Back To The Beach

After months of keeping busy here in Houston, we finally made it back to the beach.  Cold but fun time!

 Down to the beach with hoodie jackets on!

 Guess who was the first member of the family to go for a little swim in 2012?  Yep, that would be Star.  I didn't even touch the water to know how cold it was, but pretty sure she didn't need to be frolicking in the waves.

 Cold Ella, with zero interest in being down at the beach.

 Such a pretty sunset and you could see to Galveston it was so clear.

The main goal for the trip down to the water was to find some good seashells - Addy found some good ones and the 2012 shell collection begins!

Cuteness

 Addy is taking dance again, so we had to pull out the dance leotards last week.  Ella found the blue one and HAD to put it on.  Also note that they are both wearing princess dress-up shoes, Ella even found some Cinderella shoes that match the dress.  

 Yep, we have a minor obsession with princess dress-up shoes.  And once she gets them on, Ella can do a decent job keeping them on and walking around in them.  

Ella is also into babies and the baby bottles that Susan, Jon and Heidi gave her for Christmas are a huge hit! Here she is carefully feeding baby a bottle, while completely mesmerized by whatever is on TV.  Very good at multi-tasking!

Aggie Win

We just couldn't pass up a chance to go see A&M play when they were in the bowl game at Reliant Stadium, 5 minutes from our house - and it was all worth it when we were able to pull off a win. Since A&M doesn't tend to do so well in bowl games, and all the coaching drama, we weren't sure, but they showed up and it was a great match-up. 

Also had a fun time hanging out with Collin and Zach and doing a little bit of tailgating before and after the game. 

Christmas 2011

Such a fun and busy Christmas!  The festivities started with a great dinner at Helen and Dick's on Christmas Eve.  This was the first year that the girls at what the rest of us ate and we were all quite amazed.  Kind of a Christmas gift in itself!  Addy even found out she liked sweet pickles - wow. 

Festivities continued Christmas morning with Ella waking up me and Michael.  Addy wasn't too excited to get up until I reminded her that Santa had come, then she jumped out of bed.  Present fun here with the 4 of us.  Was kind of surprised that Ella had zero interest in opening gifts.  She was actually more interested in Addy's Santa gifts (big surprise).  Then presents at Dad and Mary's topped off with too much good food at brunch.  Home for a bit of a nap then to Jean's for  presents and a great dinner with everyone - the Densons, Wolfs, Berhows, Pflugers and Kellys.  We are so lucky that all the families have just melded together and a good time is always had by all! 

Then due to scheduling conflicts, we got to have a belated Christmas with the Wolfs and Berhows on Monday morning.  Was just like Christmas morning, except the day after! It was great being able to celebrate with Heidi on her first Christmas.  And the girls all enjoyed playing with each others new goodies. 

And now for the pictures...

 Addy is becoming quite the tree decorator.  And this year Ella was quite the tree undecorator.  For some reason, instead of putting the ornaments back on the tree after she took them off, we just piled them on the table.  By the end we had a pretty big pile on the table and not so many on the bottom of the tree.  Don't think that she broke any though, so that is good.

 First half-asleep look at her loot.

 Ella definitely got distracted with the toys that were unwrapped and had zero interest in unwrapping the gifts on her own.

 Blurry picture b/c it is an action shot of Ella taking Addy's new doll for a ride in the new baby stroller!  We are all super excited to have a good stroller that doesn't break every 2 seconds - is maybe just a bit too big though b/c Ella can climb in herself.  

 Sleepy girls full of Christmas!

 Betsy, Addy and Jean 

 More fun opening Ella's gifts - these were new books which were great.  We read A LOT of books and although I feel like we have a small library here at the house, it was really nice to get some new and different ones.

 Granny and Mary - from the smile on her face, you would never have guessed that Granny had a bad case of bronchitis.  She was the ultimate trooper!

 These 2 are going to be trouble one day.  Neither can really talk right now, so I'm not really sure what they were doing, but it totally looks like they are cooking something up.  Too cute!

Cousin playtime after opening gifts at Grandma and Grandpa's

Visit from the Loredos

We were so excited to be able to get together with Carl, Kelley, Gage and Ainsley over the holidays.  A fun playdate here at the house topped off with lunch at Coney - can't beat it.  Ainsley and Addy became best friends and I think that Gage was excited to see that we actually had Hot Wheels and boy-friendly toys here at our very girlie house!  Hoping it isn't next Christmas before we can all get together again!

Lion Hanukkah Party

So, we go to Hanukkah parties instead of Christmas parties, but you know, they are really all the same...  little bit of singing, eating and crafts.  At Ella's age it is just fun to watch all the little ones. It was nice to actually get to meet some of the other parents in the class too. 

Guess what Ella's favorite part of the party was

 Cupcake!

Seeing them all sit around the table eating is adorable. 

Mommy's Tower

Pretty much anywhere we go, you can see my office building sticking up in the sky since it is the tallest thing around, in this part of town.  And every time Addy notices it, she says "mommy's tower" (if only I actually owned it instead of just worked there!) and right after she points it out she asks when she is going to be able to come to my office.  With her school schedule and E's nap schedule it is just tricky to find time, but over the holidays, Ella had school, Addy didn't and I was off from work, so to mommy's tower we went for a visit.  Addy had a blast walking around, drawing on my dry erase board, and riding the elevators and escalators.  And maybe the biggest accomplishment of the day was going to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe at the Galleria (which is attached to my building) and Addy was not freaked out by the animals.  Until we walked around to the gorilla section that is, still not OK with the gorillas - maybe when she is 6.  Here she is checking out the view from my office

These are not related to Addy's visit, but while cleaning out my e-mail at work, I found these pics I had taken from my office -- the novelty of an office with a window on the 56th floor wore off years ago, but we all still get quite giddy watching the weather from so high up. 

 A lesson in isolated thunderstorms, these are my favorite, and it is cool to watch them move around the city

 Always try to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but no luck yet.

This is neat and weird at the same time, typically not above the clouds unless I'm in a plane.

Ella Tidbits

Ella is quite the entertainer these days and is ALWAYS wanting to do what big sister is doing.  She never plays in her room, is always in Addy's, usually making a mess.  Her new favorite is emptying Addy's drawers - this does not make mommy and daddy happy.  Or Addy for that matter.  But we love her to pieces.  Here are some funny pics of Ella being Ella.

 I got most of these singing snowmen before kids, they were just funny, I loved them.  Now that I have kids, I love them even more.  Although they did lose their appeal, they were the best babysitters when we first brought them out - Ella would just play them over and over again.  She could start them herself and I was busy enough getting stuff done to not even care if she had 4 of them going at once. 

 Addy was painting, so Ella wanted to paint.  She wouldn't wear a smock, so the shirt came off!

Ella pointing out the Ariel on the brush, not sure if it is her "favorite" princess, but it is the only one she knows by name, so anytime she sees Ariel, we hear about it.  

Ella staying still, smiling for the camera = rare and cute

VIP Shabbat

Addy has been at Bertha Alyce since she was 6 months old, but this is the first year she has been there on Fridays and the first year she has regulary attended Shabbat celebrations. 

What is Shabbat you ask?  I'm not 100% sure, but my expert source, Wikipedia, has this to say about the Friday celebration (think technically Shabbat is Saturday, a day of rest, equivalent to Sunday for us), "According to Jewish law, Shabbat starts a few minutes before sunset. Candles are lit at this time. The Kabbalat Shabbat service is a prayer service welcoming the arrival of Shabbat. Before Friday night dinner, it is customary to sing two songs, one "greeting" the Shabbat angels into the house and the other thanking the woman of the house for all the work she has done over the past week. After blessings over the wine and challah, a festive meal is served. Singing is traditional at Sabbath meals."  I like the whole thanking the woman for all her work - think we might need to start our own Shabbat celebrations! 

So, every Friday the preschool does a pint-size version of the typical Friday ritual, with lots of singing and eating challah and grape juice (kind of like communion).  But on VIP Shabbat, the whole school comes together with their "VIPs".  Not quite what was in store, we headed over and it was really nice.  Granted I didn't know any of the songs they sang, Addy did of course, but it was really cute. Ella got a bit squiggly, but she certainly wasn't the only one!