Ellie's First Christmas

Here are Ellie and Aunt Leah on Christmas Eve.

This is my new favorite family picture...taken on Christmas morning.

Here is Ellie playing with her first Nativity given to her by Nan & Pop Pop.

Ellie's favorite thing about Christmas...all the bows, boxes and wrapping paper!

Here she is taking her new wagon for a test drive.

Christmas Day at Granny & Paw's

This year we traveled to Brevard to spend Christmas with Brad's family. Thanks to the snow storm the week before we technically had a White Christmas, although no snow actually fell while we were there. We had a great time visiting with family and watching Ellie experience Christmas for the first time. I realized after the fact that since I was so busy watching her take it all in I didn't take many pictures. Thankfully Brad took some good video footage so we will be able to look back on this Christmas for a long time. Even though Ellie won't remember a thing we will always treasure our first Christmas as a family of three.

10 Months

Our little girl is now 10 months old. She continues to be more and more fun each and every day! Here are some of the new things she is doing these days:

• She is pulling up with a lot more confidence now and starting to cruise along the couch.
• She is waving now unprompted when I tell her we're going bye-bye and when she is glad to see something or someone (she waved when she saw the school bus in our neighborhood today!)
• One of her favorite activities is looking out the window in her room.
• She is feeding herself finger foods more than baby food these days and she loves it.
• She continues to love watching us do just about anything...cook, wash dishes, you name it, she's just so observant and takes everything in so intently.
• We got a push toy down from the attic about a week ago but she's not a big fan yet. She does however like to walk holding on to our hands.
• She loves to play with paper. The other day she played with some coupons contently for a good 20 minutes.
  

We are really looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year with our sweet girl. It's so hard to believe that this time last year we were anxiously preparing for her arrival and now we'll be celebrating her first birthday in a few short months!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today we helped Ellie's Great Grandpa celebrate his 90th birthday! I truly believe the Lord has honored him with a long life because of his faithfulness to Him. My grandpa is a man who loves the Lord and all of those around him. He has talked for years about living to be 90 and it has finally happened. Now his goal is to reach 100 years old! We love you, Grandpa!

Ellie and the Red Balloon

Last week while we were at the grocery store the cashier saw Ellie smiling at a balloon at the register and gave her one. Let me just say that the balloon was a big hit! She was so cute and for a few days anywhere Ellie crawled she pulled her red balloon right along with her.

Also, here is Ellie in her diaper box "car" that we have been pushing her around the house in. She fits perfectly with room for a few toys. She doesn't get really excited about it, but she doesn't protest either. I think the verdict is still out.