Home from the holidays

We are home from Mimi and Boppa's house and glad to be back to our family routine. We were ALL happy to go to bed at our normal time last night and just run errands today (including hitting the after holiday sales again). Ellie also spent a lot of time today playing with some of her new toys, although she seems to prefer Audrey's new toys! We had a wonderful Christmas weekend and are already looking forward to a long New Year's weekend.

Opening even more presents!

Cookies for morning snack?!?

Little Audrey's first Christmas

Christmas dinner

Our after-dinner entertainment


Reading her bedtime book with Aunt TT


Boppa and his girls

Audrey had a great weekend, being held by everyone all day! She has started to really express her personality and move around a lot more. She must have been happy to be home last night because she was certainly a bouncing baby!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope that you are having a wonderful morning with family and friends. We've been up since 5:30 and Ellie had a fantastic time seeing all the presents Santa brought last night. She was also amazed that Santa ate his cookies and drank his water (she didn't want to leave him milk!) and that the reindeer ate most of the oats we left on the front steps. We had a great time watching the joy in her face and the light in her eyes. Here are a few pictures from last night and this morning...

Cookies and water for Santa

Sprinkling oats on the front steps for the reindeer

Ready for the morning!

Video of Ellie coming downstairs this morning and opening her presents. She asked Santa for two things, a train and dress-up clothes!

This is for me!

Ellie was very excited about the 3-in-1 little red riding hood doll from Aunt Lynn!

Audrey in her new highchair from Santa and wearing her new bib from Aunt Barbie.

Ear muffs!

Ellie and Audrey exchanging gifts. Ellie picked a 1st Christmas doll for Audrey and Audrey gave Ellie a puzzle set.

I love all my new Dr. Seuss books from Grandpa and Aunt Barbie!

What kind of cruel joke is this?!?! My stocking was filled with things that I can't even eat yet!

Dr. Ellie

She put her new doctor kit to good use right away on the always willing patient, baby sister!

Christmas Eve

I don't know about you, but we're getting ready for Santa!

Ellie and Audrey spent the day with Mimi doing all kinds of Christmas preparations. Tonight just the four of us are spending the evening together. Dinner is almost ready (Lori's delicious spaghetti with sausage!) and we're going to watch a toddler-friendly Christmas movie before bath time. We'll be going to my parents' house tomorrow morning and spending most of the weekend there with my parents, Aunt TT and Uncle Ty, and Grandma Olive. We'll also be able to see our cousins from Boston who will be joining us later this weekend. Lots of family fun!

Here are a few pictures from this week as we warmed up for Christmas....

"#1 on Santa's List"

Toddler in red

"All mommy wants for Christmas is a silent night"

(Amen, sister.)

"Baby's First Christmas"

Which one is the real baby?!?

Ellie making a gingerbread house with Mimi

Ta da!

Mimi and Ellie's gingerbread men

Big ole blue eyes

We wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Six months old

Our sweet Audrey is half a year old today! She has changed quite a lot in the last month....

She can sit up alone for a short period of time; she usually tips herself over because she's so fascinated by her feet.

She has also started babbling, primarily saying d, b, l, and m sounds. She's always been our talker, but now she's getting closer to actual talking!

She was sick for the first time this month with what our pediatrician thinks were two back-to-back colds. She has been feeling pretty miserable for about two weeks, but over the last two days we've been seeing her happy disposition and smiles again.

And to top off not feeling well, the teething of course continues. In fact, she got her first tooth yesterday!

Audrey's greatest love is still her wonderful big sister. She twists her head every which way in order to get a glimpse of Ellie whenever she hears her.

Audrey is growing growing growing. She has started eating rice cereal and applesauce. This weekend she'll be trying peas. We tried mixing some soy formula into her rice cereal a few times in preparation of the day that she will need to have formula from a bottle. She didn't react well to the soy and we're concerned that she may be allergic. We've held off on trying it too much. Nothing seems to affect her weight gain though - today she weighs 19 pounds 8 ounces!

Happy Half-Birthday, Baby Girl!

First haircut

Today we took Ellie for her very first haircut! Our hair stylist has known Ellie since she was born so it was only fitting that she gave Ellie her first cut.

R and Ellie - the before shot!

Getting ready (Dora did not get a hair cut today but came along for moral support!)

"How much should we take off today, Ellie? How about highlights?"

The first cut! You can see the piece of foil on the right side - this is where I saved those first curls!

Haircuts are easy!

After the first cut, Ellie got very serious.

And the after shot! Can't you see the dramatic difference?!?! :-)


Ellie is very excited about her new haircut! She came home and celebrated by having a tea party with Audrey (who seems to be feeling better).....

Audrey definitely felt better after a rejuvenating cup of tea. Lori was playing with the girls when Ellie discovered a version of peek-a-boo to play with Audrey...