Real Harris

Touch tanks

2012-02-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

The aquarium had 2 touch tanks. The first had sting rays and sharks in it that we got to pet. SHe put her hand in the water, but I don't think she made contact with anything.

Farther into our adventures there was another tank that had starfish, and other tidepool things. She loved this one particular starfish and kept muscling her way up to touch it.

She is blurry here, but I still like it.

The fake animals were a good time too!

Thanks Dan and Courtney for a fun day!

Dan and Courtney visit

2012-02-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

Dan and Courtney gave us the most creative Christmas gift this year. They wanted to come visit and take us all to the aquarium and out to eat. Ella loved spending time with them, unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of them though. It was so dark in there, and Ella was having a very mommy clingy kind of day.

We have been home for 1 hour.

2012-02-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

"more power"

2012-02-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Julie took these pictures of Ella helping me vacuum the other day. She likes to control the power switch. She turns is off and I yell back "I need more power!" and then she turns it back on. Makes vacuuming take quite a bit longer though...

Practice makes perfect

2012-02-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

I "dress" myself.

2012-02-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Imagination Island

2012-02-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

We took the kids to an indoor play place called Imagination Island which was pretty cool. Of course there are never enough of the play cars...

Acadia climbed in dukes of hazard style while Ella was in the car and pushed her right out the door... They both tried to fit for a minute, but Ella was not having it so she just got out.

The bubble machine was fun. Thomas isn't screaming here, he is trying to catch the bubbles in his mouth.

Not the most flattering faces.

And as usual, Ella called it quits first.

Visiting Friends

2012-02-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

Amy and the kids came to visit last Friday/ Saturday and there was lots of craziness going on at our house!

Thomas and Acadia were pretending to be pregnant. We asked Ella if she wanted to participate, but she declined.

New Milestones!

2012-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

In the last couple weeks it seems that Ella has reached a new level of comfort in separating from me. She is fine when she goes to daycare, and overall she is always fine when she is away from me, but the physical act of separating is the hard part, even with familiar places (play group) and people (daddy). As part of our quest for things to do that will result in a nap, we have been going to the Barnes and Noble story time. Usually she is excited to go, but wants to sit on my lap. SHe will settle for me sitting behind her while she sits on the bench though. Last week, however, was totally different. Ella sat on the bench by herself and I stood with the other moms. She also was calling out answers to questions and suggestions to the story during the reading.

After story time, we joined Nancy and Sarah and a local gymnastics place for an open play gym. We had never been before and I was completely expecting Ella to need me to stay close to her at least initially, but nope, she was off and running as soon as we walked in the door and even explored the giant foam pit (she called it a swimming pool) by herself.

The plan did slightly backfire as far as the nap went though. SHe loved the gymnastics so much and was so excited about it that it took her a LONG time to wind down enough to take a nap, but she did take one.

Also, I would like to add that all of last week, Ella was so excited to see Nate when he got home, and was all about playing with him. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was chopped liver (yet) but at least finally he wasn't! That and last Thursday I went out for dinner with Julie and Nicole. I said good bye and told Ella I wouldn't be home at bedtime, and she came and gave me a kiss and said "Ok bye mommy!" She seems like such a big girl now!

Bad Day

2012-02-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

Well we have had sort of a crazy day today. I had an OB appointment this morning, everything is measuring great with baby #2. Ella was really good during a long wait in the waiting room, so of course something bad had to happen right? Well so the nurse was checking my blood pressure, and Ella with the speed of light climbed up onto the rolling stool in the exam room and was kneeling on it and fell off backwards and hit her head. Yikes! So so calmed down and was ok, sat on my lap sobbing for a minute, but pulled it together to have a lollipop. In the car on the way home she told me she had a "bellyache". I wasn;t entirely sure that she knew what a belly ache was. So we got home and she had then threw up all over me, her, and the area rug in her bedroom (now in the trash- she had blueberries for breakfast and it just didn't seem worth it) then proceeded to tell me she needed to take a nap. So now of course, we call the pediatrician who has us come in right away (then wait an hour when we get there). She watched Ella walk up and down the hall, talked to her, checked her pupillary responses and checked her ears for blood. Everything looked fine, and Ella was acting more herself by then, so they said just to keep and eye on her, but we could go home and she was ok to nap.

And how sweet it was to get home and have a package with her name on it in the mailbox, a valentine with a character from the cars movie car from her friend Henry! So thanks Henry for making her bad day a little more cheery!

Ella is very interested in what peoples names are. SHe is always asking me "What's Omi's name? WHat's Beba's name?" She does know everyones name, though she now (as you can see in the video) likes to be silly and say Papa's name when you ask her what Beba's name and vice versa...

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

some video catch-up

2012-02-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

There has been a little lull in picture worthy events lately, so here are some videos to keep you entertained. Some are from back in November, and some are pretty recent. It's funny how different she even looks since then!

22 weeks

2012-02-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

I feel like I am way huger than I was when I was pregnant with Ella at this point in my pregnancy, but this picture suggests otherwise (though I think that I must be sticking it out a little or something in that other one...)

crafting lesson

2012-02-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

My friend Megan wanted to cover some couch pillows that she didn't like, but needed some crafting guidance and came over last weekend to work on her project.

They came out pretty good!

bedtime stories

2012-02-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Julie and Baer were over for dinner the other night and Ella made a special request for Julie to read her a bedtime story.

???

2012-02-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why Nate thought he should climb into the tub, he just called me in to take a picture. If you can't tell, she has been quite a daddy's girl lately!

Helping daddy

2012-02-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Huggies

2012-02-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

In the morning, Ella and Shane watched Umizoomi together with their huggies.

Yes Ella is in the process of stealing Shane's huggie here, but just look at that rats nest of her hair. It looks like that every morning!

Ella actually gave Shane her huggie unprompted. He seems to know that this is a big deal!

Cousins

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella and I took a midweek trip to CT to visit with Shane (and Kate). Ella had fun playing with Shane's toys, and he seemed intrigued watching her. She needed some reminding of sharing, but overall they played very nicely near each other.

Ella needed her baby back as soon as she saw who was playing with it.

Shane seemed to like giving the baby kisses and hugs too.

Shane has a new tub-boat-duck that we had to check out.

He seemed a little nervous when Ella said she was climbing in! I can't say I blame him.

Thanks Omi!

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Omi made Ella some great new curtains. We love them! Thanks again. We can't wait for you to see them in person.

Quotes

2012-01-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Memorable quotes from Ella from yesterday....

She opens our door at 730am and marches into our room and cheerifully says "Hey guys, I love you. I'd like to watch a show!"

Later she comes into the living room book in hand and says "Hey Nate, let's read a book!"

Happy 90th Birthday Aunt Pat!

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's still fun to open presents when you are 90!

Daddy and ALL his babies...

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

NO SNOW!

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Lauren, Brynn and Rory happened to be visiting after we got a little snow so we thought it would be fun for the girls to play outside.

Rory had a great time!

Unfortunately, Ella is still feeling a little traumatized from the sledding incident and would not go in the snow at all!

Princess Dress

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella got this dress from Rory and wore it to a party. As soon as I put it on her she started playing with it and calling it her "princess dress" and saying she is a princess. This is completely amusing us because we have tried really hard to not encourage an extreme princess persona. She has no princess toys; we never call her a princess. I guess some things are just destined to be!

Girls only Fridays

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

We've been going to story time on Fridays at Barnes and Noble and then to Panera bread for a girls breakfast/ lunch. Look at these big girls!

family portraits

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Only a moderate amount of yelling was required to take these shots and no it wasn't at the children.

Taylor and Ella- the camera is this way!

Nice Ella! Really?

Thanks Poppy

2012-01-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

It wasn't pretty when her bubble was burst that this plate of cheeseball and pretzels wasn't all for her!

cutie patooties

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

So Taylor is a little bit easier to photograph than Ella these days...

And she was in love with Sampson!

Ella had fun playing duplos with Uncle Pat though.

Playing Inside

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Sledding in New Hampshire

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Neilan's all decided to have a weekend getaway this year in lieu of Christmas gifts. We decided on staying in Peterborough, NH at a great house.

A lot goes on behind the scenes to get 2 littles ready to play outside for 10 minutes.

Ella and I went sledding down the hill and totally wiped out! She was petrified and crying after rolling with me and the sled in the icy snow, so she opted for sitting on Taylor's lap in her old sled from last year instead.

Everyone took turns crashing to try to help Ella get over the trauma. Poppy crashed to show her how it's done.

Taylor didn't feel the need to participate in the crashing...

We tried to get her back on the sled again, with Daddy who is better at controlling the sled, but she wasn't having any part of it.

Omi even crashed too! Maybe by the next snow storm, she'll have forgotten.

crying in the rain

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday, we had to drive Nate to the train in the morning and it was pouring out, so Ella got to go out with her jammies, rain coat and wellies on. There is a very fun puddle in our parking lot that is oh so tempting and I let her splash in it when we got home. But let's be honest, it was cold and I didn't really enjoy the puddle as much as she did, so I dragged her in the house. She didn't want to take off her boots or coat, but instead put on her mardi gras beads and gathered some buckets. I needed to pack for our weekend in NH, so I thought she could play on the porch and I would just watch her through the door from our room. Well apparently playing in the rain by yourself isn't much fun and she insisted that I come outside with her. I gave in, and luckily she wanted to go back inside approximately 50 seconds later.

Baby Quilt 1 of 4

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of pregnant people in my life and I have kind of been dragging my feet on my quilting (I am in need of a crafting weekend, girls). So this is the first of 4 baby quilts I am needing to make. It was for Janet, Nate's cousin's wife, and I was unable to make it to her shower this weekend, but I did mail it in time!

Ready for SNow

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

We figured that since it was mid-January, we should probably get our shovel out of storage, and Ella loves "helping" to use it.

At least she recognizes that the substance of the mess in her room requires a shovel this size!

New Friends

2012-01-15T14:18:00.002-05:00

Nate's co-worker, is wife and their new baby, Owen, came over for a pizza lunch last weekend. Of course we chose a 60 degree day in January to necessitate (is that a word) having the ovens set to 500 all day, but it was nice anyways. Ella per her usual, didn't pay much attention to the baby until they were packing him up to go home, and then he tickled his feet and pet his head.

"I love ya, tomorow"

2012-01-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella has been singing a lot lately. Nate has been trying very hard to influence her musical tastes and has her listening to songs from "The Annie Soundtrack" in the car, and she does know most of the words to "tomorrow", but here she is just repeating a few lines.

indoor garden

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

I ordered these decals for Ella's wall and finally had a chance to put them up. I was able to get them on one day before picking her up at daycare. I was afraid that if she saw that they were stickers that she would try to peel them off. She was so excited, and when Nate came home and asked her if she liked them, she proudly said "yeah, my mommy made them!"

It's a..........

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

.........Baby!

Sorry folks, we decided that we wanted to keep the gender of baby #2 a surprise. Though I suspect that it is a boy because the ultrasound tech kept telling us to look away from the screen, which did not happen during any of Ella's ultrasounds. But Nate thinks that doesn't necessarily mean anything and it could just be her style, so who knows. One thing is certain though, this baby has already found his or her mouth!

The baby is measuring perfectly, however is located face-up and transverse with the face directly below my belly button. SO already the baby is used to having his or her face sat on by Ella, so at least it'll be accustomed to being a sibling right from the get go! The baby was moving a good amount during the ultrasound which made me feel better since apparently the placenta is anterior so it is blocking me from feeling any kicks or tumbles at this point.

So unless the baby is overdue like Ella, this will be the last sneak peek of baby H.2

"Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow"

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

long winter ahead?

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

perhaps there was something else we could have asked Santa for?

Practicing

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

Storytime

2012-01-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

Neilan Christmas

2012-01-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful day on New Years Day, so we had appetizers outside! There were only a handful or pictures where people weren't mid-chewing. I guess the food was good!

Great Grandma Jean got the most presents! Ella napped for most of the day, so she didn't make it into any of the pictures!

New Years Celebration

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

The 3rd celebration of the day was New Years Eve which we had to squeeze in before the girls bedtime at 7.

Usually Ella likes wearing headbands, but apparently not on the appropriate holiday!

or the appropriate body part.

Taylor even had an outfit change for the occasion.

We are excited for what this new year will bring!

Taylor's Birthday Party

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

The 2nd activity of the day was celebrating Taylor's 2nd 1st Birthday Party.

"Ella, what do you think is for dessert?"

"Ella what do you think about these candles?"

Christmas at Omi and Poppy's

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

December 31st was a busy day for us, which involved 3 celebrations all in one day! First up was exchanging Christmas gifts, mostly for the girls. Taylor did a nice job opening her presents.

Ella did much better then on Christmas day; she actually participated...

Girlie Girl

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Lest anyone forget that she is truely a girlie girl. I couldn't leave this one out.

17 week bump

2012-01-01T19:36:00.001-05:00

Winnie

2012-01-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

First of all, we would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year!

No trip to Beba and Papa's would be complete without visiting Winnie. We packed her new rain boots for the occasion. Her favorite and most practical gift from Aunt Julie and Uncle Baer.

After Ella made sure that Winnie properly had chewed all her snacks (carrots, apples, and a candycane), she decided to take some rides around the yard with Papa.

Of course she had to drive the digger in the lawn, which is there for the building of a new barn and garage.

Then it was back to Winnie for some more fun. (Papa is holding her on there.)

Ella had forgotten to bring Winnie some water after her snacks, and Winnie was grateful that she remembered. She even nuzzled Ella's head and gave her a little lick.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

We tried to interest Ella in opening her gifts again the next morning, but it was a no-go. She would push the presents away and say "No presents, Papa I want my puzzles" Papa had put the puzzles she usually plays with in the basement, but they promptly came back out! And nope, none of the gifts got opened.

Kate and Shane came back over to play and visit. Ella loves Shane and recognizes him from his blog and pictures, but she had a difficult time sharing Papa with him. Whenever Papa would hold him she would grab his hand and say something like "Papa, lets go play with my toys in the other room!" Papa did a good job multitasking though.

Christmas Brunch

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

We all went to Kate and Colin's house for brunch and to exchange gifts and had a great time! Note that none of the toys Ella is playing with are hers...

Christmas Morning

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas morning did not go anything like I had envisioned.... Despite all the hype about santa coming and bringing (2) toys, she slept super late- like until 7:30. We were actually all showered, dressed and ready for church by the time she woke up. She was very excited about her stocking. Unfortunately Beba had put food in her stocking, so once she saw the bag of pretzels and her orange, it just reminded her that she needed to have breakfast.

She was in a great mood and played peek-a-boo while we opened our gifts. She hid when we suggested that she open any.

So without anyone completing gift opening, we had breakfast and left for church. She was on exceptional behavior in church, by the way. SHe did sing quite loudly though and made up all her own lyrics.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what this sour puss was all about, but this was on our way out the door for the Christmas Eve get together at Auntie Nan's house. Actually, we had to wake her up from a nap to get there on time, so she was still waking up.

After the party, we decided to make another trip to see Santa. "Bright Nights" which is a huge drive through light display at Forest Park which also happens to have a Santa, and you can bring your own camera. She was very excited to see Santa again. When we asked her if she wanted to see Santa she said "Yeah, he's going to give me a candy cane!" And then when we got out of the car and said it was time to see Santa she said "We need to buy a ticket first." There was NO line- being Christmas Eve, people all had other things to do, I'm sure. So here she is in line, looking at pretty ornaments and not watching Santa.

Here is was when she saw Santa. It was horrible, when I tried to take her coat off and bring her up there, she was screaming with tears streaming down her face and her legs wrapped so tight around me holding on for dear life. So we said sorry Santa, not today. She did yell "goodbye Santa" through the tears when we were walking out the door. It was so sad.

When we got home, we set out some milk and cookies and carrots for Santa and the Reindeer. Ella colored him a picture and instructed me how to sign her name. We left the cookies in the safe keeping of Mr Elf, and said goodbye to him too until next year.

Happy 1st Birthday Taylor

2011-12-28T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy 1st Birthday Taylor! We can't wait to celebrate your big day with you this weekend! We are so glad we've gotten to see you grow up this past year

Presents

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella was not really into the gift aspect of Christmas. This was probably 5:30pm and she finally opened her first gift. I think she opened 2 and she had enough. Papa was enticing her that night and again the following morning and she would push the gifts away and say "No presents, I want my puzzles."

Inside Sledding

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

While you anxiously wait for us to upload photos from Christmas, here are some videos of Ella playing with her new sled... All we need now is some snow.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

We hope you all have a wonderful day!

Helping with the gift wrapping...

2011-12-24T14:00:00.000-05:00

After she was done crinkling the paper she took her telescope to "go look for pirates".

Sorry Santa, there is no room.

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

I had grand plans of putting together Ella's new bookcase and breathing a sigh of relief knowing where all the new toys were going to go. My line of thinking, was "bring it on Santa. We're ready." However it seems that we don't really have room for anymore toys! Now what? All her gifts, better fit in that one little empty cubby.

Quantity Control

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

I made more cookies.... not really because I wanted to, but because I have a problem with quantity control. When I was headed to our cookie making day with Lauren and the kids, I had bought cookie dough at BJ's because of the last minuteness of our plans. Of course I didn't buy just one 5lb tub of cookie dough, I bought 2. SO we used one there and between the cookies the kids tasted and the ones we split up, it wasn't a completely ridiculous amount. However, the 2nd 5lb tub of dough has been taking up a lot of room in my freezer, so I needed to make the rest of the cookies. I didn't count how many cookies I made but it was enough to fill 5 gladware containers, and another plate for us. I gave away one whole container to our neighbors, so that leave 4 containers of cookies for Christmas. I hope the Harris's are hungry for cookies (unfortunately i know that only those of us who married into the family ever eat sweets...) So, Colin and Courtney, save room for some cookies!

On a side note, you really need more than 1 person to make cookies with a double oven. The cookies are prettier when you decorate them without help from kids, but it is way less fun (but less messy too).

She can jump!

2011-12-22T12:05:00.001-05:00

This is what 20 minutes of quiet looks like.

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

Please allow me to set the stage for this mess. It was 8:19 am, I can see on the DVR. Ella woke up after 7am, so we'll say that she was awake for a little over an hour in which time she had watched a 20 minute bubble guppies show and had breakfast (ie, not yet making this mess). So after all that, she was quietly playing (dangerous) and Nate and I were sitting on the other side of the Christmas tree enjoying our coffee and the quiet for about 20 minutes, and this is what we found. It was worth it though, for sure. And Julie, I am pretty impressed that we got in our 11 minutes so early in the day!

jumping kiddos

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella and Thomas decided to jump off the curb.

Unfortunately for Ella, she can't jump.

So, Thomas jumped off the curb, while Ella just bounced up and down yelling "I'm jumping!"

Acadia doesn't jump either.

But they were all cute trying!

Huge Tree

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Amy, the kids and I met in Portsmouth, NH for lunch and found this huge tree and tried to take some pictures of the kids....

This is as close as we got to 3 "smiles"...

Master Manipulator

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Nate was trying to do something productive on the computer, and Ella climbed right up onto his lap... I don't think so daddy.

But you can "rub my back" as she likes to request.

Party Girl

2011-12-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Party Shoes

I'm not sure what she was doing in this picture, but the look on Nate's face really makes me feel like it couldn't have been good.

Trailer for "One Little Monkey"

2011-12-17T20:33:00.001-05:00

One Little Monkey

2011-12-17T20:30:00.001-05:00

Stone Zoolights

2011-12-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

We were searching for a good Santa, and thought we would try the Stone Zoo's Zoolights display. There were lots of lights and things set up outside, though we didn't walk through the entire zoo. (we had plans to go to Julie and Baer's for dinner, so we had to prioritize and this was really just about Santa). Here is Santa's castle. Now I was under the impression that since we were paying for admission to the event, that the cost also covered Santa and that we could just take our own pictures. This was not correct. Cameras were not allowed and we had to buy their photo package (they only take one picture!), which was a little annoying. So we (and by we, I mean I) are still on a search for a "take your own photo" Santa...

In line, whenever Ella would see Santa, she would yell "It's Santa, Let's go see him!" Luckily the couple kids ahead of us did well and were also happy to see Santa. She seemed a little nervous when I put her on his lap, but she was happy to sit there. Regardless, it was a better experience than last year. SHe became completely mute when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, though she had just told us that what she wanted was a lollipop. SHe did say "yes" and "thank you" when he gave her a candycane though. And I realize now that perhaps I should have dressed her a little more girlie.... the sweater was Nate's as a toddler, that his aunt had knit for him, and the hat is festive, however the overall look here is not so feminine :o) I guess this would have been a good time to pull out the pink/purple pants.

Balloons

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

For some reason these ornaments just look more like balloons than anything else. So far only 1 has gotten broken.

The best tree we ever had!

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

We got our tree the first weekend of December. We decided to put it kind of in the middle of the room rather than shoved in the corner behind furniture. Ella has been doing pretty well with leaving the ornaments alone. There are a few that she can;t leave alone, but for the most part has been fine. She will stand next to the tree randomly and say "it's beautiful."

The night before we decorated the tree, Mr Elf was hiding in it.

This ornament, the purple one, and several others have gone for rides on the "merry-go-round".

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when fun friends who have no children and therefore much more energy than Nate and I come over for dinner!

Dine and Dash

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

As per our holiday tradition, mom, Aunt Sue, Julie and I went to see a holiday show. We say the Boston Pop's perform with Rockapella at UConn. The show was fantastic, and the seats we got were great. Much improvement than the year we sat in front of the projector in the 3rd balcony...

However because UConn wasn't really close to where anyone lived, this year we added a new wrench into the plans, a hotel stay. We decided to stay at the "inn" on campus. Julie and I arrived promptly at our 3pm check in time, and were told that we needed to wait about an hour for our room to be ready because the people there before us had a late check out. We took this to mean that the room was being cleaned as we speak (aka the people were already gone) and proceeded to wait for our moms to arrive at the bar. So when the moms came and tried to check in, they were given a slightly different story. The room would be ready by 5 because there was a hockey team staying there and they hadn't left yet. So they joined us for more time in the bar.... At 5:15 the room was still not ready and we were all getting a little cranky and anxious about our dinner reservations. At 5:30pm, someone came to tell us that the room was ready. The moms jumped up to leave and Julie and I were still sitting in the booth and said "we have to pay the bill". Now no one will claim having uttered the words, but one of the mothers very forcefully said "get up girls, we're not paying for this" and we all walked out. This leads us to our possible new family tradition of the dine and dash, or sip and split as we started calling it because we didn't eat anything (and I only had water...)!

The rest of the evening was great. The room did not stink like hockey equipment as we had feared, the food was good and the show excellent. Our only other issue came the following morning when someone accidentally sent my breakfast up to someone's room for roomservice instead of to our table, to which I said to the waiter "I'm not paying for this!" (just kidding- I'm not as ballsy as the moms)

Even Santa needs to take a nap sometimes.

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

Baking Cookies

2011-12-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

We tried again this year to make Christmas cookies with the Kilgore family. We didn't plan this venture until the last minute so we didn't have time to make our own cookie dough and had to settle for a store bought tub of dough. The cookies kind of swelled into unrecognizable shapes in the oven, but they still tasted good. No one got sick this year so we are still considering the afternoon a success!

Julie heard our plans and thought we could use some more adults. She was right.

Ella wasn't too interested in helping with the cookies.

Neither was Brynn.

She got on board with eating pizza though.

Ella loves toes of babies, and was counting Brynn's toes and reciting "this little piggie went to market." Ella changes the words though and instead just lists the things all the toe/ piggies eat (ie ice cream and lollipops)

Christmas Stories

2011-12-10T10:14:00.000-05:00

Ella has received several Christmas books recently and has been loving reading them. Dan and Courtney got her a scratch and sniff book of the smells of Christmas. Beba and Papa got her "Twas the night before Christmas" and Kate and Colin got her "Elf on a Shelf". She loves all the books, and is so excited about the Elf, whom she has named "Mr Elf" and likes to go see him through out the day. She knows she is not allowed to touch him (or he will lose his magic) but she likes to being him things to eat from her food set. I think it might be hard to put him away when Christmas is over...

Christmas Crafts

2011-12-09T07:44:00.000-05:00

To get in the Christmas spirit Ella painted ornaments for Omi, Poppy, Beba, and Papa.

Happy Birthday Nate (aka Daddy)

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

You make our lives so much fun. We love you! Happy Birthday.

Big news

2011-12-07T06:00:00.001-05:00

We are all very excited to announce that we will be welcoming a new addition to our family in early June.

Ella has not been a huge fan of going to doctors appointments with me thusfar. SHe has seen be get my blood drawn several times, all of which she cries. During the ultrasound, Ella was so upset about me laying on the table that she needed to lay down next to me!

Happy Baptism, Shane

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Shane's baptism last weekend too! Congratulations everyone.

What a stud!

Someone wasn't very quiet during the ceremony!

Just one more...

Bonfire

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

"Come on Papa, lets go"

Ella got to hang out by the fire for about 20 minutes before bedtime.... probably the most stressful 20 minutes of my weekend.

sparks

Windchimes

2011-12-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

A Walk in the Woods

2011-12-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

We took advantage of the almost 70 degree November weather to go for a hike in the woods.

Beba needed some pinecones for her Christmas decorations.

She didn't need this huge stick, though Ella felt the need to lug it around.

If we would have let her, she would have climbed all the way up the hunting stand.

This hunting stand was (a little) safer. This girl has no fear of heights that's for sure!

Ella's tree

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

We went to Suffield for the weekend. The weather was so warm, we finally remembered to take a picture next to Ella's tree (it was the sapling we got at Jen and Jarrett's wedding last summer). It is still tiny, but alive and doing well. You really can't see it at all in the picture yet- maybe next year!

Helper

2011-12-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella was all business about carrying my birthday cake.

After she handed the cake to me she ran away yelling "I made it!"

Thanksgiving weekend at Omi and Poppy's

2011-11-30T06:00:00.001-05:00

learning how to share toys....

Ella liked riding this sea sickness machine at the playground, though she kept calling it her "rocking chair."

We took a muddy walk around the duck pond.

Ella tried to teach Taylor how to put the shapes into the shape sorter.

Taylor was more interested in putting them in another container.

Everyone loved storytime though.

Thanksgiving Day

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Here is our most Thanksgivingish photo involving the turkey salt and pepper shakers... The rest of the day all the "kids" were involved in a jam session.

Ella tried out a drum set for the first time.

And she got to jam with the big boys on the piano. We had a great day visiting with our family. We hope you did too!

New door

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

We have a deadbolt and everything... unfortunately we accidentally threw out the key.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T07:08:00.001-05:00

New Door

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

We have needed to replace the doors from our bedroom to the porch since we moved in, but it had become almost impossible to open and close the door, so we needed to get it done asap. Papa came up to help Nate with the door, and Beba and I took Ella out for lunch. Papa wasn't going to get much done with his little helper around.

Of course no "simple" project is simple, and all the wood around the door was completely rotted and needed to be replaced before the new door could be installed.

I haven't gotten a picture of the new door yet! It's coming. Anyways, they got the new door installed, but it got too dark and too late to use power tools, so the storm door will have to be put on another day. Thanks so much Beba and Papa!

seasoned traveler

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella loved being wheeled around the airport with the carseat attachment that we got from go-go babyz. She would have never ridden in the stroller.

She watched several team umizoomi episodes on each flight. The meltdown on the way home when electronics needed to be turned off was much better then on the way there.

We had a nice view of the sunset. Before dusk, Ella looked out the window and saw all the clouds below us and said "wow, look at all the snow!"

The dog

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Addy went to stay at a doggie resort for the weekend. She's not so great with large crowds, but she came home Sunday before we left so she could play with Ella.

Ella was very excited to have someone to play catch with, but the very loud screech of "CATCH" that she yells seemed a little frightening to Addy.

Popcorn

2011-11-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella refused to go to bed at their house, so we tried entertaining her with Austin's fancy popcorn machine.

Cincinnati Zoo

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Anna took advantage of the excuse of having a toddler visiting to make a trip to the zoo. It was much bigger than the zoo at home, so we took the speedy loop around. It was very nicely decorated for Christmas though.

Ella happened to be exactly at eye level with the top railing, so it was either looking under or over.... she didn't mind the extra work.

Their carousel only had actual zoo animals on it... no creepy bunny which is her favorite carousel animal to ride on. She managed to find another worth riding though.

SURPRISE!

2011-11-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy 30th Birthday Austin. We flew out to Cincinnati last weekend for a double surprise for Austin: our visit and his birthday party.

And of course we wanted to see Anna, who is expecting twins in the spring.

Ella was very excited to make another airplane trip. All went pretty smoothly until the announcement to turn off all electronic devices, when we had to turn Umizoomi off.... it was a long 20 minute landing.

Nate, and Gary (Austin's other surprise visitor) took Austin out while we decorated and got everything ready. Anna had planned a Harry Potter Themed Potter because of Austin's resemblance to Harry and that the movie happened to be being released that day.

While we got ready, Ella amused herself with the basket of dog toys. We did bring her own toys, but these we more fun. Though without a dog there to claim them, she thought they were really for her.

classy

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

poor utilization of space

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Uncle Baer and Julie

2011-11-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ella picked up these 2 toys the other day and said they were "uncle Baer and Julie". I guess "Aunt Julie" is a little too formal. The bear I get, however she doesn't refer to any of her other stuffed bears as "Uncle Baer". But Goofy as Julie, I'm not really following her thought process on that one.... maybe Goofy just looks fun.

New bed video

2011-11-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

Nate was sawing the slats for the bed while I took this video. It's hard to hear but when I ask her "are you going to sleep in your big girl bed tonight?" she responds "No I'm going to stand up!" So we were a little worried that it wasn't going to go very smoothly. We were pleasantly surprised at naptime, and then again at bedtime. We still have some bedroom rearranging to do. That chair isn't usually that close to the crib, but she was able to climb into it on her own for a while and we figured it was only a matter of time before she figured out how to get out. But as soon as the other bed was set up, she did not even once climb into the crib (even to "ride the horse" as she was calling it.)

Big Girl Bed

2011-11-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

We set up Ella's big girl bed the other morning and she couldn't wait (even for us to put the sheets on it) to jump on and try it out.

She took a normal length nap on it that day too. This is her right when she woke up.

And this is the quilt that Julie made for her when she was born (Julie knew that her favorite color would be purple even back then and also that she didn't need another baby blanket). Ella still doesn't sleep under the covers, but we have it folded at the bottom of the bed. She likes counting the stripes on it, of course!