Christmas in Wisconsin

All packed and ready to go to Wisconsin for Christmas! First time we were able to go home for the actually holiday in six years. We usually celebrated Christmas at Thanksgiving because that's when we could get away. So excited to get to take Ella home for her first Christmas! :o)

Grandma and Grandpa French were pretty excited to see Ella at the airport. Pretty sure Grandpa boxed Grandma out to get to her first. :o)

Getting reaquainted with Grandpa! She acted like she remembered them.....I am convinced that Skyping every weekend makes a huge difference.

Grandma had a turn pretty quick too! Uncle Tim hadn't seen Ella since she was two weeks old!

Uncle Tim still a little nervous holding Ella! That will change quick...as you will see in later pictures! :o)

Grandpa was pretty excited to get to feed Ella her breakfast!

We drove through a horrible blizzrd all the way home from the airport! So, of course, just like old times, Jeff and Tim got up the next morning and snowblowed the whole block! They loved it...esp. Jeff, since we don't really get snow in Texas.

Spending time with Grandma. She pulled out all of her special toys and dollies for Ella to play with . Ella, of course loved it!!

Uncle Tim and Grandpa had a fun time playing with Ella and getting reaquainted with her.

All bundled up and ready to go play out in the snow.

Ella and Uncle Tim

Sitting on Great Grandpa French's old bobsled. It was so fun to see so much snow again!

Ella thought this was so much fun! You can tell she is the first grandbaby/ neice on this side! :o)

Ella loved being outside in the snow. Plus, she loved all the attention she was getting!

I LOVE this picture! She was literally stuck down in the snow!

The three of us!

It's tradition to have Christmas Eve dinner at great Grandma and Grandpa French's house and open gifts with them. Great Grandma made a wonderful ham and potato dinner. Ella was the star of the show...she made us all laugh by making funny faces and laughing all the way through dinner! she is such a little ham. she feeds off of attention for sure!

Christmas Eve night...ready to open presents.

Ella playing with Kristi.

Like father like son!

Of course Ella loved all of this attention!

Great Grandma French

Great Grandpa French

Early Christmas morning

So much fun at grandma and grandpa's!!

Present from Great grandma and grandpa

Look at all my presents!!

A dolly! So excited!!

Grandma helped me open some of my presents!

Right before Ella's first haircut

Grandma gave Ella her first little haircut! :o)

Mommy gave very strict instructions.....only take off the very tips!

The French family(minus Chester and Oliver) Christmas 2009

Take two

Our little family... God is so good to us!

Tim and Kristi being silly.

Grandma and Grandpa with the light of their lives! :o)

Snuggle time with Kristi

Last night at Grandma and Grandpa's house before meeting up with my family for three days. Ella decided she didn't want to go to bed.....and since it was our last night, we fudged her bedtime by like three hours! She was so proud of herself that she got to stay up with the big people! :o)
We had such a wonderful three days together!! It went by way too fast! So much fun to be able to bring Ella home for her first Chrstmas! Thank you for the wonderful time!!! We will be back! :o) Love you guys!

Mauston with my family.

We rented a huge log house with my family in Mauton, WI...which happened to be a great place for us all to meet in the middle. It was great because they had a clubhouse with a pool....so great for the kids to wear off some of their energy. I love this picture of Danny and Caleb in the pool.

Jeff, Ella, and Sophia swimming.

Ella got to meet Uncle Jon for the first time! He got acquainted with her ears right away! For those of you that know Jon, you know what I'm talking about! :o)

All of the kids exchanging their Christmas presents! It was so much fun to watch.

Ella loved taking baths in the kitchen sink. It was really big and deep....the PERFECT sink for a baby bath!!

And of course Grandma and the girl cousins wanted to help.

Ella getting to know Uncle Danny and Aunt Krissy

Uncle Jeff and Anthony

SISTERS!!!

Sophia loved feeding Ella...she was such a great little helper!!!

My brother went outside and picked us this beautiful "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree! lol

We all had fun playing the Wii.

Grandma reading Anthony(Bubba) a story.

Lots of snuggle time with Aunty Dawnie

Brittany and Sophia....such little buddies

Uncle Jeff pushing the girls down the hill. They had so much fun sledding.

This is the beautiful log house we rented for three nights. It was perfect for our family!

The DiCandilo's out for some sledding!

We celebrated Danny's 29th birthday on December 28th.

Anthony and Micah were such little buddies! It's so much fun to watch the cousins play together!

Too bad cousin Sophia doesn't live closer...she would make the best babysitter! Between her and Brittany, we would always have someone to watch Ellabear!

The Lowery Family

The whole clan! Mom and Dad Lowery, Scott, Deann, Ryan, and Brittany MacPherson, Jon, Dawn, Sophia, and Anthony DiCandilo, Danny, Krissy, Caleb, and Micah Lowery, and Jeff, Darla, and Ella French.

It was so nice to all be together again!

Sweet girl cousins!

You have to love cousin pictures! Even if someone is crying, and someone is picking their nose, they are always so fun to look at....esp 10 years down the road.

Take Two! ;o)

My BFF Laura was able to stop by with her husband Andy on their way home from their family Christmas! It was so special to get to spend a few hours with them! It was especially fun to see Laura because she is pregnant and was definetely starting to show at this point!!! We have had such a special friendship throughout the years....starting on our first day of college our freshmen year! ;o) Love you to death Laura!

Love, love, love this picture!!!

Ella thought Andy was interesting. She kept wanting to touch his face. lol

Grandpa Lowery loving on Ella.

Snuggling on the couch our last night together! We were telling goofy stories and drawing silly pictures for each other!! Love these guys!!

Giving Ella kisses before mommy flew home to Texas. She and daddy were heading back up to Grandma and Grandpa French's for a few more days while mommy went back home to work her holiday. It was so hard to say goodbye!!!! sniff, sniff.

Cousin Sophia saying bye to Ella bear!

I think Grandma and Grandpa were pretty excited to have Ella back!

Lots of loves and kisses for Ella.

"Grandpa's girl" as he calls her! :o)

Trying out Grandpa's new leather chair he got for Christmas.

Playing with my new stuffed toy from Great Grandma.

Playing dollies with Grandma.

What a ham!!

Ella with Great Grandma!

Ella learned how to hold her own bottle while she was at Grandma and Grandpa's. I am also told that she took her first few crawls there too while I was at home. I'll let them think what they want....LOL ...no, she really probably did but she didn't really take off with it until she was back home for a couple of days. Grandma and Grandpa did work with her a lot though on learning how to crawl!!! :o)

PLAYTIME!

Bathtime at Grandma's!! She has fun rubber duckies for me to play with!

More playtime with Grandpa.

Great Grandma and Grandpa French came down one last time to say goodbye to Ella.

Great grandpa French teasing Ella.

I know Grandma and Grandpa were sad to see them leave, but I was SO ready for them to come back home. It was no fun being apart for those four days.!!!

It was so special to get to go home for Ella's first Christmas!! We had such a great time with both of our families!! It was fun to get to go play in the snow, but also fun to go back home and not have to deal with it everyday! Thank you everyone for such a wonderful Christmas!! We love you all so much!!!!!