Ellie 11 Months

Ellie has been crawling up and down the stairs for almost a month now! She loves to play on the stairs. She says hi, thank you, bum-bum (thank you Boston) mama and dada. She loves to put her food in her hair. She is goofy, and has developed major attitude. MAJOR! She has the loudest most annoying scream in the entire world. And if she doesn't get her way, she will scream. It's incredibly annoying! She also has felt the need to scream like that in the middle of the night until she gets a bottle. CONSISTENTLY for about a month now. I guess she's making up for all the time she slept through the night. The little devil inside her was just waiting to come out!

All that being said, she is still sweet, and very fun to be around...most of the time. She just wants to be a big kid like Boston. She freaks if she feels like she's being excluded from doing things. She and Boston will play for hours together. I LOVE that they play together. They grow closer more and more each day. Boston has started sharing his food, and his toys without being asked, and will hug and kiss her on his own. It's very sweet. When he says his prayers he is always thankful for Ellie-jelly-belly-bean-sweetheart. Can't believe we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday in a month!

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal!

I admit....I love Home Alone. Favorite Christmas movies hands down. (Strictly the first two of course) I can quote those movies backwards and sideways. In fact, my voicemail out of high school was me imitating the hotel booking phone call from the second movie...yes I was weird. Really weird. Ok, I'm still weird. I do a pretty good job of hiding it....sometimes. Even then, I never thought that I was overboard until I overheard a conversation between Jeffrey and Boston playing with a new race track he got for Christmas. Boston turns to Jeff and says: 'keep it open, you little jerk!' Haha! Should I be proud, or ashamed? Maybe a bit of both. Jeff gave me a look that could have been read as: 'look what you did, you little jerk!' Uncle Frank would be proud...and I can assure you my quoting will be kept to a minimal next year.

I will say that the magic of Christmas has been ignited once again for me through Boston's eyes. I loved watching his little face light up at so many different things this Christmas. Watching him try and fill the manger for baby Jesus by doing nice things for Ellie. He threw her diapers away, picked up bottles, washed bottles, hung up and put away her clothes, picked up her toys, and shared some of his own, each resulting in a piece of straw in the manger. He squealed when he got a letter from Santa in response to his. The first thing he ran to Christmas morning was not to the presents, but to see if Santa drank the milk and ate the cookies he made. The look on his face when he realized that Santa gave him exactly what he asked for. 'Mom, I asked Santa for a buzz and woody, and he got it for me, mom! He did!' It's amazing watching him start to believe in something so special. Buzz and woody are at this moment tucked in, fast asleep with a snoring little Boston. I just love that boy.

As for Ellie, well....Santa brought her clothes and a few books. I was feeling pretty bad about it, until Christmas morning when she didn't even want to open one present. She just roamed through the mess of wrapping paper tearing it up. Merry Christmas sweet little Jelly Bean! 

 Here are some pictures of our Christmas!

Family Christmas Pictures 2015

Isn't this picture the best? I love Boston in this one.

My favorite picture. Best buds!