Finally, Christmas Celebration #3-Max and Rebecca's House

We ended our WEEK of celebrating Christmas with an all-day adventure at Max, Rebecca and Millie's house.  We enjoyed another beautiful warm day with food and presents.  Elliott did a lot of screaming and yelling at her cousin and Millie did a lot of running away from the screaming baby.  But both girls enjoyed Millie's new pink kitchen, especially the faux wooden food that Uncle Pierce gave Millie.  

Elliott with her Christmas bow.  

Mommy and Elliott.

Uncle Max and Cousin Millie.  

Daddy and Elliott.

Elliott opening her gift from Cousin Millie.  She has already watched the Elmo DVD about pets!  La la la Elmo's World!  Is it sad that Mommy enjoys Sesame Street as much as her child?  I am fascinated by that show and have been since I was Elliott's age!  

Christmas celebration #2-Roanoke-Our Home

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent in the comforts of our own home in Roanoke.  We had Spencer's parents, little brother, Pierce, and Elliott's Godparents, Whit and Lauren over Christmas Eve for a huge feast.  After putting the baby to sleep we all gathered in the family room and became engrossed in TNT's 24-hours of "A Christmas Story." We proceeded to watch in from the second half to finish and then resumed it from the beginning.  The whole time I was imaging Daddy's little girl, seven years from now, wanting that Red Rider BB gun and Daddy purchasing it for her (in pink of course) without hesitation.  (That is, unless, in the future we can't purchase those types of firearms either....)

These are the matching Christmas pajama's that were a gift from Whit and Lauren.  

Here is Elliott surrounded by all her gifts.  Yes, those are all gifts for an 8-month-old baby.  She has no idea how truly spoiled she is!  She was the happiest baby I have ever seen that morning and I still tear up thinking about how wonderful her Christmas was.  Next year will be fun when we can introduce Elliott to Santa but there is only one true first Christmas.  

Yep, she got a lot of giraffe things.  I couldn't help myself.  

And yes, she helped open some of her gifts too!  She loved them all but her favorites include the activity tent from Babbie and Pop, the huge activity zebra from Ya Ya and Pooh Ba, and the Madame Alexander doll from Mom and Dad.  It was 67 degrees and gorgeous in Roanoke for our first Christmas with our darling daughter and we couldn't have asked for a better day. 

 And of course we ended our Christmas Day with the new Wiegard tradition of Chinese food that night (a la "A Christmas Story.").

Christmas celebration #1-The Franklin Family

Wiegard Team #1 began our first of three Christmas celebrations in Waynesboro with the Franklin family.  We had our early celebration the weekend before Christmas at Babbie and Pop's house.  The picture above is of G.G. opening the little book that we made for her called "What G.G. really means, as told from the perspective of Elliott Marion Wiegard." It was filled with all photos of G. G. holding Elliott with different meanings for G.G.  She loved it!

The Franklin cousins and Elliott.  It was wild with the Franklin Tornado as we like to call them.  From left to right starting in the back are Mary Quinn (Sister Bear), Brodie, Baby Thea and Baby Elliott.  Mary Quinn and Brodie affectionately refer to the babies this way which we think is super cute.  The "sister-cousins" who are a month apart may be called Baby Thea and Baby Elliott until they are in their teens!  G. G. had hoped that we would open one gift at a time so that we could all see what each person was receiving....ha!  You can imagine that it was a lot of paper and ribbons flying.  

Baby Elliott wore her first of many Christmas outfits.  This one is a top and matching pantaloons.  It was a little big on her but so cute!  

Poor Spencer lamented to the fact that Christmas really is no longer about the adults but completely about the children.  He and I received about 5 gifts between us.  We knew this was coming as we had even decided against exchanging gifts between the two of us but it really hit home on this weekend.  It was so much more fun to help Elliott open her gifts.  Of course she had no idea what was going on but this Christmas was more for us to enjoy our new baby.

Mom's turn at amateur photography!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  

Elliott's "tiger" pose! 

Whew, what a November it has been!

We apologize for the delay in updating the blog!  The Wiegards have been really busy the past two months!  The Junior League in Roanoke holds a large fundraiser called "The Stocked Market" and I organized the gala event that began all the festivities.  I then organized the Roanoke Valley Veterinary Association Christmas party in December.  Spencer has been up to his eyeballs in work (which is fantastic in this economy!) and likewise the vet hospital has been booming.  Thankfully people do not cut back on carrying for their pets!  We also attended a family wedding in Alexandria in early November.  The photo above is taken on Thanksgiving Day at "In Recess," my parents' new place in Highland County.  The food was spectacular, the setting was gorgeous, but the family gathering was priceless.  My mother has decorated their new vacation home to the nines (and then some) and we felt so blessed to be in such an amazing place for that holiday.  

This is Elliott's puffy shirt outfit that Babbie bought her.  I still put her in a lot of blue to bring out her eyes.  

Look at how amazing Arlene "G.G." looks!  She loves to hold Elliott and it is very obvious that Elliott adores her right back!  This photo truly captures the loved shared between the two.  Four generations!  

Uncle Pierce holding Elliott at Cousin Winnie's rehearsal dinner in Alexandria.  It was a late night for our darling girl but she held in there and she loved the band!  She also loved watching her older cousin Millie running around the dance floor!  She has been trying to walk ever since and my back is killing me!

Our little 8-month old has quite a personality.  She is constantly babbling and making the funniest sounds.  She rolls her "r's" and rasberries like crazy!  

This is a photo of her buddy Millie Lou about to steal a salt shaker from her.  We were attending Claire McCahill's 1st birthday party.  This was also moments before Millie Lou crawled over and vomited, exorcist-style, all over her poor mother!  That is certainly one way to clear a room and end a party!  The Wiegards were also so very fortunate to miss out on the horrendous stomach virus that got nearly everyone in Roanoke.  It sent several people we know to the hospital!

Elliott is blue again!  Yes, that is a giraffe on her shirt and yes, I'm still obsessed with giraffes.

Elliott and Mommy at the rehearsal dinner.  It is amazing how I tend to dress myself like my daughter.  I never thought I'd be one of those moms but it seems to happen subconsciously.  If I'm in black and white stripes, so is Elliott.  If I'm in green, so is she.  It is ridiculous!