15 Months plus some...

Well, this update is incredibly late for a variety of reasons, but mainly because we have had to have a funeral for our old laptop. It served us well for almost three years, but the battery quit charging, the CD/DVD drive was fading, the keyboard was finicky, and the last straw was the blank screen I got the morning after I had typed up and carefully edited our Christmas letter. We are so thankful for Christmas money that purchased our new laptop! I didn't realize how connected I was to the computer until I spent two weeks without it!
In the past month Elizabeth's verbal skills have exploded! I cannot even list her words, because they are now so numerous. Thanksgiving and Christmas were a blast with our sweet girl! She is always full of excitement and loved everything about Christmastime. She really loved the jingle bell ornaments on the tree that occasionally "fell off" just for her to carry around. Paw Paw bought her a blow up "peek-a-boo penguin" yard decoration that we opted to keep inside; she thinks it is so funny and still begs for me to plug it in. When the penguin pops out of the ice cube, she shouts, "BOO!" Another favorite was her nativity advent calendar. Each morning after breakfast, she scampered over to it and would say, "Cal, Cal, Cal;" it was so fun getting to daily share with her the truth of Christmas as we added to the scene!
Elizabeth also learned a great deal about sharing in the past month, as I began keeping Madalyn, a little girl 2 days older than Elizabeth. It has been a joy to be home with my sweet girl everyday and to watch her interact with her friend. Ma Ma, as Elizabeth calls her, was a premie and adopted from Guatemala by some of our friends. She is on the petite side, but Elizabeth is so gentle with her and really loves having her around.

Here are some pics to chronicle lost time!

All bundled up to go get our Christmas tree!!
Playing in the leaves with third cousins, Jack and Marin-- our source of great hand-me-downs!
Christmas morning... a sit 'n' spin and princess big blocks:)
Lookin' pretty in the dress Paw Paw bought her!
She loves to sweep! What a great helper!!!
Ma Ma and Elizabeth ready for a ride...
Ma Ma pooped out after a good stroll:)