Francis

Our friend Lauren visited us last week. We had a blast with her! One of my favorite attributes of Lauren is her zeal for life. She loved our snow and took full advantage of it. She was tearing up the slopes during the day and in the evenings, sculpting Francis. She built us our own snow woman. We love Francis! I'm eager to get more photos from Lauren (she captured much more of the week than I did) and I'll post them soon. Eloise and I are headed to Dallas tomorrow to see Charlie and Cecilia. Cici is turning 1 on Saturday!

Walkin'

Sledding with Gigi

We've had a fun week with Gigi here. This morning we took Eloise sledding. Fortunately, the temperature has risen a bit and the sun has come out, so we've been able to enjoy more outdoor activities. Eloise would copy me and say "weee" as we went down the hill. She seemed to really like it!

Happy Birthday!

Eloise had a great first birthday! Gigi and Grandad were here to celebrate and we had some church friends come over for "apres-ski." There are several other notable birthdays on February 9--Haley Roseberry is 3, Justin Williams, Mrs. McLoota, Scott Pell....if you know of any other birthday twins, let us know! Eloise has also taken her first few steps. She's walked about 3 steps at a time and laughs hysterically while she does it. It's very cute! Alex took some video of it. I'm going to try to put that on the blog later. Alex left this morning for Honduras and returns Saturday. Thankfully my mom is staying all week with us.

Play Group Birthday Party

Eloise celebrated her birthday with her play group friends today and all had a great time (although you wouldn't know it from the picture!). We tried to recapture the Halloween pic but it just didn't work quite the same...oh well! Pictured is Cora, Norah, Olivia, Hannah, Eloise, Gavin, and Conner. Jeep and Berkley sat it out.

Another Photo Shoot

Notice her beautiful curls and little teeth!

The Story Morning Glory

The story in our lives right now is snow. OH MY GOODNESS we have a ton of it. It's beautiful but it makes our lives a bit more difficult.
In other news, Alex is in South Carolina for a conference now. I've tried to keep Eloise and myself busy and done a fairly good job at it. In Alex's stead, I've been watching the presidential debates. Anyone else watching them? I'm finding them very interesting and confusing. I can't decide on a Republican candidate! Any thoughts? I know you're not supposed to talk politics or religion...but we talk religion all the time...so...As for the democratic side, Obama seems compelling but not quailified. I can't vote in the primary anyway (we're registered independent), so I guess it doesn't matter. It just bothers me that there's no one that I REALLY like.
Finally, Eloise is teething all out of order. She has 2 molars already and no front teeth. What's up with that? She's been raging the last couple of days with pain. Poor little girl!