Cheatle Family Blog

Elly's 4th Birthday!!!!

2010-01-02T20:31:00.007-06:00

Elly got some awesome presents for her 4th birthday from the family! She got a Zippity (a Wii for toddlers) from Grandma and Grandpa - she got 2 extra games to go with it already - the Disney Princess Game and the Disney Princess and the Frog Game - pretty cool!

We went to the Amazing Pizza Machine to play on her birthday. She got over 1000 tickets - one of her prizes was a princess crown with super sweet pink feathers :-)

She also got a stuffed puppy from her Aunt Michelle - it's her new favorite stuffed animal that she takes everywhere with her.

She also got this beautiful princess gown from her cousin Madelaine - somebody definitely knows Elly's style ;-)

She topped off her presents with this birthday cake that she continued to cut and serve to us all night. She had a great 4th birthday. Next week we have her party with all of her friends. She is really looking forward to that!

Christmas at Great-Grandma's

2010-01-02T20:26:00.004-06:00

Road Trip to Great-Grandma's

2010-01-02T20:18:00.008-06:00

We had quite the road trip up to Great-Grandma's - we tried to plan our trip around the weather (in the books at the Christmas Blizzard of 2009). We stayed in a super fun hotel with a water park for a few nights while some weather passed.

Elly found fun ways to pass the time - like by putting her underwear on her head :-)
Once there was a break in the freezing rain, we hit the road!

Luckily - we got the Great-Grandma's without any real serious weather problems - we definitely planned that out well!

Santa Comes!!!

2010-01-02T20:11:00.004-06:00

Elly asked Santa for 4 things: a Baby Belle Princess Doll, a Princess Bike, a Princess Scooter and matching Princess Helmet. And, do you think Santa brought it all?

Santa's first stop for Elly was Great-Grandma's House - what'd she get?

Baby Belle Princess Doll - check!

Santa Comes x2!!!

2010-01-02T20:09:00.003-06:00

Santa's 2nd stop was Grandma and Grandpa's house - what'd she get?

Princess Bike - check!

Santa Comes x3!!

2010-01-02T20:03:00.008-06:00

Santa's 3rd stop was Nana and Papa's House - what'd she get? (what do you think?)

A Princess Scooter and Princess Helmet with matching Knee Pads!

Because there was like 6 feet of snow outside, we had to ride around Nana's house :-)

Disney World 2010

2009-12-18T16:07:00.001-06:00

So...we officially openend and deposited money into (important second step) our "Disney" Savings account for the 2010 trip! Exciting!

Elly's Mad!

2009-12-08T18:45:00.002-06:00

Elly wasn't very happy after we laughed at her while she was sledding and she had no problem letting us know!

2009-12-08T18:39:00.001-06:00

What to do with 8 inches of snow...

2009-12-08T18:24:00.009-06:00

Josh, Katy, Elly, Grandma and Grandpa decided to take advantage of the 8 inches of snow and went SLEDDING!!!!

Elly would only go if she rode with daddy or Grandma - Daddy got the sled to turn in a "tornado" and she really liked that!

She also loved going down with Grandma!

Josh, Elly, and Katy had fun making snow angels!

Grandma and Elly on the launching pad!

Grandma and Elly at the finish line!

At 6 months pregnant, Katy was still able to win the contest of who could get the sled to go furthest! :-)

We finally got Elly to go down by herself - with some major coercing!

Does Katy trust Elly and Josh to launch her? Hmm...

Snow Day!!!

2009-12-08T18:19:00.002-06:00

Grandma and Elly Sledding!

Elly Gets Ear Tubes...

2009-11-14T09:54:00.006-06:00

Elly got ear tubes put in this week. The doctor told her that she had some frogs stuck in her ears that he had to get out :-) She got some special "surgery" pajamas and socks! She was pumped about that.

They told her she could bring something from home that would help comfort her. That "something" turned into about 20 stuffed animals :-)

Everything went well! The doctor got all the frogs out! And, Elly even got another stuffed animal from the doctor: a stuffed animal frog that she named 'Fillmore, Jr' :-)

Lauren's 5th Birthday Party!

2009-11-14T09:48:00.007-06:00

Elly had such a blast at her friend Lauren's 5th Birthday party!

They went to this place in town called "Bounce-U". It's all infatable bounce toys. It's a super popular kids birthday spot - this is the third birthday party Elly's been to there in 2 months!

Elly and Lauren loved going down the blow-up slide! They have to wear sacks around their legs because they go so fast it can burn their skin if it catches it right. Good thing they wore them, because they went pretty fast!

At this point, Elly's been bouncing for over an hour! She looks crabby, but she's just exhausted!

Tip for making her feel better: cake and juice :-)

Halloween!

2009-11-14T09:35:00.012-06:00

We found some Disney carving designs, so we were pumped to carve Elly's pumpkin!

Here's the finished product - none other than Mickey Mouse!

Elly has planning since our May trip to Disney World to be Tinkerbell this Halloween - what can I say? She's a planner!

Elly's first trick-or-treat stop - Nana and Papa's house! They gave her a Tinkerbell Pez dispenser - super cute!

Elly and her friend Lauren from Nana and Papa's neighborhood.

Elly went trick-or-treating with some friends from school- Evan and Ella. They're twins and Elly's best friends at school - they were super cute together! A Pirate and 2 Fairies!

Can't forget the glow sticks!

After the damage had been done we had some serious candy sorting to do :-)

Elly's Halloween Party at School!

2009-11-14T09:29:00.009-06:00

They learned this song called "Dem Bones" and were so excited to sing it to us!

This is Elly and her friend Lexi.

Here they are "bobbing" for marshmallows :-)

Elly dressed as a mummy! All of the other parents wrapped the legs individually. Poor Elly couldn't walk because mommy wrapped her legs together - oops!

Elly totally dominated musical chairs - she was the winner! What a competitive little girl!

Elly's Learning to Swim!

2009-11-14T09:28:00.001-06:00

Elly and Olivia go to the Zoo!

2009-11-14T09:24:00.007-06:00

HUSKER GAME DAY!

2009-11-14T09:17:00.010-06:00

Millard Days Carnival!

2009-11-14T08:55:00.003-06:00

Elly and her friend Sydney had so much fun at the carnival!!!

Elly got super freaked out in this playhouse thing! A worker had to come rescue her and ride down the slide with her!

Finally...Disney Pictures!

2009-09-16T21:58:00.008-05:00

Disney Pics Continued! :-) (Too Many!)

2009-09-16T21:51:00.012-05:00

Park Hopper

2009-04-29T14:18:00.007-05:00

Thank goodness it's warm out again because Elly LOVES going to parks! We took her out to Mahoney's ginormous park one day and she had an awesome time!

She likes pushing people on the swings...

But is NOT a huge fan of being pushed!

She is getting SUPER GOOD at climbing things! She's been working on climbing up these arc-ladder things for awhile, and she finally got it nailed down to a point that she doesn't need a spotter anymore! What a big girl!

Bedtime Stories

2009-04-29T14:14:00.002-05:00

Elly got a new pillow book for Easter from the Easter Bunny!

It has stories about the Princesses, and we read them almost every night on the couch before bedtime :-)

Morning Pictures

2009-04-29T14:10:00.004-05:00

These are some random pictures we decided to take in the morning before school. Elly wanted to take pictures of her Princess backpack that she's "going to take on her plane to Disney World" and of her new clothes that she got for summer!

Elly's Tooth Brushing Regimen

2009-04-29T13:34:00.004-05:00

Elly's getting to be a pretty big girl brushing her teeth! She never forgets to remind mommy and daddy that her teeth need to be brushed every night before bed!

She enjoys it so much, in fact, that she actually has 4 toothbrushes and 2 kinds of toothpaste (Princess toothpaste and Crest Kids (aka, "blue toothpaste mommy!"). And, she can only use certain toothbrushes with certain kinds of toothpaste, apparently, cause "that's the rules!" she says!

Elly & Olivia go Rollerskating!

2009-01-18T12:53:00.008-06:00

We gave rollerskating another go! This time it was a lot more fun because we invited Elly's best friend, Olivia!

Here's the daddys getting the girls warmed up on the first few laps. Olivia took to rollerskating like a fish to water! That was great because that made it a lot more fun for Elly!
Here's the mommys after the girls started to get more confident.

The girls did AWESOME at the limbo game. They made it under the extra-low bar! I guess it helps when you are barely 3 ft tall!

Here's the partner skate! How cute are they?!?! They made mommy's heart melt when they skated together all by themselves!

Elly got pretty confident by the end of the day - she wanted to skate blind (and she roped mommy into doing it too) :-)

Elly's 2nd 3rd Birthday Party

2009-01-17T18:42:00.001-06:00

We had a blast!!!

Elly's 1st 3rd Birthday Party

2009-01-17T14:39:00.015-06:00

Because Elly's actual birthday was on the Sunday after Christmas, we decided to have a small party with just family at Chuck E. Cheese's and then have a bigger party with all of her friends from school on a different day.

This is the beginning of opening presents. She plays with our camera ALL THE TIME, so it was great that Nana got her a camera (that takes real pictures!) for herself!

Here she got the never-ending pack of Play-Doh -unfortunately, it did not also come with carpet cleaner :-)

Here is Elly playing with the complete set of Shrek toys from McDonald's (or, as Elly refers to it "Old McDonald's"). She likes these little things. She's been collecting the Madagascar ones, too.

Elly thinks the Chuck E. Cheese slide is so funny becuase it makes sound effects when you come down it. She laughs everytime!

Here she is climbing back up to the slide. After months of being too small (and mommy having to crawl in and push her up from behind), she finally figured out how to put her feet in the netting and push herself up on each platform so she can get to the top. Now mommy doesn't have to look so nerdy (and huge) crawling around in the kid's playground anymore!

Here's Elly and Daddy riding on the Toddler Roller Coaster (see what I mean about looking huge on/in this kid's stuff?) :-)

Elly LOVES that new camera - already taking pictures with it!

I think this is the game where Elly and Nana won like 50 tickets! We still have like 6 of the 12 suckers Elly picked out with her "winnings"

Here's mommy and Grandma racing on Mario Kart. I don't think Grandma knew what she was getting into when she decided to race mommy on this game - she must have forgotten the number of hours mommy spent when she was little mastering the art of Mario Kart!

Here's Grandma again in over her head - except this time it's with Elly. Grandma clearly was not aware of Elly's skill in Ski-Ball (alright..it's not so much skill as it is size - Elly just runs up the thing and puts the ball in the big point holes). I think the scores say it all: Grandma 0 - Elly 4000! :-)

Elly Tries Roller-Skating For the First Time!

2008-12-20T17:25:00.006-06:00

Because it is SUPER cold outside, we tried to find things to do indoors. So....we took Elly roller skating for the first time! She started off a little slow. She didn't know what to think of the skates, so we just stayed on the carpet for awhile.
Eventually, though, we made it out onto the rink.

She felt pretty good about it, so she let go and tried it all by herself.

Here she is all the way out on the rink dancing with Mommy - what a PRO!

And, look at her glide! Can you believe this is after only an hour of roller skating!?!?!

Snow Day!

2008-12-20T17:14:00.009-06:00

We had some serious cabin fever from having to stay indoors for the last few days, so we went out and played in the sonw/ice. Here Daddy is throwing a shovel of snow on Elly - they say that you just need to dive in to get used to the temperature :-)Here's mommy making snow angels

She's such a snow-baby :-)

And, she's kind of a football player - here she decided to tackle our snowman. Needless to say, he never got any taller ;-)

This was us putting the snowman back together so that she could tackle it again.

Partial-Early Christmas for the Cheatles

2008-12-20T17:08:00.004-06:00

Christmas came a little early for the Cheatles. Because uncle Jon, aunt Katie, and cousin Madelaine went to spend Christmas with Aunt Katie's family, we opened some gifts early with the Blacks. Elly's favorite gift was this pink "baby" grand piano!

She is definitely going to be the next Billy Joel :-) (Don't mind the missing pants)

Shopping at Short Pump Mall in Richmond, VA

2008-12-20T17:01:00.008-06:00

We went shopping on Mommy's Birthday at Short Pump Mall in Richmond, VA while on our Thanksgiving trip to Charlottesville, VA. The mall is pretty awesome - especially when it comes to fun for Elly!

This is the train that rides all around the mall. Elly rode along with Mommy and Grandma yelling "choo choo!"

Here's the indoor playground which Elly totally dominated. She had so much fun playing in here - it was almost more fun watching her play than shopping. But don't get me wrong ... we did some serious shopping for Mommy's Birthday :-)

Elly and Maddie

2008-12-20T17:00:00.002-06:00

Elly finally meets her new baby cousin Madelaine ("Maddie")

The Supreme Court

2008-12-20T16:52:00.006-06:00

Josh got in some trouble on the visit to the Supreme Court :-)

This is the best shot we could get of the spiral staircase with a person also in the shot - sorry for the booger-cam :-(

This is Elly and mommy in front of the first Chief Justice John Marshall. Elly is clearly very comfortable with him - I see a future in law...
This is Elly in front of a portrait of another Supreme Court justice who shall remain unnamed (because I don't know who it is) ;-)

Here's the whole family in front of the Supreme Court

Boo at the Zoo!

2008-10-27T21:12:00.013-05:00

We went to "Boo at the Zoo" tonight to practice trick-or-treating (and to get some free candy)!

Here it is: The Penguin Costume! Elly is sooooo excited to be a penguin - she started asking to be one back in July! It took me months (MONTHS!) to find a cute penguin costume - thank goodness for Gymboree!

The Zoo has these plastic eggs that I think are supposed to be like dinosaur eggs - we thought it was cute to put Elly in them and look like a hatching penguin.

And then I thought it was cute to put Josh in one, too!

I think it was at this point during the night that Elly started to notice Josh's envy of her pengiun costume. He was trying to waddle with her, but she put a stop to that when she told him that he couldn't because he did not have his own penguin costume.

Elly is totally obsessed with fire fighters! They come to her school like twice a year and let the kids sit in the fire truck, and she talks about it for days. So, we had to get her picture with them. And, I thought it was kind of cool how the flash caught the reflectors on their uniforms!

On a side note, we don't have any pictures of this, but Elly is also obsessed with girls in princess costumes. She literally almost knocked two little girls over because she would stare at their costumes and just walk towards them until she got so close that she nearly knocked them over! It was really pretty funny!

She was getting pretty good at getting that candy in her bag!

She got so good, in fact, that the bag got too heavy and Mommy had to take over :-)

She saw this frog on a bench off the path and had to take a picture with it -

She looks like a little bird trying to feed here, huh? Pretty cute Ells Bells!

Here it is! The mother of all pictures! The lady we ran into wearing an adult-size penguin costume! Elly made this lady waddle with her for what was really a pretty awkward amount of time, but oh well - she was so cute doing it that we didn't care!

The Fam Goes to Vala's Pumpkin Patch!

2008-10-27T20:08:00.016-05:00

So, we went to Vala's Pumpkin Patch and absolutely had a blast! It was super windy, but we all bundled up and made sure to check back in at the campfire routinely :-)Elly even got to roast a few marshmallows!

Elly and Mommy decided to take a quick breather on the huge rocking chair. The look on Elly's face pretty much sums up her fascination with oversized furniture.

Josh convinced Elly and I to pose behind this sign - I'm not sure what he means by this, but he told me to spread the word that he's going to put a new post up on Craigslist soon...hmm...

Apparently, she was much more excited about being a sheep than a pig.

We were obviously really into posing behind face cut-out signs, huh?

Here's Elly coming down the big red slide! This slide was seriously like 3 stories high -

and I bet Elly went down it at least 15 times in a row. Fortunately for Katy, Josh failed to snap the picture of Katy coming down the slide and falling on her butt because she couldn't stop at the bottom!

Elly was super excited for a moment when she thought this was the real Mickey ...

That excitement was slightly diminished when she figured out he was only plastic :-(

Elly was super excited to jump on this trampoline-balloon type thing. But, once she realized that she would have to share it with 15 bigger kids that double bounced her or bounced on her, she quickly rethought her original fascination and crawled right off. Poor little thing :-( Don't worry though, we sat down as a family afterward and discussed her training schedule so that next year she can be the kid bouncing the little kids off the trampoline at Vala's - just kidding ;-)

The Newest Family Member: Madelaine Annalisa Black

2008-10-21T12:25:00.008-05:00

On October 19th at 6:03 pm Katy became an aunt, Josh became an uncle and Elly became a cousin! Katy's brother, Jon, and sister-in-law, Katie, had an adorable baby girl: Madelaine Annalisa Black. So, Grandma and Auntie Katy jumped the next plane to Virginia to welcome the newest member of the family home!

Here is Madelaine getting ready to go home from the hospital - she's so little!

She only weighs 7 lbs 1 oz!

Here's the new parents! Don't they look incredible given the lack of
sleep and amount of pushing that just happened?!?! I think so.

Auntie Katy is lovin' on her new niece! She is so cute and has
SO MUCH HAIR! (just like mom :-))

We got a new leaf blower/vacuum!

2008-10-17T19:38:00.010-05:00

So, we got a new leaf blower / sucker -upper! It's pretty cool! It took us like 20 minutes to suck up 5 heavy duty bags of leaves - definitely a good investment! Elly loved playing in the HUGE pile of leaves - she was a little bit bummed when we sucked them all up :-( Rest assured - there is still half a tree full of leaves that need to come down!

At first Elly was terrified of the blower, but after awhile she was chasing daddy around asking to carry it herself!

KISS ATTACK!!!!

Elly's Clearly Ready for Chores!

2008-10-09T18:47:00.003-05:00

Elly loves to help Daddy wash the car!

Elly Loves Fall!

2008-10-05T17:38:00.001-05:00

Go Big Red!

2008-10-04T12:44:00.003-05:00

Elly cheers on the Huskers!

Cheatles do Charlottesville, VA for Thanksgiving!

2008-10-02T11:08:00.003-05:00

We're pretty excited to be going to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and their new baby girl for Thanksgiving in Charlottesville, VA! Josh grew up in nearby Richmond, so hopefully he'll be able to take the extended fam for a little tour of his stomping grounds.

Elly Sings Happy Birthday to Daddy!

2008-10-01T09:29:00.003-05:00

Elly sings her Daddy a Happy Birthday tune!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

2008-10-01T07:51:00.005-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

Quarter of a century today!

(i.e., he's 25)

Members of the Fam...

2008-09-30T19:59:00.001-05:00

Here's the other members of the family:

Maddison ("Maddie" a/k/a "Maddie Fattie") Leigh Cheatle

Sadie ("Sadie Lady") Mae Cheatle

Cheatles Do Disney!

2008-09-30T17:27:00.002-05:00

2008-09-30T11:46:00.000-05:00

I like the fact that she's driving by herself! But ... what I love is that she is still connected to a pole. Because if she is anything like her mommy, she's going to be quite the driver once that pole's gone!

2008-09-30T11:44:00.000-05:00

Elly and Daddy ride the camels!

2008-09-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

Giddy Up Cowgirl!

2008-09-30T11:40:00.000-05:00

Hopefully she doesn't get too attached to the Zebra - I'm not sure Maddie and Sadie would be okay with bringing a Zebra home!

2008-09-30T11:37:00.000-05:00

Elly doesn't quite know what to think of this guy. And...quite frankly...I don't blame her!

2008-09-30T11:34:00.000-05:00

Elly plays with a baby chick - she's just a baby chick herself!

Elly Goes To The State Fair

2008-09-30T11:31:00.000-05:00

Elly, Daddy, and Nana on the Apple Spinning ride! So young, but man does Elly love rides!

2008-09-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

Here it is! The "Big Girl" Bed!

2008-09-30T11:21:00.000-05:00

Elly finally got her "big girl" bed. She has been waiting for months now. Best thing about it...no more sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed. Now, when Elly gets scared, Mommy or Daddy can come sleep in Elly's bed!

We're still waiting for Elly's first sleepover - Grandma promised to come stay the night now!