Ella at 15 months

As of last week, Ella is 15 months old!! I took her for her well check this morning, and despite a yucky cold, she is perfectly healthy and developing and growing wonderfully. She is currently 20lbs 14oz (44%), and  29 4/5 inches tall (22%). Still a petite little thing!

Here are some of the fun things she's up to lately:

• Says "cheese" for the camera
• Loves to play at our little kitchen and stir with a spoon and bowl
• Often asks to look at pictures on my phone
• She is always loving on her baby dolls
• Favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Follows along, and nods her head 'yes' at the beginning of the show when Mickey asks, "Do you want to come inside my clubhouse??" Also, says, "Tooooootles!" when they call for him. Cracks me up every time!
• Loves playing at the park - swings and sliding is her favorite thing to do.
• Plays at her vanity with her hair brush, comb, and blow dryer, and loves to put on her necklaces and bracelets and wear them around the house!
• Obsessed with shoes! If she finds hers in the floor while we're home, she'll bring them to me to put them on her. Loves socks, too.
• Just beginning eating with a spoon and fork. Doing pretty good, but definitely messy!
• Loves to brush her teeth before bed. She always ask me, "brushing?" when she knows it's time.
• Has memorized her Peekaboo Baby book, just like Carter did. :)
• Loves to dance to her favorite songs when they come on the radio. Sometimes she even tries to sing along to them, too.
• Newest words: Spoon, princess, picture, Minnie Mou (she's added the "mouse" to the end now, ha!), water, cracker, poo poo, pee pee, bathroom, excuse you or excuse me ('scuse you!), upstairs, thank you. I really don't know how many words she has at this point, but I'd guess 40 or 50. She's always communicating with us, even when she doesn't know the word to use, she manages to get her point across. Even Carter almost always knows what she wants/needs.
• Wearing 12-18 months clothes, and even still some 12 month stuff, and size 3-4 shoe.
• Still napping once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Not quite ready to give up that morning nap all together, but she can skip it occasionally when necessary.
• Definitely rocking the baby mullet. Her hair on top and in front is coming in soooooo sloooooooowly, but the back is growing fast, and thickening. Ready for some little girl hair!! Pigtails and ponies and clip-in bows, please!!!
• More and more of a Daddy's girl every day. She's always saying "Daaaadeeeee, daaaaadeeeee" Even when my phone rings while he's at work, she assumes it's him, and hollers for him. Or when Stormie barks, she thinks it's Daddy coming home. Pretty darn cute!

A few pictures of Ella enjoying eating her yogurt with a spoon (and a fork!)

Playing around in the kitchen.....

And some recent cell phone footage :)

picnic-ing! She set this all up herself! 

Someone has learned to love the Chick Fil A play area!! 

We are loving this age with our sweet girl! She's truly so fun and sweet, and every single day is a joy! Ella honey, you'll never truly know how much we love you! 

Carter Lately

It's hard to believe, but Carter is rapidly approaching 4 years old! I haven't written about him much lately, so I just wanted to talk about him for a few minutes, and document what he's up to right now, at almost 4 years old!

He has always been really loving towards his sister, but lately, I've noticed him being especially sweet with her, in ways that would have previously been really hard for him. One day in the car, he was snacking on some pretzels, and I gave them to him with one condition - that he share with Ella. (I knew she'd fuss if she couldn't have any). He agreed, and after a few minutes, Carter said to me, "Mommy, I have one more pretzel, and I'm going to give it to Ella." How sweet is that? :)

Also, one night last month we met my parents for dinner, and they took Ella home with them. Eric, Carter, and I were headed home in our car. We were about 10 minutes into the ride, and Carter had been really quiet. Then he said, "Mommy, I miss Ella." I responded with something like, "It's okay, you'll see her tomorrow, she just went to spend one night at Nana's house." His response was, "Awwww, I hope she's okay!" He was so worried that she would be scared without us around, and was genuinely so concerned about his sister for the next 20 hours or so. Adorable, and truly a show of love for his baby sis. :)

Loving on his sis :)

He is becoming more independent, and that is definitely helping me out!! Some examples are fully dressing himself in the morning, brushing his own teeth (with supervision), using the bathroom, cleaning himself up, and washing his hands all without help. And I have to say, it's really nice to have him do these things on his own regularly now.

He plays really well with his little friends one on one. Especially Mason. We have a new friend in our neighborhood, Carson, that he plays really well with at the park, too. In the past, I had noticed that playing in a group was a challenge a lot of the time. His regular group of buddies frequently would have a hard time sharing, taking turns, including everyone, tattling on one another, etc.... we could always count on a few melt downs. But that also has seemed to get better recently. They actually all play in a big group in peace a lot of the time now, so that is nice!!

He is writing his name totally on his own. We made Christmas cards for his friends, and he was thrilled to sit down and sign his name on each of them, over and over.

He really loves school and his teachers, and seems to be doing just wonderfully there. I always get rave reviews from them each and every day. Also, apparently he has a girlfriend in his class. He told me about her recently. His teachers say that they both have similar temperaments so maybe that's why he's crushing on her?! Cute, but makes me kinda sad too.

Speaking of school, he is learning so much more about the bible and relating that to his everyday life. I love that he comes home telling me about bible stories or bible characters. He seems very excited to learn about those things, and I give his school and his teachers so much credit for cultivating that in him at this young age.

So handsome!

His biggest interests right now are anything pirate related (still loves Jake!) and superheros. He loves to play games like Candy Land, Chutes & Ladders, his Jake and the Neverland Pirates Challenge Game, Go Fish, Uno, and puzzles! He also loves to go in his room and play independently from his sister, and frequently asks us to "go away!" when he's in that mode.

Overall, age 3 has been fun, but definitely tough. Fun because he is so smart, loving, and funny, and makes us laugh constantly! And tough because, obviously, it's age 3!! But also because Carter has had several things (mainly his baby sister and our move) that were major adjustments for him, and therefore were challenges we all faced as a family which we all had to work through and learn together. I'm happy to say that I feel that we've turned a corner with him, and some of the changes I've seen in him lately make me believe we are on the right track to a less dramatic and challenging age 4. :) 

Love you, my big almost 4 year old!! 

Snow Day!

The roads weren't great the day after Christmas, so Eric worked from home, and we all pretty much stayed in our jammies all day. And the kids got one more go-round in the snow!

 

She really checked it all out good this time.

Getting brave

Little snow bunny

Having so much fun.

:)

 

A few of my favs....

Fun times in the snow, and it really made Christmas special this year, but frankly, I'm glad it's gone!!

Christmas Part 3: Christmas Morning & A White Christmas!!

 

I was able to snap a picture of what Santa left for us before the kids got up. Lots of goodies under the tree!!

 

They were up by 7, and ready to go!  Love the joy of Christmas morning, you can definitely see it on their faces!!

 

Thrilled about his new Bucky! This is the only thing he has been asking for!!

 Ella got a vanity for her room!

 Empty plates.....

 Carter helping Ella put on her lipstick....

 ....and blowdry her hair!!

 Soooo happy.

Pucker up!!

 

Jake PJs!



"Cheese!!"

 

Another baby doll...

..... sooooo exciting!

 

Time for stockings!



More Minnie Mouse....



 HA!

 Sitting in front of the vanity some more.

 

Drying her hair :) 

One screaming, one pouting... sounds about right!
Wouldn't be Christmas morning without it!

Well good. They've settled it.

 

 

Around 1pm, just before naps, it started snowing. Forecast had been calling for a white Christmas for several days, but I had my doubts. The kids' enjoyed watching it from inside for a little while, then headed upstairs to rest. We told Carter that maybe there would be snow on the ground when he woke up, and it did NOT disappoint!

 

 After about 45 mins of snow.

Brrrr.... put on a jacket! ;)

After about an hour of snow....



When the kids woke up, we bundled them up and went right out.

Still coming down hard!

He loved it!

Her... not so much!

 We went out to play once more later on when it wasn't coming down anymore. Carter had a ball!!

Getting hit by a snowball, courtesy of Daddy.

Brrrr!

What a perfect day!! Ended with snuggling under a blanket by the fire watching The Grinch. Doesn't get much better than that!!

 

We hope you all enjoyed your day (and the snow!) with your loved ones as much as we did!