Wes and the girls

Wes and the girls watching football.

And Wes getting his hair done.

Driveway art

We did some sidewalk chalk art the other day. Here Ellie is tracing my shadow and patiently waiting for me to move my camera arm back in place - she wanted to draw me flying like an airplane. That's little Sadie's shadow with me - she was hanging out in the sling on my hip.

Woohoo! I'm SIX MONTHS OLD - today!

I can't believe six months has already gone by. Wow. Where on earth does the time go? Sadie is growing so fast! Here she is playing with one of her favorite Christmas decorations: a snow globe. Happy half-birthday Sadie!

Moment of bliss...

My sister is crazy!

Don't worry, Mama, I've got the wild one under control.

Holiday program!

Ellie's school had their holiday program this week. It was so sweet. They sang songs, said poems, did a yoga demonstration, and then we all did the hokey pokey. Unfortunately it was dark and Ellie was on the other side of the room, so our photos didn't really come out. Here's the best of the bunch:

More rain

We've had more rain in the last week than we've had all year. At least it feels that way. I can hear it steadily coming down even now, as I type. The girls and I decided to light the fire and cozy up inside for the day. That seemed like a great plan when we awoke to the rain pelting down this morning...
but by 10am we were a little stir crazy!

We've been doing a lot of painting. Here Ellie didn't want to be seen in the photo...

... and we've made some gingerbread people decorations.

Sleigh rides and Christmas lights

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too

Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you...

Over the weekend we went to a Christmas light show. The latest in holiday attire? Blinking Rudolph noses like the one Ellie is wearing. It was such a hit she's barely taken it off since.

Just hanging out...

Ellie loves time on the computer. She's happy just typing away on a blank document. Here she was sitting next to me while I wrote letters. She was so excited by what she was doing she kept turning the screen towards me. "Mommy, look! Look! Look Mommy!"
I love that blank stare...
Meanwhile, Sadie keeps on grinning and giggling at just about everything.

Christmas cookie fun

This weekend we did some Christmas cookie baking with our friend Leila. That might look like Ellie to you, but actually it is Sleeping Beauty. Close resembalence, no?

While we waited for the cookies to bake, Leile and Ellie -er- Sleeping Beauty gave me a puppet show.

Swinging Sadie

Here is our Sweet Sadie hanging out in her swing.

It has been raining for days here. We needed this rain and, of course, it is fun to play out in it! Ellie has had so little chance to wear her rain gear, she's thrilled that finally there is a real reason to get out there and wear it.

This morning we watched the rain come down, so much it is creating a lake in our backyard. So we lit the tree and made Christmas cookies. There was a lot of sampling of the red and green sugars that were meant for decorating, but some of the cookies did actually make it to the final cooked-and-finished stage. However, they didn't last long enough to make it into a photo. They didn't even last until lunchtime.



Here's our little cookie! Sadie now can sit up on her own, which makes her very happy. And she is fascinated by anything with a label, making her taggie blankets top of the list for favorite items of the moment.

This is so fun!

Baby Sadie

This weekend we went to see a tree display. Sadie liked all the lights...



And Ellie's favorite was a tree decorated with hot air balloons!

Santa again!

Santa!

Nativity scene

Granny West sent us a beautiful hand-sewn nativity scene. Ellie has loved setting it up and acting out the Christmas story.

Decorating is a multi-day task

Here are the girls decorating our Christmas tree.

Our Christmas tree is up!

Yesterday we went tree shopping. Ellie - our southern girl - was a little cold outside, but she was thrilled about the tree once we got it inside. Tree shopping is exhausting

Sister Love

I love my sister

She's delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time with family last week - thanks for coming down!

We went to campus a couple times.
The weather was perfect: cool and sunny. Good for running around. Everyone helped Wes plant a tree in our backyard.

(Sadie was supervising.)

Emelyn and Ellie

The cousins

Someone extra (in princess attire) almost went back to Indianapolis. She did not want to see her cousins leave and stood on our door step watching their car until it was out of sight.