Valentine's Day 2011

For Valentine's Day this year, we decided to do a little craft and make valentine's for the grandparents and a few other special people.  I was so impressed with how well Elly did making her handprints.  I let her do it in SIU colors for Father's Day last year to make a picture for Casey's office and it was one huge mess!  Cute, but messy!  This time she sat so still and put her hands where I told her!  She's growing up!

Here's the valentine's we made!  I thought they turned out pretty cute!

This was the Sunday before Valentine's Day.  I got this outfit from a lady on facebook that makes the cutest things.  This was actually a used outfit so I got a great deal on it!  I thought Elly looked so cute and she got tons of compliments.  I got asked all day if I made her outfit...I wish!  Maybe someday!  In the meantime, we will definitely be buying more from Lois Jean's Linens.  I have no idea how to make that a link but she's on facebook under that name!

My best attempts at getting some pictures that morning!



Valentine's Day was on a Monday this year so unfortunately we had to go to work, but somehow I managed to get up early enough to make these hot pink chocolate chip pancakes!  It was a mix, don't be too impressed!

I used a cookie cutter to cut one into a heart for Elly and when I gave it to her, she said, "Pink? Heart? Eat it?"  She's just way too smart!  Once I assured her it was indeed to be eaten, she had no problems digging in!  And don't you love the hair?  She get's it from her momma, bless her heart!

Even though Elly has awesome grandparents that offered to babysit so we could go out, we just decided to cook at home.  By the time we got home from work, changed, and got out we would've had to wait so long, we just thought it would be easier this way.  And it was!  Here was our meal!  I think it was Elly's first time having asparagus and she actually ate it really good!



After supper, we let Elly open a few little gifts we got her!

She got a couple new books!

And this ginormous Dora doll that I found on clearance at Walgreens!  I thought it would be perfect for her to sit at her table and have tea parties with so maybe Mommy could have a little break!

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!  We sure did!

Bathtime Fun - February 2011

 Just some cute bathtime pictures!  Elly loves taking a bath!

And she loves dumping water over her head!  She's not scared at all and will just laugh and laugh!

 I sure do love that little face!

January 2011

We rang the new year in with our neighbors, Dipal and Brittany.  They had a great party and we probably could've stayed all night playing Wii, but Elly was at home with Bailey and a friend and they had a sleepover to get to. I didn't get any pictures that night, but we had a wonderful time!

January must not have been too exciting for us because I don't have a whole lot of pictures.  I know it included lots of basketball games...SIU wasn't the greatest this year so maybe that's why there's no pictures haha!  We did take a trip down to Chuck E. Cheese in Paducah.  It was Elly's first time and she had a blast!  Too bad she got the stomach flu a couple days later and then passed it on to over 10 people!  Probably another reason why there's not many January pictures...we were all sick!  And no joke, 10 seperate people who either came to our house or had contact with Elly including us, ended up sick!  We felt awful about it!  I actually got sick about 8 hours before Elly so maybe I started it and brought it home from work, but I'd rather blame good 'ol Chuck E. Cheese!  Oh well, it was fun!  We just won't be back during the peak of cold/flu season!

She loved skee ball!  Just like her Momma!

Picking out a prize!  She got some stickers, crayons, and a bracelet that broke before we were out of the parking lot haha!

These are my only other January pictures and it was just a day Elly looked cute in her boots and I wanted to play with my camera!

Christmas 2010 - Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas day!  Elly actually let us sleep in a little bit...probably from being up late the night before and all of the excitement!  I'm betting that won't last many more years, if any!  We brought her straight out to her presents when she woke up and she just kind of slowly walked around looking at everything and taking it all in.  She'd stop at each thing and want to sit and play with it and would get upset when we kept trying to show her other gifts.  Her kitchen set was the last gift she got to and she didn't waste anytime starting to play with that!  It was hard to get her away from it!

We finally did though and she enjoyed unwrapping a few presents too!

Trying out her new doctor set on her new baby!  She knew exactly what to do!  Wonder why?!!

Just playing with all her new stuff!  And no, that's not a real bottle!  It was the new one that came with her baby :)

Laying down on her new bean bag with her new baby and covering up with the blanket I made her!

Right about the time we were finishing up opening presents, my mom and Dave got here. We had a wonderful breakfast and then Elly had more to open...and so did we!  This was her posing with her new apron, hat, and mitt Grammy got her to go with her kitchen!

Checking out the grocery cart Grammy got her!

And playing in her new tent!

Once we were finally done, we decided to go outside and play in the snow!  We were so lucky to have a white Christmas!

Snowball fight!! 

Elly thought it was great!

After that, we came back in to warm up and realized we had a few more gifts to do.  My mom always gets a can of black olives in her stocking and we always take a picture of it!  I think it was a tradition started when her and my Dad were first married and I've kept it going as long as I've been old enough to buy her gifts on my own.

Ahh..Finally done!  Naptime!

Normally we would be done for the day, but because of everything being in disarray because of Casey's Grandma, we had not gotten to exchange gifts with his parents so we headed over there for the evening.  Elly got a tricycle!!  She jumped right on and was ready to go!

Poor girl was so sick of opening presents, we had to bribe her with candy to keep going!  Isn't that sad?!  She sure is blessed and I pray that I will teach her to be grateful and very giving herself.

Back at home - our living room at the end of the day!  I cannot stand going to bed without picking up but I definitely made an exception this night!

And this is Elly in her Christmas dress.  We had to miss Christmas Eve service at church because of the last minute change in plans to have Casey's family at our house so Elly didn't have a chance to wear her Christmas dress until the Sunday after Christmas.  This was the best picture I could get that morning, but isn't she just adorable?!!  She made this Christmas one of the best ever!!

Christmas 2010 - Christmas Eve

Christmas was a little different for us this year because of Casey's Grandma Tanner being sick.  She was in the hospital all through the holidays and wasn't expected to make it, but she did and is now doing pretty well!  Definitely was a good lesson in trusting that things are not in our control...not even doctors and nurses!  We took Elly up to the hospital Christmas Eve morning so she could open her presents from Grandma Tanner in front of her.  She was off the vent at this point and was pretty alert so she enjoyed being able to see Elly.

This was Elly in the waiting room playing with her new baby from Grandma Tanner!  She loves that baby!

Because of Grandma being in the hospital and Debbie staying at the hospital round the clock, we decided it would just be easier if we hosted Christmas Eve at our house this year.  This was the first big holiday meal we had ever had at our house and being decided less than 24 hours in advance, it was kind of thrown together but I think it turned out good!  It was nice to have everybody over and it was nice for us to not have to get out...especially since it was snowing! This was Elly before everybody got there trying on her new hat, gloves, and scarf from Uncle Steve and Aunt Gayle.  I love how she looks like she's saluting! 

Here's all the food set up in the kitchen!

And the dessert table!

Uncle Steve reading the Christmas story from the Bible

And then we had a visitor!!  Elly wasn't too sure what to think!  She loved "Ho Ho" this year as long as she wasn't too close.  She would wave and say hi, but didn't want to sit on his lap!

We finally got her to sit beside him...we even tried telling her it was just Papaw but it didn't matter!

Family picture with Santa!  Even Lacey got in on it!

Casey's family always does a white elephant gift exchange and his brother got this wig and pom pons this year.  He graciously gave them to Elly!  She was hilarious dancing and shaking them!

After everybody went home, it was time to get ready for bed and for Santa to come.  This was our first year leaving cookies and milk for Santa!  Elly didn't quite get it...she just wanted to eat the cookies!

Then it was time for The Night Before Christmas...this was always a tradition for me growing up...my Dad would always read it to me before bed on Christmas Eve and now Casey reads it to Elly and I.  In fact, when I got married, my Dad gave a copy of it to Casey with strict instructions to read it me every year! 

And then a little snuggle time with Mommy!

After Elly was in bed, Casey and I exchanged our presents from each other.  We normally do it Christmas morning, but thought we'd try it this way this year and it worked out great.  Christmas morning is always so crazy and I knew it would take Elly forever to get through her gifts so this way it elminated a big chunk of time.  And we got to enjoy some alone time that night and allowed the next morning to be all about Elly!!

After we were done, Santa came!  This is all Elly's presents set up and ready to go!

Yes, we know she is spoiled and we wouldn't have it any other way!