Christmas Day

I don't have a TON of pictures - mostly just Ellery staring at her presents LOL. Santa came and Ellery checked out her stocking (he brought her a toothbrush. . YAY!) and then opened her other presents from the big guy (and Mommy and Daddy)

Then we were off to my parents - it was VERY overwhelming for her - LOTS of presents and LOTS of fun!

She's a VERY lucky little girl to have so many people who love her
Checking out her "big" present (best 35.00 I have ever spent!!):
At Nanny and Nonno's:

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful (quiet) Christmas Eve. We met my parents at church for 4:30 mass. Ellery LOVED the music and danced through quite a bit of church - she was SO good through mass also - got a little itchy and it was SO crowded - but all in all it was a beautiful mass - i LOVE church at Christmas!

We went back to my parents and just ate for the rest of the night LOL

Here are pics from Christmas Eve:


All tuckered out at Nanny and Nonno's

ooh Santa came!!

A Christmas "miracle"

We have first steps!!!! Today Ellery took her first step. . . just one (well just one 2 separate times) but it's still a step (literally :) :) :) )

Pictures!!!

The girls :) (minus ellery who was napping)

the guys :)

I call this one: "why it takes 2+ hours to open presents" LOL

one million bubas :) hehe

I'm a bad mommy!!

Considering I haven't updated since Thanksgiving and it's a week away from Christmas!!!

Ooops....not that there are a lot of people reading anyway. . let's be honest here.

So. . what has Ellery been up to?

Mischief mostly. rofl. . we now refer to her as H.E. - as in "Hurricane Ellery" LOL. Really though the child is SUCH a joy - that we overlook the H.E. tendencies (mostly :) )

She turned 11 months old Friday - hard to believe that she's been here for that long. Sometimes it seems like she was so tiny and helpless yesterday and then sometimes it seems like she's been here forever and I can't believe it's ONLY been 11 months.

She's not walking yet and I'm okay with that - everyone keeps asking and I've taken to just saying "she'll walk when she's ready".

On the other side of things - she's talking up a STORM - she says Mama clear as day now (and actually FOR me :) ), Dada, Nana (usually Na na na na na na LOL), Kitty, pretty, hi, huh (where did she get that one??!! rofl), so I guess that's why she's not walking. .she's too busy chatting (like mother like daughter??!! LOL)

She's like a bird - as soon as I turn her light on in the morning (or when she wakes up on the weekend) she's talking. . blah blah blah blah. . and she doesn't stop until bedtime LOL I love it ;)

We had Christmas with John's Family on Saturday - since there are so many of us it's just easier to do it the week before. . then no one has to run around like a crazy person on actual Christmas :)

And tomorrow is my 28th birthday :)

I'm going to do another post with just pictures from Christmas at my in laws so you can see that as well :)

oh! and we took the pics for Ellery's birthday invites. I'll share them after the invite is done and they go out :)