Christmas with the Elliotts

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with the Elliott family. Wonderful food and great company to celebrate the season. CeCe and Morgan were squirrly they were so excited to be together and it was fun to see how little Will is growing so fast. Great-Grandma even made it down for the fun. It was a great Christmas!

Guess Who Was on the Nice List??

CeCe got a nice note from Santa on Christmas morning letting her know how much he appreciated all of her hard work getting on the nice list (helping her mom, good manners, getting ready to be a good big sister). A talking Buzz Lightyear was always number one on her list of toys, and Santa really came through. Ce finally caught on to the suprise of a present and did not even whisper to her dad that he was getting a water bottle for Christmas (she picked it out herself after looking around the kitchen to decide what he needed). The water bottle is a hit!

Christmas Eve at Grandma Pat and Grandpa Bob's

CeCe and her folks had a great time celebrating Christmas Eve with the Herders. The most exciting addition to our family is the new Jesse doll (from Toy Story) who is soft enough to sleep with and who will speak with a southern accent (when you ask Mama to "talk Jesse"). We had fun playing Candy Land and learning about what a View Master is. After a talk with her dad, CeCe said, "All I want for Christmas is a belt!!" (see the CeCe the plumber picture). It was great to catch up with Uncles accross the world and have a wonderful meal with family to celebrate the season.

Happy Birthday Ce!

Despite the blizzard the day before, we had a great turn out for Ce's birthday party. She was thrilled by the idea of the party and has been counting down for awhile now. The theme was Buzz Lightyear (the cake) and Scooby Doo (the plates and napkins). It's fun to see that she is still at an age where she would prefer to play with each present after it has been opened rather than moving on to the next one. Some interesting things I learned from Ce about your birthday:

• the more people you have at your party means more presents.


• when you blow out your candles, you actually turn older. She blew out her candles and said, "Now I'm four!!"
  
• if you whisper a secret to someone, it is still a secret.

Happy Birthday Ce!!

Picking Out Our Christmas Tree

Our biggest tree yet! With the renovation done, we wanted a big tree for the big main room. Auntie Lisa, Uncle Chris and Morgan came along with us to pick out their tree and CeCe and Morgan got to take a ride on a horse-drawn wagon with Santa. CeCe was sure it wasn't the real Santa - that was until she talked to him. She was pretty upset that she did not remember to tell him that she wanted the TALKING Buzz Lightyear - but we did catch the real Santa again at a store and made sure to clarify.

Thanksgiving & Cousin Rachel's Wedding

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma Pat and Grandpa Bob's in Burnsville this year. There was a bit of a snowstorm that prevented Uncle Pete and his family from joining us, but we had a lot of fun eating and playing with "Valentine" (a spooky orange puppet).

Rachel's wedding was on Friday - the bride was beautiful and the evening was beautiful. We could not get CeCe to dance (shocking), but she did wear a dress (even more shocking). Congratulations Rachel and Jake!

Halloween 2010

CeCe got to celebrate Halloween over and over. CeCe wanted to be a monkey, a firefighter and spider man (tough to make up your mind with so many excellent options). She got to monkey around on a couple occassions, but we settled on the firefighter for most of the trick or treating. We heard a couple times what a cute little boy she was!

We started off on Thursday with Halloween at preschool (trick or treating in different classrooms and offices), then celebrated again on Friday with the parade in Cannon Falls and trick or treating at the local businesses and ending up at the Randolph school for a preschool Halloween party. Finally, on Sunday (actually Halloween) we spent the evening at Auntie Lisa and Uncle Chris's for trick or treating. The dads took Morgan and CeCe trick or treating since the mom's are both sporting some growing bellies (Lisa is due in January and Ann in February).

Spiderman!!

Ce is a bit of a Tom-boy. Favorites are Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear and Scoobie Doo (she is addicted to the old cartoons). Here she is with some of her favorite Spiderman stuff - a blanket and PJ's from a boy who has outgrown them. One of her favorite hand-me-downs is the little boy Spiderman underwear that she got. They are a little big, but if she wears them backwards, they seem to fit better. She will not watch any princess movies or have anything to do with dresses or other girl type items - however, she loves the color pink. It's fun to see a girl who likes what she wants and is totally herself. Three has been a really fun year and it will be sad to see it go.

A Trip to the Apple Orchard

We had a great trip to the apple orchard to pick out some great Honeycrisp apples with Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Scottie. We stopped on the way home (after eating some great carmel apples)to pick up some pumpkins at our friend's garden. A fun way to get ready for Halloween.

This is Not a Crime Scene

I just had to post this pic from tonight.

The only crime is that we are not doing nap time anymore. Around 7:30 the girl passed out on the floor behind the couch. When moved to the couch, she got back up and moved to this spot. "I like to sleep on the carpet".

Helping Out with Dad

Ce has become quite the helper this summer. She really enjoys helping her dad out with the renovation projects when she can. She loves to ride with him on the tractor. Just today she came in the house and ran into the bathroom. When her Mom heard the water start and asked Ce what was going on, Ce responded, "I'm washing Dad's phone." When told to stop IMMEDIATELY, she came back with, "But it's really dirty!". She wasn't quite telling the truth when she said that he told her to do it. The phone still lives, and she is still allowed to keep helping out her Dad.

She also helps her Mom out more and more with setting the table and cooking too. It's fun seeing her grow up into such a fun kid.

Summer in Arizona

Ce and her mom took a quick trip to Arizona to spend some time with Kelly and Kelly before heading back to school. Needless to say, Arizona is a bit toast during August, but between some well timed rain showers and a lot of time in the pool (one day we were in there three times), the weather was great. CeCe is really a fish and Kelly and Kelly are great hosts. We got to check out a local sprinkler park, the Bead Museum (Ce got a great memento from the visit after making a bracelet with El Kelly), and a fun thrift market. We look forward to the next visit - let's see how easy it is to travel with two kids instead of one!

Goofing off (again) with Morgan

Morgan came over to spend the afternoon at the beach with Ce and her mom. We had a lot of fun swimming and splashing in the lake. The girls were sandy and sticky with ice cream by the end, but they had a blast. It's fun to watch these two buddies grow up together.

Swimming Lessons

CeCe attended her first set of swimming lessons. She had a lot of fun completing level one and it looks like she will be back in it for next year (she was one of the youngest there. The last day of class was little work and a lot of play as the kids got to play in all of the fun water works. We also went to gymnastics for the first time too. Ce enjoyed the tumbling and ended up crying when it was time to leave. I have been telling her that all of these classes will come in handy when she becomes an acrobat when she grows up.

Camping at Penninsula State Park

CeCe took her family up to Penninsula State Park in Door County Wisconsin for some camping fun. It was great to get away from the mess of the renovation, although we it wasn't the same camping when the camper is your primary home.
The weather was great and the scenery beautiful. We took a day trip to Washington Island, checked out a local festival, and saw some great sites along the way. Grandma and Grandpa Elliott even joined us for a couple days for fish boil and fun at the park. Here are some great pics from the trip.

An Overdue Update

CeCe and her Mom stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Herder's while the major work of the renovation was underway during March and April. Once the dust started to fly (literally everthing was coated), it was time to find another place to temporarily call home. We even spent a couple nights at Aunt Lisa and Uncle Chris's house. Thanks so much to everyone for opening their homes to us. It made life so much easier. CeCe moved into the camper back at home at the beginning of May. I didn't take too many pictures from that time - life was pretty hectic, but here are a couple pics from the time in Apple Valley.

A Trip to the Circus

CeCe and Morgan took their moms to the Shrine Circus in April at the State Fair Grounds. We had a great time checking out the show. There were great clowns, amazing acrobats and a lot of really pink cotton candy (check out the tongues in the pictures attached). A great way to spend the afternoon.

Homeless!

Just temporarily. Mark is working hard on renovating the house to make bigger, better spaces in the basement and on the main floor. We have been staying in the meantime at Grandma Pat's and Grandpa Bob's (THANK YOU!!) until this week and will be living out of the camper as the weather gets warmer. Here are some pics of the mess - all of the dust in the air can be seen in some of the pics. From chaos will come great things!

A Visit from Aunt Gin and Tim

CeCe's great Aunt Gin came into town with her son Tim for a job interview that Tim had in Minneapolis. It was great to see them (I think it has been 15 years or so since Tim and Ann have seen each other). We got a chance to celebrate Grandma Pat's birthday too since she was in Florida for her actual birthday. Here are some fun pics from the visit.