Christmas and 11 months old

This Christmas seemed to be much busier for us with a little girl running around. These days Elli doesn't like to sit still, but prefers to walk all over the place. Elli seems to be growing up too quickly. She is working on 3 teeth on top and has one on bottom (yes, she got 2 front teeth for Christmas)!

We managed to fit in 1 Christmas party and 7 Christmas celebrations including our own within 2 weekends. To get to all the destinations we were in the car about 22 hours which doesn't include little 10 or 15 minute trips here and there. Elliana doesn't enjoy road trips like she used to when she was only a couple months old. She did ok with all of the traveling, but was very excited to get into her own bed last night (she literally lunged out of Scott's arms into her crib). All the traveling has really worn Elli out! She slept until 9:45 this morning and went back down for a nap around noon. She is still asleep now at 1:30. Needless to say, we will be staying in Ohio for quite some time and will give our Acadia a nice break from traveling. So....feel free to come visit us :)

Here are some pictures to document our Christmas celebrations....

My work Christmas party was on the 17th in Lexington, OH. We left the next morning for IN to celebrate Christmas with Scott's immediate family on Saturday and extended family on Sunday.

Papa made her a cradle for Christmas. She enjoyed opening gifts in her cradle....just her size for sitting! She enjoyed this gift; however, her favorite gift was a new outfit her Papa picked out for her. This was evidenced by her carrying the outfit around everywhere.

Each grandchild got new PJ's with their name. (Look at Elli's eyes....she was so tired)

(Pictures from the big Lindvall gathering are on Nana L.'s camera....I'll get those later)!
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We traveled to Mansfield, OH on the Thursday before Christmas to Grandma and Grandpa Brauchler's house. We left after work, so we unfortunately didn't get to spend much time there.


I love this picture! I love Elli's belly-laugh!
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We came back to our house that night and woke up the next morning to open gifts on Christmas Eve!

At this point, she was becoming quite the pro at opening gifts!
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After our Christmas, we packed the car up and headed back to IN. We made a quick stop at my parents house to let Elli run around for a bit. Then we went north to Grandma and Grandpa Wamsley's house.

Helping cousin Vander open a gift! Notice Elliana is already in pj's. Her and I stayed back while everyone else went to the Christmas Eve service. I tried to get her to fall asleep at the house....no luck!

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We stayed at my parents house on Christmas Eve. We made a quick trip to Scott's parents house on Christmas morning (this was cut short as Elli was fussy from lack of sleep). We brought her back to my parent's house for a nap before it was time to open gifts.

She enjoyed taking a ride on many gifts.

Not really sure what she was doing here, but I'm glad I caught it on camera!!

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Elli and Kensley got to go sledding on Christmas day and they LOVED it!!

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We went to church on Sunday......

And then went to Huntington to Grandma and Grandpa Zurcher's house.

Helping her Great-Grandparents open gifts.
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And while we were busy celebrating Christmas Elli turned 11 months old! Yes, that means only 1 more month until she is officially 1 year old. I can't believe it! She is already so big. So....this photo shoot was taken this morning and as you can tell Elli is exhausted. No smiles for this photo shoot. We might try to get some better pictures later!

Christmas Photoshoot

This weekend we got Elli dressed up in her Christmas dress and tried to get a good picture of her and Bella in front of the tree.

And here is the photo shoot....

Apparently they both wanted a treat....

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Elli is getting yet another tooth. I have a feeling she is going to be getting a lot here within the next couple of months seeing as how she was a little behind with teeth. Naps have been a bit more difficult and she hasn't been as interested in food. I'm thinking she might be getting one of her top two teeth. Her gum is now purple in a spot....I put a quick call into the nurse and she said it was completely normal. There is apparently a little blood in her gum....when she gets that tooth she might bleed a little, but there should be no complication with it as long as she doesn't seem to be in pain.

She is keeping me busy....staying in the living room playing with toys just isn't cutting it anymore for her. She likes to go in the office and pull as many books as she can from our bookshelf.....hang out by the baby gate trying to figure out how to knock it down....and so much more. She can now walk across the room and will do it on her own....we don't really need to prompt her anymore....if she wants to walk-she will.

We've put her presents in our room and she constantly goes in there and picks them up. We'll do our Christmas on Christmas eve when we wake up....I'm excited to see her open up her gifts.

Well....she's up already from her 30 minute (yes....30 minutes....what happened to our 2 hour naps????) nap. That's my cue! We have a busy couple weeks, so I'm not sure I'll be back on to post in a while. We did find out some exciting news....Scott actually has 3 weeks of vacation this year instead of 2. So we have an extra week that needs to be used up before May! We'll be using some days over Christmas and might do an impromptu trip here....that is if I can talk Scott into it (yes, please!!!!)

Merry Christmas!!!!

Naughty List

When Elli woke up from her nap last Saturday we told her she was going to go see Santa! She couldn't wait! We got her all dressed up in her Christmas outfit and tried to get a quick picture of her in front of our tree. She was so excited she wouldn't even sit down.....

Um...is it just me or doesn't she look so big??

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We got to the mall and rushed inside. We were excited to see that there was no line AND we could use our own camera to take a picture so we didn't even have to pay. We put her on Santa's lap and................

He told her she was on the naughty list. She was not very happy!

And wanted off of this scary guy's lap.

Needless to say, Elli wasn't a fan of Santa....nope....not at all! Are you surprised? We did warn Santa before we put her on his lap that she would have a meltdown. This child has major stranger anxiety! Next year, we're hoping she won't be so afraid of him!

We tried to get another picture of her in front of the tree before her other nap. Look at that innocent face....ugh....irresistable!
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Elli has been working on going from a seated position....to a stand....and will occasionally take a few steps. She's doing a great job............

Sometimes she'll just bounce to music when she stands!
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She also enjoys picking things up. This day it was a package of diapers.

She did this over and over!
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Elli loves shoulder rides!!!!!!!!!!!! She thinks it is so much fun....

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Elli is becoming such a big girl. She hasn't had a bottle since Saturday morning....no that doesn't mean we haven't given her formula....it means she's been drinking from a sippy! She never transitioned to the sippy, so we had to just take the bottles away. We took them away completely after I found a sippy that she would finally take. The fact that she wouldn't take a sippy was so stressful for me. How could I tell my client's parents to get rid of the bottle when I wasn't able to get my own child to do it? She is only taking formula out of the sippy. For some reason she won't drink juice or water from it, but only plays with it. So....we do a regular cup and are also working on straw drinking during meals. She is still young....so I'm convinced once she gets more used to it, she will start drinking different liquids out of it.

We went through about a week where Elli wasn't too interested in food because her new tooth was coming in. Her appetite is slowly coming back, but there are still some things that she used to love that she still won't eat! She's been fussier the past couple of days, so I'm hoping she'll start feeling better soon!