Some of our Life

I was looking through my photos on my phone and wanted to share a few from the past 2 weeks.  Ella is 21 Months in all of these.  (I'm trying to do a better job with her age when posting so I can remember better later on.  :)

I took this photo on my phone a few weeks ago and when I look at it-I swear she looks like she's twelve.  What the heck?!  :)   She was just sitting in her room, in a random spot reading her books.  She LOVES books.  

This was ella's first official boo-boo.  She was, I think, climbing on an outdoor chair and tumbled over onto the cement.  She was pretty upset.  We had to listen to her favorite song for her to finally stop hyperventilating.  I thought maybe she chipped her teeth at first but that was an initial mama freak out thought.  I didn't even look until she had calmed down and was running around again.  There was quite a bit of blood, you can tell by my shirt, but it turned out she bumped her mouth and her teeth just cut through her lip a bit.  There was some hanging skin in her mouth but she was good to go shortly after.

 You can kinda see her lip had a little scab that lasted for a couple days.  It didn't keep her from looking cute, though.  :)

 We went to dinner on a Sunday night two weeks ago after Kyle got back from being away for work all weekend.  We went out for dinner.  She looks so grown up in her dress and jellies.  And sweet with her holding dada's fingers.

This was the same night just before, in the restaurant.  She came to sit on my lap and was so overwhelmed with joy, the only way she could show it was to reach up and squeeze me and pull me closer.  It was presh.

My big blue bright-eyed little smooch!

Ring Ding Ding

Ella got a new stuffed animal for Easter.  I believe it is a cat but I told her it's a fox….kinda looks like a fox, too.  I think, anyway.   Anyway, she LOVES her ring ding ding.   Which is what a fox says….duh!  We showed Ella the Youtube video when it was super popular and then for Christmas my mom got the kids book (yes, they made a book about it) and she loves reading it.  Well, since she knows all the animal sounds, she joins right in and reads along!  It's so cute.  

                                   
Here's the video!  She does it even better now.  This was back at the beginning of February….she was 18 months here.  Sorry the video is really grainy.  We took it on Kyle's phone and I can't get it any clearer.  For bird she doesn't really say it, she signs it.  She also signs a mouse by putting her fingers up by her mouth.  She has always done that.

For a lot of animals she will say the sound rather than the name of the animal and that is the case for the fox.  She says ding ding ding or ring ding ding ding.  It's so funny.

So here she is reading to her ring ding ding.  She's only had this thing for a few days and she loves it!

And here she is after we all woke up the other morning.  Kyle didn't have to be to work until later so he got her up and brought her in to our room and she cuddled me and her ring ding ding.   Of course, he had to take this picture of me half asleep but I had to post it because it's a special photo of us.

xoxo

Easter at our House

Our Easter Sunday was a pretty normal Sunday for us.  We went to church which I will add Ella has been going to nursery for the last couple months and done great.  The first time I dropped her off she cried.  At our church you basically just pass your child off through a window…it's nice because of safety reasons but it was hard for Ella the first time because the poor girl had no idea what was going on.  As for me, I knew shed be fine, but I won't lie once I got back to my seat there were tears.  It's just hard to leave her when there are tears.  Like I said, I knew she'd do great…which she did and she loves playing with the toyyyys!  This week though, there was a man that was in the nursery…very nice and friendly but that was a little startling for her as well.  She cried again as I dropped her off but was fine after probably 2.5 seconds.  

She also goes to nursery once a week while I attend a women's Bible study.  The ladies there just love Ella.  After the first week of that they told me she just played and played and played and played, etc.  They said she didn't even say a word because she was too busy playing.  The very best part of it all, at both places…is when we pick her up, she is lined up looking up at the window waiting for us to get her…she shouts, "MAMA!" when she sees me peek in!  Then the whole way to the car she holds me tight and says Toyyys.  

Here's a few pics of my little sweets on Easter.

Little Bunny Foo Foo….that's how I taught her a bunny, I held up two fingers like bunny ears and said little bunny foo-foo.  That's how she signs for bunny.

This was the only pic of the three of us we got.  Terrible, I know.

She was smelling the flowers.  Kinda looks like she's trying to smooch them at the same time, goof!

This dress was the one that Lillias and Bea got her for my shower.  You can see it in this post.  Thanks again girls!

Here's Ell's Easter basket.  She kinda hit the mother load for Easter.  Only because we hadn't gotten her anything for the other holidays and I just had gathered a few things over the last few months.

She was so excited waiting for dada to open the blocks!

Sweet girl figuring out how they work.

We had to play outside after church.  She always goes and sits on my raised beds.  We are starting to sprout!  And you can sort of see in the back bed I have a mint take over going on back there.  They were actually from the previous people living here.  She accidentally composted the mint soil with the rest.  Oops.  We like mint, just don't need 50 pounds of it!  haha

I made the famous sugar cookies to take over to our friends house for brunch.  They were a hit, as usual.  Why are they so good?!

English Muffins

I found a recipe on Pinterest for homemade English Muffins.  It turned into an all day kinda thing but it was well worth it.  They were soooo good!  I never would have thought to bake them except for while we were in California there was a well known bakery in Napa that was known for their amazing english muffins.  The Model Bakery was even on Food Network a few times for them.  Believe it or not, their english muffins were BETTER than donuts.  Serious.  So when I found this recipe and was in the mood to bake I went for it.  

They are so yummy!  I will definitely be making them again soon.  My Grandma Joyce said they'd freeze well so I may make a big batch of them and stick in the freezer.  Since I have 3 freezers now!  haha!  Two big refrigerators and a deep freeze.  It's glorious.  :)  If any of you all want to venture down to Mississippi--I'll make you some!  

xoxo

Had to add a pic of Ella.  This was after her bath the other night.  She hadn't even gotten a diaper on yet but INSISTED on wearing shooos.  So this is her wearing her shoes reading her books.  Too cute.

Park Time With Friends

We've been having lots of play dates with our friends at the park lately.  This is one of the parks on base for younger kids….and ella LOVED it!  She went up and down the slide over and over and over and over and you get the point.  This was also the first time I've let her just go and figure it out on her own.  I am…yes, maybe a bit overprotective sometimes…so it was fun watching her little brain and body at work.  It was the first time we actually went to this particular park, too.  Which I don't know why…it was awesome for her.  Needless to say, we will be there at least once a week.  

                                     

18 Months

Ella turned 18 Months on January 16.  A year and a half…wow!  Time flies.  

Ella LOVES:

• BABY
• Playing outside and swinging
• wearing shoes
• reading book after book after book after book after book after book after book
• blueberries
• minion shaped grahm crackers 
• airplanes she hears in the sky

Ella DOESN'T LOVE:

• getting her hair washed
• going inside
• cows milk

Ella was 22 pounds and 32 inches (a whopping 2 1/2 inches taller than at her 15 month appt.) at her check up and healthy as can be.  She still hates shots and doctor and nurses getting too close but other than that, she's good!  

Ell walks and trots with her hair swinging back and forth all over the house.  She is really a very good baby.  She knows her boundaries and listens to me pretty well so far.  Not saying she doesn't ever get into things she's not suppose to, like the cupboards with heavy cans in them or under the sink when I leave the lock off for like .2 seconds.
I call Ella my little wanderer.  She isn't afraid to wander a little bit--like in our huge back yard or at the park.  She doesn't feel the need to be right by my side.    

Her favorite toy is definitely BABY and the stroller it came with.  She pushes baby around ALL DAY LONG!  She's the first thing Ell wants in the morning when she wakes up.  She says, "ooohhhh baybeeeeeeee!" She just gets so happy to see baby.  I don't let her sleep with it but she doesn't ask for it either.  We had a couple nights where she was just needing to hold baby so I let her keep it for a bit but then realized I didn't want her playing with it ALL night long so we just leave baby to go to bed with the rest of the toys.  It works for now.  :)

She knows most normal animal noises which includes a fox(video to come soon).  She also randomly knows what an aardvark and yak are because she has a toy with them on it.  haha  

Here are some 18 month pics of little miss smooches.  I am LOVING some her expressions.  They are priceless.

What I love about this photo:  The curve of her little precious hand rubbing her eye
               The shape of the one eye open
              Her mouth as she rubs her eye
              The random cup handle..haha

I sort of wish she was looking at the camera but I LOVE her expression here.

she was trying to climb to the front of the chair.

Here she was reaching for whatever I was dangling above the lens to get her to look my direction.

My sweet girl.

Here's a couple I got of ella and Kyle that same day.  Just some sweet shots.

Air Show

This last weekend our base put on an air show and we, of course, went to watch!  We actually were spoiled and went the day before for a family day at Kyle's squadron and got to watch the practice rather than fight the 45,000 spectators that showed up on Saturday.  It was right during the middle of her nap time that the Thunderbirds were suppose to start but she did great and wasn't acting too tired so we stayed.  I was worried about her ears, because the planes are LOUD, but they only startled her with the first flyover and then she was fine.  She kept saying, "airpanes, airpanes, airpanes"  She Loved it.  We got to see a C-5 and then his current plane as well.

Ella did fall asleep as soon as the Thunderbirds were done.  Kyle picked her up out of the stroller and she immediately laid her head down and fell asleep.  There were still all sorts of loud engines running and some other planes practicing.  Didn't phase her.