Ellie's 1st Christmas

We had a very busy Christmas, but I will have to say it was one of the best ones I have ever had. Rusty and I thoroughly enjoyed spending Christmas with Ellie. She had a blast, and I can honestly say she was truly appreciative of every single thing she opened. It's like she knew what to do! The festivities began the Sunday before Christmas at my grandmother's house in Anniston. From the minute we put a present in front of her she knew what to do and started ripping, tearing, and eating the paper!

Opening her very first gift from her great-aunt Shannon!

Just the beginning of the paper eating!

Sunday night Rusty, Ellie, and I opened gifts from each other (so we wouldn't have even more to take to Atmore)! Rusty surprised Ellie with a "My First Christmas" ornament.

We headed down to Atmore on Monday afternoont. Our next stop was down to Foley on Christmas Eve to celebrate with Rusty's dad.

Ellie and her cousins...Mallory, Madison, and Mary Mykal. She LOVES her cousins, and they all have so much fun together!

Ellie opening her gifts from Paw Paw Roger.

We went to church Christmas Eve with Poppy, Lollie, my brother and sister and then headed back to Poppy and Lollie's for a little get-together with their friends. After everyone left Ellie and I made sure to put cookies and milk out for Santa! Ellie had a little trouble settling down because I know she was so excited about Santa Claus, but she eventually passed out and had a good night's sleep.

Bright and early Christmas morning...ready to go see what Santa brought her! (Santa came to Poppy and Lollie's house this year however he will be coming to Ellie's house in Bham next year).

Ellie checking out all of her loot from Santa!

This little inside riding toy definitely is one of her favorites from Santa!! She kept crawling back over to it wanting to ride some more!

Ellie and her new luggage from Poppy and Lollie. Not so exciting to her, but Mommy sure was excited!

Sitting pretty. Another favorite...her new anywhere chair!

Checking out all of her stocking stuffers!

Our next stop...Meme's house (Rusty's mom).

Ellie and her cousin Mary Mykal.

Ellie and me with her soon-to-be aunt and my soon-to-be sis in law, Susie!

Next stop, my grandmother's house!

Momese (my grandmother and Ellie's namesake) gave her the neatest castle piggy bank that even had her name on it!! As you can see she loved it.

Last but not least...we headed to Rusty's grandmother's house on Christmas Day night. We were all worn out by this point, but as you can see Ellie hung in there for us.Definitely her most favorite gift of the day...her new pink car from Maw Maw!! Look at both of those hands on that steering wheel. Hilarious is all I can say.

By this point she felt comfortable enough to steer one-handed. Cruisin around with her cousin.

We are back home and somewhat settled. Recovering from a long, wonderful Christmas week! We hope all of you had a great Christmas! We certainly did!

Ornament Fun with AK and K!

Yesterday Ellie and I met Katherine and Anna Kate at Painted By U to make some ornaments! The girls both did a great job with their hand and footprints. AK and I were a little nervous about getting paint on the girls' matching Santa outfits, but we were assured that the paint wouldn't stain and it was even safe for Ellie to eat! That's always a plus since everything goes straight into her mouth these days.

Ellie and her buddy Katherine. She loves little babies and wants to put her little hands all over them! K doesn't seem to mind!

Katherine doing her handprint.

K having her foot painted...she loves it!

Look closely at that long, SKINNY foot! We got the biggest kick out of the fact that K's foot looks just like AK's. I didn't realize just how much until I saw this!

Ellie goes to work on her ornament.

She really loved it!

She really enjoyed chewing on her little shoe while working on her footprint.

You might not be able to tell, but she is so proud of herself that she started clapping. This is our new favorite thing to do lately!

We are all such artists! ha! AK and I hope E and K don't take after us with our lack of artistic ability. We were basically helpless doing this until the girl who worked there came over to help us. We had such a fun day and can't wait to see the finished products!

Christmas Fun

I love Christmas for so many reasons. One of those reasons is that it brings together friends that you don't get to see often enough! Every year at Christmas a group of 11 of us girls from college get together for a girls' brunch on Sat morning and a couples party Sat night. We went from having one child at the brunch last year to having 5 this year!! Luckily the kiddos all behaved themselves which meant a great time for all of us. We did a little ornament swapping, mimosa drinking, and socializing! It was great to see all of you girls, and I am so glad we all were able to get together!

The Mamas and babies. Ellie is the only girl in the bunch!

The boys and their Mamas! Nancy & Wesley (born 9/7), Ryan & Davis (born 9/5), and Mandy & Jackson (born 9/12).

Meghan & Ellie

7 out of 11 of us made it to the party Sat night. We missed you Nancy (poor Baby Wesley was a bit under the weather).

The Briens stayed with us over the weekend, and we were so excited to have Baby Jackson (Sam Jr!) here! Ellie enjoyed meeting her new boy "friend." Jackson is precious and was an angel the entire time they were here. We loved having you all here Mandy, Sam, and Jack!! We got the 2 babies together for a little photo session on Sat. How cute!!

We did have one other major development around here this week too! Last Mon morning I went into Ellie's room around 7 am to get her up and found her like this! Look at that tongue sticking out! She was SO proud of herself. All I could do was laugh hysterically. Great, one more thing to keep us from napping all week!

Now that we've mastered this pulling up to a standing position thing, we like to practice all over the house!

Oh, and last but not least we are finally crawling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would have to say today is the official day. She actually crawled down the hall and across the living room several times. I need to figure out how to post a video on You Tube so I can post it on the blog so you can see her in action!

Ho Ho Ho!!

We went to Santa Sunday at the country club today, and Ellie got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time! She did great and didn't get scared or anything. She stared at him at first like, "Who in the world are you" and pulled on his beard just a little bit. We had such a fun day!

Enough of this crawlin' thing...I'm just going to skip that and go straight to walking!

We don't know what happened...

to our perfect little angel who used to go down for a nap so easily. All you had to do is lay her down in her crib, and she would fall fast asleep in no time! Well, Rusty, Shelby (my sister and nanny), and I are all wondering what in the world has happened to that angel! She has either turned into a different baby or is just going through some sort of phase (I hope it's this option for my sanity because I am beginning to lose it). Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we were having a lot of trouble getting her to settle down for a nap so we went in to check on her and found her like this...She mastered the art of sitting up in her crib!

So, that was a short phase that interrupted our naps. Now, I don't know what has gotten into her. Starting yesterday I have resorted to laying her down (and she immediately pops up into a sitting position!) and just leaving her until she cries herself to sleep. So this morning I decided I would have to do that again because I knew she was exhausted. After about 3 minutes she got very quiet so I went in to check on her and found her like this! As you can see I couldn't resist posting this! How pitiful is this?!!!
Again, I am hoping and praying that this is a short-lived phase. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Rusty and I are losing it!