Brightening the Dreary Winter Months

A little secret: I love snow. Give me a great big storm with a foot of snow, so I can't do anything but stay home and cook and play games...I'm a happy camper. No wait, I'd be a miserable camper, I'm a happy homer. D'oh! You get the idea. I suspect the only reason I look forward to these events is because I'm blessed to live in a city where it only takes a few hours for the plow crews to clear the roads, so we're never homebound long enough to get cabin fever. Plus, when the storm blows itself out, we can take Elly SLEDDING!

Had Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

Ok, so I got behind again on posting Elly photos, and it's time to catch up. When we left off, it was Elly's birthday...the week before Christmas.

As with most families, I suppose, Christmas is a very busy time. We have two families to visit, multiple church services, choir, and we almost never do our present wrapping until Christmas Eve. Toss in a one-year-old, and the week starts to feel a little like this:

...and then she was one.

On Saturday, we celebrated Elly's first birthday. Both sets of grandparents, and her aunt Becky, uncle Justin, and cousin Nathan came to party. Everyone was greeted at the door by that same giggling cloud of balloons, which had by now become completely entangled around her leg.

Elly, 11 months old.

Elly is now in full-tilt toddler mode. She constantly keeps us on our toes, as she literally runs from one thing to the next. She has also developed her own little (or rather, big) personality.

Turkey and Turkeys

Cori, Elly and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, this year. It was also my first time making turkey. Both were a smashing success, if I do say so myself. But with eight "grown-ups", two almost-"grown-ups", and two babies crammed in our little place, things may have gotten a little silly.

A giraffe and a half

We had a blast at the Brookfield Zoo today. Cori dressed Elly in her giraffe costume (gotta get our money's worth). We asked the guy at the gate if he would let us in free, since we were bringing our own animal, but we had to pay full price...bummer.



I was pretty surprised at how much Elly got out of it. I didn't really figure she'd be interested in (or even notice) the animals very much, but she had a blast.

Elly, 10 months old

Yesterday, Elly passed the 11 month mark. Time to upload the photos of a 10 month old Elly...but first...it appears there was a batch of pics from 9 months that I missed. So to begin, here are a few from right before she turned 10 months old.