Ella's First Christmas

We had a great visit with Great Grandma K. on our way back to Iowa.

Ella and her cousins.

Ella and Aunt Jill.

Grandma V. bought Ella a car!

And Reid is very excited, too!

Opening her presents.

Uncle Jeff gave her a tunnel - she loves it!

Hanging out with Reid in his new barn.

Christmas pjs!

Taking a nap with Dad.

Trying to make friends with Stewart the cat.

Enjoying some berries in her mama's high chair.

Christmas at Great Grandma and Grandpa P's.

Ella celebrated her first Christmas with five different gatherings - all complete with lots of family, food, and presents. While she received a lot of fun gifts, she still seemed to be most entertained by the wrapping paper and boxes. She also marked Christmas Day by taking her first official steps on her own! With her first birthday right around the corner, we're sure she'll be off and running soon. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family!

On the Move

This past weekend was another busy one, with Ella's last swim class on Saturday morning and our fifth annual holiday party that evening. As always, we had a house full of friends, food, and wine - and had a great night. We were a little unsure of how Ella would react to the crowd in our living room, and she opted for bed to get some peace and quiet. On the walking front... while she's still a little hesitant to really take off, Ella has evolved into a transitional crawl. It resembles Spider Man, as she uses her feet instead of her knees, with her little tush in the air. I'll try to catch her in action this week for next week's post. 

The first thing Ella does each morning is push her cart around.

Crazy hair after a nap.

Online Christmas shopping means Ella gets to play with lots of boxes.

Spaghetti sauce, blackberries, and yogurt. Mmmmm....

Last day of swim class.

She literally gets into the fridge at every opportunity. 

Graduation Weekend

The big day finally arrived - Jeritt's graduation! After two and a half years, countless hours of studying, and 630 hours of class, Jeritt graduated from the University of Chicago with his MBA. I'm not sure who has been looking forward to this day more, me or Jeritt. Regardless, we're very excited to be able to spend more time together as a family, and we had a great weekend of celebrating. Our families made the trip out on Friday, and we traveled down to the main campus in Hyde Park for the commencement. That evening we continued the festivities with some of Jeritt's friends and fellow classmates. It was a great weekend, and we really appreciate our families making the trip!



Helping with the laundry.





Jeritt's graduation at Rockefeller Chapel.





This is why we haven't been taking these pictures lately.




The alligator death roll.



On a Mission

These days, Ella is on a mission. A walking mission. She's standing up - often without holding onto anything - every chance she gets. And she's even moved on to picking something up and then standing with it. We're guessing that pushing her cart all around the house and in the hallway has something to do with this pursuit. I think we'll have a full-fledged walker by Christmas! We enjoyed a relaxing weekend, including celebrating Jeritt's upcoming graduation with a school-sponsored dinner on Saturday night. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kristin babysat, and we had a great night with friends and classmates. Only a few days left!

Enjoying some spaghetti and yogurt.



She was such a mess from dinner that we just stripped her down.

Pushing her cart in the hallway, in her skivvies.

Practicing her standing.

Showing off her Christmas pjs.

Shse's figured out how to turn the cart around when she hits the wall.

Celebrating Jeritt's near-graduation.

Jeritt and his Booth boys.

Playing with my rain boots.

Oops! Ella got stuck behind the piano bench.