Ella at 2 years old

Ella had her 2 year check up recently, and it went great! She weighs 24lb 10oz (40%) and her height is 33in (21%). Looks like she is shaping up to be about 5'5"-5'6" as an adult. The doctor was very impressed with her verbal skills.... she talked her head off! She was really cooperative for her physical exam, and she was very brave for her shot. Both the kids also got their flu mists, so hopefully we'll be good to go this flu season. Ella continues to grow and develop wonderfully, and we are endlessly grateful for that!

Ok everyone, don't look so excited to be at the doctor's office!! 

Some things to remember about Ella at 2 years of age.

• Favorite shows are Bubble Guppies and Dora. Favorite movies are Despicable Me and Bee Movie.
• Favorite foods are pancakes, edamame, cheese, and applesauce. Favorite snack is graham crackers.
• Favorite things to play with are baby dolls or princess dolls, tea party stuff, the play kitchen, and play food, and she loves reading books.
• She loves to play Hide and Seek and Simon Says with Carter.
• She consistently counts to 5 correctly, but gets a little mixed up after that. :)
• She seems to recognize most colors pretty well, but occasionally confuses similar colors.
• She is doing so much better in the church nursery and in her MOPS classroom. She now goes right in, and only really cries when I come pick her up. I think she is just so overcome with happiness and relief that I've come back for her, that is just comes out in tears! So sweet.
• She is absolutely LOVING her gymnastics class. I'm so glad I decided to do it with her. She looks forward to it each week, and so do I!
• She is my little hugger. I'll be minding my own business doing housework or something random, and she'll just come up and attach herself to my leg and give me kisses. I love it!
• She plays pretty good with Carter, although they are really starting to fight like brother and sister now. Some days they get along great and laugh and laugh together, and then other days I'm refereeing situations left and right. She is definitely his little shadow. She does and says anything he does, and they both think it's hilarious. She loves him so much though. She does enjoy her playtime alone, but she ALWAYS looks forward to picking him up from school!
• Her hair is really thickening up, and getting so long! I actually straightened a few nights ago, just for fun, and couldn't believe how long it was! I gave her her first braid, too! 
• She says a prayer before bed every night. It usually goes something like this (no lie). "Dear God, thank you for Mommy and Daddy, and Carter and Stormie, and help Carter make good choices. Amen." It's seriously the sweetest and cutest thing ever. Sometimes she throws in a "thank you for pizza/cupcakes/gymnastics" or a "thank you for Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Grandad." But she's very consistent in praying for good behavior from her big brother. Love it!! :) You and me both, baby girl! 

Here are some recent cell phone pics and videos of our girl.

Looking cute on our way to church one day.

She's loved playing with Dylan a lot lately. 

Getting into trouble on the couch.

 Love my girl.

 A favorite past time: movie night!

 Sleepy head

 Balancing a bean bag on her head at gymnastics.

 Straight hair!

 First braid.... she loved shaking her head back and forth and feeling it move behind her!

 Silly girl.

 Too cute for words.

  Momma's shoes. :)

 Picking out what they want from Santa.

 Sweet dreams angel.

We went to story time on Halloween..... here she was waiting and watching for Dylan from the windows upstairs.

 Enjoying Hope Park

 Pony ride

 Fairies like to swing too!

 Silly faces for the camera.

 Practicing her flips at home

 Giggle box

Lady Gaga dance party in the back seat.

 And singing along to one of her favorite songs.

 She 's still in love with horses, and enjoyed this pony ride at Hope Park!

 Fun on the shakey bridge!

 Carter's laugh =)

 Counting to 5

And perfecting her pageant wave

 

Ella, you're such a joy at 2! You make us laugh more than anything else, and we enjoy every day with you! Keep being cute and funny, little girl!!

Happy Halloween!!

We had a really fun Halloween!! 

Carter's class had a PJ Boo Party, so Ella and us joined them yesterday afternoon to celebrate! 

Here they are getting ready to do their pumpkin walk.

And they got to make a special spooky spider snack.

Of course, Ella got in on the action, too.

Carter's whole class with their wonderful teachers!

Later on, we got the kids dressed up in their costumes and ready for trick or treating!

The cutest Michelangelo and Minnie Mouse I've ever seen. :)

His favorite part... the shell.

Getting ready to head out!

Ella wasn't shy at all, she knew just what to do!

Our neighbors down the street set up a candy chute, and the "candy chef" (complete with a French accent) was sending candy down from an upstairs bedroom! Quite the attraction.... all the kids loved it!

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween!

Fall Family Fun

We have kept ourselves very busy lately with different fall activities!

This was at Family Night at the pumpkin patch at Carter's school.

The kids enjoyed the bounce house the most, and picking out a pumpkin to take home and carve.

On the hunt for the perfect pumpkin.

  Daddy carving our pumpkin the next night

"Whoa!"

Looks pretty good to me!

Enamored with our glowing jack-o-lantern

The kids dressed up in their costumes and enjoyed playing games at our neighborhood fall festival.

And we also enjoyed fall festival at our church..... 

games, hayrides, live music, and best of all, trunk or treating!

This car was the cutest decorated as the house and the characters from the movie Up (complete with a bundle of balloons!). This was my favorite, but there were so many fun and creative trunks. It was so much fun walking around looking at them all, and letting the kids do some trick or treating!

Carter and Carson

 The kids enjoyed painting and decorating pumpkins at a MOPS playdate last week, too.

As I said, we've kept so busy with all these fun activities, even with some illness going around our house. Hey, it wouldn't be fall without some yucky stuff creeping its way in, right? Unfortunately, I caught strep last weekend and spent the entire weekend nursing myself back to health. I did quarantine myself well enough those few days, though, that I managed not to pass it onto anyone else in our family, luckily. But then, the first day I started feeling myself again, I was attacked by horrible sinus/allergy problems. And everyone else was not lucky enough to escape those...... all 4 of us suffered from that in the last week. It's been a symphony of sneezing, nose-blowing, coughing, and some really hoarse voices around here! And, as if that wasn't enough, I was the lucky one who caught a stomach bug yesterday. So far though, no one else has shown any symptoms of that at all, and I think I can finally say that we are all on the mend, and hopefully we'll all be 100% this coming week. Eric has been amazing the last 9 or 10 days while all this has been going on. He's single-parented many of the last several days, and I cannot say how much I appreciate that man and what he does for all of us. All the time, of course, but especially when I'm out of commission. I hit the lottery with that one. :)

Looking forward to a fun Halloween, and hopefully a healthy November!