Christmas fun

We had a very nice Christmas this year. We didn't go visit family, but we were able to enjoy a quiet Christmas at home. Elise loved her presents from Santa--a new table and chairs, a doll, and coloring books with crayons--so much that she refused to open any presents Christmas morning! Whenever we tried to give her one she said, "No, no, no, no, no, no!" and would then throw the present across the room away from her. We soon stopped trying and let her just enjoy what she was already playing with. Most of her presents weren't opened until the 26th. We hope you all had a nice day, too.

Here are a few pictures, I tried not to post too many, but I got a new camera for Christmas and went a little crazy taking pictures...it was hard to limit myself to just a few pictures to share with everyone!

Elise first thing Christmas morning with her new table and chairs...

Yay for crayons!!

M&M's...the breakfast of champions (what's bad, is that is about all she ate all day long!)

Hugging her new doll...

...and trying to give it a bath!

Elise with pigtails, just like her new dolly!

Wearing her Christmas dress after church...trying to take off her tights.

Visit with Santa and a baby boy

Elise missed our ward Christmas party and the opportunity to see Santa there, so yesterday we took her to a store to see Santa. Last year she cried and wouldn't even get close to him, let alone sit on his lap. This year, she did better. She didn't start screaming until she was actually on his lap. Needless to say, that picture did not turn out well. We were the 2nd to last people in line to see Santa before the store shut down the line for the night, so when Santa was done he came over to talk to us some more. He wanted to make sure that Elise would have a good memory of meeting Santa, so he talked with us for a bit and got her to smile at him and stand next to him, even if she wouldn't let her hold him. He even offered to let us skip the line if we wanted to try it again before Christmas. What a nice Santa!

Elise with Santa after he came over to talk to us...

In other news, we had our ultrasound last week and found out that we're expecting a little boy! We're quite excited. Everything looked normal and he was very wiggly--arms and hands everywhere! I'm due May 11th.

Thanksgiving pictures

For Thanksgiving this year we had my parents and brother come to visit from Utah. It was a lot of fun to have them here. Elise loved all the attention, especially Grandpa's seemingly never ending supply of M&M's and other small candies that he seemed to have in his pocket at all times. We had a very nice Thanksgiving, Mom helped me do all the cooking, and then Friday morning (after only going out for an hour or so for Black Friday), we piled into both our cars and drove up to Washington DC for the weekend. We were able to go to Mount Vernon, Ikea (for some Christmas shopping), see all the monuments, and go to a session at the temple. It was a great weekend. My parents had to go home too soon, but it was good to have them visit.

Elise loves purses...if you aren't careful, she'll adopt yours! In one of the gift shops she fell in love with this horse purse...boy was it hard to get it away from her!

Elise loved walking on the marble benches in front of the Washington Monument and did not like it when tourists got in her way!




What's the best part of eating dinner at Ikea? Chocolate cake! What a messy, happy girl!





Elise looking through the bars by Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon.

Elise was enthralled by the Christmas camel we saw on the grounds of Washington's home...but Daddy couldn't get too close!

Grandpa carried Elise for quite a while during our trek to all the monuments...Elise is sleeping quite contentedly on his shoulder.