And the Holidays Begin!!

WOW! It's been a long time since the last blog - I noticed it said 'Happy Halloween' - and here it is only 3 weeks until Christmas! TIME IS FLYING!! Ella is growing up so fast - talking like crazy, potty training(!), growing out of all of her clothes - I can't hardly keep up, but I absolutely love watching her grow and change!! Next time, I will post some videos of her talking and singing (she LOVES to sing)!

So much has happened since Halloween! But the highlights are a visit from 'auntie' Anna (one of my dearest friends from high school) - I knew she and Ella would get along great - which they did!

And of course Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful long weekend (our last day of school was Tuesday last week) and we enjoyed time with lots of family from both sides. We stayed here for actual Thanksgiving with Adam's side of the family, and then went to West Virginia for the weekend at Nana's! We are so blessed to have such wonderful families! We don't really have any pictures from the actual holiday, but while we were on break we decorated for Christmas (and have lots of pictures from that!) - also be sure to look at Ella's 'Picture of the week' because it is from Thanksgiving day last year - WOW she was just able to pull herself up and hold on to things!

Her absolute favorite decoration is this blow up snowman - that she named 'Snowy' - I showed her the Frosty the Snowman cartoon, and she is now obsessed with snowmen, and calls them all 'Snowy' - she loves him though, and the other day we all (including 'Papa') had to go out and give Snowy hugs and kisses (I often wonder what the neighbors think of us!)

Yesterday we went to pick out our Christmas tree - it was SO much fun watching Ella look for a tree! Of course her pick was one that was maybe about 4ft tall! She would say 'this one' and we would tell her to keep looking - then when we found one, we would ask her if she liked it, and she would make a face and say 'no like'!!

BUT, we all three finally agreed on one and it looks beautiful!!

As you can see - Ella was such a 'help' when it came to getting the tree up and decorated!

But she got the hang of it and finally put some ornaments on - after breaking a few and making sure the entire living room was covered in ornaments!

We have so much coming up, and I will hopefully have time to keep everyone updated on our Christmas preparations - I LOVE this time of year - even though it's always quite busy!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a wonderful start to the holiday season!

Happy Way Late Halloween!

So is this the cutest bumble bee you have ever seen?? WOW - things have been crazy for the Conners lately...let's see since last time, I was sick for 3 days with a virus (flu-like), Adam had full blown swine flu, Ella was taken in to get chest X-Rays to make sure she didn't have pneumonia, and Sully the cat was taken to the Emergency Vet!! So 'flu season' has been in full force for us!! I could go on and on about all the chaos - but I'll just focus on Ella's 2nd! Halloween!! She ended up having a very fun time! We went to the mall on Friday night, and then to downtown Staunton for trick-or-treating on Saturday morning!

She wasn't too sure Friday night...

but Saturday morning she was very comfortable in her costume, and loved it most when the people would let her get her own candy from a bowl (let's just say she would never take just one!)

Pretty much all the leaves have fallen from the trees close to our house, and all three of us (now that we are nice and healthy) have enjoyed playing in them! Last week, we worked on cleaning the yard, and Ella really had a blast!!

Here she is planning her next jump!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

So now that things are back to normal at the house - things are crazy at work! A water line busted which resulted in 6! feet! of water in the basement. We have been moved to an adult facility while it is getting fixed, and I'll just say that the classrooms we are in are less that adequate! Hopefully things will be restored soon, but the last we heard was March!! But we are all making the best of it!!