A Happy Holiday Season!

December has been a very busy month!  It's been an exciting time and we have enjoyed spending time with Ella and celebrating her first Christmas!  We have done a lot of fun activities over the last couple of weeks:

• Went to Atlanta to visit grandparents, family and friends.  While in Atlanta Ella was able to spend a lot of time with her family and she loved every second of it!  She was passed around from person to person and never stopped smiling - we think she is going to be a very social child :-)

GiGi and "Santa Claus" - aka Uncle Tyler

Mimi and Ella

Loving the box that her cute owl came in!

Ella and Aunt Heather

Ella in her new hat that cousin Haley got her!

Christmas at Lorraine and Ed's

Ella and Nana C


Nana C, Grandaddy Rick and Hugh

Ella, Hugh and Robin exchanging gifts

 
Jessica and Linda during our girls lunch!

•  Went also went to Plano to visit Ella's PaPaw and friends. She had a great time visiting her PaPaw's office and his coworkers. She even got to open her first Christmas gifts.
 

PaPaw and Ella opening gifts

Ella and her PaPaw's office

PaPaw and Ella by the carolers in the lobby

• When we got back to Danville, Ella had her first ever "sleigh" ride in our neighborhood with the Clydesdale's.  Santa drove the sleigh around our neighborhood while all the kids sang Christmas carols during the ride.  Ella loved watching the other kids and by the end of the sleigh ride she had fallen asleep! Maybe next year she will be able to stay up past her bedtime!  

Daddy, Mommy and Ella on the "sleigh"

Ella and her buddy Caitilyn

Ella after the sleigh ride! Out like a light!

• We also were able to celebrate Ella's first Christmas. What a wonderful day!  She loved opening her gifts and playing with all her new toys! We are so blessed this holiday season and could not ask for anything more!

First Christmas Morning

Loving the toys but loving the wrapped gifts even more...

Not quite sure what to do with this thing...

She figured it out and loved her new bath toys!

Lexi was so sweet to let Ella open her stocking first.

Santa Baby!

Ella had her first visit with Santa today and she actually really liked him.  We went to The Livery shopping village here in Danville where there are a lot of cute shops and restaurants.  We were expecting a long line because visiting with Santa is free, and it was a beautiful day (mid 60's) which is a change from all the rain we have been getting. When we arrived we were surprised that there were only about 5 families in front of us.  Because it's free to visit with Santa, you actually get to bring your own camera to take pictures so the line moved very quickly! Afterwards we had a great lunch and Ella took a long nap.  We are looking forward to next year and hope that she has the same laid back demeanor that she had today - probably not!



6 Months old!

Where oh where is the time going? Ella turned 6 months old last week! It feels like only yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital.  She is really becoming such a sweet little girl and is generally always happy.  She definitely has her moments, but for the most part she enjoys each and every minute of everyday.



Here are a few milestones from this past month:

• Ella continues to entertain herself and will sit on her blanket and play with every single toy until she has thrown them all out of her reach.  She still loves her exersaucer and plays with all the toys on it.  She also likes to watch her Baby Einstein videos while she is playing. 
• She's learned to talk A LOT more and will talk out loud to whoever will listen.  She's started saying "mamamamama..." whenever mommy leaves the room.  It's not quite "mama" but we are getting there!  She's working hard to say "dada" as well!
• She loves food! We have come to find out that Ella loves any kind of food and has developed a very healthy appetite.  Now she has moved onto more fruits and veggies and this month pears and mango's (mixed together) are her favorite.  She has also started sitting in her highchair to eat all her meals. 
• Within the last couple of weeks, she has become very aware of Lexi and loves watching her run around.  Lexi is still not as interested in her, but we have a feeling that they are going to be pretty good buddies once Ella starts giving Lexi food! We also dog sat Ruby (another Cavalier) during Thanksgiving and Ella loved watching the two of them run around.

This month we celebrated Daddy's 37th birthday and Ella attended her first birthday party for Caitlyn who turned 2 years old.!

We went to the doctor this past week and she was 15lbs 11oz and is in the 50th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for height.  The doctor said he thinks she is going to be around 5'5''! 

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year and have so MANY things to be thankful for!  We stayed in California and hosted our first ever Thanksgiving dinner at our home.  We had a great day preparing our first ever turkey and many yummy sides! Everything turned out great and we were so thankful to have Jim, Anna, Mike, Lisa and Maitland come celebrate with Brandon, Ella, Lexi and I.

On Thanksgiving night we all put on our comfy pajamas and watched Christmas Vacation.  Friday we put up our Christmas decorations and went to the Annual Lighting of the Old Oak Tree in Danville.  Ella had a great time snuggling with her PaPaw and listening to the Christmas carolers.  It was a great way to kick off the holiday season!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend! 

5 months old

Ella turned 5 months old yesterday! We are in disbelief that she is already 5 months - where is the time going? We are so proud of all that she has accomplished this past month and are enjoying every moment with her.  She has really started to come into her personality these last couple of weeks.  We can tell that she is going to love to talk (like her mommy), loves to laugh and can turn her "fake" cry on/off when she needs something (dramatic like her daddy)!  She loves to smile and is such a happy girl! It makes us so happy just being around her!

This month she had some big milestones.  She started sleeping in her own room and is still sleeping through the night.  She wakes up every morning laughing and talking - it's adorable! She's also started playing in her exersaucer and can entertain herself for long periods of time - this is nice for mommy! She had her first taste of rice cereal along with some fruits and veggies. So far she has had apples, bananas, peas and green beans. We would have to say that her favorite so far are the apples and bananas - guess she is going to have a sweet tooth! She also attended her first football game - Auburn vs. Kentucky in Lexington! She had to wear a little bit of AU and UK to make both mommy and daddy happy.

Happy Halloween!!

We had a great time celebrating Halloween during the entire month of October. Ella had so many Halloween outfits that she wore something festive almost every day of the month!

For her first Halloween we really wanted Ella to be a lady bug to match Lexi's costume, but mommy did not realize you have to buy costumes well in advance if you want to get the right size! Due to mommy's procrastination, we were not able to find a lady bug that fit her. So, we decided on the next best thing - a PUPPY costume to look like her sister Lexi! She looked adorable and although she did not make it up to see the first trick-or-treater, she had a great time dressing up and enjoyed the neighborhood Halloween party!

We also made our first trip with Ella to Moore's Pumpkin Patch! She loved looking at all the pumpkins and animals and is looking forward to participating in the petting zoo next year! And mommy and daddy are looking forward to actually trick or treating next year! Happy Halloween!!

Ella in her puppy costume - I think she liked it!

Pumpkin outfit - so fun!

First Halloween shirt (and hilarious hat!)

First trip to the pumpkin patch

Laying in the gourds

Lexi in ladybug costume.

If you look closely you will see daddy's hands around her waist -

he was ducking down behind the haystack!

Family portrait (minus Lexi of course).