A trip to Valley Forge

I'm a little backlogged on my blogging this month but with a snow day I thought I'd catch up while Little Miss is taking her ciesta.  The other weekend our little family headed north to see our good friends the Bonacci's.  Their little Pete is adorable and he and Ella got along great!  Ella is still what we like to call "assertive" but Pete handled it just fine with his way mellow demeanor.  Here she is again loving on Pete.  Some might say attacking but I prefer loving.  It sounds a little more gentle:)

In keeping with our love for George Washington this season, we took a trip to Valley Forge.  After seeing his homestead Mount Vernon a couple of months ago it was a stark contrast to think of the cold and bitter conditions he and the army were in at Valley Forge.  It's a place I'd love to go back to and explore even more when we have more time and the temperatures aren't in the teens.  Shaun enjoyed making Ella a militiaman with the bookstore apparel and play guns they had on display.  What am I going to do with him?

We enjoyed seeing our good friends and appreciated their hospitality!  Other than our trip to Valley Forge we also enjoyed good movies and visiting at the Bonacci home.  Yeah for friends and great historical places.

Snow Day Fun!

Actually, it might be more accurate to say "ice day fun".  We got a few inches of snow yesterday followed by a nice icing last night.  Not the best for playing but we decided it was Ella's first official snow so we would nevertheless venture out so she could have her first tackle with this great white stuff.  I just know she'll come to love this substance that will get her out of school (if she lives here) and beckon her for sledding and snowball fights.  Today she just screeched with joy at the sight of it and Shaun made sure she ate her first snow ball.  No worries, it wasn't yellow:)  Anyway, we just love snow days around here and we're training little Miss at an early age to do the same.

Big Milestones

Yesterday marked a special milestone in Ella's development.  Eleven months to the day and she started walking.  She's actually been taking a couple of steps here and there over the last week but yesterday she would take ten or more steps repeatedly.  So it's official~ though a little wably, my little gal is walkin':)  We got video and it's simply precious.  Hope you enjoy viewing her first

steps as much as we did.

Christmas at the Calderwoods

Christmas at the Calderwoods

2008

This has been a busy week for us.  We've enjoyed a lot of the traditional Christmas festivities such as baking... 

Visiting with friends... (this is Ella with Marilyn Pike and Michelle Lau.  Marilyn is my old roomie from the BYU days and oddly enough we found out she and Shaun are fourth cousins by marriage... the Calderwoods are related to everyone it seems...go figure!)

Monday prior to Christmas our little fam hit the outlet malls in Leesburg to find some last minute gifts.  Ella, however, was not in need of anything.  She was stylin' and ready to go in her new beenie and jacket:)

We also enjoyed a very lovely Christmas Eve.  This Christmas Eve we went up the hill and visited with neighbors and long time friends of the family.  When we got home we were able to watch Mr. Kruger's Christmas and a little Mo Tab before putting Ella to bed... getting ready for her FIRST CHRISTMAS!

This is our little family on Christmas Eve

And then the big morning arrived.  Here are some shots of Ella getting into her gifts. Ella loved her toys from her aunties and her toy walker/car from Santa.  She was so fun to watch.

She probably enjoyed the wrapping paper more than anything.  She got into it so much we decided to put her in the bag and take a photo.  She loved it!

This is her new polar bear from her cousin, Maddie

And her new "plano" from Auntie Steph

She also got a few classic books like "The Giving Tree"... one of my childhood faves

And nana and papa joined in on the fun

Our family gift this year was a camcorder so I have a sneaky suspicion that more videos will be coming your way via the Calderwood Chronicle.  We took video Christmas morning and Shaun plans on posting it shortly so that should be fun. 

We have really enjoyed our holiday but have deeply missed the family we could not be near this holiday.  We look forward to seeing you all in the coming year and wish you a very Happy 2009!

 

Twas the Week before Christmas...

I haven't been very good about posting some of our adventures this December.  Life has been crazy for the Calderwoods between finals for Shaun and my work.  But now with all of that behind us it's time to play catch up with our blog photos.  Ella has been adorable this holiday season and I thought friends and family would enjoy seeing her enjoying her first Christmas holiday season:)

We took these this afternoon after church.  Though a little sleepy, Ella looked fabulous in her Christmas dress.

Nana and Papa love their little Ella.  For some reason she doesn't get into their ornaments.  Lucky for Ella and us because we most likely couldn't afford to replace Nana's fancy ornaments.

This is our little tree.  Slowly the lower third has lost it's ornaments and lights as a certain Christmas elf has been infamous for getting into them.

We took these last weekend at the Temple Visitor's Center.  It was a beautiful night and Ella loved the lights and Christmas music.  She sat quietly through the whole hour long Christmas concert our friends were performing in.

And lastly, what would the Christmas holiday season be without sitting on Santa.  At our church Christmas party last night Ella had her first opportunity to sit on Santa.  This Santa seemed strangely familiar though.  See if you can guess who it is...

It was the Leprechauns!

My husband has the tendency to talk in his sleep.  That has provided numerous occasions for entertainment over the course of our marriage thus far.  Usually he wakes me up yelling in some made up language that sounds like a cross between German and Japanese.  I believe he is some commander in his dream of a made up army, but boy does he sound commanding... liking he's barking out orders.  He's also done a lot of funny things like move things in his sleep and once he even got up and started doing what looked to be kung fu.  I promise he was still asleep, and it even had sound effects.  It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen.  Too bad for all of these occasions I'm usually awoken from sleep to witness them so I'm not as alert as I wish I were to get the full effect.  

Last night was no exception. At about 4:30 a.m. I awoke to my husband yelling "It was the Leprechauns! It was the Leprechauns!"  After four years of this now, I've gotten savvy enough to ask him questions while he's doing this.  You get some pretty funny responses.  So I said, "what did the Leprechauns do?"  He replied "they did all the work".  

So there you have it folks... the mysteries of the Leprechauns revealed.  They do all the work!  My husband is hilarious!

Another two pounds

Okay, here's my brief monthly WW update.  Nothing spectacular... just two pounds.  But it's two pounds in the right direction.  Now only two more to get to my ten percent goal.  So far I've lost a total of 11 pounds since July 1.  At this rate I will have lost 24 pounds in a year.  I wish it were faster but I also have a busy life and so I'll take the slow and steady route if that's what gets me there.

My goal is to have lost a total of 30 more pounds by next August and it's my hope that at that time Shaun and I will go on a cruise as we will both be in much need of celebrating his graduation from Mason!