O-R-E-O

Oh, the perfect joy of an Oreo cookie.

We used to just give Ellie small pieces of the chocolate cookie part of the Oreo, but she has graduated to taking the full cookie from us. She scrapes off the white cream with her fingers till she can't get any more off that way. Then she starts to use her teeth to scrape it off, and gets the mushy chocolate cookie all over her face in the process. Afterwards, we head to the bath.

Ahhh, Donut!

Do you want to know how to wake up a sleepy 18-month-old? Offer her a chocolate donut for breakfast!!

Ellie has become quite the fan of the donut. When she knows they're in the fridge (we like our chocolate cold), she'll walk to the fridge, attempt to open the doors, and plead, "Nonut, Nonut, Nonut." How can you refuse that?

Snow Days!

Ellie got a great snow suit and boots for Christmas from Aunt Pam, so when we got some snow in February we were pretty excited (little did we know that that was just the beginning of lots and lots of snow and ice). It seemed like we spent as much time getting her dressed in the snow suit as we spent actually playing in the snow.
She had a little trouble walking in the suit, or putting her arms down for that matter. Rather reminiscent of Randy on A Christmas Story.
Her favorite part was definitely eating the snow. Since this was nice, newly fallen, fresh snow, we didn't stop her. However, next year we'll have to warn her about yellow snow.
I love this picture....A Grandpa and Granddaughter heading out for a sled ride.

Wintertime Play

It may be cold outside, but that doesn't stop a 1-year-old when she sees other kids playing ball outside. Ellie had some rosy cheeks and a cold nose when she finally came back inside, but as soon as she was warmed up she wanted to go right back out again.

Merry Christmas

A week of Christmas celebrations wrapped up at GG & Papa Freed's with all the Freed cousins, aunts, and uncles. There were tons of gifts, that were all organized into piles by the helpful cousins (who probably would have exploded if they were forced to wait 10 minutes longer to open presents--I remember that excitement too).

What a wonderful time of year. I can't wait for next Christmas!!

We celebrated with Jason's family a little late this year, since Papa & Mamaw were visiting Uncle Nick in Rhode Island on Christmas day....but that didn't diminish the fun.

Ellie loved to play with the giant nutcracker, who says, "Bah, bah, bah, I'm the nutcracker!"

My camera's batteries were dying, so this picture is a little fuzzy, but it's still pretty darn cute. Ellie is quite the hugger and couldn't wait to get her arms around Paige.

Pretty Miss Paige checks out the packages under the tree.... how many are for me?

Ellie adores her cousin, Kameron, and he is very good at tolerating her adoration.

Trying to get three kids to sit still for a picture, when there are Christmas presents yet to be opened, is a little like trying to herd cats.

Christmas morning is such a magical time. While this year, the family was a little small (the Arizona Marlers weren't able to make it home, and the Hesemanns were both on call on Christmas so they weren't able to make it home either), it was still lots of fun. Having a little one around really adds to the excitement and enjoyment for everyone.

Ellie enjoyed opening the presents once one was started for her, but she didn't grasp the concept of it being a special, one-time-a-year event. I'm looking forward to future Christmases, and being woken up at the crack of dawn by excited little giggles, just itching to see what Santa brought.

On Christmas Eve, we all headed out to our 95-year-old Great Great Grandma Rowe's home. I've been going to Grandma's on Christmas eve for as long as I can remember. And while her tiny house is busting at the seams and gets more crowded every year, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Ellie had a great time on her first experience at Grandma's on Christmas. She loved playing with all her cousins, and especially loved sitting in the rocking chair with Drew. Or maybe she was just hoping he'd share the beautiful, new barbie doll he got that night. (Drew and his brother, Ross, both got Barbie's as gag gifts, but they didn't seem to think it was as funny as the rest of us did).

The first of many Christmas celebrations began with our own small family on December 21. We were planning on going to Farmington on Saturday morning and would be there through Christmas day, so Santa had to visit Ellie at her own home a little early.

Her favorite present of the evening was most definitely the car, Uncle Andrew, Aunt Traci, and cousins Ian & Hannah sent from Arizona. She cried when Daddy had to turn it over to put its wheels on, because that meant she wasn't able to sit it in for five minutes of the evening. She even had her breakfast in the car the next morning.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We have had some temperatures this winter that are cold enough to freeze your Winnebago (that's one of our favorite phrases from an old Muppet/fraggle Christmas special). Ellie was all bundled up and ready to go after an especially cold day with freezing rain and ice.... too bad it couldn't at least snow.

An Evening of Fun

Here's a quick run down of a normal evening of play in the Freed household...

Ellie first begins with a leisurely ride through the countryside on her faithful old zebra (a great birthday present from the Wests-thanks!).



Next up, an inverted soar through the air, hanging on by her ankles.

Ellie then enjoys a little scholarly fun after dumping out all the alphabet blocks. She can build 5 letter words like nobody's business (pronouncing them is the problem).

See how proud of herself she is?

And last but not least, we end the evening with a lovely, warm bath. Is there anything better?

1 year old pics

Once again, I'm a little slow on getting Ellie's milestone pictures taken. Her 1-year-old pictures were actually taken on Halloween, when she was 14 months old... better late than never, right? And she was still just as cute as ever, so I don't feel that bad about it. (It was rather windy that day, so please excuse the messy hair)

Happy Halloween!

Our little Minnie Mouse had a great time on her first trick-or-treating adventure (last year she was only 2 months, so it was a little difficult to walk door to door). This year we first made the rounds to the grandparents' houses, then back to our neighborhood to visit the next door neighbors. Then for the rest of the evening, Ellie helped Daddy hand out candy to other children, which I think she enjoyed the most.

Maybe it's a St. Louis thing, but we had lots of kids tell jokes when they rang the doorbell. My favorite was perhaps the little 4-year-old British boy, with his adorable accent ask, "What is a pirate's favorite letter?" And of course, we all know the answer is "R", but it sounds so much sweeter when it's said with an accent.

Bounce U

Ellie's cousins were in town for a visit last weekend, so we decided to try to make a trip to the pumpkin patch on Sunday afternoon....Boy, was that a bad idea! There were a million cars in the parking lot and another million backed up on the road waiting to get in the parking lot, so we quickly aborted that mission and kept on driving. Luckily, nearby was a facility that held the potential of being even more fun than the pumpkin patch. What is this facility, you ask? The answer is, Bounce U. It has all kinds of the big, blow-up gyms, slides, boxing rings, obstacle courses, etc., and we intended to use all of them.

The giant slide seemed to be everyone's favorite, as you can see from the smiles on Kameron's and Valerie's faces.
But Jason and Bryan enjoyed racing each other through the obstacle courses.
Ellie had fun on the big slide too, though it was close to that line of being scary/fun.
And Ellie enjoyed the basketball shoot-out, she just needed slightly longer arms.
So, if you have to miss going to the pumpkin patch near Halloween, this is definitely a fun alternative. And all those babies were asleep in their car seats before we pulled out of the parking lot on the way home.