claus and jaws

since the movers are going to be coming in a week and a half, santa will be delivering ella's christmas presents that are not going to fit easily in a suitcase either before the movers come or in tucson.  so santa made his first stop at our house last night.

ella and gigi and our tiny tiny christmas tree 

santa brought ella a whale teeter totter!!

today we went to the aquarium to see scuba santa.  it was the cutest show ever - santa swam with the sharks and then read 'twas the night before christmas!  ella loved the show and kept waving to santa!

if you ask ella what she saw at the aquarium, her response will not be fish or penguins or sharks or santa.  today she was very excited to see 'water' at the aquarium...

thankful still

happy thanksgiving everyone!!  we had a fantabulous weekend with family and a ridiculous amount of yummy food.

ella helping auntie breanna make the whipped cream for our desserts

on friday night, we all went to the festival of lights at the zoo.  it was fun, the lights were beautiful and the soft pretzels were delicious, but gotta say that the appearances by animals at 7 p.m. were a bit lacking...

ella LOVED all of the lights!

had a blast decorating jill's tree since our tree will unfortunately remain boxed for the second year in a row.

i'm soo thankful for our family and friends and that we're all healthy and happy this year.  thank you to jill for everything and my dad/steve/breanna for making the trip in - we miss you guys already!  thank you to my mom who will be staying with ella and me for the next few weeks (roger headed back to tucson yesterday).  i have to say that the house closing on the 16th worked out well, particularly since i don't like to be alone in the house.  my mom stays with us until the movers come and then ella, george and i move back in with jill until christmas...  :-D  

thankful - a day early

i don't use this word often, but what a delightful day.  

after several days of rain and dreariness, the sun came out.  jill joined roger and me at the library.  the original intent was for them to accompany ella to her weekly storytime.  and even though i had a thought go through the back of my mind that it might be cancelled due to thanksgiving, i figured one of my friends was responsible enough to check and if she was going, then the storytime was sure to be on.  not so much.  storytime was definitely cancelled.  so jill ended up entertaining ella and two of her friends - here she is reading a book to ella and her friend aidan while they held hands.  :-D

then it was off to lunch at one of our favorite burger cafes.  roger and i spent the afternoon finishing our christmas shopping for ella (since he won't be back until christmas) while ella napped at jill's.  

after dinner, which mimi joined us for, roger and i went with ella to buy buy baby to look at double strollers.  after a near panic attack on my part because i couldn't find a stroller that i liked and thought that i would never leave the house again with two babies, roger helped me find the perfect stroller.  i'm soo excited and happy (i did not recognize this feeling when it was not a result of a shoe or jewelry purchase).  

when roger and i got home, we received a call from our realtor - we are officially in contract and through the entire negotiations process!!  we are set to close on december 16th and ella and i can join roger in tucson after christmas without any worries.  

it's now almost midnight and roger and i just finished making zucchini bread and oatmeal raisin cookies - we soo don't need any more desserts for thanksgiving, but we loved hanging out just the two of us.  

can't wait to see my family tomorrow!!

i couldn't have asked for anything more, i'm so thankful and happy.

the polar express??

given ella's excitement over the trains at the museum, roger (welcome back by the way!!) and i took her to enterTRAINment junction - they have the world's longest model train track.  

they also had a circus area.  

ella and roger running through the maze of circus curtains.

ella and roger trying to lose me in the mirror maze.  

christmas is here early this year, but i wanted roger to be there to see ella and santa.

ella meeting mrs. claus

ella soo not happy about meeting santa

all in all this picture captures ella's reaction to all of the trains.  we're so glad you had a good time today, el!!  

p.s.  notice the bangs are no more.  loved the bangs on ella, but they grew out too quickly.  :-(

i think i can, i think i can...

we decided to spend one extra day in chicago so we spent monday shopping and going to lunch with my mom.  thanks again mom and dad for everything - we had a fabulous time with you!!

today, we headed to the children's museum - for quite possibly the last time since our passes expire this month.  :-( 

ella was fascinated by the air blower

hugging aidan...aww!

she is finally tall enough for the water works station!!

ella LOVED all of the model trains!!  everytime they came around the tracks, she raised her eyebrows and said "oooh!!"

say CHEESE!

we had the best weekend with uncle steve and auntie B in madison!!

having a tea party our first night there.  then it was off to dinner where el had the cheesiest grilled cheese ever.

the madison zoo!!  all of the animals were out and ready to party.  

rarely are the animals at the zoo as interested in the people looking at them are.  the chimpanzees were clearly an exception.

bean loves her uncle steve and auntie B!

on sunday we walked through the capitol building on the way to brunch.

thanks again steve and breanna.  cant wait to see you at thanksgiving!!!

the windy/blustery/cold/snowy city

yesterday, ella met up with her friend andrew at the brookfield zoo.  it was soo freezing and windy outside, so we spent most of the time in the monkey house.

today, ella hung out with her friend maia - i can't believe they're both getting so big!  maia was so cute - she wasn't sure about ella coming over to play with her since ella doesn't talk as much as she does.  when we got to their house, maia asked ella about her favorite animals and colors.  love it!

ella is continuing to have a fantabulous time with gigi and poppie.  :-D

please find your assigned seat

we made it to my parents' house yesterday.  ella has had a great time with poppie and gigi so far.  so the other day, she instructed roger as to which chair he should try to sit in at the museum...it continues...

ella climbed into poppie's recliner and then told him to sit in the other one.  she eventually joined him there to hang out and watch football together.  go bears!

she kept calling both poppie and gigi and pointing out a spot where she wanted them to sit with her on the bottom step of the stairs.  ironic that this is where i would make her sit if she were naughty and earned a time-out...

today, we had lunch with some of my former colleagues and i spent the afternoon with my great aunt janie who taught me how to make my favorite dumplings my grandmother used to make me.  ella LOVED them!  and roger was able to get his internet hooked up so we can video chat!!  yay! 

mini staycation. cincinnati style.

roger had his last day at chiquita on wednesday so we were able to spend thursday, friday and saturday getting things done before his trip and hanging out as a family.  

thursday - we were short on time, so we just headed to el's normal gymboree class.

friday - cincinnati children's museum 

ella and daddy working the pulley system in the ball pit

ella instructed daddy as to where he should sit.  ha ha.

mommy and daddy are dorks and let ella run around while we built this arch

pizza lunch at dewey's.  ella prefers donato's.

saturday - cincinnati zoo.  which we braved in the cold.  and sans stroller!! 

ella and daddy watching the elephants eat breakfast

the $6 train ride that lasted about 3 and a half minutes.  roger was bummed and thought that his money would have been much better spent on beer.  specifically yuengling beer, which, ironically, as we leave, is making it's cincinnati debut.

daddy and ella (eating a soft pretzel) at the gorilla exhibit

ella telling daddy that the owl says "hoo-hoo"

ella and her latest favorite animal: gurgles (turtles).  

yay!  the no stroller thing wiped ella out and she's ready for a nap!

roger: we miss you like crazy, but are sooo proud of you.  good luck on your first day at raytheon tomorrow!!  love you!