Winter Storm

About a week before Christmas, the East coast got hit with a pretty big winter storm.  Snow started falling Friday evening and didn't really stop until Saturday afternoon!  We measured around 15 inches at our house by the time the snow stopped falling.  This was our second big snow storm of the year (we had about a foot in early March) and we were hoping Juliann would be a little more into the snow this time around.  Not so much!  She liked the idea of the snow and kept looking out the window and pointing at it, but things changed once she was actually outside!  Eventually she got a little more comfortable and played with her bucket and shovel in the snow.  Enjoy the pics below from our snow storm!

March 2009

December 2009

David cleaning off his car

playing on the front porch

Holiday Pictures

This weekend was our weekend to get ready for the holidays.  We had big plans: decorate the house, go get a Christmas tree, decorate the tree, visit Santa and order Christmas cards.  Things did not work out as planned on Saturday.  Instead of snow we got lots and lots of rain, which meant no picking out a tree.  And you can't decorate a tree that doesn't exist.  So we decided to get Jules dressed up and go visit Santa.  We've been talking him up this year and she seemed to like him-pointing out any Santa she saw (real, as a decoration around the house and even in books).  We thought it would be a successful trip and a great way to get a photo for our holiday cards.  Boy were we wrong!  She repeated her screaming and crying fit from last year, much to our disappointment.  We left feeling defeated and slightly frustrated, especially since we needed to get our holiday cards created!  Luckily we were able to get a bunch of cute pics of her ourselves here at home and we used a few of them to make and order our Christmas cards for this year (and check a few things off of our to do list for the weekend)!  :)   Enjoy these pictures of our adorable little Santa's helper that we didn't use for the cards (but ignore our fake Charlie Brown looking tree in the background-we got the real one on Sunday)!

Pictures

So I've finally uploaded new pictures to Shutterfly.  It's only taken me about a year!  Take a look using the shutterfly link on the right side of the blog.  Password is the same as before.  Since anyone can see our blog, please email me if you need the password again. 

Thanksgiving

We spent this Thanksgiving holiday with David's family (as well as Peter's fiancee Anne's family) up at Wintergreen.  Although I missed seeing my family, it was a nice change of pace to only pack up the car with all of our stuff once!  We had planned to arrive mid-day Wednesday but thanks to our very independent and slightly defiant daughter, it took us much longer to leave the house.  We stayed through Sunday afternoon and really enjoyed our holiday.  Some of us took a hike Thanksgiving morning and then we all stuffed ourselves silly with delicious food in the afternoon! 

Juliann with Ranger

Family photo overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains

Thanksgiving lunch

Family picture

On Friday, since Anne's family is from Ohio, we headed to Charlottesville.  The Perins went to visit Monticello while David, Jules, Jane and I did a little shopping at Barracks Road!  We had lunch on the corner and then walked around UVa briefly because it was SO cold. 

Rotunda

"Kid" picture in front of the Rotunda

Jules on the lawn

Saturday was the UVa-Tech game, but I was feeling too sick to go so David went with his Dad.  Although the Cavs did well in the first two quarters, I was glad I'd stayed home after their disastrous second half.  Sunday, as we were getting ready to head back to Richmond, Juliann got her hand caught in a recliner David was sitting in.  Her hands got pinched by the metal under where it kicks out and it was not good!  Thank goodness for David's dad-he was calm and knew what to do, whereas David and I were slightly freaking out from all the blood.  Poor Jules was so upset and her little hand was a mess.   I took her to her pediatrician on Monday and then later to a hand surgeon who took X-rays.  She has a slight fracture in one of her fingers and was put on an antibiotic for an infection.  She developed 2 HUGE blisters by Wednesday but is now on the mend and is using her hand with no real problems. 

Juliann's hand on Monday

Her hand by Wednesday

Enjoying the playground despite her injury

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends!  We know we are very lucky and have a lot of reasons to be thankful this holiday season.  :)

Training Time

Two words: Potty Training! We've been at it for the past 4 days and I swear this is more of a challenge than night feedings and teething combined! We're attempting to go straight to underwear (yay for Elmo undies) but are using the pull-ups when we need to leave the house and when napping. We've had a few accidents and done some extra laundry but so far Jules is doing a great job-its mom and dad who are exhausted! I know its a marathon and not a sprint but I'm looking forward to the day we can go more than 30 minutes without asking her if she has to use the potty. Don't get me wrong-sometimes she tells us she has to go and we make a HUGE deal about it. But we're trying to avoid the accidents so we're constantly asking her if she has to go! I only had to work today due to the Thanksgiving holiday so we figured now was a great time to try. :) Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

And Baby Makes 4!

So in case you haven't seen me lately or heard our latest news-baby Ellington #2 is due the first week of April 2010. I'm almost 21 weeks and feel HUGE! I started showing much earlier this time around and have gotten big fast! I recently had my 20 week ultrasound and we saw beautiful pictures of our new little one. We've decided not to find out what we're having this time so feel free to comment on whether you think Baby E is a boy or girl by taking the poll on the right! :)

20 week belly shot

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone had a nice Halloween! We had a very busy but fun day on Saturday. We started the morning off by carving pumpkins. Jules did NOT like the feel of the "pumpkin guts" so we gave her a spoon to help us clean out the pumpkins. She had fun and we enjoyed taking pictures of her first experience carving a pumpkin. After her nap, we dressed up our little bumble bee and headed to our playgroup party. All of the kids were adorable and most were dressed as an animal! Kellan was a horse, Kendri a lion, Kendra a monkey, Madelyn a lion, and there was also a tiger, ladybug, a skeleton, and Zoe was a Ravens Cheerleader. They were all TOO CUTE! We left a little early because we wanted to take Juliann to a few of our neighbors before the onslaught of trick-or-treaters. They all tried to give her candy but we decided to use this as a practice run for next year! Plus, we had 2 huge bags of candy from Costco to hand out and Mom and Dad certainly did not need any more leftovers! I have to say that the cutest part of the whole day was watching Juliann try to hand out candy to the kids when they came to our house. She wanted so badly to help so when the doorbell would ring, she'd run full speed to the door and then freeze when she saw the costumes! Only once did she get scared and turn and run away! Most of the time she'd grab a handful of candy and try to put it in the bags of the trick-or-treaters! It was so much fun to watch that I hated to put her to bed! But we had an adult Halloween party right across the street to attend so once she was down and the neighbor's daughter was here, we went to have some "adult time". It was a wonderful day for us and we hope the day was good to you all!

Ready to carve pumpkins

she didn't like how it felt on her hands

so we gave her a spoon

Jules and Kendri at the Playgroup Halloween Party

Buzzing little bee

Trick-Or-Treat

Let's Go!

Juliann ready to help hand out candy, and our pumpkins

Our happy little bee :)

Playgroup Fun

On Friday our playgroup went to Kangaroo Jak's Inflatable Place. It was unbelievable! It was a great deal-just $3 for kids under 2 and moms were free and we were there for a good 2 hours. The kids had a ball and it was a wonderful workout for the mommies! :) After lifting the kids up the "steps" to the slides about 20 times, I think we were all a little worn-out. Jules took a great nap that afternoon, as I'm sure most of her friends did too! Enjoy the pictures!

Jules at the top

and the bottom!

Jules going down one of the bigger slides-love the face!
Kendri ready to head down

Kellan peeking out of the top

Pumpkin Picking X2 (and more)

Our play group decided to go pumpkin picking this past Friday at the Hanover Vegetable Farm. Since we had already gone as a family to get pumpkins (11 of them), I didn't let Juliann bring home any more. But she had a lot of fun with the other kids in our play group riding the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, petting farm animals, and playing in the sandbox full of corn!

Jules and Kendri on the hay ride-they HAD to ride by themselves!

in the pumpkin patch

Jules and Kellan feeding the goats

covering herself in corn

the kids LOVED the corn

Saturday, despite the rain, we headed down to the UVa-Ga. Tech game. Our friends Stephanie and Brad joined us and the ladies decided upon reaching Charlottesville that we weren't going to sit in the rain. We dropped the boys off and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to get lunch and watch part of the game. It was a very good decision on our part because it POURED for most of the game. We left at half time to do a little shopping and picked up our soaking wet husbands a short time later. Although UVa didn't win, I had a great time in C'ville.

Sunday we were invited to a Halloween party and Juliann had a great time! She was the youngest there but you'd have never known it by the way she was acting! She tried so hard to keep up with the big kids and I just can't wait until next year when she can actually participate in the games. :)

getting ready for the ghost doughnut eating
Jules after her doughnut

I hope everyone has a great Halloween weekend!

3-0!

David is now officially 30! I threw him a surprise party the weekend before his actual birthday and it went off perfectly-well...almost! The day of the party we were running around like crazy people. Not because of the party itself, but because of all of the projects we started. Earlier in the week we had begun converting the guest bedroom into Juliann's big girl room (she'll move into it around Christmas). We started painting and decided to add crown molding like we had done to her nursery. Since David's brother and his fiancee were coming for the weekend the room had to be done! So the the morning of the party we were putting the guest bedroom back together, picking up the house for Peter and Anne, and then we decided to rearrange the bonus room-told you we were crazy!

To make a long story short, David went to Short Pump to try and pick up our new kitchen chairs from Pottery Barn and by the time he got home it was already 6 and I had guests arriving at 6:30!!! One of his co-workers arrived early for the party just as David was getting out of the car. He looked at me and said, "I guess I need to go shower!" :) David was pretty shocked that I had been able to pull off a party without him knowing and other than the botched surprise, the party went great and David was really happy to have so many friends and family to share in his celebration.

Busy Weekend

Last weekend was a crazy one! We had our annual neighborhood yard sale on Saturday morning so we had to get up super early to set-up. Despite the overcast weather and threat of rain, we had a decent turn out and were able to sell our kitchen table. We didn't quite get what we wanted for it but I was glad it was gone. By noon we had cleaned up and were on our way down to Charlottesville for the UVa-Indiana game. It was the first game of the season for us and we were looking forward to tailgating with David's aunt, uncle and cousin. We also ran into our friends Kristen, Josh, and their son Jackson. It was a great first game for us and Jules looked adorable in her little cheerleading uniform. We ended up leaving after the 3rd quarter because UVa was up 44-0 and I wanted to have Little John's for dinner since it was my birthday. :)

Jules, David and Patrick

Jules in her uniform


Jackson, me, Jules, and Kristen

On Sunday we went pumpkin picking with our friends Merrilee and John and their daughter Kendri at the Ashland Berry Farm. It was INSANE! It was like we were at the state fair instead of going to get a pumpkin. I swear all of Hanover County and probably most of Richmond was there. Poor John had to wait in line for ever for us to get on the hayride but it was well worth the wait. The pumpkin patch was unbelievable and I was amazed at how most of the pumpkins were still attached to the vines! The place we went last year had pumpkins just placed in the patch so this was way more fun this year. We got some beautiful pumpkins and Juliann and Kendri had a blast running through the pumpkin patch. Jules also seemed to enjoy playing in the dirt and among the vines more than picking actual pumpkins. There was a ton of other stuff to do at the Berry Farm (animals, moon bounce) but because it was so close to lunch time we opted to head home. David did the all you can carry for $20 and we brought home 11 pumpkins, including 6 little ones for the kids to decorate at playgroup.

Family pic in the pumpkin patch

Jules and KendriDavid with all of our pumpkins!

Hope everyone is having a nice Fall and enjoying their teams football season. :)