Ella B

Our sweet Ella B! All of these pictures were taken in early January, so before her 1 year birthday. (Picture above courtesty of my cousin Angela.) Ella is constantly surprising us with new skills and "tricks." Her latest things in January were shaking her head 'no' and 'yes', laying on the floor and pretending to sleep, saying 'ni-ni', throwing things away in the garbage (like her own diapers, in one of pictures below)...she is very determined to throw things away if you ask her too! She is also learning to drink from a sippy cup and she will occasionally give us hugs and kisses..she is pretty selective though. She will walk up to Caleb and hug and kiss him, though. She really loves her big brother! I brought Ella to the doctor at the end of December, suspecting an ear infection, but she only had a cold. Caleb had multiple ear infections and by 11 months old had tubes put in his ears. I was preparing myself to go through that with Ella but the doctor commented that they must have different ear anatomy! It's nice not to have to go through that again. Ella has barely been sick at all and no ear infections.

Christmas Day

Finally it was Christmas at our house! It felt like we were counting down forever with Caleb this year. He was so excited for this. Christmas Eve we left out cookies and milk for Santa along with a picture that Caleb drew. Santa left Caleb a note and that was pretty neat!!! We ran downstairs to check out the stockings (oh cute jammies are courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa from North Dakota...perfect for Christmas morning!) and then the kids started to open gifts. Big hits were the pillow pets from Santa.

After opening gifts at our house, we went over to my parents' house to open gifts with them and Joey and Stephanie. After gift opening we have breakfast and then head back to our house to unload everything. This year Caleb and Ella got a huge kitchen set from my parents...so fun! Caleb was also so excited about the camera he got from Joey and Stephanie. He immediately wanted to take pictures and proceeded to do so all day long. What a cool present! Really we all got a lot of nice things and had a fun time watching everyone open gifts like always. This is always my favorite day of the year! We had Christmas dinner at my parents' house too, with some of my mom's family. We had another Christmas celebration with that side planned for January so not everyone was there for dinner. It was still a nice time and we stayed later that night, playing games with Joey, Stephanie and Laura.

Pre-Christmas Day celebrations

So leading up to December 25th we had many Christmas celebrations. The Saturday before Christmas is always "Christmas in Osakis." This is with my dad's side of the family. Above is Ella opening some of her 1st Christmas gifts with Auntie Dua. Both kids had a fun time with family there and were such troopers driving 2 hours there and back! On Christmas Eve we had dinner with Marshall's mom, George and Chelsea. George's parents and brother Mike, his wife Ali and daughter Maddy were also there. Caleb had fun playing with "the girls"..Chelsea and Maddy. There were several dogs there and Ella loved them! I didn't have my camera so no pictures. :( Also on Christmas Eve we opened gifts from Marshall's dad and stepmom, who sent packages from North Dakota. With all the stuff going on in December we didn't have a chance to meet up with them. Caleb was so funny opening these presents. Every one was "I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED THIS!" He was just SO excited. Some of the highlights were LeapFrog Zippity (it hooks to the TV and it's kind of like a video game) and a tent! Ella did ok opening gifts but quickly lost interest and wanted whatever her brother had!

A Day in the Life of an Elf

Before Christmas, my sister Laura and her friend Laura (so Dua and Dua Larson to Caleb) took Caleb to Macy's 8th floor exhibit in Downtown Minneapolis. This year's theme was "A Day in the Life of An Elf." This is something we used to go to as kids (except it was called Dayton's!), so I was happy that Caleb had a chance to go for the first time! He had a fun time seeing the elves (he thought they were going to be real, though) and writing a letter to Santa. The Duas even took him out for lunch at Perkins! What a lucky kid!