Christmas 2014

December was busy, busy and we had a blast taking in the Holiday Season...but it was busy. I read my post from last year and really did wish we would have stuck to that low key model. I felt a little rushed around in the holiday madness, but we ended up having a great holiday. 

Play date with your favorite friends: Lily, Austin, and Tyler

I turned my back for a few second and turned back to find you had first, found a play shopping cart, and second, filled it to the brim with holiday cheer. You marched through walmart with that thing and thought we were getting it all. Gotta love a velvet skirt and rain boots! Anything goes at that store, right?

For me December was also a busy month for Real Estate. I was so happy to see some friends find the "perfect" house and close before the holiday. I was also excited to be named "rookie of the year" for my office. It feels good knowing that the choice to switch up my career is paying off personally and professionally. I'm with my sweet owner/brokers at a Christmas dinner party above. 

Grandma came to stay with us for the week before Christmas. Gpa joined us on Christmas eve. It made it feel even more festive to have grandma here baking cookies and helping us get ready for Christmas. We made a trip to the city to visit with Godmommy J and her mom-two of my favorite people! It was a lovely day just lounging, eating sandwiches and catching up. J got you an adorable wooden rocking chair and a necklace for me. You claimed both and were pure entertainment the entire day. 

We live a few blocks from Candy Cane lane and we walked it with your daycare. Singing songs along the way. So festive!! You were so happy to see your friends and introduce them to me and Grandma!

Christmas Eve at nana's house was a big night. Santa evens stopped by. 

 My little sweetie after our Christmas Eve Festivities. I loved your little navy blue dress!

Christmas morning antics

Christmas morning was relaxed. Uncle T and Auntie S came down to open presents. 

And we got to make a VERY exciting announcement....

We are sooo excited for an August 2015 baby GIRL! We wrapped this picture up in a frame and gave it to Nana and Gma as their final gifts. They were both so thrilled. We got both responses on video and it was super fun. Announcing on Christmas was a blast! 

Thanksgiving 2014

baking cookies with Grandma. You got a fancy Frozen nightgown for your bday and you are always asking to put it on!

Fun on Thanksgiving day!

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 On Thanksgiving day we went to a 49ers game. We were SO pumped up and had a great time, that is until the game started and our team looked like crap. This was my first time at the brand spankin' new stadium.

Since Uncle T had to work on Turkey day, we celebrated on Friday. We went to T's house and had a great time. It was SO nice not to host the Holiday and you did great being away from home for a couple nights. 

Hitting up the mall!

The only pic I have of you in your sweet little outfit!

Totally spoiled reading books with your Auntie and Uncle

Fun Lighted Tractor parade was so impressive!

You loved every minute in the BIG tub! 

It was really good to have some family time! So excited for Christmas!

25 Months!

At the beginning of the month we joined Daddy on a small business trip about an hour away. It was such a happy getaway. We met up with an old coworker of mine, shopped and went to a small animal sanctuary. We had the best time! Sometimes you just need a change of scenery!

A quick post-nap shot before we lost these amazing fall colors!

 Shopping with your cutie friend, L before we made it to the trampoline park. Love that place!

 A fun day at the Sacramento zoo! You loved all the animals and of course the little choo choo train

Weight: ?
Height:   ?
Head:    
Diaper size-  Size 5
Clothing Size: Mostly 3t tops and 2t bottoms

Milestones: 

 We are still amazed at the leaps and bounds you have made in your speech. You repeat what we say a lot more than you were previously and pick up a handful of new words everyday. You now say your name and your friends' names as well. You love to say "Shooon" (daddy's bff, Sean) and Lily and Summer. A lot of what you say is still hard to understand. You go on huge rambles where we can't get a word in edgewise, particularly when we call Grandma and Grandpa. But now I can pick up on more of what you say and it seems you like to recount your entire day, like telling them where we've gone and that Lily was screaming while we ate lunch or that it was raining and cold outside. 

You still love to belt out "Let it go!" from Frozen, but this month your jam was Taylor Swift's, "Shake it off". You insisted on about 4 dance parties a day. I would access the video on youtube on the TV and you would make Dad and I shake it until we couldn't shake it anymore. You even choreographed your own dance and call it the "mmmHmmm" song. "Dance! Dance!" you say. You even found the Taylor display at target and put the CD in our cart. Totally obsessed. 

You are now able to jump with two feet and say "hop!" as you do so. 

You are counting a lot and know the first several letters to the ABC song but then trail off and just hum the tune. In books you can recognize a very random assortment of letters like B and Y.  You are recognizing yellow, green, blue, red, purple, pink, black and white. Working on orange! We love to read the books with photographs in them so you can point and tell me what's there. It's amazing what you know. You always surprise me. 

You absolutely LOVE "school" (as you call it) and readily say "bye mom" as soon as I drop you off. We've been going two days a week and it's such a great balance for us both. 

Eating-  I made the mistake of buying fruit snacks and you demand them often calling them "yums". While you still eat a great lunch and dinner, you seem less hungry in the mornings. I have to keep a variety of foods for you, but overall you remain a great eater. Daycare confirms the same. 

We don't seem to miss nursing a bit! It's really helped you mature, in my opinion and I'm glad we quit when we did. 

Sleep: you have been sleeping better than ever. After a late Halloween night, you slept in past 9am. The next night the time changed and you've been sleeping til 8am ever since. You are going to bed about 9pm, now though. I would like to get on an 830pm to 730am schedule, but I'm not complaining! Daddy really enjoys the extra time at night with you. 

Favorite Toys: We got you a play kitchen for your birthday and it keeps you occupied for a long while. Nana got you an art easel and supplies and that is also a big time favorite! I've set them both up in a little play area for you and you just have a blast. You also spend time mothering your babies, reading to them and tucking them into makeshift beds. I love when you play so nicely on your own!

Ellie, you continue to bring so much happiness to all of our lives.  You are always my answer to a hard day. Always dancing, singing -you've always been such a sweet girl. I just love your little personality. 

Halloween Time 2014

We had a lot of fun visiting the various pumpkin patches nearby. We made it to three and you loved it just as much as I did!

  

First up was a large farm that had so many hands on things for pre-school age kids to do. We took a ha y ride to feed the ducks, played with bubbles, magnet builders, slides and a corn bath!

 

Your best boy buds! C, T and A

This wasn't a pumpkin patch, just our local park where we ride the train and carousel. You loved trying to pick up all the pumpkins!

We went to Davis and visited a fun patch with tons of baby animals to pet and hold. You loved the kittens the most!

 pumpkin lover!

The third was a local farm where we buy produce. It was a cute one and you and L loved the big corn bath!

Our play group did a Trunk or Treat at a park. It was off and on rain all morning, but that didn't stop us. It was a great practice run for everyone's costumes and it's where you officially became obsessed with DumDum suckers!

 Your Daycare provider made these beautiful frozen themed decorations for her own trunk or treat. We recycled and totally took credit for the beauty!

We've created a tradition of carving pumpkins at Nana's house. Grampa C is a master carver! You still weren't too into the pumpkin guts and jack o lanterns.

Our plan was to just visit our favorite neighbors for trick-or-treating, but our play group friends ended up coming to our hood. Since A and L are a little older than you, you were able to watch how they did it and caught on quick! You LOVED it!

If you would have known you had a choice in the matter, you would have been Elsa from Frozen. But since I'm still in charge, I picked Raggedy Ann. And I'm so glad I did because it was adorable!

You were so hard to get a picture of!

So much fun. Happy Halloween!