Santa came a little early...

I am horrible at keeping secrets regarding birthday and Christmas presents and find it even more difficult to wait to give someone a present once I have it. Scott got his Christmas present back in November (to be fair I wasn't exactly sure that it was the right thing and had no other way of finding out that it was the right thing unless I asked Scott... so I gave him his gift early). So, I've been waiting very patiently to give Ella her Christmas and Santa presents, but last weekend I broke down and gave Ella her stocking gifts early.

Why? Why not wait? Well you see once again I have a very good reason to not WAIT. We are celebrating Christmas with Scott's family this weekend and then celebrating Christmas Eve with my family a week later. Ella will get her fair share of presents at these two celebrations and we wanted her to enjoy the presents we purchased for her and the presents others purchased her. So we gave Ella her stocking gifts early so she could enjoy them! Plus, she's too little to understand that it wasn't Christmas morning when her stocking gifts were opened. So enjoy the photographs below of her discovering her stocking gifts (which have been played with every day this week!).

Ps. We still have a "Santa" present that she'll open Christmas morning at my parents house!

"Hmm... What's this?"

Studying the new girly toy cars....

Yay! She loves her new toy cars. As you can see in the background, I am working very hard to get the other toy car free from the packaging. Grrrr!

The new toy ball is a hit too. Scott actually plays with this toy ball every single evening!

Hmm... a doll?!?!

Ella has never been a fan of dolls. She has one at Grandma Julie's that she isn't fond of, but we thought we'd get her one for our house.

Yes, she cried when we handed her the doll, but she's getting better and creeps over to the doll frequently throughout the day. Notice how wet Elle's shirt is? She's getting her top tooth. Top Tooth= Crabby Baby!

Yummy...

A few things we did over the weekend that I don't have picture of...

#1... We drove around and looked at Christmas lights. I love Christmas lights so Saturday night we put Ella in her pajamas, stopped at McDonald's to pick up our Red Box movie (and order a small french fry to share... I know gross, but still so good), and then drove around looking at lights. Ella fell asleep after about 5 minutes, so we were able to enjoy the lights without worrying that we were boring Ella Bear.

#2... We slept in! Yep, Ella Bear fell asleep in the car looking at Christmas light at about 5:45pm on Saturday night. When we got home (around 7) I fed her and she promptly fell back asleep and remained asleep until 8:45 the next morning (15 hours of sleep for the little bear)! Yay! I know to some of you that's not sleeping in, but to us it most certainly was!

#3... We sent the Christmas presents to my parents house. Ella Bear just loves creeping over to the tree and was beginning to show an increasing interest in the presents. So when my parents stopped for a visit on Saturday afternoon, we sent the Christmas presents with them!

And a post wouldn't be any fun without some pictures so here are a few from the weekend...

Ella Bear on the Move!

It has happened... Ella Bear is on the move. She isn't crawling yet, but she is creeping all over the house. And when she gets tired she uses a combination of creeping and rolling to get to her desired location. This all started when we were at my mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving. Check out creeping Ella below...

Ella Bear is happily reading her book on animals...

When suddenly Ella remembers the knobs on her dresser (oh boy how she loves to open and closer drawers).

Down goes the book and off Ella goes...

Creeping...

Check out the tongue!

"I think I can, I think I can..."

Ella Bear is all over the house now. She follows me into the kitchen. Creeps over to the Christmas tree. And tries to find any cord, outlet, or vent in the house.

Santa Visit!

We took Ella to meet Santa last week. Santa was visiting downtown Northfield for their "Winter Walk" so we packed up the diaper bag, dressed Ella in her Christmas outfit and headed to Northfield for the evening. We had hoped to have dinner downtown and visit some of the other special events that evening, but Ella wasn't a big fan of the colder weather and screamed every time we went outside. So we just met Santa and went home. She did really enjoy Santa though!

Why are Ella's Christmas Pajamas Soaking in the Bathroom Sink?

After a very large, very yummy bowl of Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal, Scott gave Ella her Vitamin D supplement, which definitely went down the wrong way. Almost instantly Ella was coughing and acting like she swallowed the liquid Vitamin D the wrong way. Scott picked her up and patted her back before handing Miss Ella Bear over to me. And that's when it happened. Ella upchucked her LARGE bowl Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal.... all over the carpet, coffee table, and me (my neck, my hair, my sweatshirt and down my shirt). Poor baby girl. Elle had never thrown up before and this whole situation was rather scary to us. Luckily, she is just fine now. The sweatshirt I was wearing got tossed (didn't really want to deal with it) and Ella's pajamas have been rinsed and are soaking. We might just skip the Vitamin D tomorrow after today's events.

The Decorated Tree...

The tree and presents...

She loves the beads!

She frequently creeps over to the beads.

And has so much fun with them!

Our Christmas Tree

Poor Ella Bear doesn't just get one flu shot like the rest of us. No, she needs her regular flu shot (like you and I get) and a booster shot. She's gotten both now, last Tuesday was the day of her booster shot. Scott took off work a couple hours early so he could come along to the doctor's office (down in Northfield). We decided since we were heading all the way down to Northfield, that we would stop at Hampton Hills Tree Farm on our way home and cut down our Christmas tree (Yay!).

Ella Bear hanging in the car on the way to the tree farm.

Thankfully Ella wasn't too grumpy after her flu shot... though she wasn't her normal smiley, happy self. We searched and search for the perfect Christmas tree (and almost cut down two other trees) before we found the perfect tree for our home. It was so much fun getting a real tree. I grew up with real Christmas trees. We always went and searched for the perfect tree and it often took lots of searching and debating until we found the perfect tree. It was very exciting to start this tradition for our family!

This is the first tree that we really thought was perfect, however after we snapped about ten pictures in front of the tree we decided it wasn't perfect and moved on.

Scott was in charge of cutting down the tree... once we finally found it.

At least this year he wasn't laying in the snow (he's had to do that a few times when we went with my family to get a tree).

Ella and I watched!

What did we make? A Gingerbread House!!!

We have begun checking things off our Christmas Season Activity List that I posted earlier. One of the fun things we wanted to make sure to do this season was build a gingerbread house. We started this tradition last year and wanted to continue it this year. Ella and I purchased a kit from Micheal's and that evening we went about putting it together.

Ella played in her high chair while...

Daddy read directions... and mixed the frosting.

The engineer helped ensure the house was structurally sound, while I frosted away.

Ella played with measuring cups and measuring spoons.

We worked on adding details to our little casa.

While someone began melting down.

Next we added candy...

Then we took a mini break to get someone out of her high chair.

Someone watched from the living room, but ended up back in her high chair (closer to mommy and daddy).

Yikes!!! That's my dinning room.

Her face says... "Put me to bed mommy and daddy. I rarely make it past 7pm."

These are my disgusting hands after frosting and decorating the gingerbread house. I showered after we cleaned up.

Beautiful!

Ella just wanted to go to bed.

Well... she also wanted to grab the gingerbread house!