1'st Birthday Party!

On December 15th we had Elle's first birthday party.  It was a small party at our house for family and friends.  The party didn't really have a theme, I just decorated with lots of pinks and some gold.  Mary and my mom were amazing and both came over before the party to help me set things up.

One of my amazing co-workers made Elle's cake, it turned out amazing.  Small birthday snafu...the day of the party my mom and I got up early to pick up the cake.  As we were leaving Sally's house I backed into a car.  Lovely.  True testament to how laid back Eric is, he shrugged it off like it was nothing.  I think he knew mama bear was in full party mode.  Not even parked cars could stand in my way. :)

We kept the food simple, pizza (Elle's fave!), Subway sandwiches, pasta salad and meatballs.

Elle had a really fun day.  She was in and out of her playroom playing with all of her friends and showing off her toys.

Elle received so many amazing gifts, this girl is spoiled!  She actually did better with the present opening than I thought she would.  It held her attention almost the whole time.

When it came time for cake I felt a lump in my throat before we started singing happy birthday...but Elle decided she would cry for me.  She cried through her whole birthday song.  Our mistake for putting a delicious cake in front of her but then telling her not to touch it.  Lesson learned, for birthday #2 don't hand her the cake until after she blows out the candle.

This girl loves sweets so she had no problem getting into her smash cake.

And then she crashed and slept on her daddy the rest of the party. :)

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving for our family has changed pretty drastically over the past couple years.  Thanksgiving Eve used to be a big party at my parents house filled with beer and drinking games.  Now it looks like this.

We all went over to my parents and just ordered pizza and hung out.  Our new normal.

Every year we spend the afternoon in Sullivan with the Hylton family.  We went from 0 babies to 5 over the course of the year.

After Sullivan we head over to my parents for dinner.  After dinner the guys took the babes home to tuck them in bed and us ladies started planning our Black Friday shopping adventure.  After much much debate we ended up heading out around 9:30ish and got back to my parents house around 5am with a truck full of goodies (95% of which was for Henry & Elle)...we even had to do a middle of the night drop off at my parents to make room for more bags.


I love Thanksgiving, we have so so much to be thankful for.  Plus to me it officially kicks off the Christmas season. 

Tis the season to be jolly!

 

Henry is 2!

It is so hard to believe our sweet Henny Hoo is 2 years old!  It seems like yesterday we were all sitting in the hospital impatiently waiting for the news that he was here.  I fell so hard for this sweet boy that night.

 

Henry has a strong love for all things truck related so Mary & Nick threw him the world's best "Big Truck" party.

 

 

 

 

It was such a fun day celebrating this amazing little boy.  There are no words to describe how special he is.

 



Elle - 11 months

Last month before the big 1!!

11 month highlights:
- Talking a lot!  Elle is able to answer questions "yes" or "no"
- Knows and calls us by name "mama" and "dada"
- Loves Elmo and calls him "Melmo"
- Started walking!  Grammy was even able to capture a picture of her 1st steps
- Loves to find little hiding spots in our house (under the dining room table, under the accent table in the living room)
- Says "ruff ruff" when you ask her what a puppy dog says
- Tries to snap her fingers
- Says "uh oh" when she drops something
- loves to drop food from her highchair for Vito & Hermann
- great eater!

Trying & LOVING an Oreo for the 1st time

 

Her 1st steps!

1st time at Playtime Party Center with Henry

Halloween 2013

Eleanor's first Halloween was a fun one.  I raced home from work to pick up my girl and start the Halloween fun!  I had gone back and forth on what costume for her first Halloween.  Strawberry?  Chicken? Peacock?  I am so glad I settled on the 1950's poodle skirt look.  Let's be honest Elle could have pulled off the other costumes as well but those little cat eye glasses suited her perfectly! :)

 

 

Eric's parents, my mom, Mary, Nick and Henry all came over Halloween night for dinner and trick-or-treating.  Henry came dressed as the world's cutest little fisherman.  He loved helping me pass out candy to all the trick-or-treaters.

Somehow we turned Halloween into a gift giving holiday?  The Halloween gifts and treats these babes received was a bit insane.  Ladies we need to reel ourselves in!!  It's just too fun to buy them things!

After opening all their treats we took the babes out for some trick-or-treating.  Mary, mom and I planned to just walk to a couple houses but Henry loved it so much we just kept going.  Another successful 1st holiday for our Bell-a-roni!