Christmas 2012 - part 1

I love Christmas so much and we celebrated over three days so I just don't know any other way to capture our fun without doing a couple of days worth of posts!  Good thing it's mainly our family who read this...  Our first day of Christmas started with dinner with Gramps's family.  Aunt Susu hit it out of the park when she gifted Ellen with lip gloss and jewels!  Daddy has been her favorite model for all of this fabulousness and when she is done decorating him up she declares him "pinkalicious".

 

Most of our friends have boys and just won't understand that picture - just wait there are girls on the way and I predict lip gloss on many more daddies.  She also had a great time exchanging make-up tricks with Aunt Susu.

 

 

Two days later we celebrated Christmas with Cece's side of the family and Ellen was a big help in the kitchen.  Here she was learning the finer points of glazing a honey baked ham.

 

 

I had so much fun sharing Christmas traditions with Ellen this year since she really understood everything we were doing.  We made cookies for Santa and then left them out with some carrots for his reindeer.  Ellen cracked up when she found that all the snacks had been enjoyed.

 

 

She was also excited to find that Santa had left snowy footprints on our door mat.  She was pretty disappointed that he and his reindeer didn't stick around to visit.

 

 

When she was finished checking the Santa tracks, Ellen came in to find all the toys he had left for her.  She was such a sweet girl this year that he was sure to get her everything that was on her list.

 

We had such a great time celebrating with our Little Bee.  Stay tuned for the rest of Christmas. 

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Best Christmas Pageant Yet

Ellen has participated in her school's Christmas Pageant three years now and I have to say that this was her best year.  Ok so the first year she was only 6 months old and for the second year only 18 months but she really nailed it this year!

 

 

Here she is singing her heart out to a song about Christmas bells that is set to Jingle Bells.  Her teacher told me that she and Betsy were the only ones who would sing during practice and that they were trying to get the director to give them a microphone so you could really hear them.  Watch out Toddlers in Tiaras!

 

 

Another shot of she and her classmates performing their song.  Can you see that her little mouth is open just singing away?  Her class came back on stage towards the end of the show to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the rest of the school.  Ellen is still singing this song to me and sometimes wants me to join in. 

 

 

Great job, Little Bee!  Mommy and Daddy loved your show and thought you made such a sweet Christmas angel! 

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

 

 



Christmas Parties

Ellen got to visit with Santa many times in December.  She was a big fan and all her school friends were convinced that she and Santa were very tight.  Her besty even went home and told her mother, "Ellen knows Santa!".  When the Little Bee got a chance to see Santa wandering around the Walmart on our last trip to the Oxbow she said "Look, Mommy, Santa!  Can I go hug him?".  Of course we went and visited with him.  She climbed right into his lap and told him that she had been a good girl and wanted pink toys.  She repeated this performance at the church Christmas party.

 

The Little Bee accompanied Mommy, Cece and Aunt Margaret to a tea at the Heritage Society.  She was so good and enjoyed her first real tea party, especially the huge pink cupcakes.

 

 

When they moved into the educational lecture part of the tea, Ellen decided that she would prefer to head outside and check out the historic homes.  Mommy took this opportunity to snap some shots of of Ellen in her Christmas dress.

 

What can I say, she is a total ham.  The best Christmas party was the one that Davis invited us to at his golf club.  Ellen got her face painted, watched a magic show and chatted up Santa again.  They also had the most talented balloon animal maker I have ever seen!  Here is Ellen requesting a pink watch - which Santa delivered. 

 

 

The same weekend Ellen and I, along with Davis and his mommy, all of our church friends for a gingerbread house decorating party.  By the time the party rolled around I was too pooped to take any pictures but I did get a shot of the tree Ellen helped me decorate.  She did a great job being careful with all of the glass ornaments.  She only broke one but that was because he was a sneaky fox and probably related to Swiper from Dora the Explorer.  Or so she informed me at the time.

 

 

Well, it is now the Saturday before New Years and I just have to catch you up on the school Christmas pageant and Christmas day.  These will all post after New Years (including this post) but I think I can make it - even with the incredibly slow Internet at the beach house.  Wish me good luck! 

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

 

 



Davis's Drum Line

One of our favorite little friends, Davis, turned three right before Christmas and his mommy threw him one fun football themed party.  The Little Bee was specially requested to appear as a cheerleader.  We did not want to disappoint the birthday boy!

 

The half time entertainment at the birthday party was the high school drum line.  This was a huge hit!  All of the little friends loved the drums.

 

They even got a chance to try their hand at drumming. 

 

 

We had a great time celebrating with Davis!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Davis! 

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving at the Oxbow

We celebrated a nice Thanksgiving at Cece and Gramp's house and also one at Lloyd's mother's house.  Two meals in one day!  Ellen was excited to have her great grandfather visiting and kept him very entertained.  At one point I heard her say, "Come on, Great Grandpa, we're going to go play with the giraffes out side".  What else is a great grandpa to do but to oblige...

 

Of course, Gramps is also there when Ellen gives instruction about how she would like to be entertained.  She tends to be the star of any family gathering.  Here she is hearing a story and drinking some tea with Gramps after helping him cook the Thanksgiving meal.  She is quite the chef and loves to be right in the middle of anything that happens in the kitchen.  She knows how to peel garlic and rosemary.  She is also very good and scrambling eggs.

 

 

After Thanksgiving we went on our last trip to the Oxbow Plantation.  Lloyd has been mourning the loss of this 1000 acre playland for quite some time.  I was a bit worried as I was convinced that this was a huge selling point in Lloyd proposing to me.  However, he has still stuck around, for now...  He got to take Ellen on one last mule ride. 

 

 

Ellen thought this was pretty fun but was full of warnings for Gramps that included, "Hold on" and "I don't think we belong here" when we went off-roading.

 

 

She also took Gramps on a hunt for a woodpecker.  I'm not sure where her fascination with woodpeckers came from but she will frequently put her hand to her ear and say, "do you hear that?  It's a woodpecker".  Next she wants to go hunt for it.  So off she and Gramps went in search of a woodpecker.  This time there really was one to be found. 

 

 

Ellen, Cece and Mommy had one more stop at the Picnic Spot.  It wasn't the same for Mommy since she can't drink wine right now but at least we got a very pretty sunset and found a dinosaur bone.

 

 

Ellen enjoyed one last cuddle at the Picnic Spot with Cece and we thought about our sweet Beau.  We scattered his ashes on the picnic spot three Decembers ago.

 

 

We have enjoyed the time with the Oxbow and hope that the new owners enjoy it too.  Now on to the next adventure.  I hope this one involves less cows and a cable television. 

 

 

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

 

 

 

 

 

Entertaining a Sick Toddler

Sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving Ellen and I got pretty sick.  We stayed home for enough time that we began to go pretty stir crazy.  Neither of us are big about sitting around and not doing much.  I have to get creative about low energy ways to keep the Little Bee entertained.

 

 

This tent in between the couch and coffee table was just the thing to keep her busy for an entire afternoon.  She even ate lunch in her tent.  Of course, any good tent explorer knows that you must have a pink flashlight in your hands at all times while inside your tent. 

 

Muffy also enjoyed the tent but preferred the roof access.  She and Ellen have really been getting along very well.  Muffy has even been sleeping with Ellen in her new queen size big girl bed.  We made the transition after Christmas and she took to it pretty well.  It takes a bit longer for her to go to sleep but the incentive of sleeping with Muffy really helps. 



 

 

Ellen is also doing a great job with potty training.  She wears big girl underwear all the time, even for nap, during the day.  She sleeps in a pull up at night but is not at all happy about this.  We will transition out of this when she drinks less milk before bed.  Right now she into asking her Gramps to take her to the potty.  We are pretty excited to have such a big girl who will be such a great help with her baby sister. 

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma



Halloween 2012

Halloween was a very busy time for us.  We had a super hero party at our church, the school carnival, and two nights of Trick  or Treating.  Of course all of this required costumes and since we didn't have a cape, I made one via Pinterest.  What did we do before Pinterest!  Warning - this will be a photo heavy post...

 

 

Mommy and Ellen had a girl's night of Jack O Lantern shaped pizza...

 

 

and pumpkin carving.  Ellen even helped roast the seeds for Daddy.

 

 

The whole family had a great night at the school Halloween carnival.  Ellen's teachers did an amazing job of making this the best carnival to date!  Ellen had a great time running around with her besty Betsy Boo.

 

 

She also got a chance to try out her new driving skills on a fire truck.

 

 

The night before Halloween we did our usual trick or treat with all of our favorite mini monsters.  You know the phrase "herding cats"?  Whoever coined that term never tried to take a group shot that consisted mainly of two year-olds...

 

 

On the actual night of Halloween we went to Cece's so Mommy could get some help with the Trick or Treating.  I promised my OB that I wouldn't go at all but we both knew I was lying. 

 

 

Little Bee had a blast sporting her princess dress all weekend and eating nothing but candy for dinner two nights in a row!

 

 

I can hardly believe that next year we will be trick or treating with not one but two princesses!  How much fun! 

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma