Merry Christmas!

(a sign my grandmother, Mema, sent Ella for Christmas!)

Gingerbread Crazyness!

Last week was the week of Gingerbread. On Tuesday, Edward decided to make gingerbread men and women. He did everything by himself and he is soo through when making things, a bit of a perfectionist. Here are some pictures from that:

All week long I was making gingerbread houses for our Gingerbread House Party on Sunday. A few years ago I had bought a Pampered Chef Gingerbread House stone, its really cute. It took FOREVER to make all the pieces we needed, you have to let the pan cool completely before you can make another one. Believe me I tried to put it in there when it was hot to make the process a little quicker, those sides and roofs didn't turn out as pretty. We had a great time making and decorating the houses. Wish the Lairds could have joined us, they would have had a great time!
The beginning:




The end products:




Group shot:

On a side note, Ella loves candycanes.

(wrapper is still on it)

Oh Christmas Tree...

So about a week ago, we went to Green Needles, a tree farm, to cut down our Christmas tree. Edward and I like two completely different Christmas trees. He likes White Pine and I, on the other hand, like Fraser Fir. Last year, we got our Christmas tree from Food Lion (yes, I said Food Lion) and it was a Fraser Fir. I have grown up having those trees so I didn't know any different. Edward has always had White Pine. So, this year we went with Edward's pick. This picture sums up our adventure to the Christmas tree farm. yay!

I will admit the tree looks good in our little corner, fits perfect. I just don't like those type of trees. Every time I put an ornament on the branch, it droops down and the ornament almost falls off. I guess I will have to get use to those trees because I think it will be a lot of fun when Ella gets older. Maybe next year I will get my Fraser fir.

6 months old!

Wow! It's crazy to think that 6 months ago I gave birth to Ella. Time has flown by, everyone always said wait til you have children, time really flies. I truly believe that now. She's a good baby except she doesn't sleep through the night which equals no fun for any of us. I'm hoping it will get better (doubt it) if not I'm going to do the dreaded "crying it out." I'll have to keep you up to date on that one. Well, here are some recent pictures of Ella:

Ella's 1st Thanksgiving

This year all of us (my family and Edward's family) got together at my Dad's house for Thanksgiving! We had a great time with amazing food!
Some of the group:


Dad tried something new this year instead of turkey, we had a turducken! I had never heard of it but it was very interesting and pretty tasty! I even tried the duck just to say I tried it, duck is not my thing!

Ella had a great time being passed around to everyone!
Alicia and Ella


Justin and Ella

Ginger(my grandmother) and Ella

My Dad and Ella

more cute pictures of Ella...

A Visit from Mimi

Earlier this week my mom (or Mimi) came to visit us from Florida. We had a blast, she arrived Saturday am and stayed through Wedneday pm. Ella was pretty much spoiled the whole time by her and enjoyed every minute of it.
On Monday, we went to Williamsburg for a shopping trip, we try to go every year to get some Christmas shopping done at the outlets. Ella slept the whole way down there, I was shocked! She did GREAT while we shopped the whole day but I was a little scared about coming back because Ella hates riding in the car in the dark (not sure why). The trip coming back wasn't that bad but in Charlottesville is where it started going down hill. (Sorry Sara, I should have called you on the way back through but I failed to do so but at least I know Ella can travel to Richmond, we'll visit soon.) Here are some updated pictures:

Cooking with Ella

Edward's 28th Birthday

Monday was Edward's 28th Birthday and I tried to make him a cake with antlers on it. It was a failure! They didn't look right. What do you think?

Ella playing in the tissue paper from Edward's gift

And here are the pictures that Edward really wanted me to post:

Edward and Ryan posing, they thought this was the coolest picture ever.

Ella's 1st Halloween

The Goldfish




Ella hates grass!

Out of Town Friends

Friday some of our friends from out of town came to visit and stay the weekend. Ben from NOVA and Jason and Sara from Richmond. It was the first time that Ben got to see Ella and Jason and Sara hadn't seen here since she was about a month old. We had a blast all weekend and Ella was great the whole time. I forgot the camera at home for the majority of the day but when we got back home we were able to take some pictures of everyone.



Sunday before everyone left Edward decided to fix breakfast.


Doesn't it look delicious!
Here's another picture of Ella -20 weeks- after she spit up all over her dress today.