Momma's Girl

Elli's first Christmas was SO much fun! The holidays were even more amazing thanks to our new status of 'Elli's parents'. The three of us spent almost two and half weeks together and it was incredibly difficult for it to all end. We enjoyed spending several low key days together before our trip to Greentown. We had decided not to buy anything for each other and not too much for Elli. Not sure who we were kidding.

We got Elli a DVD player (for future use in the cars) and some Praise Baby DVDs (like Baby Einstein but with worship music behind it...it's great). She also got a couple of new toys - a stacker ring, etc. I'm glad we didn't get her too much more as she was definitely spoiled by our families.

The above is one of Elli's favorite toys (probably in between the Fisher Price laugh and learn puppy...it laughs, sings, talks, etc. and her cool new cell phone).

We celebrated with my parents and my mom's family on Christmas Eve, as is tradition. It was super fun...and lots of great food. We ate all night. Below is some of the chaos we saw when it was time for the kids to open presents. Grace was my absolute favorite. She was so excited and grateful for all of her gifts. She even enjoyed watching others open their gifts.

Us in our Christmas jammies...one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

As usual, Elli's grandparents spoiled us all rotten. We feel really blessed by everyone's generosity and thoughtfulness. Below is a picture of the girls in their matching Christmas outfit.

We played a ton of Rock Band over the break. Greg and I forgot that it was make believe at some points...more fans, more stars, more cities, more venues!!! Greg and his sister, Sara, are awesome at the drums. I prefer the guitar and Elli often sings along the few times she's been awake when we were playing. Greg's mom was the funniest. It was fun to watch Gary, Sally, Sara and Greg all play.

Us Mast girls kicking it!



We rang in the New Year at our house with some of Elli's favorites aunts and uncles - Dutch, Sara, Syd and Katie. Addie joined us for the party but she and Elli didn't make it to midnight (thank goodness)! Aunt Sara and Uncle Dutch got Elli the CUTEST pjs! Since we call Elli 'bug' this outfit fits her perfectly! :) We had a ton of fun hosting the VanDams for a couple of days. It went by too fast!

You'll notice my nifty new camera has some fun features. I was tired of every picture of Elli showing up with her having red eyes so I invested in a new one. I've had lots of fun playing with it.

It was hard to go back to work this week. On Monday I raced to my sister's house to get Elli. When I walked through the door Elli saw me and her arms and legs went crazy. She about jumped out of my mom's arms to get to me. When I held her she squealed and then just talked and talked to me. Turns out she was just as excited to see me as I was to see her...and her reaction was absolutely priceless. It made my year if not the next decade for me. Elli's turned into a bit of a Momma's girl over the last couple of weeks. She's starting to have a bit of the stranger danger disorder and likes to throw a fit when someone leaves the room. Elli is really growing into her own personality and can be a bit of a stinker sometimes. She doesn't do anything halfway it seems...when she screams, she screams; when she laughs, she laughs with all she's got; when she's wriggling, she's can move anywhere she wants. Hopefully she continues to live life big! :)

No true updates in terms of milestones - no teeth, no mamama or dadada, no crawling. I'm not in too much of a rush for any of the above. She's doing great sitting up and playing with all of her new toys, eating her fruits and veggies (and meat now!) and growing so much!

Tuesday was Elli's seven month birthday! :)

Happy Birthday, El!!