Last Friday, June 11, Elise turned 2. This post may be a little late, but don’t worry we captured the moment with photos and video. And though we tried, Elise didn’t actually eat cake or ice cream; she just wanted the purple icing – silly girl.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, what a year it has been. Believe it or not, one year ago today we arrived at DFW airport with little Elise in tow. Here’s the last video from our Vietnam trip:

One year later, we celebrated our first traditional Christmas morning (no international flights). Elise came downstairs to discover a new kitchen and a backyard blanketed in snow. Naturally, we captured everything on video:

What a difference a year makes! We hope your Christmas was a great one.

One of Elise’s teachers asked me how Elise is at home because she is so busy at school. I think this video answers the question well.

Waking up Elise every morning for school is a pretty funny process. Emphasis on the word process.

It has been quite a weekend in McClellan Town, let me tell you. Why? Well, the little one came down with the flu! Our three-day holiday weekend turned into wrangling an ailing but active toddler … not exactly what we had planned. The good news is that Elise’s fever has subsided and me and Annie managed to keep from coming down with flu bugs of our own.

The other good news is that Annie and I put together a little summer highlight reel of some of our favorite Elise moments (that we managed to capture on video anyway). Grab a bag of popcorn and enjoy:

This week we put together a new video of Elise showing off some tricks. Specifically, here she is dancing, clapping, and weighing in on Dallas sports teams:

Dancing, Clapping, and Sports from Scott McClellan on Vimeo.

Elise does what she does best: entertains us.

An update on Emily: We recently found out that Emily is back on a ventilator but off of her blood pressure medication. She still has the unknown infection and has also come down with a touch of pneumonia. In spite of all this, the family sounded like things were better. Please continue to pray for all of them.

Elise has been walking up a storm lately. Here she is going back and forth across our living room:

Yes, Elise is cute and smart and more fun than a barrell full of monkeys. But all you parents out there know that having a cute little kiddo isn’t all fun and games. Here’s documentation of the dramatic fits Elise has been concocting lately:

Believe it or not, the little girl has started taking a few steps at a time. Of course, Elise didn’t make it easy on us when we tried to capture it on video, but eventually we got some video evidence of her newfound upright mobility. See for yourself (if you have five minutes to spare):

Baby Steps from Scott McClellan on Vimeo.

Yesterday we found out that Elise is a much better climber than we thought. Maybe someone will buy her a helmet for her birthday …