Help yourself to an apple!

One day I came back out to the playroom where Ella had been playing by herself for a while only to find that she had helped herself to an apple! This picture is when I found her.... I had no idea she knew how to eat an apple like this. She's been watching Daddy since Mommy only eats apples with the handy apple slicer!

New Years Visit

We spent New Years Day visiting family in San Antonio. It is rare to have everyone there at one time - all the way from Minnesota, California and Germany! It was a fun day. Ella met her 2nd cousin Coleson and they played at the park together. At the park, Ella found something fun to play with...

Christmas

This year we were up in the Dallas area visiting my side of the family. Before we left though, we had a little Christmas evening with just our little family. We gave Ella a play kitchen for Christmas, but honestly, she loved her candy cane almost as much! Ella enjoyed so much all the Christmas decorations outside. She talked about snowmen and baby Jesus all the time and frequently thought Santa Claus was Noah. She still wants us to sing "Away in a Manger" before she goes to bed at night. Here she is holding baby Jesus from a Fisher Price nativity at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma Boo and Grandpa Martin bought a rocking horse to have at their house when the grandkids visit and Ella had a lot of fun!Ella got to spend a lot of time playing with her cousin...each time they see each other they are more and more interactive...it is fun to watch.

Ella helped decorate Christmas cookies...well, she honestly ate more icing than she spread on the cookies, but she did a really good job. Here she is peeking up to see if Grandma Boo is watching her take another taste of frosting even though she knew she was not supposed to!
Here are a few of Caleb...

Here are a few family pictures. The first is me, my mom and my sister. She is due with her baby in middle January. The second is my mom and my stepdad, Martin...with Caleb. The third is my brother Cory and his wife Stephanie - they were just married in July.

A few before Christmas...

The weeks before Christmas seemed like a very busy time this year, but we managed to get some pictures worth sharing.

Caleb playing...

Ella loved seeing snowmen this Christmas season...of course not real snowmen but decorations! :) There was a huge blown-up one at a neighbors house that she talked about and wanted to go see everyday. We would have to explain to her that the snowman would "go to sleep" during the day and then "wake up" at night because she didn't understand why the snowman was not inflated during the day. Here she is with her neighbor friends.

Caleb eats cereal! Because Caleb is already so big (over 17lbs and wearing 12mo clothes) the pediatrican said to start giving him cereal. Here is his first taste of yummy rice cereal. He was not a big fan at first, but has recently starting doing better with it. He is now up to 2tbs at bedtime and opens his mouth for them.

Thanksgiving

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We spent the weekend in Plano visiting Cami's family.

Here's everyone!

Just a few recent pictures...

Jeremy is so great with the kids and spends a lot of time with them...

Ella sitting in her baby doll's bed.

Ella with her babies in her sling...just like mommy!

Mommy and Caleb out at the park feeding the ducks.

Fireman and Firelady

Daddy brought home a fireman hat the other day for Ella from Firehouse Subs. It was very exciting and she of course talked about her uncle Cory the fireman and her Aunt Stephanie. Then she proceeded to point out fireman in books she has that are wearing their hat also. Caleb had to try it on too.