New Years Eve

We spent New Year's Eve with our friends Marisa and Daniel, and their kids Mia and Max.  They moved north of the city and have a beautiful new home so the three of us went up there for the night and stayed over. It's nice to be able to drink, have fun and not have to drive anywhere.  We got sparklers and played around with them.  Experimenting with my camera got these photos:

Changes

Our blog has been somewhat safe from internet predators because I have kept it off search engines and blog searches.  The only way you've been able to access our blog has been to type in the correct web address.   After almost 6 years, I've decided to protect our memories by allowing only invited readers to view our blog.

What this means for you:
You will receive an invite from Blogger and will have to sign into Google Blogger, creating a username and password.  For the most part, once you're logged in, you might not have to log in every time you visit.

What this means for us:
No one, NO ONE, will be able to see our personal family photos, videos of Ella or our journal of day to day activities without my permission.

I just feel it's safer this way.  I'd rather have my friends and family sign in than have to delete my blog and 6 years of archived memories.  I hope you understand.

I know the nature of blogging, so please, please, share with me anyone who reads or wishes to read this by sending me their email address.  I will send out an invite.  So even it's your mom or grandmother, whom I've never met; or you sister-in-law, or cousin's cousin, a neighbor....  I am more than happy to share our lives .... just not with internet predators or strangers trolling the internet preying on families minding their own business.  

I have a friend who lost her blog of images of her children because of some false internet links, linking her personal info with someone else with the same name... Here is the link if you'd like to read her story.  It's what's made me change my settings to make it even more secure than it was before.

Here's that link if you are interested...  TIN STAR PHOTOGRAPHY

Christmas

Spoiled!

Christmas Eve

Cookies for Santa, apple slices for the reindeer and a carrot for Rudolf....

 'Twas The Night Before Christmas with Papa....

She was *supposed* to copy this letter out for Santa, after I wrote down what she wanted to say, but the excitement of the evening got the better of us and she was quick to fall asleep.... so my writing (but her words!) had to do...

I took a picture of Ella after she fell asleep and put Friedrich with her.  I was wondering if she was going to freak out in the morning, but she loved it!  I used the photo in the letter Santa left her....

San Antonio Missions

So we've been to the Alamo every time someone comes to visit but there are actually 5 missions in San Antonio.  While Papa was here, we decided to venture out to see the mission trail and stopped in at  a few of them.  So gorgeous!  .... and great location scouting for my business!
And I will confess.  It was cold and gray that day.  We were all bundled up and Ella was having fun running through the missions and all the rock walls.   These first two photos depict the true weather for our outing.  So the beautiful blue sky you see in others, it's a photoshop trick.... the gray sky was just too bleak for such beautiful buildings :)

We stopped at Mission Espada, and Mission San Jose.  We did see the other two but both were quite a bit smaller and one was under construction.  It was a tad cold to spend the whole day outside....

Papa's Visit

Papa came down for Christmas for a week and brought a penguin from the Falkland Islands.  Ella's Great-Grandparents got it from a trip down there and Great-Grandpa sent it for Ella.

Of course story time is always better with Papa....

We convinced Papa to get an iPad and if this isn't a sign of the times... a 5-year old giving lessons on the latest technology....

A photo shoot with Ella and her Papa before we took him to the airport and his flight home to Toronto... 

Reading At Bedtime

No, we're not reading...yet.  We're learning sight words and can sound lots of words out but reading at bedtime has always been a huge part of our nighttime routine.  Since kindergarten started, I've noticed a big independence change in Ella.  She happily can read on her own while we tidy up and will recite stories from memory and if that fails, makes the story up.  It's one of my favorite things to capture on camera... she's just so sweet!