Christmas Eve at the Martin's

Rockin' by the Christmas Tree in the little rocking chair that used to be mine

We spent Christmas Eve with our Martin side of the family. All of Ella's cousins from that side are home living in Portland again so it was really fun to have all the kids together. It's amazing how having a baby and having kids around at the holidays makes it so much more exciting and special.

All the cousins, Ashley, Emily, Ella, Abby, and Rylan

Santa brought Ella a dolly, her name is Sara and she was pre-loved, she was mine when I was little. I remember the Christmas when Santa brought her to me!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

On Christmas Eve night Ella wore her special jammies that Grandma Lorri gave her just for Christmas Eve. We read her 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by our tree before heading to bed. No cookies for santa were set out this year....(mom & dad were too tired, Ella didn't miss them though) Santa figured it out anyway and spread gifts for Ella's first Christmas all about the city at each our families houses.

Christmas at the Beasley's

Ella with Grandma Teah and Grandpa Scott

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with a white elephant gift exchange with our Beasley side of the family.

Aunt Carrie, Cousin Connor, Ella and Cousin Mason

Christmas with the Manson's

First Christmas

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with our Manson side of the family. We opened gifts and had a nice dinner with Jason's parents Dale & Lorri and Sara and Jeff. As you can tell I'm a bit delayed in getting any Christmas photos up so I'm keeping this short and sweet.

First Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Manson

How the heck do I open this?

Chewing it must be the best way! Thanks for the paper...it tastes great!

Rockin' and Rollin'

Ella has been changing daily as far as getting moving goes. A week ago she really started army crawling, and scooting on the floor. Saturday she really started to get her knees under her and getting her butt up and yesterday she started rocking on all 4's...good thing the Christmas tree only has to last a few more days because it's a prime target for a crawling baby!



She doesn't always run around the house half dressed, she was headed for bath time when her daddy attacked her and she decided to show off her new mobile moves! :)

Laughin' with the Lail's

We recently had dinner with the Lail's. Reid is 6 months older than Ella, and it is always so much fun to see what he is up to and what we can look forward to (or what we are in for :) ) in 6 months. We had a fun evening full of great company, laughter and tasty food!

Sharing toys, new stuff that is someone else's is always more fun to play with!


Peek-A-Boo Laughs...it's not a video of her face but it was oh so cute anyway, Ella just got a kick out of Cody's game of peek-a-boo.

Reid showed Ella the ropes with his very cool 4 sided baby entertainment center!

First Visit To Santa

Ella's first visit to Santa. She was a bit apprehensive about him. She didn't cry really, just stared at him like "who the heck are you" or maybe it was "I really want to pull your glasses off your face and tug on your beard". There were no smiles to be had though, she was miss stoic! Maybe no tears this year but we can only imagine the scene next year might bring about! Oh how we love to torture our poor children with these strange but jolly traditions!