how to make a cross-country move with a 21-month old and a neurotic dog. 7 months pregnant.

on thursday morning, we began our long trip to tucson for our move.  the flight from cinci to chicago was great - we had our own row to ourselves and the flight was only about half full.  

when we landed at o'hare, roger had to go to meet my parents so that he could get george checked in.  our lifesaver: the children's museum playground at the airport!

ella learning how george-george would fly in the airplane

ella flying the plane

ready to board for the flight to arizona

we all made it safe and sound to phoenix.  and, dad, just to rub it in, or at least to put some motivation here for you to make your own move: in and out burgers.  complete with palm trees on the side:

an hour and a half drive to tucson and we are finally (in our rental) home.  so exhausted, physically and emotionally but slowly getting ourselves situated.  thank you to everyone for their help and to jeanne for texting me a picture that included a sign that read "feel better."  i miss our family and friends, but looking forward to our next adventure.

hey, baby, it's christmas...all over...

catching up on the past few days: roger was supposed to fly in on friday afternoon, but ended up spending 10 hours in the denver airport trying to fly stand-by on any flight going to the midwest.  :-(  he ended up catching a flight that got into indianapolis at 10:45 p.m., so jill and i loaded up ella to take a mini road trip to get roger.  

on christmas eve, my family came in and we went to mass and had a yummy dinner together.

on christmas morning, ella woke up to find a little bite of cookie that santa had left on the plate when he came to bring her presents.

this is ella after she ate that bite of cookie.

ella's first present from santa.  she tore back a little bit of the paper and said "book!!"  then she finished unwrapping it and we asked her what the book was about and she said "gurgles!!"  it's amazing how much she has changed from last christmas.

santa also gave ella an owl backpack.  and santa and jeanne must think alike because jeanne got her the matching owl lunchbox!  ha ha.  great minds i tell you.

ella too amped up for her afternoon nap - peeking through the shutters in the guest room and waved at anyone who was in the living room.

ella and her elmo from nana

ella got a little overwhelmed by all of the presents so she just lay down in the middle of all the boxes and wrapping paper.

ella and her new bitty baby from uncle steve and auntie b

ready for bed when christmas was finally over.

the rest of the week, we have spent with family relaxing.  a few highlights:

- ella recited letters "d" through "j" of the alphabet!!

- playing 'telestrations' with roger, amy, justin and jeanne until we were all laughing hysterically

- post-christmas retail therapy with jill and jeanne

- jill's butter cookies

the past few days have also been for us to say our good-byes to friends and family.  it's the weirdest feeling to be moving to a state that i have never been to before.  thank you to jeanne for reminding me to see this as an adventure.  thank you to my parents who took george for a few days and will meet us at the airport in chicago so george doesn't spend 4 hours sitting on the tarmac during our layover.  thank you to jill who has been so supportive and doing so much for us.  we had a wonderful christmas and the blog will continue from arizona...

drumroll please...and our favorite santa is...

today we headed back to the aquarium to see scuba santa once more.  ella loved the show, i think mostly because she likes santa as long as he is safely behind a glass wall.  

gymbo the clown waves bye-bye-bye

today was ella's last gymboree class.  [tear].  for almost a year we have been going to play and music classes 2 or 3 times a week.  when we first started, ella was not crawling yet and now she runs around laughing and climbing all over the place.  she has learned several concepts through the classes and knows the order of songs and activities.  we have met all of our friends through gymboree too.  we'll miss this so much.

ella and aidan doing the 'freeze dance' on the air cushion

ella popping her bubbles

our original gymboree crew: anne and aidan, pretty and bianca and us (minus jacquie and caeden)

the past few christmases, the bissmeyer 'kids' have started a tradition i absolutely love.  similar to secret santa, everyone picks a different name.  but instead of buying a gift for them, we buy a gift that we think they might have liked as a kid and donate it.  i'll be dropping these off at toys for tots tomorrow.

merry christmas justin!!  from, sharyn 

merry christmas jeanne!!  from, roger

what is red and green and white all over?

today, we dropped gigi off at the bus station and went to gymboree.  this afternoon, ella helped nana make veggie rolls by mixing together diced green and red peppers.  if you will be here at christmas, you might be relieved to know that these are not the same veggie rolls that will be served then...  :-)

tonight, santa made his annual visit to jill's neighborhood's clubhouse.  

ella made an ornament by filling a little plastic ball with fake snow and red and green beads and mini jingle bells.  

ella showing santa the ornament she made.  

who says you can never go back [to nana's] home again?

the movers finished up today and we are officially out of the house and moved in again at jill's (thank you by the way!!).  i'm friggin' exhausted.

a special thank you to my mom who spent the last 3 weeks with us - thank you for all the help in getting ready for the move and for keeping us company.  we love you mom and we can't wait to see you at christmas!!

pack it up

yesterday, we had our christmas lunch at orchids at the palm court in the hilton hotel downtown.  they saw the reservations for 6 adults, 3 toddlers and 2 infants and gave us a private room in the back - haha.  

ella enjoyed a fabulous lunch of a little bit of fruit, at least 3 pretzel rolls and half a slice of chocolate cake.

nate, james and ella enjoying lunch and a cartoon.

the movers also started packing yesterday.  as of tonight, most of the house is packed up and loaded onto the truck.   the movers were very kind and left me with our beds, one tv and a few of ella's toys for our last night in the house.  

poor george - curled up on a furniture pad, hoping that we don't forget him.

all aboard

last week, as a condition of the home sale, we had a fence installed in our backyard.  poor george.  just before we move out, he gets his fence.  and even though it was a complete mud pit out there, i let him run around anyway.

  

today, we took an old school train ride up to the 'north pole' to see santa.   

gigi and el on the train

me, el and nana waiting to see santa at the 'north pole' (read: two tents, a little shack and a concession stand)

el lasted about 8 seconds on santa's lap.  but she didn't cry and mrs. claus (who looked as though she was about 22 years old) gave her a jingle bell.

and of course, the requisite balloon animal - a blue reindeer in honor of ella identifying everything as being the color 'boo.'

a sprinkle of this and a pinch of that

today, my friends stephanie, evonne and anne threw a 'sprinkle' (aka mini shower) for me in anticipation of baby boy bissmeyer.  they are all incredibly thoughtful and sweet.  i see some combination of these girls every day and i'll miss them soo much.  i never imagined enjoying the whole stay-at-home mom thing as much as i do.  i'm thankful everyday that i can spend all of this time with ella and that we have been surrounded by such loving and supportive friends.  

little tie month stickers to put on a onesie each month that the baby turns another month old.  so cute!

ella and her boy nate helping me open gifts

yay!  we got everyone including the kids!!  my poor mom literally had a second and a half in which to capture this shot before it all went to hell.  so glad my mom was able to be there today too (and we missed jill being there!).  

just a christmas train ride away

yesterday my best friend from high school, steph, drove in from huntsville, alabama to visit us!!  today we took her to the cincinnati history museum - it's in the same building as the children's museum and the holiday trains we saw a few weeks ago.  this time the train ride was operational and santa was there!

ella and me in front of the model of the museum center - it used to be cinci's train terminal so the architecture is fabulous.  now that we're on our way out, we thought it would be a great time to learn all about the history of cinci.  :-)

ella riding the holiday junction train ride - she's in the yellow car.  i seriously almost cried because she rode in the car with other kids she didn't know and without me and did great!  she's growing up and becoming so independent.  

gigi, el and santa.  

thanks for visiting us steph.  we're having an awesome girls weekend with you!!