Christmas 2010

On Wed, we finally made it to Memphis! Long story short, Monday caused us some chaos. I went to the orthopedic surgeon to look at my back again and his assistant scurried to get me an MRI. I ran around for about 7 hours to several different doctor's offices, had the MRI, found out I had a disc bulge on my S5 L1, and had an epidural injection of cortisone in my back. What happened next? We missed our flight Tuesday morning.

Of course, airlines suck and wouldn't change our reservations without a hefty $1500 fee. So, we ended up buying new tickets and left Wednesday morning.

Wednesday night, Ella wanted to open up presents so Aunt Emmy let her open one.

And, the next morning, she was at the tree again wanting to open up more.

Eating "i kem" with Big Daddy

Thursday morning we visited Santa. I'll have to take a picture of that picture (we don't have a scanner). Let's just say HILARIOUS! Ella hysterically crying in Santa's lap is the best picture we could have asked for. I don't have the pictures of this event yet, but the Christmas Village had lots of rides. We rode the choo choo train, teacup ride, dinosaur ride, and carousel. We also fed goats, saw a live manger as well as camels.

Thursday night, we went to Starry Nights with Grammy and Grandpa and then out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. The lights were really pretty!

Friday morning: Ate some great food and visited with wonderful friends and family at Judy's brunch

Friday night: We had Christmas with my Dad's side of the family. We are Irish and Perfect!!

Best gift ever - a wrapped canvas portrait of his best friend

Love this hat. Aunt Terry made over 100 of these for the children at St. Jude in honor of her sister.

Mema and most of her grandkids

Collin trying to lighten things up as we tried over and over to get a picture with Ella in it...we weren't successful.

Saturday morning: Christmas at my parent's and Ella's 1st Santa visit

She wasn't fond of Elmo's crazy antics

Trying on the tutu her Uncle Phillip gave her

FINALLY....a COMPLETE family picture! And a great one!

Kelley kids

Phillip and Katy

Christmas afternoon: Christmas with my Mom's side of the family

Gran, Pop, and their kids

Do you see an extra person in this pic? Hmmm...

Gran and Pop and all their grand and great grand (Ella) kids

Christmas night: Christmas with Grammy, Grandpa, and Eric (Brian's family)

Grandpas always make the toys work

Sunday: We left Memphis at 6:00 a.m. Short, a little crazy, but grateful that we were able to spend time with our family.

Sunday afternoon after Ella's nap, we had Santa #2. I pretty much just threw everything on the floor and was like "here you go"!!! We were pooped!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

12:54 a.m. and I'm going to bed...peace out.

Two Things

Ella said "Love you" to me for the first time on her way up to bed. So sweet!

Before that, we were sitting on the couch drinking milkshakes and she goes "eh kim." That's what she calls ice cream or milkshakes. So cute!

Just jotting down so I don't forget...

Just Around...

The last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy with the Q4 craziness our jobs bring at Amazon.com. Let's face it - Christmas shopping is not even close to done, Christmas cards arrived today and have to be addressed and mailed, Santa is supposedly coming this Sunday since we leave for Memphis on Tuesday, packing - what is packing? haven't even thought about getting ready for the trip, I'm buried in budget planning, prepping vendor negotiations for 2011, CES planning and Brian's buried in budget planning and everything else that Finance guys do - so, yeah, we're busy and, I guess that's just life?!

Making big messes!

Reading Momma's cookbooks...which I pretty much never use b/c cooking is for the birds:) That is what Gran is for...when we're home:)

She started doing this over Thanksgiving...so silly!

We always find her in the tightest spots...silly girl.

Love this pic! Do you know how hard it is to get a child to stand where you tell them to?!

Action shot as she sneaks around the tree:) Wish it was a clear pic.

On our way home from getting our tree. Candy canes are yummy!

But, in the grand scheme of things, none of that matters. What matters is family and I've learned that more than ever over this last week. If you read my last blog post, you read about my friend, Alicia, who lost one of her 20 month old baby girls, Evie Grace, last Thursday. She passed away in her sleep. Preliminary results show that it was bacterial meningitis. No major symptoms, really no warnings. She has a twin sister, Ramsey Kate. After I heard the news, it hit a little too close to home as our girls are 3 weeks apart. I cannot even imagine the pain they are going through right now. This was a wake up call that I need to slow down a bit and not only take care of myself, which I've completely pushed aside, but cherish every moment I have with my family. Life is too precious and you never know what the next day will bring.

Please keep this sweet family in your daily prayers. Alicia, Jonathan, little Ramsey, and their family need all the prayers they can get during this difficult time.

http://threedoodles.blogspot.com/

Praying Hard

I am heartbroken for a friend who lost their precious baby girl, Evie Grace, on Thursday and continue to pray hard for Alicia, Jonathan, little Ramsey, and their family. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanksgiving

Brian's parents and youngest brother came to Seattle to join us for Thanksgiving. They came in on Wednesday and while I worked, Brian took them to the top of the Space Needle and lunch at a really good wine bar called Purple.

We stayed home all day Thanksgiving watching football, playing with Ella, cooking (and I worked, boo!). Thank goodness Sue made us a turkey or we would have done our traditional HoneyBaked Ham stop for a turkey (not a bad thing but not the REAL thing!). We had a yummy dinner and thanks to Sue for all the cooking!!!

Friday was back to work for me while everyone laid around and watched some more football. Saturday, we headed to Bainbridge Island, a quaint little town about a 20 minute ferry ride from the city. We hadn't been there before - very cute! We had a great lunch and then headed back.

After dinner that night, I had a craving for a Luna Park milkshake so Eric and I headed there to get everyone shakes. We were laughing as they made them because our 6 shakes emptied out half of the huge container of ice cream! They were sooo good - I had Egg Nog!!

It was nice having family in town! We're usually here by ourselves and enjoyed the company and a full Thanksgiving dinner:)

I'm ashamed of myself...no pictures! You can blame that on my work schedule and then we were running late to catch the ferry so Brian wouldn't let me go get my camera:( This is all I have...

Ella ready for Thanksgiving dinner

Swing!

We made a pit stop to the playground on our way to Target...







And I threw her in the backyard really quick to try and get a Christmas card picture. I took about 5 and one will have to do...I'm too busy these days to spend time on these things! So yes, one of these will be on the card you'll receive:)

Love These!

Every month, all the parents at daycare receive a newsletter of happenings along with a calendar of what their children will be learning, exploring, etc. I just love these! You'll have to click on the image to read some of their daily activities. So cute!