a not so slumber party

So if your not from buffalo- a huge wind storm hit us this sunday morning. We lost power like we usually do- but this time it was not only our block but the actual lines to just our house were pulled off the roof. The cable lines were pulled off too- so we had no power,heat,phones,tv or Internet. So after we got up sunday morning and saw that our power lines were hanging in the street-we called the power company and just hung out a bit. Then joe decided to take a look out side-it was pretty bad. we had trees down everywhere and we realized that the power was not coming on anytime soon. So joe went out to buy a chainsaw and then we went to my mom's house for dinner. When we got home that night- we still had no power or heat-so we went to my sister's house to sleep. Ella was a trooper- she sat on the couch and watched tv with her hands folded in her lap.

Then we had to find a place for Ella to sleep- my mom suggested a drawer. So we raided Josh's room and made her a bed- well, josh's drawers weren't long enough- but aunt kelly's drawers were just right! Ella slept from 10pm to almost 7:30am in that drawer- I should have taken it home...

Well unlike ella- we didnt get much sleep- Allison, our niece was missing her mom- so she was up at 2:30 in the morning. What was funny about it was that I was sleeping in a room with the monitor to Allison's room connected to it. Of course I didn't know it was there- so in the middle of the night- it wasnt too weird to hear a kid crying- but when I first heard her yell "mommy" I totally got freaked out and thought Kelly's house was haunted for a few mins.

Long story short- my mom and I got no sleep last night-and was sucks even more is that the rest of the day my mom worked a double and my day was...in a word, miserable.

But the good news is that our power and heat was turned on at 1pm and the phones and internet was about 30 mins ago-

The house was still really cold when we got here- so I had to dress ella in a ton of clothes and two hats, bunny slippers and socks for her hands- she looked like a true polish kid in all those clothes...

Anyway- wish joe luck with his chainsaw- he has his work cut out for him.

yay! christmas

Well, Christmas was super fun this year. We spent Christmas eve with our whole family at my mom's. Before that though- we decorated ella's packandplay with lights. She was so excited that you can't even see her hands in this picture because she is wiggling so much.

Ella wore her big girl dress to the party- all the girls got the same dress from babcia and the same PJ's for the big night.

Some how we managed to get all the kids together in front of my mom's tree- Josh did a great job of holding ella- she wasn't so happy about it though.. Ella did get some great presents from Santa and the whole family. She got a ton of toys! and she is so thrilled at each one. Babcia got her a toy that she can lay under and it plays music and lights up-kelly got her clothes and an activity table and Uncle Jake and aunt Heather got her a new bedroom set. Her room is officially a little girls room now with all her new toys and the pink crib set-ill post pics of it soon-it really cute.

Ella finished the night in her brand new PJ's sleeping on babcia's lap and devouring her thumb. It was a big day for her.

A lot of funny things happened this year- including Santa/aunt nancy-who couldn't see, read or talk as she passed out presents-and almost passed out herself from a combination of a heavy santa suit and emphysema, more of Allison's drinking problem, Josh and the belly dancing kit, trying to get the kids to sit still for pictures, dinner, presents and not calling out the aunt nancy/ santa, and then of course the wrapping-paper-ball war between all of us. Joe got it all on tape and is making a video for our blog about it. He just needs to edit it down.

Hope everyone else had as good a Christmas as ours!

busy weekend

Ella was in the living singing Christmas tree again this sat. She did a great job- it was way better then last time- maybe because Joe got her dressed instead of the lady that she didn't know. But it was really great- ppl cried when she did and she even did her puppy lip sad face into the camera. I'm really happy she did it-

Right after we went to Nathan's b-day party. It was really fun- Santa was there so Ella got to meet him. There were a ton of other kids there-

We have also been spending a bunch of time working on a Christmas card pic for everyone- Its not working out...

none of our pics are card worthy yet. We have tried lots of stuff-I would really like to put her in my mom's manger and take a pic- but i think its covered in snow at the moment- maybe tomorrow we can? Ella's favorite pose was when we put her in the Santa hat- she was so distracted by the fluffy part it didn't work :( but at least she had fun!

Save Our Sinks!

Please please please help save our sink! Things that work in our house have become an endangered species-please don’t let this same fate befall our sink! My dear sweet husband has tried 2 bottles of Drano, Dad’s questionable “toilet snake”, Smandrew’s pipe wrenches and cleaning the trap. The broken sink is now draining into our dishwasher and onto the floor. And it is horrible trying to keep things sterile for ella when you don’t have a sink. So in the spirit of Christmas and for all the times Joe fixed your computers- please save us.

Check your facebook for a "save our sinks" funraiser near you!

Ella and the tree!

Well- ella was baby jesus on Sunday at the Chapel. She was doing good but then she got all sad just before she went on stage. The pic is of her in her dressing room getting all swaddling-clothed out. I have some video of the show but she was so upset they gave her a nuk on stage so they dont turn her around until about 2.5 mins into the video. We will get a better dvd later from the church- this is just joe and I standing in the back- but if you watch the video to the end you will see she is screaming with the song- they said it was the most life like baby they had this year!

We go again on Saturday- hopefully she will be happier to be a part of the show this time.

This weekend is also her cousin Nathans first birthday! So I guess that is where the after party will be if anyone wants autographs.

Back to school for Joe

Joe is going back to school in Jan. He is doing an online bachelor's program for Game Software Developement. He is going to Westwood college. He got the idea from Ben. Hopefully it will only take a couple of years to complete.

We are looking forward to doing something new and the program has 100% placement-so feel free to volunteer as a co-signer for his loans!

thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was fun with the family this year. Here is a pic of Sydney saying hi to ella. Bacia got ella a super cute outfit. She also had a bib that proclaimed she was "my little turkey" - it was kinda over kill-but she is a cutie-

but anyway- mom cooked a whole bunch, ali hit her head a bunch, aunt nancy talked a bunch and I got a bunch of cute pics of mom's cat