New Year's Eve, 2007

For New Year's Eve this year, Tom and I just grabbed some take-out and stayed at home. Jeff and Crystal finally got the chance to go on a date for New Year's Eve since we took Leo and Ella for the night. When the kids come over, we can never resist taking lots of pictures. Here are a few we got...

Of course, the first thing Leo wants to do when they come over is run back to our room and pop in "Lightning Mcqueen," which to the layman means "Cars". He pretty much stayed to himself all night, just cuddling under his little blanket, so we didn't get pictures of more than his head. Ella, on the other hand... Well let's just say that this is one of the few moments she was holding still.



Ella loves holding all the stuffed animals we keep around for when they come to visit. She also loves trying on shoes. She let herself in the closet and found our shoe bin. She actually dug through the bin until she found some shoes with a heel on them. She liked trying to walk with them on, but wanted me to hold both of her hands while she did... She was a little off balance, lol.



Then since she was dressing up anyway, she found a robe in the closet that she liked. She was touching the silky fabric saying "Oooooh!" I had to hold it up so she could model for the camera. Otherwise it would've looked like a blanket here.



Then she found a little travel electronic Sudoku game on my nightstand... which she apparently thought was a cell phone. She was walking around for a long time with it to her ear saying "Hello? Hi.. Yes... No.... Hello." Trying to be all grown up, lol.



Poor Ash is scared of the kids, so she kept trying to hide under the Christmas tree. Since the tree skirt has batting in it, it's really soft and she thinks it's another bed for her. The problem with this picture is that a few weeks ago she took a liking to it and decided it would be fun to tear out some of the stitches and pull off the buttons that were on it. I didn't want to repeat this, so I leashed her to the door. She didn't really mind, since we kept the kids mostly in the other room and then turned off the lights in the front.

Ella, however, didn't seem to mind that the front room was dark. She kept running down the hall (beckoning to me with her hands to come with her like she was doing the motions from "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree"), and plopping down in the corner right next to Ash. She was so sweet and careful petting the dog, and kept saying "Gentle, gentle." She's been listening I guess. :D After a few minutes she'd get tired of petting and go back into the other room.... only to come back a minute later and do the same thing.



Tom and I played "Settlers of Cataan" before the kids came and after they went to sleep. We had fun, and I whupped him ;D. We downed a lot of Pepsi, and I think it was a good thing. Even then we were feeling pretty sleepy, and we needed to stay up watching the kids who didn't want to sleep.


Thanks for a great year, everyone! We appreciate your love and friendship, and hope this new year will be fantastic for all of you :D

--Amy