Twas the night before Christmas....

...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there....

For our "Big" present to each other, Lou and I have decided to finish our bedroom. So we now have an electric fireplace in our bedroom. (so cool) We decided that we are going to start a new tradition for our family. We are going to open stockings first thing when the kid(s) get up. (KidS being plural for the future, no we are not pregnant) So it makes sense for the stockings to be hung on the fireplace mantel in our bedroom, which is upstairs.

sidenote.....sorry but all the pictures of Christmas will not be very good. We left our camera down in Delray after our big Christmas Eve dinner with Lou's family. So I had to use my cell phone which doesn't take great pics indoors .

Lunch in Kelsey's world

Last weekend Kelsey and I took a trip up to Gainseville (UF) to be with Lou while he was in class for his MBA. During the day we were on our own and I took full advantage to finish up my Christmas shopping. Luckily there was a sandwich type place in the mall food court so I could get Kelsey some lunch. After paying for our food I turned and found these cute kid sized tables in the middle of the regular tables. I decided I could probably manage to sit in the small chairs since I saw other adults doing it as well. Kelsey had a blast being able to sit in a big girl chair at a table. She did surprisingly well. Here's some pics I took from my cell phone:

Shellfish and Citrus

I bought some grapefruit today for Kelsey to try. I gave it to her as her fruit for dinner. She was a little timid with her first taste and after trying to eat it 3 times she handed the piece to me (this is what she does when she doesn't want to eat something). Later during dinner I was able to get her to eat all of it with no fight. She tried both regular and pink. I had dinner with her tonight and I was eating a Summer Roll (with shrimp)from Publix's sushi case. (YUM) She asked for a bite, as she typically does when I am eating anything. I gave her a piece of avocado and a piece of shrimp. She ate both and asked for more..... I gave her more shrimp, and more shrimp, and more shrimp. She really liked it. I watched her carefully to make sure she had no reaction since it was her first time having shellfish. All looks good and I checked her before bed too, just to be sure! (thanks mom!)

Going Italian...

While Kelsey already loves pasta (angel hair, tortellini, ravioli, and lasagna) I decided to introduce her to another Italian treat....Panettone. This is something I enjoy, but had never tried until after Lou and I were married.

While she didn't eat too much, she did seem to enjoy it!

Cheese...

Kelsey now says cheese and actually poses for a photo. I know it won't be too long before she starts over posing, so I am trying to take advantage of being able to get smiles. Enjoy!!

Kelsey talking....

The funny thing is right now she is obsessed with watching this video clip on the camera and keeps pressing play to watch it over and over. She also keep answering the questions that I asked her on the video..it's too cute!! This is definitely a fun age.

A sad day in our family...

Thankfully Kelsey is young enough that we don't really have to explain. We had to put our (my)14 yr old Golden Retriever Jay down last week. It was a tough decision, but the right one. My parents came over and mom stayed with Kelsey while dad drove Lou, Jay and I to the vet. Before we left mom brought Kelsey out to say goodbye (and I brought Morgan our cat out). When I walked in the door after we got home Kelsey said MAMA!! and then she looked behind me and said JD with a questioning voice. Oh how glad I am that she's only 16 months. Every couple days she does say JD?? and looks around for him. I'm so happy that he was loved by such a sweet little girl who will miss him.

Kelsey's reaction to elf boogie....

So, this afternoon I showed the elf boogie video to Kelsey. The first time she watched it all she did was keep pointing and saying POOHH!!! The second time she danced a little, pointed out Pooh again and occasionally pointed to daddy. The third time she danced, pointed to Pooh, daddy Tigger and even pointed to herself a time or two. I'm feeling like chop liver by now.... She used her words and sign to ask for more, so we watched it a 4th time too! This time I pointed to me and said who's that, she said mommy, at least she knows who I am!! She also kept pointing to Pooh and Daddy too! She wanted to watch it again, but I told her mommy would show it to her later. It was very cute, wish I had thought to tape her reaction.

Watch us Elf Boogie.....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving Week

We not only had Thanksgiving day here in FL, we had Thanksgiving week! My baby sister was down from school, My brother and his family drove down from NC, my older sister and her family came from an hour north and my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Doug flew in from CO. Needless to say countless hours were spent b/w our house and my parents' visiting everyone. My dad hired the same photographer that came out last year to take a big family photo and individual family photos.

We spent time on the dock, in the pool and on bikes in the cul-d-sac.

To help my parents out, Lou and I had dinner for everyone at our house Wed night. I just love having a bunch of people over, makes me so happy to share our house with everyone. It was a cool night, so we lit the fire pit. We made chicken parm, garlic bread and tomato-feta salad...yum!

Thursday morning I made scones for my brother and his wife and Lou made his famous apple pie. After lunch we packed up the apple pie and Kelsey and headed down to Delray to spend our Thanksgiving meal/day with Lou's family. It's always a joy to see Kelsey interacting with her cousins. She has her shy moments but usually those are just in the beginning and then she opens right up. She really enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. She had some turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry compote, green beans and sweet potato casserole (thanks Aunt Michelle). No pies this year, but she had enough sugar between the sweet potatoes and and the compote to wire her up.

A wonderful morning....

spent outside with my beautiful bear. Lou was out of town this weekend, so it was just the girls. After Kelsey had breakfast I made my coffee and we went out back. We were there for almost 1 1/2 hours just playing in the grass, on the slides, on/with Jay Dog, and on the swing set. I missed out going to the gym this morning, but it was well worth it to spend such quality playtime with my daughter. Getting ready to play airplane (chewing on her fingers since her molars have been coming in, fun stuff!)
Playing airplane....

Sitting by the holly tree behind the swing set

Happy Girl (after bouncing on mommy)

Deep thoughts......

Sitting on her picnic bench having a blast.

Check out my hair all over the place.

She got in trouble right after this picture because she started bouncing on Jay and I think it hurt him, so I had to tell her "no bouncing". I took her off him, she proceeded to get back on him and bounce again. saying "No bounce" while doing it. Ahhhhhh......

We spent a good amount of time playing on her swing set. She played on the swings, the slide and even on the towers. I'm really glad that we purchased this for her.

Sliding down her big girl slide

Saying hello through the window Trying to climb the rockwall by herself.

I made the mistake of teaching her how to climb up. She can only get 1-2 rungs up by herself...so far.

Big Shoes to fill...

Uncle Michael was down for a quick visit a week or so ago. (I know I've been slacking on posting, but am making up for it now). While he went to take a nap, Kelsey was enthralled with his shoes. From putting one foot in each shoe to putting both feet in one!

Christmas gift idea....

This is why we need to get Kelsey some type of collapsible tunnels for Kelsey. She tries to climb in the kitty cat one at Gma/Gpa McD's.

Her taste has gone International...

I had Thai food for dinner and Kelsey decided to join me. She had a few tastes of coconut milk soup (she's not crazy about that), a few bites of steamed dumpling (liked it) and pad tai 2 star (she Loved that). Looks like Lou and I will be sharing our favorite take out with our almost 15 1/2 month old.

Just check out how happy she is that I am "sharing" my food with her. She totally wants everything we have now. That means now we really have to be aware of what we eat. We've been so good with what we feed her, not always as good with ourselves.

Tackling Duckie....

While away with Lou's family at Disney last weekend, Kelsey was spoiled as usual!! Gma Roselli bought her many stuffed animals including a VERY large duck which Kelsey loves to carry around. Yesterday she brought it downstairs and began tackling the duck on the carpet. She would laugh and roll around and make sure she landed on top of the duck. Then after nap she would do the same thing while hanging out with Lou. I finally caught some pictures of her with the duck today. Too cute.....

While Mom's away the children will play....

Lou & Kelsey with Tigger and Pooh on their way out of the park Friday night
Gma Roselli with Colin and Ryan

Uncle Glenn, Aunt Christine, Isabel and Kelsey with Pluto

I went out of town this weekend for the first time by myself. Granted, Lou's left for work and school and we've both left together twice to go on trips, but I had never left by myself. I got butterflies and got a little teary eyed when Lou and Kelsey dropped me off at the airport on Friday, but I knew she would be fine with her daddy.

Lou took her up to Disney with his family for the weekend. They went to Mickey's very Merry Christmas at the Magic Kingdom on Friday night, it goes from 7-midnight. Lou took Kelsey back to the hotel early b/c it was raining and she was tired. Saturday they ventured off to the Animal Kingdom, which I hear she had a blast at. They had a good time hanging with Gma Roselli, aunts/Uncle, and cousins. We are definitely blessed to be near enough to most of her cousins that Kelsey will hopefully be able to develop a great relationship with them.