Ellie's 1st Tooth

Here comes that 1st little tooth poking through.  Bottom, left it is!

Sleeps unswaddled

Ok...I really thought that I might just have to show Ellie's college roommate how to swaddle her before she went to bed...but, we did it!  Ellie, at almost 6 months old, is now sleeping unswaddled.  A good, tight swaddle is one of my secrets to good sleeping babies and all my kids liked to be swaddled, but Ellie was taking it a little too far.  She just couldn't give it up and we were running out of blankets that are big enough to contain her.

Princess Leia Where Are You?

When I was pregnant with Wesley, we didn't find out until he was born if he was a boy or a girl.  We were on vacation and shopping, when we saw the cutest Star Wars onsies and knew we had to have one for our baby...but we didn't know if we should get the boy or the girl one.  So, we got both.  We got a gray and green, Yoda onsie and a white and pink, Princess Leia onsie.  Both boys have gotten a lot of use out of the Yoda onsie, but the Princess Leia onsie kept getting shoved back in the box of baby clothes, hoping one day to have a baby to go in it.  Well, 6 years later, here she is...little Miss Princess Leia onsie.

Sits up!

Such a big girl!  Ellie is now sitting up on her own!  It may be a tripod assisted sit, but it's still a sit!

1st Swim Lesson

We've been out of the pool all winter, so it's time to get everyone ready for the swim season.  It's the boy's first lesson back after a long break, but it's Ellie's first lesson ever!  Wes and Ellie go first, while Grandma watches Nate play, then I get in the pool with Nate while Wes plays and Ellie usually falls asleep.  Everyone needs a good nap after swim practice, me and Grandma included!  All the kids are doing great, and check out the cute little girl swim suit!  I just couldn't wait any longer to get her in a swim suit.

Says Dada

I'm so jealous!  Ellie says Dada!  Both boys said Mama first, but Ellie said Dada.  Looks like we have a Daddy's girl after all.

Rolls back to front!

 

There she goes!  Watch out world, she's movin' and grovin'!

Rolled from front to back

Uh Oh! Ellie's starting to figure it out!

Happy New Year!

We had a fairly quiet (except for the noise makers), but super fun New Year's Eve celebration. The Nobacks, Alisa, Mike and baby Rosie (still cooking in the overn) joined us for our night of fun, as well as Grandma and Linde, of course.

We made our usual cheese fondue, played a few games, pigged out on sweets and made a ton of noise when the clock struck midnight.

Nate rang in the New Year in his crib.

...and Ellie was snug as a bug in her craddle.

Nothing like ringing in the New Year with the ones that you love.  Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

The morning of Christmas Eve, at the request of the boys, Daddy turned Nate's birthday present basketball hoop box in to a train. They were thoroughly entertained ALL day. I guess we can tell Santa to return all the toys...the boys have a box.

Everyone (except Michael and Amanda) happened to have the day off from work, so we had a nice, early dinner and then headed to church. Then it was time to see what Santa left when his bag broke open at Grandma's house.

Happy kids, waiting to see what Santa left for them.

Beautiful girl in Christmas dress #1 that Aunt Jaime picked out for her when she was first born.

Ellie's first gift, her Leapfrog puppy!

One of Wes's favorites (if not THE favorite) and Toy Story train from Adam and Jaime.

Another favorite! Uncle Michael picked out Thomas and Percy flash lights for the boys. Nate LOVES his.

Merry 1st Christmas, baby girl!

Nater Tot must've been a very good boy this year.

Wes and one of Santa's reindeer...oh wait...that's just Grandma.

It was an awesome Christmas with an awesome family.

Santa

Both boys asked Santa for a bike and baby toys for Ellie.

Everyone was very good and smiled big for several pictures. You gotta love Santa.

REALLY Sleeping Through the Night

At 2 months old, Ellie decided it was time to skip her last feeding and sleep 11 hours at night instead of her normal 8! See, this is why I keep wanting to have more babies.

P-O-L-A-R

Look at that snow bunny!! Soooo cute!

You can tell by this picture that Ellie KNOWS that Lou Lou is the one who bought this getup.

We loaded up the minivan and headed up north to catch the Polar Express! Grandma, Linde, Papa and Lou Lou came too.

We did a little exploring all around the train station when we got there.

There were lights to look at.

Animals to see.

Then, of course there were trains.

We found Mrs. Clause in a room at the station, seeing visitors.

The boys colored a picture for Santa...

...and put it in his mailbox.

We ate some dinner, then got ready to board the train.

We had great seats, right across the aisle from each other.

The ride to the North Pole began and the staff sang and danced while the handed out hot chocolate and cookies and read the book to us.

The Polar Express is a magic train, so we arrived at the North Pole in no time.

We looked out the window and there were lights everywhere and Santa was there with a HUGE bag of presents. Getting all ready for Christmas Eve.

We sang some more songs while we waited for Santa to get to our train car.

Finally, Santa came to our train car and gave all the kids a bell. It was very magical. The boys couldn't have been happier. Nate said, "Nakes (thanks) Santa". Wesley grinned from ear to ear.

Santa even gave Ellie a bell and told her that they would get to know each other very soon.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the station restaurant and got ready to head home.

The whole trip was a really great time and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Daddy was even smart enough to remember that we were right next to the REAL Route 66, just like in Cars, and we stopped to get a picture.