Skating with Annalise

Last weekend I took Annalise skating for the second time. It was sort of a reunion with many of my old skating teammates who were in town for Christmas (most of you know I was a figure skater for 12 years growing up). Those of us who have kids brought them along; it was their first or second time skating and it was fun to see the "next generation" on ice! Annalise did a great job and I was so proud of her! Here are a couple of pics & video clips of the event:

Such a Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas in the O'Connell house. Annalise really enjoyed the season, having a couple celebrations with her groups of buddies, and her school program at school was adorable. And as usual, she loved all of the Christmas lights. Ryan was rather oblivious, and thankfully paid little attention to our Christmas tree, only swatting at the ornaments a few times.

Looking at the Christmas lights at our favorite house - this is only a tiny view of the
thousands of lights and decorations at this house. We love it!

Above: Annalise's school program.

This year we also had a visit from our Elf on the Shelf. Annalise named him Rudolph Elf, and he kept a watchful eye on Annalise's behavior. He left notes for Annalise each morning, and unfortunately he had to give her a few warnings about her behavior and poor eating. Luckily she worked on it and Santa didn't have to put her on the Naughty List, as he'd threatened.

Christmas morning, Annalise was thrilled that Santa granted her request for a new bike. She got a 16" Huffy Princess bike, and she's taken to it so well! Ryan's favorite gift was a V-Tech Move and Crawl ball. After a morning at home, we went to my parent's house for Christmas lunch with my three brothers, their wives, and my two nieces. It was a lot of fun!

My dad with Annalise and my niece Caitlin.

Ryan's First Birthday!

I'm over a month late in posting about this, how pathetic! Ryan turned one on November 26th, the day before Thanksgiving. Because we were leaving for Charlotte to visit family on his actual birthday, we kept his birthday celebrations rather low-key. The night before his "real" birthday we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant with my parents, where Ryan had his first cupcake. He ate the ENTIRE thing!

The night of his birthday, we celebrated with Ricky's family who were all in town for Thanksgiving. My sister-in-law ordered him an adorable Elmo cake and he made a nice big mess with it. It was a lot of fun!

We can't believe our little guy is already a year old. This year has FLOWN by. It is hard to imagine life before our Ryan. He is so fun, always smiling, and such a cuddle-bug. He's brought so much joy to all of us, and we love him so much. Happy Birthday, Ryan!