Regan's First Birthday!

Elianna's cousin Regan had her first birthday party last Sunday. Boy, did she ever dig her first cupcake!

Regan with Auntie Dana trying out her new xylophone. She's a natural at wacking things!

Ellie was thrilled to get to play with some 'big' girls.

...and some 'big' boys too, I guess! (I think Rob liked the Littlest Pet Shop animals as much as Ellie did :)

The fam.

It's a little late, but here's a few photos of the Hildebrandt family Christmas Eve party here in Manitoba. We had a blast, and was it ever NOISY with two hyper babies stealing the show!

Christmas in Manitoba

Dad's new and old slippers. This was a badly needed gift!

My sisters Leila and Dana showin a little love!

Dana's man, John. She painted his face with a tiny paint set from one of the Christmas crackers to look sorta like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Rob and my sister, Karla, loving wearing those wonderful paper hats.

Ellie's first Christmas cracker experience.

Ellie and Regan enjoying Regan 's new piano

This ribbon entertained Ellie for a long, long time.

Ellie and Regan posing for all the family cameras.

Nana time.

"Ta?"

Ellie has this new thing going on where everything (food, socks, toys) must go in her hair or behind her head. "Ta?" she says, when you tell her it's a hat.

This is the first time Ellie tried to comb her hair.

I posted pictures of our little 'holiday' in Vernon, but they don't really tell the whole story. Here it is :) On Friday Dec.22, Rob's last day of work, the poor guy came home clutching his guts and groaning, 'I don't feel so good'. We were crossing our fingers that it was just a little food poisoning from his work potluck. hehe. No such thing. After Rob spent the next two days on the toilet with non-stop runs, he buckled and took an Immodium so that we could fly to Vernon on Christmas day without him missing the flight because of the numerous bathroom breaks required. Well, thank you Immodium...it definitely worked. But almost as soon as we took off in the air, Elianna got sick. She threw up twice on that first flight. Her and I were quite the odorous pair...we were covered. We stopped over in Calgary, where Rob and I bought Ellie a "Someone who loves me bought me this t-shirt in Calgary" shirt that was 5 sizes too big, and on the next flight to Kelowna she puked all over that, and her pants. By the time we landed all she was dressed in was in the huge pukey t-shirt and wrapped up in a West Jet blanket (thank you West Jet). So we were HOPING that Ellie was just, you know, a little AIR sick or something...but no such thing. She puked large quantities of puke at least twice a day for the first four days we were in Vernon, and then the diarrhea started. Poor little thing. She wasn't a very happy camper. You may notice bags under her eyes in the photos. But alas, after three days of a diet consisting of just rice cereal and diluted apple juice, Ellie is back to her normal self. Except now she's teething. Again.
Thank you, Baby Tylenol.
p.s. aside from the illness we had an awesome time with Rob's family and visiting friends we hadn't seen in ages. Although we don't want to fly again for a very, very long time, the trip was absolutely worth it! Happy New Year, Everyone!

Christmas in Vernon

Ellie with Uncle James

Papa and Great Grandpa playing Scrabble.

The twins and their babies.

Cousin Skid

Fun with Uncle Tom (Daddy's twin) on the pool table.