Christmas Eve 2009

Merry Christmas everyone! For the first time, we spent the holidays in Minneapolis. We had a lovely Christmas eve at the Karasti's where Eleanore had fun playing with Taryn, but really enjoyed the sparkly ornaments on their tree.

It was a snowy snowy evening and gave us the first opportunity to see how my new CRV performs in the snow. I love 4x4 - it did not let us down!

The photo below is from our house before we headed over.

Thanksgiving in NC

We flew from Buffalo to Burlington and spent Thanksgiving with the NC "Grands".

You can see in the photo above that Eleanore tried to keep up with the big kids playing on the scooter. I think she did pretty well!

Eleanore loved being "outside" and would take anyone who came over to visit by the hand and lead them to the door. It is going to be hard keeping this child in the house this winter!

Pre-Thanksgiving Buffalo Trip

We had a great time in Buffalo for a few days before Thanksgiving. Eleanore loved riding her fuzzin Rocky (photo above) and seeing her second cousins Elias, Benjamin and Gabriel (photo below).

This was also the first time Eleanore flew on the plane in her very own seat - which mean she now has an official frequent flier number!

Halloween 2009

Eleanore was a little purple butterfly for Halloween. She is still a little too little for candy, so she celebrated with animal crackers. She liked saying "ba bye" and waving when kids came to the door to trick or treat.

Aunt Tara's Visit

Eleanore had a great visit with her Aunt Tara. She played hookey from daycare and they spent all day together.

We took our first trip to the MN Children's Museum. Eleanore loved it! Especially the water table - she got soaked. We thought she might still be a little too young, but there was a lot for her to do.

On Saturday night Tara watched Eleanore so Daddy could take Mommy out for a birthday dinner. It was nice to have a "date night"!

Eleanore Has Some News to Share

Eleanore is going to be a great big sister!

Little sibling to arrive around March 31, 2010.

First Carousel Ride and Playground

More Labor Day weekend fun...

Lark Toys says they are the largest independent toy store in the USA. I don't know about that, but they do have a beautiful hand carved carousel. Eleanore took a little ride, but she was pretty scared. We didn't sit on an animal that moved up and down, rather in a little cart that was being pulled by an ostrich!

We found a great little playground down by the marina. Eleanore liked watching the big kids climb around. She also really liked the little bouncy guy below.

More photos from our Labor Day trip are on our Mac Gallery (link to the left).