Something to make you laugh.

Here's a sweet picture of Nora enjoying some banana baby food last week. She's just now starting solids and has taken to them quickly.

Nora also took her first bath with Ella today! It was kind of successful. She loved being in the water, but was determined to launch herself out of the Bebe Pod Julee loaned us. The bath ended when she did just that and got a little water in her mouth.

We met up with Rachel and Isaac at Chick-Fil-A today. Ella and Isaac managed to catch the attention of the entire restaurant! They love each other and haven't seen each other in a few weeks. Isaac was waiting outside the play area as we came in the door and when they spotted each other, they both ran with open arms screaming the other one's name. It was adorable! They were so excited to get together again!

So here's the funny part of this post. When I was pregnant with Ella I was totally concerned, as are most first time moms, about what she would look like. Richard and I both have strong features and I just knew she would get the worst of both of us. Compounding this fear was Richard's mastery of Photoshop- which he needs for his job. He took our pictures one day while we were bored- I think I was around 38 weeks and VERY swollen. He then put the two of us together to see what our child would look like. The picture below is what he made. I laughed so hard that I cried. As a result the first words out of my mouth when I came out from under anesthesia and saw Ella were, "Oh! She's so beautiful!" I honestly expected something alien-like. Enjoy and try not to be scared!

Dad's birthday, NYD, a date with Nora

So Blogger is really irritating me. I haven't yet mastered the format on here, and the result is that this post is backwards. Bear with me as I adjust to using Blogger.

Richard and I had a date with Nora this evening at Ferrando's on Timothy. We absolutely love Ferrando's. If you haven't been you are totally missing out. They have the best hot wings we have ever tasted. Ella is nuts for the wings and will probably be upset to find out that we went without her. I am on a diet, and having lost 10 pounds as of today, I was not willing to blow my progress, so I stuck with lighter fare and only nabbed one of Richard's wings.

Ella is spending the night with Jeff and Maura. She absolutely loves going to their house for 2 reasons:
1- She gets to play with their adorable little dog Gingersnap.
2- She gets to be the complete center of attention of 2 adults! This is her dream come true.

I'm starting to wonder how many times they've watched Wall-E so far.















In other news, Richard's 33rd birthday was yesterday. It was low key around the house. Ella and I did manage to buy a small cake, cards and a gift. We were attempting to be sneaky by going to the kitchen alone to light the candles and sign cards. Unfortunately her excitement got the best of her. As I was trying to light candles she threw the cards on the floor, grabbed the pack of candles and starting shoving as many as she could into the cake while yelling, "no mom! He needs more candles!" The gig was up when I realized Richard was standing right beside me watching me light the candles. He is really mastering the art of sidling. I actually screamed when I saw him next to me.





On New Year's Day we completed our second tradition of the NYE/NYD holiday. We have spent dinner at Jeff and Maura's house every NYD since 2006. I think it's a wonderful tradition! The girls absolutely love them and Richard and I do too. They always serve good food, good wine and we have lots of fun. This year, after a few drinks, Jeff broke out the bagpipes. Ella would scream and run from him as if he were weilding a machete, but it was all in good fun. Here's a picture of Jeff doing his thing.

The Last of 2008......

And the first of 2009. This is our family tradition, although we managed to fail a little for the first time this year. The year Elizabeth was born we started taking our last picture of the year of all of us together just before midnight. We would then take the first picture of the new year just after midnight. Last year I was in bed, pregnant, exhausted. Richard failed to yell up and tell me the new year had begun. I was irritated. This year we failed because the girls were in bed sleeping before midnight. I woke them up and made them take a pic. We went to bed without taking a pic in 2009, so we did it this morning in the kitchen. Enjoy our past years picture as well as the first pic of 2009! Happy New Year!