Cousins!

TWO!

Snow

Yesterday morning when I woke up it was snowing. I always love the first flurries of the season. It gets me really excited for our first snow. 

Nobody gets as excited as Elliott. He loves the snow. He is always outside in it no matter how cold it is. 

Ella woke up just in time to see some flurries. I hope she likes the snow a lot more than she did last year. 

This year, like every other year, I am hoping for a white Christmas. Something about snow just makes it a little more magical! :) 

Simon the elf

Meet Simon

Simon joined our family in December of 2008 right after Ella was born. 

Simon is a scout elf. Santa sent him to us to watch and report. Simon is Santa's helper. Each night while we are sleeping Simon flies to the North Pole to report to St. Nick. He comes back before we awake. Each morning we have to find him. So far we have found Simon on...

The mantle...

The light above the kitchen table...

The only rule that we must follow is that we can not touch Simon. If we do his magic might go and Santa won't hear all he has seen or know.  The night before Christmas his job will end, and he will spend the rest of the year with Santa. When the holidays come around next year he will magically reappear. 

What a fun holiday tradition we have started. Ella doesn't quite get it yet, but it's fun to show her where he has reappeared each morning. So far, Ella has been on her best behavior so Simon should have all good things to report to Santa! 

CMOE

We headed to CMOE this morning to meet up with Erin, Bree, and Mallory. Ella has a lot of fun playing with Bree. We hadn't been to CMOE since this past summer. It's always neat to see how much Ella has changed and what her interests are each time we go. The girls had a good time, and Erin and I had a nice time visiting. Hope we can do it again soon! 

Play-doh!

Ella's first time playing with play-doh. 

She loved it! 

I don't think I have ever seen her sit for this long =)

Tree update

I am happy to report we have only had one casualty so far. Ella has been infatuated with the ornament I bought this weekend. I plan to get her an ornament each year. She pulled it off the tree a couple of times yesterday so I moved it a little higher. I didn't move it high enough. She grabbed it and took off running toward the front door. I went to grab it from her, and she threw it. It unfortunately shattered all over the floor. She just stood and stared while I cleaned it up. She has done a lot better than I expected. Let's hope she can keep it up!