If it could get any better...

... it did!!!

Princess costumes from Grammy and Grandpap + butterfly wings from Uncle B and Aunt B = the Butterfly Princess girl named Miss A!!!

She's a singing butterfly

Butterfly girl emerges

Last evening finally wrapped up our 2010 holiday celebrations.  We planned a dinner for my parents and some friends and we completed the final gift exchange with my family.  Gifts have actually been sitting under our tree since well before Christmas day and we held ourselves off from opening them this long - can you believe that Miss A was able to have such restraint?  I'm proud of her for being able to do this.

One of the seemingly BIG gifts of the night came from my eldest brother and sister-in-law (who is really more like my older sister much more since she's known me so long and I love her for that).  The gift was a surprise because I made an agreement with my brother that we would not do gifts this year (long story) but it turned out to be one of the biggest hits with Miss A of the whole holiday.  The gift was large and flat and I couldn't even imagine what it would turn out to be but as soon as Miss A unwrapped it, she could not even contain her excitement and she was more tickled with it than I've ever seen her be.  We helped her put them on right away and lo and behold, Butterfly girl was born...

I have never seen anything quite so sweet as my little girl perched on a "big people" chair donning her wings and wearing her little baby girl high top sneakers.  I took these pictures when she was mid-song of the ABCs (took video of this too but have to find the camera to get them on here first!)...

And even this morning, first thing, Miss A demanded to put her wings on.  Took these with my better/bigger camera and more serious lens...

*sigh* What a way to kick off the New Year. I'm taking this is an answer to prayers full of peace and hope of the promises I know the Lord has for all of us. Happy New Year to you all.

Yeah. I don't know.

These pics were taken on New Years eve day. Miss A was watching a show and I suppose this was the most comfortable way she found to watch it.

See?  She's laying on her side pretty comfortably and there's the TV!  I guess I shouldn't be too amazed though since I remember when I was little and used to lay myself out like this.

And in the midst of it all, we finally found the gloves that I bought for her last year about this time and she very much enjoyed trying them on.  Mind you, she wasn't trying to keep me from taking her picture, she was just being silly.

Here's to a wonderful 2011

We, the Ellwoods, are very busy folks.  When we aren't teaching at school, we're going to school.  When we aren't going to school, we are talking about getting ready for school (Miss A starts preschool this year!).  And when we aren't completely and totally preoccupied with everything of school, we are biding our time until it's time to go back to school. (Thank the good Lord for being teachers and having the great blessing of nice long holiday breaks!)

Still... with all of the hustle and bustle of the regular school that still isn't over yet for us... the 2010 calendar year is done for and here comes 2011.  Last year we had every intention of sending out holiday mailings but as with so many other best laid plans, things didn't pan out.  We should know better by now to stop putting the carriage before the horse. *shrug*  We'll learn.  Because what it comes down to is there's never a good time like the present to start doing the things you always should have done in the first place.  And for all of these reasons we're kicking off 2011 doing just that.  We give you our happy new year mailings.  An emerging photography talent I've had the great blessing to be introduced to did the portrait for us and I took care of the graphic design work - because why pay for someone else to do it when I can do it all myself?

For those of you folks who love to print pictures right off of this here blog, hold your horses! :)  Some beautiful specialty metallic prints (my new favorite thing because of what the process does for the colors!) are en route to your mailboxes as you read this.   Just give the wonderful postal service time to catch up with itself and take a breath from the holiday rush that was and your 5x7 will be in your hands and on your fridges before you know it. But we just wanted to post this here for you to enjoy as soon as possible just the same even if it is just in digital format. (See the post date?  It happened the moment the New Year rolled in!  Clever, eh?)

Thank you all for uniting with us and making 2010 so memorable and wonderful.  Let's do it again, shall we?  To 2011, we say, HERE WE COME!!!