The Nutcracker

We went to the Nutcracker with our friends Karla and Kiyomi and the girls had so much fun being little ballerinas themselves....

Girl Scout Christmas Party

The girls went to a little party place for their Christmas party where they decorated mini gingerbread houses, made a jewel ornament, ate cupcakes, played games and met with Santa...

Christmas Decorating

This year our elf Friedrich made his appearance and he's been hanging out with Ella's elf she won at her Girl Scout Christmas party.  

We also started a new tradition and I made an advent calendar full of festive activities to do each day.  The month started out with decorating the tree and decorating outside...

And hanging Christmas lights over the bed....

Drinking root beer floats...

Reading stories after bedtime....

Baking sugar cookies...

We did a lot of fun stuff this month and Ella was really excited to wake up to get the day's activity and to find where Friedrich had gone to.  I've also, as usual, used this to take a million photos.  Here are some of my favorite, and our Christmas trees...

 And of course, the annual photo with the big man...

Front Tooth

Ella's had a loose front tooth for weeks but it was no where near ready to come out.  And, if you didn't know, a loose tooth can stay loose for-ever!  They also tend to go crooked and poke out and leave odd gaps before they even fall out.
One morning, Ella decided to climb into bed and wake me.  When I tried to grab her to tickle her, she flung herself out of my reach and right into my knee.  We literally knocked out that front tooth and despite the blood, she was so excited that the tooth fairy would be coming!

Gulfport Sleepover

On the way back home from Atlanta, we stopped over night in Gulfport to see Sara, Jeff and the boys.  It's a nice afternoon visit and sleepover with friends... wish we lived closer...

Family Photo Shoot

We did our family photos in the fall colors and surprisingly even the dog co-operated!