Christmas Celebrations, Part 1-Family Photos

Well, there has been so much going on over the past month, I wasn't sure where to start. So I thought I would break things up a bit, starting with the oldest pictures (around the first part of December)and moving my way to the most recent.
Here are the family pictures we had done. My cousin, Kimberly, recently started her own photography business, called Captured Keepsakes. She was nice enough to shoot some pictures for us so we could send one out on our Christmas card. And while we were at it, we had a full-out family portrait session! I was so glad to get some pictures of the three of us. You parents out there know how hard those are to come by! If anyone in this area is interested in using Kimberly for your photo shoots, let me know and I can give you her contact information!!

Hope you all enjoy seeing the pictures.....I think they turned out really well!! :)

Merry Christmas To All!

We hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas! I had planned on making one big pre-Christmas post because I have TONS of pictures from the past few weeks from Christmas parties, baking day, Christmas parade, Santa visit, etc......but I have decided to do it after the holidays. I'm sure I will have a little more time on my hands then! Merry Christmas to you and yours. Let us all remember the reason we celebrate this most special day.

Ella Has Made Her Mark....

Although I have a massive pre-Christmas post to make, I decided this couldn't wait. I was at my mom's house yesterday baking, and Ella and Daddy were hanging out at home. Tom called me and told me that while he was picking up the kitchen, Ella was being very quiet. So he went in her room to check on her and this is what he found:

Tom said when he went in there, she was 'hiding' behind her chair.....and when she heard the "beep beep" of the camera, she came out and said "CHEESE!"
Behind the rocker.

Her activity table. Luckily, the marker wiped off of this.

Ella got a little messy, too.
It cracks me up how she is holding her hands out here.....

It was EVERYWHERE!!

Is that face pure mischief or what?

Another shot of her handy work.

Tom called me and told me all about it. He was so dumbfounded, he could barely speak! Mostly, I just heard this: "Ella........she was quiet.....black marker......everywhere! Oh my gosh!!!....." I asked Tom if he got after her for it, but he said he was so taken aback, he just called me first! I think she knew she was in trouble, though, because she just hid behind her rocking chair. I realized that she got the marker in the very back of one of her dresser drawers....I had used it as a scrapbooking pen for her baby book! After he told me all about it on the phone, I told him to take pictures. I mean, hey, we'll laugh at this someday, right? (already!)

Ok, as I mentioned before, I have a huge pre-Christmas post to make. Hopefully I'll get that up in the next few days!! Hope you all are getting ready for Christmas!!

Dinner with the Apostle's!

We were so lucky to have the chance to catch Mike and Jess on their way home to Colorado from Illinois last weekend. So, we drove up to St. Louis to meet them for dinner as they blew through town! It was an hour and a half of non-stop laughing and talking. It had been almost 3 years since we'd all been together.....how is that possible? The thing about great friends, though, is that you get together again and it's like not a day has gone by. As we left them that night, all Tom and I could talk about was how much fun we have when we get together. Here are some pictures we managed to get!

The four (and a half!) of us after dinner.
Two of my best girls. I love this picture!

The Veo clan after dinner, with the Arch in the background. Not too bad!

Me and my best. Love her :)

We had such a great time! It was funny too, because Mike kept "subtly" dropping hints for us to come to Colorado. So hopefully, sometime we'll have pictures of all of us on their turf!!! Thanks for dinner, guys! We love you!

MY BIG GIRL!!!!

ELLA PEE-PEED ON THE POTTY TODAY!!! I can't tell you how proud I am of her! If any of you don't want to read about bodily functions, you can stop reading here ;) She has been interested in sitting on the potty a lot lately, and we've talked about it a lot, but up until today, she would just sit there and then say, "Done!" before she did anything. Well, she was on there this morning (yet again) and the phone rang. So I said, "You stay here on the potty and go pee-pee and Mommy will answer the phone." When I walked back in there (not even 10 seconds later......the phone was just in the living room!) she had gone!! I was screaming and so excited and telling her what a big girl she was!! Of course I wanted to praise her very well so she knew what a good thing she had done! She gave me a high five and we did a little dance right there in the bathroom :) Then we poured it into the big potty, said bye bye to the pee-pee (oh..the things we do for our kids....), flushed and washed our hands. Then she got a sucker, of course :) My friend Liz recently made a post about her daughter going poo-poo on the potty, and she mentioned how she wanted to shout it from the rooftops. I know what you mean, Liz! I know it sounds silly, but you Mommies out there know what a HUGE deal that is!! I seriously called everyone I know! And, I dare say that I almost found myself a little sad.....to me Ella is still just a baby, MY baby. Not big enough to go in the potty! It just reminds me of how fast she is growing. It is also interesting, I think, because Ella didn't go when I was in the room......she waited until I left. Usually I'm sitting right there in the floor saying, "Come on, baby...you can do it! Go pee-pee!" But if you really think about it, it is probably much easier for her to go when she has a little privacy :) And Liz said her daughter did the same thing...she wasn't in the room when it happened. Maybe our girls are just being modest :)

Anyway, here are the pictures I took after the blessed event!!

Ella enjoying her sucker........she was loving that thing!

Ella's big girl potty!

Self portrait of a very proud Mama and Ella.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the news....I'm sure it was TMI for some of you!!!