Little Mermaid

Straight from China...a hat for Jacob and pj's for Julia




Christmas Eve and Day 2006...

Agua Clara: a neat band playing in Penn Station. We bought their CD.

The precision skaters at Bryant Sq Park ice arena.




Bryant Park in NYC...

Jacob's first time to ice skate. The beautiful Christmas tree and some neat vendors set up for shopping. Top it off with pizza and it was a fun night.

Jacob's Teacher

The Macarena







Prepare yourself for a massive picture dump. We changed web browsers so here are a bunch
of pictures since the middle of December. First, Jacob's class party...

Routine Is Good...Ha! That may sound funny but now that we are in our second week with everyone back in school, it feels like we are back to having a daily rhythm. The kids were sick so much in Nov and Dec that it felt like we would never get back to some kind of routine. Jacob's class went on a fieldtrip today to the grocery store. They got to see live lobsters out of the tank. He thought it was very cool but also kind of scary. For the second week in a row, Julia has done great at her school. I think we are finally over the hump with her in terms of fits, etc. They are a lot less frequent and a lot shorter. Hallelujah!

Our great friends from Marietta, Kathy and Chris (and their son, Kyle) are coming this weekend. We are so excited! They are a lot of fun and very easy to hang out with. I have babysitters lined up for Saturday night and Sunday day so we can show them the sights. It ought to be a lot of fun! However, I have forewarned them that with only 1 bathroom, no reading material is allowed...ha!

New Babysitter...Well, last night our newest babysitter, Hillary, came over to eat pizza with us and meet the kids. She is a real nice girl and the kids hit it off with her. She is a junior in high school and is an ice skater. She also teaches ice skating. We will probably have her do a few lessons one on one with the kids. She is available only on Friday and Saturday nights so we already have her lined up for next Saturday night when we have friends coming into town from Oklahoma. It will really be nice to have two different babysitters to call when we have things come up that we want to do without kids or just date-night. We don't go out a lot without the kids but it'll be nice to have more options.

Poling Family Visit...We made an unexpected visit into Manhattan yesterday to see my sister, Monica, and her family. They have been on a whirlwind trip to Boston and NYC. Her oldest son, Ellis, will be a senior next year and so they are maximizing the time they have together before he is off to college. It was so great to see Monica, Jack, Ellis, Calvin and Henry. For those of you who were at our wedding, Calvin was the ring bearer. I couldn't believe how big everyone is now and great to see Calvin's sweet face and remember back to our wedding. Jacob was excited all day to get to see "the cousins". He didn't quite understand that they were Julia's cousins, too. They share cousins...ha!

We rode the train in and met up with everyone in Central Park. We enjoyed a nice afternoon visiting while the kids rode the carousel and played at one of the playgrounds. Big fun! We finished all that off with pizza and then back home on the train. And on the train, we happened to meet up with one of our favorite neighbors, Mr. Greenberger, so that made for a nice diversion on the way home.

Happy New Year 2007!!! We had a really good evening. I made tacos for dinner and John picked up our neighbors, John and Brona, from the airport. They had just returned from 2 weeks in Ireland, where she is from. They had a great time and were anxious to tell all about it. Then, Jacob, Julia and mommy made homemade party hats. After Julia went to bed, Jacob and John and I played boardgames and ate ice cream. Jacob legitimately won the $1,000,000 on the Deal or No Deal boardgame. Yahoo! Then at midnight, some of our neighbors were outside banging pots and pans so we went out on the porch to welcome the new year and watch fireworks in the sky. I think it must have been out on a boat somewhere since it wasn't far but was out toward the ocean. We watched the ball drop on tv in Times Square. John and I agreed that we had no desire to be in that mob! Anyway, it was a quiet but festive night at the Elliotts. Happy New Year! May God bless you!!!