(Jason Spence, Scott Stone, Nolan, and Jonathan)

Ellison, Avery Spence, and Joshua Campbell having fun playing with the new train set.

Angela Campbell and Becky Spence

[December 25, 2009]

Christmas Morn

Christmas morning was the best with a 3 year old! Ellison always walks straight into our room after she wakes up to come crawl into bed with us in the morning. Jonathan and I were already awake in anticipation, when we saw her coming down the hallway toward our room, and pause for a moment at the top of the stairs, where she could see the new kitchen set Santa brought her. She came running into our room, shouting, "Mommy, mommy! Come quick! I have to show you something! Come here! Come on, Mommy! I have to show you something!". We barely had enough time to pull back the covers before we were being dragged by the hands to the stairs to, "Look! Look!". I was bummed we didn't have the video camera going for that part of the morning - the one of sheer surprise and delight.

Ellison was thrilled with her new Ariel jewelry set, complete with the necklace that has Ariel's "voice" in it, singing to the tune we hear out of Ellison's mouth several times a day. She immediately had to strip off her PJs to make room on her bod for the new dress-up dress, too.

Opening presents from family, too.

A new dress from the Sotos in Buffalo. She (and we) love it!

[December 25, 2009]

Christmas Eve

Ellison had been dying to wear her new red dress - asking to wear if every day since it found a home in her closet. To have "curly-curlies" in her hair, and her new shoes from Grandma & Grandpapa were icing on the cake.

As always, lovin' her some shoes...

Talking to Grandma on the phone before heading to church.

Playing her rendition of "Jingle Bells", singing loudly.

She just looks SOOOO old to me in this pic!

Our cheesy attempts at family self-portraits again.

After attending the Christmas Eve service, we came home and got all cozy by the fire.

The we baked some reindeer cookies for Santa and set them out with the milk. Ellison was devastated the next day to discover that we all forgot to set out the letter she made to Santa. Earlier on Christmas Eve, she suddenly popped up and said she was going to make Jesus and Santa a letter, and wrote them in her token "cursive", and decorated them with Disney princess stickers.

Going to bed wasn't much of an ordeal that night. I was just slightly panicked we weren't going to be able to use "We'll call Santa and tell him not to bring you some presents" anymore after today.

[December 24, 2009]

Now Those Are Some Big Boots...

Mommy got to open one of her Christmas presents early, out of necessity for her church outfit. :-)

Mookie thought they were super fun to try to break her ankles, er, walk, in.

[December 24, 2009]

Baking Jesus' Cake

Such a good helper baking Jesus' birthday cake.

[December 24, 2009]

Visit with Santa

I took Elli to see Santa at the Four Seasons Mall. The whole way there, she was so excited to see him, and kept asking if we were there yet. As soon as we walked up to the line, she suddenly started saying she didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, and wanting me to go with her. It was quite funny - she had a serious look on her face just before going up there, but the second I put her on Santa's lap, she put on her photo smile.

She even talked and smiled to him, so she must've been willing to put her requests in for Christmas, which I can bet was "A Tinkerbell necklace". Ever since she saw the Swarovski crystal one in the mall several months ago, she has never forgotten it, and it's what she tells everyone Santa is going to bring her.

[December 21, 2009]

Snow Storm

Shockingly, we had a great little snow storm here, where we got several inches of snow. Shortly after the snow started falling and Daddy got home from work, we all bundled up and headed out to play. Ellison liked the snow better this time, and we all had fun. It made us once again miss the snow this time of year back out west or up north.

Showing Ellison how to make snowballs and have a snowball fight. While Dad and I got a little into it with the snowballs, Elli would just chase us around giggling.

We all made a little mini-snowman.

We didn't last a terribly long time out there - with the wind, and the snow coming down pretty icy at times, we headed in for some hot cocoa. A good cozy day.

[December 18, 2009]

School Christmas Party

The kids getting ready to serenade us with Christmas songs. So cute! I will totally jack up their names, so I'll just say that Ellison is 3rd from the right.

Shaking their little jingle bells.

Ellison and Baity

After the songs, they had some snacks, and then it was time for gifts. Mrs. Kale and Mrs. Medley got each child the cutest little stuffed animals. Ellison, ever the animal-lover, immediately fell in love with her reindeer. He/she quickly joined the rest of the "family" that day in her bed. The kids presented us parents with the cutest little decorated gift bags, and inside was a sweet little pillow that had the picture of an angel made from the kids' handprints, their names, and the year.

[December 17, 2009]

On a side note, this is around the time we started cutting out Ellison's afternoon nap altogether. (Gasp!). We still thought she was needing it, as she would sleep 2 to 3 hours lately for her nap and go down VERY easily, but when one night the poor little Mookster was up 5 times throughout one night telling me, "I just don't know what the matter is. I just don't wanna sleep," I realized we were preparing our child to be a night-shift worker someday. I DID try to give her an earlier nap, and wake her up after about an hour, but that was purely miserable for us both. She's been doing pretty good with it all. It's not as bad as I had anticipated. Dinner time she gets pretty sleepy, and just wants to lay her head in my hand at the table. We still make her have some quiet time, where she just watches TV or a movie, or plays quietly. Occasionally, she will take a little catnap on the sofa if I rock her during quiet time.

Funny story about quiet time: after doing this whole new routine for a few days, I had to work, and I had told Daddy on a few occasions how he needs to give her quiet time, and what I let her do during it. Being the stellar listener that he usually is (love ya, Jonny), he only heard the "quiet time" part, and the rest must have sounded like, "blah, blah, blah". When I got home from work, we were talking and I asked him what Elli did during quiet time:

"She played with her balloon in the rocking chair."

"Huh? And what else?"

"Oh, she played with her two little snowglobes, too."

"What?! You mean while she watched TV?"

"No, I thought she was supposed to have quiet time without the TV."

"So she sat in the rocking chair with a balloon and two snowglobes for quiet time?! For how long?"

"Well, for about an hour. She kept asking me every 5 minutes if quiet time was over yet, and I had to keep telling her, 'Elli! It's supposed to be quiet time! Close your eyes.' I set the kitchen timer for 45 minutes, but it was really tough. She just kept trying to ask if it was over yet. It was tough."

?!?!?!?!??!?! Holy cow, my poor little 3 year old had almost an hour-long TIME OUT is what it was! Seriously, to make a 3 year old sit there with, let's face it, nothing to do for almost an hour is like torture! She probably would've gladly chosen to have her eyelids taped open rather than endure that! That was a punishment, if you ask me. I laughed about it, but wow. That takes the cake on how well Jonathan listens to my instructions. Poor Ellison deserved to have a pony waiting for her in the yard the next morning. Good grief. :-)

Christmas Playdate

We were invited over to the Grants' house for a Christmas playdate. The kids all looked festive, we had lots of snacks, and the kids all painted homemade cinnamon ornaments. We had a messy, fun time hanging out with people we usually only see at church.

Ellison in the center, showing off her ornament, along with the McShea, Parsons, Grant, and Voss
children.

Ellison, Laila & Mia (who didn't join in on the painting action), and Molly

[December 14, 2009]