Christmas!

We went to Arkansas before Christmas and we took a few pictures =)

We went to the Kells (Greg's grandparent's):

Ellie with PawPaw Kell


Barbara and Ellie

Stacy and Barbara playing with Ellie on the floor

Ellie was pretty entertained by everyone watching her!



Ellie

We went to the Hurd's for the Wagher family's Christmas Exchange....there are so many of us now, it gets pretty crazy!

This is my cousin, Owen, opening the gift that I made him (it was technically from Ellie). He was so cute! The blonde head on the right is my nephew, Ethan. The blonde in the blue cape below is my cousin, Spencer (Owen's older brother). They all look so much alike and are about the same age and size...it was a little confusing at times!




My Grandpa and Marion gave all the little girls in the family these crazy dolls! Each one was a different color, I think the others were blue, purple, red.... Ellie loved the bright green!
(We just discovered yesterday that she sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" if you squeeze her belly...it only took us a month to figure that out!)


Spencer was so excited to meet Ellie. His mom shows him pictures of her from the blog and he couldn't wait to hold her! He was so sweet!!!




We also went to the Bolin's (another set of Greg's grandparents):

PawPaw Bolin and Ellie- They gave Ellie this great orange ball. It has big holes in it and it's perfect for her tiny hands to hold!

Pat Bolin and Ellie

New York City!!!

For our Christmas present this year, Jamie (Greg's mom) and Tom flew the family to New York! Tom has been living and working there for almost a year now, so we don't get to see him very often. The family consists of: Jamie and Tom, Diana, Autumn, & Meredith (Tom's girls), Melissa and Caitlyn, and Greg, me and Ellie. Plus, Diana brought along a friend, Mandi. We were definitely a crowd! Tom rents a room from a great couple in Hamilton, New Jersey and they agreed to let us all stay there! (I'm not sure what they were thinking!!!) They were so generous and we had a great time!

Here are some pics (We took almost 250, so these are just the highlights!)

DFW Airport:

On The Plane:

^^Caitlyn

Melissa and Ellie^^

^^Newark Train Station^^

Mimi and Ellie...we had to wait awhile for our train, so we all went inside the tiny waiting area. I think we ran outside trying to catch a train 4 or 5 times before the right train arrived!

Thanksgiving Day!

We spent Thursday in the city. We went to the Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade! It was really amazing...long... and chilly!

Greg, Melissa and Ellie on the train to Penn Station in the wee small hours of the morning =)

Ellie was passed out on the train! We didn't want her to be cold...she had on three layers!

The view from Tom's office in the McGraw/Hill Tower. I think that's looking down on 5th avenue...

Right outside Tom's office....Madison Square Garden!

on the way to our Parade spot...we walked about 15 blocks down 5th avenue and somehow ended up at Times Square

I thought we arrived with plenty of time to spare before the parade started...this was the crowd that was ahead of us! We stopped next to a HUGE Toys 'R Us store and we were right across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe.

This is the crowd that formed behind us!

Meredith and Autumn

Mommy and Ellie - I'm pretty sure this was the only part of the parade she was awake for - and it hadn't even started yet.


Daddy and Ellie:

Melissa and Caitlyn:

Autumn, Greg and Meredith:

The Floats: They were so much bigger than I imagined!

Shrek!

Horton!

Kermit!

Buzz!

Snoopy!

Smurf!

Friday, we stayed at the house and ate our Thanksgiving dinner. That night, we went to a broadway show! Mary Poppins!!! The show was so amazing! Ellie could have been more cooperative though...she started crying as soon as the show started and I missed most of the first half =( We happened to have seats next to a very kind couple who had girls sitting up in a pair of box seats. They agreed to switch seats with us during intermission so that we could be more secluded. I was able to stand and hold Ellie, and she cooperated a little better during the second half. The seats weren't that great (we could only see about half of the stage because we were so far to the left side!), but at least I got to hear all of it and see most of it!


She has a Tutu that goes with this outfit...but it came off pretty quickly!

Saturday: Liberty Island and Limo Rides and Horse-drawn Carriages!!

The view of New York from Liberty Island! Beautiful! We were there right as the sun was setting and it lit up the city so beautifully.

Lady Liberty^^It was very neat to read and learn about the history of The Statue of Liberty. We all had audio-tours and we enjoyed it a ton!

After Liberty Island, we took a Limo (it was cheaper than a taxi for 11 people!) to Little Italy for dinner. Dinner was delicious and afterwards we took another Limo to FAO Shwartz!

The store was enormous and I wish we had more time to look around. We only had about 10 minutes because they were closing. I would definitely love to go back if we ever get a chance!

After the toy store, we took a Carriage Ride around Central Park. It was chilly, but beautiful.



Pics from down-time at the house back in NJ:

Mimi bought this adorable outfit for Ellie from the Life Is Good store in Princeton. It's one of my favorite outfits on her!

Sony (our host) took these adorable pictures of her - She's so cute!

A coworker of Tom's lent us this swing and a stroller. It was so nice to have! She took naps so well in it!

We played Pictionary Man - it was so much fun!
It's a new version of Pictionary that uses a little plastic man, a cylinder and a rectangle to draw on and use as props. It's a great combination of pictionary and charades!

Caitlyn is always so sweet with Ellie. She liked to talk to Ellie while she was swinging.





To see ALL of our pics, click on this slide-show: