Found: More Waggoner Christmas Pics

Okay, now that we've had some time to catch our breath from Christmas, I've been able to find some time to organize my pics from our Christmas travels. Here's a few random photos that didn't make earlier blog posts...

Below: one night we got to visit friends, Matt and April Cooperrider, for dinner. Ellie is right in between their two kids in age and had fun playing with their toys and watching videos. Forgive the poor cropping -- we lacked a tripod... and time to find an alternative.

A favorite activity when visiting Nonna and PaPa's house is playing in the whirlpool tub...
Here's Ellie with cousin Leah

Nonna planned special devotions each night for the kids. Ellie's favorite part, of course, was the Advent Candle.

One other morning Nonna set up a table to decorate Christmas cookies.
The temptation was too great for Ellie to resist nibbling one or two... or three

I think there were a number of 4-pointed stars...

Christmas morning...

Every Kentucky girl needs her own horse

Okay, I have noticed that Ellie is photographed in the same PJs a LOT. I feel like I should mention that she does have lots of other jammies. I guess I really like these dotted ones to dress her in them so frequently!

modeling new princess dresses...

More catching up...

Hi everyone -- so much to catch up on, I don't know where to start. As with you, our hearts are grieved for the pain and suffering in Haiti. We knew half a dozen people who were in Haiti at the time of the quake and thankfully they are all safe, though surely changed for their experiences. You can read one of those accounts from a fellow Asburian and church family member on a blog here. Some of them are returning home now, and we know others who are headed down to help in the relief work. I've been following in particular the efforts to secure emergency visas for the many orphans who were about to be adopted to families in the States. I can't imagine being so close to bringing my child home, only to helplessly witness from afar the present struggles and hear the stories about their lack of food and shelter.

On a completely different note, we are presently involved replacing our kitchen floor. The house is an absolute wreck. The oven is in the living room, the kitchen table, hutch, original quarter-round, etc. crammed in the dining room. The porch is littered with saw dust, power tools, and scraps of the old linoleum. It's all worth it to see the pretty new flooring go in, though not without its drama (like burning up an air compressor). We detected evidence of water damage early in the fall, but didn't have the time to tackle the problem until now. I will have photos soon (when I can show the after next to the 'before'. All I can say is ICK!

As you can see from the photos above, Ellie's having fun playing in the boxes, engaging her imagination as usual. She's also enjoyed playing nurse to bandage my blistered hand (from pulling staples out of the floor). I wish I could help Nathan and Mark more, but then again, keeping Ellie occupied and out of the fray is help enough, I'm told!

Tua Teaser

I've been working this evening on editing some photos of my niece, Tua. I just had to share one tonight as a teaser. The rest should be on my photo blog sometime tomorrow...

Expl*rium

Enjoying our last free Sunday of Christmas vacation (Global Cafe` resumes next week), today after church we enjoyed a special treat of eating out and visiting Lexington's Expl*rium. It's a type of children's museum with all kinds of activities and stations geared towards kids and learning. Ellie loved it and had to be dragged out after a couple of hours...

Here she is at a water table model of the Kentucky River (where we frequently kayak). It was set up to demonstrate the locks system and included little 'canoes' which we told her were like our kayaks. She had a lot of fun opening and closing the locks to let the kayak proceed down the river.

Of course, given our region, a large part of the first floor was devoted to education about the equine industry. I was frankly surprised she willingly sat on these horses for a photo (maybe someday we'll get her on the real thing, Lindsey C!) One thing she would NOT let us do was dress her up in jockey silks. She agreed to hold the cowboy hat, but that was as close as it got.


Measuring her height in hands. (She is just over four hands tall)

She got a huge kick out of the funny mirrors, which conveniently fits with her current interest in comparing the relative sizes of objects (big, bigger, biggest).

A large part of the 2nd floor was devoted to space exploration and astronauts (sorry for the immodest post and flag coming right out of her head). She was more interested in it than I expected. Though I think "Curious George Rides in a Rocket Ship" had something to do with that.

Of course the bubbles were also a big hit.


Not much of a surprise... one of her favorite displays with the x-ray table which held a tray full of equine x-ray slides (examples of broken and healthy bones). Her favorite slide featured a poor creature's leg full of screws and metal plates. She is OBSESSED with all things medical, broken legs in particular. In fact, I will have another blog post devoted to photos of her in a variety of leg 'casts'. To her delight, she is presently sleeping with two 'broken legs' in casts
.

Story Time

Ellie got some fantastic Christmas presents which we've been enjoying this week back at home. One of her favorites has become her Ber*nstain Bears 'dolls' from Aunt Hannah. Our routine before bed has become to pick out one of their books, and then "talk" (Ellie's words, not mine) the appropriate doll when he or she has dialogue in the story. Ellie loves it. For her favorite book (where the bears go to the doctor for a check up), we don't even read the book. We just act it out on the floor. Thanks, Aunt Hannah, for such a neat gift!

New Year, New Look

In case you're reading this from Google Reader or another RSS feed, you may not be aware that I changed the masthead for our blog. It was overdue and feels good. In this case, I like change.

Pretty in Pink

Playing "dress up" one morning during Christmas in Illinois with the nieces...

New Year's Eve...

Here's a few photos from our New Year's Eve, playing Settlers of Catan. Mom is a big time gamer, in case you didn't know. Dad is not (hence he's not in any photos). I believe he was napping on the couch.

Sorry these photos are so yellow. I was experimenting with my camera's white balance (and shooting sans flash). Still thought the night was worth sharing, though.