Santa Visit

We went to visit Santa yesterday at Eastdale Mall. Ella seemed excited while we waited in line and watched the other kids visit with him, but as soon as it was our turn, she got hysterical! I pretty much expected that, so I wore red for the occasion incase we needed to sit in his lap too (which we did). :-) Oh well, at least we have a picture for our scrapbook.

No trip to the mall is complete without a visit to the hot dog bus which made everything better in Ella's book. After that, Santa was completely forgotten!
Ella thought there was one good thing about going to see Santa...the coloring book he gave her to "read":

Before we left to go to the mall, I foolishly left a bag of cereal on the kitchen counter that Ella promptly pulled down and dumped all over the place. She wasn't too pleased about sharing her treat with the dogs!

In other news, we had to move our ultrasound to Monday (it's a long story), so that gives you two extra days to vote if you haven't already...so go and vote! :-)

15 Weeks

I hit 15 weeks yesterday and I'm not showing, but have developed a nice little gut. I'm the type of pregnant woman that doesn't "show" until I'm pretty far along, but just starts to look thick and like I've gained 15 lbs. Lovely! :-) We're getting super excited because it's less than a week until our ultrasound. Last week to make a guess in our poll!

This week Baby Dos is an orange.

A ride on the Santa Express

We met with our playgroup today at Eastdale Mall to eat lunch in the food court and then ride on the Santa train. We always have a good time together and cause a small stir because of all the kids, moms, and strollers! :-) Ella really liked the train...she probably would have taken another ride if offered. The moms got to ride with the little ones and got a laugh out of what we do now as moms that we would have never done before we had kids! We finished the day with a visit to some of the ride-on toys at the mall. Ella thought she was pretty big driving the hotdog bus.

Foundations Class Party

We had our Sunday School class party this evening. It was a "no-kids" evening so it was nice to get together and spend some time with class members without having to chase kids around! We played a game where you anonymously write an interesting fact about yourself on a slip of paper. Then the facts are drawn one by one out of a hat and everyone guesses who they are referring to. It was so much fun and needless to say, we learned a lot about each other tonight! :-) I was the chosen one to take the class photo since our other resident photog Lori was not in attendance. I think it turned out ok...better than last years anyways! :-) Lori...I'm counting on you for the 2009 shot!

Christmas Decorations

I finally got around to taking some pictures of our Christmas decorations. I'm not going to post a picture of the outdoor lights yet because as I was taking it, I realized that we had lights out! So once we fix that little issue, I'll take another picture.

The tree in our front room:

Our den...we normally put a big tree up in here, but we opted for a smaller one this year to avoid having to tell Ella "no" constantly. She would love to grab all the ornaments!

The tree in Ella's room (placed very high and totally out of reach!):

The plate we made last year with Ella's footprint:

A purse my mom gave me last year...pretty festive! :-)

19 Months and 14 Weeks

Ella turned 19 months today. And I still haven't taken her 18 month pictures! Must...get...on...the...ball!!! Anyways, she is just as cute as ever at 19 months. She makes me smile and laugh constantly throughout the day. It's amazing to me how quickly she's picking up on things now and the new words she says daily. We're so blessed to have her as our daughter!

And, Baby Dos turned 14 weeks yesterday.

He or she is now the size of a lemon.

Following in her father's footsteps...

Ella can dunk!

Our Sunday School teacher and his wife (who is also Keith's boss and friends of ours) had a Thanksgiving meal at their home for our entire Sunday School class plus some other friends a few days before Thanksgiving. It was a great time of fellowship for the adults and the kids had a blast playing with all the toys in the backyard. Not to mention all the yummy food!!