We'll be heading to ND for a nice, cold, snowy Christmas this year. With all the snow we got yesterday, this picture (which I confiscated from Google) looks pretty much like MN right now!
Another "big girl" photo of Eleanor in front of our (little!) Christmas tree. I took her to my office yesterday (on my day off) to partake in our annual Christmas lunch. So, we did her hair for the occasion. She has been letting me put pigtails in and leaving them alone. Too cute! 
Here she is putting her homemade ornament on the tree that she made in the church nursery last Sunday.
There was nothing particularly special about Eleanor's lunch today. But, I just happen to be in the kitchen cleaning up when I looked over and thought, "Gosh, she's such a big girl now." I think Michael and I have been reflecting a lot on Eleanor lately because we know that we'll have a newborn in the house soon - which is a thrilling and scary thought all at the same time! Anyway, here is Eleanor eating her turkey & cheese sandwich, pineapple & some pretzels. She also likes her "movie milk" which is just milk from McDonald's that I refill for a couple of days. She thinks she getting a special treat and I find that she consumes more milk than with her regular sippy cup.
She's looking at the TV because I let her watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
She actually smiles & "poses" for me now when asked. It's still not perfect, but she's getting the idea that I want to take a picture of her.
We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving at home this year. Mari Lee, Sue, Matt & Melissa were nice enough to come our way since I had to work both Wednesday and Friday. This is the only good picture I got of Eleanor on Thanksgiving Day. It was a lovely day for November and we all took a walk after our big dinner. We walked over to the park and Eleanor ran all the bases on the baseball field. A great way to get rid of some energy! Mike & Matt also ran the bases racing each other, which was very comical.
Eleanor has had a "language explosion" - as Michael put it. Ever since I got back from Florida it's like she can now carry on a conversation. Her 3 to 4 words sentences have totally ramped up and her memory is unreal. She'll come out with these things she remembers from weeks (sometimes months) ago. This morning I was drinking orange juice and she said "Grandma's house...orange juice...didn't like it." She's referring to when she tried OJ at Mari Lee's 2 weeks ago and she didn't like it at all. I mentioned Jordan and Natalie the other day and she said "choo choo train." Yes, we saw and heard a train when we visited them in September. She also said "Mommy shower, Eleanor shower...didn't like." She was referring to when I was trying to save some time and had her come into the shower with me (also at Jordan & Natalie's house) and she had fit about it! Hopefully, I didn't tramatize her. These random memories she comes up with just amaze me. She is now our little chatterbox and we love it!
Here she is getting ready for trick-or-treating! She's got her little "Frankenstein" bucket that she made at her Halloween party last year. We didn't take her trick-or-treating last year, so it was special to be able to take her this year. We first stopped at a friend's party (Anne & Grant whose son is the star of the Chronicles of Miles blog, which is under my favorites). They live 2 blocks away. We were there for about 1/2 hour and then we let her trick-or-treat in our neighborhood a bit. It was so sweet to see her go from door to door and try and say trick-or-treat (she mostly would turn mute when they opened the door). She then would try and reach for some candy, but it was difficult with her little mittens on!
We did walk through the corn maze, but of course the concept of a maze is a little above Eleanor at this point. But, she had fun running through it and finding dried up corn!
We tried to get a nice shot of her by the hay bails & pumpkins, but she wasn't being very cooperative. We also did get a family shot, but it's on my Dad's camera. I can blog that later.
October 22, 2006 - Baptism day
Later today we'll light Eleanor's baptism candle (which her Guardian Angel, Quinn, is holding in the above picture) in honor of her baptism. Eleanor wore her father's baptismal gown made from Mari Lee's wedding dress.
Godparents Jordan & Natalie
I wanted to give all of our faithful blog-watchers a sneak peek at some photos from this past weekend. My parents were in town (yeah!) and we went out to the Northwoods Apple Orchard on Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday Eleanor had her 2nd annual Daycare Halloween party. It was such a fun weekend! 
Eleanor was much more cooperative at the apple growth chart this year than she was last year!
Here she is at the Quarry Hill Nature Center for her daycare party. This adorable costume we're borrowing from Eleanor's good friend, Theodore. 
It was a gorgeous afternoon on Saturday and we spent some time at two parks that we've never been to before. It was fun to explore and see what these parks have to offer. Eleanor decided now that she likes to wear sunglasses. These are a pair that Grandma Mari Lee got her last spring and of course she didn't keep them on then. But, now, she left them on the whole time we were playing.
After we were done playing we drove around for about an hour to look at houses. We're thinking with the new arrival we'll need something bigger next year. It was fun to get flyers for some homes that were for sale and check out the amenities/price. After all that fun we went to Wendy's for dinner. It was a perfect fall afternoon!
