Macy's Pink Pig

Macy's Pink Pig is one of my favorite Christmas traditions! It was one of my favorite things to do as a kid, and now I get so much joy taking Ella. It is amazing to compare last year's ride to this year's. Ella is such a big girl now! It was a little difficult for her to be patient in line (there was a huge group of kids on a field trip ahead of us today), but she tried really hard. She kept saying "Ella turn, Ella turn" because I told her we had to wait her turn. Between my mom and I, we were able to distract her. We told her that she could ride the piggy if she was a good girl. So after we finished, she patted the "I rode the Pink Pig" sticker on her chest and said "Good girl for piggy!"

Heading to the ride with ticket in handWaiting in lineGigi and Ella
Finally on the ride!So happy!
Applauding
Riding with her stuffed piggy from GigiMommy's turn to ride with Ella (we printed the coupon for 2-for-1 rides)"Good girl for piggy"

Lights of Life

Life University has a lights show every holiday season, and we took Ella to see it yesterday. I wasn't sure how much Ella would like sitting in the car, but the lights dazzled her. She kept saying "Oooooo, lookie lights!" "Awesome!" She really liked seeing all of the beautiful displays. It is really a nice thing to do for the holidays.
At the end of the lights show, you can get out of the car, ride a pony (but that is only on weekends, so we missed out), feed goats (doesn't every lights display have goats?), see holiday window displays (set up like a big train), and roast marshmallows by an open fire (we opted out of this activity for obvious reasons). Ella really loved the window displays!! She was glued to the windows like...well, a kid at Christmas! It was a great family night!

Mommy and Ella
Daddy and Ella
Life University is chiropractic school, and I thought this was funny...Santa is getting an adjustment--haha!
Taking everything in
Wow!
This is where Santa sits, but he wasn't there (which is better according to Ella...remember this?)Running from display to display
Getting a little cold
Dancing to the Christmas music

Happy Birthday Daddy

December is the birthday month in our family! Jason's birthday is on Dec. 13th, and we celebrated it with my mom, sister, Allen, brother, and Lindsey on Saturday at Roger and Lindsey's apartment. It was also the SEC Championship, and we all pulled for Alabama (since Georgia was out of the picture...I even dressed Ella in a crimson shirt). Roger and Lindsey just got a new puppy, and Ella enjoyed "playing" with him. I say "playing" because she liked him, but when he would come up close, she wanted to be picked up. He was just a little too big for her to feel 100% comfortable. We had a nice time kicking off all of the birthday celebrations for December!

Playing "night, night" with Aunt KiaShe loves Boudreaux (the puppy)
Blowing the candles out with Daddy
Feeding Daddy the first birthday bite

Happy Birthday Cole!

Last Friday, we celebrated Cole's 3rd birthday at Southern Prep. The kids got to hear a story, create an art project, and then play until they were all ready for a nap--haha! It was a lot of fun! Cole's mommy and I have been friends since we were 5 years old, so it is very special to see our kids play together. Happy 3rd Birthday Cole!

Playing with the birthday boy after the story
Ella in her special outfit

Playing with her reflectionThis pretty much sums up just how much fun Ella has at Southern PrepCupcake time!

Vining's Tree Lighting

Thursday night we took Ella to the Vinings Tree Lighting. Boy, was it cold (we only lasted 30min)! But despite Ella's shivering and red hands (I left her mittens at home), nothing was going to keep her from having fun! As soon as we walked up, we saw the pony ride and her sights were set on getting a ride. There was a very long line for that and the train ride, so we decided to split up. Nana stood in the train line and I stood in the pony line while Jason took Ella around to look at the big tree and listed to the carolers. This plan worked out well. The only flaw in the plan was I forgot to prepare Ella for leaving the pony. Usually, when I anticipate a"goodbye" meltdown, I prepare her by saying "Ok, Ella we are going to have to say bye-bye pony in a minute. Let's count to 3 and then say bye-bye pony. 1......2 (almost time to say bye-bye pony)....3! Bye-bye pony! See you next time! It is time to clean up" etc, etc. You get the gist. I try to make sure she hears "bye-bye pony" a lot before actually having to leave. This is surprisingly effective. However, I overlooked this important step. And out of no where, we just pulled Ella off the pony and started walking to the car. You can imagine the scene....a crying toddler with giant crocodile tears, reaching towards the ponies as we walk away, saying "Ho-sey! Ho-sey! Hoooooo-seeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!" Jason had to pretend to be a horsey for quite a while when we got home giving Ella a ride around and around the family room. Just add one more word to the have-to-spell-it-around-Ella list....H-O-R-S-E-Y!

Arriving (all bundled up)
Someone just saw a pony!

Tree!! (no worries about this one falling)

Ella eying a pony while taking a picture with Daddy

Looking up to see the big tree "up high"

On the train ride with Nana

Family Fun

Finally on the pony ride!

So sad she had to leave the ponies behind...many, many tears (we even had to bring out the emergency paci)

"Tree Go Boom!"

Jason and I spent Ella's nap time on Saturday decorating our Christmas tree. When we finished, we were so impressed with this year's tree! The ornaments seemed perfectly spaced, the lights spread out, and the garland in even rows. We were having Kristen and Eric over for dinner that night and were way ahead of schedule. I started preparing the dinner while Jason started working on the apple pie. Around 4:30pm, Ella woke up, and I went to get her. I brought her downstairs and thought I would take her to the tree to teach her how to be gentle with the ornaments (the bottom half has "toddler proof" ornaments). She was so excited to see all of the sparkle and fun characters (Santa, reindeer, babies, etc.). She had one little finger out touching the ornaments. Little did we know, but our "perfect" tree was bowed. So when we "straightened" out the tree, it actually put the base off balance, making it lean forward. What happened next??? "Tree go boom!!" Our tree crashed down on our child. Luckily I was right next to her and immediately lifted the tree off of her, and Jason came running in and scooped her up. She wasn't hurt, but she was very scared. After a few moments of "Oh my goodness, what just happened," we realized that this will go down as a Christmas memory. And we all know how I like to document memories....I took a picture of "tree go boom."

After the crash, Ella was talking a mile a minute about how "tree go boom on my head" and "tree go boom on my knee" and "tree up high, up high" (meaning put the tree back up please). I did get a little video of her explaining what happened so the memory has been properly documented! We did lose quite a few ornaments due to the crash, and we had to redecorate our tree, but it is now one of those funny stories that will be told around a nice Christmas fire with hot chocolate and cookies for years and years!

Daddy bringing up the tree
Mommy putting on the 1st ornaments (Ella's ornament for 2009)Amazed to see the pretty ornamentsBeing very gentleTree go boom!!!!!
**Our bowed tree is now tied to our china cabinet to make sure this doesn't happen again**

After Thanksgiving (Tree) Shopping

***Warning...this post is out of order. I forgot to post this after Thanksgiving. So let's just travel back in time a few days.**

Jason and I started a tradition a few years ago to get our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. So this year we continued that tradition and headed to our Big John's Tree Lot on Friday. Our goal was to pick the tree out before Ella's nap, set it up during her nap, and then decorate it after she went to bed. The first two items on the agenda happened, but the decorating was put off until Saturday. Regardless, we had a lot of fun hunting for our perfect tree. Ella loved running around and jumping off the curb (she will make a game out of anything). It was a nice family day!

And she's off!

Trying to get a quick picture with Mommy...

...but all she wanted to do was jump off the curb!This always works
Having fun in the trees
Holding her "Big John's" ornamentTaking the our tree home